If you cringe at the sales moment, you’re not alone — and this episode will change how you think about selling. We talk through mindset shifts and real tactics so you can close the sale without the icky feeling. Start serving first and asking confidently.
You’ll get simple frameworks you can use in webinars, sales pages, and email sequences so closing feels natural and supportive.
✅The 4P framework: Problem → Promise → Proof → Pitch
✅Why selling = serving (and why it’s ethical to charge for transformation)
✅How to ask for the sale multiple times without being pushy
✅How Mary Kay quit feeling icky about selling and built her billion dollar company & how you can follow her system
✅A 60-second elevator pitch exercise to sharpen your ask
Recommended Resources:
VIP Day: The Webinar Sales System: Create, Market & Sell Without the Stress
Show Notes:
How to Close the Sale Without the Icky Feeling
Hey everyone, Kerry Beck here with Family Ebiz, where we help you start and scale online businesses to find freedom in your life to do what you've been called to do.
We are talking about closing the sale. Most of you are like, I don't like selling. I love teaching, but I don't like selling. I like getting on an event or teaching. I get to that sales part at the end, and I just cringe up.
You see, the number one reason entrepreneurs struggle to make sales isn't because their product isn't good. And it isn't even necessarily their marketing. It's that 30 seconds when they need to ask for the money. And it's hard.
I've been afraid in the past to let people know that I was selling something on the webinar. I do all this great teaching, and then I just fumble through the sales presentation. I just talk so quickly, let me just get it over, because they don't want to listen to it. Well, not really.
There is a whole mindset shift that you need to make so that you don't have that icky feeling when you get to the close. Or maybe you just didn't share it, because you didn't know if it would really change their life. You had that imposter syndrome. I'm often too worried about charging money, oh! And yet, again, God has helped me get past that, and that's my mindset shift.
By the end of this podcast episode, you will have some practical tools and a mindset shift to take that closing the sale to feel natural. And you won't feel that icky feeling, all right? I'm going to share why webinars have been my secret weapon for closing the sales and being able to scale my business as well.
Now, I do want to start with a story. Dale Carnegie, who wrote the book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, he started as a failed farmer and a very unsuccessful salesperson. In the early 20s, his early 20s, he was so afraid of rejection that he would walk right past a potential customer. This is before online, obviously. He is face-to-face sales. He did not want to approach them.
But he had a big breakthrough. What happened? Mindset shift. He realized that selling was about solving their problem. It was not about convincing and trying to talk someone into buying something they didn't need.
That's the stigma of a used car salesman. My dad's a very successful salesman. He's 95 years old, he doesn't sell anymore, but he has often told my kids, you know what? If you could be a good salesman, you can do anything in life. And it's really true, because selling is not trying to get someone to buy something they don't need, or don't want. It is about solving their problem. A lot of it is about listening to them, paying attention to them.
So what is their problem? Do I have something that can help solve that problem? That is a good salesperson. That is when Dale Carnegie had some great breakthrough. He discovered that when he focused on understanding his customers' genuine needs first, that close was just natural. It was a helpful conversation to solve their problem, whatever their need was. It wasn't some interruption, and I gotta push through and go through it quickly. No, he had a mindset shift that shifted from selling to serving.
You've heard me say it a gazillion times. You serve before you sell. And that's what we're going to explore today. Selling is helping. Selling is serving. You're not taking their money, you're solving their problem.
This, again, this is a service mindset. If you truly believe your solution would help people, or... I mean, if someone had a solution for my problem, and let's just say I was trying to lose weight, and they're like, Kerry, I know this is going to work, but I'm not going to tell you, because it would cost you $10. That wouldn't be a very good friend.
If you truly believe your solution helps people, you are not selling. You are being selfish if you don't tell people about it. You are withholding good information from your audience, so serve before selling.
You need to realize, to give yourself permission, it is okay to make a profit. You are in business, you are not in a hobby. Well, some of you are in a hobby. It's ethical to be compensated for the transformation that you provide. You know, if you go to a gym and you hire a coach, you're gonna pay him. Because he's going to help you get a transformation in your life, just like you can help your audience find that transformation.
And this is exactly why, especially in an online business, webinars work so well. They let you demonstrate the value of what you teach and what you know and who you are before you ever ask for the sale. So you serve in a webinar before you sell.
I'm going to show you two different tactics. The first one is called the 4P, problem, promise, proof, pitch.
You are going to clearly look at their pain points and address their problem. You want to use their words. That's why we talk about validating, listening to your audience. So you're going to talk first about the problem. People buy on emotion, and they justify on logic.
Present your... so we're looking at the problem, and then you're going to go, okay, but you know what? Here's a good solution, and that solution is a bridge to that transformation. You want to be specific. This is your promise. Here's what I promise to do. I do this in my, Racing Leaders, Not Followers Masterclasses. By the end of this, you... here's what you will know. And so I show them that desired outcome, and I'm very specific in the transformation. And I focus on that after state, the benefits that they will get, not the features. Hey, you'll get 6 modules, I'll show up 3 times in the 9 weeks for some coaching. No, I'm going to show them that transformation.
So, problem, pain points, promise, what's your solution, how are you going to help them? Proof. This is where you provide evidence that your solution works. If you have client testimonials, use them. If you have case studies, use them. Or, if you don't, but you just have your own results because of the process that you've used, use that as well. Social proof builds confidence in their decision. Every time they hear about another person that has found success, they're like, oh, if that person can do it, oh, if that person saw that, oh! And so, the more you can give them proof, the more confidence and the more trust they have in your solution.
Problem, promise, proof, pitch. Did you see that? There are 3 things to do before you ever sell them anything. And this is a clear, specific offer, and it includes, here are your next steps. And I tell them, hey, you need to go in and click the link in the chat. You'd want to tell them exactly what to do, no friction in the buying process.
This is perfect for a webinar. You have 45 minutes to build trust before you ever pitch them. And you're not asking strangers to buy, you're asking people who have received massive value from whatever it is that you have taught. So... Problem, promise, proof, and pitch.
Next, this is tactic number two. This is IBM's Thomas Watson Sr. He teaches that you need to ask for the sale multiple times, not just one time. In fact, in the early 1900s, he would tell his salespeople, ask for the order 5 times in the presentation. I can... y'all are like, icky, icky, icky.
You know what? If it solves their problem, you need to ask, and that is something... it is said that a person needs to hear a sales pitch 7 times before anything that you want them to move in action, 7 times before they will take action. He's talking about 5 times. So, ask for the sale multiple times. That can be an email. It can be in a webinar, it could be in a Facebook Live. wherever.
So, how do we do this modern-wise, email sequence? First, you could give a direct pitch, then you might handle objections, you can offer different payment plans, you do need to create some sort of urgency and scarcity, and then a final call to action, and maybe send those emails out over a series of several days.
So, in my VIP webinar day, I am going to be giving you templates on how you can do these different emails, and you can just basically fill in the missing information, exactly how you can go into soft asks, like Thomas Watson, IBM man, 5 times. I'm going to show you different ways, so you can do something called a trial close in your webinar presentation.
Alright, number 3, Mary Kay Ash. Mary Kay Cosmetics. She did not like selling. She started her empire in 1963 at age 45 with $5,000, and she felt icky asking for the sales. You notice a little thing. Who was it? Dale Carnegie. He didn't like rejection, but he also was afraid to tell people what he had. Mary Kay, she was terrible at closing the sale because she took the rejection personally.
One thing I learned in network marketing, you need to count your no's. How many people need to say no before you get a yes? And then you just focus on that until... because you know you're going to be getting yesses, say, every 10 times.
Well, Mary Kay's breakthrough came when she developed the feel, felt, found method for handling objections, and this is what she would say. I understand how you feel, and then she would tell it. Others have felt the same way, and maybe tell a story. But here's what they found when they tried it.
Pretty simple way. I just learned about this, and I think I am going to be using it in some of my, upcoming classes that I teach. This approach helped Mary Kay build a billion-dollar company and empowered thousands of women to become successful entrepreneurs.
All right, this validates that emotions, those feelings, and the way they feel, and others felt that way, too. That, we can take that and redirect it into a positive outcome. Making your close, making your pitch, your sale feel more collaborative rather than confrontational.
You can use your sales page to do this in writing, you can use your webinar, you can use your emails. If you want to plan your webinar in 7 days, there's some stuff in there to help you with this. You can get our 7-day webinar action plan.
So, I would encourage you, whatever method you use. Practice your pitch out loud this week. Record yourself giving your pitch. You can practice the feel, felt, and found method with some common objections. Or you can role play with a family member. Time yourself and see if you can clearly communicate what your offer is in 60 seconds. It's an elevator pitch. Now, I wouldn't do that when I first meet someone, but you need to be able to know how to communicate that transformation in 60 seconds or less.
So, 3 historical lessons that we talked about. Dale Carnegie went from selling to serving. Selling is serving. It's not convincing. Two, Watson, persistent pace. Most sales happen after multiple asks. And most people give up after one ask, including some of us. 3. Mary Kay, she handled objections with empathy. Not arguments. How people were feeling.
So, this week, I'm going to challenge you. Reframe every sales conversation, every sales... actually, I would just pick one sales page. And work on that. And go and see if you are offering some sort of empathy, or are you offering the problem, the promise, the proof. Yeah, testimonials, and then the pitch. Look if you offer that in your sales page, or if you just tell a bunch of features.
Think about, how can I help these people make the best decisions for the situation? And your product isn't for everyone. My product, my mastermind isn't for everyone. My VIP day isn't for everyone, although I do think it's for anyone that wants to scale and make consistent income. Events drive sales. Sometimes, that means people do buy from you, and sometimes it doesn't. Both outcomes, you are serving your people.
Remember, people don't buy products or services. They buy a better version of themselves. They buy solutions to their problems. They want to see themselves become a better person, or their kids become a better person, or their family. Your job is not to convince them that what they need is what you're selling. Your job is to help them see that they're capable of a transformation that they are searching for, and you can walk with them and journey with them along the way.
Ready to master the art of selling through serving? Join our VIP webinar day on September 20th. If you want to quit worrying about feeling icky with selling and close the sale with integrity and empathy, I would love to help you, because it has made a difference in our business.