Your sales process is the most critical aspect of your business to nail down.

Without a high-converting, systemized sales process – none of your other efforts matter.

You can attract thousands of leads, but if you only convert a tiny fraction, you’re wasting your time.

I speak to agencies, consulting firms, and other B2B service providers – and there’s no consistency in their sales conversations. That’s a big “no-no.”

If you want to build predictability into your business, stop winging it!

To get to a place where you have a sales process that works every time, know what to track… And how to improve the process with the data you collect.

Where do you start?

In this 2-part article, let’s first start with the sales call. Specifically, what needs to happen even before you ask for the sale…

Before your prospects open their wallets, they need to believe:

a) There’s potential for them to achieve a much better situation (bigger vision)

b) She or he can achieve it with the right plan (it’s possible)

c) What they’re currently doing isn’t enough and won’t change their situation (there is a pain point)

d) They need your help to get the outcome they’re after (you’re the right person to solve the pain)

Let’s take a look at how we can accomplish each step above in greater detail:

1. Bigger Vision

Recent research by Gong.io showed that there were seven words frequently used by top sales reps to close more deals.

One of the powerful words often used was “imagine.”

By using words like “imagine” and “envision,” you can begin to paint a bigger vision.

Sales script examples:

“Let’s imagine you had all the strategies in place to scale your business… What would your life look like then?”

“Imagine you didn’t have to worry about PROBLEM X. What would the impact be?”

“Help me understand… What’s your motivation for all of this?”

These are questions that not only elicit a strong vision of what’s possible, but also a deep emotional response.

Imagine your prospect saying she needs help building a better marketing agency – and in achieving that growth, she would improve her marriage and be able to send her child to college.

These are real-life problems that matter!

Remember this: we buy on emotion and justify with logic. Your sales process should reflect that…

2. It’s Possible

Help your prospects see what’s possible for them with the right solution in place.

To work, the vision has to be theirs (not your own).

Does your prospect want more time? More money? Are they merely looking for someone to take a task off their hands so they can focus on another area of the business?

If you can help them achieve a specific goal, what is the outcome of that success?

While you want to show your prospects the best possible outcome, it’s important you demonstrate how and easily it can become their reality with the right solution.

If your prospect leaves the call feeling as though success is difficult or time-consuming , you won’t convert them.

Highlight what’s possible for them if they change, and what the path to success looks like with the right plan in place.

EXAMPLE:

“Let’s say all you did was X… What do you think the outcome would be? What’s the impact on your bottom line?”

“Wow, so all we’re looking at is Y… Can you see how close you are to getting there?”

3. You Have Pain

This point of the sales process may be the most important…

Kevin Hallenbeck of Sandler Sales Training said:

“If you don’t find pain, you won’t find clients.”

It couldn’t be more accurate.

People do more to avoid pain than they do to gain pleasure.

Ask questions to better understand what a prospect’s problem is. If you can solve the issue, tie an emotional pain to the problem.

It might sound contradictory to the point above, but hear me out for a second…

If we can identify real pain points that are plaguing our prospects, the vision becomes stronger –  and the will to overcome any setbacks increases.

If I highlighted a few areas where you were falling short… Things I might be able to help with like:

– Fewer leads coming through the door

– Not converting the leads you do get

– Clients only stay with you for a short period

– Growth is stagnant

…I suddenly have your full attention, as these are issues that are immediately pertinent to you.

However, highlighting a few “pain points” at the surface level doesn’t qualify as genuinely uncovering your prospect’s pain.

These surface level problems are what Kevin would call “hurts.” It’s like an ankle sprain – it sucks, but you’re not going to fork over thousands of dollars to get it fixed.

We need to dig deeper!

Getting back to the issues above, I might ask questions like:

“When you say your team is having trouble converting leads into sales… Can you give me an example?”

“How long has this been a problem?”

“What have you tried to do in the past to fix this?”

“If you had to guess, how much money do you think you’re leaving on the table by losing these deals?”

As you can see, these questions aim to tie their challenges to emotional pain.

You need your prospect to identify (for themselves) what is possible long-term, to understand that they can achieve results with the right plan, and to see that they’re currently in a great deal of pain.

Now, the fourth and final step that must occur in your sales conversations…

4. You’re the Right Person

If you’ve followed this sales process this far, you’ve successfully helped your prospect realize:

a) There’s potential for them to achieve a much better situation (bigger vision)

b) She or he can achieve it with the right plan (it’s possible)

c) What they’re currently doing isn’t enough, and won’t change their situation (there is a pain point)

Before you get to the close, however, you need your prospect to believe they can’t solve their problem or challenge without you.

They must believe that they can’t go at it alone, that they need your help.

So, how do you do it?

Here are some examples:

“So, PROSPECT NAME, I’m confused. It sounds like there is a lot of potential here. What’s holding you back?”

“Do you feel like you can reach your goals with the plan you have in place? What is preventing you from reaching your goals now?”

If your prospect responds with anything other than a resounding, “I need your help…”

Take it away from them:

“Sounds like you have everything 100% perfect and don’t need my help then.”

If you’ve done your job by:

– Building a bigger vision

– Demonstrated the plan for getting there

– Connected their challenges to an emotional pain

This last step should come naturally, and will enable your sales teams to close more deals without ever “pitching.”

Kevin Hallenbeck often says:

“The best sales pitch is one the prospect never sees.”

If you enjoyed this article, stay tuned for more.

I’ll be discussing how to build the sales process, what to track to ensure you’re plugging all the holes, and creating a rock-solid process that converts at a high rate.

In your corner,

Zach