Ep 389 - What To Say To Get Coaching Clients: Discovery Calls Made Easy

MarketingCoaching LifestyleTechnology
Written By Debbie Shadid
 

Are you a coach struggling to get coaching clients and grow your coaching business? Do you want to learn how to make discovery calls easy and effective in order to get more clients and establish a successful coaching career?

In this video, we will share with you what to say to get coaching clients and provide you with valuable tips on marketing for coaches, including how to use social media for coaches to promote your services and attract potential clients. Whether you are a certified life coach or just starting out, learning how to get coaching clients fast is crucial to the success of your business.

We will cover topics such as how to become a life coach, how to start a coaching business, and how to get more clients, including business coach strategies and discovery call questions that work. By the end of this video, you will have a clear understanding of how to get coaching clients online and offline, and how to grow your coaching business into a thriving and profitable venture.

If you are ready to take your coaching business to the next level and get coaching clients consistently, then this video is for you.

If you want help getting your first or next paying client, let's talk. Book a call with me here: debbieshadid.com/schedule

Shop Debbie's Resources for Coaches:

Chapters:

0:00 Mastering the Comfortable Conversation
1:08 Choosing the Right Name for Your Call
3:31 Preparing Your Mindset Before the Call
5:50 Four Essential Questions to Ask Every Client
12:52 Handling Time and Money Objections
17:03 Closing the Call With Ease

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TRANSCRIPT

If you're wondering what to say on your next discovery call so you do not sound salesy and you can actually sign a client, I will tell you exactly what to do today. Welcome back. If we have not met yet, I'm Debbie Shadid. I'm 62 years old, and I help women over 50 build beautiful boutique-style coaching businesses, So today we're gonna talk about the simple steps to getting clients without pressure. Subscribe and hit the bell so you do not miss a thing. Let's have a real conversation about the call itself. Here's the thing. Most women I talk to can get someone to say yes to a chat. Then they get on Zoom, they talk too much, they teach too much, and they don't actually ever invite anyone to work with them. I know you are like, "I don't want to sound pushy, Debbie." I get it, and I'm gonna be honest with you right now. What you need to be doing to prepare for your consultation, to prepare for this discovery call, is you need to be working on leading the call With a very calm confidence so you can have a comfortable conversation that will help them truly see how you can help them reach their goal, and I'm gonna tell you how to do that step by step. All right. Number one, what you call this actual conversation really does matter. For most people, they don't even know what a discovery call is. Coaches, we know what that is. Regular people do not, And it could feel uncomfortable if you don't know what it is you're getting yourself into. And I would say, if you're not booking discovery calls, that might actually be part of the problem because the person on the other end doesn't even know what they would book a discovery call for. I also wanna mention that if it feels like a discovery call feels kinda yucky to you, then that's the wrong word for you to call your consultation call or this comfortable conversation. That's what I like to call it. What is it that you want to call it? If you do not feel like you are helping anyone discover anything, then I wouldn't call that a discovery call. I actually thought about breakthrough calls, and that didn't feel right to me either. And then one of my coaches told me to use the word apply That didn't feel right to me either. I just wanted to be able to have a conversation with somebody. What really truly aligned for me was to ask somebody to have a business assessment because the truth is I do need to assess your business, and we do need to find out what's going on so I can find out where the gap is.

So what I want you to do is this: 2:29

pick the words that feel calm and that feel really true to you so you can have this comfortable conversation, And just to be clear, some people call it a coffee chat, but what I really wanna encourage you to do is to make sure that you're not picking the word coffee chat because it feels comfortable to you. I don't want the person to be confused when they get on the call with you about what they're doing there, and I don't want you wasting your time. I'm gonna be honest with you. Time is precious, and you have a few calls where somebody just wants to chat and pick your brain, and you're gonna find out that you have named your conversation the wrong name, and that's just wasting your time. So let's find the label that really works for you and that helps you feel comfortable when you talk about whatever the conversation is you're going to have. I'm curious, is this landing with you? If you feel weird saying whatever your word is, then change it. All right, number two, I want you to prepare for these conversations. If you get somebody on a consultation call, a discovery call, do not waste this opportunity. It takes 10 minutes before the call to get prepared. Do not fly by the seat of your pants. If somebody has taken the time to get on the call with you, they've blocked their calendar. They too have set aside time that's important to them, and you cannot get back hours wasted. So I really wanna make sure that you prepare yourself and that you are actually treating the person who got on the call with you with respect by preparing yourself. So hear me on this. If you are going to prepare yourself, the question is, how do you need to feel before you get on the call? You need to feel like you've got this, you understand how to do this, that you're very qualified to do this, and that you don't have to sell anyone, that you don't have to sell and twist somebody's arm. This is an important way to approach the call so that you don't feel graspy and desperate from the moment that you get on the call. I wanna make sure that you understand you don't have to offer your coaching to everyone. In fact, don't offer your coaching to everyone. You want to offer your coaching to the right people. And I promise you, if you feel desperate like, "I have to make a sale," the chances of you making a sale is really slim to none. So check your energy, work on your mindset before you get on the call. Find one of those thoughts like,"Everything is always working out for me," so that you can approach the call with confidence. So imagine this. When you approach the call and you're like, "I am just looking for the right people to guide," can you see how much pressure is released off of that? You would not feel pushy. You would not feel salesy. You would start to relax, and the person on the other end will feel relaxed. One last thing I wanna mention about this. is you don't have to work with hundreds of people. You need to work with a few of the right people to have an incredible business, a few of the right people to have an incredible business. So let me ask you this. Who is this person? What is the problem? And can you help them? All right, Number three, four questions that you're going to ask every person on a call. let me start out by saying you need to let the person who is having the conversation with you talk more than you. Now, I have to say, this is hard for me because when I get on the call, if I have the right person on the call, I am so excited about their business. I immediately wanna start telling them what to do and how to do it because I want to help them. I have to tell you, if you give them this much information, what you are actually doing is giving them a Band-Aid when they need to have surgery. They leave the call thinking, "Oh, I just figured out what to do." In reality, they didn't figure out what to do. You gave them a crumb, and they are still not gonna get the full solution. please be careful about coaching on the call, okay? This is a conversation, not a coaching call. Now, I know you might be nervous, and you might have a tendency to talk too much, but just remind yourself, let that person be heard. Because I have to tell you, sometimes you will sell coaching because somebody finally gets to talk. They get to share how they feel, and they're going to feel validated. And who doesn't wanna feel that way? They're gonna feel so good because you're nodding your head, and you're like, "Yes." And that person is like, "Somebody gets me." This is how you sell your coaching. Okay, so the four questions that I want you to ask every time. Number one, what brought you to this call? What was the thing that made you say yes to talking to me? That will tell you why- They got on a call with you. That will tell you what's going on, and then ask them why now?" "Why is now this such a big problem to you? Why is today the day that you were like, 'That's it. I'm getting on the call.'" The second question is to say tell me why this is actually a problem," and then just be quiet. If she gives you a short answer, then you can say, "Can you tell me more about that?" Or you can say,"This is interesting." Or you can say,"Why? Why is this?" You answer questions like that, that get them to open up more. The third question is, what is it that you really want? if you could have anything that you wanted, if it all worked out for you, what would it look like? What do you really want your life to look like? Write down the words that they are saying all along the way, exactly what the problem is, exactly what they want, what brought them to the call. The fourth thing that you're asking is,"Tell me everything that you've tried before," and let her give you a list. This shows you what has not worked and why she still needs your help. She is giving you everything that you need to be able to sell her on your services. And then ask a couple more questions like, "Who else might make the decision with you?" If you're finding somebody saying my partner this, my partner that," you do wanna get clarity around that. If that is the case, if you see that they're gonna have to have a conversation, make sure that you help them with the answers to those questions. what is your partner gonna ask you? And I have to tell you, a lot of times the questions that their partner has is actually the question that they have. Sometimes I find out that we get to the end of the call and I say what is your partner gonna ask you? Let's cover those questions." Once we get the questions covered, they will say, "You know what? It's okay. I can move ahead with this." And they'll say, I'll just tell my partner." And then I find out that's interesting. they didn't actually have the answers they needed to make an appropriate decision, so I actually helped them by answering the questions for their partner. I'm doing that in air quotes if you're not watching. And so let me say it again. This why now, why is it a problem, what do you want, and what have you tried, all of that adds up to you being able to say, "Look, here's what I can do, and here's why now is the time. You even told me for yourself." Now, I know if you're like, "This sounds simple, but will it work for me?" And I have to tell you, if you want more help learning how to do this, if you want more help with all the follow-up questions that are gonna come after you have this conversation, or maybe you're somebody who's like, "Wait a minute, I don't even know how to get somebody on a call. I have nobody to talk to," then let's talk about what we do inside the Business Building Boutique. I would encourage you to have a call with me. Let's discover what it looks like for you to learn how to do these things and to actually create a business with paid clients. That is the work that we do inside the Business Building Boutique. Schedule a time, and we can visit more about that. All right, number four, you want to recap what it is that they've said and then make the offer. And please make sure that you know what your offer is and that you are comfortable talking about your offer. That sounds so obvious and so easy, but it's not. If you hesitate when you make the offer, if you stumble over describing what it is you're gonna do, if you say too many things, they're gonna be like,"Huh?" They're gonna be confused about what it is that you have to offer. You will have made it all the way through the call and then messed it up. So please don't do that. If your person is a match, you've had all the conversation, you've recapped it, you understand, this is it. I've given the words back to her that she said, and all the while, she's "Okay." Here's the last question that you ask. You say, I've just gone over everything that you shared with me. Is there anything else that I'm missing?" You will not believe what people will tell you back. There's always something else that comes up after you reflect back to her the way that you've described it, and this is why it's important to say it in her words, so that they hear it back, right? And then there's always that, "Oh, yes, and also…" So you wanna make sure then that you are like, "Okay, great. Now, here's how I can help you." And make sure that you do not share too many details. Right now, you're just offering to solve the problem. The details, all the details can come later.

So it's something like this: 11:50

based on what you have shared, you came to me for this particular reason, and this is the way you see the problem, this is what you want, this is what you've tried. Here's how I can help you. and that's been the missing piece for you. And then just share that in a couple of sentences, and then just stop. And then if she says, "Oh Then just give her a moment to process it and say what's coming up for you?" Give them an opportunity to ask questions. And then you have an opportunity to share more, or you can say, Where's the question?" You wanna get super clear so that you can really answer their questions. If somebody is interested, make sure that you help them get the clarity that they need. And then share any details that they need to know. Honestly, the details don't really matter. What really matters is that she feels like you understood her, and that what you have to offer is going to fill the gap. All right, number five, what to say about time and money. These two things will come up nearly every single time that you have a consultation, and I wanna help you address those things and anything else that would be an objection before you get to this point. So while you are talking to people through your comfortable conversation, the part where you're exploring what's happening, where you're finding out what brought them to a call. If they talk about time, you wanna make a little mental note of that. If they're talking about not having finances to do what they wanna do, you wanna make a mental note of that, too. Time is something that everyone's concerned about and money as well. So it's important for you to address that ahead of time because the goal of the coaching, and I would say just about every bit of coaching, is to save people time. It's to make them more healthy. It's to improve whatever circumstances, The outcomes are positive in coaching, so you wanna point out the time that they're gonna gain back, and you wanna make sure that you understand how much time it's going to take to work with you, like the work that they need to do with you each week. How much time is that? You should shorten up the amount of work that you give clients because no longer is it useful to give them journaling exercises and all kinds of work. The price that they pay you isn't for the amount of stuff that they're gonna do with you. That used to be important, honestly. Lots of videos that you could give them, lots of workbooks, lots of things to do. That felt very useful. It's not important anymore. What is important now is that you are very concise and that you help people save time, that you get people to a solution much faster, that you accelerate their process. So that's how you handle the time objection, and you need to know how you're going to do it so that you can really clearly explain it. And then when it comes to money, I'm just gonna tell you everybody should have a moment where they pause on money. Unless you are talking to another coach who has already invested in a lot of coaching and they know what it's gonna cost and they understand the process, you should expect everyone else, which is basically anyone you're gonna talk to, to pause for a moment and go, "Huh?" when you say the price. The thing that I need you to do is to know that it doesn't mean anything. Instead of you telling a story to yourself about, "Oh my gosh, she said it was too high," no, she didn't say anything. She paused for a moment, and that pause was a moment to process, to say,"Huh how am I gonna pay for this? What card should I use?" It is not a no, or it's too much, or I can't do it now. Do not panic. Do not offer a discount. Just wait. If you are a confident coach, if you are a coach who's already fully booked, this is your last spot. You state your price. You're not gonna be scrambling around in your mind trying to figure out, how am I gonna make this work? You're gonna state the price, and you're gonna be like that's what it is. I have one spot open, and if you wanna work with me, we need to make a decision today." That is how you would be showing up as a fully-booked coach who's comfortable knowing that you're good and knowing that people wanna work with you. That's how you show up on this call when you present the price. You show up as your future successful self when you make the price. So you're the one who has to work through the pricing objection yourself, not really her. Give them time to think, and don't make it mean anything. Just pause and just wait. And then again, if there's a pause that's too long, you can say, "Okay, tell me what's happening for you. What's coming up?" Because maybe there's a way to work around it. Maybe you can say, "Hey, you know what? I'd be happy to break this up into three payments for you." The main thing is just allow them to come back to you with a, "Geez, I can't do that right now." And then you say,"Okay let's work out a way that you can do that." It honestly breaks my heart when people immediately devalue themselves by throwing out discounts. Do not do that. You are worth it, coaching is worth it, and just go to that future successful place that I just described, and decide to draw the line, and just pause for a moment. Pause with confidence. Number six, close on the call. This is what I'm asking you to do. Have the link ready, collect the payment on the call, and schedule your next time that you're gonna meet. This is not because you're being pushy. This is because it's convenient to both of you. It is convenient while you're right here, all right, if we're moving forward, let's go. Let's get your payment. I'm gonna schedule the call. I'm gonna get your Zoom link. I'm gonna tell you what your next steps are. Help the person feel confident in what they just decided to do, which is take a chance on themselves. Not take a chance on you. They're taking a chance on themselves. They're betting that they're going to be able to do what it is that they want to do to be able to make this change with your help. And then you can say, "Here's what we're gonna do between today and tomorrow." And ideally, you meet them within 24 hours for a quick onboarding call, so again, they feel calm, And they feel sure that they have made the right decision. So you're like, "Okay, before we meet, do this one thing." Also, as a final note, if you have an agreement, a contract, I really wanna make sure you get that taken care of too. What I do on agreements is I actually share my screen and I say, This is the agreement of what I am promising you," and it goes through all of what you're gonna get so you can feel comfortable and confident. Can you see how different that is than, "Here's the contract that you have to sign"? then you have it in black and white right in front of them."I'm gonna work with you this many times. This is how we're gonna meet. This is what my coaching includes." Sure, there's gonna be legal details in there, but they know that, right? They're gonna be looking at it with you. So have that agreement ready and have them sign it. They sign it, you sign it, and you're good to go. If she needs time to still make a decision and you haven't gotten to the closing part where you've collected the money, then schedule a time. Do not hang up this call on "Okay, I'll get back with you later." You say, Let's schedule a time. and then get your time nailed down. If they are still not a yes at that moment, what I really want to say, and I hope you hear me on this, is a no is never a no. Never. Do not give up on anyone. If they came and had a conversation with you, they need the help, they're interested, and today might not be the day, but it could be next week or it could be in two years. They are never a no. So here's the quick recap. You're gonna make sure that you have your head on straight before you ever get on a call. You're gonna make sure that you're comfortable with your offer, with this conversation that you're gonna have. You're going to feel prepared and grounded and calm before you ever get on a call. You're gonna have your payment links ready. You're gonna be prepared to not talk too much. You're gonna know the right questions to ask. You're going to allow them to have time to answer the questions. You're gonna gather the data, and you're going to remember that you don't have to sell everyone. You're gonna make offers to the right people that you know you are qualified to help and that you know are the people that you really want to work with. Then you're going to make the offer. You're going to talk about the price, allow them the space and time to process it, and then, my friend, you are going to be working with your next client. This is how simple it really can be, and I want you to do this with, I call it loose fingers. Don't hold on so tight. You have a unique opportunity to change the world with your coaching, and what you have to offer and the way that you approach it is only meant for a handful of people. That's all you need. So when you have this conversation, when you make this offer, do it with love. Do it because you know you're meant to do this work, and you know that you can change this person's life. That is it, my friend. Have a beautiful day. I cannot wait to connect with you. and make sure you check the links in the show notes. We'll talk to you very soon. All right, bye-bye.

Debbie Shadid https://www.DebbieShadid.com
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EP 388 - Zero Audience? Here is How to Get Your First Coaching Clients