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Everyone wants to grow their business, but not everyone has the time or patience to learn all the ins and outs of marketing, sales enablement, and making the most out of a CRM such as HubSpot. Join the Web Canopy Studio team, a HubSpot Diamond Partner Agency, as they chat about various topics all designed to help you grow your B2B business.
So why are we doing this. Why should we care? John can you just give us a script to follow and be done with it?
you will have a complete sales process, mapped out for your team to follow. And the best part is, it’s scalable. That means as you start landing more business and you need to hire more salespeople, you’re going to have a documented process, SET IN STONE, that they will be able to follow. No more winging it, no more offering a million things to everyone and expecting your new salespeople to have to follow along. It’s not like that.
And even those of you not using HubSpot… first off you should be… but if you’re not and you’re using a different tool, you will be able to apply these same principles to your own tools you’re using. Just know that we’re setting everything up from a HubSpot perspective, and you might have to get creative about how to actually do this on your own.
If you’re not using HubSpot and you’re interested in it, please bring that up to us as we can guide you through the process and make sure you get what you need!
We do a lot of work with companies who sell consulting services or high end software products, and this is what almost all of their sales processes look like.
At first, we’re going to get people on a call, we’re going to schedule a time to meet, or maybe you’re doing it in person, and you’re going to get to have some initial conversations with them.
Then we’re going to start asking them some background questions about their business in order to show them we’re interested in them, and we’re going to hopefully be able to position our company as a solution. We’re just waiting to get the opportunity to say “here’s how we’re going to help you”
Then when the time is right, we’re going to start pitching to them. We’re finally at the point where we’ve been hoping to get to, and we’re going to start showing them features of our product or our service. This could be a demo, or maybe it’s a slide deck that outlines all the features and benefits of working with our company. These calls typically are the favorite because it’s when you can really highlight your company and the cool things you guys do and why clients need to have access to that.
Then our goal is to either get them to commit to another call so we can continue to help them understand why we’re a good fit, OR, we want them to get to the point where we can send them a proposal so we have their permission to get the sale on the table and start negotiating.
This sounds accurate right? This sounds good. That’s a pretty good sales process right there.
WRONG!
This is a bad sales process that’s actually not going to yield us positive results. And most of you watching this, this is the same kind of process you’ve been doing in a roundabout way, I just know it. Why? Because that’s what everyone does, that’s what I did for years too in my business.
This is why we see lower results in conversion rates of sales. Now, I hear all the time from people, “If I just get them to the sales process and get them through, we have an exceptionally high close rate, we close almost all of them, we just need that volume to go up.” I hear that all the time.
So I agree with those statements too, because yes in fact if you can get the prospect to the point where you’re doing nothing but pitching and they are sticking around to hear you pitch to them over and over and tell them why you’re the greatest, I’d hope they’d be willing to buy! But how many people are we actually getting to that sales process? We’re pretty far off, and that’s what we’re going to work on.
In order to run an effective sales process, specifically in the exploratory call which we’ll get to in a moment about what that actually means, We have to sell backwards.
What this means is that throughout your call, you’re going to get away from the idea of pitching, and you’re going to start getting them answer questions regularly, and specifically about the objections that you know are going to come up, so you can start to diagnose their problems quickly and easily.
If you know what their objections are likely going to be, you’re going to be able to cover those topics smoothly in your conversation, remove those barriers on the front end, so when you actually do go to transition into a pitch or discuss setting up your next call, you’ve already taken down their reasons to say “no” so the sale is much easier to move into a close.
Does that make sense? Write down some questions to throw our way if you’re stuck, so we can discuss on the call this week, okay
You have to approach your sales calls… as if you are a doctor trying to understand your patient’s situations. You are not going to treat these calls like someone can come in and demand a list of your services or products and how much they charge, because you’re not a McDonald’s menu. You’re not selling something that everyone else sells. You are not a commodity.
A patient isn’t going into a doctor’s office and saying “hey Dr. Bill look, I have a really weird thing going on with my shoulder, it’s hurting in a really bad way, my range of motion is not what it used to be, when I move it like this it get a lot of pain on the backside of the muscle here… so I’m going to go ahead and I’ll get a prescription for some pain medicine, probably some muscle relaxers, if you could throw in a medical massage that’d be great, and then do you guys have any specials right now I should know about, or any deals you could throw my way since I’m a valued customer? It’s end of the month right, you have a quota to fill, can I get a deal?”
Let me tell you another pretty common scenario. We’ll have prospects or existing clients come to us and say “John what I’d really like to do is set up some time to talk with you and get a fee from you because I want to tweak some stuff on my website, I want to do some social media stuff, and I want to have some workflows built in HubSpot.”
Now to most agencies, that sounds like a decent deal, maybe a few thousand bucks to get some project work done. I’d say more often than not, an agency that hears that is going to come to that meeting, take their order, maybe pitch a few extra things as added bonus items, and then give them a fee for what they’ve requested.
But that’s not how I’m going to handle that call. What I’m going to do, is I’m going to book that call and I’m going to let them ramble on for a moment. I’m going to ask them what compelled them to take the call today, because sometimes people will just need to word vomit all the stuff they’ve been holding inside. I’m going to listen to what all the requests are that they have, and I’m going to say something like this.
“Sarah, that’s awesome, thank you for the background info, and we can definitely help with all of these things. If you don’t mind, I’d like to ask you a few questions first so I can have a better understanding of where you’re at, and if it makes sense I can walk you through the different ways we might be able to help you with what you’re looking for. Does that sound good?” She’s GOING to say yes, and now I’ve just positioned myself away from simply taking her orders at the drive thru, because I’m going to now run my full diagnostic.
I told her straight up, “we can definitely take care of that for you,” which we absolutely would. However, I need to run my diagnostic process first so I can get a better sense of where their business is at and collect all the necessary items I need to help them grow, and to get them to start thinking differently.
Just like a doctor would respond to your shoulder concern, he’s going to say “yes I’ll definitely want to take a look at that. First let’s talk through a few other things. When is the last time you had a physical? How many drinks to do you have in a week. How many hours a day would you say you spend sitting at a desk. Do you have a history of heart disease in your family.” and things like that. He’s going to acknowledge and address the pain, but he’s going to table it for a moment while he does his diagnostic.
So if that’s the case, then what exactly is the right funnel process to use?
What is a proper sales funnel?
There are several professionals out there that will guide you through extensive programs, but for the most part, unless you’re a massive sales team with 20 reps out there, those are going to do nothing but confuse you. If you’re a 1 5 person sales operation, or maybe even a little more, this is going to streamline everything you’re doing and get you the fastest time to close.
So a proper sales funnel today is using the inbound sales methodology. This comes directly from our good friends at HubSpot, and is an incredibly awesome resource. They actually have a lot of additional training inside the academy if you’d like to do some additional research on your own.
The sales methodology is working through 4 primary stages, each with their own primary outcome.
First, we’re going to IDENTIFY who it is we should be working in sales anyway. Remember, not all our leads are sales ready. Identify is about finding good fit prospects and getting them into your sales funnel. You’re going to prioritize those that seem to check all the boxes, or as many as possible, and move them to the next stage.
Then, we’re going to start a systematic process to CONNECT with them, one by one, in a multiple outreach formula in order to get them moving which we’ll be giving to you in a step by step process. The goal will be to book an exploratory call with them so we can keep them excited and start to qualify them.
Once we’re there, we’re in the Explore stage, which is where we’re going to have a diagnostic call to really get to understand their pains and challenges, and get them primed for services. This is the meat of the sales process and where you’re going to start to build mega trust with them, so we’re going to spend a good amount of time here in this stage. The goal is to get their permission to hear what you can do for them, and to learn how you can help them.
Lastly, we’re in the advise stage. Here is where you’re going to take all your awesomeness about what it is you’re going to do for them, and you’re going to position this nicely in a way that pitches to them and gets their buy in through out.
Once we exit the advise stage, they either buy or they don’t! And we’ve got tips along the way that will help you become more consistent in each stage so you can improve your conversions.
Again, if you have questions, number 1, we’re about to break all this open in detail, so that might help clean it up. And number 2, write them down and get ready for your call with us so we can get into the weeds with you and help you work through them.
And guys, one more thing before we move forward… I just want to remind you, this is like my MOST favorite thing in the world right here is working through sales processes. You’ve already got your offer designed, so you’re rock solid on what you’re going to be positioning remember we’re not selling a million services as a starter here, you have the one primary offer now that you’re positioning and you’re going to expand on that after. So now you’re about to build a 100% scalable repeatable process for your business. AND I’M SO EXCITED for you to see this all come together, when that click happens for you it’s going to be so good!
And we’re going to do that by starting in the explore phase by working through the exploratory call.
Why. Why are we doing this first.
When we were evaluating if we should just start at the beginning and work our way through, we had to say no. Because for one, just like the patterns that have emerged about this, we’re working backwards in the sales process. We’re not starting at the beginning and going slowly through from start to finish because that would take the longest to actually get to results, and wouldn’t deliver the value you need right away. Remember, no one wants to sign up for an 8 week weight loss program and not be allowed to start losing weight until after the 8th week is finished.
So we’re starting in Explore. The other reason is, many of you watching this already have some sales calls lined up. You might not have much quantity there, but you likely have something lined up this week or next week that you will be able to start working right away. This call is the primary sales call. So, if someone books in your calendar, or you meet at a conference and they agree to have a meeting with you, this is that meeting. Connect stage, which we’ll get into in a bit, is a short, sweet, and to the point call in order to book this call. But remember, people can JUMP right up to the front of the line if they raise their hand and want to have a conversation with you.
So in this call, we’re going to give you a script to walk through and a process in order to make this a flawless discovery that leads people into the next stage.
Next we’re going to work through the Advise stage with an advisory call. This is how we’re going to get people to close. If you’re in software, this is likely a demo. Now if someone books a demo, you may need to combine the two calls together. Likewise, if you’re selling a consulting program or something a little lower ticket that’s like $1,000 or $2,000, you can also 1 call close here with explore and advise.
However with the Advisory call, we’re going to recap the explore call, show people how they’re in one place, remember being stuck, and then show them how they want to get to another place, remember becoming unstuck, and then you’re going to position your recommendation in that situation which is the bridge to get them from point A to point B. This might include a proposal afterwards, it might not. However, this is the call where we’re going to move the prospect to close and get them to buy in to what we’re doing.
Next, step 3, we’re going to move back into the connect stage which is where we cover… you guessed it! the connect call. There’s actually a lot that goes into this process beyond just a call, which we will be exploring here.
The connect call is about taking the list of people you’ve identified as good fits, and then working them into a process in order to schedule an exploratory call. This is going to be a series of emails, calls, and linkedin outreach more than likely.
Lastly, in step 4 we’re going all the way back to identify, which is how you’re going to go through your list of targets and prioritize those that are good fit. This will tell you exactly who you should target in the connect phase. Obviously we can’t just start calling everyone and their brother because there’s no consistent growth there and you’re likely going to end up striking out so much that you’re going to be burned out and just stop.
The most important thing in all of this is to be consistent, don’t let the fear of rejection move in front of your goals, and understand that you’re going to have a lot more “no’s” than yes’s” bfore you get to the explore call.