How to Successfully Close a Sales Call (even if you hate sales)

Hello, hello. So today we're going to talk about everybody's favorite part of the sales process, which is closing sales calls. Before we dive into actually how to do that more effectively, which turns out is not as complicated as you think it is. I'm going to remind you of a couple of quick things first, if you're not in my Facebook group, please come play with us. It's called uncomplicated business for teachers, helpers and givers just like this podcast and if you listen to this, then the group is for you. 

Trust me. It's a wonderful community. People tell me all the time how welcome they feel and connected and we talk to each other and we help each other and it's that's what it's for. So come play with us to at the end of October, the first week in November, I am rerunning the simple way to close to make three plus offers a day 15 Day Challenge. If you are someone who wants to be making more offers and invitations and telling more people what you do this is for you. It starts with a live workshop. It has 15 days of email, follow up and access to me with it. And the whole thing is $23 it is the best $23 you'll ever spend. 

Because if you make all the offers, and people say yes, you'll make it back in a hot minute most people do. It really is a super useful little tiny challenge that, you know, we'll have you think we'll have you think differently about how you sell and make offers. And you'll just feel better about the whole thing, because we're going to take out the worry about being salesy. We're going to take out all the drama. And then the last thing is, the next round of small group coaching got pushed back a little bit. We are now going to start the first week in November, this 2023.

 If small group coaching is for you, and you're like man, I want to be in community, but I want to have my problems addressed. That's what we do. They're always capped at four and you should come hang out with us because it really is an amazing version of coaching, especially if coaching is something it's totally new to you. It is building you a community of connections and of people who have similar problems and are working through the same things, but not exactly the same things. So you get to get help with your problems and learn but also learn from what other people are doing and get coached in. Man, it makes a huge difference. 

So calm reach out if that is for you. Okay, let's talk about closing sales calls. So if you are someone who has sales calls, and always feels like you spend the last chunk of time, like in a panic, like do you spend, this was me, this is my version of it, you spend the last 15 minutes like trying not to freak out and trying to say what you're mean to say. And like dreading the part where somebody's like, well, how much is it? And how does it work? And you're like, oh by, do you find that you run a run out of time on sales calls, because maybe you're avoiding that part of them you talk and chat and have so much fun that you don't get to the part where you actually sell?

 Do you find that you have a great first half of a sales call and then you get to the second half and you like feel fumbling and you don't know what to do and they walk away thinking like you made the whole thing you mess the whole thing up like you turn to yes to a maybe or a yes to a No, listen, I get it because a I've been there and be I see it with clients all the time. This is something new clients in particular bring to me constantly like they're having sales calls in, they're not ending in the place people want them to, which is you know, with new clients. This is something we coach on and coaching. And we resolve really quickly. That's the good news. 

The good news is for the vast majority of the time, this isn't something that needs to follow you around for a year. This isn't something you need to practice for a year to fix. There's nothing wrong with you. There's just some simple things to adjust. And in closing sales calls gets a hell of a lot easier. So for you today, as we walk into talking about closing sales calls, remember, in like a podcast episode with me and anything I do, you're gonna walk away and think which parts of this were for me, because maybe it's all for you. And you're like, Yes, this is exactly what I need. But maybe there's two things out of five here that you need to do, you're gonna take, take what works for you. Don't take things that don't feel like you. 

That's the whole point. We only do the things that actually feel like us. Okay, so in successfully closing sales calls, okay, particularly if you're like, Oh, I hate sales. I'm not good at it. I don't enjoy it. I don't feel good. I don't like feeling salesy. You know, all the things in closing sales calls especially if you are like that and you're you know, to people first you are service first I just want to help them I don't want to sell them again it. The first thing to do is define what success in your sales calls is. Because here's the thing, you're probably working on a definition of success in sales calls, that is someone else has provided you. 

For me, I know that the ABC version of success in a sales call is whoever I talk to says Yes, before we get off the call. And that is not my definition. A successful sales call is not defined by a yes or no for me. And I had to realize that it could be different, that I did not have to define success, as somebody said, Yes, within an hour to you know, what could be 1000, you know, five $6,000 worth of something, which could be the biggest amount of money they've ever spent on themselves, or their business in their entire lives. Like, that felt really gross to me, and I don't make decisions like that at that speed. So I have a really hard time asking other people to and then it was like, okay, so if yes, on the call is not success, what is success? For me? 

Success on a sales call is someone who goes, Oh, my gosh, you really understand? Oh, my gosh, that's exactly what I need. Holy cow. I've never heard it. Put it like that. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. That is a successful sales call, no matter what happens after that, for me, that the person on the other side of the call felt seen and heard and understood, is enough. So for you, what do you define success on a sales call? AS IS IT person said, yes, they paid you money? Is it they felt seen and heard? Is it that you were able to tell them what they needed an effective way? Is it something else? Right? Is it that you were effectively able to say, here's what I have for you? And maybe we're not a good fit? I don't know. But it doesn't have to be person said yes. On that call. 

This doesn't have to be the high pressure version of sales that so many of us are taught. It's not ABC, it's avg. And for me, the giving version of this is somebody felt seen and heard period. So my sales calls, that's when I'm like, Yes, that was a great call. I had a great sales call last week on Friday. And she was like, Oh, my God, this was so helpful. Listen, she may or may not become a client. But she walked away feeling really served was enough. I think she's going to come back. But if she doesn't, I'm still okay with that. Because I feel like the call was really useful for her. And for me, period. That's it. 

The second part of a successful sales call, getting better at successfully closing sales and making them yours, right, is to decide to be a human about it. Honestly, for me, I know basically what I'm going to ask people when I get on a call with a stranger, like, tell me how you got where you are, tell me where you're trying to go? Tell me what's in the way. Right. And I say that right out the front. And those are the questions I'm going to ask, those are the things we're going to talk about, that's fine. But like we talk about kids, we talk about dogs, we laugh, we like make side jokes, we get on tangents, that's fine. I come to calls that are even formal sales calls. 

As a human first, as a person who is curious about this other person on the other side of the call, or the other side of the meaning or the other side of the interaction, decide to be a human first. If you are human first and you are connecting first and you are curious first. So often the sales take care of themselves. We're like, well, but if we don't have this very defined process of like, figuring out the objection, figuring out the issue, diagnosing it correctly, building a vision, all of these things, we feel like if we don't do those things in this order, every time perfectly, it's never gonna work. I have gotten a billion times more sales out of showing up and being a person and being curious and asking questions than I have out of having a very like bookended process, a very like this, and then this and then this, and then this that I have to take them through. 

You can't just show up and be yourself. And then work on trusting that at a certain point, you know, usually about halfway through for me, I say, Okay, here's what I'm hearing and here's what I think. Here's how I could be of help to you. And then we talk about that. That's it. And then I say, Okay, what questions do you have for me? And inevitably, if they're curious about working together, they'll say, Okay, how does coaching work with you?

But, you know, there was a I had a call last week that wasn't actually a sales call. It was just a Kinect. And I said to her, you know, about 15 minutes before the end, I said, this was the great, you know, how can I be of help to you? Like, what can I do for you today? That would be useful, because like, that's something I always ask people on connects, when she said, what's it tell me about coaching with you? If we have time? I was like, Oh, well, okay, here's how it worked and explained it. And she then she said, Okay, you know, I'm gonna think about it. And off she went. And today, she's a client, that was, you know, not a week ago, I didn't sell her anything I just showed up, you can just show up. And then trust your process and herself. 

The next part of this is that it is okay to have some steps. Like I just told you, my steps are basically show up, ask them how they got, where they are, where they're trying to go, and what's in the way. At some point in listening to that, I say, Okay, here's what I hear. And here's what I think I can do to help you. And then I asked them what questions they have for me. That's my steps. That's how the call goes. 

That's the whole thing. Like that's it. And so, know your process. What is your sound like in your business? For what you do? What do you need to know from them? What do you share back? What do they need to hear from you? And then, you know, what can you leave in their hands? I think the hardest part of closing sales calls for me to learn was to shut up. But I tell this to clients all the time, I say to people, what questions do you have for me, and then I close my mouth, you can, you can't see, unless you're watching a video, I'm like making the zip your lips movement, because then I have to wait for them to say, hey, tell me more about coaching, or how much does it cost or whatever, I'm not going to just throw that information at people unless they want it. 

So I will sit there and I'm like any good teacher, I use my wait time, people will ask if they are ready, you can be patient. But the other thing is, you know, we have to respect the process of a sales call, in that, we have to leave time for it to exist. So if you have an hour scheduled and you spend 55 minutes on the connecting, and none on the sales part, you're not actually respecting the process. You're sideswiping it you're you're skipping the part that makes you uncomfortable. And that's not helping them. 

So for me about halfway through, I make sure to say okay, here's what I'm hearing, here's what I think would be helpful. What do you think? What do you think of that? Because it's my job. If somebody says, hey, I want to have a sales call to actually, you know, treat them with the respect of that. If I spend 55 minutes just hearing their story, I'm disrespecting their time. And I don't want to do that. I want to be aware of it, I want to treat it as the gift it is. And so I'm not going to Sideswipe the process. I'm not going to hide from the sales process, because they asked me to engage in it.

 Right? If it's just a straight connect, I'm not going to say to people, okay, now here's what I think you'd even sell to them because they didn't ask me for that. But if someone schedules a sales call, I'm going to respect what they scheduled. And that's, that's important. Like, I'm not going to Sideswipe the process and be like, Oh, we can't tell you gotta call. Here's how the sales works. 

Gotta go call it call me if you want me that I have done that. We've all done that. Everybody admits to that. Because it's scary, right? Because if you respect the process, then it is possible that someone tells you no. And so when we avoid steps in the sales process, when we avoid closing a sales call altogether, it is often because we don't want to hear no. But that's part of the process. Not everybody's going to be a yes. And that's okay. Not everybody is going to be yes, in that moment. That's also okay. But if we don't even allow the process to work if we skip the process ahead, so that we can't possibly hear no, we also don't get to hear yes. And we get to hear yes less, because we didn't respect the process.

 So, you know, that's, that's important. If you're not creating the time to have a sales process on the call, because you're afraid you are doing your person a disservice. That's just what it is. So are you creating space to to honor the process of hearing them, telling them what would be helpful and then, you know, hearing their thoughts? That's really all it is. And maybe they're gonna be like, oh, you know what, I don't think you do get it. That's okay. 

Some people aren't on a sales call for the right reasons. Sometimes you don't get it. Sometimes you're not a good fit. I've said to people, listen, I think I get where you're going. I think I understand what you're asking and That's not really what I do. Here's how it would work with me. And then sometimes they say, oh, you know what, I'd really liked that. And sometimes they go, no, not what I'm looking for. That's fine. It's okay. If that happens, you're not a terrible person, you didn't screw it up. I mean, the, the ABC sales world would be like, You fucked us up. You didn't, you're great. You were respectful of the process. And the person if you say, 

You know what, I don't know, if this is a fit for us. You're, you're you're believing in the human first, that's bringing your human self. That's okay. You're allowed to do that. So, know your steps, respect the process. Okay. Also know your people. So like, I have coach friends, who when people schedule calls, they you know, most of the time are ready to say yes, on the call. Because they've been coached really often. They, you know, this is a level up and they're coaching, it's a higher price program, whatever it is. And then I am me, like, the vast majority of my people that come to me for coaching, don't want to say yes, in the moment.

 That's not how they work as humans, teachers, like over research and consider a need a little time to think that's fine, I'm totally down with that. I'm the same. So like, know, your people, don't expect them to do something, don't measure success on something they're not probably going to do that way. I have a friend who she has people she does assessments and then writes contracts, right? The vast majority of her people take a month to decide we have tracked it. 

But you know, for a long time, she was like, oh my god, nothing's ever gonna work. It takes them a month to decide. But four years into our business, we just know it takes people a month to decide. And you know, 70% come back and say, yes, it just takes a month. They have to think about things, they have to talk to a couple people, they have to figure out the money, they have to do all these steps, they often come back to her with questions. It takes time. That's okay. If you're someone who's writing larger contracts with corporations, if you have corporate clients, if you have all these other things, those steps take time, they're not going to be yes, that moment, write you a check. 

Most of the time, know your people know their process, and then set yourself up for success by knowing that ahead. Like don't expect to yes on a call if they can't give it to you. Right, then the person who's miserable is the person who had an expectation that couldn't ever have been met. You're torturing yourself at that point. That sucks. So know your people, what do they need? To say? Yes, in what kind of timescale do they need? I generally, if somebody says, okay, you know what, I need some time to think I say to them, okay, when do you want to talk in the next week for just check in 15 minutes, because I also know my people, in that if they wander off, and they get three weeks, they're gonna lose momentum and forget. 

So you know, I try to help people make a decision within a week or so. Because otherwise it just feels like an unclosed loop in their brain. And that's not good for any of us. And I tell people that I said to the person Friday, listen, she said, When do you need to know I said, I don't ever need to know, you need to make a decision. That's up to you. But I find the longer it lingers for people, the harder it becomes. So if we could talk within a week, that'd be great. And she totally got that. Like, I'm not weird about it. She wasn't weird about it, it was totally fine. The last thing I would say is, it is important for you to be aware of your thoughts about time as you go into a sales call. I for a long time, felt they were like little ticking time bombs, and I'd be watching the clock. And so like I had to really shift how I feel about time in a sales call. 

Because the entire time I was like watching the clock watching time, like slip away, and running out of time to like, make my pitch and do my things. And I was like it made me a nut. And then people were like, Ah, she's weird. And they don't want to say yes to that. Nobody wants to say yes to somebody who's like, Okay, are you done talking yet? So I can tell you my part. Like that's not helpful for anyone. 

So if you have thoughts about the time on a sales call, if the time makes you panic, if the selling part makes you panic, if you are not going in sort of feeling calm and collected and sitting back in your chair, think about what's causing that. And in what you want to think differently, because that is a little bit of mindset work. I had to do it from a time perspective for me. Everybody's got a little bit like I have a client recently who, you know, she worries what that they're thinking that she doesn't know what she's talking about. So we're spending time really sitting sitting down and her expertise and Thinking about her value and like pulling examples from work she's doing so that she can go into sales calls and be like, no, no, I got it. I got you. And and feel, you know, really strongly like, people are going she's going to be helping people she's coming in as an expert. That's fine. 

That was her version of my time issue for you, what's your version? And then what do you want to think differently, and if you need help, like reach out, this is what we do. So friends successfully, so closing sales calls, does not have to be defined by Yes, in the moment in 45 minutes, you don't have to high pressure people closing with success is defined by you. So write your own definition. And if you need help reach out. 

Remember that if you haven't joined the Facebook group, you should, if you're looking to make more offers, the challenge is coming and I can the signup link is in the notes for this. And if you are interested in group coaching, now is the time come to the website, book a time to talk. Like I will check you'll get to see this sales process in action. But then on group coaching calls, it's like okay, tell me what you're thinking. And, you know, tell me, tell me how you think group will serve you let's see what you're trying to work on and see if it's a good fit. 

That's it like literally come and have a sales call. Because as I told you, for me, it's not about us on the call. It's for me, it's about you being seen and heard. So want to do that. Want to practice that want to see an example of that complaint. I'm happy to do that with you. If you have questions, always reach out and until then I'll see you next week.