In May of 2022, I had the fantastic opportunity to be a guest on Nathan Chanski’s podcast, “Passion with Purpose.” We talked about sales for over an hour—from my philosophy and approach to sales, to how I prepare for the sales call, even to how I tackle upselling and more. Over the next few months I’ll be posting parts from that conversation that I feel are important to share.

You can listen to the full podcast here.

*The dialogue has been edited for clarity and brevity.

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Nathan Chanski: So honestly, I'd just love to dive in on a more practical level.

What is your approach to sales calls? If you were to walk through how you do sales calls, what's Ellie's approach?

Ellie McMakin: Oh man. All right. We're going in. I'm here for it.

So, with the sales call, it's really important for me to say that prepping for the sales call happens long before the call. Mindset is such a huge thing. And one of the things that I really try and do is help encourage photographers or business owners to recognize you are never going to be better at navigating these sales calls than when you feel the most excited about your business.

Whether that's looking through a gallery that you feel like you crushed it on or looking at all the reviews that you've had that really speak to your soul or that you really just vibed with and connected with—before you even get on the sales call, it is so important to remind yourself of why you're connected to what you do, because that passion will resonate in your tone. Not only are you going to be a killer listener that allows them to feel like you put them first, but your true love for what you do is going to translate so tangibly for them.

I will usually make time—and for me, that's in the morning, but for some people they might prefer to do it right before the call—take that time to really identify, “What lights my heart on fire about what I do?” Really tap yourself into this space of just feeling completely aligned with your job. And then when you get on the call, it's going to feel like, “Yes, I'm stepping into myself in my peak form.”

Nathan Chanski: That's so good. Even the mindset part of it, you're onto something. I tend to think that that's the biggest part, because I feel like if your mindset isn't good, you're going to tumble over yourself, ultimately, with the actual actions of what you're going into.

Ellie McMakin: I literally love that so much.

The other thing that I would say for my pre-call game would be to make sure that you really lengthen out your inquiry form to be as comprehensive as possible.

Most photographers, when they have an inquiry form, they have it on their contact page and it'll be anywhere from 5 to 8 questions on their page. I personally like to go above that. I would say anywhere between 9 and 12 questions on your inquiry form would be amazing, including the following:

• What stage in the booking process are you in?

• Are you shopping around?

• Are you interested but you have a few questions?

• Are you pretty set?

And that always helps me pre-call to know if I need to reassure this person, or put a little bit more TLC into informing them about what my process is like.

With those like 9 to 12 questions, I make sure to include other questions, like, ‘What about my work speaks to you?’ Because when they go through and they're like, “Oh my gosh, I love this and this and this about you,” they're also telling you what they want.

Now, I get push back on some of that with other educators because other educators want to keep it as minimal as possible, because they feel if it's too long, then they're going to leave.

But for me, I need every bit of information I possibly can get to go into the sales call with. And listen, if you guys just want to copy mine from my website, by all means do so.

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Preparing for the sales call is KEY to a successful call!

For more help with your sales, check out my training “Effortless, Ethical Sales” here, or for more intensive help, check out The Business Conservatory program here!

For more from Nathan Chanski, you can follow him on TikTok or on Instagram.

Stay tuned for more updates from this conversation!

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