Serve to Sell: Exactly How to Sell Premium Programs with 1 Free Coaching Call
Mitch is a nice guy. You can tell because of the problem he’s having right now:
“John - my frustration is the guilt of having to sell and not wanting to come across pushy.”
I get it, Mitch. In fact, we all get it (right?).
You’re drawn to the idea of helping people by teaching from your experience, but you don’t want to annoy people that you genuinely want to serve.
I’m the same way. That’s why I’ve never seen myself as a “sales guy” but I earn most of my income from sales calls. Weird, right?
You wanna know the weirdest part? It’s also the best part… people love my 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“I told this to my assistant and then my wife… I recognize that John is making a really incredible offer here. And so if I've turned it down, it's going to be after a lot of conversation and thought.” - Chad
I believe every article, social media post, or even sales calls needs to be useful to the real person receiving it. In other words, Always Be Teaching.
That’s why my first rule of sales calls is that you should never say sales call (a rule I’ve just violated a half dozen times).
Stop booking sales calls, start giving Serve Calls
Words have power, and simply categorizing a meeting as a “sales call” can put you into the mental state of a taker rather than a giver.
Of course, the reality is that we are offering these calls to sell products to make money, but you and I want every interaction with a potential client to be more than that.
Sales calls are focused on selling your products first.
Serve calls are focused on serving real people first instead.
Even if you call your sales calls something clever like a discovery call, strategy session, or free consultation… you know it’s really a sales call in disguise.
Whatever you call them, 1 free call has become the standard way to recruit clients into Premium Programs for coaching, consulting, or done-for-you agency work.
I’ve done it myself, using the 1 free call strategy to sell 1-on-1 coaching, group coaching programs, masterminds, fractional CMO consulting, email automation, and copywriting services.
It worked pretty well, but I knew I was winging it–and more often than I’d like I had a sinking feeling I’d wasted everyone’s time.
So I dedicated two years of time, money, and focus to create a new "Serve Call" structure that is a powerful customer research coaching conversation that leads to a premium sale.
At first, I kept my Serve Call experiment to myself… but then I helped one client earn $42,500 in two months and another client tripled his call conversion rate.
Serve Calls are now core to my business and what I teach.
I love seeing serve calls work for people who have never sold before, like Meg:
“I've now had 4 of 5 scheduled free coaching calls. 2 are "maybes" if they can work the financing. 1 is a "yes" for the 6 month program, to be purchased in about a week. And the final one is a firm "yes" for a different (less expensive) program ($1200 before a 20% discount coupon). I had NO IDEA I could be so successful at the one-on-one coaching calls!!! Have one more call set for Saturday morning. Wow.”
Way to go, Meg!
You can get your own step-by-step Serve Call guide by ordering your copy of Serve to Sell: Exactly How to Sell Premium Programs with 1 Free Coaching Call.