Simple Steps to Get More Clients – Part Six

Lesson 16 – Create a way to track your conversations

Ok, you will want to have a system for tracking your sales conversations. You will want to record all conversations that you have, and note the outcome of the call.

I use a table in Word with the following columns:

Date
Name of the person
Notes on where they are
Notes on where they want to be
Notes on what is in the way
Notes on outcome of the conversation

For the outcome of the conversation, I note any specific outcomes the prospect wants, what offer I made, and whether they said yes, no, or check back with me. If they are thinking about it, I note when they will decide. If they ask me to check back later, I note the time frame they want me to check back in.

This document serves as my reminder of the flow of the conversation as well. I take notes directly on to the computer as I am speaking with someone.

Why is this important? Several reasons.

First, this lets you see over time how many conversations you are having and how well you are doing. You have hard data you can use when you want to improve your results. You may see that you simply need to have more conversations. You may see that you need to have conversations with more of a certain kind of person. You may see that you need to strengthen how you make your offer.

Second, because I note exactly what the follow up is, this list becomes a source of warm leads I can follow up on in later months.

Your step for today:

Set up your tracking system. Make this something that will work for you long-term, not just for these few weeks. Use this for your practice conversations as well.

Lesson 17 – Schedule sales conversations for the coming week

If you did last week’s task of setting up practice conversations, you should already have three conversations scheduled this week. If not, see if you can make that happen.

Now it’s time for the rubber to meet the road.

I want you to set a goal of scheduling a certain number of sales conversations each week for at least the next two weeks. I recommend you set a minimum of three. Begin to think of having this number of conversations as a new normal for your business.

To reach that goal, you can set up practice sales conversations. However, it is now time to reach out today to begin to set up real sales conversations.

Even if you just have one real conversation, and two practice ones next week, that’s a start.

Your step for today:

Take action to schedule at least three sales conversations in the next week. This can include reaching out to three or more prospective clients, contacting at least one person who can help you find prospective clients, or posting on social media to generate possible leads.

Lesson 18 – Take action and keep breathing

Nothing new to learn today.

Your goal is to keep taking action to set up sales conversations until you reach your goal of having three or more conversations per week.

If you find you “forget” to do this, you may want to block out an hour each day this week to do your outreach.

If this feels hard, be kind and compassionate with yourself.

Keep breathing and keep taking action. You will live through this, I promise.

If the fear gets too uncomfortable, do this:

Sit quietly with your hand on your heart. Say to yourself something like:

Even though part of me feels like I am going to keel over and die and I’d rather do almost anything that reach out and ask for business, a deeper, wiser part of me knows that the work I do is valuable, and that for the right people, the chance to work with me is a gift.

Even though I don’t feel up to doing this, a deeper wiser part of me knows that with practice I will get better and this will get more normal.

Even though I struggle with feeling awkward or unwelcome reaching out, a deeper wiser part of me knows that by reaching out I am likely to get more clients and to be able to share more of my gifts with the world.

Your step for today:

If necessary, take time to hear and integrate the frightened, worried, wounded parts of yourself that struggle to reach out.

Lesson 19 – Log how your conversations go

Today I want to suggest a second log of your conversations, one that you’ll use just while you are ramping up and learning how to do sales conversations.

You could integrate this with your tracking system, but it may be simpler to keep it separate.

The tendency is to globalize and say to ourselves, “boy, I am bad at these conversations” or “nailed it!” To get better, we want to be more specific.

My suggestion is that you create a form, and AFTER each call, you note:

What you did well
What you could do better

That’s it. So you might note the date, the person you spoke with, what you did well, and what you could do better.

What did you do well? If you don’t normally do sales conversations and you did one, that’s something you did well. If you took more charge at the top of the call, that’s something. If you listened well, that’s something. Try to find as many things that you did right as you can.

Now, what could you do better? Not what SHOULD you have done better, but what can you see that you can improve? Is there a place you backed off when you should have leaned in? Was there a question you thought to ask but didn’t? Did you forget to make an offer? Just note it.

Your step for today:

And, create a log where you can look more closely at what you are doing well and what you could do better.

Lesson 20 – Change one thing

Building on last lesson, here’s your key to getting much, much better at sales conversations.

By now, I hope you’ve had at least one sales conversation, maybe more. After each conversation, after listing what you could do better, pick ONE thing you want to focus on doing better the next call.

That’s it. One thing.

Maybe it’s asking more questions. Maybe it’s taking time to truly gauge if this is a good prospect. Maybe it’s being silent after making your offer. Pick one thing.

Your step for today:

And, after each conversation, pick ONE thing you are going to work on for your next call.

As we finish Week Four, here’s what you’ve accomplished:

You set up a system to track your sales conversations.
You set a goal for the number of sales conversations you want to have per week.
You took steady action towards reaching that goal.
You took notes on how your sales conversations went.
You picked one thing you could do better next conversation.