Position Discovery Calls: From Free Sessions to Paid Clients

Welcome to Live With The Pricing Lady.

I'm Janene, your hostess.

This show is all about helping you build a sustainably profitable

business while making an unbelievable impact on your world.

Learn from my 20 years of experience and from my guests as we discuss their pricing

challenges, failures, and successes.

Pricing is a way of being or behaving in your business.

My mission is to help you confidently charge for the value you deliver.

Pricing is either hurting or helping your business.

Let's make sure it's helping you reach your dreams.

In this episode of Live with The Pricing Lady we're talking about going from

free sessions to paid clients, how to price and position your discovery calls.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy the episode.

Welcome to this episode of Live with The Pricing Lady.

I'm Janine your hostess.

Today, we're going to be talking about discovery calls.

What I mean by discovery call are those first calls you

have with potential clients.

Early in my own business.

When I approached these calls, it was more with the goal of trying to prove myself.

Quite often I would do coaching during those sessions and give tips and try

to prove myself, prove my own worth.

As someone who can give them good advice.

And there came a point in time where I realized, first of all, I was spending

way too much time on these calls.

I had the call scheduled for an hour and it was consuming a lot of

my time and I wasn't getting a real good return on investment in that.

And the second thing I found was that I would sometimes even overwhelm a

potential clients with my enthusiasm.

We've all been on the receiving end of that.

More importantly, I realized that I wasn't really listening to the

customers and understanding what their problems we're, and then trying to

understand how I can best serve them.

That is when I decided I needed to shift my whole mindset.

Now, this is something I see with a lot of my own clients, that they

have the wrong impression about what these discovery calls are about.

That's what we're going to talk about today, as well as whether or not

you should be charging for yours.

Let's start with the first thing here, which is really shifting your mindset.

If you're in that position, or if you found yourself similar to me where you

were using those calls to try and prove yourself by actually delivering coaching

or delivering coats culting during the call, then it's time for a mindset change.

The objective of a discovery call should be to vet the client and understand

if this is a good fit for both of you.

Yeah.

There are potential clients out there who it's not a good fit

for the two of you work together.

And rather pretending that it is, and you both struggling with it or one

or the other, you struggling with it.

It's really important that when you have those calls, you look at what that fit is.

You want to shift from free coaching or free consulting to what I call

diagnosis, understanding their needs and understanding whether or not

you, what you offer, the way that you do things is fit for purpose.

When it comes to working with them and helping them achieve their goals.

If you are doing coaching or are doing consulting in those first calls, you

definitely, almost definitely should be charging for it in my experience, but

we'll come back to that in a few minutes.

Shifting your mindset here.

It can be really hard.

It took me a little bit of time to get there.

But the first thing that I did was I cut the time for those calls and half, right?

So those calls are now 20 to 30 minutes.

That's it?

Because as I said before, I was using a lot of time for those calls and not

getting a lot of return on investment.

So I needed to make sure that I was doing the right things in

those calls in the right way.

And by shifting, you know, just the duration of the call, it left me less time

to do those things that I to so naturally, because of course I want to be able to

help people, but weren't really serving myself or the client in doing them in

the way that was at the time that I was.

So we want to focus the call a diagnosis, understand their

needs, understand the flit fit.

Between the two of you, is it a good fit?

Sometimes it's not.

You know that right away and you need to, you know, the best thing you can

do for the client is in them somewhere.

You may also be helping them get some clarity on what their needs are

and understanding what their goals are or what it is they think you

can help them with the most, right.

And you're going to highlight the outcomes of the call, which I

really clarity for them and next steps as well as how you can help.

The second learning was being able to structure the calls.

My first approach was kind of loosey goosey.

I just got on the call with the person and kind of let it go where it wanted.

Then when I switched what I was doing I had six questions.

Six questions that I wanted to ask.

And that was it.

With those six questions, I had enough information to be able to understand

their needs, the fit, and whether or not, I thought I could help them, and how.

What I did is I set myself up a little outline for the call

and was very clear with myself.

About what the structure of the call was.

So the open the call was some sort of two to three minutes, intro setting

expectations and helping them understand what we're here to do, and be very clear

about that, this is not a coaching call.

We're here to understand your needs and if this is a good

fit for us to work together.

And if it is that I'll share with you.

You know what that might look like.

You know, so be very clear and concrete in those first few minutes about the

purpose of the call and the structure.

I have six questions.

I'm going to ask you.

There'll be time for you to ask questions and then I can.

You know, understand how we could work together and share that with you.

Is that okay for you?

Is something I might say in one of these calls, right.

Being very clear in those first two to three minutes.

What the call is for and how it's going to go.

Then you go into the exploration phase where you ask your questions.

Now you may ask more than six questions.

I use six questions or I have six questions prepared, quite often

by the second or third question, the person has already answered my

other questions, but that's okay.

They're there.

If I need them.

And if I don't, then I can move on to the next thing.

Having those questions to give me a guide for exploring what their

needs are, why we're here, why it's important now, how critical is it to

solve this within a given timeframe?

Why they think I might be the best person to help them.

Those are the kinds of questions that I ask in that exploration phase.

And then there's a transition point.

So you've asked the questions.

Usually I repeat back some of what I've heard from them using their words.

If I can.

To make sure that I've understood correctly what they're saying.

I asked them if there's anything that they haven't mentioned

that they think is important.

That's usually my last question.

In terms of the six.

And then I'll ask them, okay, what questions do you have?

And quite often what happens in my case is a like, well, I'd like to

know what kind of offers you have.

And then there's a real natural transition into talking about the offers.

And here's the point where, you know, if that doesn't happen, then I can

say, well, I think I can help you and this is how would you like to

hear about the types of offers that I have or how we might work together.

And I leave that to them to say whether or not they want to go there or not.

If it's somebody that I don't think is a good fit.

Then of course I will share that with them.

I might have suggestions about other people they could work with

or something they might need to do before they come work with me.

It depends on the situation.

I've even recently had a client that, I felt like maybe they might need help on

a broader scale, not just with pricing.

And so I brought that to the table and I said, you know, if

that's really what you need.

I suggest you reflect on whether that's what you need.

And if so, I may be able to recommend some to someone too, but if you really

want to focus on The Pricing, then absolutely you're in the right place.

And that was, you know, I think helpful for them to understand that.

I saw that.

And I understood that and gave them the opportunity to reflect on that.

They decided to work with me anyhow.

And I was super excited of course, to start that work with them.

But my point here is that I feel being open and honest and trying

to do what's best for them goes a long way in, in these calls.

The last step in this call is to talk about what the next step is.

For example for a lot of my clients it's okay, I'll send you

a written version of that offer.

And I'll follow up with you.

If I don't hear from you in the next three to five days, I'll follow up

with you to confirm that you got it and find out if you have any questions.

For example.

If it's an online offer, you might say, okay, I'll send you the link or if they

can pay right away, would you like to pay by e-banking or credit card or,

you know, whatever the call to action is, the next step is be very clear

about that before you get off the call.

And that is basically the structure that I use for my calls.

When I shifted things over, that's where I went to and I do all that in usually about

20 minutes with my clients, sometimes 30.

I find that there's no need to drag the call on for a longer period of time.

I can do that assessment and understand the situation well enough in 20 minutes

to be able to make a judgment call.

In the cases where I can't for example, when I do consulting projects,

bigger projects, then oftentimes we need a little bit more time

because we need to scope the offer.

Scoping the offer, we'll come back to that in a minute, because I

think there's an opportunity and a consulting context to charge for that.

And I'll share more with you about why I think that in a moment.

But that is, you know, a time where you might need maybe 45

minutes to an hour to be able to,

Where you might need 45 minutes to an hour to be able to understand the

scope enough to determine how you can best serve them and what type of offer

you might, you might present them.

We've talked about why it's important to position these calls in the right way.

And to shift your mindset from, proving that you're a great coach

or a great consultant to vetting and helping them get clarity.

Now I want to talk about transitioning from free to paid.

I think first of all, it's sort of tradition in many industries

for these calls to be free.

I think that's also a good reason to keep them short as well,

unless you need it to be longer.

Because of course it's your time and effort and energy

that you're putting into it.

And quite frankly, even helping a client get clarity on something has value.

While you could do it for free, you can charge for it.

I know many clients who charge for these initial calls with their clients.

Now, some of them, in some cases, these fees that they charge, which

are usually nominal, meaning not super high, as a way to weed out

people who aren't really serious.

That can be a great tactic, especially as your business grows.

If you find yourself, having a lot of these calls and many of them don't

turn into business, it might be a good step for you to charge something for

them, because then you weed out those people who aren't really serious and not

really to put a little bit of something.

Money into it, even to have that initial call with you.

And sometimes you charge a full fee for it.

I think, especially in consulting, as I said, there is a real benefit to being

able to scope a project for a client.

That takes talent, one.

It takes knowledge, two, right?.

It takes an expertise.

If I'm doing a big pricing project, I know what things they might need to look at.

I know in what structure.

I know where the hiccups might be, and that's something that a lot of

clients don't necessarily know and why they come to people like me.

That scoping phase can be a real service that you perform for them.

And I know many people who charge for those scoping fees.

And often what they will do is if it's a bigger project later on, then they'll

give a credit back for part or all of that fee that they charged upfront.

If if the client does a certain size project with you.

I wouldn't do it, if you are a coach and someone has a call with you and

they pay for that first session and then they order another session.

I wouldn't start comping them already.

I think they need to do a bigger package with you before

you give them credit for that.

That would be my only word of caution around that.

I would encourage you to, to give it a try, see how it works in your

business and see how you can utilize it.

What's important is if you're going to be positioning the call as a free call.

Then you're going to talk about how this call is there to

determine how we can work together.

It's not a free coaching or consulting call.

You want to be very clear about how you position it.

Whereas, if it's a paid call, you want to lean into the value that they're going

to get out of it, which is the call is designed to give you clarity on goals

and on the actions you might need to move forward to get towards those goals.

Right.

So the it's really an investment in clarity and action, as opposed just

an assessment of, are we a good fit?

I think that's a really important distinction in there.

I want you to take a look at your own discovery calls and

how are you positioning them?

Because right now you might be that you kind of mixed it in there a little

bit, and it's not real clear to you and or your clients, what that call

is about or how you're positioning it.

Take some time to think about that.

Those are the three learnings that I've had around discovery calls in my own

business over the past seven plus years, I still can't believe it's been that long.

Let me summarize.

The first was about shifting your mindset and reframing how you see

the call so that you can be clear about what the call is about when

it comes to talking to your clients.

Remember, the discovery call is a diagnostic tool.

And especially important is that you are vetting them, you know, understanding

their needs and understanding if it's a good fit for both of you.

If your discovery call or your type of initial call with a client is more

value-driven where you're giving them clarity on goals and actions, then you

may want to consider charging for it.

You want to have a very clear structure for yourself for these calls?

What happened for me is I set up that structure.

I used it for awhile and now I don't even think about.

I still have my outline.

Quite frankly, still have my outline, but I don't go there.

And I don't really look at it anymore unless I'm having an

off day and me to refresher.

It comes more naturally to me.

And that's what you'll find.

You may need that outline for awhile, but with time it just comes more

naturally to you and it's easier.

But it's important up front that you use such a tool to help keep you in

line and, and so that you can be clear.

More clear with your clients when you're establishing the purpose of the call and,

and managing the flow of the call as well.

Now, if you decided to transition your calls from free to paid

or paid to free either way.

You want to make sure that you're focusing on the right thing.

If you're going from free to paid, you want to shift your focus to the value that

they're going to get out of that calls, which is usually clarity and action.

If you're in consulting, it might be scoping.

Yeah.

Which is a little bit more than clarity and action.

And I would encourage you to consider how you want to go about charging for that.

How much is a good question.

I would think about the value.

What's the real value.

You know, do they have the in-house know how to be able to scope it for example.

And if they don't, what would it cost them to be able to have that?

And you can use that kind of understanding as a point of value to compare to,

in terms of what you might charge.

At this point in time, what I do is I invite you to take five to

10 minutes to reflect on what your doing in your discovery calls.

So reflect back on the things that we've talked about here today.

And look at what you're doing.

Are your calls focused on clarity?

And action.

Are they focused on scoping?

Is it focused more on assessing needs and fit?

And is there an opportunity for you to be charging for that?

Or is there something different that you need to be doing if you are coaching

during those calls and it's clear for you that it's time to make a change there.

Then what do you need to do in order to make that shift?

Think about it, write down, saving.

And of course, you're always welcome to share it with me.

That's all for today's episode of Live with The Pricing Lady.

I've hoped that you have enjoyed this.

If you have any questions at all, please reach out to me

at The Pricing Lady dot com.

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com you can download a copy of my Self Assessment Pricing Scorecard.

Find out where it's going well and where you can begin improving.

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Thanks once again for joining.

Remember, pricing can hurt or help your business.

Let's make sure it's helping you reach your dreams.

See you next time and as always, enjoy pricing.