Oh boy will this blog challenge some of our limiting beliefs around our current sals process-in a good way though!!
Ok let's do some deep diving, shall we?!
In one of my blogs The Art Of Sales & Persuasion 1.0, I discussed the importance of this skill and its significance within any business. Being we are all fairly successful entrepreneurs here, figured diving a bit deeper would only help us all level up our game even more, ya know?!
Ok so let's focus this blog on the number one section of all sales/business calls…. the open call, also known as the discovery call.
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The Open/Discovery Call
Alight so with this call here, we all know it as being the initial call that allows both parties(us and our prospective client) the opportunity to learn about what each brings to the table and if it would make good business sense to partner up.
What are some ways to prepare for this call?
(Be mindful: the tips below go both ways, regardless of you being the provider or the prospective client)
1. Do your research on the other party and their industry
2. Write down exactly what you plan to achieve on this call
3. Understand what your big four are:
a) Timeline
b) Budget
c) Decision maker(s)
D) Need
4. Go into this call with an optimistic mindset(as important as above tips)
**Be sure to download my freebie below to help you stay on track of these top four tasks you wanna complete on every single discovery call moving forward. You’ll be glad you did ;)
To help you get a full understanding of the important of each step listed above, I’ll explain this more in detail.
1. Do your research on the other party and their industry: Ok, so imagine how much further you’d get in any business interaction if you went it with your research done on both their industry, line or work and the individual themselves whom you’d be speaking to for the first time. You’d show up with enough knowledge to ask the right questions and have even more clarity on what it is that you’d like to hire them for. This helps them help you in a more effective manner, as a result. In other words, it helps the two of you speak the same language when discussing a possible business partnership.
2. Write down exactly what you plan to achieve on this call: When you go into any business conversation prepared, you are not only saving yourself a ton of time, you’re blessing the other party with the exact same gift. The more time you have back, the more you can invest it into other sources of revenue. By writing down your plan of action in detail, you give yourself the chance to subtly direct the conversation and do so in a way that gets the job done.
3. Understand what your big four are:
a) Timeline: You must have a clear understanding of how much time you need to make the decision on whether or not you’d like to do business with your prospect. You need to also know how much time you have available on your hands to take on this new business. By directly asking both yourself(prior to the call) and your prospect(during the call), you give yourself the advantage of time being on your side.
b) Budget: Knowing how you price the value of your time as well as what your prospect sees value of that time is another key ingredient to a successful initial business interaction. Its very important to understand what ball park you are both in that way both parties are on the same page. Time is money here so the sooner you can gauge this, the better off you’ll both be. Also keep in mind, that even if someone doesn’t transact with you right away, doesn’t mean they wont down the road. I’ve personally seen this turn around in my favor a number of times.
c) Decision maker(s): This is a very obvious element of any successful business call, however doesn't mean we should discredit its value. Just imagine having gone through an entire qualification and demo call and having come out of it realizing you were speaking to the wrong person. We’ve all done it and hey even at times the person you speak with may portray themselves as being the main decision makers, however they end up not having the full power to make such a decision in working with you. So do yourself the favor and maybe come up with two different ways of asking if you’re speaking to the person that you should be speaking to.
1. “Now just to confirm (insert name here), you will be the main person making this decision today?”
OR
2. “Great and there isn’t anyone else that you need to run things by? Ok perfect, just wanna make sure so I can help you save time, in the even that you may have to.”
d) Need: All of the above are super important key factors to keep in mind to have a successful introductory business call. However with this in particular, its extremely important to have firm understanding of the purpose behind the possible business interaction. You see, if there is no important enough need for doing business, then this would defeat the entire purpose of speaking with the prospect to begin with. There needs to be a very clear expectation laid that, in which the provider would be able to give the prospect in exchange for the value they place on their time.
All the above four key factors can be answered (from a surface level) within your introductory form that can be sent out to the prospect ahead of the call. This you can look over for context into the initial call and when you go into the conversation, you can use form as a means to guide the conversation forward.
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We know this.
Your first introduction to any business partnership will only help determine where this connection can possibly go. With that in mind, its extremely crucial to go into it prepared and with an open mind that way both parties can make the best out of it, right?!
You’d be surprised how many entrepreneurs I’ve spoken to who just “wing it.”
Wonder where those sales calls go.
Now being we are all high performing entrepreneurs here, we’re going to go about this in a more mindful manner. One great way to qualify any lead/prospect that comes you way, would be through a super short questionnaire. This will help them simplify who they are and what are wanting to hire you for. Here are a few key pieces of data to ask for:
Their first and last name
Contact info(email is best)
Which of your products/services they are most interested in
What they’d like to achieve with your product/service
Why you should choose to work with them? (turn the tables a bit-build fomo)
A quick questionnaire that includes the above will help you do two very important things; attract serious inquiries and save a ton of time.
The serious inquiry that you attract will help you:
boost your confidence even more
save your breathe on a lead that isn’t qualified
help you achieve your business goals faster
The time that you save will help you:
close more clients; make more money
improve your skills/products even more
give you more time back to invest into other tasks
“ “ into your personal life
To help wrap this specific area of your sales process up, let's answer a few of the most common questions I get on this section of the sales process.
Q: How long should my discovery calls be?
A: 15-20 minutes tops. Set this same expectation with your prospects as well, that way they know that you respect your own time as much as you respect theirs. This will also set the tone for a high level of professionalism that will help the appearance of your brand within the industry. Keep in mind, within just a short period of time you can easily decipher a serious paying client from one that simply wont.
Q: What should I do if my prospect cancels last minute?
A: This shouldn’t have happened to begin with. But if it does, this is just a good opportunity to set a firm cancellation policy in place to alleviate this from reoccurring down the road. A great policy would be a professional 24-48hr notice at the least. Either within your prospect questionnaire or the calendar invite, make sure that your cancellation policy is clearly stated-that way you mean business and nothing short of that. Also make sure you have a strict rule in place thats clearly mentions no more than 2 reschedules/cancellations at a time. That way they know not to play around with your time, ya know what I mean?!
Q: What are other ways I can confirm they respect my time?
A: Great question; shows you’re valuing your time more, which will naturally get them to do the same. If this is something you’ve found yourself struggling with to any degree, I’d recommend you implement your attendance policy in both your questionnaire, calendar invite and bring it up within your discovery call. A great way to subconsciously “reward” your prospects would be to mention, “thank you for taking the time to chat today” at the start of every call and “thank you for your time, look forward to our next call on … at …. time!” This type of language gets them to be more trained and well equipped with what it takes to do business with you.
Q: What should I do if my prospect seem distracted/not interested on the call?
A: Call it out, as soon as possible. Here’s the thing, you don’t have any time to waste. If you can feel they just aren’t into your product/service or even if they are, you feel a weird low vibe from them, just call it out politely. Here’s a few great questions that’ve always worked for me.
“Hey so (state their name), from what I collected in your questionnaire and what we discussed previously, it seemed like this would be something you’d be interested in. However I get the feeling that you maybe this was a bad time to speak or was there something I said that might’ve rubbed you the wrong way? (put the blame and yourself and time—NEVER on them)
Throw the ball in their court and see how they can take that question. I promise you nine out of ten times, you asking just that question right there will get them to spill some truth. I say some truth, because chances are the more you politely call them out(probe), the more truth you’ll get from them.
Here’s why: we live in a society where most people cant handle being called out. They make act off putting, but will most likely assume that you are like every other persons they’ve come across and think that you too are too afraid to ask or address the “tough” questions. So when you do this in a polite way, you are not only letting them know that you are about business and have no interest in considering a psychic side job to read their mind, they will know to come correct and most likely respect you even more. I-am-speaking-strictly-from-experience-here.
Now their response may be something like this:
“Oh no, no Bauer Im really interested in what you have here. Apologies, just have a lot going on…..”
OR
“Yea you know Bauer, Im a bit concerned about…..”
(You now have opened up an opportunity to address a misunderstanding/lack of faith, that you can work with. Remember if you hadn’t called them out, you wouldn't have had this opportunity)
Now this is when they’ve thrown the ball in your court and you have to know how to use some wit here to gauge the conversation right where you want it-to pricing. See how they take this. You may find yourself or them having to ask a few more questions to clarity some more and then from there, you can confidently get off that call with a signed agreement/paid invoice in your inbox or not.
Either way, you have saved yourself tons of time my friend. That time you can now go put back into your product/service and even into more discovery calls to get more business at your doors.
Yes I know, you’re probably asking why am I focusing so much of my effort in the open/discovery call? Well you see, your initial conversation gives you a lot more data than you may think.
Why? Well, thats because one this very simple proven idea.
*The quality of your open call determines the quality of your closing call*
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Until next time my friends, keep your head up and know that whatever “obstacle” that comes your way throughout your business journey, its really just a blessing in disguise.
XO
-Bauer
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