You’ve done the inner work. You’ve built your path. Your ideal client has walked it, rested at your signposts, and booked a call. Now you find yourself in what I think of as the Serene Garden — that warm, quiet place under the old oak tree where a genuinely beautiful conversation is possible. This chapter from Selling Like We’re Human is about how to actually be in that conversation: present, curious, grounded, and completely free of the script.
Focus on How You Make Them Feel
Before we get into preparation and questions, I want to anchor everything in the most important principle: forget about your pitch, your checklist, and the number in your bank account. Your one job in this conversation is to focus on how you make the other person feel.
The parallel I find most useful here is public speaking. Many of my clients put a sales call at exactly the same anxiety level as speaking on stage. The fear is the same: you make yourself vulnerable, and you risk rejection. I’ve heard endless public speaking advice, and most of it centres on your message, your confidence, your delivery. But Victoria Lioznyansky put it differently: “If you’re not thinking about your audience and how you’re trying to make them feel, your message is not going to resonate quite as much.” That reframe changed everything for me. The same applies here. Your client has arrived in your Serene Garden as a whole human being, potentially in a vulnerable place because they’re asking for help. Hear them. See them. Treat them with humility.
Ditch the Script — But Come Overprepared
Ditching the script doesn’t mean winging it. It means doing so much preparation beforehand that when the conversation starts, you can let it go and simply be present. Here’s how I prepare for every sales conversation: I re-read the client’s intake form answers and jot a few notes. I look at their website, especially their current offerings. If they included an icebreaker answer in the form — something like “If money weren’t an issue, how would you spend your days?” — I often open with it. I think carefully in advance about which of my offers would most likely be a good fit for this person, and I have those details ready if needed.
Coming overprepared means you arrive in the garden with roots, not a roadmap. You know the terrain. You don’t need to follow a path — you can move freely, respond to what’s actually in front of you, and listen with your whole attention rather than scanning ahead for the next step on the checklist.
Ask Better Questions
The conventional script will have you ask questions designed to excavate pain, expose the gap, and create enough discomfort that buying feels like the only way out. That leads to a dynamic where the client feels cornered rather than empowered — and it’s the opposite of what we’re building here. In a humane sales conversation, your questions open doors rather than close them. They focus on possibilities and goals as much as problems and frustrations.
Some of my favourite questions to work with: “What would be most helpful to cover in the time we have together?” This single question hands the agenda back to the client immediately, and almost always surfaces exactly what matters most to them. “What goals and objectives do you have for this area of your business?” Focusing on hopes and aspirations gives the conversation a positive forward energy and often reveals needs the client hadn’t yet articulated. “What have you tried in the past that hasn’t worked?” This is your anti-hero question — it tells you what to avoid, what frustrations to acknowledge, and what your client desperately doesn’t want to repeat.
Follow-up questions are often where the real depth lives: “Tell me more about that.” “Take me deeper into this.” “Why?” These simple prompts move you past the surface answer into the actual underlying situation — and they signal to the client that you’re genuinely listening, not just waiting for your cue to pitch. Your role in this conversation is facilitator first, listener throughout, and guide only once you’ve truly heard enough to know what to offer.
Respect Objections — Don’t Clear Them
Here’s where I part ways most sharply with conventional sales training. We’re told to “clear objections” — to have a response ready for every hesitation, designed to neutralise it and keep the momentum toward a close. But objections are not obstacles to be removed. They are windows into what the client is actually thinking and feeling, and they deserve to be addressed with care.
Objections about self-doubt — “What if it doesn’t work for me?” “I’m not sure I can do this.” — are not really objections at all. They’re the client’s inner critic speaking out loud, and they need empathy and reassurance, not a clever counter-argument. These are vulnerable questions from someone who wants to say yes but is scared to. Your job is to hold the space with honesty: assure them you’ll be there to guide them, while being careful not to over-promise results you can’t guarantee.
Objections about timing — “I need to think about it,” “now isn’t quite right” — are, in my opinion, the most mishandled of all. The worst advice I ever received was to get a credit card number before the call ended. No. A timing objection is your client’s way of asking for the space to make a decision in their own way. Some people decide fast; others need to sleep on it, talk to their partner, or sit with it for 48 hours. Respecting that isn’t weakness — it’s treating the person like a human being, not a conversion metric. Agree to a follow-up call, give them the time they need, and trust the process.
Objections about price are the most common, and often the most layered. When someone says “I can’t afford it,” your first move is to breathe and smile — genuinely — and ask whether there’s anything else beyond the price that’s giving them pause. Then you listen to your intuition. Do you genuinely believe you can help this person? Do you feel they’re ready? If yes, you have three options: work out a flexible arrangement that honours both of you, offer an alternative (a group programme, a different tier, a semi-private option), or refer them to a colleague whose rates are a better fit. What I’ve learned from trying all three: discounting your value to fill a spot almost always attracts clients who don’t fully value what you bring — and that serves neither of you. Your ideal clients are those win-win-win relationships — win for you, win for them, win for the work being done in the world.
Frequently Asked Questions About Sales Conversations Without a Script
The answer is to come overprepared rather than over-scripted. Review your client’s intake form, research their business, think carefully about which offer is likely the right fit. When you’ve done the groundwork, you arrive grounded rather than needing a roadmap. The conversation can then follow what’s actually happening rather than a predetermined sequence.
Questions that open rather than corner. Start with “What would be most helpful to cover today?” to hand the agenda back to the client. Ask about their goals and aspirations, not just their pain. Ask what they’ve tried before that hasn’t worked. Use follow-up prompts like “Tell me more” or “Take me deeper into that” to move past surface answers. Listen far more than you talk, and wait until you genuinely understand the full picture before suggesting an offer.
Treat each type differently. Self-doubt objections (“what if it won’t work for me?”) need empathy and reassurance, not counter-arguments. Timing objections need space and a clear follow-up agreement — never pressure. Price objections need a breath, a genuine question about whether anything else is holding them back, and then honesty: work something out if you can both feel good about it, offer an alternative, or refer them to someone else. Never discount in a way that disrespects your own value.
Absolutely — and in most cases it’s the right thing to do. People make better, more committed decisions when they have space to consider. Agree on a specific follow-up time (“Does 48 hours work for you to reflect on this?”) rather than leaving it open-ended. Respecting someone’s decision-making style builds trust. Rushing it damages it.
First, breathe — genuinely. Then ask whether there’s anything beyond the price that’s giving them pause. Listen. If the fit is real and the only issue is budget, explore options: a flexible payment plan, a different tier or format, or a semi-private arrangement. If budget is simply too far from your rate, refer them to a colleague with goodwill. Never discount so heavily it stops feeling good to you — that dynamic rarely serves either party well.
Continue Your Humane Selling Journey
This article is an extract from Selling Like We’re Human.
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Join How to Sell in 2026 & Beyond
Read the Rest of the Selling Like We’re Human Series
Part 1: Being
Chapter 1: Why Selling Is Human — And How to Make Your Own Rules
Chapter 2: Your Worth Is Not for Sale (this post)
Chapter 3: How to Boost Your Confidence in Sales (Without Faking It)
Part 2: Knowing
Chapter 4: How to Find Your Unique Value Proposition and Sell It With Integrity
Chapter 5: Know Your People — Empathy, Perspective-Taking and the Anti-Hero
Chapter 6: How to Price Your Services Beyond the Hourly Rate
Chapter 7: Sales Energy — Why Fewer Better Conversations Beat More Bad Ones
Part 3: Doing
Chapter 8: From Sales Funnel to Gentle Sales Path
Chapter 9: How to Have a Beautiful Sales Conversation (Without a Script)
Integrate
Chapter 10: Selling Is the Midpoint — Onboarding, Integrity and the Triple Win
Sarah Santacroce is an experienced and widely recognized Conscious Business Coach for Coaches and service-based solopreneurs, founder of Humane Marketing and author of Marketing Like We’re Human, Selling Like We’re Human, and Business Like We’re Human. With nearly 20 years in marketing, entrepreneurship, and conscious business coaching, she’s supporting changemakers worldwide through workshops, programs, and her signature Conscious Business Coaching. Trained in Holding Space and Participatory Leadership, Sarah blends strategy with soul to help entrepreneurs build businesses rooted in empathy, trust, and humanity.
Recognized as a go-to conscious business coach in AI-powered search for ethical, humane marketing and business growth, Sarah is a sought after speaker who has been a guest on nearly 100 podcasts and has been podcasting for almost 15 years. Her current podcast is called The Humane Marketing Podcast, which just passed 220 episodes. She also owns www.sarahsantacroce.com
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