It’s one of the most defeating moments of being a business owner. You’re on a call with a dream client who said they were interested in what you do. The conversation is going great. You’re riffing. They’re smiling. You walk them through your service with all the enthusiasm in the world, overblown hand gestures included, and they’re nodding away.

Then there’s the clincher.

You: So what do you think?

Them: I’ll think about it.

Your heart sinks. You know you’re about to be ghosted. You gave it your all, but it wasn’t good enough.

On average, how many sales calls or simple discussions with potential clients go like the one I’ve just described? How many successful sales calls does that leave you with? I know how disheartening it is, so let’s try to up that number right here right now.

First, I need to tell you a story, so humour me for a minute.

What’s going wrong?

You’re running late. Once again. Your other half, and even more scarily their mother, are going to eat you alive if you don’t get to this wedding on time. You hardly know the bloody couple anyway, cousins of cousins or whatever. Anyway, it’s a make-or-break situation. You’ve got to get there on time.

You’re at the train station, now you’ve just got to figure out what train to get on. Then you might just make it. So you walk up to a staff member and ask with bated breath, “What’s the fastest train to [insert wedding destination]?”

He thinks for a moment, readjusting his tie that echoes the train seat patterns. His 25 years of service silver badger glimmers, almost blinding you.

“Well,” he finally begins, “the train on platform 1 does 8.5 miles in 10 minutes. But the train on platform 2 does 25 miles in 30 minutes.”

You wait for the wink or the cackle.

“You see this model…” he begins, before going off into train jargon your brain can’t comprehend.

“What the hell am I supposed to do with that?” you demand as a train you don’t know whether you should be getting on draws into the station.

With the numbers whirring around your head, he looks at you with bewilderment.

Suddenly you feel a hand grab each of your shoulders and push you through the door of the train that’s just arrived as the doors close in preparation for departure. The only explanation you get is a hurried voice saying, “You’re on platform 1. This is the faster train. This train goes 51 miles an hour while the one on platform 2 only goes 50 miles an hour.”

The train speeds away before you get a glimpse of the angel who saved the day.

Do you want to be like the information-overloading staff member or the direction-giving angel when talking to prospects about working with you? The angel of course!

The moral of the story

When talking about the cost of your services compared to the benefit of working with you, it’s got to be super simple. So incredibly simple that someone who is only half listening to you and mostly thinking about what they’re having for dinner can tell it’s well worth it.

Unless you’re saying to your prospects, “You’ll make/save an additional £X while only paying me £X, which is £X you wouldn’t otherwise have in your pocket”, then you’re not making it simple enough.

It sounds so obvious that we’re blind to it. We’re already doing the maths in our own heads and seeing clear as day the amazing deal we’re offering, but you can’t assume your prospects are doing the same. You’ve got to make it clear as day for them too. And walk them through the maths so they can see you’re not making it up.

But how do you come up with such a calculation? That’s exactly what I teach in The Ian Genius Methodology. If you want to find out how to get your hands on the calculation to simply and clearly demonstrate your value honestly, and the rest of The Ian Genius Selling Without Selling Methodology, book a free discovery call https://www.iangenius.co.uk/taster-session/ with me.

You don’t want to miss out on other blindingly obvious ways to help more clients, do you?