The Real Job of a Sales Call (It's Not What You Think)

Our job when we're selling is naturally not to sell. What we want to do in the conversation in selling in the buy sales cycle is just to help the other person make a decision cuz they're carrying around a lot of weight. We think pitching and selling is talking. But when you talk, you're not in control. Now, if you go into the relationship wanting it so bad, you will have no power. Simple, straightforward answers are a sign of confidence and truth. When you're pitching, the most beautiful pitch is when they do 90% of the talking. The video you're about to watch

is a sales workshop that I had in Dubai. This was just a glimpse of the full workshop on conversational selling. If you want more content like this, be sure you check out the link in the description. What we want to do in conversation in selling in the buy sales cycle is just to help the other person make a decision cuz they're carrying around a lot of weight. Okay? And if we just use that as the our north star, as our guiding light, I think it's going to work really well. I want you to think back to your last sales conversation.

Were you serving or were you taking? There's a spectrum here. Were you telling or were you asking? Were you speaking a lot like long- winded or were you listening? Did you understand their pain? Did you empathize? When we get on a sales call, they want to tell you what to do and you want to tell them what to do. So, there's a polite battle here. And if we can win this, if we can set the right tone and ask the right things, then they will give us the control happily. During that process, they may raise some questions. We refer to those in sales terminology as an objection. They might say, "This is too expensive. It's going to take too long or you don't have enough experience or enough experience doing this one thing that needs you to do. " And then there's this last part that we struggle with mightily. We had a good conversation. We handled all the objections, but we don't feel comfortable asking for the sale. We don't tell them what the next steps are. how much it's going to be. And so they're sitting there thinking, "Are you going to ask me or not? " I run into this problem all the time. I hire creative people. I like the portfolio. I'm ready to give them money. And we have a conversation. Ask them about the process and how they like to work. And they can't tell me how much it's going to be. I'm not going to do

their job for them. So I wait and then it comes in an email. They never say it. So that's the awkward transition for asking for the sale. Pricing is positioning. So when you see similar objects, water, wine, if you're seeing things priced differently, we just assume the more expensive thing is better. The more people want it, it's more premium. Hotels, cars, everything, jewelry, tell them what your prices. And if you're working on project fees, say projects start at this amount so that there's room to go up. So when I started to sell strategy, I had in my mind it was going to be $10,000 a day. I got it because somebody else told me it could be done. I'm like, if it can be done, I can do it. So, I got on the phone and I said, "Hey, before we get too deep, I just want to let you know whatever you ask me to do. It doesn't matter the logo. You want me to like look at your copy? send you some colors? It doesn't matter how much work it is, it will be $10,000. " Like, that's a lot of money. I'm like, I know it's So, I got rid of them as fast as possible. Then eventually, one person says, I'm intrigued. Let's keep talking. Then that person agreed to, I'll pay you the 10,000 bucks for strategy. Then, from that point forward, my rate was 10,000 bucks. I just need

one person to say yes so I can say it's happened. Right? So you get a lot of nos, but I'm setting the benchmark and I'm getting rid of them as fast as possible. So I have a couple rules for you to follow. Number one, whoever asks more question or talks less is in control. So if you have your last sales conversation recorded, ask AI to count how long you were talking relative to the other person talking. So we think pitching and selling is talking. But when you talk, you're not in control. You know, there's this funny line in movies where they're like in especially in an interrogation, like a police officer and a potential criminal, they say they'll slam on the table like I'll be the one asking questions. Who's in control? The person asking the question. So, if you're talking, you're not in control. Number two is whoever wants it more has less leverage. The client has a problem. They need a solution. So, they want a solution. You have a problem. I have no money. So you want money. They want a solution. You want money. Who wants it more? Now if you go into the relationship wanting it so bad, you have no power. So the idea or the trick is to not to want it. So if you learn how to do sales and marketing, you should have on your side more opportunities to make money than the client has solutions to buy. Make sense? Ferrari or Lamborghini or any Rolls-Royce, they have a very good position. They have more customers and not enough product. They're on the right side of this equation. So, your job is to reduce down your need to make money versus the demand for your services. Number three, when you're doing too much talking or you give a super complicated answer to a simple question, it starts to make me feel like I don't believe you. Pretty straightforward. If you ever watch um reality TV shows, when somebody's lying, the other person asks them a simple question. What do they do? Well, you know, I was walking home and then his dog and then Mary said this and then Bobby and you're lying, bro. You're lying because the truth is very simple. Simple, straightforward answers are a sign of confidence and truth usually.

Okay? So, when you're in the role play and you're talking too much, not a good sign. First of all, you're not in control and you might be lying. And the last one is if you say it, you're selling. It's an old pitching thing. But if they say it, you're

closing. When you're pitching, the most beautiful pitch is when they do 90% of the talking. Okay, that's it. Then you're closing. Now, we're going to do a quick exercise. And I've never done this before, but I thought about it in the shower two days ago. So, we're going to try it. What I want you to do is take um a few seconds to you can get up if you want. You can sit down. I don't care. There's no rules for this part. I just want you to take 15 to 20 seconds and to walk around and observe the room and we're going to draw. I want you to draw yourself sitting at the table again, but this time from the point of view of an ant. Just use your mind. We're going to take a minute. Imagine if you're an ant. Put the ant in the room and draw it from the point of view of the ant. Have you ever been an ant before? The point of it is not the note. you can never understand what the ant sees or knows because you've never been the ant. And when I ask you to draw it, most people draw it from their point of view. It doesn't take into consideration the other person's point of view. So there's this line from Phil M. Jones in his book, Exactly What to Say. He says, "People do things for their own reasons. " And this was just a simple demonstration of lack of empathy or empathy. So when we think we know the other person's perspective, just remember you've never been the ant. You do not know their perspective. And the best way you can find out what their perspective is, you can say, "Mr. or Miss Ant, what do you see? What's it like on the ground for you? " And you just ask questions. And then the ant will tell you. In this case, the client will tell you. So what was the problem in the past? What is your desired future state? What are the obstacles that are getting in your way? We just ask questions. So Miriam, if we want to pitch, we should find out what

the perspective is. And when you help them to articulate their thinking, you're helping them to make decisions in an informed way. You're reducing risk. We're going to do some exercises right now. The listening comprehension interpretation exercise. Now, I want you to focus on the facts, the things that you read to do evidence-based listening. We had a designer before, but they were too expensive. They did good work. I'll give them that. But every time we needed a small revision, they charged us extra. I don't want to deal with that kind of surprise again. Okay. What do we do? What are they thinking and feeling? What are they saying? And what is what are they not saying? What else could this mean? And then what kind of follow-up questions would you like to ask? Maybe they're feeling that they are over pain for no reason. What's the feeling, the emotion? Uh, it's not worth it. How many people think that the feeling is it's not worth it? The only thing I that's why I kind of agree with Eileene that they I put here I put here they felt wrong because they you only use good work. It's not an excellent work. She's Asian. You see how this is good is not good enough. Good is just average. Has to be excellent. Means to me when you translate it's not good enough for the price they paid. Here's how I would interpret. Okay. I'm not saying I'm right. I'm just going to show you another way. Okay. Maybe it's an American way. I don't know. Chris, I mean, I'm talking to myself. It sounds like you don't mind paying for more if the work is really good. You just don't want any surprises. Is that a summary of what was said? He's basically saying, "I don't mind it to pay more. It's just got to be good. " Okay. So, it's not about the money. I just don't want any surprises. So, here's my question for you, Chris. If the budget was just a little bit more and included all the little changes that you're talking about, would you be okay with that? I'm not lecturing anybody. I'm not accusing anybody. Nobody's a scammer. You bring too much violence. Everybody, Chris, yes. How are you able to pinpoint everything that was said and then you said it so concise like everybody here like I got like a whole two paragraphs thing. You said it in like six words. So what was it that you're listening to that we can take away so that when we're listening for his keywords that we can bring feedback to our client? Very good question. So the thing is what is the first part saying I don't mind paying more if it's good. That's what he's saying. It's a lot but it was good. And then the last part is I just don't want to be surprised. Drigo what I do is I strip away the emotion. I lean into the logic and I say, "If this were my best friend who said this to me, someone I deeply care about, what is the most generous interpretation of what it is they're saying? " versus this is my worst enemy, someone who is the bane of my existence, you know, who's going to torture me for the rest of my life. So, we're bringing that negative emotional baggage and it changes our state. So, when we're angry, everything that is innocent seems like it's affecting us. And we're very optimistic. We're much more open to being taken advantage of. What we want to do is be objective. See things for the way they are. Okay? Does that make sense, everybody? Not everybody's trying to insult you. Not everyone's trying to take advantage of give you money. Be objective. That's the name of the game. Okay? We're going to do this again. Chad GBT wrote this for me and I said, "Each time, make it a little bit harder. " So, the first one was hard. Second one's even harder. So, I would love for someone who hasn't spoken yet to take a shot. You haven't spoken in a while, so let's go. So, I'm gonna read it. Okay. And then you just say, "Chris, it sounds like. " And then ask me a question. Okay? Try to be as short as possible. So, what is your name? Stephanie. Stephanie. I need this done as soon as possible. My boss has been asking for updates every day and we're presenting to the board next month. I was supposed to have this started weeks ago. Sounds like you're under a lot of pressure. I am. Oh my god. Sounds like you're under a lot of pressure and you're behind schedule. That's it. Let's not add anything else. Everything else is projection. So when you say what it is that I've been trying to say, I'm like exactly. You can now pivot to a good question because if you mess up the first part, the next question I'm like, we're not seeing eye to eye. Try to ask me a question that's not yes or no. Do you have a project plan? Do I That's a yes or no question. What the timing is? Okay, say that a different way. What's the deadline? I'm gonna throw it over to Robin. Robin, hit us up. Chris, it sounds like you're under pressure to something extraordinary for the board next. That's right. Um, so if you want it fast and done well, would you be willing to stretch your budget? I think I would be, but we haven't talked about budget yet, so I don't know what stretching means. So, I would just ask like just It's a very good question. So, you know, see how Robin's like, "I understand you and I understand the problem. " And to get this, he's going to start to talk about you right away. He's ready to go. Okay. All right. Did you want to say something? Go ahead. We're going to do the third one now. Go ahead. Hey, Chris, it seems like you're under a lot of pressure from I think uh you're thinking that it won't be completed by next week. I feel what if I give you daily updates and also give you what has been done till now. Will it make you comfortable? Okay. The problem with that is you're leading you too much. Like I got to work with you and you're going to ask for concessions. Like nobody's talking about that just yet. So we want to go step by step. Help them to make a decision. I understand you. What is the next thing that's important to you? Okay. So for me it's like sounds like you're behind schedule and you're in a jam. I would just ask him what needs to happen to get you out of this jam. It's his most objective and neutral question I can ask. They're like, "Well, can something be done in three days? for $20,000? Can I have a temporary solution and the permanent solution? " So, I don't want to lead the solution. I want to invite them to tell me what the solution is because you remember how you couldn't see from the point of view of the aunt. Don't forget that lesson. I don't know what this person is thinking just yet. Just ask. It's the most beautiful thing you can do. And it requires no real creative thinking from you, but just to ask what has to happen for this to go away, Chris. And I'll tell you if I have $100,000. I need it done in a week and we can need we can do in three phases. I need to pick a vendor today and they have to be, you know, government certified. They have to be more than this but less than that. all the information is coming to you versus would you like apples or oranges? That's the kind of questions you guys are asking. If you enjoy this video, this is just part one of three. If you want to watch the rest of the series, be sure you join the patron member here on YouTube. Or if you want to support the channel, become a premier member today so we can continue producing educational content just like this for free.