The audit isn’t about whether you’re a natural. It’s about whether selling in your business is a method someone can repeat, or a talent that lives in one person’s head.
Open the calendar for your last ten sales conversations of any kind, your sent mail, your deal tracker and your highest-traffic page. Score each check 0 to 2: 0 if it failed or nobody can answer it, 1 if partly true, 2 if clean.
If the method lives in one person’s head, you don’t have a sales process. You have a salesperson.
The twelve checks
- You know which deals need a person · 4 minLook at: The kinds of customer you currently sell to by conversation, and the ones you sell to by page.
Good: A written rule, based on deal size and complexity, for when a prospect gets a conversation, and the arithmetic behind it.
Cost if wrong: Your most expensive hours go to deals a page could close, and big deals get a page when they needed a person.
Read next: A Person or a Page
- Every conversation has a plan · 3 minLook at: Your notes before your last five sales conversations.
Good: Each had written preparation: who they are, what you think their problem is, the questions you’ll ask and the next step you want.
Cost if wrong: You improvise, and the conversation follows whoever talks most.
Read next: The Conversation
- You ask before you present · 4 minLook at: Two recent recorded calls, or your memory of your last five.
Good: The first third of each call is mostly the buyer talking, about their situation and problems, before any product comes up.
Cost if wrong: You pitch features to a problem you haven’t heard, and create objections you then have to handle.
Read next: The Conversation
- You say the diagnosis back · 3 minLook at: The same calls.
Good: Before recommending anything, you summarized the buyer’s problem and its cost in their words and they agreed, or corrected you.
Cost if wrong: You recommend to the problem you assumed, and never find out it was the wrong one.
Read next: The Conversation
- An objection log · 4 minLook at: Anywhere objections are written down.
Good: A running list of every objection heard, counted, with the answer that worked best for each.
Cost if wrong: Each objection is answered from scratch, and the page never learns about any of them.
Read next: Objections, the Ask and the Follow-Up
- Every conversation ends with an advance · 3 minLook at: How your last ten conversations ended.
Good: Each ended with a specific next step, with a date, that the other person agreed to, or a clear no.
Cost if wrong: Deals die of “let’s stay in touch”, and your pipeline fills with conversations that are already over.
Read next: Objections, the Ask and the Follow-Up
- A follow-up rule · 3 minLook at: Your sent mail for prospects who went quiet.
Good: A set number of follow-ups, spaced on purpose, each adding something new, with a last one that closes the file.
Cost if wrong: You stop after one message, or you send ten identical nudges.
Read next: Objections, the Ask and the Follow-Up
- You know your pipeline math · 4 minLook at: Your deal tracker, or a spreadsheet of the last twenty deals.
Good: You know the conversion rate at each stage and the number of first conversations you need each week to hit your target.
Cost if wrong: You find out you’re short when it’s too late to start more conversations.
Read next: Pipeline Math
- Calls are captured and harvested · 4 minLook at: Where call recordings or notes go after the call.
Good: Calls are recorded with consent, or noted in the customer’s own words, and someone reviews them monthly for copy.
Cost if wrong: Your best copy research is spoken once and lost.
Read next: Harvest the Call
- The page answers the top objections · 5 minLook at: Your main page, on a phone, next to your objection log.
Good: Each of the five most common objections is answered on the page, in customers’ words, above the call to action or close to it.
Cost if wrong: Every unanswered question is a silent exit.
Read next: One to Many
- Buyer meetings are prepared with marketing data · 3 minLook at: Your preparation for your last buyer, distributor or partner meeting.
Good: It used what your store already knows: reviews, return reasons, repeat rates, search terms and the questions customers ask.
Cost if wrong: You walk in with a deck and opinions when you had evidence.
Read next: Many to One
- A loop between the two · 4 minLook at: The last time a sales conversation changed your copy, and the last time a marketing result changed your pitch.
Good: Both happened in the last month, through a standing monthly review.
Cost if wrong: The page and the pitch drift apart, and buyers notice before you do.
Read next: The Loop
Score as you go; your band appears when all twelve are in.
Read your score
| Score | What it means | Read next |
|---|
| 20–24 | Selling here is a method, not a talent. Your job now is speed: more conversations harvested, and faster changes to the page. | The Loop, then The One to Many Scorecard |
| 14–19 | One half works and the other is guessing. Usually the room is fine and the page doesn’t know what the room knows, or the reverse. Fix the zeros first. | The chapter linked from your lowest check, then Harvest the Call |
| 8–13 | You’re improvising in the room and writing the page from opinion. Both can be fixed in a month. | The Conversation, then One to Many |
| 0–7 | Selling depends on one person having a good day. Start with structure: one plan per conversation, one log, one page. | The Conversation, then The First Thirty Days |
If you sell only by page today, checks 2 to 7 still apply: your next buyer, partner or investor meeting is a sales conversation.