Serve to Sell 🫶

I’ve never thought of myself as a “sales guy” but I’ve made $88,700 from sales calls so far this year (and acquired equity in three companies as an advisor, without investing a dime).

The fact that I love sales calls is surprising enough, but I was in for another surprise: the people I’m meeting with love my sales calls, too.

Check out these real comments from real sales calls 😍

“John, this was really, really helpful to me, so I'm very grateful for it.” - Ben

“I'm curious… so why are you doing this? I’m really grateful, I'm usually not on the receiving end!” - Karen

if I've turned it down, it's going to be after a lot of conversation and thought.

Chad’s comment illustrates a core way I sell, respecting people’s ability to to make an intelligent decision about whether or not to join my accelerator program (or Thrive School PRO).

Ben and Karen’s comments emphasize another core principle:  Always Be Teaching.

I believe every free article, social media post, or even sales calls needs to be useful to the real person receiving it (more on that below).

But still, you may be wondering… do I have to do sales calls? Can’t I just focus on building an online audience, and promoting digital products with email marketing? That scales!

True, sales calls take tedious time, there is no way around that—but when you’re building a business you should take Paul Graham’s advice to “Do things that don’t scale.”

When you do so, sales calls have multiple benefits:

1. You get to know your target customer, personally
2. You get to sell your premium flagship product
3. You get to refine your offer with live feedback

Big companies pay huge sums of money to get “Customer Research” but with sales calls you get paid to research your own customer, which will help you create relevant content and products (which, ultimately, do scale).

How to Turn Your Wisdom Into Wealth by Building a Thriving Online Education BusinessYou have mastered so much already in such a short amount of time! Just like my 2-year-old… 😳 “I am sexy! I am so sexy right there…” I can’t say for sure where Myron learned to say that (my wife has a hunch) but you have to admit he’sJohn Meese | Thrive SchoolJohn Meese

How to Schedule (More) Sales Calls

The first rule of sales calls is that you should never call them sales calls (a rule I’ve just violated a half dozen times).

I’ve called these “sales calls” to get your attention, but I recommend you think of these as “serve calls” instead.

• Sales calls are focused on selling a product.
• Serve calls are focused on serving a person.

To schedule these serve calls, sometimes people email me with a question or they apply to join my accelerator program (if they’re more product-aware). In that case, I offer that they schedule a “Strategy Session” on my calendar to talk.

More often, I will proactively reach out to a target customer via email or LinkedIn (or even a text message), saying something like this:

Hey Joe! How are you? I love what you’re up to, and I’d love to learn more about what you’re building, and your goals for this year. How about we schedule a chat?

Yes, I do use templates—but I also personalize these for whomever I’m talking to. Sometimes that means catching up from where we first met or asking about a common interest first.

Sometimes people are busy, and either can’t meet or don’t reply (even after a follow-up) but many people are happy to schedule a meeting if we met at a conference, we're connected online, or we are introduced by a mutual friend (my affiliate program helps with this).

How I Conduct a “Serve Call” to Sell

This year, I paid $16,500 to complete two training programs on selling premium programs, and spent countless hours reading, researching, and refining my approach.

At first, I kept my serve call experiment to myself… but then I helped one client earn $42,500 in two months and another who was already selling triple his call conversion rate 🤩

My “serve call” strategy is still a work in progress, but there’s no sense in keeping it secret, so I'm happy to share.

Once a scheduled serve call arrives on my calendar, I show up with a smile and start:

1. Relationship. First and foremost, we are real people talking. How are you? Is it cold where you are? Thank you for taking time to chat today. What’s on your mind?
2. Results. I’d love to learn more about your good work and your goals. What are you trying to accomplish right now? How is that going so far?
3. Roadblocks. What stands between you and accomplishing your goal? What have you tried that isn’t working? That sounds frustrating, tell me more.
4. Resources. What inspired you to start down this path? What's one recent win worth celebrating? Do you have friends who’ve already done what you’re trying to do?
5. Recommendation. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like what you really want is {result}. I can clearly see that you have {resources} and I’d love to help you to {remove roadblock}! I do have a {Flagship Product} that is designed to {promise}, and I’d love to have you join. Is that something you can do?

Natural conversation is not always linear, so I make notes on Results, Roadblocks, and Resources whenever they come up.

Sometimes, people don’t really know what results they want to achieve. If they don’t have clarity, keep asking! Sometimes that is the greatest service. When was the last time someone asked you detailed questions about your most important goals?

In my case, I’ve also developed a simple revenue roadmap I share on the call, live, where I can plug in a few variables and paint the picture of what success looks like for the person I’m talking to, with a Seven Figure School.

One of the compliments I get about my teaching is that I am “honest and confident” which is a great combination. It’s crucial you convey something similar when you host serve calls too.

Are you ready to get started? Nobody can do this for you, it's time to begin.

Keep up the good work!

John Meese 🤓