Dear entrepreneur,
If something feels stuck in your sales process…
I have a hard truth for you.
Are you ready?
Stop bottlenecking your sales.
That’s it.
We both know you’re wearing too many hats in your business. It’s time to start taking some of those hats off. Especially the lead generation, appointment setting, and deal closing hats.
Listen, you may be able to sell ice to an Eskimo.
Maybe you’re the foremost expert on your subject.
But if all the revenue in your business depends on you…
…you ain’t no entrepreneur. You’re self-employed.
Because the fact is…
Your business can’t run without you.
Now if that hits like a punch in the gut, then strap in because I have your ticket out of this predicament.
So, if you're ready to make a change in your business and life…
If you're ready to go from frazzled and frustrated to FREE and FIRED UP…
If you're ready to reclaim your time and sanity…
If you're ready to stop dealing with erratic revenue so you can finally grow your business to $100K, $500K, or even $1M+ per month…
Then keep reading, because this sales playbook may be the most important thing you'll read, not just today, in your entire business journey.
Hi, my name is Mike Mark. I'm the founder of Coaching Sales. We're a sales consultancy that helps build performance-based remote sales teams.
In the past 7 years, we have…
- Recruited 3,500+ commission only salespeople
- Helped 180+ clients hit 7-figure run rates
- Helped 18+ clients hit 8-figure run rates
- 5 clients on the INC 5000 fastest growing companies
Some of our clients went from zero to $100,000 per month in under 60 days. That's because we've developed a blueprint for creating message-market match and then attracting, training, and managing sales teams, over and over again.
Now let’s get into the meat of the…
2024 Edition: The Coaching Sales Playbook
A Quick Overview
You are about to read information that has the power to change your life.
If you pay close attention
If you take action
What’s possible…
Will amaze you.
The Perfect Sales Team is a mind-blowing process that changes lives forever.
Here's what some of our clients have to say about it:
Now you may be asking yourself… “What is the Perfect Sales Team?”
The Perfect Sales Team is simple.
It makes high ticket sales a step-by-step process.
If you want a predictable and repeatable way to turn strangers into high ticket buyers, you need 3 ingredients.
If you combine these 3 ingredients, your life will rapidly transform…
Imagine your bank account growing so fast that your friends and family begin to accuse you of illegal activity. That happened to me. And many of my clients.
What creates this abnormal, even frightening, revenue growth?
It breaks down into 3 steps.
Step 1: Automated Lead Generation
You need a way to consistently, predictably, and scalably get new leads 24/7/365.
Step 2: Appointment Setters
You need a way to contact, nurture, and qualify the leads you’re generating.
Step 3: Proven Closers
You need the right person on the phones to guide your prospects and sell with ethics.
The Key To The Coaching Sales Playbook
After working with over 1,000+ businesses to build, optimize, and scale their sales processes – patterns start to jump out at you. The key to achieving big numbers is leverage.
Speaking of leverage, Naval Ravikant’s thoughts on the subject have profoundly influenced me.
So I want to share one of his tweet storms:
Fortunes require leverage. Business leverage comes from capital, people, and products with no marginal cost of replication (code and media).
Capital leverage involves using financial resources to achieve business objectives. Capital means money. To raise money, apply your specific knowledge, with accountability, and show resulting good judgment.
Labor means people working for you. Labor leverage is the oldest form of leverage. It involves managing people’s efforts and skills to reach a desired goal. Entrepreneurs can accomplish more by delegating tasks, creating a division of labor, and forming high-performance teams.
Capital and labor are permissioned leverage. Somebody has to give you money to invest or to turn into a product.. Everyone is trying to lead, but someone has to follow you.
Code and media are permissionless leverage. You can create software and media that works for you while you sleep. Podcasts, YouTube, Coding, Writing Books, and Tweeting are all permission-less. That makes them the most egalitarian type of leverage we have ever experienced.
If you don’t have enough leverage in your sales process, aka you’re doing everything manually, then you won’t achieve the escape velocity required to breakthrough.
To be competitive in today's market…
Leverage is must.
One of the ways you can create leverage is turning a complex process into a simple assembly line.
That's why we take a page out of Henry Ford’s playbook.
“Nothing is particularly difficult if you break it into small jobs.”
– Henry Ford
Did Henry Ford look for expert craftsmen to manage the entire process of building cars?
No, he broke it into small jobs.
Doing so he was able to go from producing 11 cars per month…
To producing 10,000 cars per month.
If dividing the process into small jobs made the process that much more efficient, what would happen to your sales if you took a page out of old Henry’s book and broke your sales process into 3 small jobs?
It’s a lot easer to train someone how to bolt on the tires than it is to train them how to build an entire automobile.
This is why we divide the sales process into 3 small jobs.
- Get leads
- Qualify appointments
- Close deals
This is what we call The Perfect Sales Team.
This makes the process more streamlined and helps us get sales reps performing in a fraction of the time.
Major Key: Turn A Complex Process Into Simple and Repeatable Steps
Let’s explore the 3 components one by one.
Section I: Automated Lead Generation
Prospecting is the most important thing in your business.
When your leads dry up, your cash flow dries up.
When your cash flow dries up, bad things happen.
Predictable revenue is a result of predictable prospecting.
Many business owners are stuck on the organic marketing hamster wheel.
Organic social media, networking, word of mouth, events, friends and family…
All good sources of leads, especially when getting started. But if you're looking to unlock hyper-growth, these lead sources aren’t scalable enough.
Trading time for leads will keep you stuck.
If you want different results, you need to take different actions.
There is a mindset shift that must happen.
You need a way that gets leads coming into your business every day.
On autopilot.
The goal is to do the work once and get paid for years.
I have ad creatives that have produced consistent ROI for over 6 years!
That's the definition of building an asset.
Here's an example from our client Jennifer Bishop:
If you're ready to level up in a big way, repeat after me:
I buy leads with money, not time.
This idea changed my life.
And if it’s not 100% on autopilot, our goal is to get as close as possible.
We can automate lead generation on about every social media platform that exists. And thanks to the power of software, it's cheaper and more reliable than hiring a person to do the job.
Social media ads and automated outreach help us rapidly build a list of high quality buyers who love what we’re offering without being stuck trading time for money.
Fun things happen when you put $1 in and get $2 or more dollars back.
If you hang around our community long enough, you will find yourself asking…
“How can I spend MORE money on ads?”
But for now, we’ll meet you where you’re at.
To grow your business predictably, we must take your mood out of it. Maybe you’re like me and some days you feel like you can run through walls. But then other days you feel like you can’t get out of bed.
It’s crazy.
One day, I can do the work of 10 men.
Another day, I legit can’t get anything done.
If my leads depended on my emotional state, I’d be on a rollercoaster.
And not the fun kind…
That’s why automation is my best friend.
My favorite is paid ads.
I can take my best day and make it everyday.
The business needs a steady stream of new people to survive.
That’s why my lead generation MUST be automated.
This is non-negotiable.
Life or Death.
If you have to tattoo it on your forehead, do it.
“DON’T TURN OFF THE ADS”
We use “rapid-message testing” to identify a winning marketing message. This is part of our secret sauce.
It's amazing how small changes in your ad can produce massive results.
Our client, Evan Vance used our rapid-message testing strategy to turn his unprofitable ads into profitable ads. We simply tested a new guarantee and core promise.
We focus on a strategy called the Messaging Trifecta and combined with our Rapid Message-Testing framework, we can find a winning marketing message in 3 weeks or less.
This approach also makes sure you don't get trapped as the bottleneck because your potential clients need to speak with you before making a decision and getting started.
Cory Young attended one of our virtual events and was able to free himself from being trapped in the business with this strategy.
Once we have a razor-sharp message that cuts through the noise, it’s time to turn on the lead flow. This is when the fun starts.
The goal is to have a steady stream of at least 5-10 new leads per day, then we turn our focus towards adding the firepower needed to turn these leads into qualified appointments.
“With the help of Coaching Sales strategies, I have been able to get new leads daily on auto-pilot. My highest performing ads are beating my KPI.”
Tim Johnson, Elevate Real Esate Brokers
Section II: Appointment Setters
It’s no secret…
Most leads don’t book a call.
And many of the leads that do, don’t show up. Or they don’t remember why they booked a call in the first place.
This can be extremely aggravating.
That’s why appointment setters are so important.
One of our Core Values is:
In God We Trust, All Others Must Bring Data.
This quote was popularized by W. Edwards Deming – an economist and management consultant who used statistics to radically change how business is done.
We take the same approach to sales.
Maybe you're familiar with the MIT Speed To Lead study.
The results are mind-blowing.
If you wait longer than 5 minutes to respond to a lead,
you 10X your odds of LOSING the sale.
What's the solution?
As the business owner, if you sat there responding to every lead within 5 minutes…
You wouldn't get anything else done.
If you delegate this to your closer, then they will constantly drop the ball.
Asking closers to double as appointment setters is a recipe for failure.
Adding appointment setters can seriously unlock scale in your business.
Here's what Ahmad Munawar had to say about working with us to add appointment setters to his sales process:
But there's more…
By simply making a few more attempts, you can see a 70% boost in your contact rates.
Here's a few more shocking statistics:
- 50% of buyers choose the vendor that responds first.
- 80% of sales require at least five follow-up calls after the initial meeting.
- 44% of sales reps give up after one follow-up.
- 35% of leads never receive a follow-up call after initial contact.
Talk about fumbling the bag…
Fumble The Bag: Miss out on a chance to make money or f*ck something up in the process of getting money, causing you to not be able to get said money
We are generating inbound leads but don't have the time or manpower to follow up with them. It drives me crazy to see our team fumble the bag like this.
Appointment setters not only help you catch leads that slip through the cracks… They also increase conversion rates.
Appointment setters warm up leads prior to the sales call to make sure they are familiar with you, your company, and your proven process.
This is a key factor that unlocks 35%+ close rates.
Appointment setters give you more leverage. Their role is to help you make sure you and your top closers are focusing on the high $ / hr tasks like making offers and closing deals.
How To Qualify Leads Using Appointment Setters
We have a clear rule with all teams.
Appointment setters need 3-5 binary and objective criteria to qualify a lead.
Clear and objective criteria are crucial, so you can make sure your sales team doesn’t succumb to the “blame game”. This is when the closers blame the setters for low-quality calls, and the setters blame the closers for not closing good calls.
All of this is easily avoided with very clear qualification criteria that doesn’t depend on subjective qualifications like “being coachable” or “able to afford it”. In all seriousness, I cannot tell you how many times I have seen these two be qualifying criteria.
I want objective criteria.
- Are you currently a licensed realtor?
- Did you close at least 10 homes last year?
- Do you have a marketing budget of at least $7K/mo?
Perhaps a real world example will help.
With Scale Your Sales our criteria are simple.
Our clients are reaching out to us because they have a sales problem that needs fixing.
For us confidently accept your money and guarantee results, you need to qualify:
- Do you sell a product or service priced between $5K and $50K?
- Do you have basic proficiency in marketing technology? (i.e. funnel builder, CRM, or autoresponder)
- Are you experiencing one of the following 4 problems?
- I need consistent leads and sales
- I have too many leads and need a setter to help nurture and qualify
- I have too many sales calls and need a closer to scale
- I am scaling super fast and need elite sales talent on demand
- Are you willing to invest between $4K to $48K upfront with a contractual guarantee to double the initial investment or we work with you for free until you do?
If you answered yes to all 4 questions, then it's a no-brainer that we can help you scale.
As long as you show up to 1 call per week with your camera on and ask a question, then we guarantee you double your investment with us.
With clarity like this, you can free your appointment setters to get you more appointments. Here's an example:
Section III: Proven Closers
If you’re hiring a high-ticket closer, you cannot teach them how to sell.
You need to hire someone who already knows how to sell, then teach them about your market and product.
This is why when clients work with us to find closers,
we only introduce proven 7-figure salespeople.
That means the sales reps we place have already
closed over a million dollars as a consultative salesperson.
With this kind of experience, the sales reps can hit the ground running.
Hiring the Right Closers
Finding the right closer is a science. We hire closers based on three critical factors: previous experience, personality assessments, and desire.
Previous Experience
Small business owners cannot afford to waste opportunities teaching newbies how to sell.
Sales is a muscle. You can read all the book or take all the courses in the world about building muscle. But without putting in the reps, you won't grow muscle.
When we hire closers, we have a simple rule.
The candidates must have already closed $1M as consultative salespeople.
This ensures they have the requisite experience asking for money, dealing with objections, and handling uncomfortable conversations. They’ve been in the trenches and know what it takes to close high-ticket deals.
When your sales reps have closed this kind of revenue, you can cut your ramp time dramatically. Quick wins create early momentum.
Personality Assessments
Our approach to recruiting is heavily influenced by Ray Dalio’s principles. He said, “If you put similar types of people in similar types of situations, you get similar outcomes.”
He also shares,
“There are far fewer types of people in the world than there are people and far fewer different types of situations than there are situations, so matching the right types of people to the right types of situations is key.”
We have insights into over 250,000 personality assessments for salespeople and understand which personality types perform best in various sales roles. This allows us to match the right types of people to the right types of situations, ensuring consistent and exceptional performance.
Desire
Desire is identified by how fast the candidate responds and follows through on various requests during the recruitment process. Quick responses indicate a high degree of desire.
We often see salespeople coming from offline industries, like door-to-door sales or car sales, outperform experienced remote sales reps because they are more excited about the idea of working remotely.
When you combine the right previous experience, the right personality type, and a burning desire… Fun things happen.
Where Do We Find Sales Reps?
The answer is simple: we’ve been constantly marketing for sales reps for the past 8 years.
We run ads, do direct outreach, have strategic partnerships, publish content marketing, and leverage solid word of mouth and referrals after recruiting over 3,500 performance-based sales reps.
Finding great sales reps is like finding off-market real estate deals. The best properties aren’t listed publicly; they’re discovered through connections, word-of-mouth, and strategic outreach.
Similarly, top-performing sales reps are not actively job hunting or submitting CVs on job boards. They are the ones already excelling in their roles, and we identify and attract them through our extensive network and proactive marketing efforts.
The Importance of a Trial Period
We believe in a 30-day trial period for all new closers. This isn’t just a formality; it’s a crucial phase to see how they perform under real conditions.
A client once said to me:
You never know until you see them hustle.
Just like testing ads to find the highest performers, trialing salespeople helps us identify the best talent. The right sales talent is competitive and wants to win. The trial period taps into a high-caliber salesperson's innate drive to prove themselves and show what they are capable of.
During this period, we evaluate:
- Sales Call Performance: How they sound on live opportunities.
- Coaching Responsiveness: Their ability to take feedback and improve.
- Overall Responsiveness: Their eagerness to engage and contribute.
Some reps start closing deals right away, and these quick wins build confidence and momentum. However, it’s equally important to prepare them for the inevitable ups and downs of the sales cycle. We want to ensure they’re committed for the long haul and not just looking for a quick paycheck.
The Final Selection
After the trial period, if multiple candidates excel, hire them all if possible. However, you can generally expect to find one winner for every three sales reps you trial. Hiring salespeople is time- and resource-intensive, so if you find multiple productive assets, it’s more efficient to scale up your marketing and book more appointments to keep them busy.
Compensation Structure
Compensation should be based on on-target earnings rather than just commission percentages. A typical inbound salesperson should make between $100,000 to $180,000 a year.
For example, if a sales rep wants to make $120,000 a year, they need to generate $840,000 to $1,200,000 in revenue.
Generally, the commission structure we recommend is a simple commission between 10% and 15% of cash collected – making sure the math adds up for both the salesperson and the business.
The commission structure makes sure each successful sales hire generates
a 7X or 10X return on investment.
The Sales Everyday Community
When you join the Sales Everyday Community, you get access to a network of collaborative and generous business owners and sales professionals.
Everyone has different skills and archetypes that bring value to a deal.
In the past 12 months, here are a handful of our favorite student wins:
- Wes Fisher: Wes is a school teacher who learned how to secure government contracts. He started teaching other people his “middleman” methodology. Whenever Wes went live on TikTok, he got great live viewership. In fact, it was a problem. Because every time he offered to book a call, his calendar would fill up for 3 weeks. And if you’ve ever had appointments book further than 4 days out, most of them no show. We got him sales reps and he 5X'd his business in 3 months.
- Eddie Hanline: Eddie came to us as a burnt-out freelancer. He was taking on any project and felt completely owned by the business. Since then, he has been able to build a consulting business that is easier to run and produces 4X the amount of revenue per month.
- Hannes Rydell: Hannes is a young agency owner. He had a working traffic system—utilizing Instantly and cold email for healthcare businesses—he just needed more manpower to take calls and close deals. We introduced him to four proven 7-figure salespeople in 7 days. He put 3 on a 30-day trial and landed 1 amazing hire who is bringing in a consistent 2 deals per week. The best part? Hannes was able to take a vacation in Cape Town, South Africa. And while he was in the nightclub with his friends, a deal closed.
Record months. From anywhere in the world.
That’s the beauty of leveraged sales.
Ready to Build Your Perfect Sales Team?
If you're ready to transform your sales process, build a high-performing remote sales team, and unlock hyper-growth for your business, book a call with us today. Let's discuss how we can help you achieve these results for your business.