Dear my fellow entrepreneurs, startup founders, and VIP members of the One Network,

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday. Today - I wanted to ask the honest and key question of prospecting - this week, I trained my team on selling new products via DM & Email.

It brought me back to my previous years as an agency owner - where I often “inspired” my own team, with the belief that with enough effort and tact - anyone could be a target prospect, closed for what they are selling.

This is a HIGHLY motivating idea - because for those of us that are trying to make budgets meet, a reassurance that sales is ALWAYS a way out is highly satisfying.

but…

can you really sell anything to anyone?

Table of Contents

• Last Week’s Meeting With Sales Sensai

• Timing Creates The Buyer

• Sales Timing

• Enter The Window of Opportunity

• What The Window Looks Like

• The Second Call IS The Indicator 

• One Network Schedule Week of 6/3

Last Week’s Meeting With Sales Sensai

On Friday - we had an INCREDIBLE Q and A session on sales - where we addressed a multitude of topics with the highly talented Larry - The Sales Sensai.

Among other topics, we addressed selling with a non-American accent, the universal “two-call close” that most entrepreneurs use, and tonality from Jordan Belfort’s Book before we had an EPIC zoom bombing by highly skilled assassins. (video dropping on my channel this week)

Larry brought up an interesting point - which made me think.

Most of the time - when you are booking a sales call, the prospect needs two calls, to close.

A discovery call - to find out needs, build rapport. And a proposal call - perhaps a week later - to iron out the details.

But if you have a great pitch, and solid rapport to begin with - why is this the case?

The answer - leads me to another important conclusion and finding.

Timing Creates The Buyer

A few weeks ago, I published a well-researched article - on the merits of building and using your own personal network, as leadgen - as opposed to running a classic mass cold email campaign.

Of course, I fashion myself a cold email guru - having run and sold an outbound marketing agency over 6 years.

One of the key principles I talked about in my cold email workshops I used to do - is timing.

You might have a list of 1000 prospects - that are great fits, by every given metric - for your offer.

And your copy, might be incredibly well-written - but whether each individual books a meeting with you depends on many individual, time based factors:

• what they are doing at the time of day they get the email

• their mood

• if they just got paid/are flush with guest

• if they are dealing with an immediate problem relevant to what your selling

• if they already are working with a competitor/etc

In other words, just because your offer/copy/sales skills are great, doesn’t guarantee you get a meeting. That is why you need to send so many emails.

And if you are doing this manually, the network approach - and sending followups - it doesn’t guarantee the meeting either. But each followup, increases the probability - that you hit them at the right time.

Sales Timing

To taking us back to Larry’s point on the “two call close”- why is it that no matter the strength of offer or rapport, a two call system works best?

I thought about this a lot - because there are many times when I had a one-call close.

Did I do something different, or was it just divine timing?

Then it hit me.

Enter The Window of Opportunity

When you get somebody on the phone - whether it’s a cold call, or a zoom, you have a finite amount of time to make an impression and shoot your shot.

When you first meet someone, or first approach someone for a call - they generally will give you the first call, with no strings attached.

If you are professional and friendly enough, and not pushy, most will give you a second call too.

Most buyers - of anything - have certain timing, where they become ready to buy.

This is the window of opportunity.

Even if your prospect is perfect for the offer, if they leave the window of opportunity - you have very little chance of closing them, or even getting them back on a call. The window has passed.

What the first call allows you to do - is QUALIFY - not just the prospect finite qualities, but if they are in that window of opportunity.

The reason why it takes two calls - is because you simply do not know, till the end of the first call, if they are in that window of opportunity.

You see - before the call - its casual - on both ends.

You do something, that is potentially helpful to them - and you seem interesting.

They took the call - so they have some level of “openness” to being sold - even if you were coy about the call purpose, in your outbound.

Let’s say you present your pitch on the call - they ask you some followup questions, all seems fun and well and moving in a promising direction.

Then 30 minutes in - you usually get the question:

I used to go back and forth, over how my account executives should address this question.

Quote them on the spot? Give a range of pricing? Maybe first try to test their budget?

But then I released - this question is NOT an opportunity for you to pitch.

It’s the end of the window of opportunity - it’s the indicator, that the gap has closed, and you’ve lost them -you’ve lost your opportunity to sell.

What The Window Looks Like

For those people who do take the meeting - how do we know they are in “the window of buying” from the call?

Consider this - someone has a problem. They know they need to do something about it. They have already sold themselves on this fact - having either discussed it, or read articles online. 

Assuming the rapport is there with you - implicitly - they should be buyers. 

But how do we know the problem or opportunity is serious enough to cause them to take action? This is something we didn’t know - from prospecting them. 

The Second Call IS The Indicator 

We established - that most people will take that first call to learn - it’s “a given” - a freebie. They might be intrigued or resonate with the problem statement- but taking one call isn’t a physical representation of the window. 

So - you can explain your product and even explain the price. 

But make sure you suggest a second call. Most prospects who could be buyers - even if they bring up a budget objection - will join and suggest the second call, even if the price doesn’t align - if you have high rapport, and they are in the buying mood. 

If they miss the second call or put it off - move the prospect to later because they are NOT a buyer in the window of opportunity OR the rapport is not as good as you thought it was. 

Not good enough for them to show you the window. 

So back to your initial question….

Can you sell to anyone?

If I just entered a big deal contract with someone , chances are no matter your rapport with me or how relevant and valuable your pitch is - I won’t be receptive. 

I’m out of my buying window. 

What, do you say then, of the FOMO effect? 

Could you exert pressure to bring someone into the buying window - who is otherwise out of it - by showing them what you are selling is scarce or may even not exist after some time passes?

The answer - is yes. You can “induce” the buying window. 

but you will need to address

• your network

• Your brand/marketing

• who you are targeting

That’s my next video!  Like and subscribe to see and be notified - this is going to be HIGH VALUE!

One Network Schedule Week of 6/3

LIVE PODCASTS this week
June 3rd at 4:30pm EST - Tyler Bavecquva - Fractional COO, helps agencies by streamlining their operations.

June 4th at 10am EST - Yassin Baum - the Founder of Mailscale who turned his cold email agency into a SAAS.

June 5th at 10am EST - Fraser Cottrell an ecom agency owner who scales ecom brands with high-performance ad creatives for Meta & TikTok.

June 6th at 10am EST - Alex Fedotoff -Facebook Ads King, has done $100M+ in ecom sales.

June 7th at 1pm EST - Jason Ley - Head of Marketing at Equity Sports

LIVE Q & A
June 6th at 11am - Eric Hsu - SMB lawyer who helps entrepreneurs buy businesses. $170M+ deals closed

Podcast Schedule for Youtube
Eric Rhozko - Monday
Max Sturtevant - Tuesday
Ronak Shah - Wednesday
Steven Trister - Thursday
Larry Antiporda - Friday