Spoiler Alert: Don’t look ahead to the follow-up. You’re going to get dinged.
Whoever tells you they’ve by no means been ghosted by prospects is mendacity. There, I stated it.
As a result of that could be a reality of life. Leads, prospects, prospects, and particularly high-ticket consulting purchasers ghost us. And that occurs regardless of our greatest effort to serve.
It’s a greater drawback when ghosting occurs firstly of the consulting gross sales course of. Prospects want tender loving care.
Tread evenly. And you have to give prospects causes to need to have lunch with you.
Repeatedly.
… and extra.
Take word. By no means ever deal with your prospects like idiots. They do know just a little about you and your 1-Man consulting observe.
Hey of us, keep in mind the web?
That is the rationale you have to tread evenly. You need to discover out what precisely prospects find out about you.
Get into your first prospects assembly, face-to-face or on-line, like a curious teenager on a blind date. Be respectful. Put up your finest habits.
Above all else, ask what they find out about you.
I’m not kidding once I say this. I’m all the time shocked by their responses.
One feminine prospect, many months in the past, instructed me that Angeline (my ex-colleague) really useful me 5 years again. What she stated shocked me.
“I heard that you’ve a fame for following via. That’s what I search in consultants.”
And that was it for our 1st lunch appointment.
I assume you might have 3 conferences with prospects to maneuver them from a state of uncertainty to a state of consulting gross sales certainty.
Chances are you’ll take 2 conferences for in-depth discussions and a couple of catchups to shut the sale. That provides as much as a complete of 5 discussions.
That’s superb.
The size of the consulting gross sales course of is dependent upon the business you’re in and the providers you render.
You by no means get a second likelihood to make a terrific first impression. Inside a couple of seconds, with only a look, folks have judged stage of success, expertise, intelligence… Though these evaluations occur immediately, they’ll final for years
― Olivia Fox Cabane
Oliver is correct. Nobody is exempted from 1st impression judgment. Not even the brightest 1-Man consultants.
Thus, you have to show that you’re sharp. And no, you don’t try this by extreme speaking.
You do these 3things.
- You ask questions
- You shut up
- You pay attention
These are the questions that you must ask.
- Why are we talking?
- What consulting providers curiosity you?
- How can we transfer on from right here?
These are forward-looking questions. Your prospects’ solutions, it doesn’t matter what they are saying, will carry you to the following assembly.
“I’m trying to digitalize my plant operations, and I see you might have such experiences on LinkedIn. Subsequently, I’m right here.”
Intention + understanding what they came upon about you = Alternative
“In case you can inform me what business you’re in, I can customise a product demonstration to point out you the way it works and the Returns-of-Funding you’ll get. How is that?”
1-Man consultants share one factor in widespread. We glance to the long run.
And our prospects are attempting to be future-oriented. Nonetheless, they’ve their knees deep in present practices and operational constraints.
Present how they’ll escape of their operational cocoon and evolve into the long run within the second assembly. And with ease.
It can lead us to a business dialogue the place prospects turn into prepared to purchase our consulting providers.
This can be a essential juncture. Go gradual to go quick. What do I imply?
When prospects ask you for the worth of your consulting providers — Don’t give it to them. Not at this stage.
Why so?
As a result of it could scare them off.
That is what you have to do to maintain the prospects within the dialog.
- Share your business mannequin — Month-to-month subscription, 1-time, and many others
- Ask them for his or her working finances, and also you reply accordingly
Present them which you could deliver them to the long run with ease, adopted by explaining the parts of your provide. You do that to assist them measurement up the finances.
Plus, going gradual at this stage helps them perceive how your business mannequin works. Bear in mind, they’re ready to safe a pool of cash from their Chief Monetary Officer (C.F.O.). Not you.
Sure. At this stage, deal with the prospect and the C.F.O. standing behind them.
The invisible C.F.O. can break your consulting deal with out you understanding.
That’s life, of us.
The way you current your proposal issues greater than the proposal choices themselves.
You want time to suppose and stroll via your presentation stream. I imply it. That is the stage the place many prospects flip into ghosts.
The third assembly is sort of a cup of Americano. It’s bitter since you are yanking cash out of their pockets. They hem and haw. Sweat beads on their cheeks kind rivers of perspiration.
It is advisable go them sachets of sugar. By ‘sugar’, I imply the persuasive phrases we use in the course of the proposal presentation.
Keep away from saying low cost.
As an alternative, say I’ll put a refund into your pocket when you signal with me at present.
Overlook saying the price of buy.
Say Seeding funding with anticipated future R.O.I. of X%.
Don’t say Choice 1, Choice 2, and Choice 3.
Use Lite Pack, Customary Pack, and Premium Bundle.
This isn’t the stage for jabs. You want 800-pound left hook punches. All the things you articulate within the third assembly have to be delivered to your consulting prospects with an impression.
Whenever you sound convincing, your prospects can be satisfied.
There are too many ghosts round you? Yeah, I get that.
We study. In actual fact, 1-Man consultants should make investments time and power into the gross sales conversion course of.
We’ve a skillset bias. We predict our skillset sells.
That’s inaccurate. Our potential to promote sells.
We should maintain the consulting gross sales funnel watertight. Each assembly have to be designed to deliver our prospect to the following stage.
Bear in mind this.
A excessive dropout charge = Wasted effort = No consulting offers
That isn’t an end result we need, is it not?
