The Sales Discipline Every Consultant Needs

Welcome to Startup with Feras. This is episode 101. Yes, we crossed the 100 point here. So I'm glad that you're in, glad that you've tuned in, and we want to talk about entrepreneurship. What's new in the world of entrepreneurship? Let me start with this. Today, we're not talking about motivation. We're talking about mechanics. See, most consultants don't struggle because they lack skill. You've got 5 years of experience, 10 years of experience, 15+ years of experience in your domain, but most struggle because they lack a repeatable sales system. And when I started, I was in the same boat. That was 20+ years ago. My win rate was roughly 1 in 20. Yes, 1 in 20. Out of 20 proposals, I would barely win 1 deal. And then through learning structure and discipline, that rate went from 1 in 20 to 1 in 3. Now, despite what you see on YouTube and what you hear on social media, that didn't happen overnight. It took me years to master the process, the discipline, the skills to be able to close 1 out of 3 deals. And it wasn't, again, to emphasize, it wasn't because I was more charismatic. It wasn't because I was an introvert and I changed to be an extrovert. No, it happened because I learned how sales actually works and the reps that I did to get me there. So today I'm walking you through that framework, everything I've learned over the last 20-plus years to help you get unstuck. I want this session to also be interactive, whether you are with us here live— thank you for joining live— or you are joining later, listening or watching. I'd love to hear from you and ask questions. I will reply to every comment and every question I get in this, in this live stream or later. So drop your questions in the chat. Tell me where your pipeline is leaking. Are you not getting leads? Are you getting leads and they're not qualified? Are you getting qualified leads and you're sending proposals and then you're not hearing back? Are you losing on pricing? Are you losing on when you present to the decision maker? Let me know what where your sales pipeline is leaking, and I'll provide you with a fix. And I will share— I'll share with you specific templates to help you overcome these challenges. So we're going to break this down step by step. And again, if for those of you who are new to the channel, welcome. My name is Feras Alhlou. I got into this thing called entrepreneurship over 20 years ago after a very painful layoff. And And we are hearing layoffs every other day, big tech, small tech, all around, and my heart goes out to those who are impacted. I know it's hard, it's hard on you emotionally, psychologically, of course, financially, but you know what? This might be, this could be the best thing that ever happened to you. Take a few days to absorb it all, to mourn, to assess what happened, to reflect on what you could have done better. That is all okay for a few days, but then put it all behind you. Put it in a, in a box behind you and move on for the new opportunity, whether it's starting a business or getting back into the workforce. It doesn't matter, but learn from that experience and move on. So, so when I was laid off, I had zero background in sales. I was in corporate before that, so I, I was exposed to marketing and sales and operations, just as being an employee and being— I was actually a VP of professional services in that startup that I was laid off from. So I was never involved in selling and pitching and preparing proposals. I was in charge of delivery, delivering what was sold. So there was a whole lot of struggle. I had to learn new things, not just sales, but also selling to very small businesses. My business partner and I decided to go after very, very small businesses and sell them websites. That was the cutting-edge thing back in 2003. So we struggled. It took us weeks to get that first sale. I had to tap into my savings. I had to tap into my 401. Worked really hard. And then over the years, we figured it out. We got to 6 figures, later to 7 figures. And over the years, we grew that one business to 8 figures, sold it to global media giant Dentsu, and along the way grew other businesses. So everything you hear today is things I've learned from the trenches, and I'd love for you again to let me know the challenges you're going through so that I can be of help and help you— that I can be of help to get you over these hurdles. And it looks like we have some comments already. Let me check. So this is from, uh, Shubham here. Thank you for being, um, being on this live stream. And then there's another comment, are you live now? We are live now. I hope you are listening and watching. It looks like your commenting is from, from YouTube. So let me first address that first question. I lose at pricing. My clients says pricing is too high. So I have some I want to cover this point later in this livestream, but I'll address it very quickly, is that a lot of folks when it comes to sales and proposals, when you send a proposal, whether it's a formal document or over email, or if you're speaking pricing with your clients, a lot of people think that this is it, this is the finish line, but the proposal, formal or informal, is just one point in the process. So along the way, from the very first time you met that lead or the lead came to your website or connected with you on social media, and that the sales process and proposing started at that point. So understanding before you share pricing, before you share a full proposal, there's a fair amount of due diligence that you want to be doing so that you understand the urgencies of the client, the timeline, the important critical timelines they might have, who's— who the decision makers are, and then, and then do they have an incumbent, do they— are they talking to other consultants, and gather as much information as you can and then send the proposal and send— and, and then of course Share what you have about pricing. So, so if you're if sort of been sort of you haven't you haven't done all that discovery ahead of sending a proposal, then it's a shot in the dark. Pricing is shot in the dark. So, so I do cover the concept of pricing. I have a long video, an hour and four minutes, my longest video to date on. on proposals, so I recommend that you go through that video and I'll point to it in a second here later in the video and go over and just understand all the things that have to happen before you share pricing information with clients. So I know some clients come to you and say, how much is it going to cost me? How much is it going to cost me? So if you have to do it because they're insisting, otherwise they're going to go just walk away, you might want to give them a range with some some caveats, but over time you want to focus on understanding the issues that the client has, what other services they're getting from maybe competitors, if they have an incumbent, if they're doing it in-house. So I go over all of that in that proposal ultimate guide, so check it out. Let me, let me, I have another, another comment here about experience in retail store. Yes, I can, I owned a restaurant at one point, and I did, I, I did work when I was in college and helped other, other, other founders and business owners, but let me go through some of the content, but if you have a specific question about, about, about the ticket sales, let me know, but let me go through, back, go to, to the main topic here, so The first thing I want to talk to you about, I want to talk about 4 main things today. One is identity and conversations. So you as a business owner, you as a founder, think of yourself as a problem solver. Don't think of yourself as a salesperson, as a sleazy salesperson, as Someone who's trying to manipulate and cheat their clients. No, you are a problem solver as a consultant, as a business owner, you're helping someone solve a problem. They have some pain. They have some pain you can address. They have some aspiration you can help them achieve. So, so that is really important. It's a mindset and sales is all about conversations. And there's one metric, there's one metric I want you to track if you're serious about growing your business, if you're serious about entrepreneurship and you're serious about building and growing your business initially, initially, there's one KPI, one key performance indicator, and that is how many conversations are you having every week? Because I know you're thinking now, I'm not, I'm not a salesperson. Some, some are born salespeople. Some are extrovert and they're charismatic and, and they can talk about, about anything— the weather, sports, pop culture. I'm not, I'm not like that. Uh, I am, I'm shy. I, uh, I don't know how to start it, start, start off a conversation. I can tell you, I can, and there's data behind that as well, and from my experience working with 250 founders and more, top performers, high-achieving salespeople have invested heavily in learning about sales strategies, about sales tactics, and more importantly, they've practiced, they put all that in practice and they put all of that in action. They've also learned active listening, which I'll get back— which I'll get to in a second. So no matter what personality you have, no matter what experience you have, if you have decided to start a consulting business, if you have, or maybe you've already started and now you're struggling, if you're in those situations, I want you to know that sales is learnable. Sales is something that you can practice. It's like a muscle. You can grow that muscle. So, so, and to grow that muscle, you're watching this video, you're picking up some tips. Yes, I'll have some other resources for you as well, but the most important thing is action. It's not perfection. You don't— I don't want you to wait till your pitch is perfect. I don't want you to wait Till you have the, the most amazing proposal template. I don't want you to just go and ask AI, what should I do when a client do that? You can, you can ask AI, but I want you to be practicing. I want you to step on the mat. Those of you who follow the channel, you know that I'm in martial arts, and you're not going to get that black belt unless you decide to put on that white belt Put on your gi, put on your uniform and step on the mat. So if you're serious about growing the business, I want you to track and be honest with yourself. And for those of you who are live, or if you're listening later, let me know. I'm going to ask you very specific questions. How many meaningful sales conversations did you have last week? How many meaningful sales conversations are you planning on having this week? And then are you tracking that number? Because as I said, the number one, the number one KPI that I want you to focus on initially early on when you're struggling with sales is the number of conversations per week, not revenue, not profit, just conversations. Okay. So I expect to get some comments here on with numbers. Just tell me. 3 conversations, 1 conversation, 0 conversation. So if that is, that is sort of, that tells you where you are today, because if you're not having conversations, of course you're not going to qualify the lead, and of course you're not going to be able to send a proposal, and you're not going to get revenue. And worse than that is that you're not practicing. No matter how many videos you watch, how many sales, sales books you read, podcasts you listen to. You have to put this to practice. And, and then, and then you look at, at the number of clients you want. If I want to— let's say my service is— I'll make up some numbers— $5,000. That's, that's one one-time package I sell. It could be HR consulting, an audit. It could be a financial audit. It could be I help— I'm a speaking agent. It could be I can help people present better. I can I'm an IT cybersecurity specialist. Whatever you sell, let's say it's $5,000 a month and you want, you want to sell to 2 clients. So that means your plan is to get $10,000 in revenue every month. So you have to backtrack from, from that number. If you use my, my own win rate initially was 1 in 20. So if you want to get one client, let's say you're as bad as I was when I started. Hopefully you're better, um, because now there's— we have content on YouTube that you can learn from. So, so, so, but let's say it's 1 out of 20. That means you have to have 20 conversations with people who are likely to buy from you, with people who have a need for what you offer. So you need to have 20 of these conversations And then 10 of them will probably not ask you for any follow-up and they're just not interested. 5 might be interested. You'll have 5 proposals. You'll have 2 of them who are serious and then one of them will close. So start tracking that for me to get this $10,000 a month or 2 clients a month, I need to have that many conversations in a month. So So that is a real important mindset shift for new founders is you're not how many conversations. Now, of course, some of you might say, oh, well, I can do paid ads. I can do search engine optimization. I can send cold emails. I can do all sorts of things. Of course you can do that, and I'm not saying these are bad marketing tactics or channels. There are no such— there is no such a thing. There are no bad marketing channels. How it's— the bad part is how we go in and do cold emailing without studying how to do proper cold emailing. It's bad how we go and set up ads on Facebook or Amazon or Google and we don't target properly, but all of these channels are fine, but initially, especially if you're struggling with sales, conversations, having conversations is real conversations, Ideally in person, but if you happen to be in another country, in another market, or in a small town, then having those conversations online over Zoom, connecting with people is going to be important. So in person is ideal. The second best is do it online. Find Facebook groups, find Reddit groups, find communities, find places, LinkedIn groups, where people who are interested in what you offer congregate, and then you're not pitching. Remember, you're not selling initially. You're listening, you're understanding what issues people have, and then you're offering solutions. You're adding value. You're showing them not by having an attitude, I'm the smartest person in the room, I'm the smartest consultant, but helping them understand how they can help them understand how this problem can be solved and how you can be of help to them. Okay, so that's the first point, is on, on a mindset shift that, that you are not a sleazy salesperson, that you have, you have something to offer, and then that starting building that muscle of having conversations with people who are likely to be buying from you, people who have a problem that you can solve. So that's the first point. The second point, which I alluded to earlier, is about listening and emotional drivers. So according to research, top sales performers, they speak around 40% and they listen About 60%. People track this stuff, I guess. And most struggling consultants, they do the opposite. They talk a lot, not because they're verbose or they just like to talk over people, but, and again, I was in that same boat initially, but you know so much as a consultant. You've spent time learning about your field. You've gotten certifications. You've done amazing work for other clients. So you're very eager to, to share. You're very eager to educate. You hear that the problem— that the customer— you hear it, that the customer has problems you can solve, and they can— so they can sleep well at night. You know all of that, but that eagerness and that maybe impatience, it doesn't land well with the client because in your mind you're thinking of what to say next. You're thinking of, yeah, let me, let me just go over all the capabilities or all the features or all the certifications or all, all these years of experience. Like, you're trying to just to subconsciously overwhelm the client with all these amazing things about you and about your service, about your company. But the client might be— the concern the client has might be completely different than what you're thinking. So I'll give you an example. So it could be that you mentioned a little bit about yourself and about your background, and the client is impressed already. And so credibility, authority, yes. The client is saying, John is the right person. Now, is John the right person? John is a qualified consultant. Now, in the back of their mind, the client could be, could be under pressure to solve this problem from their boss. It could be, so they want to make sure that the needs of their boss are addressed. It could be that the client has a very small budget and they're thinking this senior consultant, this highly qualified consultant is too expensive for me. It could be that the client, they have— they've never hired a consultant before, so they're convinced that you're qualified, but they don't understand how to package a project or how to put together, how to assess, you know, assess your capabilities. It could be that the client wants to learn from you, So they can continue what what you've done for them on their own later. So they want to make sure that you offer training and you offer documentation. Again, these are just examples of what could be going on in clients' minds. So yes, they're they're they're persuaded and and they're impressed by your capabilities and your certifications, but you have to. Dig deeper into all the things that are going on, you know, in their minds, and also all the questions that they maybe have, they may have to be answering, to answer to their bosses and to their chief financial officer before they bring you in for a formal presentation, if you're, say, talking to them in a networking event. So I think it's really important to listen carefully And not just jump to keep impressing. Of course you want to impress them. Of course you want to share your credentials, but you have to pause and listen and validate and confirm. And there I have a— I have an entire video on active listening and also confirming what you're hearing. I believe it was in the proposal. Yeah, in the same video I mentioned earlier, the proposal, the ultimate guide to proposals. So you can go there. Again, I'll put the link in the description for For those of you who are listening or watching later, so the idea here is that it's not just a technical solution that the client is buying. There also could be there's a fear of loss. It could be they're very worried about their reputation when they bring you in as a consultant. They want to make sure that what you do for maybe maybe their promotion. is going to be contingent on completing this project and they want to make sure that you're the right fit. It could be they want to have total control of the deliverable and the documentation. So again, it's not just about logically your solution making sense, it's also addressing the emotions of the buyer and in this whole sales process, you're paying paying a lot of attention to every word they're saying, to signals if you're speaking with them in person, watch for body language, ask questions, dig deeper without being annoying, and again, I cover a lot of that in the proposal, the Ultimate Guide to Proposals that I'll put in the description later. So again, the second point here I'm emphasizing is that you want to be a good listener, you You want to practice active listening, you want to summarize what they've told you, not just be thinking while they're speaking, thinking, what do I want to say next? All of that, these are good skills to have as a founder, as an— actually, active listening helps within your team, employees, it's a very good skill at home, if you're married, like I've been married for a long time, so you learn that you have to— listen if you want to have a healthy relationship. So apply that in your engagement with clients. Don't just nod your head and think, how do I pitch? How do I convince them? How do I show that I'm a— no, just listen to them. And, and, and they feel that. People, when you are connecting with them at that deeper level, people sense that and appreciate it, and they open up and they tell you exactly why they're doing this. So, and maybe, maybe one thing you learn is that they don't have a budget for this now. They want to do it 6 months from now. So that could be your cue. And if you learn that, then you'll continue. You'll stop if you learn that they like you and they want to work with you, but this is just not a good timing at all. Then you mark it in your, in your CRM. And if you don't have a CRM, you can use my DIY CRM, the worksheet I have. Again, I'll link it in the description and make sure that you waste— you stop wasting time by following up every week. And I'm a book— I'm a big believer in, in follow-ups and the importance of always connecting with the client and adding value. But if they told you they're really, really busy, they're understaffed, they don't have time to bring you in as a consultant now, check back with them in, in 3 months or 6 months, then that is what you should do, right? So, so all of these are signals to help you be more efficient and more effective in the way you present yourself and the way you pitch and the way you start conversations and the way you follow up with these leads. All right, so that is the second point. The third point I want to talk about today is about funnel, the sales funnel, and then some math around the pipeline. So let me share with you— give me just one second. Right here, I want to share with you. When I say funnel, some of us have been exposed to sales funnels and some of us have not. So let me go here. All right, so you see this, and this is an article on the website here. Give me one second. Right. So I have an entire video, a 21 or 20-minute video on sales funnels. And basically you'll see here, and I'll put the link to this article in the description as well, but you'll see that at the very top of the funnel, there's this stage that I call it the phase called awareness. This is when people know that you exist, right? And they come to your website, or you meet people at events, or you do one of those marketing activities that I talk about in other videos. But people now know that you exist. They reach out to you, you reach out to them, you're having that conversation. So, so that is again, and this is when I talk about awareness, you're not selling to everyone, you're selling to a specific target audience. So this target audience, if you are an IT consultant, you target people who are in healthcare, who are company size between 100 and 500. This is your sweet spot, right? So you're addressing CIOs and CTOs and COOs of those companies, right? So that is awareness. And then education. You start to share more information about your services. You start to listen more about their needs. This could be a very formal process if it's a bigger company. It could be a conversation if it's a smaller company. Then you have evaluation, and that is when you're evaluating them if they're a good fit for you. Although, although you don't want to be very picky when you're starting, but, but it's important to make sure that you can service them, and also they're evaluating they're evaluating you and making sure you're a good consultant for, for their, for their company. And then there's a bit of negotiation. It could be about pricing, it could be about scheduling, it could be about the scope of the work, about how many training sessions are included. So all of that good stuff. And then there's that win at the end, or the, the, the sales, or at times obviously, um, there's that They tell you thank you, but no thank you. So there's that commitment. So these are the steps of the sales funnels, and it's really important to know that if you go online and you search about sales funnels, you'll see a variety of what appears to be conflicting frameworks. So you might have a 9-step funnel, a 7-step funnel, a 3-step funnel. You might see people who bash funnels and say, no, it's more of a of a different kind of framework. HubSpot has a different approach to it, but at the end of the day, it's not about the shape of the funnel or how the funnel works. Of course, nothing is— in life, nothing is linear. Nothing's going to come very smoothly and go through a funnel like the one I showed, but I think understanding these stages is really important because every sales has to go through these stages, right? Someone might have already done the research, they're very educated, they're evaluated you already, maybe they know you from a previous life and they're ready to buy and they maybe just negotiate on pricing, so that could be they come into the funnel at the very, very end of it, but if you don't understand that every buyer has to connect with you, establish, you know, you establish trust with them, they understand what you do for them. It's within a specific scope, within a specific timeline, within a specific level of quality. All of that has to— a buyer has to go through. So, so don't, you know, don't be confused if you see other funnels or other frameworks. It really doesn't matter. It's understanding that buyers go through these phases or through these stages before they make a decision. So that is really important, especially if you're selling to B2B and if you're selling large and complex projects and solutions, that funnel might be very elaborate, that education phase might take you weeks because you might have 3 or 4 groups of stakeholders, your main point of contact who saw you at a dinner or at a wedding or you you saw them at the gym, you talked to them, yeah, they liked you, you got on a Zoom call with them, you went over your product, your solution, your service, they loved it, but then they still have to get the financial, the finance people on board, they still have to get, you know, the CFO on board, they still have to get the IT people on board because IT might be involved in implementing your solution, they still have to get— If the small business, maybe the owner, the CEO on board, so depending on the complexity of what you're selling and also the size of the project, keep in mind that you might have different within these phases, education, as we said in this example, you might, it might take a long time to get a group of or groups of 4 to 5 stakeholders involved And on board with what you're offering. And that's just part of the process. It is not something to be frustrated about. Now, if you're selling a $500 project or a $1,000 project or a $2,000 project, it should be— things should flow faster. I'm talking about the US market, um, probably a single decision maker. But if you're starting to sell things $5,000, $10,000, $25,000 And above, typically you'll go through more of that diligence and more of that process. So don't let that frustrate you. Just understand it is part of selling. It's part of business. And you never know how long these things take. According to research, a sales cycle for B2B, large, larger enterprise solutions, just the sales, not implementation, could take anywhere from 3 to 9 months. Wow. So be prepared for that, and don't put all your efforts and all your eggs in one basket, and just this one lead is going to give me this $50,000 project, and it's just going to make my day, it's going to make my week, my month, my quarter. Have more leads and more— plant more seeds, and have more leads in the pipeline, so in a way, you're having like staggered deal flows going on, in case one is delayed, Mm-hmm. One is put on hold, one is canceled, you still have other leads going for you. Okay? So that is on the funnel. One thing here before I go to the next stage or the next point is that as we said earlier, and I'm a data person, I come from an analytics background, published a book on that back in 2016, but I want you to also have some math around your pipeline. And if you're using a CRM like a HubSpot, like a Salesforce, Pipedrive, they have a lot of these reports in there. Keep that data clean and monitor it on a weekly basis. Or if you're using my DIY CRM, then you can just— you'll see it. I have actually— I built a pivot table in that worksheet that you can use. So it tells you the different leads you have and what stage they are in. and your win rates and all that good stuff. But the idea here is you can keep it very straightforward. How many leads am I getting every week? Of those leads, how many are qualified? Of those, how many I'm educating or I'm presenting demos for? And then how many proposals I'm sending? And then what is the outcome? Am I closing 1 in 20, like my win rate way back then? Is it now improving to 10? 10 out of 20, you know, of every 2 proposals I close 1, that's awesome if you're there, 50%, right? So track and don't just track how many deals I'm closing or I'm losing, look at every phase, look at leads to qualified leads, look at From qualified leads to proposals. Look at the ratio from proposals to closing a deal because each one of these phases or these stages, that ratio tells you a different story. So if you're getting a lot of leads but only a few of them are qualified, the issue is most likely that you're getting better at qualifying leads. That's good. That's not an issue, but it could be that you're not getting enough leads. your marketing efforts are, I don't want to say wasted, but they're spread in a way where you're attracting people who are not qualified for your solution, so you can be better, you can do better targeting, so if you're going, let's say you target small businesses and you go to a networking event or you go to a conference and everyone there is C-level at a mid-sized company or at an enterprise like a Fortune 1000, Fortune 500, you're connecting with them but you're just not ready to serve these clients. So yes, you have potential leads for the future but for now they're not qualified for you. So, or the opposite, if you're set up to serve the enterprise and you're networking in your local Chamber of Commerce and most people who are attending these events are small business owners, then there's a mismatch between the people you're getting and the leads you're getting and the qualified opportunities you're going after. So every analysis, if you track the math of the pipeline, leads to qualified leads, from qualified leads to proposals, from proposals to closed deal, excuse me, if you track these well, then you'll have a better understanding where the leak is in the pipeline, and then you can do something about improving it. Good. We're moving to the last point that I want to cover today. And again, thank you for those of you who are live with us. If you have a specific question or a comment or a story, something that worked really well for you that you'd like to share, I'd love to hear from you. And for those of you who are listening or watching later, don't hesitate to leave me a comment, and I'll be— I will make sure that I'll address them. I made that commitment at the beginning of this session, and I will, I will make sure I'll address your question or your comment. Now, if you're hesitant to leave a lot of details on, uh, on YouTube or on LinkedIn, maybe you haven't told anyone yet that you're starting a business and, and you want to keep that private, email me at info@startupwithferas.com. .com. Feras is spelled like my first name, you see on the screen here, F-E-R-A-S. And I'll be more than happy to reply to your email with some, uh, some tips. So, so don't hesitate, don't hesitate. I do dedicate a few hours every week to help those who are starting, those who are struggling. A lot of people helped me along the way, and this is my way of paying it forward. All right, the 4th point, and it is about the proposal discipline, and I did address it very briefly early on when, uh, when I talked about— when the question was asked about I lose at pricing. Uh, so we have someone here, Think Wide 2006. Hi, bro. Hello, thank you for tuning in. If you have a question, please go ahead, um, go ahead and, and answer it. So, uh, why no one here typing? I don't know. We have people live with us here on different platforms, LinkedIn, YouTube, and others, so If you have a question, type it. I'll be more than happy to answer it, and I am speaking, and the mic is working. If you are, if you can't hear me, maybe check the speaker on on your system. All right, going on. So so so proposals here, the proposal discipline proposals are not brochures. So when you send a proposal, whether it's a formal document or It's an email proposal depending on the client. Don't think of the proposal as a final document that is going to close the deal or a final step in this process of selling and winning a client. So I want you, before you send— if you get one thing out of this session today, if you are talking to clients and there's interest and you believe you can help them, don't rush to send a proposal. I want you to first identify that— you identify the pain points that this client has, and you ask them a series of questions. And, and I have a template on getting— gathering client requirements, all of that. So, so I'll put it— I'll put the link in the description. But understand what the issues are and that you can solve those issues. Then have a good understanding about who makes decisions. Is it the person you're talking to? Is it 2, 3 other people in their company? And what other concerns do these other stakeholders have? Again, the finance department will have financial concerns. The IT department will have security concerns. The COO or the CEO will want to make sure there's a positive ROI on buying the service that you offer. So understanding the different decision makers and their— what is it that they're looking for from the solution that you offer will help you address this in the sales process, whether it's formally addressed in the document or when you meet, when you schedule a meeting, let's say a follow-up formal meeting to pitch, to present to the stakeholders, you're prepared to address their needs and the questions that they have. And then the other thing is, are they looking for something right away? Are they just researching and getting to know more about the marketplace in a formal setting— sorry, in a formal government purchasing process, or in large enterprises they have RFIs, requests for information, or they have RFPs or RFQs. So a lot of times, uh, clients want to know the latest technologies, they want to— they're planning for next year's upgrade, what have you. They're not ready to buy right now. I'm not saying you ignore these leads, it's just understand where they're— where they are on their own buying cycle so you can then plan the way you want to follow up with them differently than if someone is about to buy next week. So understand the urgency of buying. That's really important. So understand the— diagnose the problem, understand the desired outcomes, make sure the scope is very well defined. What's included? What is it that you'll be doing? What's not included? What is it that you want the client or a third party to do? And then the specific Milestones, all of that will be super helpful to you. Well, I would say prerequisite to winning a proposal, a quote, a deal. So before you rush to sending proposals, make sure you have that information. And then I cover a lot of this in this Ultimate Guide to Proposals for those of you who, let me share my screen here, one second. You should be able to see it right now here. Yep, if you go to the channel again, this channel is @StartupWithFeras, and if you scroll down to here, uh, Why Most Consultants Lose Deals at the Proposal Stage. This is an hour and 4 minutes where I go through the entire step-by-step playbook to improve your close rate from 1 in 20 like mine was, or like 1 in 10 to 1 in 3 and even better. So check out this guide on proposals and the Ultimate Guide to Proposals if you have questions about, if you're struggling with proposals, but that's what I wanted to cover today. It's about a mindset. When you start a new business, when you are a founder, when you are a business owner, you are responsible for sales. You are responsible to generate revenue. You cannot delegate this. You cannot outsource this function initially. Later you can. You can hire a more seasoned salesperson, all that good stuff. But initially you need to build that marketing muscle, that sales muscle, and learn how to deal with objections, with rejection, all All of that is important. And then again, you're not a sleazy salesperson. You are helping people solve their problems and you're not begging for money. You're not asking for charity. You're exchanging the value that you offer, the solution that you offer with compensation. So that's really important. And then make sure with that mindset is that you have a KPI, how many new conversations am I having every week? You have— the numbers have to work out. The numbers have to make sense. If it takes you 20 people to close a deal, that means you have to be talking to 20 people before you close your first deal. And then the last point here is again, back to the proposal, which you can check out in the video I mentioned on the channel. That is it for today. If you have any questions or any comments, send me some Send me a— leave a comment on the platform you're at, on LinkedIn or Facebook or Instagram or YouTube, and check out the channel at startupwithferus.com, at Startup with Feras on YouTube, and then if you want to send me an email, go ahead and send it to info@startupwithferus.com. So go out and put that number, how many sales conversations are you going to have next week? Put it in the comment and tell me the week after. How those sales conversations went. That's it for today. See you next time.