Find out about - Past / Present / Future - to build rapport
What’s the 1 thing you love doing outside of growing your business?
Past – “_ (name)_I was doing a little research on your business. To do the best job in helping our clients it helps to know a little bit about where they are, how they got where they are - where they’re going – understand that every business is unique, I’m curious…”
“How long have you been in the business?”
Tell me how did you:…get into the business…get started in the business…come to be a ______ in the business?
“There must have been a reason why you chose this business, what was the reason you got into this business?”
Present -
“So here you are_(name)__ years later…what is it about the business that keeps you excited / motivated to come in every day?”
Future –
“So, looking forward (name) where are you taking this?” “Sale…expansion – what does it look like?”
The answers to this question will often point to pain indicators and be a nice ramp into a pain step.
(Why it works: Equal Business Stature – this is the kind of conversation two business owners have.)
Purpose of meeting
Confirm meeting length
Prospects agenda (What’s most important to them to cover, What would make it a successful call for them?)
Our agenda (What we would like to cover, need to ask questions etc…)
Outcomes (Define what outcomes we are looking for…. Define what a no would be, and define what a yes would be….) A yes is not always for you to do business together. A yes can be… We move to a strat call, a yes can be we do an audit or mock up, a yes can be we have a great call and decide to schedule a second call.)
Prospects are in a particular scenario today that is costing them money or time (or both) usually. This is why they have reached out. It is our job to determine why they reached out, and determine what problem they are trying to solve
Get to the personal impact of how this is impacting business
Surface level pain
Reasons/causes for the pain
Personal impact (How this impacting the owner or individual)
Prospects have a vision or goal of where they want to be. These are their goals. Need to understand these…
From where the client is today and where they want to be is the gap that we get to solve. This is what we pitch to when we get to strategy
Pain: No inbound Leads
Prospects who are unaware of a problem:
Awareness Question: You aren’t having a problem with generating leads online?
Engagement question: Would it make sense for us to talk about how we might be able to help with generating more “xyz”?
Prospects who are aware of a problem
Scope Questions: How long have you been thinking about lead generation?
Significance Questions: Is this a big deal, or just something you are giving some thought to?
Priority Questions: Is this even on your radar to fix?
Discovery Questions
Multiple Choice questions: Is this due to not currently marketing or because you are just struggling with where and how to market?
Goal Questions: 1. What current challenges are you facing with your business that you need our help with? What is the #1 goal you’re looking to achieve in your business? Why is that important to you? What is the kind of life you hope to create with your business?
Assumptive questions: When you have marketed, what happened?
Acknowledgement questions: Would it make sense to look at a long term solution to generate leads?
Prospects who are aware of a Solution
Personal Impact of Pain: 1. Can’t grow business 2. Spending too much time on marketing 3. Wants to do what they love
Impact Questions: How much time are you spending on marketing the business?
Confirmation/Validation Questions: Based on our conversation, it sounds like you are committed to fixing the lead generation issue...
Questions to uncover pain further…..
Tell me more about that…
Can you be a bit more specific?
Give me an example
How long has that been a problem?
What have you done to try and fix the problem?
Did that work?
How much do you think that has cost you?
How do you feel about that?
Typically when I meet with people they have some idea or have given some thought on what they’re willing to invest to take care of the problems we have just talked about– what are your thoughts
Often what I find is that there are 3 key investments: Time, effort and money – should we spend a minute talking about each one of those pieces?
The only reason I suggest we talk about that now is that I’m beginning to get the sense we might be able to help. What I would hate to have happen is to have you invest your time and energy here – and maybe time and energy from some of your other team, only to get to the end and discover, in fact, that we do have the right answers…but you can’t move forward….and then you’re frustrated…and I want to help you avoid that.
(NOTE What did you just say in code: You see these things…we call them objections…I have NO interest in dealing with them at the end. Can we do that now?)
(Start with WHEN instead of WHO)
What’s the timeframe for you to start working on this and WHEN were you hoping to have these issues solved?
Why are those the dates/ why is that the timeframe
What’s the process that you guys go through when you make a decision like this?
What do you guys need to see from us to be completely convinced that we’re the partner for you on these issues?
What do you guys need to see from us to be completely convinced that we’re the partner for you on these issues?
When you go to make a decision like this – WHO helps you out making the decision?
Anyone else
In order to make sure that our solution precisely meets your needs, I’m going to need to meet with / visit with _________. How do we make that happen?
What are the chances when you talk to your boss (partner etc) they’re gonna have some questions?
Can I ask – why would you put yourself in harm’s way? A lot can go wrong with this strategy...can I make a suggestion…why don’t you bring me in – you don’t have to jeopardize your political capital…and I can take the slings and arrows for you...that way, if it’s a dumb idea – it’s not YOUR dumb idea – it’s MY dumb idea – does that make sense to you?
Present to pains and show how we solve the problem
Temp check (objections)…. ½ way through presentation temp check. This allows us to know where we stand and if we need to tweak our current path we are on
(summarized and then….) Any reason why we wouldn’t get started?
Is there any reason you don't see us doing business together?
What are next steps?
When would be a good time for your kick off call?
Does everything that we’ve talked sound like it would be of value to you and your company?
Have I not covered anything that you were hoping I’d cover?
How can I earn your business?
Next steps
