Revolutionize Your Sales Conversations with Transparent Client Care with Dr. Nadia Brown

Creating a great client experience is key for business owners interested in sales. But in order to ensure a stellar experience, there needs to be transparency and detailed information provided to the client.  Increasing transparency in the process is a great way to build trust and confidence in your buyers and prospects. It is important to create a sense of openness and honesty in the sales process, so that potential buyers know what to expect and can feel comfortable and confident with their purchase.

00:00:02

I've often found that one of the reasons why people are hesitant or reluctant to have sales conversations is that it just feels hard, right? Like they just are concerned about rejection or they're concerned about how the conversation is going to go. And there are a lot of different ways that we can prepare for the conversation itself. However, I want to take a moment today and just kind of do a step back to look at the entire process overall and how we can make a simple shift in our sales process that will really, I dare say, revolutionize. Can I use that word?

00:00:42

Revolutionize our sales conversations and the overall experience that our prospects have. One of the things that we often don't think about when it comes to client experience is the experience they have with our companies, our organizations, our brands prior to becoming a client and how important that is in the decision making process. And so when you think about your customer or client journey, taking that step back, having that 50,000 foot view, if you will, and looking at how am I engaging, how am I interacting with prospects every step of the way, even before they become prospects. So when you think about someone's awareness of your brand, awareness of their problem, that's another podcast episode for another day. But really, like, what are the things that we are doing and how are we engaging in order to prepare them for an actual conversation with either ourselves or someone on our team as they're now inquiring about how they can engage with our services, which is what we want, right?

00:01:53

We're doing all these things in our marketing and along the journey to get to the sale, right? Let's just be honest, we're running businesses, we need sales, period. So we're doing these things. And we are often find that the reluctance when it comes to now, it's time to have a conversation. There's a lot of head things going on, right?

00:02:15

But I have found that there are things that we can do better in order to improve the know, like and trust factor and actually shift the experience. One of the things that our model and that in our process that we talk about is exceptional client care, which is all about experience. And I know we talk about clients, but there are ways that we can take care of our leads and our prospects. Like, imagine coming into becoming a client and feeling cared for and having such a phenomenal, phenomenal experience. Like I can't wait to become a client, right?

00:02:51

So we want to take a look at that and how do we shift that without further ado? Right? Because I've been kind of like I'm not telling you what that is, but again, it really is creating an increasing transparency. How can we be more transparent in the process when it comes to what can the people expect or once they become a client, that experience that also means, side note, you need to have a solid onboarding process ready to go because that's where we often, sometimes can lose people. And they go from having a great experience with all the romance, the flowers, and then boom.

00:03:31

Like, what happened? Right? I felt ghosted. So what are ways that you can improve your transparency though, so that people know what to expect? Because when you think about the amount of angst or anxiety you may have, or someone on your team may have about going into a sales conversation, then think about how your prospect may feel as well.

00:03:54

Because if there is a lack of transparency, if there is a lack of honesty or openness and I say honesty, but sometimes it's not that people are trying to be dishonest, it's just that their sales process or that experience is kind of shrouded in mystery. Like people fill out the application or a form or assessment or whatever we may have them do as they're coming into that process, which is great for us, but then we don't always reciprocate that because often we do that so that we as the sales team, has information about that person that we're going to be conversing with. But we don't always return the favor and say, hey, here's how you can prepare and be prepared to have a conversation with myself as the founder or someone on my team when you're coming into that conversation, so that it reduces their angst and their anxiety. Because I know when I'm the buyer and I go into certain conversations, I have questions and I'm like, what am I getting myself into? What is it that this experience is really going to be like?

00:05:02

What are they going to ask me? I don't know. It could just be me. But I'm always like, I want to know the answers to the questions before I get asked the question. And so there are ways that we can then shift that and adjust our processes.

00:05:17

And so many times we haven't talked about this. It's not always done. Honestly, I'm super like naughty and doesn't always get it right. There are opportunities even within our own process that we're working on because I'm like, why are we not doing this? It seems so obvious.

00:05:34

And yet we're not doing it in all areas ourselves. So we're also working at this point, at the time of this recording that we are also working on. Okay, I've identified ways in areas where it's just not clear and how can we better serve our clients and prospects so that they are excited but they're also prepared. I don't like showing up to the call feeling like I'm not prepared and it's not because I didn't do my homework, but I just didn't know. Okay, so let's talk about some actual examples of what that could look like.

00:06:09

One is if your sales process does include and it up, because a lot of my clients that's just how we operate. We roll just how we do it. So there's a way that when people raise their hands and they're like, oh, my God, I'm ready to talk to you because I'm so excited to work with you. Right? Like, those are people you really want to work with.

00:06:27

And so they raise their hands by submitting a form to schedule a call. They're like, I'm ready to talk, and let's do it right? And so when they do that, there are things that we can then do. So a lot of times, we have our basic automation. I hope you already have this that says, congratulations, your call is scheduled at this time.

00:06:49

Here's how you can connect, whether they talk to you over the phone, via conference call, or zoom. Like, a lot of us leverage zoom these days for our sales conversations. Whatever works for your company, typically, minimum, they receive that right. Here are some things that you can then do to better prepare them. You can record a video to let them know more about you, about the process, about what's going to actually happen in the conversation.

00:07:18

You can record videos or share client testimonials. You can start to talk about your process. This is how we work with clients. So especially for those of us who may have higher investment, or you may work with companies where there are multiple decision makers and, you know, like, okay, we're not expecting or it's not the norm that we have a one call close. Like, just our sales process just tends to have multiple conversations.

00:07:50

And so you may then add in, this is our process. This is kind of how it looks. Bring your team. Then you can tell them how they can prepare. Bring all the people in the department, or at least minimum, gather questions so we can answer it in this initial call.

00:08:08

This is what we're going to do. And then at the end of that call, then this is what we're going to do. If that's the case, you can do the same thing, even if you only plan to have one call, right? Here's what I want you to bring to the call: all of those kind of things to really help people prepare, but also they get to have insight into kind of what's happening next. And I know I can't be the only person.

00:08:29

I'm always like, okay, okay. Even when I enroll, sometimes I'm like, people have to like, Nadia, calm down. Because I'll be like, okay, so I know I'm signing up for this, but then what's going to happen next? Because I just want to know. And sometimes there is the next, sometimes there isn't.

00:08:43

Like, Nadia, calm all the way down. But especially if you have something I'll do that, especially if it's something like a short investment. Like, if I'm enrolling in something that's like a year, I'm like, Nadia, just focus. You got a year, right? But if it's something that's like maybe 90 days or three or four months or something shorter, like a VIP day, I may ask, because I already know going in, I see the value in this and I need this for this moment, but I'm going to either need or want additional support from you, right, going forward.

00:09:19

And so I'm already asking. So as you're thinking about your products and services and how you serve your clients, are there particular ones where they may have that question of what happens next? What happens after we do this part? And you can start answering those questions even before they ask them, and then they're like, how did you know? Because again, you're creating that level of transparency that, again, we're not always attempting.

00:09:50

There may be some people out there, but they're probably not part of my world, right? That we're not trying to be malicious, but sometimes we just haven't thought about it. So this is why we're having this conversation. Another big area where it comes to transparency is investment. Now, I know this is a touchy topic.

00:10:10

Do we tell the investment before we have the conversation or do we save it for that moment? And I've done it both ways, right? But I feel that as we are continuing to grow and evolve, and especially as your company continues to grow and you look at the amount of time and you also think back to experience and really adding a level of respect in your sales process, why not take the investment? Even for folks who may be because some of the work that even we do is custom and it's proposal based and we got to talk about it. We got to kind of scope it out before we can give an actual investment amount.

00:10:53

Get it? But we can't give ranges because there's like a level that we just can't go below, right? So you can definitely give ranges or you can say, we start here at this amount, I don't know, $35,000. You can start to really, again, create a level of transparency. And it's not from the place of, well, if you don't have it, we don't want to talk.

00:11:16

But it is about, again, preparation. If I know going into a conversation that, okay, this is going to be proposal based. So our initial conversation, we're probably just going to really talk about needs and scope and really understanding how we can best work together. Cool, I'll know what to bring so that I can make the most use of that conversation as both the salesperson and the buyer. It's depending on which role I'm in.

00:11:43

But then also from a budgetary standpoint, we can say, okay, we know that the range could be 35,000 to 75,000, right? So whatever that range could potential or you may not know, like it could be 35,000 plus. But that way your buyer, your prospect, your future client knows, okay, then we need to at least minimum have that ready and be prepared to spend it or invest it so that we can move and address whatever problem. It may not be that high, it may be a much lower investment, but there are ways that we can build it in that we can start to prepare our prospects, our future clients to have these conversations by increasing the level of transparency in our overall sales process. So when you think about it and if there's anything that I'm saying you're like, I want you to take a moment and think about why.

00:12:46

Why is there such resistance to that? And I've been there like as a salesperson that's done sales for our organization but also for other organizations and being on other teams, I've seen it both ways, right? There are times when we don't share the investment and then there's a whole process and we get to that conversation and people have the reasons why they feel that that is the best when it comes to a certain dollar amount. Great. And then I've seen where we've shared it and we've just been really honest and open in building out that process and this is what you can expect.

00:13:18

And we still want to have a conversation because maybe there's a vetting process, right? Especially like for group programs, sometimes there's a concern if you are a coach and you're working in a group we want to make sure that that one person because you know that one bad seed, right, that doesn't really shift it too much. Any time you ask someone new it's going to shift the energy a little bit because you bring in someone new in but you don't want that person to be so far in left field that you're like it just disturbs apple cart. So we do have that process and that piece of it. Meaning of course, anytime you do a custom work you're done for you work, you really want to have those conversations, really have understanding and agreements around scope, around timing, all that good stuff.

00:14:05

So you're still having conversations but where are those areas where you can just make it much easier for your prospect to not only be prepared for the sales conversation but to be better prepared to work with you. So I invite you to take this information. We didn't get all deep, there's so many things that I could talk about and really building out your full sales process but just take a moment and look at those areas. When you think about your client journey, even just starting with the front half of it up until they have a sales conversation, are there areas or ways or opportunities that you can increase the transparency in the process? And that could mean we're now going to put pricing on our website.

00:14:56

Or again, as people are coming in and in that process, when they are ready and they say yes, and they want to schedule time to have a conversation with our team, that there's information, more information that we may not necessarily share with the general public that we can share more detailed information to better prepare them to have this conversation, but to also better prepare them to work with our team. When you think about the more prepared your clients are coming in, how much more rich that experience will be, that transformation that, wow, it is amazing. And again, it's really just going to make you stand out in the marketplace because not a lot of people are doing that. And that experience with your organization, your company, your brand is going to really stick out. So I invite you to address or sit down and think about any resistance, any bias, any conversations.

00:15:53

You're just like, oh, I don't know. Dr. Nadiaa I'm really kind of like, just take a look at it and just be really curious as to why. And then where are those opportunities where you're like, you know what? That sounds really good.

00:16:06

Like, yes, let's do that. Let's help out not only yourself, if you're still the one doing the sales conversations, but also my team. How can we build a process and a system that better supports the sales team and the buyer? Like, it's only a win win. It only makes it that much stronger, that much better.

00:16:32

Okay, so I invite you to do that, look at ways to improve and increase the level of transparency in your sales process. Telling you this is a total game changer. And if you're like, Dr. Nadia, I don't even know where to start. This all sounds great, and I don't know where to start.

00:16:48

Then I invite you to schedule a conversation with us. We can do a diagnostic or we can do a full audit, and we can really support you in building it out. Whether we just give you the plan and you do it, or you invite our team to support you in building it out for you, either way, we would love to support you to head over to our website. Let's schedule some time to chat. Would love to do so.

00:17:09

And again, thank you for joining me for another episode of Straight Talk About Sales. I'll see you again soon.