Want to Sell More Flowers? Believe In Yourself

The number one issue I believe with flower farmers is that you don’t believe in yourself.

Not that you can’t grow flowers. Chances are that you’re doing that already, and you’re doing it pretty damn well.

Not that you’re not a flower farmer or a professional, because chances are you’re also doing that too.

But it’s a very deep rooted thing that goes to the core of your being that you’re not good enough - that your business isn’t good enough - and that you’re scared of what may happen if you think you’re good enough.

You might be afraid of failure. You might be afraid of rejection. You might be afraid of total catastrophe.

Which is understandable. Because I’ve thought all these things too.

But I’m also here to tell you that these are all things that are more than likely not going to happen to you. And even if they do, they’re not going to completely destroy you or your business.

But do you know what could?

This fear. This belief that you’re not good enough.

Because if you think that you’re not good enough, guess what? You’re not going to take those risks.

You’re not going to try and make a sale to your customer (or potential customer).

You’re not going to truly invest in yourself and your business.

You’re always going to be holding back, second-guessing yourself - and as a result, your business will fail because you’ll never let it succeed.

Have you ever tried to support or endorse something that you didn’t really believe in?

I mean, you can do it for a while. Perhaps even in good faith, but ultimately it’s not going to work out.

Even if you can try to make it work, it’s going to be a lot more effort and mental hurdles to get yourself to the end point.

It’s very difficult when you’re forcing yourself to do something you don’t believe in - your heart just isn’t in it.

It can be very hard to believe in yourself though.

We as flower farmers suffer hard from imposter syndrome - the belief that we’re not good enough, that our businesses are a sham, and that we’re not actually legitimate

Flower Farming Business: Dealing with Imposter Syndrome

It’s important to know that many people suffer from imposter syndrome as flower farmers.

We have grower friends who have been doing this even longer than we have and they still feel like they are not “good enough” despite multi-acre growing operations, gorgeous social media accounts and what I would deem very successful flower farms.

Here’s the thing though: when you believe in yourself, your business and what it is you’re doing, things can change.

Things can change a lot.

For instance, if you believe in your business - and believe in the quality and beauty of your flowers and materials - there’s this really cool mental switch that occurs.

If you believe that your materials are awesome, you’re going to be able to talk about them in a way that is completely different. Like, if you really believe your Cafe au lait dahlias are amazing, you’re going to talk passionately and expertly about them in a way that gets other people excited about them.

So excited, that they may buy your Cafe au laits!

It sounds like it’s silly, but I guarantee you that if you have confidence about your flowers and materials, the way you talk about them will change completely.

How to Have More Confidence In Your Flowers - And Yourself

“Okay” you say “So this is great advice and all - but how do I put it into practice?”

It does take time to gain that innate sense of confidence and belief in your flowers (and yourself) but it’s all about practice.

Be confident

This is the biggest thing I think that helps you to sell your flowers - and yourself and your business. The more confident you are, the better that you’ll do.

And I’m not talking about that brash mindless bravado that many people think of when they talk about confidence.

I’m talking about that steady, quiet, grounded feeling that you get when talk with somebody that just is really living their life with absolute certainty and knows exactly what they’re talking about and what they want.

But what if you’re not a super confident person?

In essence, fake-it-til-you-make-it applies in this situation. Even if you’re not 100% confident on your end, you want to act like you are. Because it goes a long way towards boosting your confidence.

And the funny thing is that over time, you’ll find you actually are more confident in what you’re saying and what you’re doing and in yourself and your business.

Be Informed

In order to inform people about your flowers, you have to know them inside and out.

For retail customers, you’ll have to know every single material - the average vase life, how to take care of them, and even how to transport and maintain said arrangements (mixed bouquets, mason jar arrangements etc.)

When selling to florists or wholesalers, you’ll also want to know the same properties of your materials - vase life and care, how to utilize them when designing, any other tips or tricks to look out for (not to keep them in the cooler, giving a fresh cut, etc.)

The more that you know about your materials, the better that you’re able to inform your customers. And the more confidence they will have in you as the grower and seller of said materials. Because your information will help them to succeed with your flowers - you are their guide in this experience.

If you don’t know everything you can that’s okay - start studying up on your topics one by one. Pick a species or variety and research it and see how well you know it. Brush up on your vase life of your materials. Know it inside and out so you don’t even have to think about it when somebody asks you about it.

Be excited!

Everyone gets excited about certain flowers. Peonies for one. Dahlias. Delphinium and ranunculus too. They are all easy to sell because they are very recognizable flowers.

But then there’s the other flowers that aren’t so easily recognizable. Phlox for instance - a pretty flower, but not something that the average person is going to get excited about. Or basil - isn’t that just meant to be thrown into a stir fry or made into pesto?

But if you get excited and start talking about why you love the materials, you can get other people excited too. Florists for example, if you can explain that phlox has a vase life of seven days and is a gorgeous filler material they will have no issues buying every stem that you can sell them. Or if you point out to your retail customers that the basil in your mixed bouquets are not only an edible but are beautiful and also lend that wonderful scent to the bouquet and that it’s one of your favorite materials to grow - your customer is going to get excited.

Get Chatting

If you have the opportunity to meet in person with your customers - such as at a farmer’s market or in a floral shop - my biggest advice is to get to chatting with your customers and be friendly.

Even if you’re not the most socially adept person, the more you talk with other people the more likely they are to like you. After all, if you keep putting your best foot forward and can show that you’re confident, very informed and very excited about your flowers, you’re going to transfer that emotion and feeling to your customers.

But more importantly, if you’re able to make that connection with someone else, they won’t be able to help themselves from connecting with you as well.

You’ve actually probably been on the opposite end of this. Think about when you last met a person and you had that almost instantaneous warm connection that draws you to them? They’re affable, they’re very likeable, and you can’t help but like them?

That’s what we’re aiming for.

And the best way to do that is to just be your lovely, likeable self.

Don’t be afraid to show off your charm, talk a bit about what makes you tick. And don’t be afraid to talk about your business or flowers either - after all, that’s why you’re there.

The Results of Believing In Yourself

So after you’ve gained confidence, are informative, are excited and are chatty, I promise you that you’ll notice a difference in the way that you interact with customers.

By being more sure of yourself, your business, your product and what you’re doing, you’re going to start exuding a different sort of energy, and people will take notice.

Back in the day, when I wasn’t really sure of the quality of our materials, I wasn’t able to talk as confidently - and as a result the business didn’t do as well as it could have (or should have). I sold our business short, not really believing that our material, our design work, our time and effort and creativity was worth what we were asking for.

As I gained more confidence over the years and started just seeing that we were growing excellent, high-quality floral material and that our design work was good enough to charge designer prices and that we were a small but mighty flower farm and business, we started to gain better clients - clients who also believed in us and our business and trusted us with our creativity and skill.

This changed the way we structured our business!

It allowed us to stop having to chase low-profit ventures and the wrong type of customers, and allowed for us to pursue the right ventures and right types of customers. We got more of our customers and clients to say “yes” to us, because we believed in ourselves.

An while this all seems a little “woo-woo” in some respects, I can tell you that once you gain that quiet, calm confidence about what you are doing, about the business you are creating and the things you are bringing to the world, it’s going to change things for you.

It did for me.

But it took me believing in what I was doing first.

Believe in what you’re doing.

And believe in yourself.