How I fell in love with selling (and what changed for me)
Does the word "selling" make your stomach turn a little? Do you picture pushy scripts, objection handling, convincing someone to say yes when part of you isn't even sure you want to convince them? ✨
My relationship with sales has changed so much over the past year, and it's genuinely reshaped how I run my whole business. In episode 15 of the Soul & Strategy podcast, I share exactly what shifted, so let me walk you through it here too.
Listen to the full episode above (episode 15), or keep reading below.
Selling is bigger than you think it is
When we hear "selling," most of us picture the corporate sales guy or the pushy pitch. But selling is really just offering someone your services and giving them the chance to say yes or no. A flyer on a noticeboard. A story on Instagram. A message inviting someone to your workshop. All of it counts, and none of it has to feel like the version we've been conditioned to dread.
Where I started: scripts and objection handling
When I signed my first client, I wasn't even thinking about sales, I was focused on strategy, on how to find someone in the first place. But once I started getting people onto free calls, I realised every single one of those calls was a sales conversation, whether I called it that or not.
So I treated it like a science to master. I watched Instagram reels from sales closers, learned how to handle objections like "I don't have time" or "I need to talk to my partner," and wrote myself a script with a set list of questions to run through on every call.
It never sat right with me. I kept feeling like I was trying to manipulate people into a yes, when what they might genuinely need was more time or more information. And every time someone said no, I assumed the problem was my script, so I went looking for a better one.
Take the pressure off the call
My body told the truth even when my mind didn't want to admit it. I would sweat through every single sales call, convinced this was my one shot, that if I didn't get it right in those 30 minutes, I'd lose the person forever.
Here's what I've come to understand since. We actually sell better when we take that pressure off. Whatever is underneath it, financial pressure, frustration from past no's, the fear of losing this one chance - the person on the other end can often feel that desperation, even if you never say it out loud. And beyond how it lands with them, carrying that pressure changes how present and enjoyable the conversation is for you too.
A no isn't a no forever
This shift became even clearer once I noticed a pattern. I had a client join me about a year after our very first call together. She said not right now, twice, across two separate conversations. I could have decided she'd never be ready, or that I wasn't the right coach for her. Instead, I let it go. And then one day, she simply emailed me: I'm ready now.
A no in the moment isn't the end of the story. Someone might not have the finances right now, or need more time, or need to see more of your work first, and come back to you a year later out of nowhere. I've even had people leave a free call without becoming clients at all, but they were so genuinely helped by our conversation that they referred other people my way. None of that would have happened if I'd gatekept every ounce of value behind a paid offer.
Trade the script for a real conversation
Once I let go of ticking through a script and started genuinely listening instead, everything changed. Rather than strategising my next line while someone was still talking, I leaned into open-ended questions, into actually hearing what was underneath what they said, and reflecting that back to them.
This is where I started making the most sales, not from a better script, but from dropping the script entirely. What people are really buying isn't your offer itself, it's the solution to their specific problem, and you can only offer that once you truly understand what they're dealing with. That understanding is also where a lot of the value happens, even within the call itself, sometimes just one small shift in perspective is enough to genuinely help someone, whether or not they ever become a client.
Selling as an act of service
This is the mindset shift that changed everything for me. Think about your favorite cafe, or a course that genuinely transformed part of your life. None of that would exist in your world if someone hadn't sold it to you first. An intro offer, an ad, a conversation that invited you in. You wouldn't be a customer, and you wouldn't have experienced the transformation, without someone being willing to sell.
Selling isn't about chasing the money. It's the activity that actually gets your work to the people who need it. Once I started seeing it that way, selling stopped being something I dreaded and started feeling like an extension of the impact I actually wanted to make.
What changed once I let all of this go
Once I fully leaned into these shifts, I had a run of free calls at the back of a workshop where five out of five people said yes. A 100% conversion rate, which is genuinely not the norm on sales calls.
What I noticed most was the ripple effect. I made one sale and felt so excited about supporting that new client that I carried that same energy straight into the next call, and the next. Fun and pleasure weren't a side effect of selling well, they were part of what made it work.
Key takeaways
Selling is simply offering someone the chance to say yes or no, it doesn't have to look like a corporate pitch.
You sell better when you take the pressure off yourself and the person you're talking to. Desperation is felt, even when unspoken.
A no right now isn't a no forever. People come back, sometimes a full year later, once they're ready.
Dropping the script for a genuine, curious conversation tends to convert better than any objection handling technique.
Selling is an act of service. People can't experience your work if you never invite them into it.
Want to shift your own relationship with sales?
If any part of this felt familiar, the pressure, the scripts, the fear of coming across as pushy, I'm hosting a free 5-day Soulful Sales Challenge from the 12th to the 16th of October, run inside a private Telegram group.
Every day includes a mindset prompt to work through your own beliefs around selling, plus one aligned action to actually put it into practice, so you're not just journaling about it but genuinely moving your business forward. One lucky person will also win a 60-minute Soulful Sales Coaching Session ✨
Join the free Soulful Sales Challenge
Listen to the full episode (episode 15) on YouTube, Spotify or Apple for the complete breakdown, and if this resonated with you, follow the Soul & Strategy podcast so you don't miss what's next.
I'd love to hear what collaboration idea you come up with! Come share it with me via DM or comment under the podcast post on Instagram @sabinelehnhardt.
With love,
Sabine 🤍
