🌶 Why Being Professional Is Costing You

📈 MUST-TRY GROWTH HACK:

Stop Pitching Like a Professional

February 27th, 2022. 3pm.

I still remember the exact time because I'd been pacing around my apartment all morning, psyching myself up for this call.

My very first real sales pitch for brand consulting.

The guy was a friend of a friend. He'd been interested for over a month, replied to three emails and we'd been chatting in DMs. This felt like a done deal.

I showed up ready.

Pitch deck: loaded.
Case studies: queued up.
Objection responses: memorized.
Coffee: extra strong.

Everything was perfectly rehearsed 100 times over.

I was going to absolutely nail this.

Thirty minutes in, I'm walking him through my proposal for his upcoming brand launch.

Explaining each step, showing results, even addressing concerns he hadn't brought up yet.

It was all going according to plan. Or so I thought.

Then he cuts me off mid-sentence:

"Right, okay. So... I'm just going to be honest, this isn't clicking for me the way I thought it would. Let me sleep on it and I'll shoot you an email."

My stomach dropped…

"Of course," I said, trying to play it cool. "Yeah, take your time."

That email never came.

That night, I couldn't sleep.

I kept replaying the whole thing in my head, trying to figure out where I went wrong.

How I’d managed to fumble a sure-fire sale worth thousands per month.

And then it hit me…

I had spent 30 minutes of that call proving I knew my stuff.

Maybe 3 minutes actually listening to him.

I was so wrapped up in sounding professional, credible, prepared... that I completely forgot I was talking to an actual person.

Someone with a real story, real struggles, real reasons for even getting on that call with me.

Absurdly, I couldn't recall anything about him beyond his name and what he was trying to sell.

Not why he started his brand in the first place. Not why he designed his own logo instead of hiring someone.

Nothing.

The truth was I didn't lose that sale because my offer wasn't good enough.

I lost it because of one simple thing:

The Strategy:

Here's what most solopreneurs get wrong about sales calls:

They treat them like presentations.

You know the drill - open with a quick intro, walk through your process, show some proof, handle objections, close.

Super structured. Rarely effective.

I'm not saying prep doesn't matter.

But your prep should be focused on questions, not answers.

It's the difference between following a cookie-cutter script and actually having a real conversation that wins people over.

If someone's on a sales call with you, they probably already know what you do.

They've seen your website. Maybe scrolled your socials. Read a few emails.

So why spend half the call repeating all of that when you could be finding out what they actually need?

The difference between closing the deal and losing it comes down to one thing only.

Do they hear their own story in what you're saying, or do they just see you selling?

And you can't manufacture that connection by talking more.

You create it by listening better to their story. Not rambling on about yours.

The data backs this up:

• Sales reps who listen more than they talk close 40% more deals 

But here's where it gets really interesting...

Most people think "active listening" means nodding along and saying "uh-huh" at the right moments.

It’s not. That's just waiting for your turn to talk.

Real listening means:

Letting them tell their full story - even if it takes 15 minutes and veers off course.

Asking actual follow-up questions - not just checking boxes on your mental list.

Noticing what they don't say - the hesitations, the pauses, the fears they're tiptoeing around but won't say explicitly.

Your prospect isn't buying your framework, your process, or your credentials.

They're buying the feeling that you get their problem better than they do.

The 2-Minute Setup:

Ask yourself these 3 quick gut-check questions:

1. In my last sales call, did I let them talk more than I did?

2. Can I name the exact moment they shared why they needed help?

3. Did I repeat back their exact words at any point during the call?

If you said no to any of those, it’s time to tone down being “professional” and ramp up being “personal”.

Here’s my exact method I’ve used to do just that and double my close rate.

💡 Pro Tip #1: Record your sales calls (with permission). Listen back. Count how many minutes you talked vs. how many minutes they talked and aim for 60/40 (them/you).

💡 Pro Tip #2: If they share something vulnerable (a failure, a fear, a frustration), don't rush past it. Pause. Acknowledge it. "That sounds incredibly frustrating" goes further than any pitch deck slide ever will.

⚡️AI ACCELERATOR

The Ultimate Prompt to Prepare for Sales Pitches Using the Story Swap Method

The prompt I’ve written below helps you prepare for any pitch by analyzing what you already know about your prospect and crafting a dynamic conversation that actually gets them talking about their story.

You'll get:

🌶 Tailored questions based on their specific situation
🌶 Possible story mirrors you might share (when the time is right)
🌶 A flexible call structure that adapts to how they respond
🌶 Follow-up prompts for when they share something important

Visit the link above for full instructions on how to use the prompt (it takes less than 1 minute).

Try it out and reply with your results!

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