If you’ve gone through any of the cookie-cutter sales call trainings for coaches, you’ve probably been taught a framework that involves getting the prospect “connected to their pain” by having them articulate all the ways in which their life sucks and what the consequences will be if they don’t solve the issue they came to you for.
The problem?
Empowered people (who usually make far better clients than their victim-y counterparts, btw) do not like being approached this way.
They tend NOT to be a total hot mess; they are doing well in most areas of their life, but in the particular area you help in, they want to make a change. They’re not necessarily in a ton of pain either; they’re more pulled by the vision of how they want their life to be.
So they resent being approached as if they are a hot mess when they are not one, or at least don’t feel like one.
I have signed up with a couple of coaches who used this annoying framework on our sales call – but I signed up in spite of it, not because of it. I’m sure they had no idea how much I was wishing we could skip all the emotional pain points prodding/agitation and just get to the offer because I already knew I wanted to buy.
And I know I didn’t give the “right” answers to a lot of their questions because the truth was that I wasn’t in a lot of pain. I didn’t need to be in order to buy.
What I needed was to know that the person had a process and a system for getting the result that I wanted.
In these cases, their online content made it more than clear to me that they were experts who had a system I could follow. So I didn’t even feel I needed a sales call to sign up, really. I only got on one because they required it.
The giant insight that most sales trainers miss is that it’s pointless to probe deeper and deeper into someone’s pain points and the consequences of not solving their problem if they don’t actually believe that your particular program/method will solve it.
I mean, yeah – I could fully admit to a business coach that my business is doing terribly and I will have to close it down if I don’t learn to market myself better or get more leads or whatever the case may be.
But it still doesn’t follow that I believe their particular program is the solution to my problem. One has nothing to do with the other.
These sales frameworks also usually teach you to refer back to the person’s pain if you get any sort of objection from them – especially if they say the price is a bit high or they want to think about it.
“I heard you say earlier that you’ve been struggling with this problem for years. Do you really want to ‘think about it’ any longer?”
This is actually a really arrogant way to deal with their “objection” because it completely assumes that your program equates with solving their problem.
Here’s the thing: The prospect wants to “think about it” BECAUSE THEY DON’T BELIEVE IT’LL WORK. Because you didn’t explain it well. Or maybe because your program is actually not even designed well in the first place.
So referring them back to their pain and how long they’ve been struggling is patronizing and misses the real reason they’re giving the objection.
After years of trying to apply this awful way of doing sales and being told that I had “mindset issues” for not liking it, I was delighted to discover that I actually didn’t need to do any pain points prodding whatsoever in my sales process.
I could just ask a few questions to make sure the person met my qualifications to be a good candidate to get results.
And let them know that they meet the qualifications.
And ask if they have any questions.
And hear “nope, sounds good” and have them sign up on the spot.
All without a phone call, by the way (I do Messenger sales).
The primary reason I see that most people aren’t able to get sales so simply, and need (or feel they need) to resort to getting their prospects emotionally stirred up, is precisely that they are not explaining their methods and process well in their free content or whatever marketing they’re doing.
This makes sense, because the same people who teach this non-logic-based way of doing sales often simultaneously teach that you shouldn’t give too much of your process away in your free content or prospects won’t have a reason to hire you.
The irony is that the latter (bad) advice actually contributes to creating the problem that you then need the emotion-driven sales process to “solve.”
(Except it doesn’t REALLY solve it – you might get the sale, but the client still won’t really understand how your process works, and might not end up liking it/being on board with it or being empowered enough to see it through and make it work for them.)
I’m here to say that you can NEVER give too much away in your free content.
People will always need your help to see how to apply it to their unique situation.
I give away every insight I have, and my clients still miss things when they complete their assignments and try to answer my questions.
Coaching is not the giving of information, now is it?
So how could giving information remove the need to work with you?
When you get clear (in your own mind) on what your process actually is, and then learn to describe it in my 500-word offer post framework as well as in longer posts on specific topics (like the one you’re reading right now), you will be amazed at how you end up simplifying your sales process – because your readers will logically see exactly how your program works, and that it can and will work for them.
When they see that, you’ll be able to toss that long sales call script in the trash because the reason for using it will no longer exist.
You’ll also be able to delete all of those sales call appointments off your calendar because people won’t need one to know your program is for them.
Instead, they’ll want to sign up after a few text exchanges back and forth over Messenger.
Doesn’t that sound great?
DM me on Facebook if you would like help clarifying your offer, process, and the way you explain both of the above in your free content so that your prospects come to you already believing that your program will work and is what they need.
I have a 30-day 1:1 program that gives you all of my proven frameworks for communicating these things in organic social media posts/emails and helps you to customize them to your business.
You can also check out my videos if you don’t want to hire me. I explain all of the frameworks in detail there, holding nothing back.
Enjoy!