Proud to sell because… For me, selling is about serving. The word ‘sell’ has its roots in an Old English word ‘sellan’, which means to give or to promise. It’s about answering a need and delivering value. I haven’t always held this view, though.

After many years’ working in marketing and business communications, (where supporting sales teams was a key part of my role), I left the corporate world to train as a cognitive behavioural hypnotherapist. In time I set up a business providing mindset and self-leadership training, coaching and talks to individuals and organisations.

In the early days I found selling my own services nerve-wracking. I believed I was imposing on prospective customers, who were looking for reasons to say no, and I was convinced I was terrible at selling. Not surprisingly, this didn’t help my business.

Part of my job is to empower people to notice, challenge and change the limiting beliefs that are holding them back, and to become effective self-leaders. To turn my business around, I had to become my own client.

Once I’d dealt with my negative stories, I invested in sales training from an expert, whose values around integrity and service matched mine. It was a revelation that, having identified my ideal clients, ‘selling’ simply meant guiding them through a conversation, using compassionate curiosity to understand their needs in depth and proposing a solution that I was confident would help them.

So I understand first-hand how important both the right mindset and the right training are for effective selling. Ultimately, it’s about problem-solving and delivering deep service, and having confidence in your knowledge and process.