Over the last few weeks, I’ve been sharing with you a lot of tools about successful enrollment conversation – because you can have the BEST marketing or referrals EVER, but if you don’t know how to have powerful sales conversations, none of that matters.
You need to master sales calls in order to make those sales.
Through the years, I’ve seen a lot of sales “mistakes” made by amazing entrepreneurs (myself included!) – mistakes that can cost you conversions, cost you potential income, and keep you from making the impact you’re meant to make.
Here are a few of the most common “no-no”s I see:
1. Don’t be afraid to sit with your prospect in her shadows
In order to have an effective and successful sales call, you need to be able to help your prospect see what isn’t working so well for her. Sometimes this means really holding sacred space for her to clearly see some “icky” or painful stuff – the shadows, the obstacles, the fears, the frustrations..
I know this can be challenging. Maybe you don’t want your prospect to get depressed or you don’t feel comfortable holding space for not-so-pretty things.
To be clear: I’m not talking about stewing in the shadows with your prospect or stirring up things so sad that she’ll want to get off the phone. And I’m not talking about playing with your prospect’s emotions for the sake of making a sale.
But what I am talking about is giving your prospect the very sacred and transformative opportunity to really see what’s not working for her, how it feels to be in this pattern day in and day out, and to really connect with WHY she wants support to move out of it. The more you can get comfortable with doing this, and sit with your prospect in her shadows for just a little bit, the more trust and rapport you will create with her, and the closer she will be to seeing how valuable support from you would be.
2. Don’t be attached to outcome
We hear the phrase “non-attachment to outcome” all the time, but what does it really mean, and why is it so important in sales calls?
If you’re attached to outcome, it means that you are making up a story about your future success, or what will happen to you or your business based on whether or not your prospect invests with you or not. Being attached to outcome is a surefire way to sabotage the sales process because you will feel desperate. Because that story you’re making up about the outcome is fear-based.
When you’re not attached to outcome, it doesn’t mean that you don’t REALLY want to make the sale. Of course you do! But what it does mean is that you’re not making up any stories about your future success or worth or well-being based on whether or not you make this one sale. And if you’re not making up any stories, then you’re free to be the true, confident and wise leader of the sales conversation.
3. Don’t be casual (or too professional)
One of the biggest mistakes I see has to do with the rapport you’re creating with your prospect. If you are too casual, and come to the enrollment process that way, you will not be able to hold the container for the sales conversation, cease to lead your prospect through a process, and things can become very loose-y goose-y & non-committal with your prospect enjoying the conversation but not really being willing to commit to anything.
At the same time, you also don’t want to show up with an energy or air of “I-am-very-professional-and-this-is-going-to-be-a-tight-and-scripted-conversation.” If you show up this way, your prospect will not feel seen & heard, will feel constricted and you won’t really create an intimate bond or the feeling of trust that is needed to make a sale.
Instead, you want to find that sweet spot where you show up for the enrollment process with an energy of warmth and excitement, balanced with a sense of leadership and spacious control. This is the BEST combination to lead your prospect to invest with you.
4. Don’t let your money story mingle with your prospect’s money story
This one is a doozy. I know because I’ve been there. Picture this: you’ve led a beautiful sales process with an ideal prospect and you come to the end of the process where you are discussing investment. And then everything goes bad. Your prospect tells you how much she really wants to work with you, but it just feels like so much money to spend.
You freeze. And maybe get a little scared. After all, it IS a sizeable investment. And you don’t want to be pushy. So you tell her, “No worries. I totally understand. Maybe we can reconnect another time.” And you get off the phone feeling depressed, knowing you just let an ideal client pass you by.
This happened because you let your money story mingle with your prospect’s money story, instead of standing strong for your prospect and what she really wants for herself (results she’ll be able to create with your support).
In order to stop your money story from mingling with your prospect’s money story, two things need to be in place internally for you:
- you need to really believe in the value you deliver and the ways it will impact your prospect,
- you need to trust that as the leader of the sales conversation, your job is to stand for that value – without being pushy – but with full integrity.
(Now, of course there are some instances when a prospect truly isn’t in a financial position to invest in working with you. In those cases, the ethical thing to do is to not continue to make the sale and hold the door open for when the timing is right.)
I hope these 4 Sales tips were helpful!
