Ascend 101

Lessons about building a one-person business, writing, and self-improvement

Sometimes you’ll be able to close people straight through your DMs. Other times you’ll have to jump on a sales call first.

But don’t panic. There’s nothing difficult about it at all.

If anything. It’s easier to close them on a sales call because of the connection you’ll be making. Their emotions will be even stronger and it’s much easier to make them understand the value of your offer.

Remember. Sales is nothing more than making people aware of their problems.

Show them how badly their problems are affecting them. Make them believe in your solutions and how they’ll be able to change their lives.

Everything is about emotions & psychology.

Step 1) Start the conversation

Don’t overcomplicate it.

Just say hello. Talk about something. Whatever it is. Act like you’re hopping on a call with a friend you haven’t seen in a while.

Prepare at least 1 or 2 simple questions. Questions that have nothing to do with why you’re on the call.

These can be:

“How are you doing?”
“Where are you from?”
“How has your day been?”
“How’s the weather where you are?”

It can be as generic as you want it to be. The goal is to start talking immediately.

Don’t make it awkward.

Step 2) Frame the call

After you’ve started talking. You want to guide the conversation.

YOU are the one who’s in charge here. This is important to establish early on. Set those expectations and make it clear what will happen.

Here’s an example of what that might sound like:

Step 3) Discover their motivations

Great. They know what to expect. Now is the time to start asking questions and digging deeper into their motivations.

You know they are at least slightly interested in your service. Otherwise they wouldn’t be on the call with you.

Figure out why they’re interested. What is it they’re trying to achieve?

And why?

You might know this already from previous conversations you had in the DMs. Repeat this once again regardless. It’s vital that you understand their motivations.

But it’s even more crucial THEY understand their own motivations.

Make them realize just how much they want to achieve their goal. They need to feel that motivation before they’ll decide to move forward with you.

Example:

Step 4) Understand where they are

You can’t help people reach their goal if you don’t know how far removed they are from it. This is why you’ll dig deep into their current situation to figure out exactly where they are.

What are they working on?
What progress have they made?
What do they still have to work on?
What information are they missing?

Put yourself in the middle of their journey and help them reach their goals.

It’s also good practice for the prospect to talk about this in as much detail as possible. It helps them clarify their own position. Which will make them realize they might need some help from you to reach their goal.

Once they answer you. Dig deeper.

Their first answer won’t be the main problem. Every problem has layers. And it’s your job to discover the core problem.

Imagine if they struggle with landing consistent clients.

Dig deeper to figure out the true problem. Is it an offer problem? A traffic problem? A story problem?

Also use this moment to make them realize how much this is really affecting their business (and their personal life.)

Ask questions such as:

“What exactly do you mean by that? Walk me through your process and where you have the most problems.”
“Have you tried fixing this problem before?”
“When did you close your last client and how did it happen?”
“How much time do you spend trying to land new customers each day?”
“How deep do you dig to uncover their current obstacles?”
“How do you discover what their true motivations are?”

The best case scenario is when they’ll stumble upon the true problem by themselves while answering your questions.

Step 5) Understand where they want to be

Okay great. By now you should understand their pains. It’s time to ask them where they want to be in the future.

You might think this has already been covered by uncovering their motivations. But that was only a sliver of the full picture.

Dig deeper into their motivations. Ask them to paint a clear picture of where they want to be in 1 year.

What does their life look like?
How will they spend their time?
What will they look like?
Who are they spending their time with?
Where are they living?
How are they living?

Example:

Let them talk as long as they can. The more, the merrier.

The clearer the image, the stronger the emotion.

Help them out by asking questions if they don’t know what to talk about. Ask them if they want to travel. What they want their house to look like. How much time they want to spend working. How many kids they want to have. What they want the color of their kitchen walls to be.

Seriously. Dig deep.

But. Fair warning. Keep it limited to what you can help with.

Don’t ask them whether they want a six-pack or an eight-pack if you’re not a personal trainer.

Stay within your scope of possibilities.

Step 6) Show them the promised land

Now it’s time to explain your offer.

Don’t go too in-depth. Don’t start becoming technical. They don’t care how your service works. People only care about what your service will help them achieve.

There are 2 ways to go about this:

a) Offer free advice

In this method you’ll immediately offer them at least 3 urgent and actionable pieces of advice. These should be steps they can implement within 5 minutes and will get them results immediately.

You can end the call by asking if they feel confident in doing this by themselves. If they aren’t then you can pitch your service.

You’d want to take this route if you’re an absolute beginner.

It’s good sales practice and it will give you experience fast. (and testimonials)

b) Position your offer as help

Use this method if you already have some experience and feel confident in your offer.

You’ll want to recap everything you’ve been talking about and package it up neatly in your offer.

Show them how your offer focuses on overcoming their obstacles and reaching their goals.

Example:

Step 7) Close

If you’ve done everything mentioned above. This should be a breeze.

In most cases they’ll ask you what the price is. That means they’re interested. You want this.

And even if they don’t. This is the time to reveal the price.

Always mention your highest-tier package first.

This is in case you have multiple offers. Which is recommended as it allows you to be flexible. It sets a price anchor. Everything else will sound less expensive afterwards.

Downselling is easy. Upselling isn’t.

Share your price as straightforward as you can:

You’ve shared your price. Time to shut up now.

Let them think.

Don’t start justifying your price. Don’t beat around the bush. Don’t feel nervous. Let them think. And wait until they react.

The ball is in their field now. Use this silence to your advantage.

In most cases people will say yes. This is an important lesson to learn. People WANT to buy stuff. They’re on this call with you. They’ve gone through this whole explanation for a reason.

Be confident and know this.

If they say yes.

Just send them a payment link and make sure they pay ON THE CALL. You only closed them once they’ve paid. Not once they said yes.

Let them pay while their emotions are still strong.

Once they’ve paid thank them for your trust and ask when they want to start. In the best-case scenario you’ll already have an onboarding process ready. If not no worries. (we’ll cover that in the future)

Let them know what the next steps are and what they can expect now.

The easiest method is to simply send them an email with a quick overview and a Calendly link to schedule the next call.

If they say no.

Start the objection handling procedure.

This isn’t as difficult as it sounds. 50% of objections are about the price. Another 40% of objections is “I’ll have to think about it.”

If they give you this objection simply ask them to elaborate.

Example:

If it’s about the offer. That’s easy. Ask them what their questions are and answer them.

If it’s about the price. Then you can either add more bonuses to make it worth the price or you can proceed to downsell.

Downselling can be offering a less expensive offer, taking away certain parts of your offer, or shortening the length/attention of what they’re getting.

Often people will realize they don’t want to reduce to a lower-tier package and end up buying the offer anyway.

Whatever you do. Never discount your price if they think it’s too expensive. You aren’t. Don’t make them think your price is negotiable. It isn’t.

You are in charge here.

By not lowering your price, you’re artificially increasing the value of your offer in their minds as well.

And that’s the entire process.

By now you’ve closed your first client and you’re ready to start scaling your business.

P.S.

Whenever you’re ready. Here’s how I can help you:

Hop on a Clarity Call with me: Remove all of your uncertainty. Get clear on what you have to do, when you have to do it, and how. Let’s get you on the right track to achieving the freedom you deserve.
Work 1-on-1 with me: We’ll determine where you stand and where you want to go. Then we’ll devise a roadmap to get you from A to B. And get you there in the next 30–60 days.

P.P.S.

For those interested, this is the software stack I use:
(These are affiliate links, so if you sign up, I'll get a small referral bonus.)

Beehiiv for my newsletter: One of the biggest, easiest, and best providers for people wanting to build their newsletter. A logical choice to make with its abundance of integrated solutions for easy growth. (e.g., an integrated referral program)
Tweethunter for everything Twitter: From scheduling tweets to gathering inspiration and engaging with others. TweetHunter has everything you need if you’re serious about building your business on Twitter.
Carrd to build my landing pages: You’re building a business. You need simple and effective landing pages for your funnels. Carrd is an easy-to-use website builder that does exactly that.
Testimonial to gather testimonials: Simply drop your clients a link where they can leave a testimonial. Gather everything in one place. And embed it on your landing pages as you wish.
Ilo for my Twitter analytics (+10% discount): The most advanced Twitter analytics tool and a MUST if you host spaces. Get in-depth knowledge about your audience, what they like, and who they are.

And if you've got a moment, I'd love to hear what you thought of this edition of Ascend 101.

Send me a quick message – I reply to every email!