Inner Control Freak

‘How could these folks that were initially qualified and genuinely interested in our product, just not sign up for our free trial?’ I was banging my head against our office's wall.

It was January 2014. We had just launched the SaaS version of Whitetruffle. Our engineering team had spent the last 13 weeks on a development sprint; building features for our freemium model. I'd been tasked with finding a way to sell the shiny new toy. The sales model I was to design would have to be scalable if we were to reach the $1M ARR mark and land our A round.

I was dumbfounded that despite taking introductory calls with prospects who needed our product and hearing their enthusiasm, only about a third of them were converting to our credit card-activated free trial. After having qualified them and given them a brief verbal overview of our service, I'd conclude our intro call by saying, “Listen, this sounds like a fit. We should be able to help. Why don't you get started with your 14-day free trial? And we'll reach out to check in if need be. If you need anything, feel free to contact us. I'll send you a link for the free trial signup via email after we hang up here.”

The call would end. That was the last I'd hear from two-thirds of our qualified prospects. No free trial signup. Our funnel was a sieve, and I couldn't understand what was happening. For two to three weeks, I was in a fog, hemorrhaging opportunities.

I dug in. ‘How could I ensure that folks get started with these free trials? Yes, they were credit card-activated, but that didn't feel like enough friction to prevent them from acting on it.’

An idea finally came to me. What if I installed a call as a forcing function? An onboarding call where we'd ensure our prospects were signing on to free trials and properly set them up for success. We'd even call it an “Account Optimization Call” to sound valuable to our prospects and pitch them on getting their accounts optimized for value derivation in their 14 free days with us and beyond. Desperate to stop the bleeding, I moved quickly to put this new call in place.

The results were clear. We went from having one-third of our qualified prospects signing up for free trials to nearly all of them converting to these test drives. Our funnel leakage evaporated, and our sales were off to the races.

One funny thing happened. We'd still get one-third of prospects attending the account optimization call who hadn't entered their credit card and started their free trial. They'd apologize. I'd tell them, “No worries whatsoever. We've budgeted more than enough time here in our thirty minutes together. Feel free to get your credit card and sign up now. I'll then be able to take you through the platform and set you up for your 14-day free trial.” And without exception, they'd comply and get started. We now had a real backstop that was getting folks to do exactly what they needed to do.

Human beings don't do what they're supposed to do. Or even what's in their best interest.

A huge realization I had to accept thanks to this situation. Worth remembering both in sales and as we look at the world around us.

When a prospect is on that Zoom call with you, you're more than likely in or near the top 5 items of their priority list. Family, faith, friends, pets, in no particular order. And then you. They're giving you their undivided attention, after all. But immediately after you press “End” and leave the video call, you start slipping down their priority list. Your prospect's kids return from school with an at-home project due Monday. Or their dog gets a case of indigestion, which has them rushing to the vet. Their partner is nagging them about a chore they've been putting off. Forty-eight hours fly by, and you're down to #27 on their priority list.

Your job as a salesperson is to therefore control the sale. And make sure your prospect is staying on track towards closing a deal. What can you install in your sales process that ensures they'll stay in your funnel? Can you put together forcing functions that will keep them converting? Can you lead them with value so they can't help but follow you to a close?

Get in touch with your Inner Control Freak. Don't be afraid to lean into him/her, as you build out the sales process for your startup. Anytime I talk with clients and they are having a drop-off of some kind in their funnel, I ask myself and them, "What can we install as a forcing function to get folks to follow through on what they said they'd do?" A lot of times, that means putting a call in place with the expectation that a task will be accomplished by the time we start this upcoming conversation. Tighten those screws. Shrink these leakage points. Think about what would help your prospects get to the next step of your sales process. Adopt this mindset, and you'll likely get rewarded with a lot more revenue.