Closing 50% of the people you talk to as a small agency owner or freelancer may sound insane to you. But it’s entirely possible, and all it involves is a series of 5 steps.
1. Pre-screen People to Make Sure They’re a Good Fit
While it’s not possible to be absolutely certain someone is a good fit for your services before hopping on a call with them, you should do your best to assess it.
Most successful agency owners and freelancers value their time above all else. This means that they don’t waste their time getting on calls with people who aren’t a good fit.
To assess if someone is a good fit, determine the key factors that must be met for them to benefit from your service. Ask yourself “what kind of business stands to benefit the MOST from what I have to offer?”
Would they be making revenues above a certain point? Would they have been in business for X years already? Do they have employees? What exactly does it take for someone to get great results with your offer?
Figure it out, and then pre-screen everyone before they hop on a sales call with you to make sure they’re a good fit.
2. Use a Proven Sales Script
Once you get on a sales call, don’t just “wing it”. When you wing it, the conversation will be all over the place, you’ll waste a lot of time, and you’ll struggle to guide the conversation towards the result you want.
I’ve seen countless freelancers and agency owners get on sales calls with people, and they end up just chatting with them. That’s a WASTE OF TIME.
Instead, you want to have a script that’s going to help you determine in the shortest amount of time what their problems are, and if your offer can help them out. If you can’t help them out, end the call. And if you CAN help them out, present your offer to them and close.
In addition, without a proven sales script, you’ll struggle to teach anyone else to sell on your behalf, and if you want to scale to $30,000+ per month, it’s essential that you start building a sales team.
Inside our Ascendancy Program™ we teach everyone our Hypnotic Sales Induction Script, which I’ve personally used to convert 50%+ of the people I speak with into paying customers.
3. Have the Right Mindset & Intentions
Mindset and intentions are quite possibly the biggest differentiators when it comes to sales results. They will make a huge difference for you.
If you don’t believe that your customer can benefit from what you’re selling them, or you think that you’re going to trick them, it’s going to show. You may not realize it, but scientific studies indicate that our body, tonality or language always betrays us when we’re dishonest.
This state is known as cognitive dissonance, and it’s basically an incongruity. Part of you believes it will help the customer, and part of you believes you’ll pull one over them and trick them. This state creates discomfort, and it will manifest in your tonality and body language. It’s not something you can consciously control, even with training.
Rather the mindset you want to have is that you CARE about your customer, and you want what’s best for them. If your service isn’t a good fit for them, just say it. Tell them, by the sounds of it, this isn’t a great choice for you. Here’s what I’d do in your place. And offer them an alternative.
This is how you become a trusted advisor, and you’ll significantly increase your sales results.
4. Let Go of Making the Sale, Focus on Diagnosing The Problem
If you’re concerned about making the sale then you’re biased, you’re not really listening to your customer, and you can’t really help them. In addition, you’ll be off-putting as your “commission breath” will be felt from far away.
What you want to do is let go of expectations about making the sale. That shouldn’t be your goal.
Instead, set your goal to determine what problems your prospect has, and if your offer can help them solve those problems. If you put your focus on that, you’ll be a lot more effective, and it will show in your body language and everything that you do.
5. Don’t Solve Their Problem, Just Give Them Clarity
The other mistake beginners often make is giving their clients free consultancy during the sales call. This is a mistake. You should never go about solving the problems of your client on the call.
Rather you need to put your attention on giving the client clarity about the problem, their current state, and the desired state. You need to make the client aware of the problem and all its consequences. And only after this is done will your client actually be open to hear about your solution.
Under no circumstances should you tell your client HOW to solve their problems. That will alleviate the pain and desire they experience, which will make them think they KNOW how to solve it themselves, even though they probably don’t. The result will be that they won’t buy, even though you could be a perfect fit for them otherwise.
6. Understand the Sales Cycle and How to Guide Buyers Through It
And finally, the best salesmen understand the sales cycle and can pinpoint where in the sales cycle the customer is at any moment. Therefore they know what they need to do to move the process forward.
Generally, the sales cycle follows the awareness of your customer. There are 5 stages of awareness, as follows:
- Unaware of a problem
- Aware of a problem
- Aware of the consequences of the problem
- Expresses a desire to solve the problem
- Investigates available options and selects one
If you present your offer to the customer before stages 4 and 5 he’ll tell you he’s not interested… because he’s not even aware of a problem to start with.
That’s why many freelancers and agency owners struggle with sales calls… they think it’s just about presenting benefits, but customers only care about benefits once they know they have a problem.
So that’s why sales calls should follow a clear structure:
- Investigation (explore for problems)
- Diagnosis (define problems)
- Prognosis (define consequences)
- If relevant, demonstrate the solution.
- Close
If you follow this structure, you will stop wasting your time presenting your solution to people who can’t benefit from it and who would never buy anyway. Instead, you’ll be able to focus most of your time presenting to those who are most likely to buy.
Want to Turn Outbound Into a Predictable Source of Pipeline?
Thanks for reading this article — I hope you found it useful. I'm Tudor Dumitrescu, founder of TANDA Digital (follow me on LinkedIn).
If you're looking to generate more qualified conversations through outbound, here are two ways we can help:
1. Get a FREE GTM Audit
We'll review your website and LinkedIn presence to determine whether you're ready to scale with outbound and identify the biggest opportunities for improvement. Get Your Free GTM Audit
2. Book a Call
If you'd like to explore working together, book a call with our team. We'll assess your current situation and show you how outbound could generate pipeline for your business.
