As cringy as it’s been, I’ve started rewatching my sales call recordings. I started recording them earlier this year (and no, no one has ever had a problem with it 🤷), so I have a few dozen calls I can analyze.
I’ve always been a “wing it” kind of guy on sales calls. I’m much more natural when I’m a little loose, so I’ve always used that as an excuse to do very little prep. Maybe I’d spend five minutes looking over their inquiry or clicking around their current site… But sometimes I wouldn’t even do that.
Admitting that (to you and to myself) makes it pretty obvious why I get off some sales calls on top of the world, and others wanting to crawl in a hole. That’s not much of a process, it’s just rolling the dice. Sometimes I got lucky, and when I didn’t it was easy to say “the client wasn’t a good fit”.
But the recordings made it pretty obvious… Winging it works fine when I already have context, know the client, understand the project, or have a good idea of what we’re trying to achieve. In those cases, being off-the-cuff worked in my favor.
But when I come in cold? It’s wheels-off. I’d miss follow-up questions, jump from one thing to another, and their obvious queues whizzed right by me completely unnoticed.
So my plan was to come up with something that would help me prepare and come into meetings with more clarity without restricting myself to a sales script. The result was a bit of a pre-flight checklist that takes about 5-10 minutes before each call:
- What did they say they need, and what else might they need? Look past “a website.” What did they say — specifically — in their first message, and what could I bring that makes my offer more attractive?
- What objections am I likely to face? We assume it’s price, but it could be their board, the timeline, or whether I know their industry. If I’ve thought about what they’re worried about, it’s easier to spot hesitation in the moment.
- What’s the objective of the call? Is it just to find out what they need? See if we’re a fit? Or are we trying to close a deal before we hang up? Being clear about the objective helps point me towards the landing strip.
- What questions do I need answer to in order to meet the objective? Three or four questions, so I can actually land the plane instead of circling around endlessly.
I’m sure you’ll be shocked to hear that doing a little prep before sales calls helps. Groundbreaking stuff 🤣
But the part that did surprise me was that I could literally see the difference. Watching back the recordings on my latest calls… I’m sitting up taller, I’m making more eye contact, and I’m not fidgeting with something on my desk.
I was afraid that having a process would make me too stiff and rehearsed, but these questions allow me to improvise with a little more intention.
Hopefully your sales aren’t as hot and cold as mine have been in the past, but if you’ve dealt with having both success and failure in one area, its worth examining what’s causing it to break one way or the other.
Here’s my pre-call template if it’s helpful to you:
- They asked for:
- They might also need:
- Likely objection(s):
- Objective of this call:
- Must-ask questions:
