Many coaches and practitioners have approached Kendra Perry to ask one question: is it possible to sell without a sales call? Kendra says yes – but there are some caveats. In this episode, she explains everything you need to consider if you want to close sales successfully even without lifting your phone.
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Is It Possible To Sell Without A Sales Call?
I hope you are having a beautiful day. I am so excited to announce that we finally have snow. I’ve been on this show pitching about the lack of snow. Finally, winter came with a vengeance, and we got a ton of snow. Coverage is still on the edge, but we’re getting back to where we normally would be. Honestly, being able to look outside and see the snow on trees versus wet sogginess is all I truly need in life. I’m happy that the snow is here. You can sleep easy knowing that the snow is here.
This might be a little bit of a shorter episode but I wanted to address a question that I’ve been getting often these days, and the question I’ve been getting is, “Is it possible to sell without a sales call?” I’ve had quite a few established coaches and practitioners reach out to me. They have been doing sales calls for years, and they’re exhausted. It’s a lot, and they’re wondering how to offload this. They’re wondering, “Do I need to sell with a sales call?” The answer is that it is possible to sell without a sales call, but there are some caveats and things that you need to consider.
I haven’t done a sales call since 2019. I felt the same as a lot of these coaches who are reaching out to me. I felt exhausted. I didn’t want to be on the phone anymore. I wanted to run group programs, and that meant that I didn’t want to do any sort of one-on-one, including sales calls. I stopped doing it and started selling purely off a sales page with live events, webinars, challenges, and that sort of thing, but whether you can move away from sales calls or not depends on a few things.
We will start at the beginning. If you’re brand new, it’s probably going to be hard to sell without a sales call. It’s not impossible, but you do need a lot of things in place because to sell without a sales call, you need a well-written sales page. The messaging, the copy, and the communication have to be on point and well done. You’re probably going to need some live events, and that could be a webinar, a multi-day event, a challenge, a live course, or something like that. That also has to be done well. I see a lot of people making webinars and they aren’t following any particular script, or they’re just looking at what other people are doing and they butcher it. You do need those other things in place. When you’re new, it’s hard to be good at those things.
I serve a lot of early-stage health coaches and practitioners inside HCA. This is said with so much love. Most of them suck at writing copy. I sucked at writing copy, too, when I was at that stage in my business. It’s not a dig. I’m not saying you’re never going to be good at it. I’m saying all of us start sucking at it. It’s a skill that does need to be developed over many years, and it can take a lot of time. Sometimes, people will say, “What if I hire a copywriter?” The copywriter cannot pull magic out of their ass.
What I mean by that is you need to have a good handle on who your ideal clients are and their struggles, their desires, and their day-to-day because the copywriter can’t guess that. They get that information from you so they can write a good sales page for you, for example. You’re going to need to know your ideal client, and that can be hard to know when you’re new and maybe you haven’t worked with a lot of clients. You don’t have that knowledge or understanding yet, and that’s okay.
It’s going to be easier to sell off a sales call than what I told you, like an event to a sales page. It is almost always going to be easier, and that’s because when you’re on a call with someone, you have that person-to-person connection. You have to imagine that the words that you write on the sales page would have to be good if somebody was going to put down a good chunk of money without speaking with someone. When you’re newer in your business, and this is what I teach inside HCA, we sell with a sales call, and our goal is to eventually not need to do that, but that’s a good place to start because it’s going to be easier. It’s way easier to do that versus all the copies.
If you knew your ideal client well, you hired a copywriter, and you got someone to help you with your webinar script, could you do that earlier? Yes. Maybe you’re a good writer. Maybe you pick it up quickly. Everyone is going to be at a little bit of a different point. Some of the people who were reaching out were more established. They were further along in their business. Once you’ve started to master those copywriter skills, then you should ignore anyone who says that it’s not possible to sell without a sales call.
It depends. I said that there are some caveats with this. Some people want to qualify their clients, especially if you have people coming into a one-on-one program. It’s going to be pretty hard to sell a one-on-one program without a sales call, and I don’t recommend it because you can imagine in a one-on-one program that you’re getting a lot of face time with this person. You probably want to make sure they’re a good fit and you align with their energy. Otherwise, it’s going to be incredibly draining, and you’re probably going to hate yourself for signing that client because you spend so much time with them. You want to make sure it’s the right fit.
Some people who run hybrid programs will want to do sales calls again for that whole qualification aspect, but I don’t necessarily think that you need to. You can do a lot of qualification through your messaging on your sales page and in your webinar, for example. To give you an example, I’ve never had someone who was the wrong fit come into Health Coach Accelerator. We have served well over 400 students at this point, and every person has been the right fit.
What I mean by that is they’re all health coaches or practitioners in the wellness or personal development space who are in the early stages of their business, and that’s because my messaging, my communication, and my marketing are on point. You can do a lot of the qualification that way. Sometimes, I’ll get a bit of pushback on this because people are like, “I want to make sure that the person isn’t taking certain prescription drugs.” You can say that in your webinar. You can put that on your sales page and make it explicit. On the off chance that somebody got through, you would know that pretty quickly and you could refund them. Although I don’t think that is very common to happen.
Some people do want to qualify people. They want to have that conversation, and usually, it’s in regard to a program that’s more geared toward one-on-one, but if you have a group coaching program, you should not be using a sales call. That’s a waste of your time because the reason why we have group coaching programs and want to have group coaching programs is because we want to get away from one-on-one, but by having sales calls, you’re giving yourself all kinds of one-on-one.
What this comes down to is your price point. Other people may have different opinions, but what I’ve seen to be true is that you can confidently sell without a sales call using a webinar sales page only up to about $3,000. $3,000 to $5,000 is a bit of a gray area, and it depends. If you have an amazing copy, everything is written well, and you nail it, then you might be able to do that. I have seen people do it, but usually, I see it more in the B2B space, people who are selling business-to-business. I find it’s a little bit trickier when you’re doing business-to-consumer because health isn’t a business write-off. It’s a nicety. It’s something that people need, but they don’t necessarily perceive that they need it.
That’s where you want to look at your price point. Some people will say, “I don’t want to do a sales call. I’m going to keep my price at $2,500 so I can make sure I don’t have to sell with a sales call.” Something I love about that is you can get lots of people in. If it’s a purely group program, $2,500 is a pretty good price point, but some people want to charge higher than that. You might start with something like $2,000 and improve your messaging, your sales page, and your webinar with time and slowly be able to increase it beyond that $3,000 level, but once we start getting to $5,000 and above, there are always outliers. I have seen someone sell up to $15,000 without a sales call. It is possible. There are people who do it. It’s going to be tricky. That’s the level at which you need a sales call.
There are a few different things you can consider here because sometimes we’re like, “I want to be charging $3,500 or $4,000 for this group coaching program because it’s a hybrid program.” For a pure group coaching program, a $2,000 to $3,000 price point for something that is 100% group can be a nice price point, but maybe it’s a hybrid. Maybe you run labs, and they get some one-on-one within the group program. Maybe you have a session where you go over lab tests, intake, or something like that. There’s a midpoint session and maybe one at the end or something along those lines.
In that case, your price point needs to be higher. Maybe your price point is $4,000, and you’re like, “I charge it $4,000, but I’m so burnt out with sales calls. What do I do?” This is the point. If you’re in that situation, then I recommend hiring a sales team. You can have someone who does sales calls for you. That is something you can do. I don’t think it’s the first thing you should outsource. You should probably be making about $30,000 a month consistently before you start to outsource sales calls. That can be a great way to take that off your plate.
You can find people who will work on a commission-only basis, which is the best way to personally pay people because it incentivizes the people to sell and do their job versus if they’re getting paid every call, you’re paying a lot of money for people who don’t necessarily become a client, but a good salesperson should be able to maintain at least a 30% close rate. I will be completely transparent. I don’t outsource this. It’s not something I’ve outsourced, but I’ve looked into it quite a bit, and it seems that usually, what people pay is about 10% of the final sale. For every call that they close, they get 10% of the sale.
Something else you might want to hire out is called a setter. This is someone who’s in your DMs out there setting up the appointments, and they might get 5%. You can find people who will work on commission-only, and this is what I would recommend. If you’re at that point where you’re making $30,000 to $40,000-plus a month, you do sales calls because you have a higher-priced program, and you don’t want to lower that price point, then I would hire a sales team if that’s something that’s burning you out because it is a huge use of your time and energy.
The bottom line is that you can sell without a sales call, and you should run away from anyone who says that you need to do something. If someone is like, “You need a sales call,” then you should run because I’ve seen people sell at all kinds of price points without a sales call. I sell up to $2,500 in my business without a sales call. I use webinars and live events. That works well for me. I don’t have any desire to bring sales calls into my business. If ever in the future I was going to launch a very high-ticket program that was going to be ongoing, then I would probably hire a sales team.
It is possible, and it comes down to the structure of your program. If it’s a one-on-one program, then you’re probably going to do a sales call because a lot of people who are working with you one-on-one is going to want to talk to first and meet you, but if you are in that up to $3,000 price point, then you can sell straight off a webinar without a sales call, but then you get into that $3,000 to $5,000 range, and it’s murky. It’s a gray area, and it’s still possible, but you have to nail your messaging, and your webinar has to be good or your challenge needs to be good. The lead-in to the launch needs to be good.
Once we’re in that $5,000 and beyond, you’re probably going to need a sales page, but by all means, if you want to prove me wrong, do it and then tell me about it. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you love this show, I would appreciate it if you could give me a five-star review. That would be amazing. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/wealthy. I will see you in the next episode at the same time and the same place where I help you become wealthy AF.
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