TT#054 - The 4 secret ingredients to spice up your sales process & boost conversion rates…

Imagine your sales process as a four-course meal. Each course represents a crucial part of the process, and if any of them tastes bland, well, you're not getting a Michelin star - or the sale. 

This week I’m going to dive into those four courses to help make your sales process more tantalizing than a chocolate soufflé.

Appetizer: Booking the Call - A Smooth, Flavorful Start

The first taste of your sales process should set the bar for how the entire engagement will go.

The process of booking a call with you or your salesperson should be simple, frictionless, and intentional. 

Sounds obvious, but worth saying: The easier it is to book a call, the more calls you'll get booked.

Nobody likes an overly-complicated appetizer.

To make it easy, consider automated calendars on your pages to let people book times. That allows your prospect to lock in time when they are actively looking. And it avoids frustrating emails back and forth for times.

2 pro tips: 

1. Be mindful of your availability and strike a balance between exclusivity and accessibility.

The clarity of your offer, how qualified your prospects tend to be, and your approach to generating leads all determine the right balance.

If your marketing delivers highly qualified prospects, you may want to get them on a call right away. So avoid offering times 4 weeks out.

If you’re going to cold audiences for leads, you may want time to drip additional content. So avoid offering times on the same or following day.

2. Add a series of questions to the automated calendar to help you determine if the prospect may not be a good fit before you talk.

It’ll help both of you avoid wasting time on a call if it’s not a fit. 

Soup: The Pre-Call Sequence - A Warm, Inviting Prelude

A well-prepared pre-call sequence is like a comforting bowl of soup. It warms your prospects up and gets them ready for the main course. 

(Was that a stretch?) 

Your prospects are probably busy. So, if you want more people to show up to your calls, it helps to have a series of messages reminding them about the call. Use SMS and email. But don’t overdo it and annoy them.

Most importantly, you want to serve up some of your best content demonstrating your expertise before they get to the sales call. That’ll increase their desire to talk to you and improve your positioning on the call. 

In the reminders and other communications leading up to the call, add in 2 key ingredients: 

1. Social proof, testimonials, and case studies if you have them.

2. Content that demonstrates you addressing some of the problems and pains you know they are experiencing. 

That'll ensure you show up to the call with the maximum amount of authority, credibility, and trust. 

Main Course: The Sales Call - An Intentional, Satisfying Experience

Now, we've arrived at the pièce de résistance: the sales call itself. 

This is the most important feature in the process and where the magic happens. So, you can't just wing it like a late-night cooking experiment. Your sales call should be a well-thought-out recipe for success.

Start by building the right kind of rapport. And by “right kind” I don’t mean trying to be someone’s BFF. The right kind of rapport earns the trust of your prospect that you are credible and can solve their problem. 

Then, diagnose the problem they’re experiencing today and clarify where they want to be tomorrow.

If you can help fix the problem and get them to the future state they desire, then – and only then – offer up your services as the solution. 

You can follow this recipe for your sales calls: 

1. Prepare

2. Opening

1. Build rapport

2. Set the agenda

3. Credibility builder

3. Diagnose

1. Current state

2. Future state

3. Confirm & stretch the gap

4. Prescribe solution 

5. Close

6. Handle objections 

Pro tip: 

Tailor your prescription to the diagnosis. There’s no sense going through all the work of asking questions to diagnose a problem if you’re going to offer the same prescription in the same way every time. Personalize it based on what they told you. 

Dessert: The Follow-Up - A Sweet, Consistent Finish

You don’t follow-up an epic main course with a deflated soufflé. Nor do you let half-assed follow-up come after a phenomenal sales call.  

Fortune is in the follow-up… If it’s done consistently and executed well.

To improve execution and consistency, I leverage email sequences, templates, and something I call BAMFAM. 

BAMFAM stands for “book a meeting from a meeting.” It refers to the process of booking a follow-up call while you still have someone on the first call. It’ll help test their commitment and get your next steps locked in. 

A template should include a summary reinforcing your value proposition, some additional social proof, and space to personalize the message based on your conversation. 

Sequences, or a series of emails you can send with the click of a button, are a great tool to leverage when follow-up efforts aren’t working. If you haven’t heard from a prospect in some time, you can enroll them in a sequence to try and revive the opportunity. 

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Bon appétit, sales maestros! Now that you've got the secret ingredients to a conversion-boosting sales process, it's time to hit the kitchen and cook up some new clients. 

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P.S. - Wanna take it on the road? Tune in on Repeatable Revenue Podcast here.