3 questions to ask if your consultative sales calls suck

3 questions to ask if your consultative sales calls suck

Are you consistently losing prospects you talk to, even though?know?you can help them?

This can be incredibly frustrating.

It’s frustrating, in part, because you feel like you’re letting these people down since they’ll probably keep keep struggling with the challenges that brought them to you in the first place.

And, let’s face it, it’s also frustrating because it’s costing you sales.

After leading dozens of?sales audits?for client-based companies, including several of the world’s best business coaching programs, I’ve picked up on some?incredibly common sales process mistakes.

When these sales process mistakes are corrected, they help 1-person consulting businesses as much as they do $100 million coaching programs.

Here are 3 questions to help determine if you or your team is making any these mistakes.

1: Are you selling broccoli, or chocolate?

Clients usually know what they?want.

But when you’ve consulted or coached for awhile, you learn that what clients?want?and what they?need?are often very different things.

Many consultants and coaches respond to this by trying to convince prospective clients to buy what they?need, which essentially means trying to convince someone to buy something they don’t?want.

That doesn’t work all that well.

A better approach is finding a way to market and sell to the symptoms our clients are experiencing, not necessarily the root cause of what’s causing them.

One of my recent clients, and a brilliant business coach,?Dan Martell?calls this offering chocolate broccoli.

To me, this is all about positioning your solution in such a way that prospects are able to buy what they want in order for us to deliver what they need.

I learned this the hard way with my?360o Sales Audit.

For more than a year I refused to call it a “sales audit” because we audit sales, as well as the key processes that?influence?sales, like the value proposition and marketing.

When I quit marketing a “growth system audit” and started marketing what people really wanted, it was a game changer.

So, the question to ask yourself is, are you selling chocolate or are you selling broccoli?

2: Are you talking about problems + solutions, or pains + emotions?

Most discovery calls are loaded with fact-based questions in order to qualify prospects.

  • What’s the size of company?
  • What are the problems they’re facing?
  • What’s their budget to solve those problems?
  • Where are they in the buying process
  • Who are the decision makers?
  • What are their expectations?
  • And so on...

Now, don’t get me wrong, this part of discovery is important. If they don’t have a problem you can solve, no one wins.

But people don’t decide to buy on logic alone. They decide to buy on emotion, and justify it with logic.

Which is why we need to invest as much time into unpacking their problems as we do the?pains?those problems are causing, and how that is making them?feel.

There’s a?big?difference between knowing someone wants to grow their business by 50%, and knowing they need to grow their business by 50% so they can retire their spouse, homeschool their children, and fulfill their lifelong dream of being location-independent.

It changes the conversation when you understand what they are trying to accomplish, and why that matters to them as a person.

Are you just scratching the surface when it comes to discovery?

3: Are your prospects talking to a stranger?

The success rate of your consultative sales process is?highly dependent on the effectiveness of the marketing that led them to talk to you in the first place.

Here’s why:

Consultative sales requires having the authority & credibility to offer a prescription that prospects will accept. And not many people are going to accept a prescription for anything of significance if they don’t know who you are.

In order to maximize your close rates, the process that leads them to book a call in the first place - AND - the process after they book the call should invite them to learn more about you.

Does your sales and marketing process try to get people to book a call immediately, or allow them to learn more about you and how you work first?

When they do book a call, are you sharing hard hitting content to engage with and testimonials before you talk to boost. your credibility?

Or are prospects getting on a call with a virtual stranger?

When this process is optimized, I’ve seen it double close rates, cut sales cycles in half, and give you a much better opportunity to close deals on the call.

More importantly, it frees you or your team up from having conversations with unqualified prospects or people that aren’t ready to be sold.

There you have it: 3 questions to help you diagnose your own sales (and marketing) process and improve the prices for everyone.

Resources mentioned:

//

Until next Tuesday, that’s a wrap.

Are you a consultant, fractional contractor, or coach that is tired of trying to figure it out on your own?

Or, are you an executive that's tired of spending all your time building someone else's dream?at the expense of building your?own?

Check out the free training I recently published to learn how to start winning great clients at rates you deserve from anywhere in the world?by?clicking here.

Otherwise, see you next week.

Adios,

Ray

??

Mal J. Smith

Founder, Chief Executive Servant at Victory Lab Micro-Clean | Delivering Enhanced Hygiene Management Solutions for Healthcare Environments, Airports, Foodservice and Class A Facilities | Impact Ventures Cohort V

2 年

[Chocolate]They "want" regular Janitorial Services. [Broccoli]They "need" Infection Prevention Services.

回复
Austin L. Church

Founder of Freelance Cake — Coaching, coworking, and community for advanced freelancers who want the growth without the burnout | Details in About ↓

2 年

I really like Dan Martell's "chocolate broccoli." I'll have to steal that (with proper attribution, of course). Sell people what they want then give them what they need. That way, you get the first sale and the second.

Shawn Buxton

500+ sales managers coached around the world / I mentor your sales manager so they can get your sales team engaged and build your business / Creator of the Sales Leader Trident?

2 年

This was ??????

Salina Yeung

??B2B Sales & Marketing Leader | ?? Welcome! My Philosophy: Whoever puts customers first wins | Maximizing Revenue Growth and Customer Success for SaaS ?? | LinkedIn Learning Instructor

2 年

Understand and find your customer’s pain points, you will be able to make a more effective and persuasive! ?When your solution to their problem is less painful than their current situation, then customers will invest in it.

Curt Sassak

I Help Mid-Life Professionals Figure Out What’s Next in Their Life or Career—Without Starting Over From Scratch I No Fluff I No Bullsh*t I Former Chef

2 年

I think I may have been guilty of the chocolate broccoli thing

要查看或添加评论,请登录

Ray J. Green的更多文章

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了