In today’s episode, Kristen sheds some light on an underrated sales technique that not only makes selling feel less slimy but can also motivate your customers from the time they purchase until they meet their end goal. It’s not some big, crazy trade secret, but it is something top network marketers use every day. It’s called selling the intangibles. Join us today where Kristen talks about:
- How to determine what’s tangible versus intangible
- Why selling only measurable results can be a disservice to your consumers
- The importance of selling yourself on the full value of your goods or services
- Examples of how Kristen uses intangibles in her own marketing
- How to keep your consumers motivated to reach their end goal
- Actionable steps you can take to shift your mindset and relieve the pressure of selling
- How to increase your customers’ joy by selling the full spectrum
Kristen knows it can be more difficult to sell a client on the happy byproducts over hard, measurable results. But when we learn how to sell the intangibles, we’re serving our customers on every level. In the end you’ll leave your customers feeling satisfied in not only their purchase, but in themselves.
If you’re ready to learn the simple process of running your social selling business online, you have to check out Kristen’s live group coaching program! The Social Selling Academy: www.thesocialsellingacademy.com
Do you have a question about network marketing? Kristen can help! Drop your question here and she just might answer it live on the podcast: https://kristenboss.com/question
Do you have a business full of customers and almost no builders? You’re in need of a reboot! Learn the three skills you can learn that will completely change your recruitment game. Check it out here.
Interested in Kristen’s exclusive mastermind for six-figure earners in the network marketing industry? Get all the details and join the waitlist here.
Transcript of Episode 55: Selling Intangibles
Kristen Boss (00:05):
Welcome to purposeful social selling with Kristen boss. I’m your host, Kristen boss. I’m a mindset and business coach with more than 15 years experience in both the product and service based industry. I believe that social selling is the best business model for people wanting to make an impact while they make serious income. This is the podcast for the social seller, who is tired of feeling and authentic in their business and desires to find a more purposeful and profitable way of growing their business. In today’s social media landscape. In this podcast, you will learn what it takes to grow a sustainable business through impactful and social marketing. It’s time to ditch the hustle and lead from the heart. Let me show you the new way. Hello, my friends. Welcome back to another episode of the podcast today. We’re going to dive deep in selling
Kristen Boss (00:57):
And a lot of you, I think if you’ve been listening long enough, you have come to the understanding that I firmly believe that selling is serving and serving as selling. And when we understand that and show up from that place, that is nothing we have to feel gross about. Apologize for hide from or feel slimy or spammy about listen, everything we do in life. We’re usually selling something. You are selling something in your everyday life. But I think when we think about selling and especially when I think about my students and people I serve, and what I see online is I see people focusing on one aspect of selling, but there are several aspects of selling your product or your business or your offer, whatever it is you are selling online. And a lot of times I think we put the most value on selling the results that are tangible to our audience. And what I mean by tangible are results that can be measured, can be seen, can be grasped.
Kristen Boss (01:59):
So that would be, you know, you know, if you’re selling weight loss, if you’re saying like, you know, you can lose X amount of pounds, or if you’re saying you can make X amount of dollars doing this business, or, you know, you will drop down to this pant size. I, I often think people are really thinking about tangible results. Like what are the metrics? What can be measured? And, and that does have value. I don’t want to devalue that and say, it doesn’t have importance because it does. And people do look for metrics. The problem I see is I see that most people putting all their weight and all their belief in selling the tangibles to selling the things that they feel are measurable results. And the problem with that is, is when you’re only selling tangible results. It’s because your belief is contingent upon seeing things that are easily measured.
Kristen Boss (02:51):
So if we were to like use a weight loss analogy, it’s like, non-scale victories. That would be like, so with weight loss, you there’s pounds lost, but then what are other benefits? What are other byproducts? So it could be, you know, sleeping better, more energy. I’m not snoring. You know, I don’t have sugar cravings. Those are all byproducts. And what I see people doing is they put all the value and belief in selling their business and their offer based on the amount of pounds loss, because they assume that the audience doesn’t value byproduct. What I’m going to call that is the intangibles. I think a lot of times our selling confidence, I see people make it contingent upon the tangibles that they believe that they can get people that people only spend money on tangible results. And that’s only halfway true. Yes, people want tangible results, but I want you to notice that if you are a business owner and you are holding back in you’re selling because you don’t believe you can create tangible results and you are devaluing the intangibles that you can give your client.
Kristen Boss (03:59):
So for example, let me give you some examples of intangible results that could be better mood, better quality of life, improving their marriage, their relationships, their self-confidence, their self-esteem how they interact with their family financial freedom or choices or options. I think financial freedom is still in the tangible section. So I want you to think that intangibles are the byproducts and the happy byproducts that people get on the way to getting the tangible results that they desire. And the problem is is if you were only placing value on tangibles, it will have you only sell tangible results in your marketing. And the problem with that is that you will create an audience or customers who only value tangible results. They also were, will overlook the intangible results because they’re placing all the value on the tangible, and they do that because you only sold them tangible results.
Kristen Boss (05:04):
And I want you to think about that, think about how you’ve sold your business and how you’ve sold your product. And if you have put all of the value on tangible results, listen, we know that most tangible results take time. And often what people get on their way to tangible results are the intangibles, the byproduct in the journey. So you have to be really clear in your marketing. Am I selling the destination or am I selling the journey? Same thing on my selling only the tangibles, or am I also selling the intangibles? And I would say probably 80% of marketing. I see online. I see people only focusing on the tangibles. And so when you only focus on the tangibles, you will have an audience and you will have customers who are hungry only for tangibles. They don’t value intangibles, and you will find yourself convincing to stay with your offers, stay with your product, stay with your service in order to convince them to stay long enough, to get to the tangible.
Kristen Boss (06:05):
And you’ll be selling them the intangible, and they’re not going to buy into it. They’re going to be like, yeah. I mean, I guess it, you know, improved energy is great. I guess, you know, less blow is great. I guess self-esteem is great. Notice how you have to sell them on the back end of the offer. Like they’ve said yes to you, they’ve paid you the money and they’ve only value the tangible results. They only value the results that they can measure and look at and see. So when you see progress and they’re frustrated and they’re saying, well, you know, I didn’t hit X amount of dollars. I’ve only lost X amount of pounds, or, you know, I’m, I’m working X amount of hours or whatever your promise of the tangible result is. If they’re frustrated and then you come to them and say, well, look at all these intangible things that you have, it looks like you’re selling as an afterthought in order to save your own, but in order to save the sale, instead of here’s what you can do differently.
Kristen Boss (07:07):
First of all, you have to rewire your mind in your belief, in the value of selling intangibles. I think sometimes I see people only confident selling tangible results, and they have a lot of belief barriers around intangibles because they think people don’t value that they don’t think people will pay money for an improved quality of life, better self-esteem community friendships, learning new skills, learning communication. Like I see people make the terrible mistake, assuming that people don’t value those things. And because they assume people don’t value those things, they don’t sell those things. They only sell the tangible results and it creates a very high pressure sales environment for them. And they end up feeling very pressured to only yield a tangible result for their consumer. Now, I am saying you do need to work to create an amazing result for your client, your team member, your consumer, like you still have to do the work to do that.
Kristen Boss (08:14):
But what is really important is in your selling, you need to get good at selling the intangible and really believing that people would put money down for things like joy and purpose and being home with their kids, having a better quality of life and sleeping better and less blow, like notice those things, because if you’re only selling dollars, earned pounds lost, you’re going to be, you know, have a very potentially a very transactional customer being like I paid for pounds lost where’s my results. And had you sold them in tangibles, they would actually already be seeing the results because you sold them. Those they’d say, man, this is great. I’m noticing better digestion. I’m noticing better sleep. I’m noticing better mood. I’m noticing I’ve made, you know, a couple hundred dollars here and there. This is fantastic. Instead of nothing’s working for me, why isn’t this working?
Kristen Boss (09:17):
So it’s really important that you sell the full spectrum when it comes to your selling. Do you believe in selling the intangibles or are you only focused on the tangibles now? Oftentimes we sell based on how we buy. So if you, you are not comfortable selling intangibles, like better quality of life and all the things I’ve described, it might be because you, as a consumer, you yourself wouldn’t pay money for those things. So therefore you devalue it. If you are a consumer and you are constantly only buying things with tangible results and you de-value the internet tangible as a consumer, then of course, you’re going to mirror the exact same thing as a seller with your buyers. And the problem with that is you’re only selling half the experience, but when you sell the picture, you have a consumer and a team and, you know, customers that are bought into the full picture.
Kristen Boss (10:27):
I find joy in the intangibles. They find joy in both, both outcomes. So I think what’s really interesting is I see people thinking that they can only sell big flashy things. And I specifically see this, you know, in the coaching arena, I see a lot of life coaches thinking that they can’t, people won’t pay for life coaching because they’d rather pay people would rather pay for business coaching. And oftentimes, and they end up devaluing themselves because they’re like, well, I don’t make my client money. So why would they pay me? This is a story I see life coaches have, and it’s a lie. They tell themselves. So for me, I would just ask. So, so would you pay a life coach? The answer is no I wouldn’t. Well, that’s why they feel out of alignment, selling life coaching because they haven’t bought it for themselves and they don’t see the value.
Kristen Boss (11:17):
So in order to sell the intangibles, you first have to sell yourself on the value of an intangible. I think this is a really interesting conversation because when I think about selling the social selling academy, there are definitely tangible results that you get in there. You know, increased engagement, you hit the next rank. You increase your paycheck, you grow your team. You have people that start messaging you in the DMS. Those are very tangible results, but I’m actually really big on selling my members, the intangible results they experience in there. And I will tell you the intangible results are things they experience almost immediately more peace in their business. They don’t experience anxiety. The first of the month, the 15th of the month and the 30th of the month. They’re no longer in this panicked point, chasing mode all the time. They notice a shift in how they show up online.
Kristen Boss (12:10):
They notice that they’re more consistent. They notice that they feel a deep peace. They feel purpose. They feel a renewed sense of joy in this business before they see the tangible results of a rank up or a bigger paycheck. Why? Because I sell the intangibles and I truly believe people pay to improve their quality of life. And a lot of people are thinking when people actually pay for purpose and joy and meaning and peace. I say absolutely because if you are feeling purposeful, joyful, and peaceful, you’re going to be a lot more motivated to keep working. It’s really hard to be consistent when you are burnt out, exhausted, miserable, and in a negative mindset all the time. Like it’s almost impossible to be consistent in that space. So what’s fascinating is through the intangibles, the students in the academy, when they see them and it happens very quickly, they show up differently.
Kristen Boss (13:06):
And because they’re showing up differently because they appreciate the intangibles. They end up creating tangible results for themselves in their business. So it might be true for you and your customers. I want you to think of, if you’re in health and wellness and you sell weight loss, or you sell, you know, improved health, you have to sell the tea, the intangibles so that they stay with you until they get the tangible yielded result. You have to sell them the value you have better sleep, have improved mood. Why is that important? You can’t just say, you know, better and improve mood Wu. Why, but why is a better mood? Why is that better for somebody? Why should they pay money for that? You have to sell them on why someone should pay money for an intangible result. And the only way you’re going to be able to sell in tangibles is, is only if you have sold yourself. First, only if you believe, yes, I would pay for this. I would 100% pay for peace and joy and purpose and learning how to work consistently and learning well, power and learning how to not deal with procrastination, not buffer and not be in a negative mindset all the time. Right?
Kristen Boss (14:24):
You have to have that experience first yourself and say, I absolutely believe in the value of intangibles and tangibles. There’s two things you were selling. So I want you to ask yourself today, when you think about your selling, we think about going online is, are you only selling the tangible results? The things that feel flashy and comfortable to sell, it’s easy to sell. I’ll help you make more money. I’ll help you lose weight because everybody says, yeah, I want that. But it takes time. And it, and it’s hard work to lose weight. It’s hard work to make money online. It’s hard work to have residual income, but if you’re just selling like, Hey, more money, weight loss, and these great tangible results, but you have forgotten to sell the value of the intangibles. And truly the intangibles are the things you experience on the journey. There are things you experience on your way to getting the result you desire and intangibles.
Kristen Boss (15:23):
Keep the belief going. If you sell someone the intangible and you’re like, Hey, you’re going to have better mood, better sleep, better energy. Then your consumers will be like, yeah. Okay, great. Progress one. I have better mood, better sleep, better energy. I can stay with this longer because I’m seeing progress in these areas. It gives them belief. It gives them buy-in. They stay with you longer instead of trying to sell the intangible on the backend of it. Trying to get them to say, wait, hold on. But don’t you see what’s going on here? No, no, no, no. Sell from the beginning. I actually want to encourage you to really build your selling muscle in creatively, getting your belief to the place where you could sell only in tangibles and feel powerful, selling them. Like, I think sometimes a good exercise for me, even as how would I sell the academy?
Kristen Boss (16:18):
If it wasn’t about helping people get to a new rank or work their business differently, or, you know, be able to increase their social media by 10,000 followers. And trust me, that all happens in the academy. People like their followings explode, their engagement explodes. They capture a rank that they haven’t re ranked for months. They have their highest enrolling months, their highest sales month. That’s all great. But what I actually most focused on selling is, Hey, if you want to stop having that pit of anxiety every month end. And if you want to stop taking a break the first of the 14th of the month, because you were tired and confused and spinning your wheels, and you want to have a clear, actionable plan for how you show up online and how you serve so that you can show up consistently and stop quitting every Monday.
Kristen Boss (17:07):
This is for you. Notice how the conversation that I, the thing I just said is very different than flashy promises like new rake hundred thousand new followers, right? And I still work to create tangible results for my clients, but I actually really work on selling the intangibles because I really believe the most value is the things that we tend to undervalue. I want you to think about this. We, I really feel like we place all the value in the end game of having the business online of the money and the paychecks and like, yeah. That’s where I want to be and hitting the goals. But where is the value on look at the person I have become look at all the growth I’ve had. I am not the same person I’m showing up. I have new communication skills and marketing skills, and I show up online differently.
Kristen Boss (18:02):
And I understand how to work Instagram. Like I’m learning these amazing life skills and I’m, I’m learning to have boundaries and I’m learning to communicate like those are amazing byproducts. And if you focused more on the byproducts of your business, you’d probably be a whole lot more proud of yourself. You probably wouldn’t be so busy beating yourself up and judging yourself. And it’s only because you haven’t sold yourself on the beautiful byproducts that happened on your way to getting the results you want. You should see me while I’m talking to my office. Like my hands are going everywhere. I sometimes I feel like when people take screenshots of me coaching, I’m like, where are my hands going to be? They’re just kind of everywhere doing the talking. But if you really passionately about this, can you sell the intangibles? Would you buy the intangibles? Do you have belief in them?
Kristen Boss (18:50):
If not, you got to do your work there because if you can sell intangibles, you can sell them, see you next week. That wraps up today’s episode. Hey, if you love today’s show, I would love for you to take a minute and give a rating with the review. If you desire to elevate the social selling industry, that means we need more people listening to this message so that they can know it can be done at different way. And if you’re ready to join me, it’s time for you to step into the social sign academy, where I give you all the tools, training, and support to help you realize your goals
Kristen Boss (19:28):
In the academy. You get weekly live coaching so that you are never lost or stuck in confusion. Whether you are a new in the business or been in the industry for a while. This is the premier coaching program for the Modern network marketer go to www.thesocialsellingacademy.com to learn more.
