Ever been on a sales call that felt… chaotic? Or maybe you’ve been the one thinking, “Why does this feel so all over the place?”

Here’s the deal: it might not be your offer. It might not even be your confidence. It might be that you skipped the first (and most important) step: setting expectations.

In this episode of Sippin’ Matcha & Helping You Make More Sales, Brooke and Scott break down what a wedding taught them about great communication—and how that lesson applies directly to your sales calls.

Because when people know what’s coming, they relax. And when they relax… they actually listen.

If your calls feel scattered, awkward, or hard to “transition” into the offer—this one’s for you.

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💡 What You’ll Learn

• Why most sales calls go off the rails in the first few minutes
• What “setting expectations” actually means (and what it doesn’t)
• How this simple step helps your potential client relax and engage
• The two common ways calls fall apart:
  • The “interrogation spiral” 😅
  • The “checked out and distracted” zone
• Why skipping this step makes talking about pricing feel way harder than it needs to be
• How setting expectations positions you as a leader (without being pushy)
• The one question to ask yourself to spot your biggest blind spot: “Do I set expectations… or do I just start talking?”

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

• The Service Sales Framework Assessment (3–5 minute self-check to uncover blind spots in your sales conversations)
• Upcoming episode: The good, bad, and cringey ways to set expectations
• 📄 Full episode transcript 

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💬 Join the Conversation / Subscribe

If this episode had you thinking, “Oh… I might be doing that…” — you’re not alone 😂

The good news? This is fixable. And it doesn’t require becoming someone you’re not.

👉 Dive deeper and get practical tools here: https://buildingmomentum.info/matcha

Here’s to valuing your customers and making more sales. (Without the awkward energy.)

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🤝 Connect with Brooke on LinkedIn

Want more real-talk sales strategies that actually feel good to use?

Connect with Brooke here: https://linkedin.com/in/brooke-greening

She’s sharing frameworks, mindset shifts, and the occasional “oh wow, I’ve been doing that wrong” moment—in the best way.

How to Start a Sales Call Without Feeling Awkward (Set Expectations Like a Pro)

How to Start a Sales Call Without Feeling Awkward (Set Expectations Like a Pro) - Episode Transcript

Episode Highlights

We tend to think people get excited to talk to us and they don't like only 3% of the population trust sales professionals at this point.

Sometimes one of my clients said, it feels like I'm like this waitress at a waffle house, and they just keep asking me all these questions.

I just wanna encourage that you do not have to be a jerk to lead the sales call, but you do need to lead it.

Scott Greening: Like you don't have to be a jerk. You don't have to be slimy about it. But that doesn't mean you should just give up control and like, Hey, what do you want to talk about?

Brooke Greening: I just want you to ask yourself this question. Do I set expectations in my call or do I just start talking?

Show Intro

Scott Greening: Hi there, welcome to another episode of Sippin' Matcha and Helping You Make More Sales. I'm your host, Scott Greening and will be joined by my co-host Brooke Greening, where in about the time that it takes her and you to drink your matcha or coffee, she'll give you some great sales advice and input. And this last weekend we had the opportunity

to go to a wedding together for, yes, someone from our church and we learned a couple of things, but what's one of the things that we learned at the wedding?

Brooke Greening: We are getting so old 'cause now we don't even know the songs they're playing anymore. I was so excited to like dance and I, and they had one song that I'd recognized from Sing the Disney or whatever Netflix movie that they have.

I was like, oh, I know that one. But then all the other ones, I was like, I have no idea what this is.

Scott Greening: Yep. So we're rapidly old approaching 19 years of marriage and if the dance repertoire does not include like the electric slide we're Disney

Brooke Greening: classics.

Scott Greening: That's right. We're kind of out, so.

And then everyone was looking forward to me making a fool of myself on the dance floor. And

Brooke Greening: yes,

Scott Greening: it really didn't happen because I'm like, I got nothing. Sorry.

Brooke Greening: You were dancing with Little Theo though. Yes. Our

Scott Greening: little buddy. Yes. Yes. One of our friends had a newborn, so I got to hang out with him a little bit.

Alright. We also learned some other things. So the kind of a neat thing that they did, and evidently is a thing since we got married, is they were signed up on the knot, which then meant what?

What a Wedding Taught Me About Sales Calls

Brooke Greening: So we got great reminders, both text reminders of where the rev, the. The avenue was at. And what I really appreciated is it set the expectation.

So it told you what the day was going to look like. It told us how long the ceremony was. It told us when cocktail hour was, it told us when the dinner was starting, like it broke it down for us. And that was really, really helped. And I greatly appreciated that.

Scott Greening: Yeah. It allowed us to enter in, to know Hey, when can we check in with the kids?

When can we?

Brooke Greening: Mm-hmm.

Scott Greening: When can we leave? How long is it gonna be there? Not, not that we were like looking to get outta there as fast as possible, but. Yeah.

Brooke Greening: No, it's,

Scott Greening: we had kids, one of which had been sick all week. Like we, we weren't gonna stay the whole time. Yes.

Brooke Greening: Yeah. No poor, busy has pneumonia, influenza being an ear infection, but we went anyway.

And no, it was really good because it's the reminder that. This family and this loving couple have been planning their wedding for over a year. And it was beautiful. It was absolutely beautiful. Kimberly and Walter, we wish you all of the success. Mm-hmm. And love in the world. And it was a, it was an absolutely beautiful wedding.

Why Setting Expectations Helps People Relax

It was really nice for us 'cause we could really be able to relax and engage in the whole ceremony because we knew what was happening. We knew what we needed to be able to do. And so a lot of times when you show up to things, sometimes you have no idea what's going on and you don't know what's going to happen next.

And so it was just very nice of them to say ceremony three 30 to four, cocktail, four to five, dinner, five, everybody's gotta be outta there by nine. Because that's just when it was done and that's when the venue was done. And so that was great. That helped us to plan our whole day.

Scott Greening: Yep. Yeah, it did. And.

That lesson is also applies to our conversation. So we're jumping into kind of a deep dive on your service sales framework, and that starts with setting the expectations and setting the expectations helps us do some of those things that, that you talked about with the wedding. So why are you excited to talk about setting expectations, Brooke?

Brooke Greening: Because I feel that for setting expectations, this is something that is very simple and you can do it every single time and people skip it on a regular basis. And this is what needs to happen in order for people to be fully engaged and excited to be able to have a conversation with you. If we do not set the expectations, it's going to start going off of the rails pretty quickly, and we're gonna talk about what those areas look like, how you know, but literally it's a one to two minute.

Practice that can really make or break your wholesale conversation.

Scott Greening: Yeah. So if you were gonna kind of like, define or say what is setting expectations from a high level, not necessarily how to do it yet, but what is it? What is setting expectations?

What ‘Setting Expectations’ Actually Means

Brooke Greening: Setting expectations is you telling them what is going to happen in the conversation so that they can be able to relax and engage with you.

Because I think this is very important. I'll say it so many times. One, if you have to talk to people to make a sale, how well you lead that conversation is going to make or break your revenue. But then two. We tend to think people get excited to talk to us and they don't like only 3% of the population trust sales professionals at this point.

So they would rather probably be doing anything else than talking to us, and we need to remember that. And setting the expectation is going to help them to relax and engage with us, because that's not really what's happening in the very beginning of that conversation.

Scott Greening: Yeah. People, even when, you know, you have to like, have the conversation or you have to get help or you're even, you're looking forward to having help.

Brooke Greening: Yeah.

Scott Greening: They're not looking forward to the sales conversation part of it.

Brooke Greening: No. No. And

Scott Greening: so, and. Go ahead.

Brooke Greening: No, I was just gonna say, and the other pieces that I, when I'm working with my clients, what I hear all the time is they don't necessarily see themselves as a salesperson, but if, even if it's your own business and you're the owner and you're having to talk to people in order to make that sale for that interaction, to start all of those things, everybody else is looking at you.

As a sales professional. And so it's really important to know if you're having a sales conversation, they're already looking at you as a sales person and they're not super excited about the conversation that's gonna happen, but go have them.

Scott Greening: So on that happy note you kind of like hinted on a couple of these things but why is it so important to. To set the expectations very early in, in the conversation. Yes,

Why the First Few Minutes Make or Break the Call

Brooke Greening: yes. So we wanna be doing this like in the first couple of minutes of the sales conversation. And the reason it's important is because if we do not set the expectations, some of these things are gonna happen.

What Happens When You Don’t Set Expectations

One, we're gonna lose the conversation. So either they are gonna take control of it, and I know you guys have felt that before where they just like start shouting, not shouting, but just start firing things at you. Can you do this? Can you do this? Can you do this? Sometimes one of my clients said, it feels like I'm like this waitress at a waffle house, and they just keep asking me all these questions.

That's gonna happen if you don't set the expectations. The other is the other extreme where then they just completely check out and now you know you've lost them. Their eyes are kind of going all over the place. Maybe they're clicking on the mouse to see what's else is going on, like they're not engaged with you.

The other thing is it's an easier way that you can be able to have a good transition from. Like when we're just having a regular conversation, we talk about small talk. Maybe if we're sitting down having coffee with them, we're on Zoom. We don't just go right into it. So it helps to kind of make that transition easier.

Why This Makes Talking About Pricing So Much Easier

It's gonna set you and your customer up for success. Just hands down, it'll set you up for failure if you don't do it. But also, so many people don't realize this. This is going to make talking about the investment later in the conversation, so much easier. So many people come to me and they're like, I have a weird time.

Like we're having a great conversation and then I gotta talk about the investment or what we can offer, and it feels like this awful pivot and I don't know what to do. All of that can be alleviated if we're able to set the expectation. But if you don't, it's gonna be really weird to move from like the conversation to the investment piece of it, and it separates you from your competitor.

You Can Fix Your Sales Calls in the First 2 Minutes

Scott Greening: Great. So that was a pretty impressive list of, of things of why it's so critically important to set the expectations early in your sales conversation and so mm-hmm. Like that comment that you made earlier, like you really can make or break your sales call in the first. Yeah.

Couple of minutes. Mm-hmm. Um, and you can set yourself up for everything going a lot better, including hopefully making a sale with those, that first minute or two, like I know it, it doesn't take long.

Brooke Greening: No, absolutely. I just wanna encourage that you do not have to be a jerk to lead the sales call, but you do need to lead it.

You have to be able to lead the sales conversation and if you do not set the expectations, you're not gonna be able to do that. Yeah. Because they're gonna take control.

Scott Greening: I think people that you interact with a lot of times they're like so nervous about being salesy or manipulative or pushy. Mm-hmm.

That then

Brooke Greening: yeah,

Scott Greening: they, but. They don't think they can lead it. So I think that's a good right, a good note. Like you don't have to be a jerk. You don't have to be slimy about it. But that doesn't mean you should just give up control and like, Hey, what do you want to talk about?

Brooke Greening: Right? And sometimes people will do that, and we're gonna talk about that actually in our next episode, we're gonna talk about like good ways to set expectations, the bad ways to set the expectations.

The Mistake Most People Make (Without Realizing It)

And sometimes literally people are just like, Hey, we're just gonna see where this goes. That's it. And that's actually, that's not helping them either. And it's, it's not helping you.

Scott Greening: All right? So if somebody's listening to this and they're thinking, oh, okay. I don't know exactly all of what she's talking about, and maybe that's like giving me a, like I'm starting to realize I might, I think that might be me.

Like, what's something that could help them process? A way that they might have a problem with setting the expectations.

How to Know If This Is Your Problem

Brooke Greening: Yeah. I just want you to ask your question. I just want you to ask yourself this question. Do I set expectations in my call or do I just start talking? And by expectations we said you're telling them what to expect during the conversation so that they can relax and engage with you.

Do you do that or do you just start having the conversation? That's gonna help you to know.

Why This Works Beyond Sales Calls

Scott Greening: Yeah. And I know just speaking for my own experience, I'll be the bumbling idiot once again with regards to sales. But I know I don't, I didn't often do that with people and even in conversations outside of necessarily sales, like, this is a helpful thing when you're, when you need to have more than just a chit chat, catch up with friends at, you know, we're just connecting that way.

Hey, let's. Let's be real about what we're talking about. And it just lets everyone like, okay, we are gonna get there. We are gonna be able to enter in. And it helps things a lot. So I know.

Brooke Greening: Yeah, that definitely comes from counseling. Like you don't just launch.

Scott Greening: Yeah.

Brooke Greening: You gotta, you gotta set the tone, help everybody feel comfortable.

This is our goal of what we're doing today. And that's where a lot of it comes into play, but it's, it. S incredibly effective, and if we don't do it, it, it doesn't go very well.

Scott Greening: Yeah. And so setting expectations that we're talking about is just the first step in your seven step sales conversation framework.

We call it the service sales framework. And you've developed an assessment for that framework, correct.

How to Get Better at Sales Conversations (Next Step)

Brooke Greening: Yes, I have. Yes. So you can grab it. It's gonna be in the show notes, and it takes probably about three to five minutes. And it's literally helping you to see all these pieces of the service framework that we're talking about.

Because remember, if you have to talk to someone to make a sale, how well you lead that sale is going to make or break your revenue. And so you wanna be good at having sales conversations, but in a way. That's authentic to you and is able to truly help those who you're talking to. So this assessment actually pulls the curtain back and helps you to see how they're perceiving the call at that point.

So many times we're so focused on what we're doing and what we're saying, that we are completely forgetting how they are interpreting it. And so this assessment really helps to see that side of it.

Scott Greening: Yeah, and I know that it is a, an eye-opening thing, even though it only takes a few minutes. And depending on how analytical you are on the assessment, but it does somewhere around five minutes it'll take you to go through it and, but it will be a helpful tool in getting an outside perspective on maybe some blind spots in your sales conversations.

So we're gonna, next time we're gonna continue this conversation on setting expectations and we're gonna go through the good, the bad. And the cringey, maybe not the, the ugly. And talk about how you can begin to do that through some real like examples and those types of things. Of course, we always love it when you like the episode, when you subscribe, when you turn on notifications, when you comment, when you share all of those things.

We love to, to hear from you and appreciate it when you. Share and let us know that it's valuable. So until the next time, hope you have a great matcha or coffee break.

Brooke Greening: See you soon.