Wendy McCallum (00:38)
Hello, welcome back to The Coaching Edge. I'm your host, Wendy McCallum. We are gonna be talking about a hot topic in the BBB, which is how to get more efficient and convert better in your discovery or sales calls, whatever it is that you choose to call that first session that you have with a potential client, where you are trying to figure out whether you're a good fit for them and then trying to sell them whatever the program or...
course is that you have to offer. So this comes up all the time in office hours in the BBB, especially with newer coaches who are uncomfortable with sales and who are just feeling like there are so many moving parts in a discovery call and like they're not doing as well with them as they could be.
again, the BBB is my business building bootcamp for coaches. It's a one year membership program with a continuing membership option afterwards. We have this really amazing intimate community of coaches. I coach live twice a week in that group.
We also have master classes with experts every month and there's a huge content library that goes with it. And in those office hours that happen every week, we regularly are talking about how to get paying clients because of course, if you don't have paying clients, you're not gonna have a thriving coaching
So what I wanted to do today is come on and talk about how to do a few things better when it comes to your discovery or sales call. Number one, how to reduce no shows. So I have a few little...
tricks and tips that I use and that I share with other coaches regularly to help them reduce the likelihood that they're gonna get ghosted on a discovery call, which is just so frustrating and
Second of all, how to increase the likelihood that you convert a paying client if the client is a good fit. So I guess in between those two things is another objective, which is how to get more clients on discovery calls that are good fits. So how to screen better.
for discovery calls. We're gonna talk about all of those things. And then I'm gonna provide you with one little option for a different way of doing it that is not a free call, but another way of converting to paid clients through a paid initial
for the purposes of this podcast, for the first part, I'm going to just be assuming that you do what most coaches do, which is offer a free call to
let's talk first about the length of the discovery call.
So if you got a booking button maybe on your site or in your Instagram bio or both places that allows people to book a free call with you, how long is that call? This is something that comes up a lot as well in office hours. Coaches often start either too short or too long. So in my experience, and again, I've been doing this for 15 years now and I have always offered a free call as part of my sales process. 15 minutes is too short and
For me, anything longer than a half an hour is usually too long. The sweet spot for me I have found is 30 minutes. And the reason why 30 minutes works for me is that I have a couple of different objectives in a sales call. The first thing are discovery call. I don't call them sales calls, by the way, and I don't recommend you do. I call it a discovery call or a free initial call or whatever you wanna call it, coffee chat, some of my coaches call it.
But my first objective is to make sure that the person on the other end of the call feels heard, seen, if it's on Zoom. I want them to have an opportunity to actually get something off their chest to really explain what it is they're feeling stuck around or what they're being challenged by. Oftentimes for me, and this is probably the case for many of you listening out there, this is something very, very confidential and private.
This is a struggle this person has been having that they've maybe talked to nobody about before. So I want to make sure I give them a safe space that feels comfortable for them to share with me what it is that's going on that they're looking for support around. That takes some time. I don't want them to feel super rushed through that. I am fairly good at guiding that so that it doesn't take too long, but I want to give them at least five minutes to talk about that, to explain to me where they're feeling stuck and how it feels to be them right now and what they're looking for support around.
a 15 minute call just doesn't allow for that. And for all the other things I wanna accomplish in this call. So 30 minutes for me is the sweet spot. 45 minutes or an hour.
the equivalent of a free coaching session,
work as part of the sales funnel or process, but that's not what we're here to talk about today. Today we're talking about a call where you really, the objective is to figure out whether the person is a good fit and if they are to offer them the next
that's the first thing.
I do want to say
minute calls do work sometimes really well. So for example, if I was hosting a live event where I was actually talking about the program or the offer as part of that live event, like an open house, for example, with the BBB where I do explain the BBB to newcomers and I let them know like what it's all about and give them an opportunity to ask questions about the program. And then we just enter into like a live office hours call where I do live coaching with my existing members and also my new members.
or my potential new members, then a 15 minute call afterwards might be enough because I've already talked a lot about the program and they've had an opportunity to ask questions and get the answers. So it's probably gonna be a more focused conversation and maybe 15 minutes will be enough. But most of the time, 30 minutes is a good guideline for a discovery call in my experience. Okay, that's the first thing. The second thing is how do I reduce no shows? No shows are a big problem.
I hear about no shows all the time in the BBB and especially my newer coaches are just crushed when they book these calls. They get so excited for the discovery call and then the person just doesn't show up. You can reduce the likelihood that that happens. You can't completely prevent it, but you can reduce the likelihood by doing a couple of things. First of all, you can have some screening or intake questions that are associated with booking that discovery call. Make it mandatory that a form gets filled out before they can book the free time to chat with you. And so if you're using like
Calendly or acuity there's an easy way to do that You can set up an intake forum and have it be met the questions be mandatory before they can book in an intake form for discovery call I would probably ask maximum five questions The first question would be tell me a little bit about yourself where you live what you do what your life is like and then the second question would definitely be Where are you feeling stuck right now? What are you looking for support?
around. And then the third question would be something like, what would success look like to you? Or what are you hoping that I can help you with as a
just those few questions are going to give them a feeling of more investment in this call that they're booking. And I think that that helps to reduce no shows when people have taken that step. It also will screen out anybody who's kind of not super serious about it. They'll just bounce.
they won't bother to fill out those few questions. So I think that that's a good thing to do if you're not doing it yet. At a minimum, have some intake questions that have to be filled out before they can book a discovery call with you.
The other thing that you can do to reduce no shows, obviously, is make sure you have good automatic reminders in place for the discovery calls. So make sure that they get an email immediately after booking that reminds them to put it in their
You can also say things like, I only...
schedule three discovery calls a week.
if you can't make it, please give me 24 hours notice or something like that, just to remind them of the importance and then ask them to put it, make sure they put it in their calendar. Send them a reminder the day before, send them a reminder half an hour, 15 minutes before the call starts to let them know the call's starting soon.
That's important, that will help. So if you don't already have that automated, that's an easy thing to set up as well in a calendar like Acuity or Calendly.
Now the next question that I get a lot is, what do I do if I get on the call and they don't show up? What do I do then? My practice is within maybe five minutes, three to five minutes of them not being there, so they're late. I will send an email while I'm on my Zoom call waiting for them. I'll go into my email and send them an email to say, hey, just wanted to make sure you knew where to come. I'm here now and looking forward to chatting with you. Here's the link. And then if it's been more than,
like five minutes, usually the max I would sit on a discovery call is 10 minutes without someone showing up. Normally I've sent them an email from the discovery call saying, it looks like we got our wires crossed. I'm not seeing you here. I'm assuming something's come up. Please use this link to book, to rebook a discovery call at your earliest convenience. I'm really looking forward to chatting with you. If you can't get something in the next seven days in my calendar, let me know and we'll make it happen.
I don't make a big deal out of it. I give them the opportunity to rebook once. I give people one free chance always. And if they do not show up the next time, that's it. But normally they do show up the next time. If they bothered to rebook, they normally do show up the next time. And if they don't bother to rebook, I don't chase them down.
they've either changed their mind or they've realized they're actually not ready for coaching yet for whatever reason, or they're not a great fit for me because the last thing I want is a paying client who never shows up. That's really frustrating. So I do give them one free chance, But then after that, I let them go. And I know that's hard to do, but I think it's an important part of being a coach because it happens
But again, you can reduce the likelihood of that by having those intake questions, making sure you send good reminders and giving them one opportunity to rebook.
here's the thing I do though that has actually really, really decreased the number of no shows. In fact, I don't think I've had a no show in a couple of years for a discovery call. And that is I now actually require people to apply to work with me privately. So whether you wanna work with me around burnout, alcohol or transition coaching,
you need to apply. So instead of there being a booking button that takes them to book a free discovery call,
a booking button that takes them to a very comprehensive form that they have to fill out. It's not too much, but it probably will take you an average of five to 10 minutes to fill it
But the thing that's really important about the application is that it allows me to screen in a really meaningful way, because I ask some very deliberate questions in there, including things
on a scale of one to 10, how serious or how important is it to you right now to solve this problem,
If somebody puts six down there, they're probably not somebody that I wanna get on a discovery call with. They might be someone who I wanna send a link to purchase my self-guided program to, but not somebody who is a good candidate for one-on-one coaching. So that's a really good question and helpful to me in screening. And then the other question I asked that is in-
incredibly helpful and I had great resistance around doing this in the early days.
ask a question about their current level of commitment and investment. there are three or four different options that they get to choose from.
can't remember the exact wording for them, but it's along the lines of
I am 100 % ready for one-on-one coaching and ready to invest a minimum of X dollars within the next 30 days.
I ready to invest in group coaching. I'm looking for group coaching and ready to invest X amount of dollars in the next 30 days. And that would be whatever the minimum buy-in is in the next 30 days for one-on-one coaching,
And for the group coaching, it might be whatever it costs to do the first month of group
Or the other option is I think that one-on-one coaching is outside my reach right now or is not a great fit for me right now, but I'm very interested in self-guided options. And that allows me to filter both for...
like their level of commitment in terms of like mentally and emotionally into coaching, but also financially into coaching. And then that dictates the email that comes from me. Sometimes I'll send them a link to a self-guided option that I think might be great for them. Sometimes I can tell from the application that somebody else would be a better coach for them. And I will refer them to one of the many coaches in my network. Sometimes they seem like they'd be a great fit and I would love to work with them one-on-one. And then I send them a note that says,
looks like we might be a really good fit for coaching. I'd love to explore that further through a free 30 minute call. Click here to book that call. And then they get to book the free call. So you can do this in whatever way feels right to you. And I asked them obviously a lot of other questions around the area they're feeling challenged in, what success would look like to them, whether they've worked with a coach or a therapist before and what their experience has been. All of those questions helped me to figure out whether they are a good fit for me for coaching and
I offer them a discovery call or not.
That all leads to me having significantly lower no shows,
zero no shows, I would say,
but also higher conversion rates because I can then do a better job on the second part of the discovery call, which is establishing value and also deciding on what the right coaching offer is for them, what the right thing is to offer that person.
Because the more information I can gather in advance, the more organized I am for the discovery call, the more ready I am to provide them with really meaningful value. Sometimes I already know when I get in a discovery call what the piece is I'm going to focus in on. that's really helpful to me. Because in order to increase your conversions, you have to do a couple of things better. You have to provide value better, I think, in a call. I am such a fan of doing
coaching in discovery calls of actually providing really meaningful support and coaching in the live call. Sometimes you'll hear people say, no, whatever you do, don't give away your free coaching. Like people should always pay for coaching. I do not subscribe to that. I disagree very strongly. I am such a fan of providing.
really valuable content free. I think it's the absolute best way to build like knoe trust as a coach and for people to feel comfortable actually paying you for support. I am a fan in the discovery call of providing really good valuable coaching. So they leave that call feeling like they got something from it. They're feeling more optimistic, more hopeful, they have a tool or a tactic or maybe a new mindset.
shift to practice, they've got something of value that they're taking away from that call, whether they decide to work with you or not. In order to provide that value, a couple of things have to happen. First of all, like I said at the beginning of this podcast, I think it's important to make sure you provide a very safe container and some space for them to actually articulate the thing they're struggling with right now, get it off their chest and share it, especially if it's something personal and private and something that maybe they haven't talked about very much or at all with anybody before.
There is great value in that, Secondly though, I wanna make sure that I provide them with some really valuable coaching based on the problem that they have articulated. So I wanna get really clear on what that problem is and then I'm gonna give them some good coaching on that. But before I do that, and this is important, I am always going to get them to articulate the value of
dealing with whatever the thing is that they're struggling with,
is the practical and emotional value of that to them? So I want that potential client to articulate for me the value of working with me, right? And the answers are always different, but it's such a good exercise. And here are some questions you
ask to you that you can say, what would be available to you
if this wasn't a problem anymore for you? Or what might change in your life if you were no longer struggling in this area? Right? And I might follow that up with practically speaking, what would that look like? How would that change the way you parent? How might that change the way you show up in a relationship? How might that change how you feel about work? In order to get them to articulate the value of working with
I think really good questions. And I encourage you to start asking those questions if you're not already. Because once they have said that out loud, then it becomes difficult for them not to see the value in the investment of the coaching, whatever the right solution offer is for them that you're going to offer to them. It becomes more challenging for that. They've already bought in, they're already clear on the value of making this change and getting support in this area in their life.
That is a really important piece of a discovery call, is getting the client to, a potential client to articulate the value of making the change, getting unstuck, dealing with the obstacle or challenge, how that would change their life, where it would add value. Sometimes it's like, wow, I would save so much money if I was able to change this behavior, or I would be so much more present as a parent, or I would be so much happier, I'd have so much more joy, or I'd feel so much more peace in my life.
And then you get the chance to say, wow, that sounds amazing. That sounds amazing. I can help you do that. Here's how. Here's how coaching can help you do that. And before I get to the offer, I'm always gonna say, I wanna make sure that I give you something really valuable today, even if I never chat with you again. Have you ever thought about this or I'd love to know what the answer to this question would be or how would it feel if you tried this on for size and give them something that's valuable to
Okay, so now you have given them the space to articulate
you've gotten clear on their problem. You have gotten them to articulate the value of making the change. You have offered them with some really valuable coaching in the actual discovery call. Now, if you're feeling like they're a great fit, you get to make the offer. And this is where people get stuck all the time. And I believe this has a significant impact on conversion
Making the offer should take like,
minutes max. I will say something like, I think would be a great fit. I would love to work with you. I would suggest a six-session program coupled with this online burnout course that I have. I think that's exactly what you need right now. That six-session program costs X and we could start as early as next week. How does that sound to you? So it is quick,
direct and to the point. I don't get into all the bells and whistles of what's included in the course and there's a journal and a workbook and you here's how long the sessions are and all. don't
get into any of that. I just articulate it really quickly and then I ask them how they feel about that. Now, sometimes they'll have follow-up questions. So I might say, you have any questions or how does that feel? And I'll answer the questions in the call or I might say, here's the answer to that question. I'm gonna send you, I'll send you a PDF afterwards.
details everything in the offer or everything in the program. But normally it's a pretty quick, it's a pretty quick piece of the conversation. Now there are two answers when I ask them, how do they feel about it? One is, oh my gosh, I feel great about that. This is exactly what I've been looking for. And I'll say, great, we might as well book the first appointment while you're on the call. Let's see if we can find something next week that works. Do you have a minute to check your schedule? And I will get them in my book for the next week if possible.
right on that call. Do I take their credit card then? No, I have never done that. And anyone tells you that you have to get the credit card on the sales call, I feel like that's like an outdated model of sales. I don't do that. I send them the link afterwards so that they can register, but I do book that first session with them because I think getting that in the calendar increases conversion rates. People are committed. People have taken an action step towards solving their problem. People feel empowered. They're excited. So I will send them the registration link afterwards.
Sometimes they'll say, it sounds good, but I feel like I'd like some time to think about it, or I wanna talk to somebody about it or whatever. And I will always respect that. I am not pushy on that. I will say, if there's an obvious sales objection, so there's something, price objection or something that's coming up, then I might spend some time on that. But if they just say, it sounds really great, I just need to go away and just make sure that the numbers work or figure it out which option is better for me or whatever. I'll say, no, I totally,
Understand that that's absolutely fine. But here's what I do that I think is really helpful when it comes to
conversions. I'll say, and this has to be true for you. If it's not true, you can't say it. That's not ethical. But what is true for me is that I only have certain number of spots in my practice and I do only do a certain number of discovery calls a week. Usually I do one to two calls a week discovery. That's it. And so I'll say to them, that's totally fine. Absolutely get it. I'll send you a quick follow up email after this. Just let me know once you know either way. I'd love it you'd let me know within 24 to 48 hours because
just need to know whether to open up another discovery call slot for next week. I only have so many spots in my private practice. And then I do send them a reminder and they always get back to me and let me know one way or another. And most of the time, like I said, there's a conversion because of all the other pieces of this process that I've talked about. those are my...
best tips for how to improve efficiency and conversions on your discovery calls. At the very least, get an application in place if you don't have one when people are booking, not an application, sorry, an intake forum. But also consider maybe whether an application might serve you, just a more detailed application for one-on-one, especially if you're starting to get busier as a coach. I think that that's something to be thinking about. Now, the last thing I wanted you to talk about is another option for a call that can lead
a bigger sale eventually. And that is a one off paid call instead of a free discovery call. And this is something that I've been playing around with myself and I now actually offer in the business coaching side of things. I offer something called the Clarity Compass Business Audit, which is a one hour call for new coaches who I haven't worked with yet, who are looking for some laser focused support around their business, but who are not ready to commit to anything bigger yet. And that offers
a bunch of value and opportunities for me and also for a new coach. So as a new coach, it gives you the opportunity to get in and just do one hour session with me and get some really specific customized strategic support. You get my eyes on your business. I help you to figure out like where it's worth spending your time right now, where you're spending your wheels unnecessarily and give you a really concrete plan for what to focus on in the next three to six months of your business. It's like a little mini audit of your business, but with some really specific coaching.
I require a very sort of comprehensive little like application before we get on that call, intake form, I guess is a better way to put it, so that I learn the basics of your business, what you're doing, what you're not doing already. That helps me to focus the call, make sure you get maximum value out of it. And then I send an audit report afterwards with all of the things that we talked about summarizing our phone call, but also summarizing my very specific recommendations for you and your business for the next three to six months.
That's $197. It's less than it costs to work with me for an hour in any other capacity. So it's good pricing for that session. Tremendous value for somebody booking it, but also gives me the opportunity to really get to know you and your business, Which then gives me the opportunity, if I feel like I have something more to offer you that might be really, really helpful for you in terms of continuing support or additional support, to offer that to you.
I can do that in many different ways. I can send you an email afterwards or I can actually raise it at the end of the call. I get to decide. But even if that's not, if that doesn't happen, it's just a really, really good opportunity for me to build like no trust with you and get to know you and your challenges so that I can better understand you as my potential client down the road. And then...
provide you with support and value in the call and then after the call, that's warranted. This is the type of thing that anybody can do. And so we've been talking a lot about this in the BBB, how can my coaches start using these like really focused, specific problem solving calls as part of their business model? So for example, if I have a coach who's like an eating food coach, eating coach for menopausal women,
they might want to come up with a program for a one hour.
emotional, intuitive eating reset. I might call it that. One hour intuitive eating reset. Reset your habits in a one hour session. You know, you can't over promise obviously, and you have to come up with something that's really specific. For me, will help you to identify the two to three areas of your business that you should be focusing on it. And I will give you three to five specific strategies for each of those areas in the call, right? So on the intuitive eating one, you would have to
come up with something specific that you're gonna provide in terms of value. It might be like your personalized roadmap to your first week alcohol free. And that's what you focus on in your free session. they pay, I'm sorry, not your free session, your paid session for $97 or $147. I will sit with you, we'll figure that out. We'll come up with a roadmap for you for the first, taking one week off of alcohol, right? Or it might be that you'll help this person tackle like,
we will deal with the, your biggest, the biggest or the most, I don't know how to say this, like the belief that has got you stuck in your relationship. The one thing that is limiting you the most in your relationship, we will identify that and we will problem solve it we will come up with a solution in this one session. So again, it's like really, really focused.
session where there is the value is really clear. It's very clear what you're to talk about, what you're not going to talk about and what they're going to get from this session. And I think that can work really, really well, like I said, as part of a business model. Obviously, no shows are not going to happen because people have made an investment. So in this clarity compass, I don't have non-shows, no shows, because people have invested $197 and they've filled out this intake form and they're excited about the coaching session.
because they know there's gonna be great value in it. So it helps with the no-shows obviously, but like I said, it also gives you an opportunity to really get to know that person and to showcase your skillset as a coach and what it is that you can offer them both in that session and maybe beyond that session in one session and you get paid for it. So that's something that a lot of my coaches have been experimenting with and it's been working well for me. And so I wanted to offer that up as well. I also still do discovery call.
discovery calls that are free. But this is a focused product or offer that I have for new coaches who are not working with me in the BBB, who haven't worked with me before around their businesses, but are looking to get some constructive support and guidance and advice from somebody who does this all the time. So if that clarity audit is something that you think might be really helpful to you.
I would love to meet with you for an hour and I'll put the link in the show notes. And at the very least, you can go and check it out and you can see what that offer looks like. And you can ask yourself, is there something like this that I could be doing in my coaching business and offering my clients or potential clients? Okay, that's it. That's in a nutshell, 30 minutes, I did it. All of my kind of best tactics for improving the efficiency and the conversions of your
discovery calls as a coach. I hope you found that helpful. As always, I love feedback. I love ideas for episodes. If there's something that you would like me to spend more time talking about or something that I haven't covered yet in an episode of The Coaching Edge that you'd love to hear me talk about, me a note anytime. Send me a note on Instagram. I'm at Wendy McCallum Coach or drop me an email at wendy at wendymcallum.com. I would love to hear from you. And I hope that you found that episode helpful and I'll see you next time on The Coaching Edge.
