🍭 Why (not just) Sales Calls Go Wrong
I never liked talking on the phone — even as a kid with friends.
I didn’t like the feeling of having to have an answer in the moment. I’m a big ponder-er, a thinker (maybe an over-thinker at times).
That didn’t change as I grew up. I actively ignore calls from friends or family so I can text them and have time to think through responses.
The reason writing works better for me is simply because there is no pressure. I don’t have to worry about saying the wrong thing or messing up in the moment. I can use time to my advantage to craft what my brain is trying to say.
Side note: I’m the person who spends 5 minutes at the grocery store trying to pick out the “best” bread by holding up the top 3 contenders and comparing every nutritional fact and ingredient. I really worry about messing up - but I’m getting better.
There is a lot of science to backup what happens to me (and most everyone to some varying degree) - when there is pressure and we get overwhelmed, our thinking brain (the pre-frontal cortex) shuts down and we go into fight-or-flight mode (using our brain stem).
This is when I use those phrases I fall into in conversation — the ones we talked about last week. When that happens, I recognize it and feel like an idiot, but that only exacerbates said problem.
What I missed last week though, is a big piece to improving those skills. Identifying why it happens.
What I’ve found is that 99% of the time I shut down is because I feel caught off-guard by a question or statement.
I don’t want to seem like I don’t know what I’m talking about or that whatever I say is going to cause some huge problem for the other person that I can’t manage.
Now that I know why it happens for me, I can take action to counteract its effect.
If my brain starts going fuzzy now, my strategy is to:
take a deep breath to remind my brain to slow down
look at my alternative words list I made for myself
accept that whatever happens is okay because it’s either good or a learning moment
The best strategy is to prepare for conversations (if you know they are coming) and practice as much as possible for how you are going to respond.
The fact is we busy our days and life happens so sometimes you won't feel as prepared as you want. Plus, you can always get thrown a curveball you didn’t prepare for.
That’s life — and that's when strategies are helpful to pull yourself out of the comfortable (and possible damaging behaviors).
Coaching Corner
How are you preparing for important conversations today?
What advice would you give a good friend that’s in your situation if they wanted to improve?
(flip it) How could you set yourself up for failure in conversations that matter? — now do the opposite
Share Your Story with Us
Story = desire + resistance. (i.e. a cat sits on a blanket is a scenario. a cat sits on a dogs blanket is the start of a story)
Most stories end with achieving the desire or failing to reach it, but the part that is missed too often is bringing the story back home after the journey so that other can experience the wonder and lessons.
We are on a mission to collect stories from you to share it’s wonder and lessons with people who may be on a similar journey!
Consider sharing your story with us (you may remain anonymous if you wish!)
Have 4 conversations with your perceived ideal customer this week to truly understand the problems they face.
30 minutes each.
Try asking them L1 and L2 questions
L1 Problem: Surface Level Pain (this is what you get from most customers)
Tell me more.
Why has that become a challenge?
L2: Historical Pain (try to figure out what they’ve done to solve)
What have you done in the past to try to solve that?
How did those things work?
Why do you think they didn’t work?
Think about how much value you could get from 2 hours this week.
Weekly Nurturing Nature
Tune out to 30 seconds of bird songs I captured on a recent walk
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