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The Modern Independent
The Modern Independent
The 7-Figure Playbook: Ditch the Pitch—Lead Sales Like an Expert w/ Allison Davis
The 7-Figure Playbook: Ditch the Pitch—Lead Sales Like an Expert w/ Allison Davis
Most independent consultants and coaches unknowingly sabotage their sales by rushing to the finish line—pitching too soon, pricing too low, and solving surface-level problems.
In this episode of The 7-Figure Playbook, Sam Lee (IndeCollective, Founder & CEO) sits down with sales powerhouse and IndeCollective expert guide Allison Davis to flip the script. You’ll learn how to ditch “vendor syndrome” and lead sales conversations like the expert you are.
We cover:
- Why “just saying yes” to client requests makes you look like a vendor—and what to do instead
- The ALIGN framework (Agenda, Ask, Look deeper, Inspire, Get feedback, Next steps) that helps you take command of every sales conversation
- Why the best salespeople ask 11–14 follow-up questions per call (and how to do it without sounding like a robot)
- The importance of a Fingerprints Meeting—and how it can double your proposal close rate
- How to keep TABS (Timeline, Authority, Budget, Strategy) so your proposal doesn’t get ghosted
- Why your proposal should start with the client’s pain—not your company bio
- How to run a three-legged race with your decision maker to cross the procurement finish line—together
Whether you’re landing your first $50K deal or ready to scale to seven figures, this episode will change the way you sell.
Ready to walk (or run) the expert path? Let’s go.
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Welcome to the Modern Independent, a podcast dedicated to inspiring, equipping and empowering top independent workers to supercharge their careers and build more balanced lives. As you probably already know, we have three flavors of the Modern Independent, and today you're joining us for an episode of the Seven-Figure Playbook, a series where I, sam Lee, the founder and CEO of Indie Collective, interview distinguished independent business builders, folks who are here to share with you the practical playbooks that have helped them to build more successful businesses while living their own balanced lives. Today, I am super pumped to be joined by a dear friend and an expert guide at Indie Collective, allison Davis. Allison is a commercial leader and a company builder, someone with more than two decades of sales experience, selling five, six and seven figure B2B deals, as well as training founders and their teams to grow their service-based businesses. Today, allison and I are going to talk about how to powerfully lead sales conversations and also how to send value-based proposals, proposals that will have you consistently charging your worth rather than getting negotiated out of it at the finish line.
Speaker 1:Having personally coached hundreds of top consultants, I found that most make a big mistake when it comes to sales, namely when they're too eager to win new business and just get started.
Speaker 1:They race to the sales finish line, grasping at short straws and ultimately pitching smallish proposals that solve smallish problems for smallish value and return, and that, simply put, is not what an expert like you should be doing, and that's certainly not what Indie Collective members do. And that's because, through our 10-week bootcamp, allison trains our members to powerfully lead sales conversations like a real expert. In today's episode, allison and I are going to unpack what it looks and feels like to show up like an expert, because when you do that in sales conversations, it's going to mean big things for your bottom line. We'll also get into specific tips and steps that you can take today to shift into powerfully leading sales conversations. And then, last but not least, we'll talk through how you can shift from leading those powerful sales conversations to sending value-based proposals, ones that will have you growing your average contract value and ensuring that you always charge your worth. So, with that, let's get into it. Allison, thanks so much for joining us.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much for having me, sam. What a nice introduction. And, even more than that, thank you so much for having me part of the Indie Collective community. It's such a great place to be.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, my absolute pleasure. Well, let's start with the bottom line up front At this point. You've helped hundreds of our members, consultants and coaches to develop their sales superpowers. Before we get into the how you do that, I'd love to start with a little bit of a conversation around why it is so important for consultants and coaches to show up like an expert.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that little thing I like to call vendor syndrome, and if you're suffering from it, we need to shift and I really appreciate you starting here, because it really does start with the mindset and the intention of how you want to show up. When I work with clients, we talk about what is the difference between showing up like a vendor, which is very transactional and has a place for sure, versus showing up in your expertise, which is not transactional. It's helping people be transformational. You know the people I work with. They sell consulting and services that solve often really complex problems and they're able to do that because they are experts. They spent time in corporate or in the workforce doing this thing or buying this thing. In some cases they understand it deeply and it's a shame when they show up like they're selling printer paper Nothing wrong with that, but you don't have to be an expert.
Speaker 2:I mean maybe a little bit of expertise in paper. When they show up like they're selling print printer paper, nothing wrong with that, but you don't have to be an ex. I mean maybe a little bit of expertise in in you know in in paper, but like you know what I mean, you don't have to be an expert about how a company uh, you know functions to sell widgets, um and so when you show up uh, when I'm seeing my subject matter experts show up as vendors, it kind of looks like them showing up and saying it's so nice to meet you, I'm so glad Sam introduced us, tell me about your problem. And that buyer gives them a narrow problem and they're seeking a narrow solution. We need a new website.
Speaker 2:And if you're showing up as a vendor like, let's say, you're a marketing agency or a branding agency and someone says I need a new website, I hear you're the best. If you're showing up as a vendor, you're doing exactly what you said, sam, earlier, which is getting to the finish line with that easy grab sale ASAP and thinking, well, I'll sell them what they need later. But an expert subject matter expert, someone who's really showing up in that role, is saying in their heads they're saying, well, you need a new brand and logo before you do that website. It's like they're really seeing a million things that that buyer isn't and instead of just saying yes, thank you so much, that'll be 50 grand, and sign the contract and your new website will be up in two months, they're saying, interesting, tell me why now's a good time for a new website.
Speaker 1:How do you?
Speaker 2:know what's working, what's not working Right, and they're not taking that buyer at face value. Rather, they're leading them and bringing clarity to the greater need at hand.
Speaker 1:Great and we're going to get into some of these specific questions and approaches you can take to really make the most out of that conversation. But what I'm hearing already is that, through holding space for this prospective client, you're helping them, with the right questions and conversation, to feel the gap, to feel the bigger problem at hand and maybe there are multiple or multifaceted things at hand and in doing that, you're going to help them to be primed to work with you as an expert who can solve the painkiller problems and you're also probably uncovering more meaty, meaningful problems, things that you can build, you know, more complex, longer duration, high value engagements around for both you and your client.
Speaker 2:So absolutely the. In a sales context, experts are bringing clarity to this situation. They're doing that by not taking the buyer at face value and sometimes challenging the buyer a bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. Well, let's peel back the onion a bit now and talk a little bit about the stages of how you lead these powerful sales conversations, starting with Align. Do you want to tell us a little bit about what Align is?
Speaker 2:Yeah, align is A-A-L-I-G-N and it's a six-step framework that I have found useful for just about any business owner over the last six years that I've been doing this work. It's a device to know where you are in any given sales conversation and quite simply, it breaks down to you're going to set an agenda, you're going to ask questions, you're going to look deeper, you're going to inspire the buyer, you're going to be sure to get feedback and you're always going to plan those next steps on the call. If you have that aligned framework in mind, I still have it right up here on my desk. I don't care how long you have been doing sales. Having that framework and just knowing these are the beats I have to hit on any sales interaction call.
Speaker 2:Just about it can really make a difference, because I don't know about you, sam, but here's what I see a lot, especially folks who are experts and now they're in consulting. They're selling their services. I'll include myself in it. We get really excited and we want to share all of our expertise. We want to tell our stories. We want to let the buyer know it's possible. I see excitement get in the way more than I see hesitancy or nerves in a sales context and a line, if you think about it, really starts off with centering the buyer, not ourselves. We're asking questions, we're looking deeper, we are not starting off giving our life story or the history of our business, and so I love having that little device right up on my computer at all times to remind me to slow down, center the buyer, pace myself.
Speaker 1:Beautiful and, if you want to just maybe unpack a little further that acronym, what are some of the tips or questions that you find most helpful for your clients and also in your own work and helping to create that space for the prospective client?
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a couple of you know, here's the thing about a line it's always relevant and there are different pieces and parts of it that become even more important depending on what's going on. You know, as we sit here recording this, sam, you know for sure the economy is in some uncertainty, and it's been. You know, I started my business in 2020 or just before, and so you know we've sort of been in this place business in 2020 or just before, and so you know we've sort of been in this place and I want to highlight the very first letter of a line, which is agenda, which makes me want to take a nap. You know it doesn't.
Speaker 2:And also, like you know, we are fully fledged adults, like, yes, we do wayfaring, we set expectations on the top of a call or you know, but it's so important there was a book that came out in 2023. It's the guys I don't know. Sam, if you ever in your you know, in your career, read the challenger sale.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, Ted McKenna and Matt Dixon Right, they came out with a book in 2023. That kind of like blew my mind and that you should read the book. But, like a major premise there is that when you're selling B2B, your biggest stumbling block right now is I'm going to say it slow because it's a mouthful, buyer indecision due to fear of making a mistake and it's a cool nerd out read because there's, you know they go into the sort of the science and research behind it, but basically it boils down to buyers right now would prefer to feel the pain of not making a move than making the wrong move.
Speaker 2:And what does that mean? And what does it have to do with an agenda? Well, it's always been true that we need to make buyers feel safe, but it's never been more true than now. And a little action like setting the expectation of what's going to happen on the call and how the call is going to end and what happens next. It signals to the buyer that you're the adult in the room, and what I mean by that is they can trust you. You actually know, because you are the expert, what should be talked about on this first call or this second call, and you do that. You watch your buyer's shoulders relax. The more senior the leader, the more on their plate, the more they're really going to appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Those words are just hitting home and I could not agree more. It's a simple thing that you can do and, by God, it really just changes the tone of the conversation and gets you into that partnership space from square one.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and it's not. And I want to be clear, right, you know it's not a power move. Like I'm in charge of this, call it's so kind yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know. I think the second thing that I would point out here is, you know the asking questions. Okay, well, what does that mean? I love to. I know when I'm in with Indie Collective folks, I share this stat. It's, I think it's from the Association of Inside Salespeople or something, but they say the best salespeople ask between 11 and 14 questions per call. And you know, if you're not Barbara Walters, how are you getting 14 questions in? And you know it's like that's a lot of questions.
Speaker 2:But I think one of the pieces of a line that I, that I teach and that we share with Indie Collective folks is this idea you already said it earlier in the call of peeling the onion, and this is how we show up as an expert. You know somebody says I need a new website and you don't just say, okay, great, how many pages? Peeling the onion is that act of saying tell me more about that. Why is now a good time for a website? What are you seeing that you think could be improved by that?
Speaker 2:I want you to see how many follow-up questions you can ask when a potential buyer makes a statement about what they need, because you win as an expert and in this market, when people are hesitant, when you go deep, not wide, the amount of information you cram into a 30-minute initial connection call to see if y'all want to dance together that's not what wins. Pitching your company and all your value proposition isn't what wins in these bigger B2B. You know complex sales conversations anyway. It's go deep. These people are afraid to make moves or they are overwhelmed. They are looking for partners. They are looking for someone they can count on, and so if you ask three or four follow up questions to the major statements they make, you are signaling how deeply you think, how you work, how thoughtful you are without having to say no let me tell you about my company and how thoughtful I am and how deep I think, like you're really exhibiting it.
Speaker 2:So that'll be the second piece of a line I think in this moment to pull out. And if I haven't said it, let me tell you what I say to every single client. If that buyer is so engaged with you, they've given you 30 minutes, but you're asking follow-up questions and they're following your lead and they're shaking their head and they're saying things like yeah, good point. Oh, I never thought about it like that. Forget the rest of your agenda. If you run out of time but your buyer is reacting to you that way, they will give you more time. But, sam, you've been on the buying end for some of these. You have helped companies make very big investments. Do you agree with that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, totally, totally agree, and I think in this environment more so than ever, when buyers B2B buyers, business to business, decision maker buyers are very tentative about deploying tight budgets for fear of making wrong decisions, I think the agenda and asking the right questions so you narrow in on those most painful, top of mind, acute problems, the ones that even in tough economic environments will have a budget and not just treasure but also time that will be willing to be spent immediately to solve them right. So asking the right questions and peeling back that onion to narrow in on the right painful problems or the right, you know, huge opportunities to seize, is really where you need to live in that initial conversation and I think you know knowing well the rest of that acronym right. So we've talked about the two A's of agenda and asking questions. The next letters listen, l, inspire, I, g get feedback and and N get next steps.
Speaker 1:Not surprisingly, those letters flow nicely from those smart questions that get you focused on those most painful problems, because then, with clarity of problem that you can solve as an expert, you're able to share the right stories, right Stories that are going to hit home emotionally and logically and establish your expertise. Your expertise You're also being able to get feedback, to make sure that you've captured in their words, in their language, in their numbers, in their feelings, what that problem is like, so that you can put that back to them in your proposal and, of course, to their organization if you need to build consensus around making that investment and tackling the problem together. So I just couldn't agree more with this framework.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100%. And I'll call out something you said that's so important. Notice the I is inspire and what, and nowhere in the acronym and nowhere in what you just said is the word pitch right. Of course we have to talk about ourselves, but if this isn't, especially if this is a first call, this is sort of a connection or qualification, or even your first discovery call. If it's going to be a longer sales cycle, tell your stories, share insights. You know, be anecdotal, a pitch is sort of lackluster, so I wanted to call that out. You say stories and I couldn't agree with you more.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, totally Ditch the pitch. I mean you've probably heard that before, but I know we both believe in it and people remember stories. So people should start there, because that's what's going to capture hearts and minds and 60% of that B2B buying decision is very emotional. So starting there is a powerful place to start.
Speaker 2:Yeah, jill Conrath says she's a fabulous thought leader around sales and has written many books, snap Selling being a really good one. And in that book, I believe, she says would your buyer have paid you $500 for that experience? And it's not that we're giving away trade secrets or doing work for free. What she means is did you bring them a better sense of clarity in that call? Did it feel valuable? Not a sales pitch? So I always. That is my golden rule, frankly.
Speaker 1:Totally, totally. So now, once you've had that initial powerful sales conversation and you've probably begun to establish trust, so the rapport and credibility you may have an eager prospective client on the other end and they might jump right into great. Send me a proposal, allison. Why pump the brakes?
Speaker 2:And what are the?
Speaker 1:things that you need to make sure you know, as a expert consultant or coach, as it relates to your client and the problem you're tackling, so that you can send a winning proposal when the time is right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love this question and, sam, I've lost track of how many years I've been working with you in Indie Collective. But this question and the advice that I give is, hands down, the feedback I get that Indie Collective folks put into action. It's easy to put into action and it gets them immediate results. And so I love this question. Nine out of 10 subject matter expert founders, consultants I talk to are sending proposals too soon, without all of the information that they need to make that proposal possible, plausible, apt to get over the finish line. So the reason to slow down is to make sure that your proposals are actually confirmations, not thought starters. Alan Weiss, who wrote Million Dollar Consulting that was the first time I ever really heard it where it made sense. Right, because most B2B sales processes, even with seasoned salespeople I'm really embarrassed to tell you how many years ago I started doing, you know, slowing things down. It was too late. It's one or two maybe high energy meetings and everybody's excited and they're like we're going to buy this and you're like, yay, they're going to buy this. And they say, could you write this up and send us a proposal? And you're thinking, pop the champagne. And you spend two hours or two days or two freaking weeks working on this proposal. You send it over and then you know what happens. What happens? You get ghosted, ghosted, and there's a lot we could get into, and you know I love to talk about this.
Speaker 2:But here's the bottom line, much to the chagrin of deeply passionate subject matter experts who just want to help. It is not you, your knowledge or whether or not your buyer thinks you can do the job that makes or breaks the sale. It is whether or not your buyer or the organization you are selling to can overcome all of the internal hurdles and BS that they're going to face to keep that problem and your solution a priority and get the internal buy-in commitment and get your proposal over the finish line to a contract. It's a bummer, right, because we're like.
Speaker 2:We spend so much time worrying about how we come off, what we say, how polished our proposal is, how good our deck looks, and it does matter. But if you are not slowing down and giving enough time to ask one simple question, you're going to get in trouble, and that question is awesome. So, yes, I absolutely want to send you a proposal, but let me ask you a question what's going to get in the way of you getting the support you need and if you're having one call whether it's 30 minutes, 45, 60 minutes and then going off and write a proposal, I highly doubt you've had enough time to probe in that area and you're really just you're just wishing and hoping that that's going to come through.
Speaker 1:Yeah, couldn't agree more. So tell us a little bit. I know, I know I'm jumping the gun here, but tell us what a fingerprints meeting looks like and how you get that level of information. So you know we're ready to send that proposal and get it to a finish line moment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know people listening are thinking how would I put more time into this? Because, just like you said, sam, you know you have one great meeting, high energy, and guess what? Your buyer doesn't know how to run a good sales process either. You know it's. They don't know that there's a better way and they're excited and the only thing they know to do is ask you to write it up and send it. And so we're compliant, we say sure.
Speaker 2:Well, what you want to do is put in another touch point. I call it a fingerprints meeting because the point of that meeting is going to be to get their fingerprints on your thought starters or your proposals. You're going to finish it together. You're going to make it a confirmation where you're going to get to go through on this meeting. I'll tell you how to ask for it in a second. But what's the agenda of a fingerprints meeting? What am I doing if I get another 30 to 60 minutes or whatever it is? The agenda is play back what you heard. I want to make sure I understood everything in our discovery call, that I understood the assignment and that we didn't leave anything out. That's another chance, by the way, for you to ask more questions. Get in deeper, figure out where is that urgency? How much of a priority is this? You're going to play back what they heard. Then you're going to show them your now be careful here. You don't want to take them point by point through a proposal because that isn't meeting. That could have been an email, right, and there's a little nuance with everybody here what this looks like. But you're going to show them pieces or parts or building blocks of that proposal. You're going to show them your thoughts starters. You're going to walk them through your ideas about how you would solve it and you're going to get their rigorous feedback on how that would work in their organization or not, and things that we really ought to confirm before we send it over. We call it there's another acronym for you keeping tabs T-A-B-S.
Speaker 2:We are going to ask and probe around what might get in the way around the timeline of this, a authority, who are all the decision makers in this, if you haven't had a chance to ask? But it's not just decision makers, is it? It's naysayers and influencers and ERGs, and people might be pushing back on you. And you know right? Um, uh be budget. My goodness gracious, do not send a proposal, do not even make a proposal until you know what they will bear for investment. You may as well just go sit on a beach all day, you don't know. I mean, come on. And lastly, that S on tabs if we're keeping track at home is strategy to contract. I always give away my age, but if anybody remembers Schoolhouse Rocks in the 70s, 80s how a Bill becomes a law, you want to ask your buyer. So I'm so glad we're both. We both seem very excited about this.
Speaker 2:For sure, once we get off this call, what do you, what do you need to do with this proposal? What are all the hoops it has to go through? Is that going to be easy for you? Is that going to be challenging? Is there anything I could do to ease that for you? Do you want me to come present it with you to the board? Do you want me to talk to the investor? Do you you know? So you really want to see. How might I influence this? So that's what a fingerprints meeting is. When they leave, they feel galvanized because why, what do people like Our own ideas? So you get their fingerprints on it. They are going to feel enrolled in that, they're going to feel ownership over that and then they're going to be willing to do what? Stick their neck out and take a chance, which ted mckenna and matt dixon are telling us they're not really that apt and willing to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that, fingerprints, meeting a little more time, it's going to get them there yes and and, as we in this economic environment, really in any economic environment, this meeting could not be more important because if your key decision maker, if that person who's going to need to help you to navigate the internal procurement process, the internal consensus building, doesn't feel like their fingerprints are on it, there's absolutely no way they're going to get into a three-legged race with you, right? How about that visual?
Speaker 2:How about that visual?
Speaker 1:Yes, because once you're the outside expert, consultants or coach, when it gets into the procurement process, when it gets into the consensus internal, you're not going to be in those conversations unless they bring you into those and you're not going to be able to enable that decision maker unless you are bound together in that three-legged race.
Speaker 2:Yes, and you can be. You know, you got to know thyself, know thy buyer, but you know some really heavy hitting salespeople do there's a couple of names for it, but mutual action plan or a map. In those meetings you can literally write like a project plan after today. Here I'm going to do these things, I'm going to finalize the proposal with your feedback. I'm going to send it to you. You're going to go do this and that and procurement and this and that, and you two working off a project plan together. You are literally partners in a three-legged race, right? As opposed to what's the alternative, a relay race. We're passing a baton of paper back and forth and there's no skin in the game from that person.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Totally, and I've used maps in certain sales processes, particularly larger enterprise ones and in smaller organizations, where it's less complicated and you feel pretty tightly aligned with that decision maker.
Speaker 1:You might not need one, but that's a super helpful tool, especially if you're looking at a longer sales cycle, more stakeholders that need to be navigated and consensus that needs to be built, or procurement's a part of the process and that layers additional complexity. So it all comes down to kind of how complex, how tightly aligned you are with your buyer Super, super helpful. So we've talked about aligned. We've talked about getting your fingerprints meeting in place so that you're clear on the painful problems. You've scoped out, with their input and buy-in, what those solutions are going to look like. You've confirmed that there's a budget there and that it aligns to the expectations. Firm that there's a budget there and that it aligns to the expectations. Tell me a little bit, alison, now that we've done this upfront work. What does that proposal look like and what do you put into your proposals so that you get value on the other side of them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the first thing I want to say is my proposals look like what I have agreed with my buyer or champion. It should look like that's the bottom line, right? Because if they have to go get buy-in and enrollment by committee right internally, they might suggest to me that I put in more case studies or lead with data. They might, you know, they're going to let me know what are the tools they need. So I want to be sure to say that. Right, but in any proposal template there's a few things you know. Look just about any proposal off the internet. You rip off and you make it your own as an expert. You're going to be okay, I'm not going to toil over this. But there's a few key things that I want to make sure everybody has or does or doesn't do. The first thing is it does not start with you. It drives me absolutely nuts to open a proposal and see the first five slides to be all about me, the vendor. You know me, the partner. Here's our story. Here's our differentiators. Here's the. Here's the NASCAR slide. You know that one, all the logos that you've ever worked with. It has a place, but it's in the appendix. It just truly is.
Speaker 2:We always want to be centering the customer, and so the first thing that my proposals and all of my clients' proposals start with is that reflection of the current state. Use your flavor. I work with small business owners. I say what I heard because I can be a little informal If you're doing a big seven figure. That's an executive summary. This is the current state that I believe you are in Now. Why am I doing that if I have actually elongated my sales process?
Speaker 2:So, to make sure we're on the same page, it's not for my buyer, it's for who else is going to read that proposal, right? It's not for my buyer, it's for who else is going to read that proposal, right? Right, because if we have to agree, you know, by committee, then the first thing we have to agree on is what the problem is and what is at stake if we don't solve it. So that's that executive summary. Speaking of, you talked about the gap when am I today and where do I want to go? So if I'm saying here's where you are today, then I'm going to paint a picture of what's possible, right, the value proposition of what you're hoping to achieve. And, sam, look, indie Collective has hands down the best content about value-based pricing. I have taken that myself twice.
Speaker 2:Like you know, it's really good and that is what gets you to that value-based pricing. Really painting a picture for someone. Here's where you are, here's where you want to go. This is the work you need to do so that you can achieve. And if they buy that, buy into that idea, then your pricing gets to be a certain percentage of that. That is as easy as it is. And the last tip listen. And then you're going to go into what you're going to do and you're going to do. You know it's like, and the budget and the pricing and the things, and you know all that that a proposal would have.
Speaker 2:The other hot take I have for you is the following so, sam, I don't know in your proposals or things that you've done, but most proposals have a timeline. You know, and that's smart because they've said we'd like to kick off by this date and you want to be sure that you kick off by that date. So you put it in there. That makes sense. Fine, the better version of that is that your timeline in your proposal starts the day you send the proposal. It's almost a little bit of that map, that mutual action plan we were talking about.
Speaker 2:Is it always appropriate? Maybe not, but it is most of the time. Start today. Understand what is going to happen between now and when we sign the contract, or what procurement looks like. Map it all out why? Because it holds them accountable to that for sure. But also you are stepping forward and saying I am more than a vendor, I am not just trying to get this money and get to this kickoff. I understand the jobs on your plate to do. I'm acknowledging them and your jobs are my jobs and I think it's so powerful to do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I love that. Yeah, not always appropriate to kind of send a proposal with day one being the day you ship it. However, if you've done this sales process, you've done your align, you've done your fingerprints, you've really gotten into that three-legged race with your decision maker, I think it is appropriate and, by the way, that executive summary is going to show just how much you know and the proposal is going to capture just how much value you can create by diving headfirst and getting going ASAP with the project. So, I think, absolutely appropriate. If you're following this methodology Cool, amazing.
Speaker 1:Well, folks, if you've stayed with us this long, hopefully you can see that there is a better way Racing through sales conversations and grasping at short straws, sending smallish proposals that solve smallish problems. It's not how, frankly, experts should be leading their sales conversations. And when you follow this methodology, when you create space to align and I think the most important thing in that space is making sure you ask enough of the right questions. Let people not just tell you what's top of mind. Let them, through the right questions, get to the most meaty, meaningful problems, the things that they will be prepared to invest both time and treasure on, no matter the economic environment, and then make sure, before you ever send a proposal, that you are in that three-legged race.
Speaker 1:I cannot underscore that enough and I know Alison agrees. If you're not in a three-legged race in this economic environment, good luck getting to the other side of procurement, getting the other side of starting that contract or getting to the other side of really great results, because that three-legged race doesn't just carry you to the start line, it carries you to the finish line and, of course, to a powerful referral partner on the back of it. So, allison, thank you so much for joining us today. I just love having you as part of our community and always appreciate you sharing your wisdom with our members and all of our listeners.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, sam. I always love mixing it up with you and you're so gracious because you know what. You're a really good salesperson, always great to talk with you.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Thank you, Allison.