“That was one of the worst sales calls of my life.” I said to myself after the call.

Thankfully, I wasn’t the salesman in this situation.

I was on a call with someone because I was interested in getting help with YouTube scripting.

This person worked with some big names in the YouTube space and said they could help.

And despite the sales call being bad, I was still set on buying from them.

But they made a few key mistakes that cost them a $3500 sale.

So, in today’s email I’m going to break down the 4 mistakes you might be making and how to fix them so you can land high-ticket clients.

These lesson are what I’ve learned from thousands of dollars worth of coaching and helped me go from shitting my pants on sales calls to closing $3,000-$12,000/month clients.

1. Talking too much about yourself

At the start of the call, the guy started with giving me a long story about himself and his journey.

Right away he made the call about him.

Big no no.

For one, the prospect doesn’t care, and two, it’s a form of qualifying yourself. The moment you qualify yourself, you lower your status and position yourself as someone who’s not in control.

When you’re on a sales call, focus on the person you’re trying to help.

Think of yourself as Yoda and the prospect as Luke Skywalker.

You’re not the main character.

They are.

You’re simply the guide.

Here’s how the intro should go:

You: “Hey [prospect’s name] can you hear me?

They’ll respond.

You: Awesome - How you doing?

They’ll respond and ask how you’re doing.

You: That’s great to hear. I’m [personalized response].

They’ll respond.

You: But cool - well - I know you’re busy and that we’ve got limited time here, so are you ready to jump into this?

They’ll respond with “yes.”

You: Awesome - well [prospect’s name] initially I’ll ask you a few questions just so I really understand where you’re coming from and what you’re looking to do, and at that point - if it makes sense - I can definitely walk you through what I got going on here. And then we’ll go from there. Sound good?”

They’ll respond with “yes.”

This initial interaction should be 30 seconds.

No long story about yourself.

2. Being “salesy”

The paradox of sales:

The more the prospect feels like they’re being sold to, the less likely they’ll be to buy.

The call should feel like a conversation, not like you’re trying to manipulate them to buy.

The moment the prospect feels like you’re using tactics on them, they’ll throw up resistance to what you’re saying.

This is especially true if the prospect is well-versed in sales.

I’m by no means an expert, but the person I talked to should have known that I have a fundamental understanding of sales.

So when he tried using sales tactics on me, I didn’t like it.

To contrast, I hopped on a call with a different YouTube editor the next day.

Before he started asking me questions, he said something along the lines of:

“Look, man. We both know you know sales. This is just gonna be a conversation to see if I can help. No tricks.”

Simply framing the conversation this way made me feel respected and wayyyy more receptive to what he was saying.

He treated me like a person, not another sale.

I felt like he was there to help, not just make money.

3. Being confusing

The main reason I didn’t buy from the first YouTube editor was simply one reason:

I was confused.

He rambled on about 3 different YouTube packages he was selling.

At no point did he stop and ask me if I had any questions.

He just unloaded a TON of information on me talking about different stuff.

Think of your sales call like this:

You’re in math class, the teacher is explaining how to do an algebra formula.

You’re following along, but you become a bit confused at part 2 of the problem.

The teacher keeps progressing to part 3 of the problem.

But you’re still trying to figure out part 2.

The teacher progresses to part 4.

“WTF is going on?” you ask yourself.

You can’t pay attention to anything because you’re still confused.

The same applies to your sales call.

After you explain something to your prospect, you need to be asking:

“Does that make sense?”

“Any questions on this part?

“All clear?”

You should only move forward until your prospect is clear on what you’ve just said.

Confused people don’t buy.

4. Taking too long to invoice

I hopped off that sales call without buying anything because I asked the YouTube editor to give me a list of what he was offering for each of the 3 packages he told me about.

Typically, you NEVER want the prospect to leave the call without paying.

The likelihood of them buying once they get off the call plummets to near zero.

But despite it being a horrendous sales call, I was still open to buying from this person.

I just wanted more information.

About 8 hours later, the YouTube editor sent me his packages.

I looked at them and told him I’d buy the one for $3500.

And.

This.

Dude.

Took.

THREE DAYS to send me an invoice.

By that time, I already hopped on a call with another editor and bought a $3500/month package on the spot.

Simply because they avoided all these mistakes.

So, my friend, I hope these tips help.

I know how confusing sales can be, but it comes down to asking the right questions and not being a potato by making these mistakes.

Happy Thursday.

Your Canadian friend,

Dakota “Sell Me This Pen” Robertson