A Simple & Powerful Sales Framework
Level 3: Master of Mundane
Future Guardian! This is a post from Nic Peterson in a paid community. The community belongs to a Guardian who asked him to speak a little on sales. This simple framework is powerful for sales because it helps the other party make an informed decision.
The community has asked for sales training while also struggling with the volume of conversations suggested in the program. Both are addressed below.
On sales (since it seems to be a sticking point for many):
First, the sexy:
I’ve sold
$2,000
$10,000
$15,000
$25,000
$45,000
$60,000
$100,000
$108,000 (weird number, I know)
Without a phone call or a conversation.
BUT
Here is the caveat (and the most important part of that fact)…
The ONLY way to do that consistently is to have more conversations than you can probably fathom right now.
And…
I get if you don’t want to talk to strangers all day, but if you NEVER want to talk about what you do, there is probably something off/misaligned.
Maybe you don’t actually want to help people
Maybe you don’t actually know how to answer their questions or help them
Maybe you don’t care about what you do and its just a money grab
or any other number of other things…
No judgement, I just think it’s important to understand why there is so much resistance
To get to the point where you do not have to have as many conversations, you have to have a LOT of them up front. Since you HAVE to have a lot of them, it might be best to NOT swim upstream while doing so.
Here’s a super simple framework (Ive taught at Laurel’s event before) to help navigate the convo (phone, zoom or messenger):
The Framework
CASE
1. Compile.
Ask questions about their situation. Get all the relevant data. To give someone a suggestion without the relevant data being collected is malpractice - so you should do this anyway.
People that give advice without collecting information first *generally* look amateur to sophisticated buyers. Even if you already know everything you need to know to make a suggestion, compile anyway. It will give the prospect an understanding that they are being heard and you might discover something new about them.
2. Analyze.
Tell them something along the lines of: “let me take a moment to analyze this information to chart the most efficient path forward for you.” This implies you’re thoughtful and your suggestion is custom to them by making it clear it’s not a copy/paste job.
Then, it would be wise to actually take some time to analyze their situation. More on this shortly.
3. Strategize.
Lay out a step by step strategy they can implement that will solve their problem. Everything they need, everything they don’t need. Everything they haven’t thought about that they should look out for. List out the things they will need help with and the thing they think they need help with but they don’t.
^ This step alone puts out tremendous amount of goodwill.
4. Execute.
Send them on their way to execute the plan.
They will likely ask something along the liens of: “can you help with me this?”
and, in the list of things they will need help in the Strategize section, you can put yourself/your product/service/tool on the list - so it may be a necessary evil to implement the plan you gave them.
In this scenario, they see that they need your thing and have the full context as to where it fits and why it’s important to the bigger picture strategy.
This is not a new strategy, it’s a basic diagnostic/consultative sales strategy - but in my experience it’s a structured way to :
make sales smooth
put out a ton of goodwill
identify the patterns that turn into marketing material(s).
This is selling from a place of presence instead of pressure.**
In my experience, it works better for most people and it generally has a longer shelf life - the goodwill from presence creates a positive flywheel in the same way that the damage from high pressure creates a negative flywheel.
Hope that’s helpful.
If not, disregard
Additional Thoughts
**On Pressure: All purchase decisions are a byproduct of pressure. The difference between selling from a place of presence and selling from a place of pressure is the source of the pressure.
When you sell from a place of pressure, the pressure to purchase is external - it’s coming from you. When you sell from a place of presence the pressure is internal, it comes from inside of them.
Delivery:
You can apply the CASE framework to sales in messenger, on phone calls, in person or pretty much any other medium.
Here is my personal favorite application:
The Diagnostic
Generally, I don’t recommend calling it a diagnostic. Blueprint, roadmap, GPS, etc all sound more compelling - but they’re basically the same thing. It’s made up of two phone calls, in person visits or conversations:
Conversation #1:
Compile: The only purpose of this convo is to compile relevant data/info. No consulting, coaching, or suggestions.
Time between conversations
Analyze: “I am going to take a day or two to sleep on this, wrestle with it, maybe make some phone calls and think deeply about the most efficient path forward for you.”
Conversation #2:
Strategize: Lay out the strategy, cover everything you can think of. The most important parts of this are:
The list of things they will not need. This will save them time and money immediately.
The list of things they will need on their journey. You can put your own product or service on this list. You can also give them recommendations as to where to get the resources recommended, yourself being one of them.
At the end of the conversation, give them the roadmap as if to send them on their way.
Here’s why I like this…
There is a clear start, a clear end and a clear deliverable. The sales process itself is built like a high quality product (if you get good enough at it, you can charge for the diagnostic piece). Because it has a clear “end” it doesn’t feel like a weird sales call, just a delivered product and, in order to recognize the benefits from it, they’ll have to follow the steps you’ve laid out.
Those steps should have your product or service baked into them IF it really is the best option for the prospect. If your product or service is not the best option for them, I would recommend telling them that and telling them why.
There are nearly infinite ways to make a sale. I’d be wary of any “one method to rule them all” nonsense.
This is the one I prefer because it feels the most helpful and complete. It can also become a high value product in and of itself. Guardians and Success Circle Members will get a deep dive and workshops on how to turn the sales process into a product (which means people paying you to have a sales conversation).
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Really appreciate the empathy and humanity of this approach. Thank you!