The Secret to Effective Sales Calls: It's Not What You Think with Guest Gwen Tinsley

Karalee Gault and Gwen Tinsley discuss the importance of systematizing sales processes for female business owners, emphasizing the need for different strategies or processes for each aspect of the sales process. 

3 Takeaways:

1. They highlight the significance of establishing a strong connection with clients before engaging in any transactions.
2. They stress the need for confidence in the initial stages of a client relationship to avoid bringing on the wrong people and protect their business. 
3. Both speakers emphasize the importance of having a sales strategy in place in the ever-changing sales space, and the need for a systematic approach to tracking leads, using software and automations to stay organized, and having a clear understanding of the difference between marketing and sales strategies.

To learn more from Gwen, follow her on IG: https://www.instagram.com/gritandtenacityconsulting/

Grab her "Just Tell Me What To Say on a Sales Call" here: https://gritandtenacity.myflodesk.com/ynpkj4mj8h

Have a question, want to chat with Karalee?
Send a text to (419) 721-6037 and let's chat!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:51

All right, hello, welcome back to the Streamline CEO podcast. I'm your host, cara Lee, and today we actually have a very special guest. Her name is Gwen and she is the well, actually, I'm going to let you know, I'm going to let her tell you she's the owner of, because I never get it quite right. But anyway, we met here in a mastermind and we have, we have just connected and we love each other's vibe, and so I decided, well, she actually pitched me, you guys, she's like I want to be on your podcast. And so here we are. So, gwen, go ahead and introduce yourself, tell us who you are and what you do.

Speaker 2: 1:25

Hi everybody. I'm Gwen Tensley, ceo of Grit and Tenacity Consulting, and I actually help female business owners sell more through their authenticity and leaning into just repeatable sales processes and systems that typically I find a lot of female entrepreneurs don't have, and so that just helps them gain confidence in their ability to sell more and scale and grow their businesses. Thanks so much, carly, for having me.

Speaker 1: 1:51

Yes, it's going to be great. One of the things that I personally struggle with is the sales process. I know, when we were talking a little bit before we decided to have you on the podcast, it was like I struggle with actually following up with people, reaching out to people and things like that. So I'm hoping that if some of our listeners have this issue as well, that you're able to support them with that. So we're going to go ahead and jump right in, because how has systematizing your sales process actually helped you really do the things right in close clients?

Speaker 2: 2:24

Such a great question, oh my gosh. So, honestly, a lot of people don't associate sales with it being a system, right they they associate it with an event, like a transaction that happens once you've done all the other legwork, whether it's, like you know, tracking them on social media, you know, or Instagram, all those things. And so really and truly you know, selling is something that happens in our everyday lives. Every conversation that we have, every when we get up in the morning, you know, and we are convincing her husband that to do one set of plans versus the other right, or we're negotiating with our children to get out of bed in a positive, good mood and out the door for school or to their summer camp, being, as it's, july. That is all a part of that is selling. That like that is our ability to sell. And I think when we recognize that selling touches every single aspect of our business, from the moment that someone knows who you are to the moment that they have ended their time with you and onward, we are in a selling mindset right, and so having different strategies or processes around each compartment of the sales process has really, honestly, given me complete control over my business.

Speaker 2: 3:41

It has helped build tremendous amounts of confidence, not only in my business but in all the clients that I've worked with, to really understand what's working, what's not working, what's resonating with people, what's not resonating with people, but then also to really be confident that you are bringing on the right type of people and that you're not just throwing things at the wall to see what sticks I think that's the biggest thing is like no one is ever really taught how to sell because people run from it, like I did most of my career and but really with over 20 years experience in in business and strategy, I didn't realize that I was actually in a sales role. But also I was kind of behind the scenes studying behaviors, people's behaviors and how they acted and reacted to different things, and it's just fascinating the psychology of selling and just really that, combined with systems and strategies that are easy and don't feel like a heavy lift and actually add value to people's lives and you don't feel like you're bugging the crap out of them, it's awesome.

Speaker 1: 4:44

You know you said right there at the beginning, there you were, like it's actually a system to like to make sure you guys get your kids out of bed. You know you're actually like a salesperson in that manner. I've never thought of it that way, but I am constantly sitting over here persuading my children to go do their chores or to like get ready in a faster manner. So maybe I do have some good sales skills. I just didn't really know it.

Speaker 2: 5:06

Yeah, it's a mindset thing. I mean it really is, and I think we're so wired to think about like that used car salesman, because if you think about it right, you've either had really good selling experiences or bad selling experiences. And the ones that we typically talk about are the ones that are just horrible and you can't believe it and you feel like you got screwed over or something right. We don't talk about the ones that go off without a hitch or that are really smooth and easy as much, because we just don't like to talk about the positive as much as we like to gripe about the negative, right.

Speaker 1: 5:37

Oh man, you got a great point there. Yeah, oh man, I actually this just came to me. But like, do you like doing sales calls or do you prefer to do like sales in a different way?

Speaker 2: 5:48

Well, so I am a connector, like that is my. I'm a high, high, high connector I. One of the things that I teach in my framework is, especially if you have like a $2,000 or higher ticket item, that you need to be doing sales calls, and preferably over Zoom or over some kind of video chat if you're virtual, or even in person, because body language tells you just as much as what their verbal language says, just as much as what their verbal language says. And so I, to answer your question, like yeah, I love doing sales calls because to me, to me, it's not a sales call, it's just a natural curiosity of wanting to understand this person's drive to start a business and how I can maybe help them with my expertise that they're not an expert in. And I'm like genuinely curious. I just I love learning about businesses and how people got to where they are and where they want to go and why they think that their business might be the thing that takes them there. And then you know, hey, if I can help great.

Speaker 1: 6:46

Oh my gosh. We have a similar mindset around that. I love sales calls for the exact same reasons the body language and all of those things put together. If I'm ever working with anyone long term, they're definitely at least on a zoom call before we like there's any sort of transaction, because I want to make sure we vibe together, because not vibing together can also not be a great long term partnership or even a short term if it's going to be draining on your own like mental health of sorts, right. So I'm always like I'm totally like we need to be on not necessarily a sales call, just a call in general, like we need to meet before if it's like a newer client that only saw me like on social media or wherever.

Speaker 2: 7:23

But that's a system that you have in your that's like.

Speaker 2: 7:26

That's a system that you haven't even like and I know that you're a strategist and so you probably have written down every system that you have in your business, right, but like that's a system and you didn't even realize that that was, that was part of it, and it's a critical one, and it's one of the systems that helps give us control over who we work with and who we don't, and really protect our business, because so many times we don't have confidence in the questions that we're asking or really understanding what the person wants from an outcome perspective. We just jump right in and start talking about all the ways that we can help them when we really don't even know to the core what their problem is. And then, next thing, you know you brought on this client and they have misaligned expectations and they're super high maintenance and they're draining you and you end up hating your business because you keep bringing on the wrong people, because you don't have the confidence on the front end, which is incredibly important.

Speaker 1: 8:22

That is gold. What you just said there is gold. I have learned that I've been in business for five years, so I've done this a time or two here. I have definitely brought on clients, whether I needed money or I was like, oh I can do this. It's simple, but in the end sometimes it's not necessarily a good fit, and so it will actually cause more problems than it solves. I have definitely learned that the hard way. You also mentioned something about being confident in the beginning, and so what's the biggest things that our listeners might be able to do to feel confident in going into sales calls or doing sales in general, coming from you?

Speaker 2: 8:56

So the biggest thing that I hear a lot is they just don't know what to say. You don't know what to say to respond to someone when they DM you or you get a lead and they ask you questions in emails but you really want to get them on a sales call and you don't know how to do that. Or maybe you've had a sales call and they were your best friend coming off of that sales call and now they're ghosting you and you don't know what to say to them to get communication back on track. That's a large part of what I coach and teach on and actually just give that light. I'm like that sales consultant in your back pocket, if you will, the way that the framework works so that if you have things like that happen, you just send me a screenshot and I'm like, okay, let's talk this through. So you're getting, you're learning as you go. Right, it's an external processing thing, but then also we land on a script that is going to make you feel good about your response and, you know, hopefully create a new client for you. So that's that's. The biggest thing is just again, I think that people don't have a sounding board to, to, to connect with, and so it just feels like you're throwing things at the wall, like I said earlier, to see what sticks, and there's no real like maybe it worked for this one person and maybe it didn't over here, and so you tried the same thing with this other person and now you're confused that it didn't work. But it's really again.

Speaker 2: 10:13

To build confidence in any business, you can't just say I'm in business but you have to have some foundational. You know. You can't just say I'm in business but you have to have some foundational, some foundations built in your business. And a sales strategy is absolutely one of them. But it's the one that nobody typically thinks of, because they're all worried about what platforms am I going to work off of? What you know systematized? More on the technology back end, am I going to? You know how's my business on? They don't ever think about what is my sales strategy. They think about a marketing strategy, but they don't think about a sales strategy, and those are two different things.

Speaker 1: 10:49

You know what? That's a great question. Can you explain to me because I could use some clarity here too what's the difference between a marketing strategy and a sales strategy?

Speaker 2: 10:57

So marketing is, in corporate terms, like public relations, right. Marketing is really getting just your visibility out there. Okay, marketing is talking about a lot of the outcomes that people experience by working with you Right, but it's it's. In my opinion, it's a lot of just brand work, like identifying your brand, your persona, right, who is your ideal client that you want to work with and why it's your website right. Like all of that is your marketing. Now there is some crossover, but the biggest difference between sales and marketing is your language and tone starts to shift when you're in a sales conversation versus when you're in a marketing conversation. Right, we get to be more specific, we get to be more dialed in with the pain point that that person is actually experiencing, because we've had them raise their hand or something on the marketing side and they've identified that they have a pain point that we service, and so now we get to talk to them very specifically about that pain point and make it relatable to them and their business in our sales conversations, if that makes sense.

Speaker 1: 12:15

Yeah, I love that. Yeah, but making sure you have a system in place where you can track leads and making sure that you can, you know, make sure you get those emails out or, you know, like that marketing plan, how are we keeping track of all those things? So, on the operations side you're coming back to me here we have to put in place this strategy, like these systems and these, the softwares, the automations and things like that. So how has implementing some of those automations or softwares, things like that, helped you be able to stay on top of the ever changing technology sales space?

Speaker 2: 12:50

That's a great question and you and I were chatting before this and I'm like I need help, so it has been a very grassroots effort. From that perspective. I'll go back and I'll share with you my time that I spent in Mary Kay. I'll never forget this.

Speaker 2: 13:04

My director at the time was wish you would always say like we would collect leads at the time, right, and they would be on post-it notes or paper when we would go and do giveaways and stuff, and I would always see everybody walking around with these like loose leaves of paper and they would fumble through things. And my director, I was like I'm out, you know I've done everything that I know I can do. And she's like, well, who else haven't you followed up with? Who else have you followed up with? And she kept asking me that and I was like I've literally followed up with everybody and she just couldn't wrap her head around that. And I showed her my spreadsheet, right, and she had never seen one of her consultants like put everything into a spreadsheet and then track like the number of times that I've reached out to them and when, so that I could also. And so this does a couple of things. One, it gives you permission to let people go when they need to be let go and stop chasing them when, like, they just are not going to do anything with you, and that is freeing in itself, because you don't waste time doing that, because your time is incredibly valuable. And that's also another really critical piece of having a sales system is making sure that you are spending the time with the right people and not the wrong people.

Speaker 2: 14:11

Right, and shortening those sales cycles so that you can spend less time on sales calls, less time following up and more time spending time with family or doing whatever it is that we want to do, which is why we go into business in the first place. Right, but to answer your question directly, it is still a spreadsheet. I track everything. If I get a lead and it goes there, I would highly recommend that you write something that you'll remember them. So I've been known to put like glasses cute brunette right. Um, met her with a burgundy shirt, right? Or bad attitude. I don't know if this is not you, I'm just saying, like someone, you know I'm like if anybody were to go and read my lead list and they, you know, didn't know what I was talking about.

Speaker 2: 14:51

they might be like, oh, but like I needed something to jog my memory and then I have. So you talked about follow up just in the beginning and that being like a strategy that you struggle with and that, honestly, is like one of the biggest things that I see, too, is following up is just not something that anybody really wants to do and also know how to do in a way that isn't like, hey, are you ready to come on board? Hey, just checking in, right, and so, anyway, I have a whole formula for that that I use and a strategy where I touch them at least five to seven times before I move on.

Speaker 1: 15:24

Wow, that's amazing. I'm totally gonna have to talk to you more about that. Just to make it super simple, I do keep track of leads or follow-ups in ClickUp, so I do kind of have that system implemented a little bit. Now I just have to actually do the thing and follow up a little bit more. But sometimes I get into the weeds and supporting and all those things and so, as I'm sure you do as well, and many of our listeners. So to finish up here just quickly, what is one thing that you would tell our listeners if they were struggling with really boosting their sales to bring up their revenue? What is one takeaway, one big thing that they could do?

Speaker 2: 16:04

I think the biggest thing is you have to know where to start, and if you don't know where to start, then you'll always stay stuck, and that's the biggest. I think it's so overwhelming and there's there's so many things happening that it's like I wouldn't even know where to start if I tried. And so where I like to start, depending on what's going on, is taking a look at your currently list, right. Who have you talked to recently that has done nothing? Let's take a look at why they did nothing or how that conversation went right. And then let's take a look at who you have that you are scheduled to have a call with and let's make sure that you're confident on that call to really ask the questions that you need to ask, to make sure that you're going to be the best fit for them and vice versa, right. And then the ones that you've had conversations with that just haven't done anything like what's our follow up been like or haven't had? Have you had follow up or no, you know, or have you tried following up and it just hasn't worked? And then really just gaining some confidence around your communication.

Speaker 2: 17:05

In fact, actually, one of my very first clients doubled her revenue monthly in six months, just by focusing on the follow-up piece, she was leaving so much money on the table because she would follow up once or twice, maybe twice, and she just kind of had this attitude of like, oh, they're so busy and if they want to work with me they'll let me know, and she felt like she was bugging them. And then she had a realization that well, I appreciate when people follow up with me because I am so busy and I do, I have two kids and I'm working a full-time job and so I appreciate it so much when people follow up with me. But somewhere she got that mindset that like she's bugging people, even though she appreciates when people follow up with her. And so again, it's a total mindset, right, and just feeling confident that you're adding value when you're following up, not just being that pesky used car saleswoman that no one likes.

Speaker 1: 18:01

I love that. That is such good advice. So and I also think that you said that you have something free to give away to our listeners about what to say on a darn sales call, so you can go ahead and grab that link down there in the show notes. And how can our listeners connect with you further if they'd like to learn more?

Speaker 2: 18:21

Absolutely. So the best way, the first step, because obviously there's just so much to go that goes into all of this. So the first, next best step would be to go and grab that free download and it's a guide and a worksheet that really just walks you through things that you can say on your sales call and how to ask those questions, and so go download that. Of course, you can follow me on Instagram, which is grit and tenacity consulting, although I do have like an antisocial kind of marketing things. So I'm showing stories every now and then, but I have the nine grid up, so go and check that out if you want. But of course, you can always send me a note through my website, which is grit and tenacity consultingcom, or you can reach out personally, which is grit and tenacity consulting, at gmailcom.

Speaker 1: 19:05

All right, awesome, it was so great to have you here. I, if I was not literally recording, I would have been taking notes right now on some of the things you said. So we're totally going to have to go back and listen and yeah, we'll, we'll go ahead and talk later, but if you guys haven't subscribed yet, make sure you subscribe, and we have one new episode every single week. So I'll see you back next week.