I’m Peter O'Donoghue, a consultant & advisor to consultants. Enter your email below to get my free "Get Consulting Clients Fast" ultimate guide and video training. And you'll also join 2560+ Consultants to get actionable content on building consulting offers, getting clients and building repeatable marketing systems.
Getting More Client Conversions From The Same Conversations
Do you want to convert more of the conversations you are already having to paying clients?
i.e Getting more from the same effort.
If you've been in b2b sales or client getting for your business, you've probably come across the 'Consultative Sales Model' or even SPIN questioning frameworks.
You are almost certainly following a similar framework in your business.
The scenario goes like this on a sales or discovery call
+ You ask questions to discover their current unhappy state - A
+ You ask questions to uncover their current desired end state - B
+ You seek to position yourself as the bridge between points A and B
Traditionally, the way you go about building a bridge between point A and point B is by looking at specific areas with questions such as:
Every one of those rocks you toss into the cavern is effectively making the need for the bridge between point A and B more vivid, real and urgent.
But there's more...
The same process is also described as widening the gap.
What your brilliant questioning process is doing is widening the gap between their initial point A and B to the new point A and B.
You are effectively widening the distance of the gap. I didn't represent it in my expensively created artists impression above as well as I could.
What we are really doing is creating a new point C rather than widening the current gap between A and B.
Part of the reason we widen the gap is to remove any possible idea from a prospect's mind that they can take a leap of faith and jump from A to B by themselves—without you.
I've been running sales meetings like this for 20+ years. It's effective.
It's also non-manipulative if you truly believe that your service can benefit the client and that by either:
1) taking no action (status quo) or
2) attempting a solution on their own they will be in a worse position than if you acted as the bridge to their desired end result.
But in today's digital-first economy, there are challenges with this approach:
Forgive me but I'm still working on a catchy name for my new model!
What my clients and I have found works really well is to reposition the conversation away from 1 big widening-the-gap session to a journey of small bridges.
Just like before, it is your job to identify the current reality (point A) and desired end state (point B).
But the key difference is to now see it as a journey that has many small canyons along the way. Your route to success is by building small bridges constantly along the journey that closes those canyons.
To do this effectively, you have to have a 2-way dialogue that is like the back and forth of a tennis game. As the prospect opens up to you, shares their stories and gives freely of their information, so must you.
There are many ways to do this and here's 2 starting points for you:
When your prospect tells you something that has been a frustration and you have questioned it you can respond with something like:
"Steve, I hear you and empathise. We hear that a lot. You aren't alone. That's EXACTLY why we built in a condensed on-ramp experience to get projects started on 1/10th of the industry standard and to give you best practice as a starting point instead of asking you a whole load of questions you don't know how to answer. This alone typically shaves 20 weeks off a program timeline. Now tell me, what led to the last project overrunning"
In the above example, you've created a mini bridge to answer one of their challenges and concerns. And when you've done it you've carried on with the questioning process intentionally. When done properly you've created a mini bridge and maintained the momentum of the sales call.
In your questioning process, you should be eliciting stories. Your questions such as:
"Now tell me, what led to the last project overrunning"
are there to get the stories behind the facts of the situation. As your prospect shares these with you it makes sense to share your own stories back.
Everything you need to create a unique position, attract and convert ideal clients and earn more profit in your consulting business.
I’m Peter O'Donoghue, a consultant & advisor to consultants. Enter your email below to get my free "Get Consulting Clients Fast" ultimate guide and video training. And you'll also join 2560+ Consultants to get actionable content on building consulting offers, getting clients and building repeatable marketing systems.