The Side-Hustle Dad

Ep17
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Why Selling Feels Sleazy
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​[00:00:00]

Bryan Steele: Hi, and welcome back to another episode of The Side Hustle Dad. I'm glad you're joining me today. If you listened to last week's episode, we talked about marketing messages, and today we're going to dive into something that is even more frightening to most business owners, and that is selling. How you sell effectively.

And it's scary because we feel uncomfortable. We're trying to convince somebody to work with us. We're trying to say, "Hey, you should, you should hire me. You should give me money for my product or services," and it gets intimidating. It feels slimy. It feels sleazy. It shouldn't, because you are there to serve and help [00:01:00] and meet a need.

The Ghosting Problem
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Bryan Steele: But because we avoid it, we go into all of our sales conversations completely winging it. It is so common. You just say, "Oh, they sent me a message. They're interested in what I do. We have a coffee conversation. This went great. Hey, loved it. I'll send you an email and then we can get started." And they say, "Great.

Look, I'll keep an eye out for it." And you send them the email and nothing. Crickets. You follow up, send another email, maybe two or three. You try to contact them on social media. Just zero response. They've completely ghosted you And at that point, it's, it's obvious that they're not gonna hire you, and you, you realize that at that point, but you don't know why, and it's because you don't have a process.

And because you don't have a process, you don't know what's breaking down or what things that you're selling you need to update or adjust so that you get more yeses immediately.

BANT Framework Overview
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Bryan Steele: And so what I wanna walk through today is a very simple four-step framework [00:02:00] you can go through with everybody to make sure that you're covering all your bases, and you can start to see what those potential holes are.

And we're gonna cover them pretty quickly, and at the end, I'm going to give you a bonus tip to make sure you avoid those ghosting conversations. All right, so let's get into it. This four-step framework has the BANT acronym, B-A-N-T. We're gonna break down those four things.

Budget Talk First
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Bryan Steele: The first, B, is for budget. Now, this is difficult to do right up front, but I say you rip the Band-Aid off.

Let's just get it out of the way. And so one of your first questions should be, "Hey, for this project, for this thing that you want, what is, what is the budget that you've got in mind? What do you have prepared for, for this work?" Because depending on what they say, you might have something to scale up or scale down or a window.

And so you have to ask this question, and you need to get the money talk out of the way early because [00:03:00] if they don't have a budget or they haven't prepared to spend any money, then they're really not a good opportunity for you, and you need to go focus on the right people. Now, they may go, "Well, I, I was kinda looking for a price.

I don't know really what I should be planning for. I'm really interested in this, but I, I just don't know." And so you would say, give them a window of the smaller projects you do all the way up to the larger ones or the products you offer, smaller to larger, right? Give them a real window, so it's like, "Well, when I'm working with somebody, my projects start at five hundred dollars and go all the way up to five thousand dollars.

It really just depends on what your needs are and how we can best work together. Does this fit within your planned budget?" And you try and get them to commit, try and get them to agree, and if you're outside of their budget, they go, "Well, really I d- I don't have that much money to spend on it." Say, "Hey, that's okay.

If this is something you're still interested in, I'm happy to talk to you when you've, you've got a budget in place." And then maybe they come back around, and you can just [00:04:00] walk away from that conversation going, it's not you, it's not the way you sell. It's just that they weren't prepared to work with you.

They weren't in a position to hire you yet because they didn't have the budget. So don't feel like you have to discount, we've talked about that before, just to get a client. Just let those things go. So B for budget.

Who Has Authority
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Bryan Steele: A is for authority. It happens very frequently in these conversations. You s- talk, it's great, you think this is going really well, they're interested, budget's a fit, they wanna work with you.

Awesome. I'll send this all over and, and then we can get started. And they go, "Well, I've got to talk to my spouse first," or, "I've got a business partner." I've been there, and normally what happens in that situation is you don't hear back because you haven't actually talked to all of those who have some authority in the situation.

A business partner. In my case with recording music, it was having the whole band there. It was other stakeholders. [00:05:00] It was other players who were gonna be involved in the process, and you weren't there to talk to them. And so what happens is you tell this one person how you can work together and how you can help them, and it's great, and they're really engaged and interested, but then you're depending on them to become your advocate when talking to the other people in a position of authority.

They have to represent you and what you're offering, but anytime there's a question, anytime there's a challenge or an obstacle or an objection, you're no longer there to respond to it. It's this other person who you spoke with who has to speak up for you on your behalf. And so early on, you don't have to make this like, "Hey, I don't think you're able to make this decision by yourself to hire me."

You just need to say, "Hey, who are all the other people involved in this project? Who do we need to talk to to make sure I've handled all their questions and objections to make sure everybody feels comfortable?" Anybody who's got, influence on the budget, anybody who has influence on the final result or the [00:06:00] output or the product or the service, anybody involved in that, anybody I'm gonna be working with regularly, let's get them in the conversation.

You just say, "Who else is involved that I need to talk to?" And you make it very much a, "I want to make sure I answer everybody's questions so that we're as clear as possible, and I know where everybody's coming from before we start working together." It's a very value-based thing that you're doing, so you want to make sure you're talking to all of the people that have authority in making a decision.

Uncover The Need
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Bryan Steele: Third one is need. Do they need your services? Now, if they're reaching out to you, the assumption is yes, but you always need to go through a discovery process with everybody. "Hey, why is it that you're interested in this? What is it you're hoping to achieve? What looks like success or failure in this project?

What other things have you tried in the past?" Because once you start to understand all of the [00:07:00] different intricacies of the need somebody has, you might actually find out that they don't just need you, they maybe need somebody else. Or maybe they talk to you about some small little project to work together, but actually, you've got something that's much more valuable to them that's maybe even more expensive, but is gonna more effectively deliver what it is they want.

And if you don't go through that needs process with them, you don't understand that opportunity is there. You just kind of stay in that little corner that they told you about. So you always wanna go through those things. Also, if somebody just made an introduction, "Hey, you two should work together," they may not fully understand what it is you do.

They may have some ideas in their brain, but this needs development process is so important. So you really need to understand where things are at with them. What is it they're truly after? What is it that they need that you can provide? So get the need.

Timing And Urgency
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Bryan Steele: And then finally, [00:08:00] understand the timing. Where are they at in this process?

Are they just kicking tires early on? They're not sure what's gonna work. They're exploring all of their different options. Or are they in like, "We are ready to buy now. We need to find this person that's gonna help us with this thing right now"? And you need to understand how fast they wanna move, 'cause timing is going to be important.

It tells you how much you need to approach this with urgency and how to approach a pitch to them so that you're reaching them where they're at ~You don't necessarily want-- if, if, if you're doing remodeling of a house, you're-- and you find out that somebody's talking to you, and they just built a brand-new home, they, they're not gonna need somebody to do any remodeling.~

~It's very unlikely. I mean, they just built it. It's brand new, so the timing is off. ~But if you're talking to somebody, say, "How long have you been in this home?" "Oh, we've been in it fifteen years." "Okay. Maybe there's an opportunity there." But if it's a new home and you're a landscaper, well, that's a different conversation.

They, they gotta establish a new grass. Where are you at with your sprinkler system? What types of trees and plants do you envision having? And, like, where are you at in this process? Well, now the timing's really good for that sort of a project. So that's the timing piece that you [00:09:00] wanna understand in the conversation.

So B, budget, A, authority, N, need, and T for timing, BANT. Go through those four pieces. Get those four questions answered. You're gonna be in a much better position to give them what it is they're looking for. They're gonna feel like they're understood well, and you're gonna have walked through many different objections and obstacles to get them to the point where they're like, "Yeah, actually, this guy knows what he's talking about, he's, he's the right person to work with."

And I want that for you because you don't have that much time to go get a bunch of different projects. You can't be selling constantly all the time because it's not your full-time job. So you need to be effective with these conversations, and using that framework, that BANT framework allows you to get there much faster.

Bonus Set Next Commitment
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Bryan Steele: But bonus, how do you get them to not ghost you? And this is what I do at the [00:10:00] end of every conversation. I set the next commitment. We define we're gonna have a phone call on this day. We're going to have a coffee meeting on this day to go through the proposal. We're going to have a Zoom meeting on this day, and we're gonna walk through all the details and plan out the schedule.

Never leaving it as we'll reach back out or we'll get in touch with you. That is never acceptable. If they're trying to be vague, it's because there's a hidden objection that they have not yet communicated to you, so you need to press further. Well, why, why the hesitation to, you know, set up another meeting?

"Well, because I don't know that we can really aff-" "Oh, okay. You-- So the budget, you-- The budget is really a challenge for you then. Why is that?" You get to press a little further when they object to setting the next meeting, the next commitment.

You want to make sure you address those objections, you address [00:11:00] those pieces. So that is how you avoid being ghosted on meetings, on the next thing. Make sure you get a commitment every single time. Work for that commitment. Push them to either share their real objection or that they're gonna set up that next meeting time with you to go through the next step.

Wrap Up And Next Steps
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Bryan Steele: I know it's not all that complicated, but it gives you a simple framework. And once you start to see, "Oh man, I, I now understand where things are breaking down. This is where I'm losing potential clients. It's in this step," now you have information that you can adjust, you can change your process, you can refine on those specific areas because you have real data, you have real understanding of where you're at, as opposed to just winging it every time you go in to sell.

So that's what I want you to do on your next conversation. Get those four questions answered, BANT, B-A-N-T: budget, [00:12:00] authority, need, and timing, and then end the conversation with that commitment. Get that next meeting on the calendar. Don't leave without that defined.

Thanks, and I will see you again on an episode real soon.

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