You Should Be Making More Sales Calls

What’s considered a sales call? 

For this article, we will consider any coffee chat, lunch date, Zoom meeting, networking interaction, or phone call you have with a potential client as a sales conversation/call. 
I prefer the word conversation over call. Discovery calls, consultation calls, connect calls, introductory calls, exploratory calls, strategy calls… 
At the end of the day, they are all conversations.
In my world, they are Heart Sell conversations. 
A Heart Sell conversation is, quite simply, an opportunity to build a relationship. You want people to get to know, like, trust, and understand you - and you want to know who they are and what they are struggling with. It’s an honest and genuine conversation to see if you can solve their problem, maybe even a problem they don’t know they have yet! 
That’s it. That’s the whole goal - discovering whether or not you can solve a problem for someone who wants it solved! You should never go into a conversation feeling pressure to make a sale. Sometimes sales calls end with sales! Sometimes they don’t. Relationships always transcend transactions. 

Do I still need to be making sales calls in today’s day and age?

A lot of business owners like to think that digital marketing is replacing their need for sales calls. 
If I just post on Instagram, that’ll build that know, like, trust, right?
If I connect with someone on LinkedIn, we’re on our way to building a relationship, aren’t we?
I would venture to say that in fact, the rise of digital marketing has given us more of a need to make personal connections, build 1:1 relationships, and conduct authentic sales calls outside of marketing platforms. 
Marketing is the inbound component of building your business, it is how people find you. Despite what the online gurus want you to believe, you don't have much control over the results of your marketing. Ideally, you have marketing metrics and data to make decisions and optimizations - but you don't have a formula for results. 
Sales is your outbound strategy, where you go out and find your people. As I mentioned at the beginning, it is not your customers' job to try to find you as the solution to their problems, it’s your job to find them and share your solutions with them. With the right approach, you can control the results of your sales. 
Sales has a formula for success. Q*Q=R. The quality of your audience, x the quantity of your sales activity = results! I have had private clients in all different industries use this formula successfully, and I teach this in The Heart Sell course.
Most women are spending 80% of their time on marketing and 20% on sales (if even that!). The key is to flip this on its head, spending 80% of time on sales, and just 20% on marketing. I know, what a relief, right? And yes, the process to do this is taught in the course! You can read more about the difference between sales and marketing here.

Why are we all so allergic to sales calls? 

Women come to me dreading sales calls because they don't want to feel “salesy”. They don't want to push something on someone if they don’t need or want it. These women care deeply for others and insist on doing exceptional work rooted in purpose. Ironically, the fear of damaging a relationship keeps them from embracing sales calls. This is why the relationship-driven Heart Sell approach works so well for them.
When you invite someone into a sales conversation from a place of authenticity, you are not selling them something they don’t need or want. You are walking them down a path to see if you can help them solve a problem they are ready to invest in solving. 
If you love what you do and who you do it for, sales needs to be heart-driven. That is where The Heart Sell comes in! You get to share your passion with people you would be excited to work with and build life-changing relationships. Everyone wins.

An authentic sales call structure makes it a lot easier! 

I’ve made it easy for you to have more authentic sales calls using my Heart Sell framework. I’m so passionate about this framework and its potential to exponentially grow your business and profits that I even wrote an entire book on it! 
There are 7 simple steps to follow in your sales conversations.
Let me walk you through them...

The Heart Sell - step by step.

Here’s the easy part! When you first meet with a new connection, be it a potential client, or a strategic partner, start with some small talk. It’s helpful if you’ve done a little research prior to your meeting and can bring up something that you may have in common. We all claim we don’t like small talk, but it’s a normal part of conversation when you’re getting to know someone. It helps to warm up the conversation and is an opportunity to create a personal connection.  

This part is important so don’t overlook it! Setting the agenda is where you share your intentions for the call. People love knowing that you’re in control and have a plan for how the conversation will go. There’s nothing worse than a Zoom call where both parties walk away feeling like it was a waste of time, or it ends because someone has to head off to their next meeting before you’ve even touched on the problem at hand. This happens when there’s no plan or flow in place to keep the conversation moving along and being productive. 
To set the agenda, you’ll put this in your own words: 
“So glad we were able to find time to get on a call today. My goal in the conversation is to get to know you, understand more about your background and what you’re doing now, as well as learn more about your projects and priorities for this year. I want you to give me the skinny!” 
Then, make sure to ask them what their goal is for the call too! 

Look at you! You’re already off to the races. See, I knew you’d be good at this. Ready to establish some outcomes for your call? 
At this point, you’ll transition from setting the agenda with something like this, “Great! It sounds like we have the same goals for the conversation. Typically what I find during these conversations is one of three things happens: 
● This is amazing and we found value. Either I’ve found value in you or you’ve found value in me. Because of that, one of us or both of us decide that we need the other’s services. ● We didn’t really find anything, but we got to know each other. Which is great! It’s just not right for us to work together or collaborate, right now. ● We’ve just begun to scratch the surface, and we need another conversation (if this is the outcome, you’ll want to book this meeting on the call together)”
Remember: be authentic and adapt this to fit your personality! 

In a sales context, profiling is the gathering of information about potential customers or clients in order to better understand their needs and preferences. Anything that will help you to better understand where they are at, what challenges they’re facing, and how you can meet their specific needs. 
There are three levels of profiling questions, sometimes you won’t make it to level three and that’s ok. If you don’t make it to level three, don’t pitch. 
You’ll only pitch if you 100% know you can solve their problem and they’re ready to make an investment in your solution. 
Level One: Open-Ended Questions The key to this authentic sales call structure!Here are some examples of open-ended questions you can start out with: 
Tell me everything… I’d love to know more about your business…What got you to where you are now…
Level Two: Questions Unique to What YOU DoUse their responses from level one and show you’re listening and care. 
Here are some examples of level two questions: 
What were you doing before you started this business? What challenges are you facing? Why is this business so important to you? What is keeping you up at night? 
Level Three: Understanding Urgency We want to know how important it is for them to solve their problem. 
Here are some examples of questions you might use: 
How have you tried to solve this problem prior to now? On a scale of 1-10, how big of a problem is this for you? Are you committed to solving this problem? Are you ready to invest in solving this problem?

Telling your story allows you to share your credentials and demonstrate how you walk the talk. When sharing your story, be concise and succinct, while also sharing vulnerability to create a foundation of trust. 
Make your story personal so they feel that after hearing it, they really got to know you! 

You’ll only summarize if you reached the third level of the profiling questions. This might sound like: “I appreciate you taking the time to have this call with me today. Based on what you shared with me, this is what I heard… 
● X is important to you● You’d love to have more/do less X● This is important because X isn’t working because 
I think I may be able to help you with some of that! Do you mind if I share my thoughts/solutions with you?”

If they say yes, it’s time for the one and only part of this conversation that’s really considered classical “sales” at all! 
You make an offer. Be as specific as possible and offer deliverables, timeline, and a price. 
It might sound like, “This is how you can work with me…” or “I work with my clients one of X ways.” 
Putting it all together with deliverables, timeline, and a price, you might say, “You can work with me 1:1 or in a group. The timeline is either 6 months or a year and the price point ranges from $10K-$25K.”
Then, are you ready for the hardest part of the entire call so far!?  
After you give them the deliverables, timeline, and price, keep quiet. Just wait. Let them respond and ask any questions they have, and then address those as they come up. 
No matter what happens at the end of the conversation, you can walk away feeling that you did your very best, led from the heart, and were authentic every step of the way. 

Ready to take your business to the next level?