What Is a Discovery Call and How Can You Turn It Into a Fitting Sales Call? (Guest Post)
If you provide a service to your clients then it must be common for you to get on a call with a potential client to see if you are a good fit. Often service providers, especially in the online space, conduct discovery calls that are actually sales calls. As in, they invite leads on a call and then work fervently toward selling their service to this client.
In order to ensure a sale, you often resort to tactics like “twist the knife on their pain point”, “show them what not working with you means”, and other scarcity related tactics.
I accept that these tactics do result in a decent number of sales. But is that really how you want to run your business?
Is making the potential client feel anxious about how they will be stuck with their problem if they don’t choose to work with you really your only option?
Nope, and I’ll show you the alternative via this post.
What Should You Not Do On A Discovery Call?
As part of your discovery calls, you may have asked your prospect what their goals are and what they are struggling with. When they share the information with you, they are not doing so only to be told how badly they suck at taking care of themselves or their business.
As far as I know, they’re doing a great job of beating themselves up about it already. You adding to the mix makes them feel overwhelmed and not want to take any decision because they don’t trust themselves to be capable of making smart decisions anymore.
The very first thing that you should stop doing in a discovery call is showing them how badly they need your services by highlighting their pain points.
The next and equally important thing you shouldn’t do is to try and explain to them how your process works in excruciating detail. You, of course, need to talk about your process but keep it brief and high level.
Another thing that I’ve commonly observed is to pressure your prospect to make a decision on the call. This may seem like a good idea but when someone is cornered into making a decision on the spot, they often feel threatened. That feeling seldom helps make a positive association about working with you.
A discovery call isn’t the time to manage all their expectations and clear all their objections. If you’ve been entering the conversation ready with responses to field their objections then you’re starting on the wrong foot.
Now I don’t mean that you should not do any kind of objection handling. However, I don’t recommend that your prospect comes to the call without having the understanding of how long you are going to be working together, how much they can expect it to cost if they choose to work with you, how much time they will need to commit to in order to get the best results etc.
If they’re coming to the conversation blind then of course you are going to have to work hard and implement all the tactics and strategies to get them to say a yes right there on the call. Otherwise they may change their mind to hire someone else or they may just decide they don’t need the solution all that bad.
Talking about how you’re planning to raise your price in the next few weeks in order to have them feel some sort of urgency so they can book right away is nothing but a scare tactic. Something I’ve had to resort to with my toddler. Your potential clients aren’t toddlers, so treating them with respect as an adult is a priority.
I’ve been guilty of using these tactics myself, because I was taught this is the way to get clients. But it never felt right to me. It may have worked for many but it never worked for me because I wasn’t fully invested in my own statements. And one thing I’ve learned over time is that most people believe that they need to follow these tactics but don’t really want to.
Today I give you permission to lay off the tactics and hacks that you’ve been conditioned to believe must be implemented to get a sale.
What You Should Do During A Discovery Call?
To put it simply, you must help your prospect make a decision. It can be either to buy from you or to not buy from you. Either is a good decision.
A friend of mine always says, “A no doesn’t mean never. It just means not now.” I love that because now I don’t have the scarcity mindset that builds a fear response to ‘this person also didn’t buy from me’.
You must also help yourself make a decision to sell. Before you offer your services to the prospect formally, you must be certain that your offer is not only going to benefit this person but also provide the kind of transformation that only you can.
To be able to do so you must focus on actively listening to your prospect and ask questions that will uncover the deeper reasons that are holding them back from implementing a solution.
By active listening I mean that you need to curb the urge to prompt them to say they need your help, you need to be able to hold your space in silence when you believe they’re holding back instead of sharing the actual reasons for their fears and inhibitions.
Quite often, it’s the silence that prompts a sale rather than all the words you may use to convince a prospect.
You need to focus on getting the information that is going to identify if the goals that your potential client has set are ones that you can support them in achieving. If your services do not align with their goals then there is no reason for you to continue the conversation toward sales.
The easiest way to encourage an almost stranger to share their deep concerns is by asking questions. A simple “why so?” can help them go beyond the superficial response they’ve been giving to all the other service providers they may have talked to.
When you ask “why so?” enough number of times, they will relent to your questioning and not feel you’re intruding. Of course, you will need to genuinely be interested in knowing their actual concerns.
Many times, people give responses they believe will appeal to the person in front of them. But when you urge them to share by probing gently they will come to believe that you are genuinely interested in helping them. Just that thought will make it easy for them to share the real reasons for them to consider your service. This reason is what you need to weigh in to know if the prospect makes for a good fit.
When you address the real reasons, suggest how you are capable of solving it and provide case studies of past clients, you make the sale without trying any of the tactics that you’ve learned to be absolutely necessary.
Now if you’re wondering when and how you should handle the list of objections your prospects have? There may be some objections that you must handle during the discovery call itself. Some people need extra reassurance and they express them using common objections.
Irrespective of how many clients you’ve worked with, you will have to make your prospect feel comfortable about the fact that their situation isn’t super unique. That you have worked with similar clients or you are capable of handling similar situations.
When they ask to know about how exactly you help your clients, I recommend you do not beat about the bush or talk about the benefits using vague language. They’re eager to make a judgement call if the solution you are proposing is appropriate for their business/life.
Use words and examples that help curb this curiosity. This process becomes especially easy when you spend time knowing their deeper concerns and listening to the words they use when describing their business and their concerns.
You may believe that talking to them about all the features and bonuses you provide will help them want your service even more. Let me assure you, the only thing that will help them want your service is the confirmation that their situation isn’t unique and that you know how to solve their problem.
I do not say you must share your proprietary solution with them during the call itself. That is never the point of a discovery call. But share with them a few statistics and testimonials from clients who were in a similar situation whom you helped achieve their goals.
They’re on the call to make a decision if you can really help them or if the sales page was filled with false promises. That is the biggest objection you must handle on a fitting call. That you are right for the job and that they can be helped.
How To Ensure Your Discovery Calls Are Only Fitting Calls?
A good discovery call is one which converts leads to clients. A great fitting call, however, starts even before the prospect gets on the phone with you. And it doesn’t end with the call.
There are 3 phases of a great fitting call.
Phase 1, Pre-Call : This is the duration between the time the prospect has first come across you to the moment they get on the call. This phase is just as crucial as the call itself.
This includes the content you put out on your social media, your blog posts, your podcast episodes, your sales pages and landing pages, your website etc. So focus your content to talk to this perfect client persona who you can help effortlessly and who will benefit the most by working with you.
Let the focus of majority of the content you publish be to,
> connect and resonate with your perfect clients and help them get to know you,
> showcase your authority and expertise to build trust, and
> educate and train them so they understand that you know what you’re talking about, that you are aware of the industry and are familiar with their struggles and problems.
Write or talk about the objections that you’ve come across and help your potential clients work through them via your content.
Create specific posts where you talk about your offers in detail. Where you tell them how you work, what kind of results are possible, what kind of transformations can be expected, what are the deliverables that they can get if they choose to work with you.
Let your content do most of the heavy lifting of convincing your potential clients, clearing common objections and handling their fears that commonly make them hesitate hiring an expert.
Phase 2, The Fitting Call : We’ve discussed this in some detail so far. Make sure you only help your prospect make a decision of Yes or No and nothing more.
Phase 3, Post-Call : Just because the call has ended it doesn’t mean you’re done helping the prospect make a decision. You still have the capacity to influence their decision by the way you handle your communication with them.
If they’ve said Yes, then do the following:
Follow up within 24-48hrs. Thank them for their time and share the highlights of your conversation. Share the bright aspects of their business that has you excited to work with them.
A great tip I once heard from a mentor of mine, Troy Dean, is to send a transcription of the call. He says that though this doesn’t provide a lot of value to them his prospects appreciated the gesture greatly.
You must also share what they can expect from you from now on. What are the formalities that need to be completed, how they can reach you etc. I usually use something called a Welcome Packet which is a fancy name for a pdf document that contains the key information. Alternatively, you can use a page on your website to host all of this information as well.
If they’ve not said a yes:
No may mean now is not the best time for them. So don’t write them off. When you send them an email thanking them for their time with you on the call, ask them if they’d like to receive helpful information related to your service. If they agree, add them to an email sequence where you manage their expectations, handle objections and provide steps, tips and hacks that help them get closer to being ready to work with you.
I understand that not everyone who goes through this nurture sequence will convert into a client. However, if you do not add them to a nurture sequence, you guarantee that none of them will convert into a client.
During the pre and post call phases you are leveraging your content to ensure that your leads are educated about you and your brand.
I hope you feel empowered with all the information I’ve shared with you today, and not overwhelmed. Conducting successful discovery calls is a skill that we develop with practice. You can bookmark this post and come back to it often until it becomes second nature to you.
I’ve also created a resource to help you create your content plan with ease. You can watch this video and implement your own 4 week content plan with ease that will make your discovery calls that much more effective.
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Seema Pateel is a Content Marketing Strategist who helps female brand and web designers create better content to double their qualified leads each month and close sales calls without selling hard. She shares her best tips on how to use content to double your leads and to double your income, every single week on her YouTube channel. You can also find her on Instagram.