Purposeful Parent Tip: “If you don’t value yourself, who will value you?”
(Note: This is the third in a series of posts about the speakers scheduled for my upcoming Mom to Mompreneur Now! Tele-summit starting on October 2, 2012.)
One of the last things I heard my mother say to me, somewhat out of the blue, was the above Purposeful Parent Tip. I’ve spoken of this comment in previous posts, but it is so appropriate for today’s post on Mom to Mompreneur Now! speaker, Karen Graves, of Your Sales Fix.
My mother had always been puzzled about why, when I had “so many gifts”, that I did not have a boatload of confidence growing up. “I just don’t understand it,” she would say. Looking back, I didn’t either, quite honestly. Whether it was built into my DNA, or acquired from my childhood experiences, or some other unknown, I tended to shy away from the spotlight. In fact I even turned down being president of my 8th grade class. Crazy.
This lack of confidence carried into my early corporate career as well, until I began to see opportunities slipping by me. The light bulb went off when I was in a meeting one day with colleagues who were one and two title levels above me. They were shocked that I was at a lower level than they were.
Why was this? I got an answer in one of the many team building workshops I attended. The answer came from a man – a wonderful colleague who reminded me so much of my brother. He said simply, “You’re so talented, but you don’t speak up about all you can do. No one knows about you.”
While this was an ‘ouch’ moment for me, he spoke the truth; and is spot on to what our very own Mom to Mompreneur Now! speaker, Karen Graves says as well.
As women, we have an innate need to help, heal, and nurture. When it comes to cold, hard sales, yikes! We tend to undervalue our products and services and we give too much away. Why? Maybe it is because we are afraid, or we don’t want to appear pushy like those horrible used car salespeople, or maybe we just don’t recognize our own value.
When I first heard Karen speak to my networking group, I immediately related to her. She had an impressive corporate career, was a mom, and was now following her passion as a mompreneur coaching women on how to grow their businesses by improving their sales techniques. Plus she was funny!
Karen doesn’t just give you the typical “here’s how you sell” dogma, she goes deeper. She uncovers the reasons WHY you’re struggling with sales. Once that is revealed, she can then move on to helping you implement her proven sales methodologies. She helps you to see the value in your products and services and the problems they solve for your customers.
This is critical. We must see the value in what we are doing and how it is helping our customers in order to be authentic in our sales efforts. Otherwise our sales meetings turn into a bad infomercial and our customers tune out.
After that workshop, I signed up for one of Karen’s programs. Not only did she help me uncover some hidden doubts about my own “sales-abilities”, but she helped me gain clarity on who my customers really were. I connected with her as a fellow mompreneur and as a mom. Her coaching made sense to me and her gentle “pushiness” to dig deeper into some of my own sales blocks was essential in moving both my Frittabello baby gift business and me forward.
If your sales are lagging or you are struggling to find your target customer, then the Mom to Mompreneur Now! Tele-summit series is a must-attend event for you. Learn how to get your sales juices going once again with Karen Graves.
Go to www.momtomompreneurnow.com to register. Our sneak peek starts Tuesday, October 2, 2012 at 1:00 pm EST/10:00 am PST. Series begins on October 9, 2012 at the same time.