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The Sales Evangelist

Curtis McHale, E-commerce, The Sales Evangelist Curtis McHale is a successful entrepreneur, coach, writer, and speaker. He is living his passion for designing and building WordPress sites and plugins through his company SFNdesign, which specializes in eCommerce and Membership sites, as they seek to help their customers solve their online business problems.

In this episode, Curtis shares with us the concept of service and how service equals sales. Additionally, he talks about the power of choosing your ideal clients and refining who your ideal clients are through asking them powerful, yet impactful questions to cut through the process of finding customers that best fit your business. He also touches on the importance of turning down customers in exchange of getting higher overall returns.

Here are the highlights of my conversation with Curtis:

Curtis’ coolest sales experience when he was the customer.

The only way you can run a good business is if you’re serving your clients.

Many people don’t like being sold to.

The importance of having an idea who your ideal customer is for your business.

Reading Michael Port’s Book Yourself Solid four times and eventually doing the work.

Refining who your ideal client is.

  • Sending the first email to qualify them to move into a phone call.
  • Asking the same questions during the call.
  • Asking them if they enjoyed the call.

Getting lower financial value for his business but getting higher value overall in life.

On turning down people,

  • He doesn’t say “no” a lot. Personally; he makes them say “no”
  • Requires them to answer seven questions; if they don’t answer – bad fit!
  • Evaluating those you’re looking at as your ideal customers
  • Having the ability to say no to customers who are not an ideal fit for your business

Expense vs. investment

[Tweet “Get people to shift their mindset from think of your product or service from “being an expense” to “being an investment @curtismchale””]

Curtis’ questions on his initial email in finding his ideal customers:

  • Why is this current thing you want to do more important than you could be doing?
  • Have your clients been asking for this or internal staff?
  • What would happen if we didn’t do it?
  • What opportunities would you lose?
  • What happens in your business when we finish?
  • How will you move your business to the next level?
  • How are you going to measure success?
  • Timeframe – How long?
  • What’s your budget?

Current projects Curtis is working on:

  • Focusing on how to 10x his business for 2015
  • Putting his focus more on coaching, products (ex. his book: Don’t Be an Idiot:  Learn to Run a Viable Business)
  • His plan to release 4-5 books by 2015

Connect with Curtis over at curtismchale.ca (for coaching). He keeps one call per week for free.

For more information on eCommerce development or membership sites specifically on WordPress, you can find him at sfndesign.ca.

Curtis’ yearly course: Hope is not a strategy: Get a plan for your next business year

Curtis eCommerce and membership development site: http://sfndesign.ca

Curtis Sample Email:

Hey (client name) thanks for getting in touch about (project). It sounds interesting but I need some more information to help me decide:
1. If I’m a good fit or
2. If someone I know is a better fit
What I need to know is:
1. Why do you need (feature or project) now and why is it more important than something else you could be building?
2. Have clients or internal staff been asking for (feature or project)?
3. What would happen if we didn’t do (feature or project)? What opportunities would be lost?
4. What will happen to your business when we finish (feature or project)? How will it move your business to the ‘next level’
5. How are we going to measure success of (feature or project)? (time saved, more conversions to email, more sales…)
6. What is your timeframe for completion?
7. What is the budget you have allotted for the project?
Budget is usually the hardest question here but it’s something that I need to at least have an idea on. Do you have $1000 and I need to find existing solutions that can be ‘glued’ together to meet your goals (and you’ll probably have to give up on some specifics of how it works) or do you have $30k (or more) to spend and we can build you whatever you specifically need?
So even a range of where things start to feel ‘expensive’ helps me know what to think about as I sort out what works for your project.
The questions above are going to help me know a few things:
– if I’m the best fit for your project
– if someone else is a better fit
– if I’ve got the time for the project
– if my costs fit with your budget
– if I know of someone else that fits your budget better
Thanks for the answers, and have an awesome day
(your email signature)

Curtis’ Major Takeaway:

Book Curtis Recommended: 

About the Author The Sales Evangelist

Donald is the host of the popular sales podcast,"The Sales Evangelist". He is the founder of The Sales Evangelist Consulting Firm where he helps small companies develop killer sales process to scale their business and increase growth.

Donald is also an award-winning speaker, sales trainer, and coach. He's a big fan of traveling, South Florida staycations and high-quality family time. Donald has a belief that “anyone” can sell if they have the desire and receives the proper training.

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