The Energy of Sales: How to Sell Without Feeling Pushy

The energy of sales is the feeling you bring to selling, and buyers pick up on it. When selling feels like pushing, it shows. When it feels like serving someone with a real problem you can solve, people relax and lean in. Selling without pressure comes down to three things: it has to feel good to you, it has to be something your prospect truly wants, and your prospect has to be the hero of the story.

I want to talk in detail today about the energy of sales, of showing up and being visible, whether you’re putting out a lead magnet or a paid product.

(Learn more about online visibility.)

Today, I originally wanted to talk about content. Instead, I feel led to talk more about the energy of sales, because if your energy isn’t right, it’s going to be hard to pull results out of thin air.

3 things to remember for sales

When I talk about selling, I don’t necessarily mean pushing to a cart where somebody pays you money – I’m talking about putting yourself out there to build, nurture, or sell to your audience.

So, let’s consider that the bucket of sales we’re talking about in this online visibility challenge is: growing your audience, nurturing your audience and selling to your audience. That is your sales process.

1. It has to feel fun.

When it comes to your visibility (for the purpose of eventually making money) and your sales, it has first to be something you want to do. I say this all the time to one on one clients: focus on what you want to do. 

Now, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t going to be times where you’re doing things in your business that you don’t love. There’s times in your business where you have to push; times where you will be doing something that makes you feel uncomfortable. There will be other times you know you have to pivot to be more aligned with your personality, energy and what you want your business to look like.

An example: I had a client last year who was one of my major success stories, she earned 5 figures in her first month of working with me.

There was a process that I was teaching her that I knew would work well for her offer. She said, “I’ve never done this before. It seems kind of weird but I’m just going to trust the process” and took the action. It was manageable action for her but it was still uncomfortable and she got 5 figures of sales that first month.

Another client I had: I pushed her to use the same process and she did get sales through it, but it was always an uphill battle.

At the end of the day, she had so much resistance in showing up in the way that I suggested that we customized it so she could show up in the way that she wanted to – and that’s what ended up working for her.

So, whenever you’re talking about selling, energy of sales, and launching, you always want to think about making sure you can find a way to make it feel fun for you.

You have to find a way to make it work for you.

As a personal example, I never wanted to go to college. But there was this one thing I wanted to do where I had to get a degree. (I didn’t even end up doing that for my career, but I did end up getting a degree because of it, which I’m really happy about).

In college, I didn’t love being there, but I was able to find something I enjoyed about every single course that I took.

I had this one awful professor – I was a straight A student, except for this one class. The reason I didn’t get an A in his class was because the way he graded you was with + and -. He was also late to every class, unclear on expectations and he gave me my only B I had in college, and it felt very arbitrary to me – because if I KNEW how to get an A, I would’ve gotten an A.

But as much as I hated that course, I was still able to find interesting things about it: the way that he taught music there was different than I’ve ever heard it before and I was finding things I enjoyed about it.

So, my point is: when you are selling and showing up online, you have to find a way to make it feel fun!

You have to learn over time: when is the time to push through the discomfort? When is the time to rest? You don’t always know that without some action and hindsight.

You can’t always just think your way through problems, so go ahead and do the launch even if you don’t feel ready for it.

Go ahead and put yourself out there, take the daily action and trust the process no matter what. And after that, evaluate: should I have taken another week to put this together? Rested a little bit more? Should I have pushed a little bit harder maybe, or created more content? You wont get that clarity without taking action.

That’s the first thing I have to say about energy in sales: it has to feel fun and at the end of the day, the only way you’re going to get clarity on what works best for you is to take action. Actions are louder than words.

2. It has to be something that your prospect wants and needs.

This is about positioning and marketing.

We’re going to sell prospects what they want. Position it to be geared toward the language that they’re using. If you survey your audience on what you should be selling, the answers they gave in the survey should be on your sales page!

You want to use the language that your audience is using.

With this, we create something they want to give them what they need.

Ultimately as the expert, you know the steps to get to your end result, but the steps to get there aren’t always sexy for marketing.

You also have to give your audience what they need. This is now referring to the actual transformation. Giving your prospects what they need is going to be actually talking about the transformation, the feelings they may have and what the after results is going to look like.

3. For effective energy of sales, make your prospect the hero of the story.

(I didn’t come up with this idea – I probably got it from the Story Brand by Donald Miller.)

Another way to put it: sales is a transfer of confidence.

Whenever you’re marketing around your free or paid things, you need to be convincing your avatar that they can get the results that they want. But YOU need to have the confidence that the avatar will get the results that they want.

If you lack the confidence that your avatar will get what they want in your program, then you need to either work on your mindset or work on your program, or both.

3 things that are important with visibility and sales ae belief in…
1. your offer
2. its value
3. your prospect

How to pump yourself up

One of the things that helps me a lot in the energy of sales is writing about it. The more I can write about the benefits and talk about client stories, the more belief I can have behind it.

Here’s some ways to pump yourself up about your sales:

Examine limiting beliefs that impede your energy of sales.

Look at your offer. Do you have belief in your offer, in its value? Do you have belief in your prospect?

When I talk about examining beliefs, I’m talking about examining those three things.

• Do you have limiting beliefs about your offer – that it will work for your client, or its value or price point?
• Do you have any limiting beliefs about your prospects’ ability to benefit from this program?

Money-related sales blocks are often wealth wounds.

Most people have limiting beliefs about their price point.

Let me give you an example. I have a new client who has a course, a group coaching program. She helps authors write really good memoirs. The price point for that, she feels, is on the lower end of her competition. So to her, the value proposition is that it’s the cheapest course on the market.

You should never want to aim to be the cheapest! It’s not bad to be the cheapest – if you can provide a better price for what other people are offering and you feel good about that, then go for it.

But for the most part, a lot of us don’t feel good about offering the cheapest price, we’re just doing it because we think we have to.

When you are looking at a limiting belief, you want to always find things to disprove it, such as:

1. there is other competition who charges more
2. no one else is offering one-on-one support like you are offering, so it’s worth charging more
3. you know that your process is shorter and more specific, so people will get results faster.

Write down the limiting belief, and take a look at how many ways you can disprove it. Then, write an affirmation about it. One affirmation that I really like is:

• my work is of high service and worthy of massive compensation.

Now, if you find yourself asking whether your offer will work for your prospect?

That’s an offer adjustment.

• My prospects are going to struggle to write sales emails – so I will provide sales email templates.
• My prospects will struggle with sales pages – I’ll give them a template or a sales page audit.

Sometimes your limiting beliefs about your prospect are about the program itself. Or, it could be about the price point that may not match other people’s budgets.

Other general tips from a mindset perspective:

1. Have a plan
2. Schedule in advance
3. Be joyful
4. Relax often

When you are uptight and stressed about something, it prevents you from being able to provide solutions. Being stressed out can prevent you from making progress in your launch because you won’t be able to see the solutions.

Speak to the problems your prospects are having right now. It could be a challenge to sell to problems that people aren’t aware that they have!

So, speak to the problems that are going to lead people to you.

Think about the people that need you. If you provide support for people who are going through this or that, think: what are they facing now? What is the wall that they’re hitting?

Example: in the real estate wholesaling company, where I used to work, people were not looking to sell their homes fast. People wouldn’t google “how to sell a house fast?” but things like “how to sell a house without a will?”

I want you to think about walls people will hit before they need you. What they will google to find the solution for that need?

How do you sell through service?

Selling through service means you help first and make your offer the natural next step. You don’t lead with “here’s what I have and why you need it.” You lead with “what are you struggling with, and how can I help?” When someone has already gotten real value from you, buying from you doesn’t feel like being sold to. It feels like continuing something that’s already working.

Traditional selling centers on the seller. Selling through service centers on the person in front of you. Here’s what that looks like in practice.

Listen first

Most of your time goes here. Switch from telling to asking. Spend time where your people already gather. Read the questions they’re asking. Run a short quiz or poll, and ask direct questions on social. You’re learning their words for their problems, and as I said above, those words belong on your sales page.

Help for real

Answer the question. Give the useful tip. Share the thing that gets them unstuck today. This isn’t a teaser that holds back the good stuff. The help has to be real, or people feel the bait-and-switch.

Connect the dots

People don’t always know what they need to get what they want. As the expert, your job is to bridge that gap. On one side is the result they’re asking for. On the other are the steps that will actually get them there.

Make the offer the natural next step

Once you’ve helped and you can see the gap, the offer is simply what comes next: “Here’s what we covered. If you want help with the rest, this is how I can do that.” No hype and no manufactured urgency. If you’ve served them well, the offer doesn’t feel like a pivot. It’s the obvious next step.

This ties right back to the energy of sales. When you’re focused on helping, you aren’t gripping the outcome, and people can feel the difference.

How do you handle sales objections without pressure?

You handle objections by listening, not arguing. Hear the objection all the way through and ask what’s behind it. Treat “I can’t afford it” or “I need to think about it” as information about where someone is, not as a fight you have to win.

Any objection can be argued, and you can come up with a counter for everything. But winning the argument doesn’t make someone a client, and it definitely doesn’t make them a happy one. Handling objections is less about rationalizing and more about understanding what’s going on underneath.

Hear it fully

Let them finish. Don’t jump in with your rebuttal while they’re still talking. Reflect back what you heard so they know you got it.

Ask what’s behind it

The objection someone says out loud usually isn’t the real one. Get curious, in a “because I care about you” kind of way. Ask things like “What feels like the biggest risk here?” or “If money weren’t a factor, would this be a yes?”

When they say “I can’t afford it”

Sometimes that’s simply true. Then the kindest thing is to say so and point them to something that fits where they are right now.

Often, though, something else is going on, especially if they knew your price before the call. Maybe they invested in themselves before and it didn’t work. Maybe they’re worried about what their family will think. Maybe they’re afraid they’ll fail and never make the money back. Or they’re waiting to make money before they invest, while the waiting is what keeps them from making it. You can talk about all of those honestly. A price is something you can’t argue anyone out of.

When they say “I need to think about it”

Fair. Big decisions deserve thought. Ask what specifically they want to think through, because that often brings the real question up right there. Then agree on a next step, like a date to reconnect or something for them to review. Don’t push for a yes on the spot.

Let a no be a no

Whether you make the sale or not, they should leave the conversation feeling heard. No pressure, because you aren’t trying to win. You’re there to help them make the right decision for them. That’s the energy of sales.

Those are my tips today for the energy of sales.

If you are going to leave today with one action, it’s this – find a way to make your business fun!

Consistency is key, and you need to be having fun in order to stay consistent.

Is it hard to be consistent? Yes.

But is it hard to be broke?

Even more: yes.

About the author: Alison Reeves is a holistic business coach with more than 15 years in marketing and nearly a decade coaching entrepreneurs. She’s trained in somatic and trauma-informed coaching and is the author of Embodied Abundance. Work with Alison

FAQ’s

Q: How do I sell without being pushy? A: Focus on the person, not the sale. Ask questions, listen to what they actually want, explain clearly how you can help, and make it easy to say no. Pushiness comes from needing the sale; ease comes from trusting that the right clients will say yes.

Q: Why do I hate selling? A: Many service providers hate selling because it feels like asking for something, or because old beliefs say money and helping don’t mix. Selling also triggers fear of rejection, which your nervous system treats as a threat. Reframing sales as service, and building comfort with being told no, makes it easier.

Q: How do I handle “I can’t afford it”? A: Thank them, then gently ask whether it’s the total price, the timing, or uncertainty about the result. Sometimes a payment plan or a smaller offer helps. Sometimes it’s genuinely not the right time, and respecting that builds trust for later.

Keep growing your business

• The 4 pillars of sustainable business growth
• How to price your services
• How to handle a failed launch
• How to make six figures a year online
• What is a holistic business coach?

Thinking about coaching? See how I work with clients.