Closing Your Consults With Ease In 30 Minutes or Less - Sales Success Story

Welcome and thank you for listening to The Salesmaven Show. I'm your host, Nikki Roush, your own personal salesmaven, here to offer you tips and strategies and techniques to master your sales conversation. Today is an on-air success story with one of our brilliant, amazing Salesmaven Society members who's here to share with you something that she has implemented into her business and seen exceptional results.

The point in bringing this episode to you is hopefully to inspire you to think about how you can implement this into your own business so that you can get similar results. Today's guest, you've heard her on the show before, and I want to welcome her back because she's had some huge strides in her business in the last year is Jill Schreuer. Welcome back to the show, friend.

Thank you so much, Nikki. I'm so happy to have you back. Now, for anybody who hasn't heard you on the show before or doesn't know you from the Sales Maintenance Society, will you tell everybody a little bit about you and your business? Thank you for asking. I'm Jill Schroer, and my business is Expedition HR. And I like to say my kind of goal in the business is to help small businesses navigate tough situations like work performance issues, firings, without feeling like a jerk.

and um find the words the phrasing and just ways to go about it um through mostly our hr subscription service which is on-call support like having a vp of hr at your service that is phenomenal i remember the one time in my career when i was managing a sales team

and having to let people go we were doing layoffs by far one of the worst days may be the worst day of my career of having to be the person to let people go and nobody coached me on it I didn't have any like idea how to you know obviously I was doing it from this place of wanting it to be like carrying and it was horrible. What a horrible thing to have to do. And thank goodness for you that there's people out there that you can call on and say, help me, help me through this.

So I don't, I don't sound like a jerk. I don't have to feel like a jerk. I literally didn't want to get out of bed for days after I had to do that. It's horrible. Yeah. Yep. I say we do all the other HR stuff, but really, that's all I help people with because it's so common. Yeah, like it's that's what comes up the most. Yeah, so many situations. And I remember because there was had to actually laugh a few people and it was each, each person responded differently.

And again, I had no coaching on how to handle, um, 1, one person cried. It was a male. It was horrible. Another person asked if it was, gosh, it was so close to the holidays. And he's like, my son is going to be devastated that we can't come to the holiday party. Cause we put on this really awesome kids party. Um, I wanted to cry. And then I remember somebody else who I'd had a like personal like friendship with has never spoken to me to this day. And she was so outraged.

And honestly, I will say with that one, I didn't agree with management's decision. It went up to the CEO of the company. I fought hard because I didn't agree with their reasoning as to why she was being the one of the people to let go. And it wasn't because of our personal relationship, but I didn't know how to navigate that conversation either. Like, is that something you help people with of like, how do you go back to your superiors and say, you know, can we talk about this? For sure.

Any and all of it. Yes. Well, it's interesting, Nikki, and I think it might help the audience too, if anyone's like, oh, I can relate and how, you know, you know, scary to be in that situation. The fact that you remember like the details of it because it was so traumatic, right? It was so traumatic. To to think about like, what are all the what ifs? And that's something no one tells you, like, let's brainstorm all the things and they cry. And someone would be like, they'd never cry.

And I say, but if they do, do you know what you're going to do? And we go through this brainstorm list of all the things that are going to throw a chair, are they going to storm out of the room? Are they going to go silent? What are you going to do if they do all these things? And then the chances they're going to do one of them is unlikely if you plan for it. But if you don't plan, something is going to come out of left field and really derail you.

And that's usually where things start plummeting. And you can get yourself into a little bit of hot water, right? If you don't handle those situations appropriately. Now, are you opening yourself up to lawsuit or opening yourself up to really bad mouthing in the, you know, if you're a community based business or in the online space? right like people have the ability to shout out from a very loud you know megaphone now They do. Yep. I teach repetition. Like just say the same thing.

It's really annoying. And they'll probably stop saying what, if they're like, you're wrong, you're wrong. This is not, this shouldn't be happening. Just say, I know it's, it's, it's hard to hear. And this is what's happening today. And because we open cans of worms, right. And then you start getting in the, Oh, they asked me a hard question and I didn't know how to respond. So yeah, that's, that's what I spend my, my entire days doing. And I love it. Well, and you're so good at it.

And so I know you've written a book about this too. And remind me of the title because I think I know it, but I don't want to say it and then say it wrong. That's okay. It's called Conqueror's Sticky Situations, a fresh and empowering approach to tough talks at work and in life. Yes. We all need help with the tough talks because they're the things that you either avoid or kind of like bumble and fumble your way through, right? That is a hundred percent accurate.

Yes. And I love, no one likes to feel like a jerk, right? Yeah. Yeah. I love the, I love your, cause I like the word sticky too, but I like that you use sticky, the sticky situations, the ones that you're like, Ooh, I don't want this attached to me. Well, and I feel like some of that's going to come up in what we're going to talk about today, as far as like what you've helped me with. You've actually helped me with kind of the tough parts of a consult too. Oh, I love that.

Okay. Well, that is a great transition. She's such an expert. You guys listening, Jill's so good at what she does. Okay. So let's talk about your, like, what was the situation? What were you doing? What did you do differently? And then results. Share any and all that you want to, and I'll kind of chime in. Yeah. So I have been hearing you say, you know, what are you people doing on calls? Not what are you people doing?

You don't say it like that, but you're basically like, who is on a call for 60 minutes and why are you on a call? I love how you're like, there's no reason to be on there for 60 minutes.

Maybe rare circumstances or So I just want to clarify. Yeah. We're talking about a consult call. Yes. Your consultation with a prospective client. So yeah. Yeah. Okay. Keep going. Thank you, Nikki. Sorry. Yeah. And I thought, no, I don't want to admit I'm always on hour or hour, 15 consult calls. Cause you know what I do is important and I have to share everything. And honestly, it's taken me. a while to figure out like, okay, I get it. And yeah, sure.

I'd love to, because if I have 2 in one day, there's 2 hours, 2 hours plus of my day. And you've really helped me realize that probably what I'm asking may be able to be, um, you know, tweaked or perfect. I was asking way too much is what I was realizing, thinking I had to, and you've probably seen in the salesmaven society kind of asking like, oh, is this good to ask or this? Um, So do you want me to share kind of what the game changer was? Yeah, yeah, for sure. Really just getting my question.

So I, at first I was asking, I teach 8 pillars of HR, kind of like foundational areas. And so I was asking one or 2 questions under each pillar, which we could all add that's 8 to like, 16 questions. And I started feeling like I was really just like peppering them. And I get like halfway and you kind of see like them looking like a little fatigued.

And I was like, oh, but I thought I have to ask this because I need to know where they stand. And I realized I can ask one question instead of 8 to 16 on. I have 3 products like that subscription. I have a training program and a jumpstart training, which is H.R., and then leadership trainings. And those are the only 3 products I have. And so I thought, can I figure out a way to ask them a question about that product?

And you've really, again, it's me being kind of a thick one, kind of getting it through. And I realized the question I asked now is would, and I list some of the things, it's kind of a longer question, but like with this, this or this, and something like this be useful to you. And I had a consult today, in fact, so the timing was perfect.

And I got to the end of it and I said, you know, would resources benefit you such as and I named some and one on one support whenever a situation comes up and the ability to always send an email or have a call? And he said, that's exactly what we need. I thought, OK, well, I I didn't get that kind of answer when I would ask those 8 to 16 questions in the past. And so I thought, OK. And that was it. And he said, that sounds exactly what we're looking for. What should we talk about next?

And I thought, well, and that kind of led into, okay, well, the next product flows into the subscription. So once again, channeling Nikki, thinking when I was creating this to make it more condensed, what is that one question I could ask about that? And that's rooted in, is foundational HR learning important to you? And with learning things such as, and I listed and he said, no, some of that's not important. The support is way more important.

So it was just like, I've always learned this from you too. Like he, he's not asking for more. He's not really curious about it. It was very much. like if I went on and on about the jumpstart, I wouldn't be listening to him. He was very clear that that wasn't what he needed. And then the trainings, once again, I asked kind of my key question, the longer question, but that really encompassed it. And he said, maybe later, I just really liked that subscription.

And in 3 questions, I deduced that that is going to be the thing to at least start with. I don't know if any of that made sense. Yeah, I love that. So to just to comment on this for the for the listener, when you are the whole idea of the questions during the consult, I would say there's kind of 2 main areas. types of questions that you should be asking in this consult. They're your ideal fit questions, like to determine whether or not this is a prospective client, like a potential buyer or not.

And then there's your expertise questions that plant the seeds about what it is that you do that makes you unique and specific and helps people start to narrow down in their mind. Yes, Jill's got what I need. So yes, I want to hear her offer. Yes.

I'm like moving forward in that, in that sales process with her and what can sometimes happen in consults. And especially if you're spending a lot of time, you're probably spending a lot of time. I'm going to put this in quotes. I know for, for the listener, you can't see it, but if you're watching it on YouTube, you will like, I've got to educate them about all of the things that I do. No, you don't. You absolutely don't. You just need to figure out, are they a potential buyer?

Do you have a solution for them? Do you have permission to put the solution in front of them? And then you can sell them other things down the road. You can sell them other things, but let's get that like to the, am I talking to a buyer? Do they have, like, do I have a solution for them? Do I have permission to put it in front of them? That is the crux of what a consult call is about.

So for you to like really be able to figure this out and notice that Jill has also commented here that it's not like her question is like really concise and very short. Like she's putting a little bit of information in there that's helpful for somebody to go like, yes to this, but maybe no to that. That's okay.

she's not spending an hour and 15 minutes educating them on all of her different or even the 3 categories of products he's not interested in 2 of them don't waste your time and energy that is precious attention that you have with somebody so you don't want to waste their attention talking about things they have no no chance of buying at this point So you nailed it. Good job. And then how did that go? Did you close the sale? How did that end? I got to know. It went very well.

It went really well in what I came out of it knowing. And this is really a new thing. I haven't been doing it this concise for a long time.

And I've been seeing very quick like clarity in my mind on are they a fit or not and which thing because i've typically been like well i'll send all 3 then because i'm not quite sure this is a very a very clear what they need yes and thanks for pointing out nikki too i wanted to make sure like just like you clarified this is like the specific product piece you've also i mean i go through like your exact recommendations in the, are they a fit?

And boy, like they, those questions also add to like the, are they a fit for my product, but also are they a fit for, you know, do they have the budget? Yeah. Like what have they tried? What are you hoping to get out of this? I mean, they're so dialed in, you know, you've really helped me too, because I've got to get some of those questions answered and you've really helped me with like how to make sure that they don't just hijack the conversation.

Yeah, because it won't be valuable to them if they if I can't ask the questions to be able to give them potential options. No, really, really game changing for me. With the products for sure. I love that. And I also just want to comment here because, you know, you hear people talk about this a lot and I and I agree with this to a point is that to be good at sales, you have to be a good listener. But that doesn't mean that you have to let them talk the whole time.

It means you have to pick up the things they're saying and then direct and guide the conversation from there to things that are going to be interesting, that are going to be helpful for them to make a decision. So it's not that you don't speak at all during a call and you just let people go on because I always say I love a story, but story is a huge time suck. And I try to avoid story during consult calls because it's not productive in closing business.

Might be good at like building rapport, which I'm all about too, but I think you can do it by asking specific questions, listening to their answers, and then tailoring your approach based on like, just like this guy said of like,

yeah i'm not really interested in the you know the the like learning of hr i'm really interested in having somebody that you know gives us the support so when you listen and you pick that up you go okay i'm not going to spend any time talking about how i educate and train people on becoming their own hr expert that is a complete waste again of just precious attention from a buyer So you're just nailing it and you continue to nail it.

I feel like you come back and you share success stories and I know you share them with me and you share them in the group too of these things where you're like, this is what I'm doing now and this is how it's, this is how it's working. So it's been so fun to watch you progress and it's been a few years now. I can't remember. I should have looked it up. Do you remember how long you've been in the Salesmaven Society now? It's been a while.

And you know, it's been strangely, not strangely enough, it's coincided with when my business really took off. It really is. I mean, it's just in your name comes up a lot. Just someone's like, Oh, you know, where'd you learn that? I'm like, Oh, funny you ask. Well, you know what, Nikki, I wanted to say to the way you phrase things. Honestly, I think I might have shared this on other podcasts. It has been helpful even in the work I do, but especially in consults.

Would it be okay if I started with a few questions? And I find I use that in consults. I'm sorry, in my calls with clients too. Would it be okay if I started off the call with some questions? It's just such a great entry point. And I mean, no one ever says no to a nice inviting way in. Yeah, that's what's known as a softening phrase. So I do teach those.

And the would it be okay is a really effective softening phrase because most people are nodding their head yes before you've even said like what comes behind the would it be okay? Because most people are like, yeah, I'm in, I'm in. And then of course, then the conversation progresses. So I love that you shared that too. Thank you so much.

sure thing okay is there anything we haven't talked about that you want to share well yeah 2 things so okay because you've helped me dial it in so much the offer becomes so much easier because i i used to struggle with like okay i've shared all this and then i'm i wasn't sure at the end of the call what they wanted even though i offer 3 products i don't really customize i'm very like in my lanes I still didn't know which ones. And now it's very clear.

Now my product, I don't think it's called a high ticket. I guess I don't know what the definition, if there's like a dollar amount, but they're oftentimes needing to think about it a little bit. So I found sometimes giving them the link to buy through credit card works, but at least I know what they're going for. And I do offer, and I say, would you like to go forward with that? And, and Oftentimes they're like a couple of weeks.

They want to talk with a couple of people, but never before was I, I shouldn't say sometimes I was ready, most often not. And the other thing is I actually created a PowerPoint that goes along with my 3 questions. And it's like, it just guides it. Cause I found sometimes too, when I would ask about the subscription and they're like, it would prompt them to ask more questions. So instead of my just like word vomiting all over them about the subscription, They'd say, well, wait a minute.

Yeah, that sounds really intriguing. And this one actually said, actually, what type of resources are in that subscription online resource bank? And I said, oh, great. Do you want me to show you it? And so we took a couple minutes. I actually screen shared. And he's like, that's perfect. And so it prompted before I would have asked all the questions kind of beforehand. Now it prompted me to spend the 2 minutes answering a question he had and he got what he needed.

And then the slides are very complimentary. And so it's just giving them a visual. And I found That way they clearly at the end, I think they see there's 3 things and they're all independent or they can all go together.

Those are 2 things I wanted to add that it's really helped because asking 16 questions they don't know which product and i frankly didn't know which product i was trying to get at with all those questions but now i'm clearly asking a question for the product if that makes sense it totally well it makes sense to me hopefully for the listener too because again the whole point in this consult and having these ideal and expertise questions

is for you to quickly identify, yes, I have a solution that is going to meet their needs. And if you get to the end of the consult and you're like, I don't know what I'm supposed to sell to them, you're not asking the right questions. If there's a confusion about, it should be so clear and pretty quickly. And I know you've mentioned now a few times the I really don't recommend ever asking more than about 11. 11 would be like the max.

And there's a reason why But 11 questions feels like a lot because for someone to have questions being thrown at them like that and having to come up with their answers, it can be taxing for the answerer. So we have to remember that the person who's asking questions in a sales conversation holds the power. And I believe that there should be a balance of power between you and the client.

So if you're hammering them with 16, 20, 30 questions, you're essentially saying, I'm in charge and you're just here to like regurgitate what I'm asking you for. And it's not necessarily doing what you want it to do, which is building rapport and making it easy for them to make a decision to hire you. They're now fatigued by the time they get to the end of your 16, 20, 30 questions.

They feel like, oh, I need to take a nap or at least let my brain rest because I've had to come up with all this information. So it's so important. And if you can do it in 5 questions, by all means, you know, if you know within 5 questions, I know what the offer is. They're an ideal client and I'm going to ask permission to put an offer in front of them. Like you don't need to ask. The 16 questions because you have them on written on a sheet somewhere. That's not the point.

That's not a good listener. That's not a good sales experience for the buyer. So you know what else, Nikki? They're not as confused in their follow up. Right. I found it clear. I would get a lot of like, help me understand again the difference. And I'm like the difference between these 2 things. I explained it. But I was confusing them. And since I've been doing this shortened version, they're like, I want this because we figured that out in the consult.

I was actually going to reach out to you with that. But then I switched the consult and I found, okay, I fixed it, I think, because they're not confused anymore. I was starting to get a lot of confusion. I think I swung too far with the too many questions and the prospect fatigue. Yeah. That's a really good point too is it's good feedback for you when people are asking questions and you're thinking to yourself, I already covered that.

That's a time for you to step back and say there's something about the way I'm covering it that's causing confusion or causing them to not be able to like take that information in. And as soon as you make it easy for them to like, okay, I've got this information. I know enough to recall to make a decision. Now you made it easier for them to buy. So I love that you shared that too. like, again, you just continue to nail it and continue to progress.

And it's been fun to sit sit on the sidelines and watch your business grow and especially with your subscription service and all the stuff that you're doing there and you just continue to like take this stuff in and refine it and that is the point of sales is that you continue to learn that you continue to refine your process and look for those places where you're not getting the response you want and then you need to take it on yourself and go, what do I need to change?

Not like these people are idiots. Like they should really like pay attention during a call. Like, no, you have to own that. There's a presupposition in neuro-linguistic programming and it says the meaning of your communication is based on the response you get. And it's one of those things that I remember when students would be learning this for the first time. I remember when I learned it for the first time. Actually, I'm so clear on the time when I learned it. I learned it in a small group.

And I remember one woman in the group saying like, I don't like that. Like, I'm not comfortable with that. And I remember thinking to myself, like But, you know, what about intention? What about like my intention? My intentions are good. And if they take it wrong, isn't it that on them? But when you start to really own that, the meaning of your communication is based on the response you get, then you can make adjustments. You are guiding the conversation.

So you're doing fantastic, Jill. I'm so impressed. I have a quote I like is the myth about communication is that it's actually taken place. And like, I feel like I, you know, I talk about that sometimes in trainings and it's true. It's like, we think we've communicated and we have not. So yeah. Yeah. When you think like, I've already said that, why are they asking me this question? Either you, maybe you said it, but maybe you didn't, maybe you skipped it because you already know what you know.

And sometimes your brain doesn't need to say things out loud, But the other person, if they don't hear it out loud, they don't know, right? Like, so maybe you skip saying it and or you said it in a way that felt confusing or overwhelming or it was too much information for them to take in. So they kind of shut it down. So it's just taking some ownership, right? Of the way that you communicate and then see results. So now you went from an hour and fifteen and you're down to 30. 30. Fantastic.

Fantastic. And we have time to spare. Yeah, because it shouldn't feel rushed. That's fantastic. Nice work. So impressed. Thank you. I mean, it's just, yeah, it's kind of, and honestly, I was like, no, but I need to ask this. And like, she keeps saying how that works. you know, main, like I was wondering why I was getting confusion and I kept hearing your advice.

And finally, you know, when you kind of stopped saying you think you're doing it right and tried something else and it's, yeah, it's been, it's, Really? Yeah, just really great. And I appreciate it. And it's been fun, too. Yeah, well, thanks for coming and sharing. I'm so grateful that you did. If somebody is listening right now and thinks I need some help, I need to have some really tough conversations and I could use some feedback. What's the best way for people to get in touch with you?

Great. So either going through my website, just booking a call where we can chat about their needs, or just emailing me, jill at expeditionhr.com. I also love connecting on LinkedIn, and I'm really trying to make an effort to just deliver something of value when it comes to tough conversations on a regular basis, because as you shared at the beginning of our talk today, I think everyone has an experience where they

could have used some sort of coaching or a tip or a tool. And I teach simplicity, Nikki, so this makes sense in the consult. Let's keep it simple because you confuse them, you lose them. That's right. That's right. Okay. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for being such a valued member of the society. You are a loved member in the group. So just so happy to see your success. And for you, the listener, thanks for showing up and being here.

And I hope that there was something in this episode today that inspired you. And if so, reach out to me or reach out to Jill or reach out to both of us and let us know what are you going to do differently or what prompted, like what did Jill say? What came about for you? What action are you going to take as a result of listening to this episode so that you too can have more successful sales consults? all right have a great rest of your day i'm wishing you so much success take care everyone bye