Coaching for Closers: The Blueprint to Nail Sales Calls Every Time

This week’s episode lays out the blueprint for nailing sales calls every time. Em and Lex walk through their five step approach to sales calls in an effort to take the pressure off the idea of “making a sale” and instead offer a strategy that yields results. They take listeners through the evolution of a sales call, offering tips to change one’s mindset, tactics to change perspectives during a call, and the variety of ways to close on a sale. Em and Lex discuss everything from their preparation tips, like writing out a script beforehand, to the many ways listeners can succeed as a coach before the sales call ends. The skills needed to nail sales calls can take years to develop but luckily listeners of the Ready Set Coach podcast have Em and Lex to help grow their businesses. 

Here’s what you’ll learn: 

• Tips on how to naile sales calls every time
• How to successfully get clients from the sales funnel to the sales call
• How to overcome the intimidating aspects of selling
• Tips on the initial approach to a sales call 
• Tips on overcoming imposter syndrome
• The five step blueprint to nail a sales calls
• Tips on mindset and preparation for sales calls
• How Em and Lex’s experience allowed for smoother sales calls for RSC 
• And more!

Listener Links: 

Learn More about the Ready Set Coach Launch Pack: 

https://www.readysetcoachprogram.com/launch 

Follow Em & Lex on Instagram at @readysetcoachprogram

Join the Ready Set Coach Community: https://www.readysetcoachprogram.com/community

Learn more about the Ready Set Coach Program at Readysetcoachprogram.com

Learn more about Six Degrees Society and THEPRBAR inc.

Transcript

Emily Merrell 

Hello from the other side.

Lexie Smith 

It's been a minute Hi guys. Hi, Emily.

Emily Merrell 

Hi, Lexi. No, you record this to the cloud. Where does the cloud go? Where does the cloud live

Lexie Smith 

in the sky?

Emily Merrell 

Or is it like in the middle of the data

Lexie Smith 

center? If you're in actually fun fact, if you're in Los Angeles, it's probably in one Wilshire downtown Los Angeles. Guys, if you didn't know this about me, telecom tech nerd over here, came come come from telecom and tech most recently and I still service them on the agency side so the cloud likely lives in a data center. Probably I'm not sure

Emily Merrell 

we're weird thought to like wrap my brain direct brain around for some reason. Lexi not only do you come from that center, you also are head of it at ReadySet coach.

Lexie Smith 

Some days I rock it some days, I really should be fired although recently you did something techie.

Emily Merrell 

And then I lost it and I couldn't find it after the fact. So

Lexie Smith 

guys, we're here we're only human right? That's the point here. So speaking of humans, this was a really fun all over all over the place introduction. But right now we are recording the reason our brains are all over the place is we are recording this mid December. So if you are like us and you participate in holidays, then you are probably scrambling between life business gift giving out well okay, Emily, what is your role in the household? On

Emily Merrell 

on gift giving? Oh, that's a good question is on the holidays. My husband is Mr. Christmas. Like he loves Christmas. His big thing is matching pajamas. So I think in like early November, maybe October, he was already on The Pajama Game. So he got he gets them by by couples. You got the themes at last year we were Mr. and Mrs. Claus or child was an elf. So like this is his jam, jam. Buy. He loves ordering gifts like gift giving us his love language. For me, it is not my love language as much but my role is like the logistical role. So like I had to create photo books to send to all the inlaws and whatnot of what hap that was like our gift or you know, handling, coordinating like the photo shoot for holiday card and then ordering the follow the Holiday Card and stalking my husband to get updated addresses of all of his friends who cost so much to send to because they live in Canada for the photocards so I that was a long way to answer more of like the smaller logistical things, but he is the gift provider and divide

Lexie Smith 

and conquer situation. Also, I will say when I was in Denver in November, Greg was actively Christmas shopping. I do remember that he kept like coming into our meeting and be like, what size is this person? What? Oh, I haven't even thought about it yet. Oh,

Emily Merrell 

he loves that. It's so like it's He's Mr. holiday spirit. He hung up. Basically he's inspired by National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and he thinks himself like a Mr. Griswold and he hung up all we together hung up the lights. He was the one who got on the ladder. I was holding the ladder, saving his life. And so yeah, we hung up the lights together. We got the tree we decorated the tree together. We drink spiked chocolate while we decorated it. We're big on traditions together. How about you?

Lexie Smith 

Um, so I 100 I take 100% of gifts. No, yeah, 100% of them. Definitely my I'm Are you surprised though? I'm the Greg in your relationship in that lane. But I do take on 100% Not because he's unwilling just because I don't know my personality type. What he is into. There's two things he does around the holidays. One every holiday he makes beef jerky. And we gift that yeah, Jeremiah jerky is what we call it. Yeah, I made a I made a logo for it and everything like it's branded. And all like the men in our families get Jeremiah jerky and some of his friends so that's one of his big projects. And then this year he's like obsessed with outside lights like so. Our house looks awesome right now and so that's been his pride and joy. Obviously like have him get down the Christmas decorations from the top, you know, garage, I do the inside. So yeah, but the gift giving is a 100% mean minus he has to figure out what to buy me so

Emily Merrell 

that's probably the scariest gift to give of all.

Lexie Smith 

This year. We just as we get older and older and older, we just tell each other what we want. And he's like, I don't know what I want for like two Two months and then they like start pressuring each other like, Tell me tell me tell me. So I'm in terms of the dividing and conquering it sounds like we both have a, like a manual break down like an SOP of sorts for our holiday shenanigans. And what is similar to an SOP? Well, this is this is rough is a script. Ah, this isn't this isn't working?

Emily Merrell 

No, no, no, I think okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna pick you up the shambles of what is happening right now. I think what's happening is you have a game plan, you have a game plan, and you have a strategy in place. And similarly, like sale selling and sales, you need to have, you need to do a little research, you need to make space and time for it. And then you lay it all out.

Lexie Smith 

Thank you, there is a process and we know it ahead of time, which enables us to rock the holidays. Boom, that was teamwork at its finest.

Emily Merrell 

So we're good married couples married.

Lexie Smith 

So officially, what are we talking about today, Emily,

Emily Merrell 

we're talking about sales and selling your offer and but specifically how to sell and how to sell on the on the on the call, sales call. sales guy, Jesus Christ

Lexie Smith 

almighty team break down a little bit there. It's okay, we're talking about the the sales call how to nail specifically the sales call. So we're not talking about the full funnel, talking about your on the call, we're talking about on

Emily Merrell 

the call, I want to talk about why we're talking about this too. We always love pulling from real world conversations. And it doesn't matter if we've talked about it a million and a half times, this is still something that feels fresh, and it feels like it needs a refresh to and it is probably one of the more intimidating aspects of being your own business owner, whether you're a coach, or if you're selling hot pockets on the street, like selling, selling is scary. And selling so quickly, can or so quickly can be wrapped up in your own ego and like be related to you. And if you get rejected, it feels like or if your offer gets rejected, it could feel like you're getting rejected. So there's a lot to selling that I just want to set up in terms of before we even get to that sales goal. So

Lexie Smith 

I want to take you back a little bit in history, because I feel like I have had a massive revolution, evolution evolution of the sales call. So circa 2019 Lexie preparing to take over the world of coaching, and how I approached the sales call looks so different than than it does today. So back then I was in this group coaching program, and I was following really step by step what they suggested I do. And at that point in time, they suggested a two part sales call. And it was all scripted. So I literally had like a printed piece of paper that I would print out and have to me, I tried to figure out where to put it on my desk so that while I'm on a zoom call, people can't see that I'm like reading it and referencing and I had so much anxiety, I had so much fear, really because I think it was new. This was something I'd sold in my agency life before I'd sold other people's products and businesses. But for the first time, this was me selling my coaching offerings. And that was scary. And so I needed the script back then, to get my feet wet. What about what about you? Did you ever like early on struggle here? Oh, absolutely.

Emily Merrell 

And I'm so glad that you said that you had a script because I had a script as well. And I was grateful for the script. And we say script goal. Like it could be word for word written out. It could be bulleted, like, each person has a different version of a script mine. I practice word for word writing it out. So I felt comfortable saying these words. And what I really appreciated about the script is it kept me to nail the numbers. And that was the area where I so quickly wanted to discount myself or just be like Nope, this is free. You get it all for free. But having the numbers helped me out to me find the courage to say them out loud. And then pause I think I even scripted in like pause pause

Lexie Smith 

to

Emily Merrell 

pause so they can absorb it or ask questions. And it really it really helped me and I think I used it for the first two to three people that I sold at Then I found what felt more organic to me based on the script.

Lexie Smith 

Well, you You graduated way faster than I definitely had the script for more than two to three calls, I will fast forward really quick to today where I don't even bet at a sales call, and there's no script. And Emily, I know you're the same. And in fact, I think both of us kind of like Him, we find them fun. But it is years later, right? So what we want to say is, or highlight here is to give yourself grace and to know, just like building a business, there's going to be an evolution here. And if you need to start with the script, because this is new or uncomfortable, or it helps your confidence that is okay. The main first step is just to get on the sales call. And that in itself is a huge first one. 1,000%

Emily Merrell 

and Lex, we're gonna pause for a second and I'm gonna move upstairs because the clean Lex, I want to call out I had to transition rooms. So I'm now in a different room, but we're gonna continue this conversation.

Lexie Smith 

Okay, it was magic. You just like Blink dries the Christmas spirit and no, okay. Anyways, as the whole point, the whole, like Schpeel that I was just saying is there's going to be steps and that's okay. And that's true of any phase of business or building anything. So, on that script, though, whether you're using a script, or you're, you're comfortable off the bat to not, let's go over what are the different sections? Or what is the flow of a successful sales call for coaching?

Emily Merrell 

Well, first and foremost, I just want to acknowledge the like preparation part where the mind mindset before you even dive into a sales call, because like what you said, you and I really enjoy them now. And I think the shift that I want to call out before we go through the actual stages are or the aspect of it, like it's our opportunity to share a portion of ourselves, and to be generous, and to give people a taste of what it's like to work with us. And so rather than it feeling like I'm convincing them to work with me, if anything, I'm auditioning them as much as they're auditioning me. So just the mindset before you

Lexie Smith 

dive in, I just want to add that to because yes, cosine something to that has been very helpful for me. We call sales calls, quote unquote, a lot of different things, right, we can call them strategy calls, we can call them Clarity Calls. I like the word discovery call for my mindset, because that's how I approach it. Truly my goal getting on that call is discovery. Are they right for me? And am I right for them? Okay, as you're continuing

Emily Merrell 

Exactly. So I think just that's important to talk about. And I like what you said that, because the word sales call, I think can be a limiting factor in your own mindset of bringing up anxiety, bringing up fear of rejection, bringing up a lot of things, when in reality, if you reposition it as that discovery call, it feels more like a meet and greet and connection call and an opportunity to get to know someone, maybe work together, maybe you go into business together and have world domination plans. So moving into this step one, I think, first and foremost is just like owning your approach, that there's no perfect approach to how you do a discovery call. We've had the experience I'm sorry, or a sales call, like we've had experienced both being sold to and as you mentioned, even in this group program, like the step by step scripts, there's super feminine, and they're super masculine selling styles. So there might be someone you've experienced before, who won't let you get off the call, and is like, Oh, I see you're hesitant Let's book another call tomorrow. And I'll tackle any objections are like what can we do to get you to be a yes today and you might love it and feel like totally aligned and give them their credit card and your credit card in that moment. Or you might feel really kind of skeeved out by it. And so knowing if there's a certain type of energy that you want to impart and bring to the call, like high pressure or low pressure or more masculine and feminine energy flow, that's one important thing just to kind of think about as you start practicing and approaching calls.

Lexie Smith 

So we have in Ready Set coach and already set coach program, which is now available via already set coach launch pack. five sections, really have a call that if you're still trying to figure out what your coaches This is a great baseline to try. You might find parts of it, you know, deviate, you might drop one or the other, but we're gonna go over the five steps that we outline, very high level. So the first step guys Is your human right? Set the intention? introductions, right? Like, hi. How are you like basic pleasantries, right? Like see if you can find some sort of common ground with their humanity. Also kind of reiterate why you're talking today. So like, a few tangible ways you can do that is you can ask a question, you know, I'd love to hear like, what prompted you to book this call, if you have a specific, if you're advertising a specific type of sales call, for example, let's say you're doing, you know, a 30 minute clarity call. You can say, you know, this is our 30 minute clarity call, this is kind of how the call is gonna go. But you are in charge of this. And the first step is to really set the intention and approach it from a human standpoint. Yeah,

Emily Merrell 

and I think that's a great point to the introductions to people might have just found you through a Google linker or whatnot. Like you have to explain who you are, and also get to know you, the other person on the call. So after that, taking an inventory of what's going on in their business, like, what brings them into this conversation today? Do they have a challenge, a specific challenge, they're hoping to get solved? Or they this is an introduction through a friend who worked with you. And she recommended that we can act like kind of get the lay of the land of what is what is it that they want solved, or they want to fix or improve, and how you can help them accordingly. And

Lexie Smith 

I think this is the biggest bulk of the call and the most important, because if you really pay mind, and ask thoughtful questions, and listen, they're going to really give you exactly what you need to sell. So let's talk about some examples here. It could be so let's say you preface a call with you know, what, what brought you prompted you to book this call? Another question you might ask is, I'd love to hear what your your goal is, for the next three months. What is one of your challenges? What have you tried before? What are some other questions we can ask?

Emily Merrell 

Where are you getting the most stuck? What? What's an area? If this area was fixed, you would be able to do X, Y, and Z? If you have a magic wand and could fix your business? What would that look like? Where do you see yourself in five years, 10 years, kind of future casting and seeing what they they're dreaming big about their lives, maybe they want to be on stages, or they want to be in Forbes or they want to be they want to do things and to your point lacks being able to take those words, they're very work words, and insert them accordingly to what you are selling. Yep.

Lexie Smith 

So what we suggest people to do is have a core set of questions that relate to your line of coaching. And these questions should be centered around and really give you the answers should enable you to decide if this person truly is a fit. And if your service truly is a fit. So if you are a health coach, what are the five questions you truly need to know from them, in order to decide if your offer in your coaching will solve their problem? Okay, so five as a baseline, you can do less, you can do more. But after the introduction, step two is taking inventory or that discovery process. And this is so so huge. So after that, what comes next step three,

Emily Merrell 

this is the chance, you get a shine, this is where they get to really get a taste of you, and you get to actively coach them. So I think a lot of people I know this for a fact, a lot of people are scared to give the milk away for free. And so in this moment in time, don't come from a place of scarcity or a place of lack vive really generous. Give them a taste of what it would be like to work with you. Especially if this is a 30 minute call or heck, even a 15 minute call, they can have the opportunity of what you can accomplish in 30 minutes. Imagine what you can accomplish in a whole program together.

Lexie Smith 

Exactly. This is your opportunity to put on your coaching hat. This is your opportunity to provide value. Give them a taste right. And I love what you said Emily about don't approach us from scarcity. You guys, if someone can solve all their problems from what you share on a 30 minute call more power to them. Right? Like yeah, what is a very rare person like great you are you are genius. So don't approach this from Oh, if I share too much, they're not going to hire me. That's just not the case.

Emily Merrell 

Yeah, I agree. And I think this is also it leads nicely into step four, which is really talking about your past clients and your credibility. So for example, if you are this person is a health coach and just starting out and you had worked with a health coach who Who is now on in? Well in? What's a women's health? Women's Health? Yeah, well, good women's health, I added them together well in home woman. Yeah, well, woman, if they're in a magazine of some sort, or you helped them achieve something that you heard from taking inventory as part of their goals, you can reference those individuals and kind of dangle the past successes, so they can see themselves working with you. And know that you've been able to lead someone from a similar place that they're in, because everyone feels like they are starting from a very random place, when in reality, a lot of these places are, are very much the same.

Lexie Smith 

And a mindset kind of hack here for this this process because some women, you know, we've heard say, Oh, I feel so braggy or, Oh, I feel uncomfortable, right? What you're actually doing them doing is giving them hope. You're showing them similar people, other people have had this problem, and they've been able to solve it. So rather than thinking you're bragging, try adopting the mindset of you're giving them hope, or you're giving them insight or future, like into the future that is possible for them. Yeah,

Emily Merrell 

I'm really quick squirrel. But when I was 18, I got my wisdom teeth taken out. And I also had four extra adult teeth. And I went to one oral surgeon who's like, You're a freak of nature. I've never seen this before. And what did that do to my self esteem made me feel really bad. You're I'm already 14, my unibrow was already connected. And then I went to a second opinion and he was like, see it all the time, you'll be in and out in an hour. And he made this experience that felt so weird, feel really normal? And I and I think humanizing and normalizing a situation that to some people can feel really overwhelming is, is really an important role as a coach.

Lexie Smith 

Well, you probably that second guy, I'm guessing talk to you about the end game, right? Like what was gonna happen what your mouth could be like, also scroll to your squirrel. We've probably talked about this on the podcast. I know we have personally but Emily has four extra teeth and I am missing four teeth. Meanie, I still have four baby teeth, which might have to come out this year. And that's a whole nother score. No,

Emily Merrell 

I could have donated my teeth to they're probably the same one. So it would have been weird and gross and anywho Okay, so step for past clients and credibility. And you know, taking it back to an oral surgeon, the credibility of this person having having seen something as complex or as complicated as it felt to me, and normalizing it and making, showcasing his credibility by talking about past clients made it a hell yes, for me to go with

Lexie Smith 

him. Hmm. And so this then brings you up to what step five, the

Emily Merrell 

invitation and the Paperless Post the formal invite with a trumpet. They have gotten a taste of you, they know who you are, they they know what your credibility is, they know who your past clients were, this is your opportunity to actually invite them to come hang. This is your opportunity to ask them to if they're interested in learning more about your program, or want to know more about working one on one or whatever you think is the right fit for them. If you have a particular program you're trying to sell or if you have multiple programs, this is your chance to exclusively invite them to one

Lexie Smith 

of them. Something else I like to highlight is I don't ever at this stage, this didn't used to be the case, go into a sales call. Knowing I was going to extend the invitation, I truly go insane Oh, I'm only going to extend it if they really are a fit. That right there takes off so much pressure. So we want you guys to really in that step to that taking inventory. Truly vet if you think they are a fit, because then it's gonna feel so much more genuine and natural. In step five, when you extend the invitation, this moment to is Emily called this out earlier where approaches can really really differ. This is where you'll see some coaches doing the hard sell. Like Give me your credit card now. This is where some coaches will say, Okay, I'm gonna give you time to think but we're gonna book are our second follow up now. These approaches, all can work and they all can feel good or they can all feel icky. It's up to you, Emily nice approach is, is more you know, if you listen to this podcast, you get, get our vibe, it's more, hey, we're going to extend the invitation we're going to send you a follow up email with more invitation like more information so you can digest. A key here though, two key hack is when you're doing that invitation to pull back in what you learned in step two during your inventory. So for us for Ready Set coach for example, back when we sold the group program, if when we were taking inventory, we learned someone's biggest pain main point was sales. When we transition into the invitation, and we're talking about our program, when we're talking about working with us, we're going to emphasize first and foremost sales. So we might say, you know, we cover a lot in this program. But one thing that I think would make it a really great fit is we spend a lot of time on sales. And I know that's one of your pain points. Right? So that's where we're saying numb that second section, can can truly if you pay attention, make that invitation that sale. So, so smooth and simple.

Emily Merrell 

You highlighted that beautifully. And then also an invitation note that an invitation can be declined. An invitation might be like, I absolutely want to do this, but it's not right now. An invitation might be ghosted, or an invitation might be accepted. But know that whatever ends up happening, that it's their own journey that they're going on. Yeah,

Lexie Smith 

and it's yours to I really adopt the mindset what's meant to be is meant to be and this might sound a little cocky, but sometimes I'm like, it's their loss. Right? And yeah, you are a phenomenal coach. It is their loss. But that doesn't mean they're a bad person. That doesn't mean they'll come into your hemisphere later down the road. Just know right now may not be the time internally if it makes you feel better, say their loss and then just onward and upward to the next

Emily Merrell 

a min to that. So Lex, is there anything else that you want these great people to know about

Lexie Smith 

the call? I'm just going to recap real quick the steps again, because we talked a lot. So step one is obviously pleasantries. Introduction and setting the intention for the call. Step two is to take inventory. This is the discovery, the q&a section. Step three, we suggest giving value, this is your opportunity to coach. Step four is pull in real life experiences past clients that can even be beta clients, that's totally fine. So that weird beta. And then step five is moving into the invitation.

Emily Merrell 

And I will also reiterate that it is totally okay to have a sales script. And there is nothing wrong with it, write it out, have that conversation in your head, practice with a friend. Keep it near nearby. So you can reference it while you're on the call. Have all those key numbers those key dates outlined. And then as we mentioned, to with the taking inventory part, listen more like actively listen, and how important it is to listen to those key little indicators that happen throughout the throughout the call. And then lastly, like come from a place of abundance and a place of generosity. Those would be my things. Those are

Lexie Smith 

your things. So here's your homework today. We want to zone in on step two. So whether you're a new coach you've never sold. You're an old coach, I think this is an opportunity to either set this up, we're audit. What are your five core questions that lead you to knowing if someone truly is a fit? So what are your five questions that you're going to take inventory of and again, these questions should help you be able to decide in real time if they truly are a fit.

Emily Merrell 

I think that's great. And Lex, thank you as always for the best homework while

Lexie Smith 

you're here. So welcome Emily Merrill.

Emily Merrell 

Well, Happy Holidays y'all and have a beautiful, beautiful rest of your day and we will see you the next time.

Lexie Smith 

I read he said he said God cast La la la la la la