072: Sales Call Tips for Consultants Who Are Done Winging It

Renee: Okay, quick question for you. Have you ever gotten on a call, you know, you did the nice intro, you were warm, you were friendly, you asked a question like, "So tell me what's going on in your business right now." I'm already laughing, sorry. And they started talking, and talking, and 10 minutes later, they're still talking.

And suddenly you're like, "Wait, where is this going? Is this a therapy session or a discovery call? How do I get this back on track without sounding awkward or rude?" Uh, yeah.

If you've ever had a sales call that went completely off the rails after minute five, this episode is for you. Welcome back to the Selling Your Expertise podcast. I'm your host, Renee Hribar, sales coach, TEDx Renee, author. I even wrote the book called Selling Your Expertise.

People like it. So if you want your copy, go to askmecoach.com for that and all the other cool ways that we can hang out way beyond this podcast. But ultimately, what I want you to think about today is not just about the sales call, but about the whole process, right?

Like, on today's episode, I want, yes, to fix your sales calls, but not by giving you a script to memorize. I'm gonna say that again. Not by giving you a script, but by showing you why sales calls fall apart in the first place. So as you know, I love working with my clients, whether that's my private clients or clients in my group program.

I was reviewing a very specific scenario just like this recently. Now, this person knows her stuff. She connects, she gets on calls, people love her. Like, she is dynamic.

But her sales calls, she had, like, I don't know, six over the course of a month, they weren't converting, and that was not normal. So here's what we did, and again, tell me if this sounds familiar. Nod along with me. Uh, she was saying, you know, "I ask them what's going on in their business, and they kind of ramble, and then I don't know what to ask next."

Now granted, she was pivoting, so she had gotten super confident and clear and structured in what she had been doing, but she wanted to start doing something else, so her ideal client avatar shifted. So with those symptoms that I just shared with you, "I ask them what's going on in their business, they kind of ramble, and then I don't know what to ask next," that was a structural problem. So it's structural. Can I get that word out?

Structural. Why am I saying that weird? It's like when you say pants too many times in a row. Pants, pants, pants.

Starts to lose its meaning. Okay, structural problem. So if you're saying that to yourself, or you've said that to yourself like, "Huh, I'm asking them what's going on, and then they go on and on and on, and they ramble, ramble, ramble, and then I don't even know... I'm lost in the conversation.

I don't even know where to go next," I want you to breathe because that is an easy fix, my friend. So if this resonates with you, keep listening. Okay, the real issue was that she was asking open curiosity questions without a destination, so the conversation became interesting, friendly, and totally unproductive. Kind of like those coffee chats.

"Oh, let's have a coffee chat." "Okay, for what?" "What are we gonna have coffee over?" "What do you mean?

What are we talking about? We catching up? Did we go to high school together? What are you talking about?"

What's the goal here? What's the focus? I only have so many hours in the day. Tick-tock, tick-tock.

So it's kinda like, again, I grew up in New York, so getting a taxi was something pretty common, but I would have never in a billion years been like, " Hey, taxi cab driver, just drive around. I'll tell you if I see something I like and need you to stop." No. No.

Then you're just burning money, and time is money. We need a destination. So after coaching thousands of women, I see a very clear pattern. Most are missing three key pieces on the sales call.

You ready? Let's fix it. So I'm laughing because I'm thinking about the conversations I've had and all the ways they go sideways, and genuinely I'm laughing because it's not serious. If you have this problem, it is a good problem to have.

It is not hard to fix, and it's not, I can't say it enough, a script. One of my coaches, for years she was like, "You should just sell scripts." I'm like, I- their scripts are useless because you have to learn to, A, say it from your space, from your heart, from who you are. It can't just be, you know, there's no magic words is the point, right?

It can't just be something I think is a good idea. You have to think it's a good idea, otherwise it's not gonna come out right. So we have got three missing key pieces. Piece number one, stop leading with your story only.

So this particular client that I was working with- She's amazing. Like, degree from Columbia, worked with marketing companies that you would recognize the name of as when they were, like, in the garage, right, startup-wise. Has worked with nonprofits, like, has a beautiful tras- like, reason why she does what she does. But it's so...

It's a lot, right? It's a lot. We all have long stories. We all have a lot going on.

We all have complex histories and amazing things that we can hang our hat on that got us here today. But it was so long that what we ended up doing is shifting it to an email that she sended. She sended. Wow, I'm doing real good today.

She sent before the call even started. So it was just one of the confirmation emails, and honestly, that made all the difference. People actually read it. Now, to be honest,it was...

This is all facts that they could have Googled, looked at her LinkedIn profile, her website. I mean, it was all there. But we curated it into a beautifully written, because she's also a phenomenal writer, email that was just confirming the call that they were going to have anyway. So we just cut out, like, five minutes already of her sales call, and we were able to get right to the quick.

So now her call starts with, " you know, my goal for this call is to get the full picture." I always like to start with the goal. Like, the goal for this call is what? my goal for this call is to get the full picture so that I can give you my best advice.

Hmm, that's different than maybe what you've been saying, because you might have been saying, "Hey, what do you need in your business?" And that feels like you're an order taker. And I don't care what you do for a living, you're not an order taker. You're bringing your strategy to the table.

You're probably just giving it away for free, and therefore, you're battling against, goodness gracious, business coaches, masterminds. "This one guy I met at a conference said..." "This thing on Instagram told me..." Okay, well, that's irrelevant, because I'm bringing you the best strategy, and I'm gonna be able to do it for you.

That's what I want you to say. But not here. So her whole intro is, "The goal for this call is..." And I'm suggesting, and I did to her, to get the full picture so that I can give you my best advice, even if it's not me."

Now, that part is something I do like to say, because at this point, I want you to say this out loud to yourself, " Just because I'm on the call with this person does not mean I have to make them an offer." Like, this is, yes, a sales call, and yes, we want it to convert if they answer correctly, if they give us green flags, not red flags. You know what I mean? So I just wanna say, even at this point, even if you've invited them to a sales call so that you can understand what they need, you still do not have to make them an offer.

So it's easy to get out of these calls. If you need help with that's another episode. But the point is, now we're on the call, we wanna make it easy, we wanna make it clean, not go off rails. So we shortened up the whole intro, put it in an email, and when she starts the call, she starts with, "The goal of this call is so that I can...

I'm going to have some questions for you based on what you shared on the form." You probably have a form that you have people fill out. If not, it's a good idea. Again, happens before the call, so we don't have to wonder or wait or hope or sweat from our eyeballs about, "Oh my gosh, what's gonna happen on this call?"

I am not a gambler, and I do not want sales to be or feel like it's a gamble for you. So shrinking down for the first five minutes of the call and zeroing it in. So the goal for this call, because of this reason, I have questions. This is what I'm focused on.

Great. That's it. Done. So that is a big difference, to stop leading with your big, long story and get right to why you're on this call, what your intention is, and what framing, what your questions are gonna be about, so that you're not just asking, "So tell me everything."

So it's not only gonna focus you, but it's gonna focus them. Okay. Second key missing piece that I see all the time is the first question is too vague. You hear me say this all the time about offers, right?

Time-bound and specific. Well, that's really a through line for almost everything. So she asks, "What's going on in your business over the next few months?" And what do people say?

"I don't know. Just trying to get through the day. Everything is kinda weird right now," or, "I think I might launch," or, "I, you know, I have a lot of goals," and of course they do. Of course they do.

That question's way too big. So if I want to ask a big question, I need to frame it. It needs to have bookends. It needs to be contained.

So if you've ever watched the, like, Law & Order or any of those, like, legal show, like Ally McBeal. Okay, am I speaking your language? If not, look it up, friends. Point is, if you've ever watched shows where lawyers go into court...

Now, I know this is fictional, but ultimately, I'm speaking to the masses here. The judge says, "You can't ask that question. That's leading the witness." Well- We do want to lead the witness.

If the witness is the person on the other side of this call and you're the lawyer, we need to ask questions in such a way that we get the answer we need so that the person is revealing things, but also feeling understood and seen. And here's the thing about asking questions. Nobody wants to answer any question wrong, even in this scenario. They don't wanna get it wrong.

So you wanna lead the witness, and the framework that I use, which I've talked about before, is statement, question. For example, " I went to this ice cream shop the other day. They didn't have my favorite flavor, butter pecan, but I tried a new one, and I had never tried this combination before. It had vanilla, it had chocolate, it had walnuts, it had caramel.

It was amazing. It was like a turtle... One of those turtle you know, nut chocolate bars that you get, but in ice cream form. I couldn't believe it.

What's your favorite ice cream?" So it's a little bit easier to answer that question. I went a little overboard 'cause I also really like ice cream. Um, but the point is it's easier to answer that question when you have the first two statements beforehand.

Anyway, point is this: if you're like, "What are you gonna do in the next few months? What do you think?" They're not gonna be able to give you the right answer. It's way too big.

Here's the third key missing piece that I see on most sales calls. It's just not even there. I want you to be the Sherpa, and this is a big one. Guide them.

They probably haven't been on a call like this in a while either. I mean, if you're a web designer or a bookkeeper or a strategist or an OBM or a fractional, they're probably not getting, like, three quotes from equivalent people. Like, when I got a new roof, my dad's like, "Get three quotes." I didn't get three quotes.

I just went with the first one I talked to. Maybe I paid over. I don't know. I don't got that kind of time to go get three quotes.

Point is this, is that they probably don't either because we're human. maybe they don't. Bottom line is they're probably not that skilled in being a good customer either, so you can't expect them to connect all the dots and be able to perfectly verbalize exactly what they mean the way you need to hear it. It's exhausting just thinking about it.

So Sherpa them. Be the Sherpa. Be the one that guides them across the ravine so that they can give you what you need, so that you can determine if you're going to even make them an offer or not. So right now, your call might sound like question, ramble, random follow-up Panic internally.

So yeah, we're not doing that anymore. Because I want you to, like, think of your call as, like, a house tour. We've been doing a lot of house touring lately 'cause we're looking for a new home, and I wouldn't want the person who's giving me this tour to be like, "All right, here's..." Unlocks the door.

"Here you go. Just walk around. Tell me what you think." And there are people that do that.

It's not wrong, I guess. They're not gonna, like, go to jail for it, but they're not probably gonna have that good of a conversion rate at all, and if they do, they're still missing the biggest opportunity, which is to be the trusted advisor, to guide them. So instead, if I was touring... If I was giving you a tour of the house that I wanted to sell you, I would say, "Let me show you the kitchen first.

See? Look at this built-in sink. Look at that amazing kitchen island. See how it flows right into the living room?

I mean, right there, that is where I'd put the Christmas tree. I mean, that mantle was just made to hang the stockings on. Now imagine hosting here. Imagine having your family come over, and everyone's hugging, and they get to see the twinkle lights.

Like, that's what this house was made for." You see that? Like, you wanna buy the house now. You haven't even seen it yet.

I know I do. So it's the same thing on a sales call. You wanna bring them in and help give them a tour. Like, "Let me help you see what's possible.

Let me help you imagine what a different reality could look like." Because as I'm explaining this futuristic potential family gathering to this person who's looking at a house, There's no furniture in the house. There's no Christmas tree, for certain. There's nothing cooking in the oven.

there is no one else there but us, but yet this person is now seeing the future and the potential and wants more of it. Okay, back to my client with her broken-ass sales calls. Oops, sorry. With her broken sales calls.

She kept saying, other people have more authority than me, but Renee, you don't understand. They've got more proven success stories than me. I said already, she was pivoting, yes, but she wasn't new in business. She had just shifted her ideal client avatar.

So on calls, she was asking vague questions. She'd get vague answers because she asked vague questions. And then she'd, the worst part was she was stressing out and trying to figure it all out and piece it together like live on the call. Ooh, that's, no, don't, please, don't do that.

So once we developed her structure that made sense for her business based on the hundreds of thousands of sales calls I've been on and have coached people through, I mean, I was telling somebody the other day, like, they were asking me how long I've been doing this. I'm like, 30 years? A long time. I was 21 when I had my first ever sales job that I was out there literally hitting the pavement, business to business, streets of Manhattan, and then upstate New York, and then down to Atlanta, and then throughout the country, finally landing in Detroit.

So yes, if I wasn't in the field, I was coaching my team to go in the field. And that was for years and years. And ultimately, it has always served me to do the things I'm sharing with you. So I said to you, I'm not going to give you a script.

I gave you some key pointers because there are key missing pieces. But the reality is what I want you to take away from this is we developed her structure that made sense for her business based on my frameworks. And when we did that, guess what happened? Her calls didn't just feel better.

The most important thing happened. They converted. And not just, oh, I made the money, yay. They converted into great ideal clients for her.

That's the difference. Because if I just hand you a script, then you're putting the power in that script. It's not. It's always going to be in the relationship that you create.

But that script, if it's curated and structured to make sense for you, then it's not a script anymore. It's just what you do. It's what you say. And again, I want to make this super practical for you.

So if you ever feel yourself going off track, here's a pocket phrase. I love pocket phrases. This is a pocket phrase. Just say this.

Can we pause for a second? Let me repeat what I'm hearing you say because I want to make sure I'm understanding you correctly. And then repeat back what you just heard and say, is that the full picture or is there more? That one framing will save you every time.

it reminds me of the advice I give my child. I'm like, "Listen, if you're ever anywhere, and you don't wanna be there, and something weird is happening, and you just need to excuse yourself, just go to the bathroom. No one will follow you in there. Lock the door.

No one will ask. Run the water. Flush the toilet." Just sometimes you need to give yourself a little bit of space.

This pocket phrase will give you that same type of space. I hope you're nodding along with me because honestly, that was the advice I got, and I loved it. Okay, so here are your action steps for the week. I've made some funny analogies.

I hope you've laughed along with me. it's very simple. I want you, on your next client call, draft out the questions you intend to ask before the call. Right there, just that alone will help you own this, right?

Like embody this versus just getting a script. Using these steps. And practice that reset line, right? "Can we pause for a second?

Let me repeat back to you what I'm hearing you say, because I wanna make sure I'm understanding you correctly," and then repeat everything back and say, "Is that the full picture, or is there more?" Or, "Am I understanding that correctly?" Again, that one line, that one phrase will save you every time. That's it.

Just this. That's your homework. The next time you're on a call, outline the questions you're gonna ask, and keep that pocket phrase right in your pocket. And if you're ready and want more up at bats, right, more sales calls, then head over to episode 55, where I go through, in detail, how to book three calls in the next seven days.

So before you hear this podcast drop again, you could be on three more calls just like that. And if you're listening to this thinking, "Okay, I need help actually practicing this in real conversations," then head over to askmecoach.com. That's A-S-K-M-E-C-O-A-C-H.

com. That's where I share the best ways to work with me to get this kind of real, practical support, whether it's private work or one of the group programs or one of my courses, and actually turn this into something you can use for your business with your personality, with who you are. You do not need to be someone else to close more, to get more. Um, you just need to be yourself.

But that is a hard ask sometimes. So I love what I do, and I get to do it every day, and thank you for listening. And of course, I would love to hear more from you. If you have more questions, go to askmecoach.

com. But all right, go have better conversations this week. Not just more calls, but better calls. Have a great week, and I will see you next time.