The 15-Minute Sales Call That Saves Hours and Closes Clients

Most coaches and consultants believe that the more time they spend with a prospect, the more likely that person is to buy.

It feels logical. If I give more value, build more rapport, and demonstrate how knowledgeable I am, they will feel confident choosing me.

That assumption quietly kills conversions.

When I first started my business, I believed this myth completely. I would offer long complimentary sessions. Sometimes they lasted an hour. Sometimes two. Occasionally even longer. I thought generosity would create commitment.

Instead, it created confusion.

The more I talked, the less clear the path forward became. I was trying to prove myself rather than diagnose the real issue. And in doing so, I was diluting my credibility.

Here is the truth: people do not buy because you are impressive. They buy because they have a problem and believe you can help solve it.

The faster you demonstrate that understanding, the faster they move forward.

The Problem With Long Discovery Calls

Long calls feel generous, but they introduce three major risks.

First, they lower perceived value. When you give away deep coaching for free, you blur the line between complimentary conversation and paid engagement.

Second, they reduce urgency. If the call feels casual or exploratory, there is no clear next step.

Third, they waste time. Not just yours, but theirs.

Busy professionals do not want to spend 90 minutes “getting to know” someone unless there is a clear outcome attached to that time.

What they want is clarity.

Clarity around their most painful challenge. Clarity around what is blocking progress. Clarity around what to do next.

That clarity does not require an hour.

It requires structure.

The Two-Step Sales Process

The most effective structure I have found is a simple two-step process.

Step one is a short diagnostic call. Fifteen minutes.

The sole purpose of this call is to identify the problem of appropriate magnitude. That is the challenge that is painful enough, urgent enough, and important enough to warrant real action.

You are not there to impress. You are not there to unpack their entire life story. You are there to understand three things:

What they want.
Why it matters now.
What is currently blocking progress.

When you listen carefully and ask precise questions, you can identify whether you are qualified to help and whether the issue is significant enough to justify deeper work.

If the answer is yes, you move to step two.

Step two is the longer diagnostic or consultation call. This is where you walk them through your process, recommend specific steps, and determine together whether enrolling in your program or service is the right move.

By separating these steps, you create focus.

The first call diagnoses.
The second call prescribes.

Why Fifteen Minutes Works

A fifteen-minute call lowers resistance.

It is easier to book within 24 to 72 hours. Shorter commitments increase show-up rates. The stakes feel manageable. Prospects are less likely to cancel when the time investment is small.

It also forces you to be succinct.

When you know you have fifteen minutes, you cannot ramble. You cannot drift into tangents. You must ask high-quality questions and stay centered on the most important issue.

That focus builds credibility.

Confidence is communicated through clarity. When you can quickly summarize their goal, their urgency, and their primary obstacle, the prospect feels understood.

And people move forward when they feel understood.

What Actually Closes the Sale

Many coaches believe they need to build deep rapport before making an offer. They assume that relationship equals revenue.

In reality, resolution equals revenue.

Prospects are not evaluating your certifications in that moment. They are not deciding based on how many hours you have spent together. They are deciding whether working with you will save time, save money, or improve quality of results.

They are solving a problem.

The better you are at articulating that problem and mapping the path to a solution, the easier the decision becomes.

This does not eliminate relationship. It strengthens it. When a prospect experiences you as organized, decisive, and focused, trust increases.

Trust does not require length. It requires competence.

Protecting Your Time While Increasing Conversions

As your business grows, your time becomes your most valuable asset. If you are spending one to two hours with every curious prospect, your calendar fills quickly without guaranteed return.

A short diagnostic call protects your energy. It allows you to filter for seriousness, urgency, and alignment before committing deeper time.

It also positions you as a professional with a process.

Professionals have structure.

They do not improvise their way through sales conversations. They guide them.

When you guide a conversation with intention, you create momentum. When you create momentum, you create movement toward a decision.

And decisions are what grow businesses.

The Shift That Changes Everything

The shift is simple but powerful.

Stop trying to prove how smart you are.

Start demonstrating how well you understand the problem.

When you focus on the problem of appropriate magnitude and communicate clearly within a structured timeframe, prospects feel seen. They feel confident. They feel safe moving forward.

The result is fewer wasted hours and more qualified clients.

Sales does not have to feel long, awkward, or uncertain.

With the right structure, fifteen minutes is enough to create clarity.

And clarity is what closes.

Chapter List:

00:00 Introduction: The Myth of Long Sales Calls

01:07 The Problem with Lengthy Free Sessions

02:05 Understanding Why People Buy: Solving Problems

02:58 The Two-Step Sales Process Overview

03:55 Why Use a 15-Minute Call? Benefits & Timing

05:16 Defining the Problem of Appropriate Magnitude

06:12 Pre-Call Preparation & Reminders

08:49 Setting the Frame & Expectations

10:15 Confirming Goals & Motivations

11:56 Pinpointing the Biggest Obstacle

14:01 Prescribing the First Action Step

16:15 Wrapping Up & Next Steps

Full Transcript:

Amanda Kaufman (00:00)

How much time are you spending with your prospects before they say yes? Is it 45 minutes? Is it an hour? Two hours? Three hours? In this video, I'm going to show you a 15 minute call that's going to save you hours and hours and hours and of work downstream. My name is Amanda Kaufman. I'm a business mentor to coaches who are building their businesses. And I work with entrepreneurs as a high performance coach myself.

And one of the big myths that is out there in the business land is that the more time I spend with somebody upfront, the more available I am upfront, the more likely they are to buy from me. I used to believe this too. When I first started my business, I didn't have a huge list. In fact, I started with eight names on a post-it and I was so nervous that I wouldn't meet enough people who would want coaching from someone like me.

And hey, everybody starts there. Everybody's nervous. Everybody has their doubts about whether they're going to be well received. And the truth is, is that people do need to spend some time with you before they're going to be ready to move to the next stage and next step.

What I didn't know, what I didn't realize is that my neediness to convince people that I was a good choice as a coach that was landing me in these hour long, two hour long, three hour long complimentary coaching sessions was costing me a lot of credibility because I wasn't being clear, I wasn't being succinct, and I, probably the worst part of it is I wasn't hyper laser focused.

on what I call the problem of appropriate magnitude that my prospect was bringing to the call. You see, people don't buy because they think you're really smart or they are impressed by your certifications or credentials or your network or your associations. They purchase because they have a challenge and they believe that enrolling with a program or service is going to save them time. It's going to save them money. It's going to improve the quality of what it is that they're doing.

That's it. They're literally solving a problem. So if your sales process is really kind of hinging on, Hey, we've got to spend 80 hours together so that we can be best friends. And then I'm going to pop the question one day and you're magically going to pay me. Right? Like that's not, that's not how it actually works. Right? The better you are at demonstrating that you understand someone's situation and communicating that quickly and clearly.

the more likely they are to want to continue to engage the process. So I'm a big fan of a two-step sales process. The way the two-step works is you meet somebody. You might meet them online, you might meet them in a networking event, you might meet them in a mastermind. You can meet them because they were referred by somebody else. There's lots of ways to meet people. Not the subject of this video, I'm just saying that there's a lot of people out there to go out and meet, all right?

The two step is basically having a 15 minute quick diagnostic call where your whole goal is to help the person in front of you with the most painful challenge that they are facing that you are qualified to help with. That's it. Now, assuming that goes well, you can make an invitation at the end of that call to a longer session. Some people call this a discovery call, complimentary session, consult, however you'd like to call that longer call.

The longer call is to walk through the sales process to make sure that the person is stepping into something that's really genuinely gonna help them and you're excited to serve them. So let's talk about this 15 minute call. Why do it? Most entrepreneurs are insanely busy. Like they have so much on their plate, they can never get everything done. And what can happen if you're not very intentional about this is you can wind up giving people an hour.

hour and a half and they can also be booking on your calendar two weeks ago. And here's what happens when it's a really big commitment and you are in a very new relationship together, the likelihood of them canceling on you goes way up by having a shorter 15 minute call. The stakes feel a lot lower to the person and they're more likely to show up if it's a shorter call.

The second thing is if it's a shorter call, you can very likely get it booked within 72 hours, which is what I target. If I can talk to the person the next day, all the better. If we're not available and we need to push it out by a couple of days, fine. But what I never, never, never, never do is I don't book people two weeks out. Why? Because by the time we get to two weeks from now, they're gonna have so much life that's shown up and they're not thinking about their calendar day to day.

So when they show up to that day, their likelihood of counseling on you again goes way up because the recency of your relationship is super low. Okay, so we do this 15 minute call and what is the goal? The goal is to identify what I call the problem of appropriate magnitude. The problem of appropriate magnitude is the challenge or the issue or the pain point that's big enough, challenging enough, important enough, urgent enough that they're going to want

a solution, they're gonna want help. And so if we can identify that problem of appropriate magnitude, it makes the reason why we're having the second call, the consult, the complimentary session, however you like to name it, the reason for it is going to be obvious, right? So how do we do this 15 minute call? That is a great question, I'm excited to show you. So this call is, let me just pull this up for us.

Okie dokie. Did we work? There we go. We got it. So this I call behind the scenes a triage call. Now I don't call it a triage call to the person who's joining me for the call because that doesn't feel very good. Right. What I typically will call it is like a coffee chat or a strategy session. But behind the scenes what I am doing is I'm trying to figure out and uncover what is that problem of appropriate magnitude. This call.

takes 15 minutes. When you do it well and you show up with confidence, it takes 15 minutes. Now when you're very first starting, I would suggest you book a 15 minute call, but then you block a 15 minute buffer afterwards, just in case you need a couple extra minutes. So some people like to do this in 20 minutes, some people can do this in 10 minutes. It really depends on your personality and style and also your avatar and how you like to approach the conversation. So it's 15 minutes in general.

So this is for standard value give call that also pre-qualifies a lead for that deeper diagnostic call. So you can click through all the things. I'm gonna just show you what it is. Before the call comes, one of the best things you can do is pre-confirm the call. So if you have the appointment way far in the future,

We recommend using something like Go High Level and having a reminder sequence that's a little beyond the usual. And the reason why is because people are conditioned to skip past all of those reminders. I also like to send just a plain old manual email on the day and it has a script something like this. Subject, looking forward to chatting today. Hey, name, good morning.

I'm just looking over the calendar for the day and I'm looking forward to our call today at time. And I'd like to give the leads time zone if I know it. Wanted to send a quick note to confirm the time. I will plan to call you at your number. I'll be calling from my number. Chat soon, your name. I also like to send a text and if you can, make the text very close to the email.

And then I like to include something like an emoji or a GIF. And if you have the contact over Messenger or DM, you can always reach out to them through there. So all of this is to make sure that people are remembering the call and they're gonna show up and they're prepared to have that conversation. So it opens with the greeting. Hello, is this name? They say yes. You say great, this is my name from business name.

Is now still a good time for our 15 minute call? This is really subtle, but by saying like, is now a good time for our 15 minute call, you're setting the expectation way up front that you're not gonna spend an hour together, okay? And so they're gonna confirm that, and then I say, awesome, where am I calling today? If you don't already know. And so they'll tell you where it is, make a nice comment about that location, and then right away,

jump right in to setting the frame. So, my script, and you can always modify this, but the goal of the frame is to set up the expectation for the call for everybody who's on the call. So, the prospect could turn around and say, like, that's not what I wanna talk about, I don't wanna focus on that, I don't wanna spend 15 minutes, whatever. You want them to tell you that way up at the front of the call, as opposed to winging it and hoping for the best. Using the frame,

they can agree to the frame and I gotta tell you 99 % of people, they're gonna hear you say, well, we have a really quick call here so I thought we could start out with what you can expect out of our chat today. How's that sound to you? 99 % of people are gonna be like, that sounds great. So then you share, awesome. Well, in this call, I wanna get to know you a little better, especially what you're currently working on in your business. My whole goal today is to see what one thing would move the needle the fastest.

So to make sure I'm not telling you something you already know, I'll ask you a couple of questions to get a sense of what you've already got that's working. And by the end, we'll see what would work best for you from here. And if I have any resources that can help, I'll send them over after the call. How's that sound to you? So you're setting up the expectation for what the call is, and it actually helps the person relax. Okay, so the next thing is we're gonna confirm the agenda. This is the order of the call.

So to get, sorry, the agenda's not the order of the call. The agenda is what is their motive for being in the call with you. What's their motive for getting the problem of appropriate magnitude solved? So to get started, what's motivated you to wanna have this quick call today? What's the number one thing you wanna make sure we focus on in our time together? And most people don't have a lot of clarity about this. So just be patient and...

If you have to ask a couple of clarifying questions, go ahead and do that. Your goal is to be able to say something like, okay, name, so you want to focus on goal, right? And then they confirm, awesome. And why is this goal important to you to solve right now? And you want to get a real reason. What some people will do when they're really nervous about speaking to an expert is they'll say something like, I guess I was just curious, or I guess,

I guess I wanted to hear what you had to say. I guess I just, you know, wanted to find out a little bit more. It's like, cool, ask a couple of questions to clarify, to get to a real reason that is theirs alone. And then I like to ask, okay, that makes sense. Now, why talk to me about it? Was there something I said at the networking event that sparked your interest?

or maybe this is a follow-up after a webinar, like was there something I said in the webinar that sparked your interest? You want them to give a reason that they wanna talk to you. And this is really important to building rapport and trust because if they're saying out loud what it is they like about you, then they're hearing for themselves, like I'm in control here, I'm deciding what I wanna do, and it really helps with the consent in the call. I think that's a really good thing.

Okay, so I'm hearing you want to focus on goal because of the reason it's important and you're focusing on it now because of the reason for urgency. Am I getting this right so far? So they say yes and you say great. So to solve this, what have you already tried? And again, this is where people start kind of getting a little, little stuck because...

They might have some guilt because they are feeling like they should be doing more than they have done. They might be feeling some shame because maybe they tried something and it didn't totally work the way that they wanted to. So you want to have empathy. You want to listen. And if you're finding that they're kind of going off the rails a little bit here because they're just listening like everything they ever did, then you can help them constrain it and say like, what are the top three things that you've focused on so far?

or what are the main things that you've been focused on in the last 90 days so that you can get through this point in the call and honor the time that you actually have together. Now, I like to be really positive here. Good for you. A lot of people just sit stuck with these kinds of issues, so it's awesome that you're taking action right now. So we really want to affirm that in the person that you're talking to because they're more likely...

to want to take additional steps if you're confirming for them that like, hey, you're on track, you know, this is great. So then I might say something like, okay, let's dig a little deeper into what's going on. And we call this part of the call pinpointing the pain point. What do you see so far as being the biggest obstacle to the goal given you've already tried and list a couple of the efforts? And they're either going to give you a specific issue or they're going to tell you that, don't know.

I don't know what's going on. It should've worked by now. And so in this section, you're probably gonna need to ask two to three probing questions to really truly diagnose the issue. Now, the most valuable part of this call from their perspective is when you prescribe a first step fix. Now, the way this structure has flowed, it's meant that you've already covered what they're wanting to do, their goal, what they've already tried.

the biggest obstacle that they have. So now you have a lot of clarity as the practitioner to be able to prescribe a first step fix. Okay, Nane, so I think I have a pretty good picture of what you've tried so far and I have a recommendation for an actionable next step. Is it okay if I share that with you now? And they're like, yes, please, because they've just spilled their guts about what their main pain point is. They're gonna wanna hear from you. Based on our conversation today, I recommend...

What do you recommend? Right? You're listening. This is, you know, I can't script everything. You've got to actually like listen to what the challenge is and give them one thing that they can action without your help. Okay. It seems to me that, so I recommend you do what? Because it seems to me that, and why are you making that recommendation? And then just check, does this make sense? And if they argue, then it means it does not make sense. And so you give it another crack. So

Our goal is to serve and to solve one thing, and then we're going to show them that there's more to solve after this one thing, okay? So, to get started with that, I suggest you first bite-size action. So it could be something they research, someone they reach out to, a message they send, something they look up, and I say, is that something you could do? And they say, yes. And then...

I like to as a coach, I like to say, okay, then when do you think you could do that? And what's awesome is is they're like starting to think like in terms of not just what can I do but committed action to actually doing it. This is a feature in the very best clients. They make the commitment, they make the commitment to a time and they're going to follow through and honor that commitment. So then we say, okay, cool. Now would you be open, open to sending me a quick message?

when it's done so I can celebrate with you. So in this script I said messenger message because I do a lot of DM over message, but however you guys like to communicate. If you've been doing email, that's fine. If you've been doing SMS, that's cool. But the idea is to create that feedback loop so that you can celebrate with them that they're taking that bite-size action. Great, I'll look forward to hearing from you. So the next step before you pitch the console is to just check in on the value.

Now as we wrap up on this on today's session, what if you loved a better quick chat today? It's like, I loved how you just approached the call. I loved how you came up with something that I hadn't really thought of. I loved how you asked me what I already worked on so I didn't feel like I was wasting my time. That's great. Good for you. Now I'm making a decision. If I feel that this person is qualified, then I'm going to invite them to a consult. And so I'm, I want to know that I have an idea of their goal.

their top gap reason for not already achieving it, their desire and motivation for making the goal a priority in their busy life, their urgency to achieve the goal, and an indication of their access to their resources. Those are things that I like to do. If they're qualified, then I'll say something like, you know, today I heard something that made me think we might be able to help more with another call and we're running out of time today. Would it be all right if I shared with you what the next steps look like so you can decide if you want to do it? And they say yes.

And you say, great, so the next call is another free chat, but it's a little different than this one. And this is where you explain your particular format. in the example, say, the next call is a 45 minute session with an advisor who's gonna run you through a deeper dive diagnostic where the advisor's gonna recommend three to five steps to help you to achieve your overall goal and remind them of the goal. Now, if the advisor identifies that we can help you with one of our programs, they'll recommend it.

and you can ask any questions you may have about it to make a great decision for you. And by the way, our advisors are super straight shooters, so they will definitely not waste your time with trying to convince you to invest in something that won't help you. Instead, they're just gonna give you their best shot at what your next steps ought to be, and they'll point you in another direction to their best ability if we can't help you further. So based on what you've shared with me today, Name, about how important the goal is and that you need to start the goal in this timeline.

I'd recommend we get you booked in ASAP so you can hit that target. So tell me, where to from here? Do you want me to book that next conversation for you? And so they're gonna likely say yes, right? Okay, cool. So I see that the advisor name has the availability to talk today at four or tomorrow at two, which works best for you. I like to do this instead of flipping over a calendar link because...

They're gonna have their calendar in front of them anyway. I can just take care of that. It's a quick administrative thing that makes a big difference in the relationship. Cool, so I'll snag that spot. And is this number the best number to reach you at? And the email I have on file is email. Does that still work? Okay. And then to prepare for the session and make the most out of the time together, there's a short assignment that Amanda would like you to do before the call, which should take about 10 to 20 minutes. Do you think you'll have time to watch a quick video and complete that today? And they say yes, and you say awesome.

I'll shoot you a link after our call so you can take care of that. Does that work well for you? Okay, so I've loved getting to chat with you and I'm going to summarize some quick notes of what we talked about today and let Amanda know that you're going to be joining her on the day and the time. If you need anything between now and then, feel free to hit me up on Messenger, okay? Okay, thanks for joining me. Have an awesome day and you hang up. Now, if you've talked to somebody and it's been 10 minutes and they don't have clear...

clarity on the goal, they don't have any urgency, they were just there for curiosity, then you might say something like this, well, Neem, I've really loved getting to know you and spend some time together today. I think you'll get a lot out of taking the action. I think after that, the best thing is to just keep tuning into our weekly lives in our free group, keep joining in on the chat, and I'm sure, and be sure to let me know how it goes with your action. Okay, I will. Glad to hear it. Have an awesome day, and we'll see you in the group.

So I call this a graceful dismount. And I think it's the best way to serve someone that you're not in a good position to help otherwise. And that is my 15 minute standard script. Now, if you love this and you want more help with your sales process, make sure you send me a message with the word expert at my Instagram. There's a link around this video with my link directly to the Instagram. I help people for a living with optimizing their processes.

and by having a short conversation that leads into a longer conversation, that's gonna give you a lot of lift. The other things are things like having expert positioning, having consistent marketing, having great systems in place where you're producing content regularly and letting people build a relationship with you so that they are more likely to choose you when the time comes for your business. All right, thanks so much for joining me and we will see you in another video very soon.