Latest / Your Dream Coach Podcast / Selling in a Cautious Market: Why Your Team Needs Conviction, Not Discounts
Transcript
- Your Dream Coach Podcast: Your prospects are hesitating, deals are taking longer, and the first thing your team wants to do is drop the price. Before you let them, I want you to hear this. Cautious buyers don't need a cheaper offer, they need more certainty. And certainty comes from conviction. Well, welcome to today's episode of your Dream Coach Podcast. I'm your host, Shayla Wei. And first, as a quick reminder, my first book, Dream Bigger, Lead Better, launches December 1st. There's a whole section in there on sales identity. And why the way you see selling shapes everything about how your business grows. And you can join the launch list in the show notes. Now, today's episode is for business owners and sales leaders who are feeling the market shift. Recent polling of small business owners shows sentiment has ticked up a little, but there's still real worry about the economy. And if your owners are feeling cautious, your customers are too. And I've been in sales for over 20 years through my own experience in direct sales, now coaching sales teams and different entrepreneurs and leaders. And I've sold through good markets and tough ones. And I coach teams that deal with this, you know, week by week. And so I want to talk about what actually works when buyers slow down. And on the Dream Coach podcast, this is where leadership fulfillment and growth aren't three different goals. They're one. And I help entrepreneurs, business owners, and leaders dream bigger, lead better. And build the vision, sales, and systems to get there, growing the business and the person running it. So today we're gonna talk about what's happening in the mind of a cautious buyer, why discounting is usually the wrong move, and where real conviction comes from, and just five shifts that your team can make right now. So let's talk about the cautious buyer. Because when the market feels uncertain, buyers don't stop wanting things, they stop wanting to be wrong. And that's the key, is the cautious buyer is asking one question underneath everything else. What if I make this decision and regret it? And so they delay. They ask for more information. They say, let me think about it. They ask, can you do any better, you know, price better on the price point? And most salespeople hear that and they think the problem is price. Usually it isn't. The problem is risk. And so the buyer isn't sure enough yet. And so what happens when we have this discount reflex? Well, what I found is that discounting is a cautious in a cautious market often backfires for three reasons. Number one is it signals doubt, is when you drop the price quickly, the buyer thinks, if they don't believe it's worth it, why should I? The second is it attracts it attracts the wrong customers. People who buy on discount often leave on discount. And the third is it trains your team. Once your team learns that price is the lever. They stopped doing the hard work of understanding the buyer. And there's a place for a smart offer or an incentive, but a discount should be a strategy, not a reflex. And I'll never forget a lesson I learned, you know, when I was 21 years old. And it wasn't even from selling, it was from buying. I went car shopping at two different dealerships across the street from each other. At the first one, I felt judged. The second, I walked in like they'd already decided I wasn't a real buyer. And they asked me for a deposit before they'd even really talked to me. And that was my my experience at the first dealership. So that second I walked in, it was like total judgment. Then I walked across the street and it was a completely different experience. They were curious about me. They listened and they made me feel like my decision mattered. And so that experience shaped how I've coached leaders and teams, entrepreneurs. And the difference really is between between the two dealerships wasn't the price. It was the belief and the care of the person in front of me. And so when a buyer is nervous, they borrow certainty from the person selling to them. So if you're unsure, they feel it. If you believe in what you're offering and you genuinely care about the outcome for them, they feel that too. And so where does this conviction come from? Well, conviction isn't hype. It's not being louder or pushier. Real conviction comes from three places. Belief in the product. Does your team truly know the results it creates? Not features, outcomes, real stories from real customers. Two is belief in the buyer. Do you genuinely believe this person deserves the result? That their goals matter. And when you believe in the buyer's dream, you stop selling and you start serving. And thirdly, is belief in themselves. That is the sales identity piece. A lot of people secretly believe selling is pushy. So they apologize for it. And if your team sees sales as helping someone make a great decision, they will show up completely different. So I want to share five shifts for selling right now. And here's what I'm coaching leaders and some of my own clients to do is one is lead with curiosity, not the pitch. Ask better questions. What is this costing you right now? What happens if nothing changes in the next 12 months? Cautious buyers need to feel understood. Before they'll trust a recommendation. The second is to make the cost of waiting visible. In uncertain times, doing nothing feels safe. Help the buyer see that waiting has a price too. The third is reduce the risk, not the price. Guarantees, clear next steps, testimonials, a smaller starting point gives them ways to feel safe saying yes. Number four is follow up like you mean it. Longer decisions mean more touch points. Most deals in a slow market are lost to silence, not to know. So have a real follow-up system. Number five is to tell more stories. Data informs, but stories convince. Equip your team with three to five customer stories that they can tell naturally. And so here's the leadership piece: that your team's conviction rises and falls with yours. If you're walking into the staff meeting, the conference, one of your team huddles, talking about how tough the market is, and guess what your team is going to say on every call? If you're anxious about the numbers, they'll carry that anxiety into every conversation. So your job right now is to protect your team's belief. Celebrate wins out loud, share customer stories in every huddle, role-play objections weekly. And just remind them why what you sell matters. And when I helped one of my teams and one of the companies I coach with grow over 42%, it wasn't because of a magic script. It was because the team believed in what they were offering and in who they were serving. And belief is a strategy. So your challenge this week in your next staff meeting, team meeting, time on Zoom with your team. is ask everyone to share one customer story where your product or service made a real difference and build your conviction library. If you want to go deeper on sales identity and leading a team that believes, it's all in my book, Dream Bigger, Lead Better, launching December 1st. And if this episode helped, I'd love your support on Apple Podcasts, leave a rating and a review. On Spotify, hit follow and give it a rating. And on YouTube, just drop a comment and tell me the objection that you're hearing most right now. And who knows, maybe I'll answer that in a future episode. Keep in mind to always stay focused on your dreams because when you dream bigger, you are a better leader. And buyers don't stop wanting things. They stop wanting to be wrong. Cautious buyers borrow certainty from the person selling to them. So the more that you dream big, the better leader you'll be. We'll see you next time on your dream coach podcast.