The #1 Mistake Most Coaches Make on the Phone

Transcription

All right guys, so are you interested in discovering what the number one mistake is that most coaches make on the phone? Specifically with their enrollment calls? Well, that’s what I’m going to tell you about in this episode.

I’m guilty, too

Now before we get into this, I’m a recovering addict of this problem, this mistake. And that mistake is really prevalent in coaches who are teachers, experts, people who love giving advice. And here’s the thing is if you don’t identify and rectify this number one mistake, you could have the most amazing pipeline bringing clients in and rolling calls with you or booking calls with you left, right, and center, but if you are spending most of your calls making this mistake it’s going to be all in vain.

Why sales training is key

So the one thing that I would say is the best use of your time … if you’re somebody who is enrolling clients, right, as a coach … The number one skill you want to develop is your ability to sell. So sales training is probably the best use of your ongoing growth and education. And it’s part of what we do for our health business accelerator clients. We have even more advanced training for our luminaries mastermind on the topics of selling and enrollments.

And, again, when I talk about selling, I want you to, just first and foremost, if you have that image of, “Oh my God, I hate selling … sleazy, sales-y, slimy, all that stuff,” … That’s not what I’m talking about, okay?

Selling is simply closing the deal. Marketing is everything that leads up to that. So the better your marketing is, the less you have to sell. And you still have to know how to sell, though. Because if you don’t, then you’re not going to be able to feed yourself.

So with that said, when people book a call with you, right? A discovery call, strategy call, whatever you want to call it, that is what we call a ‘coaching call,’ it really is … In our case, we call it a result accelerator call because we’re going to help them accelerate their results on that call.

And part of that call is discovering, “Are you a good fit to work us? Can we help you? And if so, all right, he’s the next step, here’s what we’d recommend.” In some cases it’s like, “Well, I don’t think you’re ready for this. I don’t think we can serve you.” And that’s totally fine as well.

The number one mistake we make and what to do instead

But part of this call … The most important thing about this is that it’s a coaching call. And any good coach does one thing really, really well. And that is they ask questions. The number one mistake you wanna avoid on the phone is talking too much. I want you to write that down. Talking too much will cost you more business than you can imagine.

And I am guilty of this because, even to this day, I have a tendency, especially with our coaching clients, to kind of jump in and give advice, like, “Hey, you should try this or do this.” And I have to catch myself because a lot of us are so hardwired as teachers to wanna just give advice and share. On your enrollment calls that’s the last thing you wanna do because it doesn’t serve the client just to give them a couple tips. But also there’s no value in you jumping in and sharing, “Oh, I totally understand. I totally get that. When I was young I used to … ” Just, shh, stop. Just stop talking, okay?

What happens when you let your future client speak

So your goal on the phone is to ask a question and hit the mute button. That’s it. You let the person speak, you let them completely empty whatever they have to empty, in terms of getting the stuff out, and then you come back on, “Thanks for much for sharing. Is there anything else?” Mute. Let them talk.

If you make that one single change on your enrollment calls everything will change in your business. I promise you. Because what this does is it creates an environment … First and foremost, everyone wants to talk about who? Themselves. Okay? So let’s give them the opportunity to talk about themselves and their problems and their desires and their goals and their dreams.

Very few relationships offer this type of intimate, honest platform for discussion. I mean not everyone, but I think on an average, most intimate relationships … I’m talking husband and wife … don’t even have 30, 45 minutes together where they go in-depth and really get into like, “Yeah, tell me more, I’m totally with you,” they’re focused on the one person exclusively and just allowing the other person to talk. So you’re providing people with a safe environment in which they can share. And in some cases you might get people on the phone who start crying, who are sharing stuff with you they’ve never shared with anybody else, and that’s a sacred space. You have to understand the value that that provides to someone.

So even if you’re not giving them the how-to on the phone, that’s not your goal. Your goal is to figure out where they are, where they wanna go, where they’re stuck, and if you’re a mutual fit to work together. And that’s it. Right? The prescription, what you’re gonna recommend to them, is your program, if they’re a good fit and you wanna work with them. And if it’s not then maybe you can recommend someone else’s or listen to a podcast or read this book or whatever.

But, in order for you to create that trust and that bond, you have to ask questions because you cannot tell people that it’s a great opportunity. They have to recognize that for themselves. And the only way we can help people internalize answers is by asking questions.

So this is something, again, that I see time and time again, even our team, our enrollment coaches, we still look at this. We still look at their calls and we see the stuff pop up, and we have to nip it in the bud because a lot of us do have a tendency to talk. So we just have to ask the question, the right question, hit the mute button, let the person talk. Never ask a question without getting an answer. And do your very best to not jump in.

So someone’s talking, you’re like, “Oh, yeah, I totally get that.” And then, no no, don’t say anything. Hit the mute button. Don’t allow yourself to jump into the conversation. When the person finishes speaking, count to three and then speak. “Okay, great. Well thank you so much for sharing that.” So you see what I just did there, that awkward silence, that awkward pause? The person’s gonna think they just kind of lost you on the phone, like, “Hey, you still there?” “Yeah, yeah, I’m here. I just wanted to make sure that you got everything out. And I’m completely listening to everything you just said. So just let me quickly recap what you just told me.” You wanna give people that space to just talk. ‘Cause if they can make it all about themselves they’re gonna sell themselves on your program and working with you.

So that is the one mistake you need to avoid. I promise you if you come into your calls, and there’s obviously other things you have to take care of, but I think if you can come into your calls with the approach of, “I’m gonna ask a question and then shut it down and listen,” you will be far better off than if you just start verbal diarrhea-ing, if that’s a word, all over your prospects. Okay?

What to do if you need help

So, again, if you need help with your enrollment calls, if you want, well in the first place if you want more people to get on the phone with you, and then know how to handle these conversations in a way that is super-valuable for the prospect, and obviously leads to enrollment for you, then we’d be delighted to help you if you fit our perfect-client criteria.

First step is to watch our 7-Figure Health Business Blueprint Training. You can watch that right now over at healthpreneurgroup.com/training. Go through the training, it’s about 75 minutes. And if you like what you see, book a call with us. And on that call, again, we’ll just do exactly what I just talked about. We’ll figure out how we can help you, if at all, where you wanna go, and if there’s a mutual good fit we can tell you more about what the next steps might be. And if not, that’s totally fine as well. Okay?

So that is all for today. I hope you have an amazing rest of your Monday, and I will be back with you on Wednesday for another great episode so don’t go anywhere, subscribe to the podcast today, and I’ll talk to you then.