How to Structure a Sales Call

I’ve done 350+ discovery calls in the past 3 years and closed 7+ figures in contract value. I always structure my 1st call in the same 5-step format: Great sales is nothing more than a structured approach to help prospects make a decision. It shows them that I’m understanding and have their best interest at heart. I consider sales to be part of the service. It’s consulting. Here's how my discovery calls look: 𝟭. 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 I want to find out as much as possible about them. My goal is to understand their journey & personality, and also make them feel heard & understood off the bat. They talk, I shut up. If they jump straight into business, I gently steer them back. ___ 𝟮. 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘇𝗲 𝗙𝗶𝘁 Next, I dive into their business model, bottlenecks, and top goals: • Who’s your ICP? • What do you offer? • What’s your marketing status quo? • etc. I figure out if a collaboration makes sense and whether they need our help or something else entirely—like coaching, a new tool, a different vendor, or just advice on improving their current setup. ___ 𝟯. 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗲 𝗠𝘆𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 I recap what they’ve shared and then introduce myself. Here, I try to mirror how they shared their story: • what topics did they focus on? • how far back did they go? • what did they highlight? At the same time, I look for similarities between us to create relatability. Then at the end, I explain what I do on a high level. ___ 𝟰. 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲𝘀 & 𝗥𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗕𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗥𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 From there, I introduce the 3 key theses they need to believe for us to work together. • Thesis 1: The decisions we make are influenced by the people we trust and the content we consume. • Thesis 2: Content helps build relationships & trust at scale. • Thesis 3: Content is an infinite game If they're not aligned with this thesis, it usually indicates we're not a fit. At the same time, I also discuss the rough budget range to make sure we're on the same page about expectations early on. ___ 5. 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 If it feels like a fit, I lock in a follow-up call right then. I never leave this for later—it just adds uncertainty and hassle. If it’s not a fit, I still try to offer value—maybe I send some free resources or give advice. ___ 𝗕𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗣𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗜 𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄: • I call out any elephants in the room. • I recap what they say to confirm my understanding and give them a chance to add details. • This also helps me process what they’ve shared. • I always leave room for their questions. • Their needs are #1 priority. #b2bsales #founderledsales #consultativesales

Sales calls don't need to be long. They need to be structured. I've been on both sides of the table in over 4,000 deal conversations. The ones that close follow a tight 30-minute structure. No rambling, no guessing, and no "let me follow up next week." Here's the exact call flow, broken into 6 parts: 1) The 30-Minute Sales Call Agenda ↳ Small talk + one magic question (1-2 min) ↳ Their story (2 min) ↳ Your story (5 min) ↳ Show, don't tell (5 min) ↳ Q&A (5 min) ↳ Discovery (5 min) ↳ Next steps (5 min) Every minute in this structure has a purpose, and that's what keeps the call moving. 2) Sales Prep Essentials ↳ Deck: Keep a 5-10 slide backup, but don't lean on it too much. ↳ Offer: Say the exact price and deliverable so there's zero confusion. ↳ Research: Check their LinkedIn, find mutual connections, and understand their pain before you get on the call. 💡 The more you know going in, the less selling you have to do on the call. 3) The 3 Magic Questions ↳ "What led you to take this meeting?" This makes them sell themselves on you before you say a word. ↳ "What makes our time together a 10/10?" Now you know exactly what to deliver, and they feel heard. ↳ "Tell me more about you." This builds rapport and gives you everything you need to tailor the pitch on the spot. 💡 Skip these three and you're guessing what they actually want. 4) Show, Don't Tell ↳ Run a live demo instead of describing features. ↳ Flash a real client result instead of making promises. ↳ Show a before/after instead of saying "we improve outcomes." 💡 A graph showing growth from 2% to 8% will always beat the best slide deck in the room. 5) Closing the Meeting ↳ Book the follow-up call on the spot instead of saying "I'll send some times." ↳ If they hesitate, ask "What concerns do you have?" and pull objections into the open. ↳ Send a recap email within the hour with notes and action items attached. 💡 A calendar invite plus a follow-up email is the real close, not the handshake. Takeaway: ↳ Control the meeting by setting the agenda early to build trust. ↳ Lead with a strong story because people buy from people, not products. ↳ Lock in next steps before the conversation goes cold, because speed protects deals. Stop treating sales calls like casual conversations and start treating them like a system. The founders who close consistently aren't better talkers. They just run a tighter meeting. You either control the meeting or the meeting controls you. Where are you right now? ♻ Repost if this helped.  ✅ Follow Kinza Azmat for posts on growing, leading, and scaling a business.

99% of deals that I lost had one thing in common (I bet 30% of your pipeline looks the same) I didn’t set a clear next step. No matter how good the call felt. If I didn’t lock in the next move before hanging up. It died in follow-up limbo. Deal was dead. Here’s exactly how I set next steps now (and how you can too): 1. Always set the next step before the call ends → “Let’s grab 15 minutes while we’re both here - does Tuesday or Wednesday work better?” Why it works: Avoids email tag and ghosting. Locks in commitment live. 2. Make the next step outcome-driven → Don’t say: “Follow-up call.” → Do say: “Pricing review with the CFO” or “Legal alignment” Why it works: Creates clarity and urgency - everyone knows what’s coming. 3. Confirm who needs to be in the room → “Anyone else we should loop in for the next step?” → “Who signs off on this kind of decision internally?” Why it works: Multithreading early avoids delays later. 4. Recap the call with 3 key bullets → What we discussed → Why it matters → What’s happening next (date, time, people) Why it works: Removes ambiguity. Builds trust. 5. Use “time framing,” not “next week” → Say: “Does Wednesday at 10 or Thursday at 2 work better?” Why it works: Frictionless scheduling beats soft follow-up every time. The result: - Tighter sales cycles - Fewer ghosted deals - More control through every stage My take: The close doesn’t start with the proposal. It starts the moment you lock in the next step. PS. What’s your go-to line to land the follow-up on the call?

6 mistakes I used to make on sales calls, and 5 things I do now to avoid them: 1. Chasing every deal -As a new AE, I thought I had to win every opportunity. I wish I disqualified faster. 2. Jumping to the ‘how’ before the ‘why’ -When a prospect shared the ‘what,’ I skipped to sharing how I could help... I never paused to ask why it mattered. 3. Failing to multi-thread -Early on, I thought the person on the call was the only DM. Most Mid-Market or ENT deals have 5-7 or 15+ stakeholders. Got stuck with the wrong person way too many times. 4. Avoiding tough conversations -I thought if I asked hard questions to the prospect, they would not want to engage with me.. I quickly realized that was a terrible approach & all I was doing was not getting the answers that would allow me to know what would move the deal forward. 5. Getting happy ears -No competitors? They own the budget? Music to my ears, until I goth ghosted lol.. I learned to treat those signals as red flags. 6. Winging it -I lacked intention in prep. I wasn’t asking the right questions or planning my what I wanted the outcome of the call to be throughout disco & demo calls. What I do now: 1. Prep a POV → Outbound: -Research 2–3 likely pain triggers -Build a “pain menu” for the call -When I hear the 'what,' dig into the 'why' → Inbound: -Ask why they took the call & why now -Ask “What’s driving the need for XYZ?” -If there’s no why behind the what aka pain, disqualify fast 2. Lock in next steps -Set a 15-min pre-demo prep call and a 15-min post-demo debrief. Frame the entire process upfront. 3. Get to ‘no’ fast -Friction early is better than getting ghosted later. Ask the hard questions. 4. Ditch the slides & tell better stories on discovery calls -Have 2–3 customer stories ready that paint a vision. Use your own wins if possible. 5. Layer questions naturally -Good discovery is about listening, going deeper, and truly wanting to understand what's driving their needs.. aka the 'why behind the what' Great tools help too: WINN.AI (which I use in Natoli’s Nuggets Coaching calls) helps reps avoid these mistakes with: ✅ Live AI Guidance → Guides reps with talk tracks and capturing next steps in real-time. This helps you avoid all the happy ear mistakes… IE: Forgetting to quantify pain? WINN will tell you. ✅ Real-Time Call Assistance →  acts as a live sales assistant during calls, helping reps stay focused by automatically tracking questions, objections, and action items. Imagine hearing a specific piece of feedback from a customer and having a live recap in real-time. Hopefully these tips help, especially if you're a newer seller!

Most AEs get the first 5 min of a discovery call wrong. They either don't set the stage at all... Or they overcomplicate it (and sound weird). Here's five steps to setup your sales calls to win. And avoid friction with your buyer: STEP 1: Transition from small talk. After spending a few min on rapport, you need a smooth way to transition to business. Best phrase I know to do it? "Mind if we talk through the agenda?" STEP 2: Set the objective This NOT the agenda. The agenda is the LINE ITEMS of things you'll discuss. The objective is the outcome of the meeting. Complete this sentence: "Here's what I have in mind for the objective of this meeting. Let me know if you have anything else in mind? This meeting will be successful if _____________________________." Notice the 'softening language.' You're making a firm suggestion wrapped in soft language. That gives your buyer a sense of control and autonomy. Plus, eases any initial 'sales resistance' they have. STEP 3: Set the agenda. With the outcome of the meeting defined, NOW you can set the agenda. Here's the key: Propose 2-3 topics that SERVE the outcome you just established. "The way we can accomplish the objective is by talking through a couple things. First, ______________________. And then, ___________________. Does that feel right?" STEP 4: Set the DECISION to be made at the END of the call. Let your buyer know you'll want both of you to be in a position to make some sort of decision at the END of the call. That makes it FAR easier to secure next steps (or disqualify if it makes sense). "By the end of the meeting, it would be a win if we're both in a position to decide either it makes sense to schedule a next logical step based on what we learned, or that it doesn't, and we can revisit another time." STEP 5: Gain alignment with the 'F-Word' End your talk track with: "Does that feel like a fair way to approach the call?" This accomplishes two things: 1. They're aligned and feel ownership 2. They are likely to agree (hard to disagree with 'fair') Put all those together in a concise, 30 second sound bite. You've got a formula for better sales calls. P.S. More income- and career-boosting tips for AEs here: https://lnkd.in/egVNiFce

Too many reps are still winging their meetings. They show up. They talk too much. They forget to follow up. And then they wonder why deals stall. The top reps I’ve trained over the years all have one thing in common: They don’t just HAVE better meetings, they RUN better meetings. Here’s what they do differently: • They send a shared agenda before every call • They follow the 40/40/20 structure to guide the conversation - 40% Discovery (focused on impact) - 40% Value Alignment (From the executives priorities down) - 20% Next Steps (dates, owners, action items) • They send summary emails with key take-aways and get the client to confirm it • They use tools like Otter.ai to automate the admin and focus on selling The best part? You can steal these frameworks for free. This is the Sales Conversation Playbook I built with Otter.ai: https://lnkd.in/eKxVwep4 It’s short, tactical, and loaded with tools you can use right now to increase conversion. Meetings don’t move deals. Clear next steps do. Use some of the tips and tools in this workbook to run your next call and let me know if it makes a difference. #MakeItHappen #MeetingExecution #sponsor #Discovery

Making more calls won’t help you hit quota. This 4-step framework will (examples and templates included): Do it, and start booking quality meetings and building a real pipeline. 1. 𝗦𝗲𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗯𝘆 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗶𝗲𝗿  Not every prospect moves deals forward. Separate your leads into two levels:  Above the Power Line (APL): Final decision-makers — VP of Sales, CMO, COO  Below the Power Line (BPL): Key influencers — Sales Managers, SDR Team Leads  Prioritize APLs in your outreach. But don’t ignore BPLs. They can provide insight, urgency, and internal momentum.  𝗘𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 1: A VP of Sales controls budget and signs off on tooling.  𝗘𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 2: A Sales Manager will use the tool daily and can flag issues that help shape your pitch.  2. 𝗠𝗮𝗽 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗗𝗮𝘆-𝘁𝗼-𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝗦𝘆𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗼𝗺𝘀  Understand what each persona struggles with — and how it shows up in their world.  𝗘𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 1:  Pain: Stalled pipeline   Symptom: 40% of opportunities stuck in “discovery” stages for 30+ days  𝗘𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 2:  Pain: Low team engagement   Symptom: Reps not logging calls, low CRM activity  When you map these out per persona, your messaging becomes 10x more relevant.  3. 𝗞𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗞𝗣𝗜𝘀 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗗𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗥𝗼𝗹𝗲  Every persona has metrics they live and die by. Know them. Tie your solution to them.  𝗘𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 1: If they care about revenue velocity, handoffs or slow lead response time delays are serious risks.  𝗘𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 2: Poor prospecting becomes your entry point if they're judged on pipeline coverage.  4. 𝗧𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗼𝗿 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲  Now you can structure a pitch that lands. Here’s the template I use:  “Hey [Name], when I speak with other [role]s, they often mention [pain], usually showing up as [symptom]. That tends to hurt [KPI].”  𝗘𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 1: “When I talk to VPs of Sales, they often mention forecast slippage, usually due to deals stalling mid-funnel. That’s a big risk to revenue confidence.”  𝗘𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 2: “Other SDR Managers have shared that rep burnout shows up as fewer calls and lower quality activity. That puts pipeline targets at risk.”  I use Findymail to source accurate data and direct dials. Don’t waste time chasing wrong contacts.  𝗣𝗿𝗼 𝘁𝗶𝗽: Use the 1x4 Rule. 1 problem, 1 symptom, 1 KPI, 1 solution per message or call. Clear. Specific. No fluff.  The more precise you get, the more your outbound resonates.  Generic is forgettable. Precision is power.   Make one change in your outbound motion this year.