8 ways to help prospective clients sign up quicker – Part 2

Continued from yesterday: 5. Don’t solve their problems before they buy This one sounds strange, because surely we should be proving our worth before our clients buy? So, helping them to take action and commit to working with us. Actually no, very often if we solve our potential client’s problems before they commit to working with us, they don’t need our services any more. Let me explain a little more. Coaches and consultants are particularly good at doing this. In the no obligation consultation, we are often so keen to impress and be helpful, that we do a great diagnosis of the problem and help our potential clients come to solutions and decisions in that 1^st call. Consequently, our clients now believe (whether rightly or wrongly) that they have no need of our services because they believe they are now armed with a solution to their problem. 6. Ask them why they have called Every time a prospective client picks up the telephone to speak to you – or sends you an e-mail, they have a reason to do this. In the fact find stage of the sales process, you need to uncover what this reason is. Not just what this reason is, but what’s the cost to them personally of not using yourself or someone like you to help you with this. For example, if a potential client rang you asking you to review your T’s and C’s, what’s prompted this call? There is normally a good reason. Prospective clients don’t normally suddenly wake up in the morning and think, I know, I’ll engage a lawyer or change my accountant. 7. Find out who the ultimate decision maker is Very often the person who you are communicating too is not the person who is going to be the person who decides whether or not to use your services. I remember, very early on in my career as a business owner, spending time with a partner in a two partner local practice. He was making all the right buying signals, but couldn’t get his other partner to make the time to meet me. You’ve guessed it, I never managed to seal the deal. Early in your conversations with your potential client ask who needs to approve the spend, and what needs to be proved or disproved before the spend can be approved. What would be your 8^th way?