Why Great Sales Calls Don’t Close: The Next-Step Mistake Costing You Clients
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Brooke Greening: You think you've had a great sales conversation. They're excited, they think that you can help them, and you say, "Okay, I'm gonna send something over." And then all of a sudden, nobody has any idea what's going to happen next. A good sales conversation needs more than a feel-good ending. It needs clear next steps
But what happens is we say something, the customer may be interested, they may even be ready to go, but interest without clear direction is going to cause a delay, and that's why we need those clear next steps.
Yeah. The next reason is that verbal interest is not a commitment.
A verbal commitment is not a sale, and you can't treat it like that.
When we hear these verbal commitments, we start to hear like, "Hey, that sounds great," or, "Send me information," or, "I'd like to look it over," or, "Let me talk to my team." And that makes us feel like, oh yeah, like they are ready to go, but none of them actually define what's going to happen next.
Sometimes we just have to have an honest reflection of what we did and how we led it, and that actually caused them to not respond to us, not them being a ghost
you both know what's going to happen, and you're excited about it. No weird like, "Hey, I was just thinking about you," at 2:00 PM on a Tuesday. You're not second-guessing. You're not, playing it cool while you're kind of spiraling out. You have a plan
So just simply put, did I end the conversation with a clear path?
Scott Greening: Hello, everyone.
Welcome to another episode of _Sippin' Matcha and Helping You Make More Sales_, where in about the time that it takes you to enjoy your matcha or coffee break, our resident sales coach, Brooke Greening, helps you know how to move your sales conversations forward better. Because if you have to talk to people to make sales, how well you lead those conversations is gonna make or break your revenue.
And Brooke, we have some excited kids in our house right now.
Brooke Greening: They are beyond excited. They are basically bouncing off the walls at this point, because we are going to Branson, Missouri in two days.
Scott Greening: Yes, we have two sleeps left- ... and then it's Papa and Nana, and we're, we're excited. The kids are excited, and they know we've been talking about restaurants and activities, all sorts of things.
They know the deal. Our little one told me the whole lineup of what's happening- ... between now and then, and then the ending line was, " Then it's go time." So.
Brooke Greening: Love it.
Scott Greening: It's sort of like we kind of think our customers are acting like that with us when we have these sales conversations, and that they're just so overeager to do business with us to buy, to take the next step.
And so we just kind of, like, assume a lot of things, 'cause that's not always the case.
Brooke Greening: Yeah, I believe we think people think about us a lot more than they actually do, both in regards to when we're doing our marketing when we're trying to figure out what to do next. We think, oh, well, especially as entrepreneurs, especially as, like, service-based businesses, we may think, "Are they gonna like it?
Are they not going to like it?" and we think they think about us way more than they actually do, and that's the exact same thing when we're having our sales conversations. We tend to get off the phone really excited and ready to go, and think, " Okay, they're gonna be ready to go," and they have literally probably just shed everything off and gone back to what they were doing.
Yeah. They do not think about us as much as we want them to.
Scott Greening: Yeah, and that's why the conversation that we're starting today is so important. So just to kind of remind everybody where we've been, we've been working our way through the SERVICE sales framework that you have created. And so we've talked about things like helping the customer relax and engage, connecting with them and showing relevance to their business, understanding their problem, then verbalizing the value.
We've talked about objections, and then last time we focused on sort of timing and urgency, and then today is explaining next steps. It's the final step or stage in your SERVICE framework.
Brooke Greening: Yes, and it sounds very simple. It sounds like, okay, yeah, of course. I always explain next steps. When I bring this up to my clients, they're always telling me, "I am doing this."
But what happens is we say something, the customer may be interested, they may even be ready to go, but interest without clear direction is going to cause a delay, and that's why we need those clear next steps.
Scott Greening: All right, so explain next steps. What do you mean? What's the definition?
Brooke Greening: I mean that we need to ensure that the customer knows what to do next.
Not generally, not eventually. They need to know, okay, what happens next? Who is responsible for these things, and when will it happen? Those are the things we need to know. A next step is not clear unless both people know what happens, who does it, and when
Scott Greening: All right. So people I would guess are maybe nodding along in that and they're like, it seems sort of obvious, but this is, this is actually doesn't happen as much as you think, but then it's really, really important.
So to help us today remember like why this is so critical.
Brooke Greening: It's so critical, and you're absolutely right that there are people that this happens on a regular basis, and even people who have very successful businesses fall into this trap. So this is important for you to be able to listen to and to apply because even when you have successful businesses, you can still make more sales if this, just this one piece gets clear.
So the very first reason is that uncertainty creates this hesitation. And so when customers leave a call, and then they're trying to figure out, okay, what is this process, they become less confident. And so questions start to pile up, like is another meeting required? Am I waiting for a proposal? Is the salesperson waiting for me?
When do I need to decide? Who else should be involved in this? The customer is now spending so much time trying to understand the process instead of evaluating the solution and wanting to be able to move forward
Scott Greening: Great. And I think what happens with this is that confusion doesn't create momentum, it creates hesitation. Mm-hmm. And hesitation is always one... It's not the only reason that, that shows people are c- are conf- like, confusion is not the only reason that, that people may hesitate, but it's a big one.
Brooke Greening: It's a big one, and it's something that we can actually control. So when we talk about, okay, there are ways that you're sabotaging your sales conversations, this is one of them. This is the one that you can actually control. And so many times we think we're being clear, but we don't have those th- things lined up that we just talked about, and now it's gonna get confusing
Scott Greening: All right, so that's the, the first reason.
Uh, what's, what's the next reason why this is so important?
Brooke Greening: Yeah. The next reason is that verbal interest is not a commitment. This reminds me of the saying that my dad told me all of the time. He would always say, "It's not over until the fat lady sings." And I would- and as a kid, I would just envision, like, this cartoon lady in this big purple dress and the Viking helmet, and she's singing.
And I'd always be like, "Okay, well that has to happen until things are over." Yeah. But it's so true. Yeah. It's not over, and even our kids know that. So when we say we've made a sale, they know we're not actually celebrating this until we've gotten the check. A verbal commitment is not a sale, and you can't treat it like that.
Scott Greening: I was just gonna say, you may not even remember this, but, like, we're dating ourselves with that picture because that was, like, the Bugs Bunny cartoon. Yeah. Like, that's, that's the picture. Yes. our kids have learned. You'll come down and you'll say, "Hey, I think we were gonna make a sale.
I think it's gonna go forward." And they'll be like, "Yay." But wait, 'cause they know- ... we don't celebrate until it's
Brooke Greening: all done. We're not getting... Yeah, we're not getting ice cream until we know. That's right. And so I've learned also to help them. I don't say anything until we've actually made the sale because they know.
Scott Greening: They know. They say, I said, "Hey, I made a sale." And they're like, "They've paid?" And I'm like, "They've paid." And they're like, "Yes, ice cream." Because that's, that's what we do with our family.So what, what does this sometimes sound like?
Brooke Greening: All right, so this sounds like the customer. When we hear these verbal commitments, we start to hear like, "Hey, that sounds great," or, "Send me information," or, "I'd like to look it over," or, "Let me talk to my team." And that makes us feel like, oh yeah, like they are ready to go, but none of them actually define what's going to happen next.
And those sentences, statements may be very sincere, but that is not equaling a sale at that point, and we can't act like that because if we do, that's how things start to fall through the cracks. So that's not... Verbal interest is very important. We want them to be excited about us being able to work with them, but that is not a sale.
That is not a guarantee of a sale- That's being hopeful at this point. And salespeople are really good at that. They can say, "Hey, I've got five or six people ready to buy." But then you're like, "Okay, what's going on with the next step? What's happening?" And they're like, "Oh, we don't, we don't have those." Then I say to my clients, "Then that doesn't count.
That can't go in your pipeline right now."
Scott Greening: Yeah that's just we assume, and everybody knows the phrase of what happens when, when we assume. But it, y- you know, we, people probably still need, need guidance. They still need to make that, that commitment. So we've looked at two reasons. What's the third reason?
Brooke Greening: So the third reason is that clear steps reduce ghosting. See, people get frustrated, and they're like, "They said that they were interested," and then maybe they send a proposal and nothing happens, and then they feel like they've been ghosted. But ghosting is not always rejection. Sometimes that process has become vague, and they don't really know what to do next.
Maybe a proposal arrived without context. And specifically, a pr- proposal without a follow-up plan is just an expensive attachment. And I think if we would write that on a Post-It note on our computer, we would not put so much emphasis on the proposal sometimes. There has to be a plan behind it. There has to be a process with it.
Otherwise, we're just sending out expensive attachments at that point.
Scott Greening: Yeah, and so like what, so we send out the proposal, we're excited, but with no follow-up and that, what, what sort of happens?
Brooke Greening: If no follow-up meeting was scheduled, nobody established when a decision would be made, the reality is life just gets busy and the opportunity starts to drift away. And that's sometimes what we think is someone is ghosting us, it's no, we were not clear in what needed to happen next, nor was there urgency in what we were going to do.
It's really important to remember that as soon as the conversation ends, we are usually excited. The salesperson is usually excited. It's been a good conversation. We've heard verbal interest, like we're ready to go. But for them, if they don't have clear direction, they don't know what to do next, and so then they just keep moving on in their life.
So the momentum slows down for them, and the momentum speeds up for us, but we get it mixed up, and we think the momentum is going for them. And that's when we get frustrated and we think, "Well, why didn't they buy from us? Why isn't this moving forward?" Sometimes we just have to have an honest reflection of what we did and how we led it, and that actually caused them to not respond to us, not them being a ghost
Scott Greening: Yeah, it kind of reminds me, I, I, uh, chaperoned a sixth grade boys field trip.
Well, it was actually the whole sixth grade, but we were staying, uh, with the boys. It was like a three-day thing to Gettysburg this last year. And at night we would create campfires around this campsite where we were working, and the, the kids would come over and some of them would get so excited. Uh, and admittedly, like eventually the dad started cheating.
We just got like the fire starters from the- ... the store or whatever. But they would just assume like, oh, we lit something on fire, and then they'd like get all on, they'd get all excited and then walk away. But they didn't understand like the big logs don't just catch on fire. You gotta stick with it. Mm. You gotta have- Yeah ... like you gotta tend it. And so that's sort of like what the next steps do is "Hey, somebody said they want it. We're done."
Brooke Greening: Yes.
Scott Greening: No, no. No.
Brooke Greening: There's more. You gotta- No, no, no, no. It's just starting. Yeah.
Scott Greening: Yes. Yep.
Brooke Greening: That's exactly it. And then you walk away, and then the wind blows or whatever and you don't have a fire anymore, and you come back and you're frustrated.
Everybody's cold and trying to look after- Yeah ... the fire.
Scott Greening: They
Brooke Greening: were. Same thing in sales conversations. It started exciting, but-
Scott Greening: Right.
Yeah ...
Brooke Greening: we didn't actually fan it.
Scott Greening: They were very eager for s'mores and very disappointed. Like, just, just wait a second. We gotta keep working this thing. So. Yes. All right.
What's the, I think it's the, maybe your last reason. You got one more here- Yeah ... for us today. What is it?
Brooke Greening: The last reason is that clarity serves both people. It's serving both of you. It's serving you as a sales professional, and it's serving your potential client. And I like to look at this as like, it's in regards like if we were go- if you had your first date and then you wanted to plan the second date.
You actually do that on the first date. Like b- before you guys leave, you both agree, "Okay, we're gonna meet at... This has been s- this has been fantastic. Let's meet Saturday at 7:00 PM for dinner." That way nobody is sitting around wondering, "Oh, should I text them? Is it too soon? Have I texted too much this week?"
You both know what's going to happen, and you're excited about it. No weird like, "Hey, I was just thinking about you," at 2:00 PM on a Tuesday. You're not second-guessing. You're not, playing it cool while you're kind of spiraling out. You have a plan
Scott Greening: I just want to say in response to the story, I think it was in the last episode where you shared to the world that we went on three dates and then got engaged- Yep
that I must've been, like, amazing at this. 'Cause we, we advanced things real quick and got
Brooke Greening: through it. We did. But you did. Like, there was no question. As we were leaving, you're like, "You want to do this again?" And I was like, "Sure." And you're like, "Okay, next Saturday we're doing it again." there was no, no question of what was going to go on.
I didn't know you were gonna go buy a ring- ... the next weekend, but- Well, you know, when you know- There is a whole story behind that ...
Scott Greening: when you know, you know. But, but no, like, it's, it's that same idea of like, "Hey, you want to do this again?" "Okay, sure." I don't know what that means. So- All right. Yes So what, what does this, uh- And you aren't
Brooke Greening: gonna, like, fiddle with it.
Scott Greening: Right. Yeah. So we'll, let's, before it gets embarrassing again, let's- ... turn the corner back. How does this relate, just tie it together here again for customers and- Chasing- Yeah ... and not, and what are we doing? A-
Brooke Greening: absolutely. When this happens, when we're taking the moments, and it doesn't take a long time, but when we're taking these moments to be really clear about our next steps, the customer is going to understand the recommendation.
Any remaining decision-makers are already identified. The next meeting is scheduled. Both people are knowing what's going to happen before, and everybody knows what they need to do to be able to move forward and who's responsible for what. This is not like, "Ooh, wouldn't that be nice?" This can truly happen in your sales conversations, and that's what I, I want for you guys.
So instead of you're getting off the next call, you know, like, "Well, it was good. I think they're gonna be able to move forward." No, no, no, like all of these things are clearly lined up and you know what to do. It feels organized, and it creates confidence for the customer and relief for you. You want them to get off the phone feeling better than when they got on the phone, and that will not happen unless they believe that you can help them and they know what that is going to look like.
A lot of times they can maybe say, "Okay, I think you can help me," but if they aren't clear on like what this is gonna start to look like and what they can do next to keep moving things forward, that's not a lot of hope. Then they're just like, okay, they're just kind of winging it at that point- ... and you don't want that.
Scott Greening: Yeah. Yeah. So what, what can people do to start thinking about how this might impact their business, their conversations?
Brooke Greening: All right. So first of all, I want you to review your last three calls, and I want you to know, okay, did both of us know what was going to happen next? That's the first one. Did we name who was responsible?
Did we agree on a date? Or did I end up with like this vague promise to follow up? So just simply put, did I end the conversation with a clear path? That's the question you're gonna ask yourself looking at your conversations the last week.
Scott Greening: All right, everybody. We are now officially at the last step of our SERVICE sales framework, and we've been working through in this now extended series of the SERVICE sales framework on all of these different steps.
And if you're wondering how exactly you're doing on explaining next steps or any of the six other parts of the framework, you can figure that out by taking Brooke's sales conversation assessment. In about five minutes or so, you'll get some really good targeted information on where you can take steps forward, whether you're already exceeding and want to go even further, or maybe there's some areas to improve in your conversations.
But you can do that at buildingmomentum.info/assessment. And we encourage you to do that right now or as soon as you're done with your drive.
All right, Brooke, we've, uh, set up explaining next steps. We've explained that people need to know exactly what's happening, and then we've talked about why it's so important. As, as kind of our pattern in this miniseries that we're doing, next time we're gonna look at some of the bad examples
What
Brooke Greening: are you looking
Scott Greening: forward to?
Brooke Greening: Also, we're going to include that famous, like, "Hey, I'm gonna send you something over and you can let me know." That's, spoiler that's not a plan. But we are going to note that customers should not have to guess how to buy from you. That's what we're really gonna be focusing on and helping you in what to say and what and how to respond to make sure that they do know how to work with you and they don't have to guess.
Scott Greening: All right. If you want to make sure that you don't miss that upcoming episode, we encourage you, as always, to subscribe, to like, to follow. We love hearing from you, and so if you want to leave a review, give us the five stars. Not to, like, force you into anything. But we'd love to, we'd love to hear from you, and, that would be great.
Until then, we hope you make some great sales this week.
Brooke Greening: Bye-bye.
