Welcome to the Virtual Antics podcast, where we help entrepreneurs streamline their business to six figures and beyond. These short, sweet and info packed episodes will inspire, educate and leave you feeling motivated to take one more step forward in your business. So put down your never-ending to-do list, because in this podcast we are interviewing the best of the best in the entrepreneurial world as they spill their secrets to success. This podcast is sponsored by Nandora, the all-in-one software for entrepreneurs to grow their business, with unlimited landing pages, automations, emails and text campaigns, and so much more. I'm your host, natalie Guzman. Now let's get into it. Hey y'all, welcome back to the Virtual Antics podcast. I'm your host, natalie Guzman. Today I have the amazing Darlene Perde on the call. She is passionate about empathetic and relational sales. She equates business coaches and entrepreneurs with the strategy and confidence to sell their services. Welcome, darlene, how are you doing today?
Speaker 2Thank you, natalie, I'm excited to chat.
Speaker 1Hey, I'm so excited you're here, especially because we're talking about one of my favorite subjects, which is sales, but also because that's something I feel like a lot of businesses struggle with and they feel, you know, it can be, you know, kind of like slimy, or sometimes I feel uncomfortable. So I'm so excited. We're going to deep dive into this, but first tell me how you got started.
Speaker 2Yeah. So I've been in sales basically my whole life and I did what naturally came to me. I also, you know, during my career I had some sales coaching or I took some programs and they never seemed to fit with how I operate. It just did not seem authentic to me. So you know, I'm a little bit of a rebel. If somebody tells me you have to do something some way, I just kind of work my own path. So I just continue to operate authentically and how. You know how I sold.
Speaker 2I work with a lot of entrepreneurs. So I was seeing a recurring theme of people just not feeling like they were able to sell their own services. They were either not not doing it where they were really getting their value across, or they were following successful business people and it was not authentic to them and it became forced or slimy, or you know. So they just avoided it all all together. So that's what really spurred me on, because I feel like just giving them a little bit of information, a little bit of encouragement and some processes could really set them on fire.
Speaker 1Oh, that is awesome. That's so cool. And so tell us what is empathetic and relational sales.
Speaker 2Empathetic and relational sales is really understanding, active listening and understanding what your client needs. A lot of times salespeople go in with a script or what they want to get across and they want to make that sale. The reality is if that person does not need your services, you are not better for selling them. You want to really understand if your service can help them. You know if you can bring value to the engagement and, if not, give them resources. So this way you build that trust with your potential client. Whether they buy from you now, whether they refer somebody to you or whether they're just, you know whether they want to move forward with you. They feel from you that you really care about them.
Speaker 1Oh, that's great. So that's actually what we do, that's how we close our sales, and I've always kind of called it like the soft sales approach, because I always felt like the hard sales was like, you know, you're kind of going after a year, you're like really promote, promoting your business, promoting your services and you're attacking, whereas I wanted to come from a place where I was really helping the people. Even in that call right, I always give away, like some people say, too much value in my discovery calls was because I could give you all the knowledge that I have. Yeah, that doesn't mean you're going to be able to apply your business. That's like where, like, the customization and the services come in, and so I love giving free value because they can, you know, take the time they want to do it themselves. They're more than happy to. But I kind of like wrap that into my discovery approach because, like you said, we're solving a problem. So is it what it be called soft sales? Is that the correct term?
Speaker 2I guess. So, like I made up like the empathetic sales, because that's like I was trying to like kind of pinpoint what I do and how I approach each conversation is with empathy. I want to put myself in someone else's position and I want to. I want to offer them what is going to bring them value, just like you, if you have a discovery call with me and I love how you said discovery call, because instead of a sales call, right, we're going to discover do you need my services? How can I help you and really uncover that? And if that results in a sale and a client, that's wonderful. If not, if I give them value and they want to go and pursue it on their own, that's wonderful too. Most times, then, not even if they do pursue it on their own, at some point they kind of hit a wall and they're like you know what? Now I think I got as far as I can. Let me come to you and I can get them over that home.
Speaker 1Yeah, and it's going and they will come back to you, because are they going to go back to the person who tried to do hard sales or are they going to go back to the person that gave them free value? That's what I always think about. You know, kind of the same with social media, right? You see, all these really big business influencers and people that businesses that got most of their clients from social media. The way they did that was by giving free value. So I feel like that should be ever, should be your social media, should be your email, should be in your sales calls Super important and our closing rate is like then we have like a 97% closing rate on discovery calls.
Speaker 1Which is like I know it's not like unheard of. It's also because of how we get our leads to. It's not like we don't really do social media, so usually they know about us when they come on the call. But I feel like a big part of it is because of that. We're giving value and we really just want to help and that comes across so genuine. You can tell when someone is just trying to get the sale and then when someone actually cares about your business and just wants to add their expertise to your business right and to help it grow. I think that is huge. So I love that you are, you know, teaching everyone about this.
Speaker 1I think it's something really, really important and I had to kind of figure it out on my own, right From. I never actually had anyone to coach me in this area. I never could find about it on YouTube. I literally went with my gut and then also about how conversations went, and then I tweaked it. It took me years of really looking at to get this far. So what are some tips you have when it comes to doing this type of sales?
Speaker 2Yeah. So I think that you need to really do your research on who you're speaking to really understand what is their business. You know, obviously you don't want to go in and just think you know what they need. You want to actively listen and understand what they need. But doing your research gives you a good window onto that person you mentioned. You know, closing 97% of sales, which is super impressive. But you know where is the lead coming from? Is it a warm lead? Is it a referral? Like referrals are much easier to close than just cold outreach and that type of stuff. What I find is sometimes my clients are beating themselves up. I just had a recent client. She had a great close rate I think it was like 80% but their marketing campaigns widened right and she was like I don't know what I'm doing wrong. My sales to close rate, call to close rate went down and the reality was she was not doing anything differently and she was still closing a lot of business.
Speaker 2Her window opened up wider, so that number is gonna go down. So I tell my client don't get hung up on those numbers and feel defeated. You have to look at the bigger picture Now, if you're so, I do my research, I actively listen. I really like you. I bring value, I wanna bring value. You will never go wrong with operating with a generous spirit. A lot of salespeople claim that they're amazing hunters. I say I'm a farmer, right, you sow those seeds, you nourish them, you water them and then it comes in. So it's about perspective and really caring about what that person is looking for.
Speaker 1That is awesome and that's what I found too, is like asking the right questions. So really you think about your friendships, right, if you have any really close friends. The way you got there was by really investing yourselves in the relationship, right, asking them how they're doing, asking what they need help with, really inserting yourselves in their lives. And I kinda do that in my discovery calls, where I'm asking them questions to figure out more, to really involve myself deeper. And another thing is being 100% honest. I've had people ask me questions. If I don't know the answer, I don't bull, crap my way around it. I tell them I actually don't know, but I can find out or I can ask this person. I have the connections I have, the someone on my team that is actually an expert at that. That's usually and I've gotten clients from saying I don't know because they appreciate it. They know that I'm not giving them false info.
Speaker 1I have my stepfather is. I talk about him a lot on the podcast. He was entrepreneur and he retired in his 20s you know, from the money that he made and as an investor and one of the things that he is very, very, very careful about is not answering a question that he doesn't know the answer to. He'll say it straight up. He's like you know, I don't know enough about that or I'm not in that world anymore. He said that to me recently and he's like I'm just not sure how to answer this And-.
Speaker 2That's so wise, that that's wisdom right there, because you can't know everything right and you build that credibility by being honest and authentic and like, if I don't know it, I can either figure it out or I have a resource to get you the right information, but just kind of BSing your way through. It comes across, you know, inauthentic and the people know.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, 100%. We all have a gut feeling, right, most of us. We build our businesses off our gut feelings and they have these gut feelings in the discover calls. Imagine when you've been on a discover call. I think that was another thing that really helped me with my closing ring, which I wasn't focused on the numbers for a very long time. I'm only now just because I track a lot of different things. I know better, but so I really loved your advice about not getting caught up on those numbers. But one of the really important things is like just really making sure that you know you're nurturing this relationship and, like you said, you're not being sneaky, you're not lying, you're being upfront and it's just really helped also build really cool connections and like, if I wasn't able to help them sometimes they respect me enough and maybe it's not a good fit they might refer me to someone else that would be a good fit. So you're really this is an opportunity. Sales call isn't just an opportunity to close sales.
Speaker 2I feel like it's an opportunity to build a relationship and to, you know, collaborate with really cool people and you're really you know you're representing your company, so it's really important to just you were speaking my language, Natalie, because I tell my clients all the time the goal of the call is not that the success of the call is not in the sale, it's to build trust in that relationship right. Once you do that, yes, it can translate to a sale, it can translate to a referral, networking partners, so many different things. But we are bombarded by crazy messaging, hard sales, you know, overstimulation. The voices that in AI, which is fantastic, and all of that the voices that are going to be remembered are the ones that are operating authentically and can build that trust.
Speaker 1Now we talked a lot about like during the call. So now what about follow-up procedure? What is kind of, Because I've tried a lot of different things and this is probably one thing I don't have completely cinched down, so I love your thoughts on follow-ups.
Speaker 2So with follow-ups, you know, I did a study before I kind of launched my business and there was a number that said 70% of salespeople do not follow up, which was I did not believe it until I started coaching people. So maybe not professional salespeople, but people that are selling right, because we all sell, no matter what role we're in. So 70% do not follow up. The problem with that is that again, we are bombarded by messaging and if somebody is not being nurtured, they may have a conversation with you. They may be like who did I speak to? Oh, wait a minute. Like I know I spoke to somebody, but I don't know. Or, you know, they may get initial information, be kind of interested, but it's not the right timing and then, six months down the road, have no connection with you whatsoever, even if they were bought in at that time. So what I do for my clients is I set up a cadence that makes sense, like think of each sales call and put them in the right bucket. Right, they're interested, they want to move forward, they need information, they need to digest it. That's number one. They are thinking about it. They have to talk to partners. They have to, you know, talk to their team. Blah, blah, blah might be longer, maybe Q2,. Put them in a different bucket. Love your service, but this is not a great fit for me right now. Maybe sometime in the future put them on a different cadence or I will never use your service.
Speaker 2But you know what I have. I may have friends that I need you. That's a different bucket, right? So like it's not just you can't and I know I've listened to some of your podcasts and I love automation as well but not everybody. You can't just hit everybody with the same cadence, because then if I do not need your services and I just want to, or I say you know what, two, three, hit me up again. If I'm getting a weekly email from you, I'm going to unsubscribe and that's the end of it. Right, cause I don't want to be bombarded. So really using your emotional intelligence and figuring out what is the best cadence for that person and then automating it this way you don't have to remember everything.
Speaker 1Love that, yeah, and I think it's so important because, like you said, you know, automations are great up until a certain point and I was just thinking, you know, kind of like my follow-up emails. What I really like to do is I like to write about something that we talked about in the call because that shows it's not automated and being thoughtful, maybe it's like hey, I told you about that resource that I wasn't sure on and I talked to my people Like I feel like even follow-up, saying something like that, is super important. You told them that you were going to figure out something on the call. You better be following up with it.
Speaker 2I feel like 24 hours with that resource or what you said, and there's also there's ways to automated or send reminders without. But I love what you said because I feel the same way, like if somebody is on vacation for two weeks and they're like checking in two weeks, just sending them a canned email is not good. Now you can have a can email for a chunk of what the information you want to give and then personalize it. So I make a lot of tasks, you know, in my CRM. So this way I know, okay, natalie was going on a vacation, how is Spain? Blah, blah blah and then send additional information. So it does, you are invested. But when you talk to a lot of people too, it can get jumbled. So make notes, make notes and as more detailed as possible. That's going to make sense to you and really have the client feel like that you care about them.
Speaker 1Awesome, and then you gave us so much value. Today I really appreciate you telling us and I hope that we're like actually applying this to our business, because you guys just learned something super, super valuable. So I hope you're listening, taking notes and you're applying it to your business. Where can we find more about you and your services, natalie?
Speaker 2Sure, so you can visit dp-consultscom. That's my website. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn. I am always on LinkedIn and I'd love to have a discovery call with anyone to see. Again, it's not a one size fits all. I custom my packages to what people need. Sometimes just that little bit of coaching gets them over that hump.
Speaker 1Awesome. I'll make sure I put that in the show notes as well. Thank you again, darlene, and we'll talk to you guys next time on the Virtual Intx Podcast.