I've never been someone who enjoys sales meetings or calls.

They're vital, of course, so I learned how to do them pretty well. And my results were decent.

Like most people, I used a variation of asking my potential clients questions about their main challenges and exploring what the impact of those challenges was. Then I would lay out a roadmap for them which largely consisted of the problems they just told me converted into steps in a plan to solve them.

That's pretty standard in the world of coaching. Sometimes it's labelled as a strategy session. Sometimes a free initial consultation. But the essence remains the same: ask them about their problems and turn those problems into a roadmap to solve them.

And it worked. Or at least it sort of did.

I found that it was rarely all that effective with more sophisticated clients. Ones who, I assume, could pretty easily list their problems and flip them into a roadmap themselves.

And over time, it seemed to get less and less effective with most people. I suppose it was a reflection of the technique being more commonplace and often overused. Once you've had 2 or 3 coaches ask you about your problems and flip them into a roadmap you tend to be less impressed the next time someone does it.

And, of course, one of the golden rules of this type of approach is that you mustn't try to solve the client's problems in the session itself. Solving the problem is part of what they pay for to implement the roadmap.

Eventually, I started breaking that golden rule.

I couldn't help myself. I had a bunch of ideas that I thought could help, so I shared them.

Gently, of course. I didn't claim I knew the answer. I just shared a few things that had worked with other clients in similar situations I'd seen.

And you know what? It worked.

Despite the dire warnings about “giving away the store” in a sales meeting, what I found was that it gave my potential client confidence that I had new ideas they'd not tried before and that I knew how to get results for them.

I reckon the reason it worked is simply due to increasing market sophistication.

The first time you tell a coach your problems and they tell you confidently that they can help you and give you a simple plan for how they're going to do it; you believe them.

After you've been through that process a few times and not got results, you need to see a little more proof.

You need the person in front of you to show genuine insight into your issue. You need them to show you a few new ideas you've not seen and tried before.

So when I did so, I converted more meetings into clients as a result.

Perhaps more importantly, even when they didn't become clients, I genuinely helped them.

For me, being able to help people in sales meetings means I feel good about them. And that means I'm less likely to put them off or avoid them, and more likely to bring my best into each meeting.

A win for me and a win for the people I'm meeting with.

Maybe trying to give more value in sales meetings will make them work better for you too.