173. How to Suck at Sales Calls

Every failed sales call makes at least one of three tragic mistakes. If you want to suck at sales calls, then keep doing these three things. But if you want to make more money, avoid these common mistakes. Mistake number one is forgetting the agenda. I recently reviewed over 12 hours of discovery and sales calls, and every successful sales call had an agenda firmly established at the top of the call. I'm not talking about a vague structure. They told the buyer exactly what to expect. Here's how I like to set the tone. Hey, Bill, on today's call, I'd like to ask a few questions to gain a deeper understanding of your company and to determine if my firm would even be able to help you. At the end of the call, if there's a chance that we might be able to help, I'd like to schedule a second call with you. On that call, we'll dive into what the scope might look like. If we get alignment on scope, I'll share pricing and then we can talk about next steps. Sound good? Why is detailed agenda settings so critical? Because without an agenda, buyers lead you down rabbit holes. They bring up pricing too early, they give you their entire life story, or they try to get you to solve their problems during the call. This is bad because you don't want to get into tactical problem solving before you've turned the prospect into a cl. You've gotta keep these calls focused on your agenda. If you want to maximize the chances of turning potential buyers into clients. Make these agenda clear from the start so that the only surprises are the prospect's shock at how well your services are going to meet their needs. Forgetting the agenda is a huge mistake, but this next blunder is even more frustrating because it has such an easy fix. The fix is so powerful that it can double or triple your sales in under 12 months. Mistake number two is skipping the fam Bam. This mistake comes at the end of the call. You see, the successful calls that I reviewed remembered to stick the landing at the end of every call. They booked the next meeting right on the spot. The firms that flopped, they said something like, I'll send an email later and we can set up a call. Or let me circle back once you've got some more time. Guess what? That call never happens and nobody ever circles back. This kills momentum and leaves prospects in no man's land. Never leave prospects in no man's land. That's where sales go to die. Luckily, there's an easy way to fix this problem. I use a tactic that Alex Hormozi calls for. Fam Bam. Finish A meeting. Book a meeting. Now, it might sound self explanatory, but the name makes it so easy to remember and it's been a game changer for me. Booking a meeting at the end of every call keeps the sales process moving forward and maintains your momentum. Just remember fam bam until it's second nature and your close rate and run rate will skyrocket in no time. But let's zoom out, because as crucial as it is to stick the landing with the fam bam, you'll never get there if you commit this next mistake. Mistake number three is not having a process. You set the agenda and you're ready to fam bam. Now all you have to do is put on the charm and the rest will take care of itself, right? Not so much. That's what most of the fractional CFOs that I reviewed thought, but the results showed that they were dead wrong. Between the agenda and the fam bam, you need a repeatable process, a framework that positions you as the leader in the conversation. Every part of that process should serve the purpose of the call. The purpose of the discovery call is to qualify the prospect as a buyer and to book the sales call. I think of the discovery process as a series of questions that I need to get answered by the end of the call. The answers to these questions help me determine if a potential buyer is even qualified to work with my firm. Here's some of the first questions that I have to get answers to during my discovery call process. What's going on in your business? What problems are you facing? What have you tried to fix the problems before? What have you thought about trying that you haven't tried yet? And why is this problem such a challenge for your business? I also ask questions about revenue, profitability and cash position. Now, most fractional CFOs would just stop right there, but that's why they suck at sales calls. You're going to take things a step further. I also like to ask what else is at stake, because it's rarely just about the numbers. The true cost to the owner is the stress keeping them up at night, the tension that they feel at home, the dreams they've had to put on hold, that feeling that they're not who they used to be. That's what's really at stake and that's where you can make the biggest impact at the heart of the problem. Then I like to ask them what a win looks like, what results do they need to see and how quickly do they need to see those results? These questions add tremendous value to your discovery process. If the prospect has unrealistic expectations, it's better to know those now so you can just move on. If they have urgent but realistic needs, then they just made your onboarding pitch so much easier. I was recently able to charge a $40,000 onboarding fee because of the answer to this exact question. Now look, they're not going to all be this big, but asking the buyer to define a win and their timeline opens up that opportunity. Finally, ask the buyer about their decision making process and their timeline for making a decision. This reveals how the clients work through decisions and when you can expect to sign the client. If they don't have a decision making process strongly consider walking away as these clients are typically a nightmare to work with. For me, if their timeline for making a decision is more than 30 days out, I kill the process right there and I tell them that we should talk again once they're closer to being ready to make a decision. But if they have a process and their timeline is 30 days or less, they're qualified to move forward. Which means that it's time to hit them with your fam. Bam. And and you should book the sales call right here on the spot. Now let's talk about the sales call. The goal of the sales call is to collaboratively build the scope of work with the buyer and to close the deal. The process starts just like the discovery call. First, you set the agenda. Let them know that you're going to recap what you've heard on the discovery call. You'll then work on the scope of work together and then if you're in alignment, you'll go over pricing and next steps. Remind them that this is a collaboration and that you want to encourage their feedback. This should be a dialogue, not a monologue. After the agenda, it's time to recap the previous conversation. Go over every everything you heard them say on the discovery call and asked if you missed anything. I see a lot of people rushing through this part of the sales call. I tend to spend a good 20 or 30 minutes here making sure that I didn't miss any of the key details and making sure they didn't leave anything out. Once you're on the same page, move on to the scope of work. At this point, I like to walk them through my typical monthly scope, but I'm careful to use their words and their problems to help frame the conversation. They've already given you the answers. Now you're just offering exactly what they asked for before moving on to the next part of this Ask for feedback. What did I miss? What did I leave out? What were you hoping to hear that I didn't cover? Once you're aligned on the monthly scope of work, proceed to the onboarding scope of work. Present your normal onboarding items which might include a 13 week cash flow forecast, looking at tax returns and doing deep dives into their businesses. You know all the usual things, but you also want to pitch solutions to the time sensitive challenges that they may have mentioned during discovery. This might include helping them with an ERP implementation, a board presentation, an investor pitch, or helping them get a big SBA loan across the finish line. This is how you're going to earn those big onboarding fees. Once you finalize the onboarding and the ongoing scope, ask them if there's anything in there that they think is unnecessary or that they don't need. Also, ask if there's anything they had hoped would be included in their scope that they just don't see. These two questions are huge for uncovering potential objections. Last year I had a buyer mention that she thought she was going to need more than two calls per month with her cfo, which is typical for our monthly scope of work. I acknowledged her concern and reminded her that she can always just ask her CFO for any additional calls that she needs. Now it's true we had covered this earlier in the scope of work process, but she had just forgot about it. Had I not uncovered her concern here, she would have almost certainly ended up walking away because she thought her needs weren't going to be met. Once you have scope alignment now ask the buyer on a scale of 1 to 7, how confident are you that this scope is exactly what you need to hit the goals that we talked about earlier. If their answer is anything less than a seven, stop in your tracks and ask what it would take to get them to a seven. This is where last minute objections are typically going to surface. This is your last chance to proactively address those objections before you get to pricing. I've learned time and time again that if those hidden objections aren't addressed before pricing, everything dies. This is also a final opportunity for you to flex your problem solving skills and to prove your value. Personally, I treat these sixes and below like gold and I embrace them as opportunities. Don't get defensive here. Get curious. Once you have your seven, it's pricing time. Be direct and just say your price. Do it just like this. Great. Based on the scope that we just agreed to, the onboarding fee is $15,000 and the ongoing fractional CFO services are $6,000 a month. Then just shut up, stop talking and let them break the silence. Typically what happens is that there's an awkward silence for five to 10 seconds. It's going to feel like five to 10 minutes. Then the buyer, they're going to start talking about how if you can help them solve X, Y and Z problems or help them hit 1, 2, 3 goals, then your fee really feels like a no brainer. You might be nervous, but if you followed your process, it's going to be a yes almost every single time. When they do say yes, you're going to be fist pumping internally. But keep your cool and ask them to take out their calendar so that you can book the onboarding call. That's the last step to seal the deal. Pencil in the onboarding and send over the agreement. Boom. You've made the sale. And it's all thanks to the dedication to a proven process. So let's recap. If you want to suck at sales calls, skip the agenda, wing the call, and leave without booking the next meeting. But if you want to win, own your process, set the agenda, follow your framework and fam bam every time. All right my friends, I hope you found this episode helpful. If you did, it would mean the world to me if you would leave a five star review on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you're listening to this episode. In the meantime, I can't wait to see you back right here next week. I'll see you then.