Have you ever had straight up bad vibes during a discovery call?
Where the prospect has no idea what they need help with, and you’re feeling unsure of how to guide them… You’re trying to explain how your coaching or course can help them but it’s not getting across…
The calls that are just uncomfortable. You know the ones.
But an easy call, the kind where the conversation flows and the close comes easily, are possible every time. Creating ease is the key to removing all obstacles to closing the sale.
Once you have ease here, you can:
Bring in more clients
Grow your business closer to your Vision
Get your business to where it is you want to go
Have a business that serves YOU
And, do it by only working with the clients that truly feed you. The soulmate clients that are an absolute dream to work with.
When we talk about discovery calls that are full of ease, we’re talking about calls that bring in these dream clients.
There are six core components to having ease-filled, high-converting discovery calls.
1. Have a process that works for you
I’ve been an entrepreneur since I was a little girl.
I’m talking a proprietary lemonade stand I dubbed the Citrus Squeeze, complete with custom chocolates made from my chocolatier mothers’ candy rejects as an upsell.
This continued on into my corporate life, and as I moved through jobs, I learned all of the different sales processes for every company I worked at - and followed them diligently.
I was even trained in the Sandler sales process - a method that helped incredible sales people make more than CEOs because of the genius strategy they were using.
I geeked out on the sales process. I consumed all that I could about the psychology around sales. Podcasts, books, all of it. When I started my own business, I took all of that knowledge with me.
But despite being so well versed in a variety of sales frameworks, something just still didn’t feel right.
Don’t get me wrong - I wasn’t bombing my sales calls. But I felt like they just weren’t ME.
When I used 7-step formulas, like the Sandler method, I found myself having troubles knowing where I was even at in the process. Was I supposed to be in step one? Or step four?
Having to keep track of all that PLUS remain deeply engaged with my process while we talked about Visioning (my all-time favorite topic) was simply too much.
Not to mention, a lot of the tactics I’d been using were starting to feel old-school.
I knew something about my sales call process needed to change.
Then I remembered this leadership formula I had learned back at corporate. It was called the Formula For Change. I learned about it in the context of Visioning, leadership and change management within organizations.
This wasn’t just a leadership process.
I could apply this to my discovery and sales calls as well!
I shifted to using the Formula For Change completely in my sales process
I no longer needed to worry about following the 1,2,3 steps of sales calls anymore. I could just reference this quick formula, and be able to walk my potential clients through it with ease.
I hit that sweet spot of the process because it was just enough to keep things on track without being too structured.
Now, I could clearly know and communicate with my prospect exactly where the conversation was headed.
It allowed me to have structure enough that I didn’t hog the call, yet it also didn’t feel TOO prescriptive or restrictive. My calls started to flow.
Now think about your process. Do you feel like it’s too rigid?
Find that sweet spot of balance between too much process and not enough.
Once you have a process, test it by asking:
Does it help you?
Does it help you create bonding and rapport?
Does it create credibility and authority?
Does it cut out all of the chit-chat, all of the unnecessary bits, and get to the heart of the call?
That is the goal.
2. Start with the end in mind
You want to talk about the things that most people wait until the end of the call to talk about, at the beginning.
I KNOW you’ve been taught to highlight your experience and value on sales calls.
If you show them how amazing and valuable you are, they won’t have any objections on the price, right?
So you talk and talk and talk and THEN give them the price.
Visionary, you may have just talked for an entire 45 minutes, only to reveal a price point that was never within the prospect’s budget in the first place.
OR, they were never actually going to sign up at all, but there was never a place in the conversation that they could kindly decline.
A perfect example of this is one of my Visionary clients. He is a very analytical, straightforward guy. I taught him this process a while ago, and he emailed me to tell me about his first time utilizing it.
He told me he never even had a chance to practice this framework before he got on the call, but he went for it anyway.
After telling his prospective client the price upfront, he received a “yeah, let’s go for it” as a response. Just like that.
When you’re able to talk about what is required to work with you (not just time, but also money and energy) you’re able to weed out those who aren’t in a place to make that investment straight away.
It’s a lot like dating.
On the first date, you know in the first two minutes if it doesn’t feel right.
You want to make sure the energy is right in the same first two minutes of your sales call.
When you start with the end in mind, you allow your prospects to make the sales decisions for you.
You empower them to choose what is right for them without pressure.
3. Don’t get caught up in the details
If you could observe my Visionary sales process, you’d be surprised at how little I talk about myself.
Often, I get a “YES! How can we start?” from prospective clients - all without going into my background, education, or expertise. A lot of the time, we haven’t even talked a whole lot about them and their business, either.
When you eliminate the chit-chat, you get right down to how you can solve their pain points.
You quickly get to the heart of the transformation you can provide.
Because let’s be real...your prospects don’t really care about the details. They just want to know they have a bond with you, and that they trust you to guide them towards their desired result.
Using this trust as your entry point is a powerful way for people to recognize things upfront that would usually hold them back.
Since I started utilizing this framework, I have not had to overcome a SINGLE objection in my business.
In the corporate world, there are books on overcoming objections. Full scripts and hundreds of different ways to convince people.
With this framework, I bring up the issues upfront, and then my prospects have the opportunity to work through their OWN objections.
4. Create a valuable experience for your prospect
I already told you that I no longer need to overcome objections.
I want you to really REALLY make sure that your discovery call process does the same thing for you.
You shouldn’t have to study up on overcoming objections before getting on your sales calls.
You’ve already guided your prospect through the change that you will provide with your service.
Now, you need to make sure that they have the opportunity to work through eliminating the resistance to that change.
A powerful way to do this is to make them feel like they’re getting a coaching session through your discovery call process.
You want to connect on a deep level, and mirror back solutions to them.
A good discovery call is not just about asking questions and getting answers.
We want them to get VALUE from the call, regardless of the outcome.
5. Engage your prospect
THIS is my secret sauce.
The little hidden gem of the process.
I always write the Formula For Change out on a blank sheet of paper.
I show it to them and then I say, “I want you to write this as well”.
Right from the start, we are engaging them in a completely different way than they’re used to.
We’re involving them in a new form of kinesthetic learning because now THEY are the ones writing.
Have you heard the saying “she who has the pen makes the rules”?
When you are the only one “with the pen”, then they are programmed to be only listening to you.
All of a sudden, you’re in teacher mode. You’re the expert they’re taking instruction from.
You get to show them the *exact* equation they’re solving. They can clearly see the process you’re taking them through.
I show them my notes as I am going along.
I show them because the notes are about THEM.
What is the number one thing people like to do?
Talk about themselves.
What is the number two thing?
Talk about themselves while others are taking notes.
The other golden nugget that comes from taking these notes is that you now have a road map. You have ALL of the different variables that your prospective client is working through.
Now you can use the exact wording that the prospect used to move them through the process to show exactly what they are going to GET out of your process.
By using THEIR language and asking the deep questions that no one else is asking, you’re able to put the spotlight on them and their transformation. You’re able to show that you’re someone who truly gets them right from the start of the relationship.
6. Let your prospects close themselves
Have you ever heard of the expression in sales, “if you’re telling you aren’t selling?”
It’s true.
The good thing about this tip is that you don’t have to stop yourself from talking, because THEY are talking to you.
You don’t have to memorize the scripts.
After you have guided them through their own objections and talked them through whatever comes up with them - now you can say “What’s next?”
They fill in the blanks for themselves and let YOU know what the next step is.
This is a completely different experience than most people are used to, and they will remember that as they choose the path forward.