Education over sales

I’ve never felt very confident when it came time to “sell” anything.

There are endless videos, webinars, podcasts, and trainings on the topic of selling, but 9 times out of 10, the tactics taught feel unnatural or even just a bit gross.

While I don’t much care for selling, I do like making money and keeping my business afloat — so it’s kind of necessary.

In our industry, where our prospective buyers don’t know a lot about what we do, people usually end up talking to us with a little bit of hesitation. Unsure if what we’re selling is actually what they need, and no way to really judge if we are the right people to deliver it to them.

Back in 2018, Google introduced the acronym “E-A-T” (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) into the Search Quality Rater Guidelines as part of the “medic” update — and it’s been an important way to build up your SEO ever since.

But E-A-T works in the real world too. If a client is going to hire someone and spend thousands of dollars with them, they are going to favor hiring a trusted expert in the field.

And you know who oozes E-A-T? Teachers.

A teacher demonstrates their expertise by explaining how things work and what solution(s) you need to solve your problem(s).

By simply assuming the role of “teacher” (rather than salesman or button-pusher), a person gains authority. If you’re the teacher, then whoever you are talking to is the student, which create a natural hierarchy of authority.

And who would you trust — a salesman or a teacher? A teacher is transparent, confident, and helpful, which puts people at ease and builds trust even over short interactions.

This is why I favor education over sales. If you do a good job teaching someone, they’ll have more confidence in what they are buying, and they’ll naturally want it from the expert who they got their information from. They’re often willing to pay even more to get it from the person they now trust.

If you struggle with sales (like I do), then consider re-framing your role from “salesman” to “teacher”. Not only do I think you’ll find the process much easier — chances are, you’ll see much better results.