How to Sell Your Offer without Feeling Sleazy with Amy Traugh

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How to Sell Without Feeling Sleazy: A Simple Reframe for Solopreneurs

Ditch the pressure and awkwardness—here’s how to shift your mindset and start selling with confidence, clarity, and heart.

Why Selling Feels So Uncomfortable (and What to Do About It)

When you hear the word sales, what comes to mind? For many solopreneurs, it’s an image of a pushy used car salesman or a high-pressure mattress pitch—awkward, cringey, and uncomfortable. If you’ve ever hesitated to promote your offer out of fear that you'll seem greedy, annoying, or desperate, you’re not alone.

But that hesitation is doing more than protecting your reputation—it’s holding your business back.

Here’s the truth: You didn’t start your business to become a salesperson. You started to help people. Whether you’re a coach, consultant, designer, or strategist, you’re passionate about serving others and delivering real results. Yet when it comes to actually selling what you do, something shifts—and not in a good way.

It’s time to reframe what selling really is.

Selling Is Serving—Not Performing

One of the most powerful mindset shifts I’ve made (and help clients embrace) is this: Sales is not a performance. It’s an invitation.

Think of sales like offering someone a piece of gum.

You’re not worried about whether they’ll accept it. You’re not spiraling if they decline. You just offer it: Hey, want a piece? They might say yes. They might say no. Either way, it’s not a personal attack. It’s just an offer.

Your product or service is the gum. It’s helpful. It solves a problem. But people can’t say yes if they don’t know it exists.

And yet, so many business owners silently assume the answer is no before they ever make the ask.

The Cost of Staying Silent

I once worked with a client who said, “I just feel weird promoting my offer. I don’t want to seem salesy.” So instead of selling, she waited. She showed up, created amazing content, and built trust—but never made the actual offer.

The result? People didn’t buy. Not because her offer wasn’t valuable, but because they didn’t realize it was available.

If your ideal client is struggling and you have the solution—but you never tell them—you’re leaving them stuck. People can’t read your mind. If you don’t speak up, they won’t know how to work with you.

Let’s bring it back to that gum analogy. If your best friend has bad breath and doesn’t know you have gum, she’s not going to ask for it. Not because she doesn’t want help, but because she doesn’t know help is right beside her.

Rejection Isn’t Personal—It’s Data

Here’s the good news: Sales is a skill. And like any skill, it gets easier with practice.

Start small. Make one ask a day. Invite someone to a discovery call. Send that follow-up email. Drop a simple call to action. And if that still feels like too much, practice outside of business—ask a friend to lunch or request help with something small.

The more you practice, the less awkward it feels. And if someone says no? That’s just feedback. It tells you where they are in their journey, what they need clarity on, or what part of your message might need refining.

It’s not a rejection of you. It’s just not the right time.

Sales with Integrity Isn’t Sleazy—It’s Supportive

You care deeply. You lead with value. You’re not here to pressure or manipulate—so stop measuring yourself against those who do.

Sales done with integrity is about helping people take the next step toward a solution. It’s about solving problems and delivering results. If you’re doing that with clarity, compassion, and consistency, then you're not being salesy—you’re being of service.

And remember—if you never make the offer, the answer will always be no.

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Transcript for Episode 417. How to Sell Your Offer without Feeling Sleazy

@0:07 - Amy Traugh (Amy Traugh)

What comes to mind when you think of sales? For some, it conjures up thoughts of buying a used car or a mattress from a really sleazy salesperson.

It's that dreaded high-pressure situation where it's just so super uncomfortable that you dread it. Or maybe you find yourself hesitating to pitch your offer, worrying that someone might think that you're being pushy, greedy, or just plain annoying.

Is this recording to the right place? Yeah. Let's start over. What comes to mind when you think of sales?

For some, it conjures up thoughts of buying a used car or a mattress from a sleazy The salesperson, you know, the dreaded high pressure situations where it's just so super uncomfortable.

Or maybe you find yourself hesitating to pitch your offer, worrying someone might think you're being pushy, greedy, or just plain annoying.

Today, we're tackling a topic that's holding way too many brilliant entrepreneurs back. How to sell without feeling sleazy. Because if you're like most solopreneurs that I work with, you love serving your people.

But you didn't start your business to become a sales rep amongst the 50,000 other tasks you're doing on a daily basis.

You started your business to help people. Whether that's through coaching, consulting, design strategy, something else entirely. Entirely, you believe in what you offer.

And you are so passionate. Passionate about helping others. And you get your clients really, really good results. But when it comes to actually selling your offer, you freeze.

You overthink. You start telling yourself stories like, well, I don't want to bother anyone. What if they say no?

What if they think I'm too pushy? I'm just going to wait for them to come to me. Let me pause and say this.

Thoughts like this don't make you bad at business. They don't make you bad at sales. They make you human.

Helping people and selling to people are not opposites. In fact, the ability to sell is how you get to help more people.

So if you want consistent and sustainable business growth, you have to shift the way you view sales because hiding.

from sales is really truly the real problem. Here's a simple reframe that changed everything for me. Sales is like offering someone a piece of gum.

Now stay with me. I know this sounds weird. When you offer someone gum, you're not panicking about whether they're going to say yes.

You're not spiraling if they decline. You're just holding out your hand with that stick of gum and saying, hey, do you want a piece?

And maybe they say, sure, thanks. Or maybe they say, no, I'm good. When this happens, you don't spiral or take it personally.

You just move on. And either way, yes or no, you don't walk away questioning your worth as a person.

So why do we treat our business offers any differently? Your product or service is the gum. It is not a...

And not a performance. It's just an invitation. It's useful. It's helpful. It solves a problem. But people can't say yes if you never make the offer.

So often you're silently assuming that the answer is no before you even give them the choice. I was recently working with a client who told me, I just feel weird promoting my offer.

I don't want to come off as desperate or salesy. So I just wait for people to come and ask me about my offer.

And meanwhile, she was creating this amazing content, showing up consistently, building relationships. She was doing everything except for the one thing that would actually grow her business, making the offer.

And here's what I told her and what I want you to hear too. If you're not inviting people to take the next step, you are leaving them stuck.

They want a solution. They have a problem. They need a guide. But if you're quiet about what you do or how to work with you, they don't know where to go.

They're not mind readers. No one's paying as much attention to us as we are. Let's go back to the gum analogy for a second.

If you have that full pack of gum in your pocket and your best friend sitting next to you has really bad breath, no clue that you have any gum, how is she ever going to know to ask you for a piece?

Your friend doesn't know it's available. She doesn't know that it could help her. She doesn't even realize it's what she needs.

This is why making the offer matters. People can't say yes to something they don't even know exists. Sales is a skill and it is a skill you can develop.

So if this is true, and we know that putting in the reps is how we get results, how can we build our confidence in our ability to sell?

How can we develop our ability to be comfortable in that skill? Here's my challenge to you. Get uncomfortable making the ask.

Or I'm sorry, get comfortable making the ask. I want you to get uncomfortable. Because here is what I have learned.

The more I ask, the easier it gets. The more comfortable it becomes. And it's not because I don't hear no.

I do. I hear no all of the time. And it's not that I love rejection. But every single ask that I make helps me stretch my comfort zone.

Because I have separated the response from my identity. I'm sorry. I Every no that you receive is simply data.

It's feedback. It gives us information and teaches us something. It tells me exactly where someone is in their journey, what they need more clarity on, or what messaging isn't quite landing.

It's not a personal rejection. Another way to think of it is, you know, let's say I invite a friend to lunch.

And they can't make it that day. I don't immediately assume that they hate me. I just know that it's not the right time.

And that's how I treat sales as well. But every single yes that you get, now this is someone that you get to serve.

But if you're not asking, the answer will always be no. So why are we so afraid to ask? You guys.

So many of us have been there. And it really goes back to the story that we tell ourselves about what sales is supposed to look like.

Pushy, aggressive, manipulative. Maybe you were once on the receiving end of a really cringy pitch or DM or trapped on a sales call that just didn't respect your boundaries.

But that's not your sales style. That's not what you're about. You care. You lead with value. You build trust.

So let's rewrite your story. Selling isn't something that you do to people. It's something you do for the people who need what you offer.

Sales is an invitation. Sales is serving. Sales is making life easier for the people who need your help. Sales is solving problems.

Sales Sales is connecting someone to a result that they're looking for. And if you're doing this with integrity, clarity, and heart, it's not sleazy.

It's service. So here's your challenge for this week. I want you to start selling, improving that sales muscle by making one ask every single day.

Just one. It could be inviting someone to hop on a discovery call with you. It could be sending a warm lead a message over on Instagram, dropping a call to action at the end of your comment, sending that sales email you've been avoiding to your email list.

And if this feels like too much of a stretch, start with something that's not business related. Make the ask.

Don't overthink it. Just offer the gum. And remember, if they say no, that's okay. You're still a business owner.

You're still an expert and still so wildly worthy. But if you never make the ask, the answer will always be no.

Sales is a skill and something I love helping my clients master. If you are ready to turn your data into dollars and grow your business with clarity, confidence, and ease, head on over to amytraugh.com to get started for free.

And until next time, stop guessing and start growing.