I thought for years that sales was a dirty word. That is until I learned what good sales looks like.

Whether you like it or not, being good at sales is non-negotiable if you want to succeed in business.

Today I’m going to teach you how to become a sales gun in less than 24 hours.

You don’t need any previous experience, you don’t need to be an extrovert, and you won’t spend a single second trying to convince someone to buy your product/service.

Why listen to me?

In the first 12 months of running my marketing agency, I did over 500 sales calls and closed 45% into paying clients.

We’ve since hired eight full-time salespeople and spent hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars on sales coaching & training to make them all killer salespeople.

As a result, the team did over 3,000 sales calls in 2023 and converted 27% of them into paying clients. That’s not 27% of qualified prospects, that’s 27% of all calls.

Not a single one of that team had worked in sales and none of them considered themselves a good salesperson before we hired them.

Now they’re all killers.

Today I’m going to share the secrets behind becoming a great salesperson overnight, and the answer may surprise you.

Pre-Call

Sales starts before the call.

Once your prospect has booked a call with you, send them a thank you email and let them know why booking a call with you was a good idea.

Get them excited about the call.

The email should contain things like relevant case studies, social proof, reviews and testimonials.

Also, explain what they’ll get out of the sales call.

This does two things:

• It stops them from losing enthusiasm before the call happens, which reduces your no-show rate

• It builds a level of trust and respect with the prospect before the call, giving you a head start

Remember that you’re asking them to pay for the sales call with their time. It has to be worthwhile or they might not show up.

The Sales Call

A while ago a sales coach told me to read Questions Are The Answers by Allan Pease.

It’s a little old school, but the underlying principles stuck with me.

There are two keys to sales:

1. Asking questions

2. Staying quiet

During a sales call, the prospect should talk approximately twice as much as you.

If you try to convince the prospect to buy your product/service, they’ll immediately put their guard up.

Your job as a salesperson is to help prospects decide if your product/service can help solve their pain points, and give them all the information they need to make a yes or no decision. It is not to convince people who don’t need your product/service to sign up.

Here are the 8 stages of the sales call you need to nail. I’d recommend writing a script with each of these stages typed out, and then learning it word-for-word.

1. Introduction and rapport building. Find some common ground. I like to travel, so I ask where they are calling from and that usually leads to a conversation about that city and travel etc.

2. During this time, note down where they sit on the disc personality chart (see below). This will determine how they want to be sold to. (D)s want to cut the bullshit and get to the facts quickly. (I)s want to make friends and buy from you as a person. (C)s want a lot of facts and proof to analyse before they make a decision. With (S)s you need to ease into the conversation and don’t apply too much pressure.

3. Ask your opening questions. This is where you’ll learn about why the prospect booked the call, what pain they are experiencing that they hope you can fix, what their specific situation is, what their timeline for purchasing it and who the decision maker is. Some examples of opening questions:
   
   - ‘Do you mind me asking the reason you booked this call today?’
   - ‘Have you ever worked with a company like ours before?’
   - ‘Have you experimented with cold email before?’
   - ‘Do you mind me asking if you are the person who makes the financial decision on whether to sign up today?’
   
   4. The pitch. Once you know exactly what the prospect is looking for, you can deliver your pitch. The pitch should be no more than 10 minutes and it should be interactive. Share your screen. Show them something visual. Ask the prospect questions along the way to make sure they understand and that you still have their attention.

   
   Important: Do NOT try to convince the prospect that your service is amazing and that they should sign up right away. Simply show them how it works as if you were describing it to a friend.
   
   Once you have finished your pitch, make sure you explain what the next step looks like if they want to sign up.
   
   5. Field questions. Ask the prospect if they have questions and if they understand. Some people will get it straight away, others will need you to explain some parts again.
   
   6. Closing questions. Once the prospect fully understands the product/service and its benefits, ask them questions such as:
   
   ‘Is this something you think would work for you guys?’

   ‘Is there any reason you wouldn’t try this?’
   ‘When would you potentially be looking to start a campaign?’

   If they are not the decision maker: ‘What objections do you think your manager might have when you tell her about this?’
   
   Important: Once you ask a question, stay silent and let them answer it fully. Even if there is an uncomfortable pause, you have to stay silent. The first person to talk loses.
   
   7. Objection handling. The reason we ask those questions is so that we can uncover their objections, and then objection handle. It’s super important to note that most people don’t like telling you their real objection, and will often use an excuse to get off the call so they can think about it. If someone tells you that they like it but they ‘need to think about it’, or ‘chat to their team’, that is an excuse and you’re likely about to lose the sale. Keep digging until they give you their real objections.
   
   8. Book the next call. You must get the prospect to make a decision on the call and do not let them go away and think about it. If they insist on going away to think about it, ask them to book a follow-up call for 2-3 days time so you can answer any further questions they have.
   

Post-Call

In a perfect world, every prospect would make a yes or no decision on the sales call.

In reality, many won’t, no matter how hard you try.

For those prospects, you need a rock-solid post-call sequence.

We use Hubspot because their automated email sequences are best in class, however, Hubspot is super expensive and they still don’t have some basic features such as SMS reminders, so you may want to opt for a cheaper option such as Pipedrive.

If the client doesn’t say yes on the call, we enter them into a 7-step sequence.

This is what that looks like:

1. Right after the call - send a recap with more social proof, the next steps and a calendar link to book a set-up call when they are ready

2. Two days later (if they haven’t replied or booked a call) - Follow up email 1

3. Three days later - Call the prospect and ask if they made a decision or have any further objections/concerns

4. Three days later - Follow-up email 2. Ask if they decided ‘no’ and ask them why/for feedback

5. Five days later - Connect with them on LinkedIn and make sure they have been receiving your emails (approx 35% of emails to known contacts don’t make it to the inbox)

6. Thirty days later - Email again, ask if the timing is better and offer them a special offer

7. Three days later - Mark as lost

Your goal here is to get them to say yes or no. If they say no, don’t push it. Use the feedback to improve your product/service and move on to the next prospect.

Summary

The key to becoming a killer salesperson is to have a killer sales process, and building one can be done in under 24 hours:

1. Build trust pre-call with an intro email

2. Write a sales script with rapport-building questions, opening questions, your pitch and closing questions. Learn it word-for-word

3. Get their real objections out of them on the call and strongly encourage them to make a yes/no decision

4. Have a clear ‘next steps’ process

5. Follow up until they make a yes/no decision

That’s it!

I hope that was useful.

As always, if you have any questions, simply reply to this email and I’m happy to answer them :-)

Before you go.. I’m debating what to write about next. Have your say by voting in the poll below: