Welcome back to Behind the Business and today I’m going to be sharing with you lessons that supported me to double our sales conversions. So let me take you back around about seven or eight months ago. I decided to hire a sales coach to help me with my sales calls conversions because I felt that I wasn’t doing a very good job because I wasn’t closing absolutely everyone. And what I quickly learned after having a lot of my sales calls audited was that I actually was really good at sales and I was doing a lot of things right. I just had unhealthy expectations on how many people I should be closing and in what time frame.
That said, I still went on to learn so many lessons on how I could improve and just become more educated and aware of what I was actually doing without even realising so I could more intentionally do it in future calls because it was a bit of hit and miss with what I would do on certain calls because I wasn’t using a script and I was sort of just doing what felt right to me. Which is great to a degree but we want to work smarter not harder and being educated and actually having a skill set is what is going to allow you to do just that. So I’m so grateful that I got sales training and continue to do so because it has doubled our conversions and shortened the time span in which it takes to actually convert clients.
And something that I want to share because I think it’s really helpful to know this is that we attract mostly cold leads because we run a lot of Facebook ads. Meaning someone will click on one ad of mine so they’ve seen me one time in their life, they register for a free workshop of mine and then some people book a call before even having seen the workshop because our thank you page actually invites people to do that if they want to grow faster. But what this means is despite us having more calls than ever before which is great it does mean that they are colder because they actually haven’t consumed any of my content which makes it even harder to close them and yet we still have a really healthy conversion rate.
Which is something I’m really really proud of and I didn’t realise how cool this was until quite a few people reflected this back to me that it’s not normal to have this kind of a close rate given the circumstances. Now don’t get me wrong we also have plenty of calls with people who have consumed long-form content of mine such as my masterclass but not everyone has and yet it evens out to being 50% close rate on average. More or less of course sometimes it’s way more sometimes a little bit less but that’s around about the average in the last few months. So I can’t wait to share with you some of the key lessons that I have learned over these last seven to eight months from my sales coach that I now really intentionally apply to my sales calls.
But I think that that was helpful context to share first and foremost. So let me dive in to sharing the lessons. First of all with that context of knowing that we attract mostly cold leads one of the best ways to turn them from cold to warm to hot is having them consume long-form content. Now like I said not all of my calls are with people that have done that. Those that have I find them very easy to close because they already like know and trust me. They’re educated on me, my system, my story, their pain points and their solution and we’ve got a really great offer.
Those that haven’t consumed my masterclass or listened to my podcast for example or my YouTube channel they require a little bit more work but essentially if you want to take your leads from cold to hot the best thing you can do is get them to consume long-form content. So we do our best to do that and the first lesson is having a pre-call sales process in place to ensure that leads at least know you before getting on the call. So for example there’s a full process in place but what we have is someone books a call with us and then they are redirected to a thank you page which has a 10-minute video of me sharing really briefly about my story, who I help, problem I solve, the method that I teach and all those sorts of things. So they at least have a 10-minute summary before jumping on the call.
We also then have an email sequence that goes out where they are sent client testimonials and YouTube videos of mine and my podcast and things like that so that those that are super super keen to be supported will consume that content or at least some of it and again if they then consume more content it’s way easier to actually close them as a client. So in a nutshell you really need to have good enough content that people will continue to watch it and binges are biassed. We want to get them to binge consume our content so that is the first thing. That’s the first lesson is have a strong pre-call process. You can do other things like SMS them or message them on Instagram or LinkedIn or Facebook before the call and all of these sorts of things you can do and I recommend doing so that you’re building a relationship before you actually even get on the call especially for those colder leads.
So that is lesson number one and I’m going to be sharing three more lessons for you today. The second lesson and this is such a big one that my sales coach reflected back to me that I sometimes did and sometimes didn’t and he saw there was a significant difference when it came to conversions when I did implement this one thing and that was highlighting the pain point. So sometimes I would go on calls with people and I would become friends with them like I would have so much fun chatting with them I would feel really deeply connected to them and then they wouldn’t buy and I would be so confused I’m like but it felt so good we had so much rapport we had so much connection what is going on here and pretty much every time what I learned is that the friendliness was there but a very essential piece of a buying cycle wasn’t there which was actually helping them to see the problem that they have and linking pain to that not in a way of like let’s try and make them feel as shit as possible that is absolutely not the goal.
And people aren’t going to spend $2,000, $3,000, $5,000, $10,000, $15,000 on something that isn’t important to them or on a problem they don’t have so it’s actually our job on a sales call to help them see that they have a problem and that you can help them with that so you need to find that problem and dive deep on it not just surface level over or not even touch on it like it’s all well and good to talk into the pleasure and the desire and the goals that they have that is also important but the reality is is people want to solve the problems that they’ve got as well like there are a percentage of people that are solution focused and just want the desire but most people need to go through that level of pain before getting to that point.
And when I think about the investment decisions I make especially ones that are more maybe impulsive isn’t the right word but quicker decisions it’s usually when I’m in a world amount of a pain like I’m like I can’t deal with this problem anymore like think about when I hired my sales coach I’m like I’m just so sick of not closing these people I’m losing people I’m doing something wrong blah blah blah blah blah and that’s when I then invested and that is not from like a scarcity place it’s just from a place of like this feels uncomfortable and I want to resolve this and so if you’re getting on a call with someone and they’re too happy they’re too comfortable their incentive their desire their need to move forwards and make a decision especially when it’s a decision that’s going to require them to get out of their comfort zone and things like that is going to be slim so I really learned I need to find out what is their pain point and instead of just being like box ticked move on actually go deeper there.
So I think I used to be like oh yeah you’re struggling with leads cool cool cool and then I would sort of move on but now I would ask I ask probably like three or four or even five questions layers deeper on that one thing so instead of finding lots of little things I’ll find one thing and go deeper on it to really help them see how important this is and how essential it is that they move through this and this is a really genuine thing you’re helping them to move forwards because often people don’t realise how stuck they are and if they already know that they’re already super educated and aware well then you’re not going to have troubles actually selling to them but if they’re not aware or they’ve got more scarcity in all of these things they lack trust in themselves which a lot of people have then it is really important we help them to see this like what is the cost of staying where they are versus moving forwards now and getting the clarity and the support that they need right because right now investing in themselves is more painful than doing something about the problem so you need to help them see that the problem is far more costly than any investment could possibly be if that’s the truth of course.
That is a really really important piece to this is finding that core pain point and to not be surface level in it so I might actually spend 10 15 even 20 minutes on a sales call now just speaking into one big problem. So an example might be my target audience typically I’ll go on their social media and I’m like wow I have no idea who you help your messaging is super vague it’s super unclear you know it’s not compelling at all and that’s a huge problem and so maybe they don’t realise that because it looks cool or it sounds cool but if it’s not converting they’re not getting the leads they’re not getting the traction they’re not getting the calls and the conversions themselves there’s a reason for that and if messaging is their problem then it’s my job be such a disservice to not actually highlight that to them so highlight one core pain point and dive deeper on that rather than being surface level.
So if that means getting clear on all of the core areas that you support in and prepping a whole bunch of questions for each area then that’s what you should do. So for example I teach the scalable system I believe that you only need these three pillars to start grow and scale your business in a really simple sustainable and spacious way and I really believe this to my core it’s the only three things that you need and there are three components that go into each of these pillars which is sustainable strategy seamless sales and simple systems. If you have those three in place you are good but you have to master it not dabbling it and so with those nine components that make up those three pillars I’ve got like yeah three to five questions I’ve written down based on all nine components so I’ve got that as a guide so if someone says oh I’m having a retention problem and I can see yep that’s the root cause I’ve got all these follow-up questions I can ask to dive deeper in that.
So I’ve gone and prepared that for each section of my system and I teach my clients to do this as well to make their life a lot easier in case they’re feeling nervous or put on the spot and can’t think of something in that moment right I don’t really reference this to be honest very much anymore because I know my method so through and through so deeply that I really can just speak into it but it’s nice to have it there if need be or when you hire a sales closer having them know the questions based on your method that you will know more than they do is really really important as well.
So lesson number one is to have a strong pre-call process in place number two is to highlight one core pain point and dive deep into that the third thing is to trust your gut on what they are saying so if you are confused like if something they’re saying doesn’t quite add up whether that is an objection or just an excuse or something like that and it doesn’t add up it’s okay to be confused it’s okay to ask follow-up questions it’s okay to ask more questions to understand something or if they’re being really surface level in their answers and it’s not quite landing for you to be able to move forwards or go deeper in the call then you should really ask a question from a really curious lens.
I think in the past I would just keep it surface like what they said I went with and I would move forwards or if they had an objection like I just need to think about I just need to speak to my partner I need to do this I need to do that I would just I’d be like yeah cool that makes sense and sort of allow it but often it doesn’t make sense to me. So trust your gut in what they are saying and if you are confused with something they’re saying just lovingly question it not because you want to push them or pressure them you absolutely don’t but if they’re saying something that doesn’t line up with what they told you they want then it’s your job to question that that’s really what sales calls are for it’s to ask questions to help people make the right decision for them.
And the fourth lesson I want to share with you is to hold potential clients to a high standard. Typically they are looking for a coach because they are stuck they are struggling they want support with something and it is our job as a coach to hold our potential clients and our clients to a higher standard than they currently do for themselves so that they can grow because you don’t grow by staying the same you don’t grow by not making a decision you don’t grow by not moving forwards you grow through raising your standards and having your actions aligned with the thoughts and the stories that you have and so we want to make sure we are helping them to do that.
So they are the four key lessons there’s obviously many things but these are the main lessons that came up for me that I wanted to share today that helped us double our conversion rate. In summary have a strong pre-call process in place to ensure that the lead or potential client should I say already likes knows and trusts you number two highlight the core pain point once you’ve found it and dive deeper into that and not be surface level so that you can really showcase your authority and leadership skills and then number three trust your gut on what they’re saying and if you’re confused or an objection doesn’t add up just lovingly question it bring confusion and curiosity forward and then number four is to hold potential clients to a higher standard than they currently do for themselves they are the four lessons that I wanted to share with you.
Let me know on instagram at sophia rose bernardi which of these lessons resonated with you most was it number one number two number three or number four I would love to hear if you’ve got any follow-up questions around sales conversions whether this is in dms or on the call let me know because I close clients in both places you know you can do this very similar process via the dms as well invoice messages or direct messages so yeah send me a message and we can have a chat about it as I would love to support you to increase your conversion rate so all of that effort you’re going to to attract and nurture actually pays off when it comes to converting them so that you can really support them to solve their problem and get the outcome that they want all my love and I’ll see you in next week’s episode.
