All business requires sales in order to function, yet many entrepreneurs identify sales as the thing they dislike the most. It’s understandable: you don’t want to be that annoying person who constantly asks others to buy.  No one likes that person, and they don’t buy from that person.

The issue then becomes a question of how to sell without being alienating your potential consumer.  We have to pitch our product or services because we would be out of business if we didn’t. However, it doesn’t have to be uncomfortable for you or your client.  

5 Ways to Avoid Being Salesy in Your Digital Content Right Now

• Have a Conversation
• Contribute Value
• Avoid the Soapbox
• Consider Your Words
• Avoid If, Then Calls to Action

Ultimately, remember that everyone loves to buy; no one likes to be sold. Your job is to introduce your product or service in a way that appeals to your audience and doesn’t browbeat them into buying.

Have a Conversation

Your pitch should never be the first thing you talk about with a prospect, whether you are face to face or on a phone call. Genuine human connection is the foundation for trust and that’s what you need to make someone feel like you are the person they should work with. The fact is that there are many choices out there for buyers. They get to choose where to spend their money, so treat them with respect.

Start with learning about their needs and their ulimate desire in regards to what you offer. Discussing their goals not only makes them feel heard and understood, it allows you to ensure that your service will actually help them succeed.  From there, you can explain how your service or product specifically addresses their need, which again makes them feel understood. They will also have a better understanding of how working with you will solve their problem, which makes them more likely to buy.

Contribute Value

Business is about give and take. By offering real value to potential buyers, you can earn their trust and take them to the next step of the sales process. In other words, a consumer takes what you’ve offered and gives you their attention.This is how trust is formed, and the longer a prospective buyer pays attention to you and your content, the more likely they are to buy.  

Your value also allows you to showcase your expertise, and give people insight to what it would be like to work with you, or purchase your product.

There are a myriad of options for contributing value in your digital content. For example, how-to guides are excellent opportunities to give information to make your audience more information and therefore more confidence about buying.  Demonstration videos are also very valuable, and give people the option to do it themselves along with the invitation to contact your business for further assistance.

Avoid the Soapbox

It’s incredibly tempting to talk at length about something you are passionate about. As an entrepreneur, you are likely to be very passionate about your business, so its easy to slip into a monologue about how your product or services can be life-changing.

So, it’s important to resist the impulse. Potential buyers can become overwhelmed when given too much information all at once, and can also feel alienated if they feel lectured. Trust is built on communication, and by both sides feeling heard and understood.

Instead, write down and practice bite-size pieces of critical information you want to share.  This way you can reassure yourself that you will impart the most important concepts while allowing a conversation to happen naturally.  Also, by creating this list of phrases you want to say, you get a mental checklist that you can use to ensure you are covering all your bases.  For example, if you know what things you absolutely want to cover with a potential client, and you create short sentences that explains each one, you can go through the conversation with a consumer with confidence that you didn’t forget to talk about your satisfaction guarantee.

Consider Your Words

Using a lot of industry jargon was once a mainstay of the sales pitch. The point of it was to help ensure a potential buyer that they were in competent hands.  However, it actually created confusion and uncertainty.  People who came away from sales pitches filled with words and concepts they didn’t understand ultimately had a negative impression of the product or service.

The longterm effect was that anyone who uses a lot of insider terms was deemed untrustworthy.  Beyond that, any buyer who feels confused will not buy.

As a small business, your success relies on your potential client feeling like they can trust you, and that they are confident in your skill.  Your digital content needs to have language that your audience will understand without needing an industry dictionary. Don’t think of it as “dumbing-down” your content, though. Consider it as an opportunity to help your audience develop a better understanding of their own need, and clarify for them how you can help them succeed.

Use jargon only when you are absolutely certain your audience knows what it means. The more relatable you and your content are, the more trust you’ll earn as your consumer moves along the sales process.

Avoid If, Then Calls to Action

All digital content needs a call to action, often referred to as a CTA.  Simply put, a CTA is telling your audience what step they need to take.

Often, the call to action takes the format of an If, Then. For example, “If you need to lose weight, then call me today!”

This format isn’t wrong, but it is overused, and therefore carries the risk of sounding insincere and salesy.

Instead, consider adjusting the words to something like, “Weight loss is easier when you aren’t alone. Reach out and let’s talk about solutions that are right for you.”

A small change in the way you present your CTA can make a world of difference in getting someone to actually take action, and take that next step in the sales process.

<h2>Avoid Being Salesy in Your Digital Content</h2>

The key to avoid sounding salesy and annoying in your digital content is to sound genuine.  Since we’ve all been subjected to sales content for all of our lives, we have a natural tendency to create sales content that sounds like it.

This tendency is a common pitfall for entrepreneurs. It can be a challenge to break the cycle of “monkey see, monkey do” when it comes to sales.  The fact is that what worked 10 years ago doesn’t really work anymore, so there is no reason to create content that resembles what we saw when we were young.

Fortunately, audiences today crave authenticity.  Just some thoughtful consideration is all that’s needed to improve your content and ensure that it isn’t coming across as salesy.