The Really Obvious Ways To Identify Your Ideal Client Better Than You Ever Did: Discovery Calls

As much as is sounds amazing to let our content on social media sell for us on it’s own, often — and especially at the start — it does not work without the most important element — a personal connection. Messages, conversations and of course — the best of all — connection calls. Naturally this is best suited to coaches, service providers and anyone who sells some sort of package services or programs and operates in the online space rather than face to face businesses.

No, I am not talking about the sales calls here, although sometimes connection calls end up in a sale (my personal conversion rate is 90%).

These connection calls are much more about building trust and marketing research than a sale.

TRUST

What can help you feel the vibe better than talking to the person face to face, in real time?

Social media world is too busy and everyone on it too distracted, so the impact from your posts is also somehow dulled by simple lack of attention. When you send out personal messages, you are acknowledging the real person behind the posts and comments.

When you get that person on a private face to face call, where they can see you and your non-verbal ways of communicating all focused directly upon them, it creates a personal, energy connection between two of you. Which leads to increased levels of trust.

This is why building trust with 15–30 min calls is such a brilliant strategy.

MARKETING RESEARCH

Connection calls are even more amazing as you get to talk to people and ask them specific questions about their struggles and their dreams. They can help you figure out what your prospects are lacking right now, and what is holding them back. There and then, you can see clearly what you can offer.

You can also discover better ways to package your skills to make them desirable to your ideal client. Which brings me to the next point.

LANGUAGE

Even more, you get a chance to tap into the language your prospects use to describe their needs and their dream outcomes.

Let’s be honest, we rarely use the same words to call our solutions as when people we help think they need. It has to do with us knowing the area or skill so much better. We know the terminology, we know the root of the problem, where often people who need those solutions do not even know what exactly they need and they may have some alternative ideas, maybe even too simplistic for us.

On these calls you get a chance to listen on how your potential clients describe their issues and frustrations. Make sure you record all those little phrases and words they use, even if you completely disagree with how they use that lingo. The main point here is that if your paying clients use these words, so will your prospects.

If possible, record your discovery calls and watch them back. Listen to what your guest is saying ( mute your own voice if possible not to get distracted).

Or have a notebook and create a list of those words and phrases to later use them in everything you say on social media, in your newsletters, sales pages & ads.

THE PURPOSE

One thing worth mentioning is to be sure you make it clear about the exact purpose of the call.

If you are connecting to people for research, or to get to know them, tell them that, and name those calls accordingly. This is why I call mine connection calls.

Discovery calls can be used to discover how you can work together, so the name suggests a possible pitch. If you are inviting people to a discovery call, make sure you have a form they need to fill in before booking. In that form state clearly that these calls are to discover if you are working together. This eliminates time wasters.

If you are offering free strategy calls, make sure you help solve at least one specific problem on the call before pitching your courses or services. Do not pitch on these calls. Instead ask them to record the last two minutes of the call, where you ask them how they felt before the session and how they are feeling after the session with you. Use these recordings as your testimonials!

Being honest about what will happen on the call is the number one factor in both build ding trust and your success rate in converting people, even if it has to be another call.

WHAT IF THEY DO NOT BUY

In my experience when you get poor level of conversions you need to ask yourself if the people coming to your calls are clear enough about both the purpose of the call, your pricing (they must at least understand if your prices are 3 figure,4 figure or 5 figure and that you require investment decision to be made preferably on or before the call, especially if you are conducting a sales call. This is not a generic strategy, but to me being straightforward upfront is the best strategy that helps eliminate time wasting and increase the positive results.

Clarity is the key with any calls that may or may not lead to a sale. When you are being clear on who you attract to the call, and what you do on the call, you get a much higher conversion rate. In fact, I get a Yes every time, but sometimes they may not immediately commit and sometimes I just downsell them something more suitable. And my high conversion rates are so impressive simple because I now know exactly who to invite on to my calls as I am very clear on who my ideal client is.

But if you invite just about anyone on your call and you do not prequalify, you are setting yourself up for failure and disappointment. Protect your time and energy and create systems that will work best for both sides.

To conclude, the more connection calls or free strategy calls you conduct, the more you will discover about your ideal client and the more you will be able to attract the right ones into your business.