Although I have been in an online business for more than a decade, selling still gives me a bit of an ick. So how do I still make sales without constantly selling? Here’s an insight in my evergreen sales system.
If you’ve ever felt uncomfortable selling your offers, promoting your services, or talking about your products online, you’re not alone.
In fact, after more than a decade in online business, I have a confession to make:
I still don’t like selling.
That feels almost ridiculous to say as someone who creates digital products, runs an online business, and helps other entrepreneurs build and sell their offers. By all accounts, I should love sales. I should be excited about launches, promotions, and talking about my offers every day.
But the truth is, I don’t.
And perhaps even more surprising?
Some of my best sales happen when I’m not actively selling at all.
Listen to the full podcast episode here:
Can you build an online business if you’re not a natural at sales?
One of the biggest myths in online business is that you need to become an aggressive salesperson to succeed.
You’ve probably heard the advice:
- Show up every day.
- Talk about your offer constantly.
- Promote harder.
- Overcome objections.
- Sell more often.
And while visibility absolutely matters, I don’t believe there is only one way to make sales online.
For years, I assumed that if I wanted to grow my business, I had to force myself into becoming someone who loved selling. I thought I needed to master every launch strategy, every sales technique, and every marketing trend.
But over time, I started noticing a pattern.
The periods when I was pushing the hardest were not always the periods when I made the most money.
In many cases, the opposite was true.
The sales pattern that keeps my sales happening
When I look back at my business journey, the most aligned clients and customers rarely came from me aggressively promoting an offer.
Instead, they found me.
- They discovered my blog through search engines
- They found my Pinterest content
- They listened to my podcast
- They searched for a course creator on Instagram
- They landed on my website and explored my content
By the time they reached out, they already knew they wanted to work with me.
There was no convincing required, no complicated sales conversation. Just a logical next step.
And the more I paid attention to this pattern, the more I realized that attraction-based marketing worked far better for me than pressure-based selling ever did.
How I make sales without constantly selling: my evergreen sales system
Before we go any further, let’s be clear:
This isn’t about sitting back and doing nothing. Passive sales don’t happen by accident.
The reason I can step away from active selling is because I spent years building systems that continue working in the background.
It takes time to get to the stage of having all of this well-established. You’ll have to go through trial and error. But once you’re on the other side, you’ve build yourself an evergreen sales system as well!
Well-established evergreen funnels
One of the biggest contributors to my sales is evergreen marketing: a sales system that can welcome new people in my online world and introduce them to my offers, without me being actively present at that exact moment.
Each step you take, leads to a logical next suggestion.
For example,
- When you enroll in a free offer, you get taken to a Thank you page with a tripwire offer (low-ticket next-step product to consider)
- Each enrollment also leads into automated email sequence
- When you purchase a product, you get other product suggestions in the Checkout, an upsell
The sales process doesn’t depend on me being online every day. The system is built in a way that is intertwined.
The emails are written. The sequences are built. The customer journey exists whether I’m actively promoting it or not.
I don’t have to be online for this to happen, all parts of an evergreen funnel work on their own.
Related read: Email sales funnel creation for online coaches
Pinterest marketing for passive sales
Pinterest has been one of the strongest traffic sources in my business for years. And although the numbers have slightly dropped with the raise of ChatGPT searches, it’s still brining in consistent customer base.
Pinterest is not a social media, it’s a search engine, and the content you upload there will stay for the long-run. Any one link to a blog post, a podcast episode or video, can bring in new leads months and years ahead.
Plus Pinterest users are action-focused: they’re there with clear intention to get things done, to make purchases or take action steps.
People discover my content while searching for solutions to specific problems. They find blog posts, download my resources, join my list. And many eventually become customers.
Unlike social media platforms that require constant engagement, Pinterest continues driving traffic long after content is published.
Related read: How to sell products on Pinterest
Search engine optimization with blog posts
Blog content is another major piece of my strategy.
While many consider blogging outdated, it’s still a core of SEO optimized online presence.
By writing keyword-rich blog posts, you’re also feeding search engines like Google with your content. So now, when someone searches for specific keywords, it’s YOUR content that has the potential to come up.
When someone searches for answers related to online courses, digital products, content creation, or online business growth, they may discover one of my articles.
That content works for me long after it’s published. And it gets new eyes on my offers consistently.
A blog post written today can generate leads months or even years from now.
Email marketing keeps the system going
Email marketing remains one of the most reliable sales tools in my business.
Interestingly, many sales don’t come directly from promotional emails. They come from:
- relationship-building emails
- actionable ideas
- story-based emails
- showing up
Trust is built over time and trust is what ultimately drives sales.
Having effective email marketing usually consists of two parts: automated email sequences and regularly written email updates.
Automated email sequences
This is a part of my evergreen funnel that keeps it going. When you enroll in either of my freebies, you get added to a mailing list and automatically receive a sequence of emails that welcomes you in my online world.
This is one-and-done kind of a setup that just keeps on giving as inside the sequences you can learn more about me, explore my offers and get more valuable insights and practical ideas to work with, without me actively doing much more.
Regularly written email updates
Along with my automated sequences, I also send out weekly email updates. Most of them revolve around my latest podcast episodes.
So even after you’re done with my automated sequence, you still are kept in the loop with emails from me.
Your social media presence still matters
Now, I don’t want this article to sound like visibility isn’t important. It absolutely is.
People can’t find you if they don’t know you exist.
- I still create content
- I still publish blog posts
- I still record podcast episodes
- I still show up on social media
The difference is that I focus on creating valuable content rather than constantly pushing offers.
My goal is to be discoverable rather than persuasive. When people are ready for what I offer, they can find me.
And for my personality, that approach feels far more sustainable.
What if you’re just starting out
If you’re in the early stages of business, relying entirely on passive sales probably isn’t realistic yet.
Passive marketing works best after you’ve built content, visibility, and systems that can generate traffic and leads consistently.
In the beginning, you may need to be more active.
You may need to create content more frequently and promote your offers actively. But even then, it’s worth thinking about how you can gradually build assets that continue working for you long-term.
Creating an evergreen sales system is the answer
If you’ve been struggling with sales, feeling resistant to promotion, or wondering whether you’re somehow “bad at business” because you don’t love selling, I hope this gives you a different perspective.
I still don’t like selling. But I do love creating.
I love teaching, building systems and helping people. And somehow, by focusing on those things, the sales continue to happen.
Not because I mastered every sales technique but because I built a business that allows people to find me when they’re ready.
And for me, that’s a much more enjoyable way to grow.
Start building your own evergreen sales system and it will help you to make more sales without selling more!
TO LEARN MORE AND STAY CONNECTED
💛 Connect with me on Instagram @coursecreationlab
🎧 Listen to the Savvy Offer Hub podcast
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