Many of you read my blog post on Why Free Sessions Don’t Work (Click here if you want to read that article) and asked me “so if free sessions don’t work, how do I entice people to work with me?!”

The answer is multi-fold, but one of the best ways is to offer a complimentary Introductory or Discovery Session – either in person or by phone – where you can bring your potential clients through a series of specific questions to help identify whether you can make a significant difference with them.  This is a mutual exploration, and the key is that they will walk away with huge value and clarity whether they work with you or not (just like they would with a free session) AND it will determine clearly whether you both mutually want to work with each other.  Yes, you want them to walk away with value no matter what and it’s really important that they are clear that it is a session where you will explore working together.

Now, clearly “Introductory Session” or “Discovery Session” just isn’t a sexy or inciting nor does it really tell people what they will be getting from meeting with you.  So the first thing you’ll want to do is develop a name for your Intro Session that is congruent with the transformation you provide with that session.  As an example, I offer complimentary Business Breakthrough Sessions.   In these sessions people get crystal clear about where they are in their business, where they want to be, the gap between those two, and some strategies on how to fill those gaps AND if I am the right person to help them fill those gaps, it provides a platform for that discussion.  Here are some examples of what my clients call their Intro Sessions:  “5 Step Marketing Assessment”, “Purpose Discovery Session”, “Business Boost Session”, “MAMA Breakthrough Session”, and “Business Expansion Session”.  Hopefully, that will give you an idea on how to get creative in naming these sessions so that they intrigue and attract your Divine Ideal Client.

How to develop the questions for your Intro Sessions

I’ve developed the BIICR method for Introductory Sessions to help make the session a powerful “yes” or a powerful “no” for you and the client.  This will help you be more discerning on who you work with and also will help you enroll clients when it is a powerful “yes” for both of you.

Here is the Formula:

• Background questions – questions that help you get clear about what has happened in their lives that has brought them here to have this conversation with you.  These are the basic questions you may want to ask to have a solid foundation for your conversation.
• Issue questions – questions that help you get clear about the issues, challenges and pains that they are experiencing that you may be able to help them with.
• Implication questions – questions that help you ascertain the impact of these challenges on their lives, their stress, their bank account, their relationships, their happiness – both in their present condition and if this were to change (how would that effect their lives, stress, happiness, etc).
• Commitment questions – this is a question or questions that help you ascertain how committed they are to solving these issues/challenges/pain in their life.
• Resolution questions – putting options in front of them, in the form of a question, that could potentially resolve their challenges and move them forward.  These will help you be clear on whether there is a clear opportunity to work together or not.

The last question I always ask is “What do you need to know for this to be a powerful “yes” or a powerful “no”.  At this time, they usually ask about how you work with people and what the investment is.  Ahhh…how nice for them to bring it up and not you!

After you have brought them through this sequence, it could be as easy as that!  And sometimes you will get some resistance around money, time, etc.  This is a topic for another day, but know that desire has to be 10x that of resistance (at least) for people to say powerfully “yes” to something, and that either means getting them very connected to their desire (so their resistance melts away) or to lessen perceived obstacles to lower their resistance.

I’d love to hear what you think of my BIICR system and what works for you when you do your Intro/Discovery/Sales Conversations…and what gets in your way.

With appreciation,

Tara Butler Floch