227. Building a Sales Process You Believe In

Sales doesn’t have to feel slimy or stressful. In fact, when you treat it as service, selling becomes a natural extension of helping people.

In this episode, Carly and Joe break down the planning side of sales for solopreneurs, from understanding levels of touch to qualifying leads and nailing your quick pitch.

If the thought of selling makes you cringe, this conversation will help you rethink the process and build a sales plan that actually feels good.

Important Questions Answered In This Episode

How can solopreneurs approach sales without feeling sleazy?
By reframing sales as service. Instead of trying to push a product, focus on finding people who have problems you can genuinely solve. When you approach conversations with the goal of helping rather than selling, it becomes natural, authentic, and far less intimidating, even for introverts.

What does “level of touch” mean in sales planning?
The level of touch refers to how much interaction you have with a potential customer. High-touch sales involve more personal engagement, like coaching calls or consultations, while low-touch or no-touch sales rely on things like websites, emails, or quick transactions for lower-priced products. Solopreneurs need to match their sales process to both their offering and the time they can realistically invest.

Why is qualifying leads so important?
Not every prospect is worth your time. By qualifying leads, making sure they have a problem you can solve, the authority to make a decision, and the budget to buy, you avoid wasting hours chasing “tire kickers.” A simple system for filtering leads upfront saves time, energy, and frustration later on.

Okay, this might be the craziest offer we’ve ever made. We’re giving away a solopreneur platform that normally costs five hundred dollars a year…For twenty-five bucks. And not for a month, not for a year… forever.

All you have to do is pre-order our new book: Solopreneur Business for Dummies.

When we first went solo, we thought we could just Google our way through it. But the advice out there?

It was built for startups with teams and money, not someone trying to do it all themselves. We kept thinking: “There’s gotta be a better way.”

So we made one. LifeStarr Premier is the system we wish we had back then: the tools, the strategy, the community, all in one place.

Go to book.lifestarr.com to lock it in.

This deal goes away when the book drops, October 6, 2025, and it’s not coming back.

Pre-order the book. Upload your receipt. You’re in. For good.

Episode Transcript

Carly Ries (00:00):
Selling doesn't have to feel sleazy. It can actually

(00:02):
feel good. And in this episodeof the aspiring solopreneur, we
share how to plan your salesprocess in a way that serves
your customers while keepingyour business profitable. From
understanding touch in sales andhow much of it you really need
to crafting a crystal clearelevator pitch to qualifying
leads so you don't waste time ontire kickers, this conversation
breaks down the essentials ofbuilding a sales process you'll

(00:24):
actually want to use. Plus, wereveal why even a mediocre
contract is better than nocontract at all.
So if you've ever dreaded saleslike me, this episode will help
you see it in a whole new light.You're listening to The Aspiring
Solopreneur, the podcast foranyone on the solo business
journey, whether you're justjoined with the idea, taking
your first bold step, or havebeen running your own show for

(00:47):
years and want to keep growing,refining, and thriving. I'm
Carly Ries, and along with mycohost, Joe Rando, we're your
guides through the crazy butawesome world of being a company
of one. As part of LifeStarr, adigital hub dedicated to all
things solar premiership, wehelp people design businesses
that align with their life'sambition so they can work to

(01:07):
live, not live to work. Ifyou're looking for a get rich
quick scheme, this is not theplace for you.
But if you want real worldinsights from industry experts,
lessons from the successes andstumbles of fellow solopreneurs,
and practical strategies forbuilding and sustaining a
business you love, you're in theright spot. Because flying to a
business doesn't mean you'realone. No matter where you are

(01:28):
on your journey, we've got yourback. Joe, we are back with

(02:34):
another in person episode fromin inbound because we are
together in person. We areobviously batching our content
this week because we have verylimited time.
Always batch the content andtake advantage of the time you
have together because it's solimited. It's nine years in the
making that we have three daystogether. So we're making the
most of it. But in last episode,we continued our discussion on

(02:57):
the Solopreneur Success Cycle,which our new book, Solopreneur
Business for Dummies basicallycovers. And we talked about
marketing strategy a couple ofdays ago.
Today, we wanna talk about thesales process, specifically in
the planning phase. This is notthe implementation. This is the
planning phase. What do you haveto say about that?

Joe Rando (03:18):
Well, I think before you start planning how you're
gonna sell, and there's only somuch we can get into, because
this is a big topic, and we'lltry to keep it to seven, eight
minutes. But the first thingjust to know before you start is
that, sales doesn't have to besleazy. And in fact, it really
shouldn't be sleazy. You are ina position of trying to help
people. And so there are acouple of issues there.

(03:39):
You have to have something thatwill help them. So if they have
a problem that you don't solveand you try to sell them your
product, well, that's justsleazy by definition. So you
have to find people that havethe pain points that you solve.
And then you have to go in andtruly earnestly help them.
But once you do that now sellingisn't sleazy, it's service,

(03:59):
right? You're, serving people,you're helping people. And
starting with that perspectivecan help you build out a sales
process that you feelcomfortable with, that you feel
good about, and that you'regonna be able to execute in a
way that feels good and that youcan be effective at. Even if you
don't see yourself as asalesperson, you can be an
introvert, Some really goodsalespeople are introverts. It's

(04:20):
just, a matter of having thatprocess of understanding what
you can do to help people andthen going in and discovering,
what their needs are and showinghow you could help if you can.
So that's the first thing. Anythoughts on that?

Carly Ries (04:33):
No. I mean, I am allergic to selling in the past
because of the whole, reputationthat sales, like car salesman
and all that have. But thisapproach, when I started taking
this approach, it's like instantzen for people that don't like
sales.

Joe Rando (04:50):
And I think the next thing is that you have to think
about your sales process interms of something called touch.
And what touch means is just howmuch interaction are you gonna
have with your potentialcustomer? And it really depends
on your business, So if you are,a high price life coach, you
probably have what we call ahigh touch sale, You're probably
in a position of having to spendsome time talking with them,

(05:15):
maybe do an introductory callkind of thing, spend twenty
minutes, half an hour with themto get comfortable that you can
help them and that they needwhat you're offering, because
they're gonna be investing a lotof money going forward.
Now, if you're selling a $25 dogtoy on Etsy, you're not gonna
have any touch. That's no touchsale where now they're basically

(05:36):
looking at your product andthey're deciding whether they
wanna put it in their shoppingcart and buy it. And then in
between there is a low touchsale, right? That's something
that's usually priced more inbetween. And you are maybe doing
emailing with them, you know,something like that.
You're not spending a lot oftime because you can't afford
to, You can't afford to spend alot of time closing a $100 sale

(05:58):
or something. So you have tothink about your product and how
much time you can invest anddevelop your sales process
around the level of touch thatyou can afford to do and that
you need to do for yourbusiness. And if you have a
business that's at a low pricepoint, but requires high touch,
probably wanna rethink that.

Carly Ries (06:14):
Well, and they're now saying that, the average
buyer's journey, or buying cycleis like 11 touch points.

Joe Rando (06:20):
Used to be Seven, right?

Carly Ries (06:21):
Yeah. Now it's 11. It's extended. That's for both
marketing and sales. You don'thave to call these people 11
times to get ahold of them.
But through all of your efforts,I mean, that's a lot of touch
points. So consider, do thoseneed to be marketing if you
don't want a lot of selling? Ordoes it need to be more on the
sales side if you need to havethat approach?

Joe Rando (06:42):
And then the next one is, it's everybody's heard the
term of the elevator pitch, andthere's something related to
that. But you wanna be able tokind of very quickly express
what you do and who you do itfor. You know, you should really
get that out in like thirtyseconds. I mean, it's funny to
talk to some people and say,well, what do you do? And it's

(07:02):
this five and a half minuteexplanation.
That just doesn't work. If youdon't understand what you do and
who you do it for in a way thatcan be expressed very quickly,
you wanna go back to the drawingboard and think through how you
can explain that for lots ofreasons. Number one, because you
wanna be able to just tellpeople so that they will wanna
buy from you, but also becauseyou need to have that kind of
crystal clear in your head. And,if you look at LifeStarr, you

(07:24):
know, what do we, who do wehelp? We help one person
businesses that wanna buildbusinesses that serve their
life's goals as opposed totrying to scale.
So, I mean, that was probablyten seconds and it's important.
And it's just important to beable to do that. So I mean, at
least I really feel that if youcan't nail it quickly, you're
probably, missing the boat onbeing able to sell your stuff

(07:47):
effectively.

Carly Ries (07:48):
I asked somebody, a couple weeks ago. Was like, oh,
so what do you do? And they'relike, oh, if I had a nickel. And
I was like, well, what? I didn'tknow.
But, what do you do? And theyhad to have a joke because they
couldn't properly explain it.And then I lost interest, and I
still don't know what thatperson does.

Joe Rando (08:03):
They don't know either, I think. So another one,
and again, keeping it at a highlevel here, but something that a
lot of people don't do, and it'svery, I'll say expensive in
terms of time and potentialincome. And that is people don't
qualify their leads. They getsomebody that shows interest and
they say, oh, they've gotinterest and they just, keep

(08:25):
chasing them or, spending timewith them. But you have to
understand whether this person,number one, has a problem you
can solve.
Number two, has the authority tobuy your product or service.
Number three, has the budget tobuy your product or service.
And, if they don't have theauthority to say, then you have
to find out who does and andmake sure that you get in front

(08:47):
of that person somehow. This isobviously we're talking high
touch sales here, but qualifyingand some of this can be done
without face to face phonecalls. I see people using type
forms and asking questions andgetting answers to these
questions that they can thenjust go in and scan, and decide
whether this is somebody thatmakes sense to follow-up with.
And even with a lower touchsale, you can qualify people to

(09:09):
make sure they're the right kindof people to spend time on. And
it's really important because,I've seen a lot of, you know,
I've been in a position ofworking with salespeople,
managing salespeople, and theones that chase the unqualified
leads waste a lot of time anddon't find much success,
frankly.

Carly Ries (09:27):
Yeah. It's a time lag. It takes time on the
upfront to put together a systemin place, but saves you so much
time on the back end.

Joe Rando (09:33):
Definitely. And, there are this subspecies of
humans that are lovinglyreferred to as tire kickers. I
remember at my last startup, wewould have a trade show booth,
and these people would come andhang around our booth for hours
at a time every year, year afteryear, never bought a thing, but
just taking up time and, we'dtry to work around them and be

(09:56):
polite, but, it's very strange,but, yes, those people are out
there. So you wanna be on guardfor that. And then the last
thing that I'll talk abouttoday, because again, there's a
lot to this.

Carly Ries (10:08):
Buy the book.

Joe Rando (10:08):
Buy the Shameless plug. Yeah. But the last thing
is the concept of contracts andstatements of work, depending on
your business. And there shouldalways be a contract. Now, if
it's a low touch sale, it maybe, something you know, a link
in your website, but, wherepeople acknowledge, they check a

(10:30):
box.
Yes. I understand, blah, blah,blah. If you're doing something
more, bespoke or custom or,something where there are
different things that you coulddo, if you have a more complex
sale, Statement of workbasically outlines, what you're
gonna do, what they're going todo and come to an agreement

(10:50):
about what you're gonna deliver,what they're gonna do to help
you get what you need to deliverand timeframes. And even from,
layout meeting times andfrequencies and what happens if
they don't deliver the stuffthat you need from them on time
that pushes out the due date.it's just, really important.

(11:10):
Otherwise, you end up with a fewthings.
You end up with number one,potential misunderstanding about
what they're actually getting.Number two, scope creep is a
huge problem. All of a suddenyou're doing x and now it's, X
plus Y, and you're just doing alot more than you budgeted for.
And now you're losing money ormaking a lot less per hour on
your efforts. so having astatement of work is really,

(11:33):
really important. And, there's alot more about that, on our
website. in Lifestarr Central,if you join intro, you can get
into LifeStarr Central and getstuff about that. I'm not sure
if we have a podcast episode onstatements.

Carly Ries (11:47):
We do. Yeah.

Joe Rando (11:48):
We do. Okay.

Carly Ries (11:48):
We actually have a very recent one. I can link to
that in the show notes.

Joe Rando (11:51):
And, then, like I said, a good solid contract is
important. Just something thatthey agree to that just outlines
the payment terms and all theother stuff that's, limitations
of liability, blah, blah, blah.You know, I like using lawyers
for those things, but you canfind, probably find something
online. That's a good outlinefor what you do and then, edit

(12:14):
it, modify it. the thing ismediocre contract is better than
no contract.
So I would highly recommend thatyou you consider doing something
there, have something in placethat outlines the deal.

Carly Ries (12:30):
I agree. Well, folks, that is all we have for
you today. As always, leave thatfive star review. seriously, we
so appreciate it. Share thisepisode with a friend and
subscribe on your favoritepodcast platform, including
YouTube.
And we will see you next time onThe Aspiring Solopreneur. You
may be going solo in business,but that doesn't mean you're

(12:50):
alone. In fact, millions ofpeople are in your shoes,
running a one person businessand figuring it out as they go.
So why not connect with them andlearn from each other's
successes and failures? AtLifeStarr, we're creating a one
person business community whereyou can go to meet and get
advice from other solopreneurs.
Be sure to join in on theconversations at
community.lifestarr.com.