Trust Based Sales Training

Running an online service is brutal.

Whether it's a web dev shop, a design team, or a marketing agency, the economics barely make sense.

You need to pay your team contractors - $40/hr for a beginner, $100/hr for someone with actual skills and culture fit (not to mention on a decent timezone). You need to charge $150/hr at least to be able to pay for marketing, the occasional gaps between projects, and yourself.

You're not some kid who just finished an online course and gets by on AI slop. You know you're better. You've been doing this for years. But they get the jobs because they charge half of what you do.

And of course those projects end up a messy shit show. It's physically painful to know this and still lose those deals. It's not just the money - it's not being able to do the good work you know you can do.

You can't compete on price.

It's a race to the bottom and winning it means losing. So you need to figure out a way to stand out from the crowd.

Now, if you manage to gain their trust - not through manipulation but through understanding - you become a category of your own. Impossible to compare to anyone else. 

You do this and you'll be impossible to compete with.

Tony, a software agency owner I worked with, used to spend 30 minutes proving his credentials on every call. Still lost deals left and right, and got ghosted on half the proposals he sent.

We got to talk about one deal gone cold. I asked him if he knew why they were looking for an agency to build this project and not use their own team. He didn’t know. He never asked. He knew what they wanted to buy but not why.

He did ask on the next call. Turned out they didn’t trust their in-house team and were looking to replace them. A delicate situation. Tony asked more questions, listened, showed them he understood the tech as well as the people.

And closed a $10k/month retainer with a prospect he'd already written off.

I mean, you're a serious professional, aren't you? A designer, a software developer, a marketer? You know your business inside and out. You're used to being the person with the answers. But nobody taught you that sales conversations are actually a delicate trust building process.

So you do what every professional does: they tell you what they need done, you tell them how you'll do it, and show them some examples of your work. And that works fine if you're working with clients someone referred to you - the trust is already there.

But this is different. Cold leads need to trust you before they can choose you. And most businesses can only grow so far on referrals. Most need some marketing, and marketing means selling to cold leads who have no reason to trust you.

Cold leads will choose based on price if you don't gain their trust.

Most clients don't understand quality. They couldn't tell high craft from a cobbled together piece of AI slop. They don't understand the difference between simplistic and deliberately (and beautifully!) simple. They don't see problems they'll end up with down the line that you've seen hundreds of times.

They want it fast and they want it cheap. It's not their fault. It's what they know.

But that's only true until you start asking deeper questions. Why are they looking for outside help? Why aren't they hiring? How much money do they have? What happens if they don't do this project at all?

Now, the margins in online service businesses are paper thin. I mean, one cancelled project and you're in the red again. Investing into some sales course you found online feels ridiculous.

But...

How long would your reserves last if you go below the line?
How long before you need to cut pay?
Start letting people go?
Close up shop and get a job?

It takes time and practice to get good at this different style of sales and the longer you wait, the higher the risk.

I learned this lesson the hard way.

Back in 2021 I was on my last leg. I had just $1506.62 in my bank account, our monthly expense were about $4000, and I was dipping into my kid's college fund. I was scared - terrified - and I even posted a tweet about it. I felt like I was climbing a sand dune, always sliding down. It was brutal.

But learning how to sell to people I just met changed something that no amount of marketing or online presence did.

Deals started happening consistently.

They still do.

It's almost a cliche that people prefer to buy from their friends. But that's only true because people trust their friends. In a way, trust the fundamental mechanism of friendship - it's what gets built over time as you get to know someone.

In a sales conversation we have 1 hour to do what in other circumstances could take 10 years.

Fortunately, you don't need your clients to trust you with their lives - only with some of their money and a relatively narrow task.

You need to go through the "5 tests":

Test 1: Do you see me as unique?

Everyone wants to feel unique, even if they hide behind a corporate identity. You may have seen their kind of problem 100 times over, but to them it's special, delicate and intricate.

Test 2: Do you understand me?

Everyone wants to feel understood, seen, felt. And that doesn't happen with platitudes like "Yeah, I totally get what you're saying" followed by a complete misrepresentation of their reality. This kind of fake "rapport" is what gets sales people the bad rap.

Test 3: Do you have what I need?

Once they feel unique and properly understood, you need to prove you can actually deliver what they need. This is where your confidence, professionalism, credentials and prior work come in - but not a moment sooner. You also need to make sure you don't oversell and trigger resistance.

Test 4: Do you respect my concerns?

This is the most intricate test of all. Many clients won't voice their concerns. They'll think about them of course, but they won't tell you. They'll just tell you that "they need time to think" or that "it seems a little too expensive". What they say is almost never their actual concern. But if you've built enough trust so far, if know how to dig for objections, this is where you win the deal.

Test 5: Will you pressure me into signing?

Everyone wants to feel in control of their destiny and their decisions. Misapplied pressure breaks trust - instantly. But if the call ends with a loose "send us a proposal", you may never hear from them again. The final test is about the delicate dance between making sure they have both the space and the incentive to make the right decision and hire you.

Once you pass the 5 tests the deal is all but done.

All you need to do is sign the contract, choose a start date, and get to work.

But you do need to pass all 5 to make it work.

That's why this is a video course with live sales simulations. You need to hear the tone, see the pacing, feel how each test gets passed in real conversations.

One of my clients just told me yesterday he is watching the course for the 5th time - not because he didn't get it the first time, but because he keeps catching new details that make his calls even smoother.

The Trust Based Sales System

You're busy and probably quite a bit stressed, so this video course is short. It's just under 2 hours - 10 chapters of ~10 minute each. You can go through it in an afternoon, or spread it over a week.

You'll learn how to start a conversation, how to make them feel unique, how to show them you truly understand them, how to present your offer the right way, how to handle objections and how to close the deal so they still feel in control.

It's a gradual trust building process that ends with a signed deal.

You'll also get 3 bonus in-depth guides for thorny situations where trust is broken and needs rebuilding:

Bonus Guide 1: How to recover from ghosting

Even if you have a great sales call and send a perfect proposal, you may get ghosted and never hear from the client again. This guide will show you how to get them back to the table by understanding why they ghosted you in the first place (and it's always the same thing).

Bonus Guide 2: How to renegotiate a slipped deadline into a retainer

You probably heard of (or at least felt) Hofstadter's law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's law. Your clients haven't. And they probably aren't very happy about the slipping deadlines.

This guide will show you how to come out of a slipped deadline situation with a profitable retainer.

Bonus Guide 3: How to set clear boundaries with a difficult client

Every agency has that one client that drains 90% of your energy. They usually are one of your first, and they get away with things you'll never allow anyone else.

This guide will help you establish clear boundaries without losing them as a client.

Pricing

1. Trust Based Sales System (video + exercises)
2. Ghosting Recovery (guide + email templates)
3. Clear Boundaries (guide + email templates)
4. Slipped Deadline(guide + email templates)

Total price: $247