Hey, 👋 Scott from The Sales Mastermind here.

Today’s edition only takes 3 minutes.

Recently, I was the buyer, and it was a train wreck - learn from this seller's mistakes.

Today we’ll cover:

• Storytime
• Setting The Scene
• The Meeting
• The Upside

Storytime

When I needed an accountant in 2023, I reached out to the practice that my family had used for years.

They took on my case.

Then, in what felt like no time, the practice announced it was “merging” with another business. So, since 2023 I have been a customer of an accounting firm I didn’t sign up with.

And I decided 2026 was finally the year to do something about it.

I found seven local-ish accounting practices via Google and completed their online forms. Then I asked friends for recommendations and emailed another two practices.

This is what I sent everyone (slightly abridged to remove personal details):

Both recommended accountants replied and said I wasn't a good fit. Fine.

Of the seven I emailed:

1. One replied, and we booked a meeting within 48 hours
2. Another replied that he wasn’t a good fit but recommended I speak to someone else, Steve. (This is whom we'll talk about below)
3. Five never got back to me.

Setting The Scene

As with all buying conversations, the seller sets the rules.

When the initial accountant email introduced me to Steve (not his real name), I wanted to confirm that he worked with clients like me. So I emailed my requirements, and Steve replied:

So I used the link in his email signature to book a time via Calendly.

The Meeting

Steve opened the Google Meet-based meeting with pleasantries.

Then he shared his screen, and it went downhill.

We had 30 minutes together, and Steve spent the first ten minutes talking about (I wish I were joking):

• His business name
• Why he chose that name
• Why the colour scheme matched the business name

While ten minutes of a 30-minute meeting was extreme overkill, I decided to give Steve the benefit of the doubt and continue.

Once the presentation was finished, he stopped screen sharing and asked me a very generic question. Something like:

To which I replied:

His response made it seem like he hadn't reviewed the requirements I listed above.

So he went to read them, and as an offhand comment, said:

That’s where he 100% lost me.

The main takeaways you can learn from Steve’s failure are:

• Keep your intro short and about the buyer.
• No one cares about the origin of your business name or colour scheme
• Invest the time to prep properly. Even 5 minutes would have been enough.

If I were coaching Steve, I would give him this structure:

• Intros and pleasantries (under 5 minutes total)
• Get the buyer talking (5mins)
• Ask questions to understand the pain they’re trying to solve for (10 mins)
• Talk about your name, methodology, ideally referencing other clients (without naming them) who have similar problems or set-ups (under 10mins)
• ​BAMFAM (5 mins)

​(See more detail on this structure, including talk tracks and a worksheet, here)​

The Upside

To his credit, let's end on a few positives.

During Steve's presentation, he used the graphic below to explain what happens and how to buy from him - every seller needs something like this to help the buyer know what is expected of them to buy from you.

(I am sharing it because nothing is identifying about it).

Also, to Steve’s credit, he followed up three times by calling and emailing. Respect the hustle.

Unfortunately, I had already decided I was not going to work with him, but it wasn’t all bad.

Are you doing any of the above in your sales calls? Here is a structure for your discovery call.​

Until next week,
Scott Cowley

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