SAMIA: Hello, Salam, Shalom, Namaste, Sat Sri Akal, Aloha, Holah, Ciao and  Bonjour!It's so good to be with you today and guess what we have a very very cool guest and I'm sure you're going to be so happy you're joining us our guest today is Ayesha Khan who is a Sales Leadership Coach and we're going to be talking about how to sell with ease how amazing is that so please... Ayesha please jump in and tell us more about who you are and what you do…

AYESHA: Oh my God firstly thank you so much for inviting me here and giving me this opportunity to share my journey and talk a little bit more about sales leadership and why it's important to make the whole sales thing a bit easier for women specifically… so what I do is I help business women specifically service-based business women to pitch their offers to sell with ease and to actually understand how to how do they market themselves into the world and attract premium clients… so when I got started with this I realized that one of the biggest things is that we women are really programmed differently from how men sell right… because they already have that air about themselves they already have that inner confidence about themselves not all of them maybe but so many of them they have that drive within themselves… but when it comes to women we like to second-guess ourselves we like to make everyone happy we want to make our neighbors happy our far-off cousin happy we want to make our kid’s school teacher happy… when it comes to that we stuck in that zone of becoming a perfectionist and that debilitates us from taking that action towards actually seeing that kind of result right… and because we have we associate that with also integrity we don't want to be wrong we don't want to be you know sounding sleazy we don't want to be annoying if I do this what if people are put off by this and we really hold ourselves back but when you really... like when I would work my clients and go to the bottom of why is this happening it'll always come down to lack of confidence lack of leadership skills they don't exactly know how to pitch their offers how to communicate the value of their transformation like all of those things… and that's how I got started into this field and I also went through those struggles so when someone goes through the struggles themselves they get that you... they get how to like make their way around it… so that's who I am…

SAMIA: Yay I love that and I so appreciate you know when the coaches and trainers and healers they are so honest and authentic about the struggles that they went through and the fact that they are now teaching what they're practicing themselves and what they have practiced themselves I think that's so much more authentic and I think I know when I have worked with coaches when I am being coached as the person being coached I really appreciate that about my coaches so I really love that about you…

AYESHA: Thank you so much I'm so glad you brought that up because I was having this conversation with one of my clients today and I was telling her that we sometimes feel that if I show my struggles if I show that I'm really vulnerable or if I show that you know my life is not perfect people won't buy from me right… people will be put off or they'll be like she's still struggling how is she gonna help me when in reality when you really think about it like my coach... my client she's a productivity strategist so I was telling her and like helping her step up in that leader's role of her life both in her personal and professional life and something that she… both of us understood was that even if someone does like a PhD in productivity suppose right they will still not be as better equipped as someone who has gone through the exact struggles that a woman with kids that a woman who's running her own business knows the struggles lived through those struggles will be more equipped to handling and helping those kind of women right so we can all become like you know... we can all give strategies we can all give advice but that doesn't make good coaches… good coaches are born from actually helping people overcome those things... helping people discover themselves and transform their life from within.. so it's not only about the strategy It’s so much more about understanding and how this is fitting in with their life individually right… I really like that you brought that up…

SAMIA: Yeah I mean that's such an important part of like when you say you're a sales leadership coach you know and what you were saying is… it's about really... because if you have that leadership component developed and you know you're able to stand strong in your identity as a leader then the sales part actually comes pretty easy because people are naturally inspired by you… and I wonder if you could talk a little bit more about who you see as a leader what your concept of a leader is so when you're working with people and helping them become sales leadership coaches what does that involve like what kind of things are you working with people on…

AYESHA: So firstly I love that question because we usually get leadership confused with as in like I have a huge team of people that I need to be managing so that only then I'm a leader when in reality a lot of leadership is internal it's about am I really seeking that validation from outside world or am I giving myself… so it's more about practicing that skill of self validation and going to the depths of why... what is it that makes me feel I'm not capable so once we get that foundation right and then we go on to building the authority in your pro... in your niche building authority in how do you stand out building authority... so it's not about standing out from your competition and making your competition irrelevant so I'm not about putting them down because sometimes I work with clients who could become potential competitors right… so it would be wrong of me to be helping this client a little better and not helping the other client so for me it's more about helping them shine in their own life embody their own brand in a manner that the right people… so I call them hell yes clients will be magnetized with them like two people could be selling the exact same thing but someone who's looking at them will having clear ideas yes this person is for me yes you know this person doesn't it doesn't match my energy it doesn't suit me very well…

SAMIA: Yeah…

AYESHA: It's about helping them shine in their own light helping them discover… because I realize that so many people are out there doing similar things but there are so many more people who are still selling in those particular things...

SAMIA: Yeah…

AYESHA: ..it's more about how do you bring your unique flavor into it how are you embodying the concept yourself right so that's about what we do and then position them correctly… and like something which I teach in all my programs is making sales not sleazy so it's more like selling without selling like as you just said a few minutes ago about how when you position yourself as a leader and you embody the concepts yourself you embody your brand you're communicating the value of transformation well what happens is the right kind of people will want to work with you… and I know the industry standards they always talk about you know you only convert like 2.5 percentage of your leads and this and that I believe that you stop attracting the wrong leads itself you start attracting only the ones that want to work with you and you can let that rate jump to over five percent sometimes I have seen that happen…

SAMIA: Yeah…

AYESHA: And that happens because you're really selling in a non-sleazy way you're selling through leadership you're selling through storytelling you're selling through your own brand embodiment and there are like so many other techniques where you're basically selling without selling okay that's the approach that I take…

SAMIA: I love it I absolutely love it because honestly I couldn't do the work that I do if I had to do selling in a sleazy way I just couldn't…

AYESHA: I know… 

SAMIA: oh my gosh do you by the way make a distinction between sales and marketing…

AYESHA: Awesome so I would say I have this thing where you know people get confused about both of these things so marketing is putting yourself out there so it's more with your social media strategy your ads and things like that when it comes to marketing…  but I think what I have understood or what my understanding of sales is… Sales starts right when the idea is born when you are doing the demand analysis… that's when you have to understand... that's when the sales really start. So you're understanding... okay fine this is the product that I have who really needs this what's the demand like so it's not that… people have this confused that they think sales is like the last element of your business… first of all is the production and this that… when in reality right when you have that idea and you had that ideation process is exactly when the sales actually starts when you're validating the demand when you're like this person this category or this target market would really require this but would they pay for this… That target market would really pay for this… If so that's how sellable is the offer right… so it's about all of that and then how you're seeing it through the marketing material… how apt is your sales message…  how apt is... how are people responding to that right… so all of that is part of the sales communication process itself so I feel like it stems from within then to the end when you're actually closing and in fact I believe it's also about after all onward so it's not like I got the person in and that's it… it's like process after that how are you handling them how are you nurturing them so even then custom relation is important because they then become your PR or they then upgrade with you or like invest in your programs by you... it's like the whole cycle that involves sales…

SAMIA: Oh my gosh thank you for bringing that up… there are stages to the sales cycle and so many people don't realize and understand that… there are at least two really important things that I would love to highlight and dig deeper in with you and the first one you just mentioned in passing the idea of validating the demand of what you're wanting to sell and that's something that you have to get into right when you begin to conceive of that idea… can you talk a little bit more about that process of validation of the demand for what you want to sell…

AYESHA: So I have seen this a lot where we are just creating offers out of thin air or somebody sees something doing well someone's selling something really well and we're like oh my god are you doing that I should do that… or you're like I have been a good mom let me just become a mom's coach I have been doing well so now let me become... and you know the biggest problem with that is it... of course you can't make that happen but the time that it will take for you to gain that skill set to gain the analogy to gain the understanding and then going ahead and doing that it's gonna like that it's gonna be a lot of time right so this is where I feel like some sometimes my clients after coming/working with me and they really understand all these things they believe like I want to change my niche right and it should be totally fine… so I have had people who were previously like mindset coaches and stuff but then they were like no I feel like I would be better at doing this because I have been living this all my life and I have I have done really well in this right or they could be like I have been like a social media manager and I feel like this is right… so it's about understanding… because when your offer is so much more that you believe in because I strongly believe that what really sells is your energy and your confidence right… no matter how amazing your product is if you're like I don't know this is the price of the product this is the price of my coaching package yeah it's yeah no problem yeah if you want discount I'll give you a discount… rather than that if you're like you know what this program is really going to transform the way you do this… this is going to transform you… and communicating that value it's that energy that really sells the other person…

SAMIA: Yeah…

AYESHA: And that energy comes with how much do you believe in your offer and if it's an offer that you crafted just a few weeks ago if these are the concept that we just came up with it's gonna be hard for you to sell them right… but if you're like this is something that I'm strongly believing in right so that is when... that comes with creating offers that are really aligned and that are really having that demand right… validating those offers and understanding… is this an aligned offer… is this something that I have tested… is this something that will work right… that's when you're able to step it up and you create that kind of demand products that have that kind of demand which in turn makes it more sellable…

SAMIA: Yes oh thank you for sharing all that because I think this is such a key aspect that people don't realize how much of effective marketing and sales is actually about going through this kind of validating and testing process and because they don't realize it and then they don't engage in this process it makes it so hard for them to actually see the results that they want in terms of their sales… so this is... when we talk about making sales fun and easy this is actually one of the key aspects of how we make it happen…

AYESHA: Absolutely that's what I feel because I've seen this a lot wherein everyone is like I want to make it big I want to make it big right now next month I want to be hitting this figure I want to be doing this... of course that's possible for you but think about it logically if it were if it was that easy and if it was like... I'm not denying the fact that you know really there is the concept of flow there is the concept of manifestation but you cannot skip through and even if you do what happens is that success won't last it's not something you can replicate unless and until your foundation are not strong you're gonna have that rush… I'll tell you I'll be very honest back when I started I was like how isn’t that working for me why am I not signing clients immediately… and then I had to really dig down and spend that time of a few months and a few weeks but I was like what am I even doing should I really be doing this… is this even worth it… all of that comes into play but then you go back to your foundations you create aligned offers and you're creating offers that you're passionate about that you want people to know about… you know how transformational that can be… that's when the whole thing starts clicking…

SAMIA: Yeah yeah I love that… are there any other major problems that you notice especially in the context of working with women that make it difficult for them to engage in sales… and what can we do about it… how can we solve that problem and make it more fun and easy…

AYESHA: Okay so one of the biggest things that I see is it's something that so many of us do it's like something so natural but this is like the habit or the new pattern that we need to be developing wherein we're not finding things so that it means something about us so maybe someone didn't reply to your message they ghosted you or someone said no or someone who you thought would you know sign up immediately didn’t sign up or someone you thought would like a post they didn't like… something like that what we do is we attach it all to ourselves… okay fine I am not good enough okay fine my offer is not good enough I shouldn't have done that why do I really... why am I really putting all this effort…

SAMIA: Yeah…

AYESHA: And then you go into that spiral of second guessing yourself am I even worth it should I try something else should I change my niche should I do this… you do all of that on your own and firstly I've seen this that everyone is like... now everyone is like I'm gonna make it without the… without any support… I'm gonna make it without any support in my business I'm going to make it without any support mindset support… when in reality that doesn't work like that… for things to work out for you to be making it big in life a lot of energetic points are into place right… there has to be a lot of mindset work that has to be done there has to be someone to really hold you accountable to someone to really show you what's possible for you right someone to actually see your blind spots… I remember when I was like oh my god I am so amazing my offer is amazing I'm gonna sell out when in reality you can't see your blind spots right there was this really good quote that I once read and it always stuck with me was the fact that when you don't brush your teeth for like a few weeks for a few days everyone else around you can smell it except for yourself even if your nose is right above your mouth so that's how blind we are to our own blind spots right… and I strongly believe that one of the biggest things that we can do is not try to find things to make them mean something about ourselves… we are... we women also have this thing about negative self sabotage we are like this must have gone wrong I must have done something this person didn't respond… maybe her... when she was reading your post maybe her kid was crying in the background she didn't listen to it properly maybe the fact that she said no to you had more to do with her life where she was maybe she was going through some relationship issue and she didn't want to have like a coaching commitment right now… maybe when… maybe maybe maybe your message that you thought that she didn't read because she didn't value it she read it while she was driving right… rationalize things… stop trying to make everything about yourself… once we do that and once we really shift right so this is something that I actually practice with my clients also like having proper kind of affirmations wherein you're like I'm really stepping out of my ego that seeks to be liked and validated and I'm stepping into my higher self that is willing to be of service to every life that we touch right… this is something that the more you practice it and the more you embody this it will become you… because you know I still I see a lot of people who are like I want to make it so big and what happens is when you're starting out… such mindset work is required even for you to start showing up for your brand… or/either you're so confident and you're so…you're in such a rush that you're doing everything… you're like throwing spaghetti on the wall you're expecting it to stick you're like let me do this let me do that… you are… you're at like 1k-2k per month and you're applying the strategy that you have seen maybe like high-end industry leaders apply… and you're like why is it not working for me… it's not working for you because you're not there yet right…

SAMIA: Yes… 

AYESHA: it's time that we stop seeing what's working for others it's time that we stop you know decoding okay fine this worked for her so this will work for me… she started doing this this way let me do this let me do this thing this way right… really separating yourself from all of that and seeing what does my… make your business more yourself right… these are a few things that I would say for someone who's like starting out in their business…

SAMIA: Yes and I especially love what you highlighted about not trying to do things the way that someone who is way more successful than you right now in terms of like somebody who has an already established polished brand and so forth… like the things that work for them are not going to work for you… I think this was one of the biggest lessons that I appreciated learning…

AYESHA: I'm glad I'm glad…

SAMIA: No it just makes it so hard when you're trying to do things like the big brands you know because they have… when you have the big brands that also comes with having a lot of resources and a bigger team of people and... exactly and there's... and so for you as a single person or as a person with a much smaller team to try and do everything that these much bigger brands and companies are doing with a much larger support team with much larger access to resources in terms of you know the fancy tech for example and so forth… to try and replicate that when you're just especially when you're just starting out and you you're by yourself oh my god that's just signing up for all kinds of stress and fighting a losing battle really…

AYESHA: That was so true…

SAMIA: Yeah…

AYESHA: I felt that as well because I remember like this is not to bring anyone down because I have been in that position like let me see what I can do let me figure it out… so it's okay if you're in that stage where you're like throwing everything at it and seeing what works… but that's not a strategy right that's not like something that would work for you… it is important because this is what I tell my clients also work on your foundations work on building in like really hot spicy audience who like the things that you're doing you're learning how do I fix my message how do I communicate how do I stand out how do I show people that I am the real deal for what you're doing and everyone will have their own ideal clients and there's no competition like I'm being honest with you I'm part of like so many groups and so many accountability clubs where it's not about you know me outshining them right people who really believe… like my brand is all about making sales easy it's about adventure and fun and you know more on nature… you're not doing too much of work all the time… like what I do is I do the work a few… a few weeks I'm into the work work work and then I for a few weeks I go out and we like go for like trips and tours and stuff… that's like the way I do it…if someone who is more into nature more into traveling and stuff they would be like yeah I would like that… so that's how you embody that brand for yourself and the people who are aligned to you will want to work with you… work more on working those areas…

SAMIA: That's right that's right I mean you just made me think about like all the different coaches that I've worked with where I'm getting coached and on what basis do I select them… and so much of it comes down to feeling that rapport… because for example when I needed to sign up for a business coach there are like literally hundreds thousands maybe millions of business coaches out there and I signed… I finally signed up with the person that I felt most aligned with especially in the context of my values… and and like for me one of the most important things when I'm looking at a business coach is that they're not just all about money money money but they actually also have a spiritual orientation that they have this awareness of the fact that our business has a huge impact on the environment and there is aspects of social responsibility to our businesses you know… and so I cannot work with a business coach who is not in alignment with these values that I have of doing business in a way that is environmentally conscious that is socially responsible and that you know where I feel that sense of match in our values… so  yeah… and the very things that turn me on about these coaches that I work with there are other people who are turned off by that…

AYESHA: Yeah exactly It doesn't have to be and I know one of the biggest things that I am really… feel really happy about this when I get people into my group programs or into my 1 on 1 programs or even like my small low ticket offers when they tell me that where have you been all my life or they're like I can't believe that I couldn't see this before right… that just means that you're a match and that's when transformations will happen… they should feel and believe that you can... you know I can sit here and say all of the strategy to someone who does not believe in me and they will not apply it…

SAMIA: Exactly…

AYESHA: If you want like good client results enroll people only if they are in a match with you…

SAMIA: Yes…

AYESHA: Having that high integrity of not signing I'm not being like you know what I'm gonna help you make like 5k come on come on everybody come who wants to make 5k come here this is what they you will probably start attracting wrong kind of people who just want quick overnight success in the long run like I said with a lot of high integrity and I'm like you know what this is not going to be a piece of cake it's not going to be happening overnight but yes if you are willing to go all out take messy action put everything that I'm showing you and really trust me with this you will get there right and people have gotten hundreds of people have gotten like 10 sales in like overnight and there have been people who were doubting themselves and they're getting consistently booked out right… so it is… sales can be easy it can be done from a place of integrity… it is so much more about confidence and communication which is something that no one really talks about right… at the end of the day sales is a skill… you gotta have that thing in place… it’s communication and it’s confidence…

SAMIA: Yes and once again thank you for sharing that… and just to sort of broaden the perspective for my audience because some of you might be listening and thinking what does this have to do with me I'm not a business person… maybe not yet we'll see maybe in the future you might want to be… but even if you're not into business and so forth you know sales is still super important because sales is essentially just a skill of learning how to inspire people to say yes to whatever it is that you have on your heart and mind in terms of wanting people to say yes to you know… so this is such an essential life skill… and so much of what you have been sharing Ayesha you know that... those are that… you know like raising your energy raising your confidence becoming a more grounded leader these are all the things that you need to do to inspire anyone to say yes to anything that you want them to do whether you're a parent trying to inspire your child to follow your plan of how to be the best parent-child you know relationship or whether you are a friend trying to inspire your friend to do something that you want to do with your friend you know whatever it may be… so yeah sales training is actually I think part of life training and you can take some sales training and benefit from that in all areas of your life…

AYESHA: I get it… like I I've had people who are like when I sometimes address new people… they're like I don't exactly know… I'm not selling anything currently… or you know I'm a product-based person… because once you have that ability to pitch yourself well maybe you could be doing that for your job maybe you could be doing that for like you know when you're like actually not necessarily selling but convincing someone of something right… if I have my sister on board for the idea that I have maybe I'm like planning a birthday party and I want her to do a certain set of tasks right how am I pitching that idea to her right because essentially if I'm pushing that idea more centered more around me about what would I want… me me me… she will not want to do it right… if you're more about you… me me me… the job... you won't get that job… if you're more about you.. me me me… the person will not buy from you… it’s so much more about understanding how to… actually it's about negotiation… what fits well with me… how it's about making people understand that you get to where you want… you get to where you want and I can definitely take you there right… so it's about a win-win solution… 

SAMIA: Yes…

AYESHA: Creating and perfecting that is the life skill piece…

SAMIA: Yeah…

AYESHA: It doesn't have to be like that and when it comes to leadership skills I feel we women as mothers we need leadership skills you need to step up as a leader in your household you need to step up and communicate like a leader with your husband with your kids and when you're you know... me having relations and when you're hiring like a maid when you're hiring a driver anything that you're doing you need to step up as that leader in your life because if you're not doing that your kids are seeing that and probably they are taking on that you know sometimes one of the biggest things that last year a post of mine got really viral and like I had a lot of people talking because I spoke about how you need to become the woman you want your daughter to be… ask yourself what kind of a daughter you want and then start showing up as that mother… that's the best way to actually see your daughter changing or actually see your daughter in an empowered state…

SAMIA: Yes that is so true oh my gosh... oh my gosh… and you know so on that awesome awesome note that awesome bit of advice I'm gonna have us wrap up for today… thank you so much Ayesha for joining me and I hope you'll come back and share more of your wisdom later because I just love everything that you shared and your perspective and how you frame things it's just been really really joyful to have you…

AYESHA: Oh my god thank you so much I love that resonated with you and you know definitely we can do another round if you want Inshallah and I love this… I love having empowering conversations and it was great to be speaking to you and thank you so much for inviting me…