The Best Sales Conversation You Can Have

How a Custom Sales System Creates Better Business Conversations 

Some small business owners, consultants, and service professionals think about a sales call, remember an awful salesperson they dealt with, and don’t want to be that salesperson in their business. They might dread doing sales but muster up the courage to do it anyway.

Some sales training encourages them to say the exact right words, deliver a flawless pitch, and have an immediate counter ready for every objection. The thought of that is kind of exhausting and not what they got into business for. But they keep reading and finding courses to get better.

A lot of sales training is really good but a lot of it isn’t designed to give a small business owner a sales system with a repeatable process they can customize for their business. So after reading and taking in information, they can have pieces of things that might not logically fit together.

The best sales conversation you can have doesn't feel like a sales pitch at all. It’s similar to a collaboration or brainstorming session that the salesperson has with the prospect to figure out what the best solution can be for them. The agenda is about the right solution for the right person.

To successfully do that, you need to understand how your products or services help your ideal customer and talk to the people who are your ideal customer. If you want sales calls that feel natural, relaxed, and consistently lead to new clients, there are some useful things to keep in mind.

How Do You Lead a Sales Call Without Being Pushy?

To lead a sales call without being pushy, you must shift your primary goal from closing every lead to diagnosing a problem and then finding the best solution and if that is something you offer.

Pushy sales tactics happen when a seller tries to force a fit before understanding what the client actually needs. Just because someone is interested in getting information and is receptive to what is being presented doesn’t mean it’s something that will work for what they are looking to do.

When you approach a call with genuine curiosity rather than an agenda to close, the entire dynamic changes. The prospect's defensive wall drops because they realize you are trying to understand them and help them find what will work.

Here are a few tips:

• Use an outline for the call: Having an outline for the conversation will help things flow more naturally. You can use this: Intro, Discovery, Company Info, Solutions, Offer, Close.

• Focus on a mutual fit: Treat the first call as an evaluation. You are deciding if they are a good client for you just as much as they are deciding if you are the right provider for them.

• Be an advocate: Be their confidant. Walk them through a process that addresses the result they want, what it will take for them to get that, and how that makes sense with the budget they have to work with.

• Find common ground in what works: You have to be sold on the solution more than your prospect is. A prospect will buy when they are sold on what you’re sold on. If I ever had a doubt about a solution, the buyer usually picked up on it and wouldn’t buy, which was a relief. It sucks to sell the wrong thing to someone.

How Much Should You Talk on a Sales Call?

You need to ask enough questions to get an understanding of what is needed. You want to listen enough for the prospect to feel understood. You have to talk enough to answer how many questions a prospect has and explain what they need to know about what you’re selling.

What you do need to be mindful of is knowing how much information a prospect needs to make a decision. Some products and services don’t need much explanation. Some people know quite a bit about what you’re offering and don’t need you to tell them what they already know. I had leads that knew way more than I did. I learned a lot from them. If you have someone who doesn’t know much, they will appreciate it when you take the time to explain things to them.

A lot of people naturally enjoy talking about themselves, their lives and their aspirations so it’s easy to learn about what they want. If you have someone who is not a talkative person, be sure to ask open-ended questions. Yes or no questions don’t get you far on a call. One of my greatest joys being in sales was listening to highly successful people talk about their businesses, what they did for marketing, and the choices they made in their lives.

If a prospect goes off on a tangent, having an outline is useful to bring the conversation back to where it needs to be focused. The best way to change direction with a prospect is to ask a question.

One time, I was listening to a sales rep on a call. The prospect started ranting about things he didn’t like. She politely listened. When he stopped for air, she asked him a question without addressing anything he had said. He went right along with her and gave her an answer.

Using an outline as part of your sales process for calls, makes it easier to focus on where the conversation needs to go. Sales reps I listened to who liked to wing it on calls sometimes got lost in the weeds with a prospect and had trouble finding the finish line. An outline for calls makes things easier.

What Are the Best Questions to Ask on a Sales Discovery Call?

The best questions make a prospect feel comfortable talking about their situation so you can have a real conversation. When I sold internet marketing, some leads wouldn’t let me ask any questions. They just wanted information. If you get someone like that, just do your best to be kind. They may not be your ideal customer so they may not buy from you.

When you think about your customers and what you sell, you might get some ideas about what to ask. The best questions for your business are going to depend on how customers engage with you. Is it online or in person?

It’s always good to ask a prospect what they are looking to accomplish and then ask about their situation. You’ll want to find out how soon they need what you’re selling and let them know if that’s feasible. Some people don’t plan ahead and come in with an idea that will take longer than they have to work with.

There’s a difference between a lead that found you online and is reaching out to get something as opposed to someone who answered an ad for a deal or someone who was contacted as a cold lead. You’ll want to adjust your process based on the kinds of leads you’re dealing with. Referrals are different from people who want to learn more about your business.

How Do You Move From Listening to Offering Your Solution?

When you’re working with a sales call outline, it’s easy to see when to move to the solution during the conversation. When you make that move, it’s good to start with an overview of what the prospect told you first. Then you can use a transition from what they want to how what you offer gives them the result they are looking for. You’ll want to come up with your own phrasing for things so you sound like yourself when you’re talking.

It’s important to get to the point in this part of the conversation. People buy things based on trust, value, and timing. You need to be confident and clear about what you do and the value you are offering to them. People like to buy. They do not like to be sold. So think about how you are as a customer who buys something. Then work backwards from that.

How Do You End a Sales Call Softly With a Clear Next Step?

When you have finished presenting what you offer, you move to the close. I always liked asking if the prospect was excited about the services I was selling. That gave me a good read on how they were feeling about it. It’s also good to tell people what will happen after they buy so they have the right expectations for what will happen next. If someone is coming in for a sale and they want the product or service, they will usually buy.

If they aren’t ready to buy, set up the next meeting, phone call or followup email. Not everyone is ready to buy when you first talk to them. Many people can take up to 90 days. I had clients who bought services after I followed up with them for two years.

Build a Sales Process That Fits Who You Are

When you structure your sales conversations around genuine curiosity, caring questions, and clear next steps, selling feels like a natural extension of your service.

If you want to build a simple, practical sales system for your business, check out Sales Without Being Pushy: Write a Simple Sales System You Will Actually Use on Amazon. It has 9 sections. Each one has a story, a sales lesson, a principle, and simple exercises that guide you through writing a piece of your sales system. At the end, you put them all together in one worksheet in Section 10 and have a sales system that reflects who you are, your values, and how you do business.

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