Great call. Warm buyer. Proposal out the same afternoon.. and then silence.

I talked this through with Rafael Cortez on the CEO Pulse Podcast (published September 2026). Listen to the full conversation: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/rafaelcortez/episodes/The-8-Step-Sales-Process-with-Simon-Severino-e3o6m31

This is for you if your offer needs a conversation to sell. Offers up to roughly $9,000 can sell from a website. Everything above that needs a conversation.. and above that line, the conversation IS your sales system.

Check who is talking

When we get a team's sales recordings, the first thing we look at is talking time. Before the script, before the deck: who is talking?

The average we see: the seller talks 60% of the time. The buyer talks 40%.

And the win rate sits at 10 to 15%.

🐬 That is not a coincidence. A buyer who barely speaks never tells you what the deal is really about. So you pitch into the dark, send a proposal built on guesses, and wait while the deal goes stale.

Win rate is a listening problem

Your win rate is a listening problem, not a pitching problem.

The fix sounds too small to matter. Flip the ratio. Aim for around 30% talking time on your side.

The pushback we hear: how can I sell anything if I'm not talking? Simple. You ask a good question. Then you listen. Then you write down what they said, where they can see it.

Teams that make this shift raise their win rate by 25% on average, just by changing the quality of their questions. Same leads. Same offer. Same team. Different conversation.

The second leak: price too early

Early in the first call, the buyer asks: what's the price? The seller answers. And the deal starts slipping away.

Price early and you have no context yet. Your number lands with nothing underneath it, so it can only look expensive. That bitter first taste is hard to wash out.

🐯 In the 8 Steps of the Repeatable Sale, price is Step 6, even when the buyer asks for it in the first minutes. Here is the order, split across two calls.

Call one: understand the decision

Step 1: Visualize. While they talk, you draw their exact words. On a whiteboard, on a shared screen. They see their own words and think: this person is listening, not waiting to pitch me. You stop being a storyteller and become the guide. That feeling of being seen and understood carries everything after it.

Step 2: Frustration. What are they tired of? What are they craving? It has to be felt in the body, not just thought. It's the step that gets skipped in the rush to the solution.

Step 3: Importance. How important is this, next to everything else on their plate? No importance, no Step 4.

Step 4: Cost of Inaction. What happens if they do nothing? If they do it themselves? If they hand it to AI for free? Let them say the answer out loud. Then stay quiet and let it land.

By now they have asked about price three times. You still haven't said it, because there is no offer yet. The first call ends here.

Call two: build the offer together

Step 5: Deliverables. If we work together, what is the scope? Three deliverables, in their words.

Step 6: Investment. The first time price comes up. You show a menu, and they pick. They stay in the driver's seat, so they feel safe spending real money.

Step 7: Starting Date. They ask when they can start. You agree on a specific date.

Step 8: Statement of Work. They get the SOW. They sign.

🌴 Notice who is in control the whole way. The buyer feels safe in the driver's seat. You hold the frame, as the guide who helps them take their best decision.

Where this fits in 90 days

Win rate is one lever of three. In a 90-day sprint we work them in order, each with a 25% target:

1. Month one: pricing power, so you can charge 25% more without losing clients.
2. Month two: win rate, with the talking-time shift and the 8 Steps.
3. Month three: sales velocity, by shortening the path from first attention to a signed deal, and by expansion selling to the clients you already have.

Try this on your next call

Record it. Play it back and check one number: what share of the time were you talking?

🐬 If it's well above 30%, don't touch the script. Ask one better question, then stay quiet and write down the answer where they can see it.

🐯 One number. One better question. Repeat it every call and watch the ratio shift.

Hear the full conversation with Rafael Cortez on the CEO Pulse Podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/rafaelcortez/episodes/The-8-Step-Sales-Process-with-Simon-Severino-e3o6m31

Grab the free sales tools and join the Sprint Club: https://www.strategysprints.com

Ready to accelerate now? Book a Discovery Call: https://calendly.com/strategysprint/discovery-call

Happy hunting.
Simon & The Sprinters 🐬⚡️🐆