Twenty years in sales, and I still remember the moment I knew this call was dead.
Sales is a journey. It’s about solving someone else’s problem through human connection - not pushing a one-time transaction. What is it not - it’s not a one time thing and it’s not focused on actually selling. Good sales process is focused on human connection, starting between the people who are talking - the seller and the buyer, and going on to the connection between the product or the service and the buyer. Basically, it’s all about listening and about solving a problem.
People don’t buy most products because they need them. They buy because of how the seller makes them feel.
The trick here is - if the buyer already knows whether he needs the product or not, then it all comes down to genuine connection. After all, the sales process doesn’t end after the purchase and your buyer is your best marketing tool that has the power to be your brand ambassador.
On one idle Tuesday, I received a cold email from a company claiming they can get me more clients. They claimed they charge only once I close the deal with my client. This seemed very interesting because I rarely hear about this type of guarantee. This is what got me hooked - and this is where I give them 5 stars - the offer was too good to be true. In sales journey, this is extremely important and if you get this part right, you are on a good path. It’s crucial, however, that you also honour that agreement and deliver that guarantee. Otherwise, the trust is completely broken and the business is dead once that happens. Never overpromise and never give guarantees if you can’t deliver them.
As cold emails usually go, they send a reminder if you didn’t reply. So, I replied after the second email and we scheduled a meeting.
The meeting already started poorly. The person came off like he was on a high horse. Instead of introducing himself, his role, the company he works for and the product, so that I have a little bit of a background of who am I talking to and with whom will I potentially do business with, he immediately started with his sales script and bombarded me with 20+ questions about my company and lots and lots of details so he can eventually calculate the potential results in his system. He spoke like he was qualifying me, not helping me.
After 20 minutes of interrogation, I stopped and said that I would like to know a little bit more about what can they actually do for me. After all, it is them who contacted me and not the other way around. So, what is it that you are offering me, what problem can you solve for me and how much do your services cost? And then let me decide if I want to do business with you.
And he had the upper hand without even noticing it. He had the guarantee that he completely forgot about.
What I noticed with the modern sales scripts, is they try to make the prospect feel like they don’t need you. Their focus is on: “I will ask you everything to find out about you and then I will decide if you can be our customer.” This is extremely damaging for the whole relationship and it’s built on the wrong foundations. Instead, it should be built solely around them being able to solve a problem I have. A long term business relationship is not built on aggressive sales.
After I interrupted him and took over the sales call with my questions, he got lost. I saw it in his eyes that he knew he was losing me. He talked a little bit about the platform they are using (not their own software) and literally just one sentence on how they do it. I had more questions but the conversation was already dead at that point. It ended up with him saying that he doesn’t know if they can get me any results before he asks me all of the questions he had. After one more question, he decided that he cannot help me and said that “we are not on the same energy level”. What a horrible way to end a conversation, especially after it is them who contacted me.
There were so many things he could have done better. For starters, every question on a sales call is an opening to find out more about your prospect; to learn about their fears and desired outcome. Every question is an invitation to a deeper conversation. If you will stick to your sales questions, you are disregarding the most important part of the call - the person.
Another thing what could have been improved is something I mentioned several times already - what problem can they solve for me, what is the desired outcome? What does their company do and how they do it? What sets them apart from their competitors?
And if he had listened, he would have known that I was looking for those answers. He knew my business, my MRR, my ICP and my experience. I told him point blank that we can explore this together for a potential future collaboration not just for me, but also for my clients. There was so much potential here and everything went down the drain just because he wanted to sell me something now.
If your sales call doesn’t feel like a conversation, it’s already over.