How to Sell With Confidence

Episode 101: How to Sell With Confidence, with Hannah Roth

How to sell with confidence? Join Hannah Roth in this episode as she teaches business owners how to sell with confidence.

I am super excited to welcome our guest expert, Hannah Roth, to this episode of Sell With Authority. It is always a pleasure to have her on the podcast – so much so that this is her sixth time with us! And this time, she will be sharing her process to business owners on how to sell with confidence. 

Hannah is Predictive ROI’s mad scientist and strategist (that is her actual title, by the way) and works with clients to define and achieve their business goals, overcome challenges, and find new growth opportunities.

In this episode, we uncover the biggest A-HAs that she’s identified from her time working alongside agency owners in the trenches.

In our conversation, we highlight pitfalls for agency owners — and the best ways to overcome them.

Hannah sheds light on how each of these observations are tied to one another, because solving one allows agency owners to solve the others.

What you will learn in this episode about how to sell with confidence: 

• The biggest A-HAs that Hannah has identified from her time working alongside agency owners in the trenches
• Learning the process of how to sell with confidence step-by-step
• How to sell outcomes instead of deliverables
• What NOT to do on sales calls
• Understanding conceptual agreements and how they inject confidence and respect into the conversation
• How to align prices to business goals to sell with purpose and not fear
• How to sell with confidence and start making sales

Resources:

• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-roth-387a6b223/
• Join us in our free “How to Fill Your Sales Pipeline” Facebook Group
• Learn how to sell with confidence and become an authority! Register here!

Additional Resources:

• Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
• Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
• Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
• Want to know more about how to sell with confidence? Then check out this podcast about approaching sales with Jeremy Miner

 

 

How to Sell With Confidence: Full Episode Transcript

 

Welcome to the Sell with Authority podcast. I am Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and Holy Bananas. This is hopefully going to be another one of those episodes where you ask yourself, what in the world was that? Because that was ridiculously fun and super helpful. 

 

So my guest expert today is none other than my esteemed colleague and friend Hannah Roth, and Hannah is our mad scientist and strategist here at Predictive, and you may have crossed paths with Hannah while she was teaching during one of our open mic Q&A is one of our two day intensives a teaching do session maybe inside our Facebook group or any number of the other ways that she consistently shares her smarts within our community of rock solid, awesome agency owners and their teams. 

 

Hannah also leads our Right Fit Clients University program and works alongside my business partner, Erik Jensen. When we’re helping an agency build their strategy for how to sell more of what they do by attracting more right fit clients. We call that sprint. By the way, I will tell you, though, one of the things that I appreciate the most about Hannah is how when she stands in front of our clients, in front of our prospects, in front of her audience like she is today, either in person or virtually, she has prepared the curriculum with one overarching goal in mind how to be helpful and to steal a catchphrase from our dear friend Susan Baier. Hannah strives to be relentlessly helpful. 

 

Okay, so I’m going to set the stage here quickly for the types of things that we’re going to cover. Let’s call those the golden nuggets that I think are going to come out of the conversation with Hannah, and then we’re going to dive in.

 

So to help prepare for today, I asked Hannah to think about the 3 to 4 biggest ahas or you know, what she considers to be the most significant observations or pitfalls that she’s identified from her time working alongside agency owners in the trenches. And then I asked Hannah to consider this filter, to take her brainstorm list and then filter them by considering which ones on the list that if an agency could get past them, they would absolutely roar through 2024.

 

So I’ll leave it to Hannah to share her final list of observations and her recommendations for how to get past them. But what I will say is this as we work our way through this discussion together, there may be a time or two when we’re talking about some things that make you feel uncomfortable, or maybe even frustrated because you already planned to have addressed the issues inside your shop, but you haven’t done it yet.

 

If that happens, maybe it won’t, but if it does, please know we get it. We’ve been there and I promise you, my team and I are looking at the same list from Hannah and looking to raise the bar and how we show up for our clients in each of the areas. It’s never going to be perfect, but there’s the age old Chinese saying goes, the best time to have planted a seed tree was 20 years ago, but the next best time to plant a shade tree is today.

 

So without further ado, welcome back to the cell was a podcast Hannah. 

 

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How to Sell With Confidence: The Frustration in A Conversation

 

Thank you Stephen, I’m so happy to be here. And I love that you went ahead and prepared our audience for frustration because I’m just a pain in the butt, I guess. Well, you are not. But there could be some frustration that comes out of the conversation, right?

 

Because we see this often when sharing an idea, it might be, oh, I’ve heard that before but haven’t done anything with it. Right. So I have to do something with it or I’ve heard that idea before, I am doing something with it. But maybe I could be doing it with greater excellence. Or it’s like I’ve heard that idea.

 

I’ve not done anything with it. And I’m totally frustrated because each time I hear about it and maybe it’s every year or so and still not doing anything with it. So our audience knows you well. So I’m not going to ask you to introduce yourself or anything like that. They can go through the five other episodes and you’re in our Facebook group, and there’s lots of different ways to get to know you and so forth.

 

And I want to be able to jump into the observations that you’ve taken the time to study and articulate and all of that. So what would be the first one that as I shared that, you know, request with you, what would be the first one that you’ve distilled down into? Like if agency owners in the teams could get past this first one, what is it and why do you feel so strongly about it?

 

Yes, that is a great question and I really took some time. You know, when you asked me to join the podcast and talk about this today, I really took some time to dive into the work that we’ve done. The commonalities that I see amongst our clients and our community. So the first one that really frustrates me and drives me nuts is the lack of confidence around selling and the pitfalls that agency owners fall into when it comes to selling deliverables versus outcomes.

 

So that is something that, you know, we really help our clients overcome. We help instill confidence. And we really explain to them, you know, when you just sell deliverables, you’re competing on price and time. And not only that, but I think the part that frustrates me the most is that when you focus on selling deliverables, you’re undercutting your expertise.

 

And we are blessed to work with some of the smartest people I’ve ever encountered. You know, everybody that we work with has unique gifts and talents, and it kills me to see them reduce themselves to. Here’s a checklist of things you’re going to get from me. But it has nothing to do with their expertise. It has nothing to do with their passion, it has nothing to do with, you know, how they make other people’s businesses better.

 

And so that’s the part that frustrates me is the lack of confidence around selling. And then that leads to selling a list of deliverables versus selling the outcomes. Let’s lean into that word, confidence. Because my guess is there are several layers there that we can peel back or, unpack or whatever metaphor you want to use.

 

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How to Sell With Confidence: The Lack of Confidence

 

So why did you choose to use that word? The lack of confidence. Yeah, I think I did use that word deliberately. And it really does come down to the lack of confidence. And I understand this. Okay. So I want our listeners to know that my perception of selling before I joined Predictive was, I think, the typical idea or the typical notion of selling, where it feels gross.

 

You know, we’ve all been approached by like the selling sharks that are kind of, you know, in it for themselves. And it’s like they don’t really care about you or your needs. And so thinking about stepping into a sales conversation for me was paralyzing, almost because I never wanted to come across that way. I didn’t have the confidence because I didn’t have the understanding of what sales should be.

 

And so I lacked confidence around it. And I think I see that a lot with our agency owners, and people that we work with because they may not understand the correct kind of sales process. And that leads to a lack of confidence. So that’s the first part of, kind of that word and why I chose that.

 

The second part is that we work with a lot of agency owners that are accidental business owners. That’s a big theme in our community. And a lot of them have put blood, sweat and tears to grow their businesses. And so sometimes their identity is wrapped up in the business. And if they get a no or if they tie their identity to the agency or to the business outcomes like it’s heartbreaking and scary for them to say, I think I’m worth this much. And then somebody says no. And it just completely breaks that confidence. 

 

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How to Sell With Confidence: Demonstrating Your Smarts and Confidence

 

Well, I love how you just tie that back to accidental business owners, because the first time that I heard Drew McLellan say that, you know, CEO of Agency Management Institute, I don’t know if it was in workshop that he and I were teaching or in the podcast when he said that, like, that so totally makes sense.

 

And then obviously that has been part of AMI’s point of view that we are here. AMI is here to help the accidental business owner, the agency owner, in this case, do all of the things that maybe they didn’t grow up or classically trained to do and so forth. And that ties into the well, if they weren’t, if they didn’t grow up in the business that way, or they weren’t classically trained in that way, then maybe they don’t have the confidence that they need in order to do those things with excellence.

 

And so then they don’t do it right. And so then there again, there’s that fear piece. And so going back to what you had said before is like reducing yourself. And I do think that’s a little bit heartbreaking that we’re like that. It is so easy to diminish ourselves and start pitching deliverables because they’re nice, easy tangible things. When outcomes might be harder to sell into, you really have to demonstrate your smarts and your confidence.

 

But by doing that, I’m going to loop all the way back to what you had said. I think you said this at the beginning is that essentially you’re you’re saying, please treat me like a vendor, right? When we reduce ourselves to sell deliverables, we’re saying, man is fine. Go ahead. Please treat me like a vendor, right? And I’m going to take a moment to ask our audience again.

 

This is an uncomfortable part of the conversation, but for our audience and for our listeners, how many times have you tried to pack in deliverables because you didn’t think you were worth it? You weren’t sure that what you were selling was worth it, because a part of yourself is in that kind of agreement or that deal. And I know that’s a difficult question, and I know that might hit some of our listeners in the heart, because I’ve seen it over and over again, where agency owners will pack in deliverables because ultimately it comes down to them not thinking they’re worth it.

 

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How to Sell With Confidence: Highlighting The Difference When Selling

 

Yeah. And, okay, so as I mentioned, the introduction, we consistently look at this list, like these things that are on the list are things that we look at. And literally when you just said that, I thought of a conversation in 2018 when I was in a traction session, you know, with Drew, because he leads our and facilitates our quarterly leadership team meetings.

 

And I’m sitting there with Erik, my business partner, Catherine Besler, on our team at that time and myself and the four of us are sitting around his kitchen table, and we’re going around like how we should be structuring essentially proposals or agreements, that kind of stuff, whatever. And you know, true to form, like I pack it full of all the deliverables and Drew’s like, stop selling stuff.

 

And I’m like, why is it so, you know, we were going back and forth but, and then obviously we fixed it. But to your point, it is so easy to fall into that trap because you start telling yourself that, oh, a client’s not going to pay $7,000 for that, or $10,000 for that or whatever the price point is.

 

We need to add more stuff. And that’s like the easy fallback, right? Yeah, 100%. And I want to highlight the difference because what we’re talking about right now is the difference in selling, you know stuff versus outcomes. And when you sell deliverables like I mentioned you’re competing on price and time. You’re racing to the bottom. There will always be someone cheaper, less expensive, giving more stuff that’s not as high quality.

 

So you don’t want to just compete on that. You want to sell outcomes, because at that point you start to turn from a cost to an investment. You attract clients that want to invest in their growth, invest in the growth of their businesses. And I do need to caveat this because when you start selling outcomes and make that mindset shift, it has to start with a deep understanding of the pain points that your audience is facing and how the work that you do makes your client’s business better tomorrow than it is today.

 

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How to Sell With Confidence: Importance of Data Collection 

 

And then the second part of that is that it needs to be backed up with metrics and KPIs. So it’s not enough to just sell yourself like, you know, I’m this expert. So pay premium pricing. Obviously we know that some people try to do that and that comes across for us. So you have to be really centered and focused on the audience pain points that you solve, and then you need to back it up with metrics or KPIs.

 

And I think that that will help instill confidence in that. You truly are making a difference. You’re making a difference in their business, and you’re an investment and you’re not a cost. This is so great. What I, I know I breezed past, you know, giving our audience more context around your background, so forth. And maybe I shouldn’t have done that, but, one thing I will add into this and why I was excited when I said, Hannah, what about, like, observations and AHAs?

 

So a little piece of Hannah’s expertise that she’s bringing into this conversation is that she is classically trained as a data scientist, and in particular, observational data collection. Was her or is her area of specialty. And so I know that if I say, hey, Hannah, what are your observations that that not only means, like, what are the things that, you know, casually we’re looking at?

 

Yes. But then also I know that I am sort of triggering in a good way, her scientist mind, because that is literally how she collects data from the field through observational data collection. Which is amazing. So that’s another layer of awesomeness that Hannah brings to this conversation. Thank you. Fun little tidbit. Yes, I do. I do love to observe.

 

And, I love to feel my way in situations because I’m not only observing with my eyes, but I’m observing with, you know, my feelings and the way that I feel and the way that the other person is feeling. So that’s how I knew, you know, when you asked me to kind of put out, you know, for a horse or things that I see often.

 

And that’s how I wanted to relate this back to confidence, because ultimately when people are like, oh, I, you know, I don’t want to sell or I sell deliverables or we got to pack all this stuff in. You know, it would be easy to take that surface level, but I really do believe that it all comes down to a lack of confidence.

 

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How to Sell With Confidence: Things Not to Do During a Sales Conversation

 

Amen. So what’s your next observation? Okay, so just to recap, the first observation was, have confidence. You know, sell outcomes, don’t sell deliverables. So moving into the second one, I see this all the time. So when people start to get into sales conversation. So once they start to grow their confidence a little bit and then they get into sales conversations, there’s kind of a whole list of things not to do.

 

I wanted to kind of touch on some of those things that I see once people kind of get over the hurdle, they’re like, okay, I’m going to put myself out there. I’m going to start trying to sell. I’m going to try to be more confident. But there’s certain pitfalls that they need to look out for because, as I mentioned earlier, they may not be classically trained in sales.

 

So, I’m going to go through that list, if that’s okay. And we can touch on each of those, like, gosh, that would be awesome. Okay, okay. Ironically, we just have just been talking for five minutes straight. The first thing that many people do in sales calls is that they want to do all the talking. They feel like they have to show up prepared.

 

They want to, you know, fill any kind of awkward silence. They feel like they need to do all the talking. And, the best conversations usually begin with questions. So I want to encourage our listeners that if they’re in a sales conversation, it’s okay. And actually preferred to ask questions, seek first to understand. And Stephen, we have an entire framework around this to help me understand the framework with a list of the questions to ask your prospects during those initial sales conversations.

 

So it’s okay to not do all the talking, and you don’t have to prove your expertise. You don’t have to prove yourself. Because again, that shows up as a lack of confidence. So step one: Don’t do all the talking, okay. Step two: A lot of people feel that if they’re getting any kind of pushback, they immediately want to reduce the price.

 

Okay? And I can’t stress this enough. Do not do that. The first thing you should do if you’re feeling pushback is to ask more questions. Seek first to understand. You want to know, is this really a budget issue? Is there something else going on? Are they considering another agency? Is the price you know, is the timing not right?

 

It might have nothing to do with price. It might be the timing. It might be some internal things on their team. So if you’re feeling any kind of pushback or, you know, hesitation, that’s okay. That doesn’t mean you need to immediately think, oh my gosh, this must be a pricing issue and I must reduce the price. Okay. The next thing is that, and I really want our audience to listen to this part.

 

Do not say no or your prospect, okay? There are so many times where, you know, we will ask our clients, we’ll say, you know, well, how did the sales conversation go? Oh, well, you know, I sold them and I offered them my lowest price thing and I’ll say, okay, well, you know, how did they feel about your middle pricing or your higher pricing?

 

And they’re like, oh, well, you know, I didn’t bring it up. I just knew that they couldn’t afford it. I knew it wasn’t for them. I knew, you know, whatever. And then I start digging in. And when I ask the questions, it turns out that they didn’t actually know that at all. They just didn’t feel comfortable or confident.

 

So they ended up making no decision or the prospect before the prospect even had time to think about it. So please don’t say no for someone else. Let them say no to you. And if they say no, it’s okay. Amen to that. Okay. So can we go through each of these? Because I know there’s some additional, additional depth and layers there and I want to ask you some more questions about this.

 

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How to Sell With Confidence: Being Comfortable with Silence After Asking a Question

 

So it’s interesting you mentioned the Help Me Understand worksheet, because you and I have been in plenty of conversations with a prospective client where we might get through. So in the Help Me Understand worksheet, if everyone or if you can visualize sort of seven boxes and we’re going to work through this is sort of how we interview a prospective client.

 

And sometimes in those conversations, that’s all we’re doing is asking them questions. And then at the end they’ll say something like, oh my gosh, you know, I’ve just done all the talking and I’ve not yet asked how you can be helpful to me. And then it’s like this amazing transformation that happens because they have given you so much context around their vital priorities, the roadblocks standing in the way.

 

And then when they ask you, how can you help me? You’re in a much better position than to help. But it was because we did what you just said, you know, and that was like, don’t do all the talking. Right. Ask them questions. And then when you ask a question, be quiet. Yes, 100%. I think that again, when we show up and we’re a little bit nervous or something’s a little uncomfortable, we feel the need to feel that to fill the silence.

 

And that doesn’t make us look like experts, that makes us look like we’re scrambling. Were nervous. It’s okay to have some silence. It’s okay to give your prospect the time to think. And honestly, what I’ve learned is that if I ask a question, you know, I used to, you know, before I was this experienced. And then when I asked a question and someone didn’t immediately respond, I got this, like, panic inside.

 

And I was like, oh my gosh, I asked a stupid question. Or like, I asked something and they must hate me. Like, you know, just those crazy things that we tell ourselves. But now I’ve learned that when I ask a question, when it really resonates, it takes people a minute to think. And it’s actually a good thing, because they may have never had to articulate that before.

 

They may have never been asked that question before. So it’s not something that their brain can just recall and be like, oh, I’m going to roll this off the tip of my tongue. You have to give them the time and space to think about their answer. And you can’t take that as a negative because it’s actually positive. Yeah, I can think of some times like our sprint sessions, you know, these deeply strategic conversations and you’ll ask a question.

 

And I have seen our client say, oh, and then take a minute to your point, like, you’re asking a question that is worthy of time, consideration or a thoughtful response and best rate and then others, you know, we’ll start throwing spaghetti at the wall or whatever to try and make it fit. And I get that. But part of it is just having the patience and going back to your earlier word confidence to allow the person that you’re meeting with the time and space to sit with the question.

 

And then you and I were actually just talking about the seal the day, about that interview technique that I learned from Katie Couric. Like early on in her career when she was interviewing heads of state she goes, I had to forcibly, like, train myself that if I asked the president or a leader of a, you know, in some capacity, a question and that person didn’t give me an answer right away.

 

I just had to be quiet. And then by being quiet, it allowed them to really step into their best answer, right? Yes, 100%. My favorite thing in the sprint is when I ask a question or ask the question and somebody just starts rubbing their temples or rubbing their head like, oh my God, I can’t believe you just asked me this now.

 

At first I used to be uncomfortable. I was like, oh man. Like, maybe I shouldn’t have asked that. But now I take it as kind of a compliment because obviously, you know, they haven’t been asked that before. We’re asking good questions and just being comfortable with the silence and the time that it takes them to think about it.

 

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How to Sell With Confidence: Be Considerate of Your Prospect’s Situation When Asking Questions

 

So let’s lean more into number two. When you said, push back doesn’t mean reduce the price. Instead, ask more questions. How would you suggest the best way to do that? So somebody is giving you push back? How would you suggest instead leaning in, asking more questions like the push back is an invitation to ask more questions?

 

Yeah, 100%. So if you feel like they’re pushing back you know, kind of repeating their goal saying okay, you know, because obviously we’re asking questions. Right. So before you even talk about price, you should have their goals in mind because you’ve asked them the question. So I would repeat the goals that they’re trying to achieve.

 

You may ask if you know, it’s truly a budget issue, you know, is this the budget issue? Is this a timing issue? You know, help me understand the fear that you’re feeling right now, why you’re getting pushback or why this, you know, may not feel like the right time or the right, you know, product or package or service or whatever it may be.

 

So asking some of those questions to just be considerate of their, you know, potential fear, because I think that sometimes you may uncover, you know, an answer that you never expected. They may say, well, you know, my mother in law is in the hospital, and we’ve got a lot going on, and I just don’t know if I can commit to that at the time that this might take.

 

Okay. Well, then, you know, then it’s not actually a price issue. It’s a capacity issue. So once you have the answers to those types of questions you can start to architect the solution. So okay. Well you know if this is a capacity issue maybe we can speed this up. Maybe there are things we can do so we can, you know, take you out of it or lessen the burden on you.

 

So having the answers, asking better questions, digging into what’s actually going on helps you architect better solutions so you can get to the heart of why they feel that hesitancy. This is so great. So I’m going to add something here that I have seen you do expertly. 

 

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How to Sell With Confidence: Make Sure the Prospect is the Right Fit And Vice Versa

 

Well, so, part of our sales process here, everyone just kind of taking you behind the the green curtain here for a minute is, you know, I will typically have the very first conversation with, I’ll say a prospective client and, you know, and I’ll go through that conversation most of the Help Me Understand worksheet and all of that and better understand their vital priorities, the roadblocks in their way, what they do, how that works and who they who they serve and all of that kind of gaining some sort of foundational knowledge and then assuming that there is a fit, then I’ll say, okay, then I’ll ask for permission to invite Hannah into that second conversation.

 

Why? Because she asked different or different questions from different perspectives. We have different points of view and that kind of stuff. And so all of that experience is really helpful. But this is the thing that I think that she does masterfully well. And it was actually the first time that we ever did this together. She did it.

 

It’s not like I coached her on it in the least little bit at all. She did it. It was a total surprise to me. I’m like, Holy freaking bananas. That was awesome. And so she actually had the confidence to say to a prospective client, and that was just part of our sort of process or recipe. And that was, hey, thanks very much for your time.

 

Looking forward to the conversation. And one of the things that’s important to me, I mean, Hannah’s saying this, one of the things that’s important to me is to make sure that we’re the right fit for you, but also to make sure that you’re the right fit for us, because fit is really important. And when she said that, I’m like, oh, that is fantastic.

 

It takes confidence, Hannah, to actually say that to a prospective client and your intent is pure. It’s not some sort of like skeezy sales technique because you want to make sure that fit is there, right, 100%. And you know, it’s funny because when I mentioned that to some of our clients during sprint or any of our RFQ sessions, they kind of give me this look like I can’t believe, like, that’s really bold, like, how can you say no?

 

Like, you know, to revenue. And it’s like they can’t imagine themselves in a place where they could say, you know, hey, we’re going to have a conversation. But this is a two way street, right? And, and we want to make sure that we’re a fit and you’re fit and, you know, things are, you know, copacetic. But, it’s so important because it costs you time, money, sanity, all of those things.

 

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How to Sell With Confidence: The Idea of Conceptual Agreement

 

So when you say yes to a wrong set, you’re limiting your availability and your capacity and your resources to say yes to a right fit. So having that mindset is very important. You don’t want to take on profit clients, not profit. Amen. And you know that we talk about this a lot inside the walls of prediction. It can really be disastrous and damaging to your team.

 

Right. So yes, it can cost you more than just money. It can cost you more than just time. It can cost you your best teammates. And you know, we’ve heard a lot about, you know, quiet quitting. That’s kind of a trend that changed since the pandemic. So you don’t want to say yes to a wrong shit and then say no to a teammate.

 

That’s a star performer. Amen. So, what’s number three on your list of observations? So number three, and this is a really important sales tactic. And this is something that we coach our clients on all the time. It’s this idea of conceptual agreement. And so when you’re in a sales call and this kind of goes along with, you know, your conversation around right fits long fits and things like that.

 

Having this tactic and executing it during sales calls is a game changer. Guys, I want you to know that it shifts the power dynamic again, instills confidence. Gives your prospect confidence in you and your abilities. It adds respect to the conversation. So this idea of conceptual agreement, it’s actually something that I learned from Stephen because he’s a master at doing this during sales calls.

 

But basically it’s kind of taking back the conversation and saying, you know, okay, okay, we’ve talked about a lot of these things at this point. You’ve, you know, talked about your different products or services or offerings. And there’s three components to conceptual agreement. So you need to talk about deal breakers. And these are the three deal breakers.

 

Time cost and capacity. So if you’re in a sales call and you know everything’s going well and things seem good, it seems like they’re going to say yes, you need to get agreement around these three things, okay. Versus time. Hey, prospect, you know, we want to make sure that you and your team are going to devote the time that this takes, because we can’t help you succeed if you can’t commit to the time that we need from you.

 

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How to Sell With Confidence: Agreement on Costs and Capacity

 

Okay, so that’s, you know, obviously check one. If they say yes, they’re a good fit. Two is cost. This is when you say, you know and candidly this isn’t inexpensive. You know, this is an investment and you know, it costs this amount of dollars or this, you know, amount. And we want to make sure that that is right for you.

 

We want to make sure that’s comfortable for you and that we’re not going to, you know, put you in hardship with this cost. Okay. So if they agree to that, the last one is capacity okay? You know, we want to make sure that you have the capacity to actually execute on the goals that we’re trying to achieve here.

 

You know, with this product or service, we want to make sure that you and your team, you know, have enough resources. We want to make sure you have enough capacity to actually do this and do it well. And when you put those on the table, it’s almost like you’re kind of pulling it away from the people.

 

And it’s amazing how many people reach out and grab theirs, wait like, no, that’s not a deal breaker. And to be honest, this idea of conceptual agreement, going through those three things, having agreement around those sets you up for a better client relationship because in their mind, they’ve committed, they’re committed to you, they’re committed to the process.

 

They’re committed to the program or service or product or whatever it may be. You’ve flipped the script and now they’re committed to you just the way that you’re committed to them. Amen to that. And I first learned of conceptual agreement many, many years ago when I read the brilliant book, Million Dollar Consulting by Alan Weiss. And when I read that, I’m like, oh, that sounds amazing.

 

But it also takes a lot of confidence to do that. Right? And so having set up the conversation, having architected the conversation like you were talking about in observation number two, asking questions, help me understand by going through all of that, not only you gathering information, obviously, so that you can hopefully do your job better and be of more help to them.

 

But what you’re also doing is really setting up that sounds really contrived, the right word. That sounds like you’re setting that up, sort of manipulating way, but you’re sort of setting the stage then for this other piece, right? If you do observation number two, if you implement that with excellence, then having the conversation of, okay, that’s great, but time out. There’s a few deal breakers that we need to talk about as Hannah just described.

 

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How to Sell With Confidence: The Linear Steps In The Process

 

That gives you sort of the ability to step into that conversation with confidence because you’ve built some trust during observation number two. Would you agree? Yes, 100%. And one of my favorite things is when, you know, we’ve coached our clients to do this, and then they have their first sales call where they implement this. And I love getting feedback.

 

I’ll get a phone call or text or an email. And they’re like, we did conceptual agreement. And this was so different from any other sales call we’ve ever had. You know, they treated us with respect. And, you know, it just went awesome. And we close the deal and blah, blah, blah. And so like that is one of the most rewarding things for me around conceptual agreement because it works.

 

It works. Once you’ve built the trust and and you’ve gained the confidence. So, I didn’t realize this, you know, intentionally, but I think that the steps that we’re outlining here are kind of linear, right? You need to be kind of like, what you’re selling, selling the outcomes, you know, and then, you need to know what not to do in a sales conversation.

 

And then you need to know what to do in a sales conversation. Such an interesting observation that I made there. I didn’t realize these were linear steps, but they kind of arc. Yeah. Well, it does make sense the way that you just talked about how they stack or link together and, you know, a few weeks ago is, you know, again, behind the curtain here, Predictive.

 

You know, we had a prospective client who is interested in sprinting. And it’s just for a variety of different factors or whatever. And going through those conversations I’m like, you know, I don’t think that we’re the right team that can be helpful to this particular person. And in their business, you know, she had owned an agency in the past, but her current business, not an agency.

 

I’m like, okay, we only work with agencies and there’s just, you know, some other things. And I’m like, you know, this is just not the right fit for us. And so, you know, we had a couple of calls and I’m like, you know, I wish you well, but I just don’t think that we can be the right partner.

 

And that was hard. To say that it’s always hard because our heart here is Predictive. We want to be helpful. And then also we want to be helpful to the people who can help the most. Right. And so anyway said no. And in that conversation. Right. I think she was surprised and in not not a bad way or something like that.

 

But I think she was like, oh, wait a minute. Why is he not trying to sell me? I’m like, because we don’t do that. And then I look back to you and our other teammates and I said, just not the right fit. And then you shared with me recently about how you shared that during, like, one of our Right Fit Clients University, like Tuesday afternoon group sessions or just, you know, some one on ones and how people were surprised by that, that we walked away from that.

 

But I knew that if we said yes to that, yeah, I would be saying yes to the wrong fit. And that could have been disastrous. One for outcomes and then also for our team, it wouldn’t have felt great. Yeah, 100%. And that actually leads into, kind of point number four. Okay. So that story that you just told.

 

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How to Sell With Confidence: Aligning Prices with Your Goals

 

So my point number four is, aligning your prices with business goals. So they’re been by purpose and not fear. So the fact that you were able to say no to a wrong fit, you know, we couldn’t be as helpful as possible. You knew that. It probably wouldn’t end up being profitable or rewarding for us.

 

And I think the big factor there is that you weren’t driven by fear. You were driven by who we want to be, what we want to stand for, the types of clients that we want to help and that we’re able to help. And aligning your prices and aligning your goals and not letting fear drive you is so important for having the confidence and the ability to say, yeah, no, we’re not going to do that.

 

We’re not going to take you on as a client because we have, you know, a future runway that we’re trying to get to. And if that prospect doesn’t align with that runway, then it’s really just a detour that is that okay. So as you were saying that aligning prices with your goals, I actually thought back to point number one.

 

So I don’t know, did we just create a loop because when you were talking about, you know, reducing yourself and selling deliverables, but instead lean into saw outcomes when you said aligning prices with your goals. I thought, okay, well, if we’re truly selling outcomes and not deliverables and aligning our prices to those outcomes, then and knowing that it takes confidence to be able to do that.

 

But as we’ve talked about in our intensives and in other sessions, that’s an ideal proposal format, right? A great introduction that is about them winning talk about business issues like lean into their business issues, then the business outcomes that you’re going to create. Those are ingredients one, two and three. Then to your point earlier, vital metrics that you’re going to use to evaluate that your work is working.

 

And then the result, result outcomes of all of those things. If you want to make yourself easier, say yes to and to your point, aligning the right prices that’s the recipe. And then having the confidence to deliver that right 100%. You can’t, you know, if you don’t know where you’re trying to go, you don’t know how to get there.

 

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How to Sell With Confidence: Wrapping Up the Podcast

 

So have a goal, align your prices with that goal. And again, you know, one of the common themes throughout this conversation is the art of asking the questions. Another question that’s great during a sales call is, you know, what is your average customer worth to you? You know, what’s their lifetime value? Asking questions like that.

 

Because a lot of times our clients are kind of blown away because it’s like, well, yeah, I can get them, you know, ten new clients or ten new prospects, you know, in the next two months or one month or whatever it may be. And it’s like at that point, you understand you’re a fraction of the potential earnings that they may get from the work that they’re doing with you.

 

And so again, don’t undercut yourself, you know, align your prices with the outcomes you’re providing and the goals and where you want to go and how you want to grow. So smart. I love these observations from the field. This is really, really great. In fact, I would love to do this on a regular cadence. I know that you spend time with me on the podcast on a consistent basis, but this is the first time that we’ve done sort of your observations from the field.

 

These are really, really great and would love for us to do that piece consistently because it’s super insightful. So I know we covered a lot, but before we go, before we close out and say goodbye, any final advice? Do you want to share anything you think we might have missed? And then please, share with our audience the best way to connect with you.

 

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How to Sell With Confidence: Final Advice from Hannah

 

Yeah. Definitely. So, I want to reassure our listeners, because I know that to your point, we did cover a lot today. And some of the questions that I asked, some of the topics may have been uncomfortable. But I want to stress that nobody becomes an expert in anything in, you know, 5 or 6 months.

 

So I think that sometimes people, they may, you know, dip their toe into sales or they may try to raise their price once and then they get pushback or somebody says no, and then they kind of have this knee jerk reaction of, well, I tried it. I’m not doing it again. Okay. So I want to stress that nobody becomes an expert overnight.

 

It takes, you know, potentially years to get this. And be good at it. And just like anything else in life, you know, I enjoy painting. I like to paint. I’ve been painting for years, okay. And I’m not Picasso like, I’m not, you know, one of these great painters. I’m not Monet, but nobody becomes an expert in any hobby in, you know, five months or six months or whatever.

 

So stick with it, because the more you stick with it, the better that you’ll get, and the more confident you’ll feel. And then just don’t let fear hold you back. Let fear be a motivator to try new things to, you know, try to reach those new heights because you can’t let failure or fear define you if you quit.

 

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How to Sell With Confidence: How to Connect with Hannah

 

When you get to know, you’ll never get anywhere. So, learn from the fear, learn from the knows, and use that as fuel to reach new heights. And the best way to get in touch with me. Anybody can email me. It’s [email protected]. I’m also Stephen mentioned in our Facebook group and on LinkedIn and on our company page, and probably in your inbox somewhere.

 

I don’t know, I feel great. So hopefully I’m not too hard to find. If you’re not yet a member of our Facebook group, which of course is free, if you go to predictiveroi.com/group, that will take you right there to, where you can find it, inside Facebook. So, okay, everyone, no matter how many notes you took or how often you go back in, re-listen to the words of wisdom that Hannah just shared with you.

 

The key is you have to take one, two, three, and four. Do them, link them together into this process that she just gave you. Take them and apply them because when you do, you will accelerate your results. And Hannah, we all have the same 86,400 seconds in a day. And I’m grateful that you took time out of your compressed schedule to come on to the show yet again, to be our mentor and guide to help us move our businesses onward to that next level.

 

Thank you so much. My friend. Thank you, Stephen, for having me. It was a great conversation and I always enjoy being able to help our audience.

 

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