Katie McManus says new business owners kill sales calls by talking too much instead of listening. Effective sellers talk 20% of the time and ask diagnostic questions about the prospect's problems. Stop trying to be smooth and start asking what they're struggling with.
If you're struggling to get clients for your new business and you absolutely hate doing sales calls, then I want you to listen up. Many people get this one thing wrong and this one thing will prevent your business from ever taking off, from ever generating a full time income for you. And that one thing is this. They believe that being good at sales, being effective at sales, to get high paying clients means that you have to be a smooth talker. That is so far from the truth. Because to be good at sales, you actually have to be a deep listener. And I'll tell you why. Oh, and hi. I help ADHD business owners make more money in less time with fewer distractions. I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach. Go ahead and like and follow for more tips and tricks on how you can grow your business. So here's why being a smooth talker and having an amazing pitch just doesn't work in a sales call. This person who has booked a sales call with you, they have shown up, they are on the phone with you, they booked this call because they have a problem that they're hoping that you can solve. And if you believe that being good at sales means that you have to be a smooth talker, then here's what I bet is happening. When you get them on the phone, you just start talking. You start telling them about how you work with clients, what you do, what makes what you do special, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But what you don't realize is that this person doesn't actually care how you're going to solve their problem. If you were a magic belly dancer and by belly dancing in front of them would just solve anything that was going wrong in their life, they would be like, dance, bitch, dance. And I hope this doesn't hurt your feelings, but when you're on a sales call with someone, you do not matter. They matter. And the best salespeople, when they're on a call with a prospective client, will only talk a max of 20% of the time. And when they do talk, they're asking questions. They're trying to get to the root of why this client is having this issue and understand deeply if they're the right solution for this person. And only if they think that what they sell will be the right solution for this prospective client will they even ask this person to buy. So the next time you're on a sales call, I want you to try this one thing and tell me how it works. I want you to just ask them what they're struggling with what they're frustrated with, what they're afraid of, and hold your lips shut so that you can't jump in and talk. And I also want to say that I know this is hard. Even the clients who come to me who are building a business after working for decades in the sales industry still have to be retrained on how they sell their own services because the vibe is completely different. And if you want to learn how to sell your services in a way that doesn't feel gross and pushy, then I want you to DM me and we'll hop on a call.
