The Simple 4 Step Process to Increasing Sales Conversions

Do you hate sales conversations? I used to. Whenever someone asked about my services, I’d enthusiastically describe what I did, but I had no clue how to convert that exuberance into a sale. If I tried, I wound up sounding apologetic and uncomfortable. Those conversations never led to anything other than my own embarrassment and fears about whether I’d ever be able to meet my financial goals. I finally found an amazingly effective selling technique, which I learned about as a participant in Michael Port’s Book Yourself Solid School of Coaches. What I love about it is that it doesn’t require following a script, using gimmicky closing techniques, sharpening my skills of persuasion or planting subliminal messages in my marketing. The key to this super simple selling system depends on knowing that you’re speaking to the *right* person. Recognizing who that right person is becomes easy once you’re crystal clear on who you’re serving—your target market—and what are the biggest results you generate for them. Pause for a second and create your “WHO and DO WHAT” statement. Who do you work with and what are the biggest benefits you provide for them? Here’s mine: “I help service professionals get more done in less time.” I know I’m speaking to the right person if they have a service-based business and aren’t progressing as fast as they want to, because they have to handle way too much in the amount of time they have. Once you know you’re talking to the right person, all you have to do is guide them through this graceful four step process:  

1. Ask them about their goals

What are they working towards?  What are they trying to achieve? In my case, people answer: “I want to take my business to the next level,” or “I want to finally have the freedom I was aiming for when I first started my business,” or “I’ve got to create a more-or-less balanced schedule.”   

2. Clarify what their success will look like

How will they know that they have achieved success?  What will be the signs?  How will it make them feel? Here is what I hear a lot from my clients: “I’ll know I’ve reached my goal when I double my income,” or “when my to-do list stops choking me,” or “when I stop putting my business before my husband and our baby,” or “when I can make dinner that doesn’t start with opening the freezer.”   

3. Find out if they’d like someone to help them achieve that success

Do they have a plan?  Do they know what steps to take?  Can they do it by themselves? 

• If they say that they’ve got it handled, wish them all the best and stay in touch.
• If they say that depends, clarify what it depends on.
• And if they say that they’d like some help, ask them the next question.

4. Ask if they want that person to be you

Give them a feel for what it’s like to collaborate with you and address their concerns from the previous questions. You really want to show them how you can help them make their dream scenario a reality. Note that this isn’t some generic script. It’s an underlying structure—a system—for naturally and tactfully generating sales. Is a sale a guaranteed?  Of course not. However, you can bank on the fact that this kind of conversation will leave both you and your potential client feeling empowered and excited. Why? Because you’re having a genuine exchange that allows both of you to shine, an exchange that makes it easier for you to be in sync with each other.  

Challenge: In the comments below, share your one-sentence “WHO and DO WHAT” statement (who you work with and what you do for them).