Ep 138: The *Perfect* Sales System for Indie Consultants

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Ever feel trapped on that endless sales call hamster wheel? You know the one—where your calendar is packed but conversions are scarce, and each call leaves you more drained than the last? That's exactly where one of my clients found herself recently, questioning her entire business model despite having plenty of interest in her services.

The breakthrough came when we realized her problem wasn't her expertise or offer—it was a sales system completely misaligned with how she naturally works. Together, we crafted a five-part framework that transformed her approach and had her operations director literally dancing with excitement by the end of our session.

This episode walks you through the exact blueprint we developed: lead generation that filters early to attract only qualified prospects, a qualification system that ensures calls are mutually beneficial, sales conversations restructured as "business therapy" rather than overwhelming info dumps, a gateway offer that builds true trust without giving everything away, and an upsell moment that flows naturally as the next logical step. The magic happens when these elements work together in harmony, creating a sales process that honors your unique strengths and working style.

What makes this approach different is its focus on alignment rather than tactics. When your sales system fits you—not the other way around—you reclaim your energy, attract clients who genuinely energize you, and transform selling from a draining chore into an enjoyable, effective process. Whether you're struggling with too many bad-fit leads or feeling exhausted by your current sales approach, this episode offers a refreshing perspective on creating a system that actually works for you, not against you. Ready to build something that fits perfectly? This is your roadmap to get there.

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Chapters

• 1:34 Welcome to Tiny Marketing
• 2:06 The Sales Call Hamster Wheel Problem
• 4:06 Creating a Perfect-Fit Sales System
• 7:16 Five-Part Sales System Blueprint
• 11:16 Turning Strategy Into Client Success
• 15:13 Episode Wrap and Call to Action

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:47

Welcome to Tiny Marketing. This is Sarah Norrblatt, and this is a podcast that helps B2B service businesses do more with less. Learn lean, actionable, organic marketing strategies you can implement today. No fluff, just powerful growth tactics that work. Ready to scale smarter? Hit that subscribe button and start growing your business with tiny marketing growing your business with tiny marketing.

Speaker 2: 1:19

Hello, I feel so tiny in this square it feels wider than normal. I am Sarah Noelle Block, and welcome back to the tiny marketing show. This show helps B2B service businesses, specifically indie consultants, do more with less. I'm your host and today I'm sharing a story that might sound a little too familiar If you've been stuck in that sales call hamster wheel that we often get in, where we're hopping on a call and it goes nowhere because they're a bad fit lead or they're not ready, they don't have the mindset to make that shift yet. That happens to us all the time. But earlier this week I worked with a consultant to help them build out a system that would work perfectly for them, because we are all different, we work different, we have different gifts and one sales system that works for me might not work for you. So what you need to do is you need to build a system that excites you, that lives within your magic, so that it doesn't feel like a chore and it can seamlessly integrate into your life. So let's get into it.

Speaker 2: 2:39

This client was taking all of the calls, but none of them were closing. At first glance it looked like a lead gen win. She was getting a ton of leads. That's great. Her calendar was full, people were interested, but underneath the surface the calls were draining. Nearly every person she talked to was a bad fit. She'd get off that call and she'd be like that's not going to go anywhere. They're not for me, it happens. She was exhausted, she was doubting her offer and she was wondering if she needed to scrap the whole thing and start her business over from scratch. But, spoiler alert, the offer wasn't the problem. The real issue was her lead generation and sales process. They were out of sync with how she actually likes to work. She was attracting the wrong people and then giving too much away too soon to try and convince them that they were a good fit or that she could solve the problems and she could. I know her well. She can solve the problems. The problem was that the clients or the prospects that were reaching out to her just weren't ready to receive that yet and mindset stuff always feels so mushy, but it really does make a difference and their mindset wasn't in a place yet where they were ready to receive the answers.

Speaker 2: 4:14

This probably sounds really familiar to you. It's something that a lot of us go through, where we attract leads or we're getting referrals and they're not a good fit. They're not ready for the answer, because sometimes they don't want to hear the answer. Sometimes it's like I was hoping you were going to say something else. They need to be in a place where they're ready to do the work and understand the entire process that you're going to take them through before they can get started. And that's why we have our whole system of the little mini offers that lead up to the big offer, because we're taking them through that mindset piece at the beginning. Within that first offer, we're taking them through what does this really look like? What does this process look like in the gateway offer before moving them through to the upsell? And that I like this story is the reason that we have that process of little micro yeses before we get to that big yes, because you're getting them to the place where they're ready to receive the answers.

Speaker 2: 5:26

So back to the story. Yesterday we changed that problem Together. So when I'm working with you with a client, we're strategizing together. I'm listening to you and I am taking your brilliance and I'm turning it into an actionable strategy. Together we built a SAL system that feels good to run and gets the right people saying yes, and I knew we'd nailed it when her operations director called it quote the most doable operations-friendly strategy we have ever seen. And when we wrapped the call, they were literally dancing. So let me walk you through what we created so you can be dancing. So let me walk you through what we created so you can be dancing and how you can create a similar blueprint but match it to you to build your own perfect fit sales system, because, remember, what is a perfect fit for me might not be a perfect fit for you, so you need to make it for you and your magic. All right, you ready? Okay?

Speaker 1: 6:34

I'm ready.

Speaker 2: 6:35

Part one is the lead generation that feels good and filters early. Filters early is the keyword here. The first thing we tackle is top of funnel. So no more post and pray content, no more freebies that attract the wrong audience. Instead, we leaned into her strengths, how she naturally shows up. We created content and outreach systems that filter early. So only the right people show up to engage, subscribe and schedule a call. Your energy is too valuable to waste on leads who are never going to be a fit Period. That's it. Don't waste your time.

Speaker 2: 7:18

I feel like I've had this conversation several times this week. Earlier this week, I hosted a masterclass and someone was telling me something similar, where they were getting on these sales calls but people didn't want to get the stakeholders together, the decision makers together, to talk to her all at one time that they thought, can you just email me this proposal? And that, right, there is a dead giveaway that they are just price shopping and you are not going to get that job. So if someone, if you have tried to schedule a meeting to go over a proposal and you don't send it beforehand and they're like, no, just email it red flag that tells us, right there, they are not going to go with you. Okay, enough with that rant. Part two the qualification system that actually qualifies. So the next thing we did is added a layer of clarity. Before anyone can get on the calendar now they go through a qualification filter Simple, human, not robotic, but designed to make sure the call is mutually beneficial. So this is how you stop wasting time and start protecting your energy for real conversations.

Speaker 2: 8:35

I've had to do this with a few different clients. I have one client that has a ton of leads, but they are this is a different client than the one I'm talking about right now but they are at a lower level than they should be to work with her. So what we did for her is we created an application process to get on her calendar because that particular client she gets a scheduled calls every single day. They're just flowing in, but 90% of them are not a good fit, so we added an application process that needs to be approved before you can get on the call. Now for this client that I worked with this week, what we did is she does an amazing job at cold outreach, which I am terrible at, so I'm like very impressed that she's good at it, but this strategy isn't built for me, it's built for her. So what we did for her is we built a qualification sheet and they had to get three out of the five have met criteria in order to move on to the next phase, which I'm not going to share because that is her personal next phase and it's also brilliant. So what we did in this part two qualification system is set criteria and before someone can schedule a call with you, they need to hit three out of the five criteria.

Speaker 2: 10:06

Part three sales calls as business therapy and not info dumps. So here's where it really clicked. Her sales calls used to feel like interviews. It was info overload, lots of explaining and she gave them a lot of the answers on the phone. But now they feel more like business therapy. She listens, she asks great questions and she just creates space for someone to be able to share the challenges they're going through. This is where that mindset piece comes in. Sometimes all someone needs in order to move through their mindset issues and into ready to take action is to be heard and talk through their problems. So create space for people to be able to share the challenges they're going through in a nonjudgmental space. That feels really good for people and, in return, prospects get clarity. They trust her as their guide. She doesn't need to pitch and the value is already felt in just creating that space for the person.

Speaker 2: 11:20

Part four is a gateway offer that builds true trust in someone. So the next thing we did is we cleaned up her gateway offer. It used to give too much away and people walked away satisfied but not ready to commit, because they were overwhelmed. It was information overwhelm. So now it delivers just enough to build trust and provide a roadmap of what they need to do in order to move through their challenge into hitting their goals, and it shows the value of continued support and the value of moving into the upsell moment. So this gateway offer acts as a bridge and not the destination. It moves people from their business therapy stage into I'm ready to take action. This is a bridge. We're showing them the process of moving from pain to gain to gain.

Speaker 2: 12:31

Part five is the upsell moment. That flows naturally. So the last thing we do is we look at the upsell not as a pitch but as a next step. She doesn't need to push, she doesn't need to invite them into, she just needs to invite them into the next chapter. Because if you build the right foundation, the next step is not hard to sell. It's a no-brainer. And you deliver that immediately after you deliver the gateway offer. So when you do your review session, going through that gateway offer, the last piece of that call is this moment. It's this upsell moment where you show them this is the bridge, this is how you get to the destination you want to get to. You can do this yourself. You can take this blueprint and run with it, or you can work with me. This is what it would look like.

Speaker 2: 13:20

So that happens on the gateway offer call. And it makes sense because once they have seen the roadmap of what they need to do in order to get where they need to go and they're like I don't want to do that myself. The next step is who's going to take me there? Who's going to be my guide and take me to that upsell moment? Who's going to take me to the destination? You become a Sherpa, all right.

Speaker 2: 13:49

The result A sales system that fits her. It's one that protects her time, honors how she likes to work and brings in clients who light her up. That's the kind of strategy I want every indie consultant to have, because when your business feels aligned, you get your energy back, it feels good, and that energy it's what drives the kind of work you actually want to be doing. So if your sales process feels like a grind, maybe it's not you, maybe it's just time to build a better system, and that's what we do here. Thanks for listening to Tiny Marketing. If this episode sparked something in you, make sure to hit subscribe and share it with your favorite indie consultant. And if you want me to work with you to build your sales system that takes people from vaguely knowing you exist all the way to a client, then please reach out. You can contact me at sarahnoelblockcom or email me directly at hello at sarahnoelblockcom. I'll see you next week. Until then, go build something that fits you.

Speaker 1: 15:08

You love all things tiny marketing. Head down to the show notes page and sign up for the wait list to join the tiny marketing club, where you get to work one-on-one with me with trainings, feedback and pop-up coaching that will help you scale your marketing as a B2B service business. So I'll see you over in the club.