Episode 353: The Art of Asking Better Questions & Selling with Integrity | Nitya Kirat | Sales Coach & Author of Winning Virtually
Sales doesn’t have to feel pushy, awkward, or inauthentic. In fact, according to sales and communication expert Nitya Kirat, great selling has nothing to do with persuasion tactics and everything to do with trust.
In this episode, Nitya, CEO of YOSD Consulting, shares why the best salespeople ask the best questions, how to simplify your messaging so people actually understand what you do, and why rushing the sales process is costing you more than you realize. We dive into emotional intelligence, knowing yourself as a seller, overcoming money stories, and creating a consistent sales process that works, even in uncertain economic times.
If you’ve ever said “I hate sales” or struggled to convert great conversations into paying clients, this episode will completely shift how you think about selling.
“So much around selling successfully is having consistency in your process.”
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353 - Nitya Kirat
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Kara: Welcome to The Powerful Ladies Podcast. I'm Kara Duffy, and today's guest is sales and sales training expert Nitya Kirat. So many businesses have experienced a rocky past 12 to 18 months. Sales conversion rates have decreased. Sales lead times have increased, and customer hesitation to spend money has also increased all while scarcity mindset, as you can imagine, has been creeping up for business owners.
I do believe that no matter what is happening in the world or in a specific industry, there's always enough opportunity for everyone. But what does change is the ease at which those opportunities can appear, which means in situations like we have ourselves in today, we need to level up our sales skills.
That's why I've invited Nitya on today. He trains the best of the best to be sales ninjas. In this episode, I ask him as many [00:01:00] questions as I can fit about how to improve sales, get over sales fears, and how will you just close more deals? Because the difference between a business and a hobby is how many dollars we can put on the board.
So get ready to level up your business and maybe even be surprised by some of the solutions you can start implementing today.
welcome to the Powerful Ladies podcast.
Nitya: Thanks for having me again, Kara.
Kara: We have powerful gentlemen a couple times a year on this podcast, and whenever I'm picking a guy to come and join us, it's because they have an experience or a skillset. That really just needs to be shared with this community because it's so valuable. And we share values because the powerful ladies values are certainly not gender specific.
You're really committed to helping people have breakthroughs in sales and hitting the goals that they need. And [00:02:00] I am shocked at how many people who have businesses, our consultants, our freelance, our running leadership teams in corporate spaces have never had sales training. So before we go any further, I'd love for you to share your name, where you are in the world, and how you would describe what you do.
Nitya: Sure. Thanks. I'm honored to be one of the few powerful, powerful ish gentlemen to be invited. I see the vast the, the quality of powerful ladies you have on your show. So truly an honor to be part of the community. My name is Nitya, run, a training company called YOSD Consulting We're based out of Long Beach, California.
Our specialty is sales and communication training and coaching. Within that, our real specialty or difference from other companies is our customized approach. And so we don't have a, [00:03:00] here's our training program. Do you wanna sign up? our clients range from partners at the world's largest private equity companies to technical founders at startups.
We have clients who are in sports, who are in healthcare, who are in biotech. Who are in concrete. So it's a broad range and it's not a one size fits all right? The basics of sales are very easy if you can Google them and they'll tell you that, how do you start behaving that way and starting to create those, those habits.
And when you, when you do it, you realize, A, it never ends. And B, it is truly, truly powerful if you can be a better communicator and influencer. Of people around you, and you can use it for evil or good. And if you use it for good, you feel pretty good about it.
Kara: Well, and we had a really great workshop, I believe it was last year. Usually every February I do a course about [00:04:00] your business love languages. There's the Love Languages book out there, and you can take the free quiz online of like what are your love languages so that you can figure out how to give and receive love to your family, your partner, et cetera.
And I've always seen a correlation between what our love languages are and how we best influence, sell, share convince people to, to do things. And we don't often, I think, talk about this. And you and I had met for coffee and we were kind of going about like, yeah, like we both understand that. Tapping into who we are as people and what we want to receive and what we want to give.
There's so much room there that we're not talking about to help with sales, help with that communication process. So many people that I work with are heart lit entrepreneurs, meaning that. They started their business because they were [00:05:00] helping people or were good at a thing, but they were never businessy people.
They dunno how to do operations necessarily. They dunno how to do sales. They haven't had leadership or communication training. And it's so interesting to me that the people who are heart led who have this like really aligned. Why struggle with sales? Because to me, that's often one of the easiest entry points into creating a sales pipeline.
So I guess maybe to start with this conversation for everyone listening is when someone hates sales and thinks it's like, ooh, car salesman type of thing, how do you reset them to talk about what sales actually is?
Nitya: Yeah. And, and, and for real quick background, I, I started my career as, as a chemical engineer developing pharmaceutical drug processes. The first time I had an option or opportunity to get into sales, it was. To use that to parlay into a marketing [00:06:00] role at that company and ended up really liking sales and, I dunno how many years?
20 something years later. Still, still in this field. The thing I think about most is, and this is kind of the underpinning of work we do with clients, but also the underpinning of of relationship is at the end of the day, you're trying to build trust.
Kara: Mm-hmm.
Nitya: Right, and you can never have too much trust. And so if you think about sales, there's this fear or resistance because there isn't that trust isn't the trust that you are.
You've got a great product or service that you can solve a problem that you understand the other person. So if you don't think about, let me sell them this thing versus let me build trust with this person. It changes the fear that non-sales people, seem to have around it. [00:07:00] The other thing I, I, sales is, is, is talking.
Right? And so everybody does that in their lives. Everyone is capable of doing that. And because of that we get put into sales roles without training You wouldn't say, let me go do a surgery without med school or without training, but hey, let's put people in. The sales role happens millions of times a year across companies where people have just never had good training and coaching.
But again, because it's, it's talking, we all have some level of competence around it. But when you, again, if, if you're not taught how to do a good surgery you're gonna have a fear of doing it, and you're gonna do a bad job, and so the, the fear of selling is because you, you've not been trained, you're not that great at it, and you've been, rejected, which we all don't like, and now you have a real fear of doing it some more.
[00:08:00] So I think, if you wanna eliminate the fear. Get good at it. And then again, the mindset of, I'm not selling, I'm trying to help
the other person. I'm not selling, I'm trying to build trust with this other person. The, the, the selling is the easy part. That part comes when you have trust.
Kara: I often will tell my clients that the only sales part in quotes of the transaction is telling them the price and then getting to getting their payment. Like the rest of it is all relationship building and clarifying what is going on. And so I think you hit on a couple key things in the, in that chair about do you know who you're actually selling to and do you know what problem you're solving?
And so many people can say what they do, but they can't talk about the problem that they're solving for people. And they can't do it in the vocabulary that the person who needs it would be using. Like [00:09:00] if, if I need a CPA, I'm, my thought is just like, I don't know how, or don't want to have to do my taxes.
That's it. If a CPA came to me and said, oh, I do blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, I'd be like, I have no idea what that is. I don't even know how that would help me. So if, if we go back to like helping people define customers and how they solve problems like. Where do you see people doing that incorrectly?
Maybe? Or where could they improve, like getting that effectively clarified?
Nitya: a question I get asked and, and it happened it happened last week. If, if I'm, if I end up in an Uber and do talk to the, to the driver. They'll say, can you, is there, is there one tip? Now this, this actually happened at a, at a birthday party for my kid's friend this Saturday. And I was talking to a guy who's an entrepreneur, does YouTube marketing agency of some sort.
And once he found out what I was [00:10:00] doing, he's like, well, would you mind? Like, could you gimme one, one tip? I'm like, happily. The best salespeople ask the best questions. And there's many layers and levels to asking great questions. It's the way you ask the questions.
It's the order you ask the questions in. It's the purpose you ask the questions for. It's the, the tone of voice. You ask the questions. It's whether you ask, six questions at a time or one question, and then wait, do you interrupt? Like there's so many levels to being really good at asking questions.
That's the. The biggest thing I see between the, the great and less, less good as it relates to, to selling. And, and part of the problem is everyone's very focused on telling how good they are or their products or service are versus understanding the other side.
Kara: I am gonna pause there for a second to give some realistic examples that are have happened recently for [00:11:00] clients, which I think will relate to everyone listening. I've had multiple clients have intro calls with who could be their clients, all different industries, and then they've had a call with me and said, okay, here's what we talked about.
What proposal should I send back to them? And I'm like, okay. Right away. I know to your point that you did not ask enough questions. If you don't know exactly what to go back and sell them. Like if, to your point of you are asking questions and like digging deeper and asking all the things. It should become really obvious what you have that can help someone or that you're not the right fit for them.
And so often I think where people get stuck is that they, even if they thought, they asked a lot of questions, Hey, we went through my whole questionnaire, we did all these things, we had this, you know, one hour into call with this potential client. If you can't write a proposal back to them in like five minutes after the call.
That [00:12:00] to me, that would be an indicator we didn't actually ask the right questions or enough. What? What advice would you give in that scenario?
Nitya: if I had a nickel for every time someone said we had a great meeting and the prospect didn't follow up, or I had a great meeting, but they're not, responding now I. Would be retired. I still do what I do, but everyone has these great meetings and they think of great meetings because they got through all their slides or they got their pitch across.
Or again, you, they asked the formulate questions that, that they had. That's not a great meeting. Right? A great meeting is trust was furthered. You understood their problems better they are open to hearing a solution from you. And if you're really good, they helped you build that solution in that meeting.
To your point at the end, like hopefully my, my best meetings at the end, it's like, well, okay, I'll, I'll, put this on a slide and [00:13:00] send this back to you. But it's basically, it's basically done. It's what we discussed, right? Maybe some numbers or some options get added, but it's never I never. Send a proposal until I have a conversation and I feel like I know what the, what the proposal is, I get requests like, Hey, can you send us? I'm like, no, we, we, I need to talk to you, and if you're not the right person, then maybe you need to talk to someone else also. Then we can build that proposal.
Otherwise, I, I diminish my value, my time, sending out proposals. Like I, I see people very quick to let's get the proposal out. Let's get the proposal out.
Kara: I think a lot of people also wanna rush the sales process, and it's understandable, right? So often we are in a. Place of scarcity, especially in different phases of our business, current in the current economic climate that we're having this conversation. There's a lot of scarcity conversations going on, [00:14:00] and we, you can't rush the relationship building, you can't rush the trust and there are techniques, right, to like put urgency into the sales process and to like make it move faster.
But it can't be, we can't skip those steps. We can't skip the conversation. We can't skip the relationship building. I also have a rule that I never send a proposal even after the intro call with numbers on it. That's the first time they've seen numbers or heard them, because inevitably, if you send out a one pager or a five page recap, PDF, your numbers are gonna be on the last page with your options.
People are gonna skip all the way down to slide five, look at the number and make a decision there, and. I want to present those proposals and numbers to the people in real time, on the phone, in person, because I need to be able to mitigate their response [00:15:00] because everyone has a money story and I don't want them to get stuck in a reaction to a number they see.
And then forget everything we talked about and the value and like what we're solving and. Uh, like I and I, and there's a bravery level because I know a lot of people get stuck here too. Our own money stories get in the way. Some, for some people, 10 grand is so much money for other people, 10 grand, they sneeze and they lost 10 grand and don't even care.
And so there's this whole spectrum that we have to look at. Are we in our own way and not being brave to talk about the number that we have to. And if we avoid that, that's hu a whole other reason why people are gonna be losing sales.
Nitya: Yeah, people have that fear of, of talking numbers to, to your point, the first time they, they see the numbers shouldn't be the first time they know what that, so I, I'll often ask about. A, a, a range they might have in [00:16:00] mind, or again, because we, we have programs that run a few weeks to programs that run a full year or more, and there's ways to a client can, impact what that number is.
How often do they want us there in person versus virtual and, various factors. So I'll, I'll try to give them a range or a ballpark and see if they say, yeah, no, no problem, send us all three options. Or they say, we were thinking about this range. And again, if it's so far off, we, we discuss where there before we go waste, waste anyone else's time. And then to your point we'll try to set up a call to present the. The proposal, especially when you talk about complex sales and its larger, larger deals, more, more stakeholders. Once you send it, you sometimes lose control and somebody else is now telling your story.
Internally, and they might not be able to tell it as well as you, as well as you can. So, you, you had brought up the point [00:17:00] about relationships and I think this was, this had sparked our conversation. A while back, and last year the workshop was around Valentine's Day and the like, there's so much, so much of sales success is also connected to relationship or, or dating success.
I mean, the analogies are, endless
Kara: I say it all the time. Business is dating all the time. It, and it, it's 'cause this relationship stuff is with employees, with vendors, with clients. And I always joke that in the five love languages, the only one that shouldn't apply in business is physical touch.
So if we remove that one the other four, it's quality time, acts of service gifts and words of affirmation, and even just listening for what might someone appreciate.
You know, I have a client who works with a lot of people in the wine industry. [00:18:00] The giving and receiving of wine is tends to be something that happens there or the, the giving and receiving of great meals. You know what it is often intuitively if you've been in the space for a while, but when you're able to pull it out and realize what's gonna show someone that you're listening to them, to your points, like everybody wants to be seen and understood and listened to, like that's the core of.
Human psychology, anthropology, all of the things. And we don't often spend time to make sure that first we, we actually get the person we're talking to, and then do they know that we've gotten them. When you start breaking it down, it becomes so simple, and yet we get all spun out about. I need this deal.
I need this money. I need them to be, yes. I really want this client just like dating. We get in our own way so often.
Nitya: but similar to it jokes, jokes aside, [00:19:00] whether we're talking dating, relationships. For, or sales EQ is such an important piece of it.
And when you, look at the kind of EQ model, right? It starts with knowing yourself, right? It takes people a while to get true to who they are and what they like, and as sales people also to understand your strengths and weaknesses as a salesperson, as a client, facer. Not everyone can do everything.
So knowing yourself is the first step. A lot of people don't get to that step. And then the next step is, is being attuned and knowing others. And it's good for you to know how you sell and your product, but it's about the other side and understanding them.
Kara: It, it goes back to as well, when we are having an introductory conversation or series of conversations with a potential client, we're supposed to be [00:20:00] evaluating them if they're a right fit for us and. Those of us, like myself, who are lucky enough to choose who we say yes to or no, we get to be really authentic and I tell people similar to when I'm interviewing for employees , like how do you try to scare people away before, like don't offer them anything, scare them away. Like, I don't know, certain business is too hard. I don't know if you're ready to do it. Can you do all the work like pushing people away is a really interesting technique sometimes of getting them to want whatever you're selling more
but it has to come from like a real place of like, no, no, if you, I'm doing this now to see if you're actually ready for the work that we're getting it into. 'cause the work that you and I do with clients is not, it's not easy because we're sometimes retraining people's habits. It, there's like psychology breakdowns, the EQ breakdowns, like there's a lot of bad habits that need to be identified and changed [00:21:00] before they can access the next level.
Nitya: Yeah.
Kara: And, and so often we're just playing a game to win and there isn't the authenticity in the let's just win this call space. Getting people to say yes is actually not the hard part. It is getting the right people to say yes, that you can actually make a difference for who will actually pay you what you're worth.
Nitya: A hundred percent agree, and we're, we're blessed to be in positions of, experience and track record and earning the right to be able to, to do that. I, I do have empathy. If you are, a startup or newer in that space, you, you need to close, you need to get revenue and keep things going, but it's an important thing to keep in mind. Sooner rather than, than too late to, keep paying attention to which clients, which projects brought in more success, brought in more joy, were ones you enjoy [00:22:00] doing more, find more of those. Sometimes you'll realize I like working with larger companies, like, I like the way they, they operate and work.
Sometimes you'll find. That's not the case. Sometimes it's certain, industries have, have different cultures, so you people fit in with certain types of cultures and that's important to put yourselves in that situation as as well. A lot of my clients a fair amount are
in the asset management, investment management space, so, very white collar and, were sales trainers, like we bring some fun, but I've also trained at Google and tech companies where at least when money's flowing, like their idea of fun is, is a little different.
Like I know myself and like the level of cheese that I'm comfortable reaching and I just know, like culturally, some organizations are, they value [00:23:00] more cheese than I can bring. So I'll send one of my teammates who's a better fit for that situation. 'cause again, if I force myself to do it, it's inauthentic and doesn't come across in in that way.
So again, constantly trying to understand where it's the best fit. But in the beginning, you take clients, you try to do good work, you build testimonials and, and, and go from there.
Kara: It goes back to that first step, right? The knowing yourself. With the backend, I have. I prefer casual direct environments. Like me in a room full of people with suits feels very like I feel like I am potentially in trouble when it's at that environment. Can I do it? Have I done it? Sure. But would I much rather hang out with people who are not wearing suits, usually to the office, who are willing to, like, I don't like doing political talk.
I don't wanna play those games. I'm like, no, we're going to real talk. Be direct in, out, let's fix [00:24:00] things. Otherwise, why am I here? And it's so interesting to me when I have a client that either brings in a third party who's used to that and type of working relationship. The second it shows up, my whole body reacts where it's like, oh, I have, I have to go put on this fake professional persona and I hate it.
Because it, it's just, it's the, the inauthenticity part starts showing up. You know, I think the other part of where people get stuck with sales is it goes back to that knowing what problem they're solving and how to articulate this. I always recommend the book by Donald Miller story brand.
Nitya: Mm-hmm.
Kara: you have a book Winning Virtually. In the StoryBrand book, it talks about making sure that you're always making your potential client the hero. And we can't do that when we're talking about ourselves too much, and we can't do [00:25:00] that when we don't know what we actually can solve for them. You and I both know that most people can fix a lot of issues.
And we get really stuck on like having to pick our niche sometimes or like our zinger of like, here's what I do. 'cause you're like, no, we're way more multifaceted than that. When people are trying to clarify what the problem is that they help people with, how would you recommend they maybe clean it up? Because I'm sure people know a little bit like, oh, I do social media, and you're like, mm, that's what you do. That's not the problem. Um.
Nitya: Yeah, it's a good point. That's why Donald Miller has a big business around helping people clarify this. It's not as easy as it might sound. I, I think um, on one side, people get very generic, right? Too broad. And that doesn't tell, me anything. And on the other side, there's a lot of jargon and when people start using ChatGPT, I see it when I get someone's chatGPT response. It's very thorough and it [00:26:00] covers the points, but I'm like, what, what is this? Like, what is this saying? People don't buy what they don't understand. They'll nod their heads, then they'll like, all right, great, and they'll move on, but they're never gonna actually be interested in, in buying.
And we just continuously focus on simplifying messages no matter how complex. Your products, your service, your 17 step plan is like, how do you make it easier for someone to understand? And if they understand it and it's a good fit for them, great. If they understand it and it's not a good fit for them, also great because then you can go find someone else who it is a good fit for.
I try to get to the the human piece of what is the problem you're actually solving? Tell it to me. Maybe I'm not that bright, so tell it to me like I'm a 5-year-old and then go from, build up from there. But overall, we do a lot of work with helping smart people, and I wrote a blog about this maybe last month or the month before, is when we start off in our [00:27:00] careers, we, we use simpler language because we don't know everything, and we don't know all the jargon. And then as we get more experience, we start using more complex terms and complexity. But if you look at, the people who, who really at the, the pinnacle and have been doing things well, they get back to simple. Like they get it. I don't have to prove how smart I am. I need to help people understand , what I'm saying. If you know that, then. Shorten that uh, phase.
Kara: I think this also really applies to what communication seller you're using. When I have to present to the more traditional corporate environments, it's shocking to me. They're like, I'll give this simple presentation and then they'll question me. And if I know the complex terminology. And I'm like, yes. I just didn't put the silly big words in this presentation because why? Why are we talking in this consultant talk that no one actually [00:28:00] uses outside of this meeting room? And to me it's always, that's an indicator to me that someone's probably not an aligned fit for me. Same thing, like if somebody ever asked me what my degree is in, I'm like, well, you can go on LinkedIn and look at it, but like, who cares what degree I have like.
Maybe it matters a little bit because it is aligned to being in a business consultant and my degree has no impact on results I've produced for anyone. So it's so funny how these things start to show up again, that, that eq EQ piece. And I think there's a fine line where people, based on who you're talking to, like how much of that jargon makes sense or doesn't make sense.
'cause there are some for a simple term, snobby people out there who are managing budgets who only wanna give their budgets to people who know all the jargon and throw all the stupid words into the presentation. And then there's the people who actually need the help and don't know what you do and just want you to tell [00:29:00] them, I'm gonna solve your problem and here's the results you'll get in the end.
So I think it's an interesting world to be in of i'm always simple, simple, simple.
Nitya: Right.
Kara: And then I get caught off guard when there's people who are demanding the silly kind of fancy close for how we would describe it.
Nitya: the tactic in those situations is to somehow talk to their boss who's probably gonna want fact to simple, right? Like, what, what, why are we here? What are we gonna, what are we doing? So kind of make sure you know who's in the room and are you talking to people who get it, or, they're trying to protect their, their decision making or, it's like they say you don't get fired for hiring IBM or like, oh yeah, we looked at their 28 page deck and they know all the jargon, so we chose them versus, senior folks are generally, this is the problem we have. Can you help us? And if they feel like you can help them, [00:30:00] then. They make things happen.
Kara: Well, and so to recap so far, 'cause we've covered a lot of different things, it's knowing who you are and what, how you sell and what you're comfortable with. It's knowing who you actually need to talk to because who you get an appointment with may not be either a decision maker or know the problem or even be the right person to ask all the questions to.
Make sure you're asking a ton of questions so that you have no doubts when you leave that meeting. How you can help them and what they need. Working on your money story is probably a whole other bigger conversation that we can bring a psychologist in for. But in general, say the number and being brave, right?
Making sure that we present the proposal and the numbers to people so we can talk them through it versus them getting stuck. Have I missed anything? It's so automatic, I think, for you and I to be like, yeah, and this, this, this, and this, but I wanna make sure we're not skipping the juicy baby steps for people who are maybe hearing this stuff for the first [00:31:00] time.
Nitya: Yeah. As it relates to sales so I, I wrote the book, five and a half years ago, that was when COVID happened, and suddenly people had to change their effectiveness of going in person and selling onto Zoom in the virtual world. So that was the problem that I saw and was helping clients with. And then COVID kept going. So we said, let's, put this in a book for others to hear from. But so much around being able to sell successfully is having a consistent, so we, we, we talked about these things, right?
How do you ask good questions? How do you say your things simply, but it's to have consistency in your process. Because I'll have a client say, yeah, I had a meeting with this person. And it went really well. They were really friendly. Well, I had another meeting and they didn't even wanna open up.
They just wanted to hear our pitch. And you're going to get different people, but you shouldn't give yourself a big pat on the [00:32:00] back for selling to the friendly person that wanted to buy, right? Like anyone can do that. You have a higher chance of that two-way meeting where both people are learning and understanding.
So, I think figuring out processes is something we get really focused on with clients and it's not about scripts, but it's about like a framework to how you wanna run a good meeting. Consistently.
Kara: so I hear the consistency. What's your system for selling? And then I also hear like, do you have tools to convert the suspicious or the hesitant person as well too? 'cause I, I think that those are. Probably two different things to have, like you can have a consistent system and maybe have a 25% conversion rate, but then if you have that next level where you're like, here's our system and here's how we can sell to [00:33:00] the the hard person. I like, to me that's like the next level Jedi skill that like so many people are trying to get to and how do people, like if people are in that situation with like my conversion rate's 25% with who I talk to, I need to get it to at least 50, I want it to be 75. How do I start addressing those people who feel like a no to me? Is it a me first thing and then I can deal with them?
Nitya: like when you say this is a harder situation to convert or a harder prospect to convert, it's harder because they're evaluating a couple of potential providers. And in that case, my mind says they, they are going to have to make a decision.
They wanna make a decision. I want to win this unless I don't want to win it. But if I, I do wanna win it. I really do wanna win it. So let's, let's put our efforts there. Sometimes you have these conversations and [00:34:00] it. Clear that they're not completely sold themselves on, on doing anything, right? So how, how hard do I wanna fight to, to change their inertia? And now again, if you are in a position where you are on a quota and you have to sell as much, it's different. You're trying to sell to everyone that comes in. I'm blessed to be able to understand, okay, this is a real prospect, but they're not in the right time or place for this to happen. And if I try to get this done right now, it's not going to be pleasant for them or me. And if they, get forced in, then the door could close forever. But as long as I know it's okay to say I'll come back, we'll come check back in six months and see how. Things are going. So it comes back to the quality of your understanding them.,
How big is their pain? And if all their pains in that moment, is this a top two or [00:35:00] three pain? If it's not, don't bother. Like people can only focus on a couple of priorities at at one time if you're not solving their number one or number two.
Pain at the moment, wait until you are, what you're solving rises up on their pain level.
But it comes from understanding that I used to have a conversation and they seem interested and they have a real need and get eager with my proposals after that. Now I ask what is the timeframe you're thinking about? And someone will say, we've got an offsite in April. We'd really like to get something done by then.
And now I know this is, this is real and needs to move quickly. And if they say, we're just starting to have conversations and explore what the options are. I still know this is , a prospect. But no need to rush because , they're not there yet. They're not ready yet. When you think about conversion, there's convert, [00:36:00] now there's convert later, there's convert. Never.
It's not just a one, yes or no, but people end up getting stuck with like too many maybes, right? The maybes are good if you're in like, control of it.
Like, I know. This is not really gonna close now. I will let them know. I'll check back in six months. They've got my email. If, if they wanna move this quicker, they'll, they'll reach out and they will. But I'm in control of the longer sales cycle now, like it's back in, it's back in my court, but
I don't have to worry about it for the next five months.
Kara: Well, and that brings up two things I think are really important. One is being committed to helping potential clients and not being attached. To who shows up because sometimes we'll get, we will, we'll enjoy the conversation. We'll like them, we'll be like, yes, this is a great fit for me. And then we get attached and then we like chase this client around and waste so much time when we could be out [00:37:00] finding someone else who's ready now.
And the second thing that it brought up for me was so often we are not asking ourselves the, we're not asking the brave question. Is this a priority for you now? What else are major issues for your company right now? Where does this rank? So I know like, is this top five, is this a wishlist item? And again, this goes back to the dating thing, like, we're so afraid to ask, like, do you want kids?
Do you wanna be married someday? Like I, I would encourage people to do everything you shouldn't on a first date, because I'm like. If, we gotta just get these things outta the way sometimes. But, and I think that's what we, we're not being brave and we're not using the expertise that we have Usually we know someone's not ready either for what we can give them, they're not ready time-wise. They seem to be a hot mess. Often I will get referrals from marketing agencies 'cause people will call them and say. I need a social media plan. [00:38:00] And they're like, uh, no. You need an entire business plan. Like you have no idea what you're doing. And so being able to put people where they're supposed to be, like being the expert they need before they've hired you, I think is a, is a space that we don't take up very often.
Like you have to start servicing the client before they agree to sign up. And once you accept that, you're kind of the guru they're coming to and you have that authority. One, I think it gives people confidence in you and what you're doing without having to use the big silly corporate speak. And then also I think it, it puts you back to your point in that position of power of.
Do I want this client? Are they ready for me? Are they ready to go? Now? How much of my time should I be giving them? Because so many, often I have clients who are chasing people. I'm like, wait, how many hours have you given [00:39:00] this person who hasn't paid you yet? You've visited them, you've given them like 10, 15 hours of your time and they haven't given you a dollar.
I'm like, stop immediately. I think we've covered so much today. And so if somebody is in a space where they are uncomfortable with sales, they want to get better with it, they like what you're saying, where can they like find, follow, get your book? Where can they do all those things to get in touch with you and learn from you?
Nitya: Yes, so I'm reasonably active on LinkedIn, so that'd be one place uh, to find and see some more posts and content, if anyone's interested. The book is called Winning Virtually 10 Tiny Habits for Big Virtual Selling Success. You can, I think you can look me up on Amazon and the book will pop up there.
Or reach out, just reach out directly if I can be, if I can be helpful.
Kara: as we're kind of closing out today, what are things that you're looking at for your business? What are areas [00:40:00] where you're looking for education resources? What is on your wishlist to kind of take on this year?
Nitya: we're building an AI coaching supplement. So, AI is enabling some great things. So like the platform we're building, it's, hopefully launching fairly soon, it's gonna be only for our clients. Again, I'm not trying to replace myself, but trying to give them additional value and resources.
Just using technology to be silly, not to leverage what's out there. So it's not gonna be available for the masses or people to just sign up. It's just purely for our clients on stuff we've done with them. So that's been one of my big focuses for Q1 and going into Q2.
And then I've been thinking about another book and then, I dunno, just always trying to do great work for our clients, get more great clients yeah, that, try to stay healthy.
I guess. Balance, as balance is [00:41:00] hard.
Kara: Yes. Balance is hard.
Nitya: you can do everything in your control, but when you're also taking care of others,
Kara: Mm-hmm.
Nitya: less, less control. So. Just trying to find that balance.
Kara: Well, I think my last question for you today is there was a lot of industry disruptions in the past 12 months, and for the first time for. Many industries and many businesses. 2025 was the first year that their conversion rates changed, how they sold started to change. So I'm curious, as we are, , recording this in mid-February of 26, are there trends that you're seeing and are you feeling pessimistic or optimistic for the ease of sales in 2026?
Nitya: We work with 15 clients in a, in a given year, plus or minus. There, certainly trying to be aware of trends [00:42:00] and what's going on as it relates to selling. I mean, the, the problem is every week you can go find the latest and greatest tool and there's a lot of, distractions and people don't stay focused because they're trying to find the tools versus just do the job. And stay focused. So I think the best try to find ways to incorporate what's available and what's out there, but not let it distract them. There's also, I think a real clear appetite for human connection and human contact. I've even read about, teenagers and like young people like getting off the. The cycle of being addicted to their phones. And, I think we've figured out , the negatives around that addiction. The clients have a greater appetite for
in-person stuff again. And so I think in selling depends on what you're selling [00:43:00] and, price points and things like that. But if you can go meet clients in person, you can go meet people in person. It makes a big, big difference.
Kara: Yep. And, and I will reiterate, I agree with you that no matter what's happening in the world, there's always a way to. Hit your goals because it's true. Most businesses don't need thousands of yeses. And so, being focused on how many you actually need, and sure, it might take, depending on the year, might take more effort to find that, that 20 or 50 that you need or 10 than it, than it did other years.
But every time that. Either I am feeling a stuck moment in my business or clients are, it always comes back to just as you said, are we doing the work we know to do? Are we working the sales pipeline in the simplest, most rudimentary way? If we're not [00:44:00] leaving the house in networking, we're not gonna be putting people in the pipeline.
If we're not, activating digital marketing, if that's what we've used, it's not gonna happen. If we're not taking, making room to take calls, it's not gonna happen. So. It really, as much as technology is giving us access to more and more things, we don't, usually need it to get the job done.
And I really hate that people are like thinking it's a, an app is going to save their business when they probably just need like a five step plan that someone like you. Can help them craft to be like, it's this and then that and then that, and then you're done. And like just repeat it. Like, I think we get bored with our businesses.
We get bored with our marketing and we wanna change things up, or we want this secret hack of like, Ooh, I wanna make all this money when I'm sleeping. And it's like the only way you make money when you're sleeping is when you've [00:45:00] spent a lot of money to make everything else function on its own.
So. I'm glad you said that. It's a great reminder to everybody to come back to what I call their lemonade stand. How do we keep it simple? Do what we know to do. So thank you as always for bringing your sensible, wise wisdom back to us in this world of sales where we can get really spun out so easily.
Nitya: Thanks for having me. Always, always so much fun.
Kara: Thank you so much.
Kara: Thanks for listening to The Powerful Ladies Podcast. If you enjoyed this conversation, please subscribe. Leave us a review or share it with a friend. Head to the powerful ladies.com. We can find all the links to connect with today's guest show notes, discover like episodes, enjoy bonus content and more.
We'll be back next week with a brand new episode and new amazing guest. Make sure you're following us on Instagram or substack at powerful ladies to get the first preview of next week's episode. You can [00:46:00] find me and all my socials@karaduffy.com. Until then, I hope you're taking on being powerful in your life.
Go be awesome and up to something you love.
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Website: www.yosdconsulting.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nityakirat/
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@tinysaleshabits
Email: nitya@yosdconsulting.com
Created and hosted by Kara Duffy
Audio Engineering & Editing by Jordan Duffy
Production by Jordan Duffy
Graphic design by Jordan Duffy
Music by Joakim Karud
