How To Turn a Prospect into a Client

I've made every mistake possible, which caused me much grief and frustration. I learned many lessons during thousands of conversations with prospects over the years.

Those challenges helped me develop a proven sales process that eliminates wasted time with the wrong people and connect with the correct prospects on a deeper level.

Increase Onboarding Percentage

This proven process increased my onboarding percentage from 29% to 75%, and I helped hundreds of my clients improve their onboarding percentage by an average of 21% while reducing their Sales Cycle by 51%. It's taken me over 25 years to Master this process, and I will share it with you in this newsletter.

Onboarding % vs. Closing %

What's the difference?

Words mean things, and how you talk about your prospects and clients determines how you communicate with them. That's why I don't close my prospects; I onboard them.

It helps me focus on a long-term relationship as oppossed to just closing the sale.

The 4 Pillars of the Intro Call with Your Prospect

Before we get into the four Pillars, start with the right intention! If you go to Sell, you will Repel, but if you go with the Intention to Serve, you will attract. Your intention is a little thing that makes a huge difference.

Think about the last time a salesperson truly seemed to care about you. You remember that, don't you?

Your prospects will never remember everything you said, but they WILL remember how you made them FEEL.

Your intention is the foundation for you to build your Proven Sales Process and magenuinerue connections with your prospects.

The Importance of Framing the Intro Call

Everything that happens before your initial conversation with your prospect frames the importance or lack of significance of your intro call with the prospect.

What you say and how you say it is crucial in all conversations leading up to the meeting. However, it's essential to have your LinkedIn profile set up so your prospects can easily visit your profile and gain confidence that you and your solution can solve their problem.

Your profile should address your prospect's primary problem and provide a succinct solution. You should also have social proof demonstrating how many clients you've successfully helped.

Visit my profile to learn more, click on my name Chaz Horn , and see my book, value proposition, and social proof in my featured posts.

When your LinkedIn profile is set up correctly, you'll have better conversations with the right people and avoid wasting time with the wrong people. Your messaging (framing) either builds confidence in your prospects' minds or diminishes you in their eyes because of the weak framing of your meetings.

Understanding the Power of Framing Your Sales Conversations

Would you invest in this painting?

Seeing this painting below might make you believe that a kid painted this, and you see it and walk away with the idea, "That's cute, but not worth investing in."

But if you go to a museum and pay $200 to get in along with hundreds of other people, see this same Picasso in the beautiful frame on a wall by itself protected by numerous security guards, and hear people bidding 10 thousand, 50 thousand, 100,000 thousand.

Your frame (understanding) of the painting changes, and that's the power of framing in Sales and marketing.

Which one of these frames best describes how your prospects value your meetings?

The Key to Turning Intro Calls Into Clients: Mastering the 4 Pillars

Now, you have your intention set, and you're pre-framing the conversation correctly.

It's time for you to talk with the prospect.

Intro calls are a pivotal moment in the sales process. Handled right, they convert interested prospects into engaged clients. Fumbled, and you lose their attention for good.

Mastering the 4 Pillars (The 20-Minute Intro Call)

Pillar 1: Make a True Connection (2-5 Minutes)

The first few minutes of an intro call are all about establishing rapport. This starts by finding some common ground and shared experiences to relate to the prospect as a person.

For example: "Before we get started, I see we both have coached our daughters' soccer teams as they were growing up. That was a fun experience for me. I bet you have some soccer stories; do you care to share?" (Be sincere and curious)

Or:

Ask them about something meaningful in their life: "Before we start, I see you started your Business in 2020; I'm sure you have a story behind how you came up with the idea to start your Business. Do you care to share?"

^^This will help you connect with them, break the ice, and set the foundation for a meaningful conversation based on open dialog instead of you trying to SELL THEM.

Understanding of Subconscious Part Rapport Building:

Matching the prospect's pace and energy in communication is also crucial. Speak more slowly to introverts, and pick up the tempo with extroverted go-getters. Mirroring their speech patterns subconsciously gets them to connect with you.

Invest 2-5 minutes in building rapport before getting into Business. This lowers defenses and makes them see you as someone they know and trust vs. a pushy salesperson.

Pillar 2: Uncover Their Agenda (5 Minutes)

Let the prospect share their agenda instead of launching into a practiced sales pitch. You can uncover this simply by asking:

"We have 20 minutes for our call today or 15 minutes now. What would you like to accomplish in our brief conversation?"

This permits them to share their challenges, goals, and reasons for taking the meeting. This simple question removes the awkwardness of knowing what to say and eliminates your sounding like a "timeshare" type of salesperson pushing your agenda on your prospect.

Listen closely and refrain from assuming so you understand their agenda. Typically, they ask: "How can you help us with your solution?" or "What exactly do you do? How do you help businesses like ours?"

Ask an additional question to clarify and avoid going into the practiced features and benefits of your product/service. That will repel your prospects! You want to understand their needs/wants based on what's important to them, NOT YOU.

Pillar 3: Provide High-Level Outcomes (5 Minutes)

With their agenda stated, now pivot to discussing high-level outcomes your product or service delivers, tailored to what you just learned about them. This is a brief conversation, so avoid getting into the weeds. That will happen in your next meeting. This gives them confidence about you and your solution, potentially solving their problem. That's it!

For example:

"Based on what you shared about [goals/problems], and question about potential ways we may be able to help you."

At this point in the conversation - I will walk through our process with something similar to the following:

Speaking to Prospect:

"Sue, the first thing is to analyze your Sales Process & Marketing Strategy with a Sales & Marketing Analysis to see if I can help you."

"I use the Acronym TTABS to determine the holes in your process and strategy. If you aren't predictably onboarding new clients, I guarantee it's because one or more of these 5 pillars are not in place or not working correctly (T-T-A-B-S)."

"TTABS Stands for...

"Tactics - What you are doing to reach your prospects."

"Technique - How you are reaching your prospects."

"Attitude/Mindset- Nothing happens in business without the right perspective/attitude/mindset."

"Behaviors - The actions you should be doing to move the needle to get specific results, such as number of qualified meetings."

"Strategy- A specific plan to attract and build confidence in your prospect's mind about you being able to solve their problems."

After covering the above, I briefly describe how TTABS helped one of my clients go from a lack of qualified meetings and little sales to onboarding new clients predictably.

After following the process above, I conclude with the following.

"I find the best next step if interested is to schedule a strategy session" (essential to ask and not force). "The Strategy Session allows both of us to get Clarity on what's not working and to understand better the goals you want to achieve, and at that point, if I can help, I'll lay out a customized process to get you from where you are now to reach your Sales Goals."

"If for some reason I determine I'm not the best one to help you. I'll be upfront and refer you to someone else I believe would be a better fit for you; sound good?"

Key Takeaway: These words ^^ delivered with sincerity, the intention to serve, and the right tone, give you Influence in the relationship beyond what you could imagine.

Additionally:

Typically, it's good to go for NO to make them feel comfortable with you and going to the next meeting, and you can do that by saying this after going through the above ^^.

Going for NO - Example:

"John, if you aren't interested in scheduling the Strategy Session, no worries." "Let me know what you like to do and if you have any questions."

Many people are "scared" to go for NO, and this is a little thing if mastered, increases your $ales quickly.

Need help determining the Holes in your Sales Process?

Pick up your limited-time complimentary copy of my book

"The B2B Blueprint To Predictable Sales." Click the picture below to get your copy now.

Turning Intro Calls Into Clients - Continued...

Pillar 4: Confirm Next Steps (5 Minutes) (20-Minutes Total)

Finally, end the intro call by recapping and confirming the following steps while interest is peaked. Schedule a meeting in the calendar and have them accept the invite before the conversation ends. This is essential! Otherwise, you'll waste their time and your time going back and forth looking to get something on the calendar. Their interest will fade, and the likelihood of you scheduling the Discover/Strategy meeting might not happen.

Confirm the next meeting in their calendar before ending the call.

Framing The Next Conversation

Before ending the call, I end with one last step. I have work for them to do, preparing them for the call and ensuring they invest in the meeting. I'll have them fill out a form that further qualifies them, and the information helps give direction for our meeting.

I'll have them listen to a podcast I was interviewed on, The 5 Pillars To Scale Your Business, on LinkedIn. This gives them background information on me/you while building confidence in their minds about my/your ability to solve their problems before the Strategy Session/Discovery Call. I also have them review a one-pager with my client experiences, which helps them better understand how I can serve them.

BTW - I know the question you are asking yourself right now:

"Chaz, do people really do all this work before the next meeting?" Yes, 99% do, and I will reschedule the meeting for those who don't. These steps helped me increase my closing percentage to 75%

**This Frames the following conversation in a Powerful Way**

They now have "skin in the game" and are invested in taking action with you.

Master these 4 pillars, and your intro calls will convert like clockwork. Let me know if any part of the formula needs clarification!

Quickly Identify and Fix the Flaws in your Sales Process?

>>Personal Video Message from me to You

Quiz: How Strong Are Your Intro Calls?

Assess your intro call knowledge with this quick quiz:

1. Do you consistently establish rapport in the first 2-5 mins? Y/N
2. Do you uncover prospects' agenda before presenting yours? Y/N
3. Do you stay focused on high-level outcomes vs. features? Y/N
4. Do you confirm next steps are booked before ending the call? Y/N
5. Do you ensure they have homework to do before the next meeting Y/N