Companion Guide
Session: December 13, 2025
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Published: December 2025
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Published: December 2025
Two women with decades of sales experience walked into Social Saturday and said the quiet part out loud: the reason you’re not closing is not your product. It’s your discovery. Clevette Coombs brought 15 years of corporate sales and a framework built on listening before pitching. Sharon Larry brought 37 years in the field and a single conviction — that women are the best salespeople on the planet, and most of them have no idea.
This session was a year-end gift. A reset before 2026.
Clevette Coombs has been in sales long enough to watch the same mistake repeat itself across industries: people pitch before they listen. They lead with the product. They lead with the offer. They never find out what the person actually needs.
Her COM Framework is the antidote. Calm. Authenticity. Listening. In that order, before anything else.
You’re not selling anyone. You’re serving someone.
Clevette Coombs, Social Saturday, December 13, 2025
Deep discovery before the sales conversation begins. The goal is not to impress — it’s to understand. Most people are in pitch mode before they’ve asked a single real question. Calm means slowing down enough to actually hear what someone needs before you tell them what you have.
Scripts kill sales. Not because structure is bad, but because a robotic delivery signals that you’re performing rather than connecting. Authenticity means your preparation shows up as genuine curiosity, not a sequence to execute. The prospect feels the difference immediately.
Most people listen to respond. Effective salespeople listen to understand — and then guide the conversation toward momentum. The close is not a trick. It’s a natural response to what the person has already told you they need.
Sales is really about confidence, and confidence isn’t born. It’s built.
Clevette maps discovery questions across three levels of depth. Most sales conversations stay at Level 1 and wonder why nothing closes.
Establish commonality and open the door. These questions make the person comfortable. They reveal context without pressure.
These questions uncover what the problem is actually costing them — in time, money, energy, or opportunity. They also prevent you from repeating solutions that have already failed.
This is where the decision actually lives. Not in logic — in the nerve. Emotional questions connect the problem to identity, fear, or desire. When someone answers a Level 3 question honestly, they often close themselves.
Level 1 — Hearing words only. You catch what’s said but miss the weight of it.
Level 2 — Understanding meaning behind words. You hear what they’re actually asking for, not just what they said.
Level 3 — Noticing energy shifts. Tone changes. Pauses. The moment someone lights up or gets quiet. This is where buying signals live.
The assumptive close is not manipulation — it’s confidence. “When should we start?” is a fundamentally different question than “Do you want to move forward?” One assumes momentum. The other invites doubt.
1. Restate 3+ pain points they mentioned — in their words
2. Provide a specific date and time: “I have an opening next Tuesday at 10.”
3. Use reflection when you sense hesitation: “It sounds like you’re excited about this but also a little nervous. That makes sense. What would help you feel more certain?”
Generate three surface, three strategic, and three emotional discovery questions for a sales conversation with someone who is [describe your ideal client] and struggling with [describe their core problem].
Label each question with its level. For each Level 3 question, also note what buying signal I should listen for in their response — what would tell me they’re ready to move forward?
Sharon Larry has spent 37 years watching capable women walk out of rooms having left money on the table. Not because they didn’t have the skills. Because they didn’t believe the skills were worth the price they needed to charge.
Her message was not motivational. It was structural. Revenue isn’t the reward at the end of doing good work. Revenue is what lets you do more of it.
Selling is not manipulation. It’s advocacy.
Sharon Larry, Social Saturday, December 13, 2025
Before any sales conversation, Sharon works through four questions. This is not a pitch sequence — it’s a clarity sequence. You do this before you get on the call.
Why does this person need what you offer? Not at the surface level — at the level where it actually hurts. What is the unresolved pain that brought them to you? What would change for them if this was solved?
This layer activates motivation. Without it, you’re selling features. With it, you’re speaking to identity.
What specifically is broken? What’s the gap between where they are and where they want to be? This is where you get precise. Vague problems lead to vague offers. The clearer you can name the problem, the more inevitable your solution sounds.
How will you solve it? This is your method, your process, your expertise translated into a path. Not your credentials — your approach. The prospect needs to understand how the transformation happens, not just that it does.
What if nothing changes? What does that future look like? What if it does change — what becomes possible? This layer makes the stakes real. It’s not fear-mongering. It’s helping someone see clearly what they’re actually deciding between.
Sharon’s argument on pricing is blunt: if you price by the hour, you are asking the client to evaluate your time. If you price by impact, you are asking them to evaluate the outcome. Those are entirely different conversations — and one of them is winnable.
What you bring to every engagement: Time + Energy + Expertise
What the client receives: the outcome, the transformation, the problem that no longer exists
The price should reflect what they receive — not what you spend to deliver it.
We know how to talk to people. We know how to ask questions. We know how to listen. What we bring to the table is priceless.
Sharon pushed back on the idea that charging less is more aligned with service. The women in this community want to hire developers, run programs, expand reach, fund scholarships. All of that requires revenue. Underpricing doesn’t make you more generous. It limits what you can do.
I want to reprice my offer based on impact rather than hours. Here’s what I currently offer and how I currently price it:
[Describe your offer and current pricing]
Help me work through Sharon Larry’s Four-Layer Framework for this offer:
1. Why — What is the core pain this solves, and what is the cost of that pain to my client?
2. What — What specifically changes as a result of working with me?
3. How — What is my process or method?
4. What If — What are the two futures available to my client (with me vs. without me)?
Then help me draft a value-based price point and a one-paragraph offer framing that speaks to impact, not deliverables.
Tools and references that came up during the session.
Copy the prompt below and bring this conversation to your favorite LLM.
I just read the companion guide from She Leads AI Social Saturday on December 13, 2025. The session covered two frameworks I want to put into practice.
1. The COM Framework (Clevette Coombs). Discovery before pitch. Three levels of questions: Surface (build rapport — “What made you reach out now?”), Strategic (reveal impact and cost — “What have you already tried? What does success look like in 90 days?”), Emotional (access the real pain — “What would it mean for you personally if this got resolved?”). Three levels of listening: words, meaning, energy shifts. Close by restating their pain points in their own words, then use an assumptive close with a specific date.
2. The Four-Layer Framework (Sharon Larry). Before any sales conversation: Why (their core pain and what’s at stake), What (the specific gap), How (your approach), What If (the two futures — with you and without you). Price by impact, not hours. Selling is advocacy.
Help me apply both frameworks to prepare for an upcoming sales conversation. Start by asking me: Who is the prospect, what do they do, and what are they struggling with?
Built by Anne Murphy with help from the She Leads AI agent team. Based on the Social Saturday session of December 13, 2025.
