How To Pick Up The Damn Phone and Why It’s So Important

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How To Pick Up the Damn Phone and Why It’s So Important

I’m Jeffrey St Laurent with SellingCoaching.com and today I’m going to teach you why it’s so important to pick up the damn phone!

If we want to get clients and become more effective at that process it’s so important that we understand we have to pick up the phone. It’s an imperative and an absolute must in our business. We’re on the phone 100% of the time for our coaching clients, why is it that it’s so challenging for a lot of us to pick up the phone to actually call that lead to convert them to a client?

Let’s take a look at this a little bit and understand why it’s so important and hopefully help you with a little bit of dialogue and understanding of why so you can do it more effectively. So first let’s look at the situations of why we would pick up the phone, and when we’d want to do that.

First let’s look at the ‘why?’ why it’s so important is because on the phone creates that back-and-forth dialogue, and energy, it moves the process from getting leads to getting clients a lot quicker than it would if you are going through with that virtual communication which is typically where it starts off from.

Today we live in a virtual world. A virtual world of communication – it’s email, it’s Facebook, it’s texting and that’s a very effective means of communication at least to start off with. In order to transition from that virtual world into business, a lot of the times that phone dialogue is the one thing that’s not only going to move it a lot quicker, but it’s going to make it a lot more effective as well.

In a lot of my videos you’ll hear me talking about the importance of us getting out there doing live events, whether it’s live on the phone or live in-person events, and the value of that being us creating that energetic exchange, us being in front of people so they can feel our energy, they can see who we are, they can hear our message, they can connect with our message, and that building instant level of trust even people that you’ve never seen or met before.

This instant level of credibility, trust is important for them so they can see a part of themselves in you, or see a part of themselves in you that they want to become, get a feeling and a real knowing inside that you are the person that could assist them with where they want to go in their world. That’s why live events are so so important.

The phone is exactly the same thing. When you’re talking to someone on that phone, it’s that live energetic communication you get a good sense or people will get a good sense of how the energy flows back and forth between you and them. They may not even be in the know that they’re going to hire you or they are going to work with you right then and there, but that always begins that buying process for somebody.

It’s when they’re having that dialogue with you, when they’re creating that energetic exchange, I talk about that energy a lot. Energy is something that can’t be defined by words or the tone, energy is like 55+ percent of communication. Energy doesn’t lie. Energy is just out there for us to absorb and to feel.

That creates a gut feeling for somebody. And when there’s a great energy exchange between you and a potential client, that client is much more likely to buy. So that’s why it’s so important that we pick up that phone. It’s that means to move the process along quicker, through everything that I just explained in terms of that energy exchange, and then really getting more comfortable with you a lot sooner.

Now that we understand why we want to pick up the phone, let’s look at WHEN we pick up the phone. We don’t want to just pick up the phone at any time, we don’t want to just pick up the phone for every lead that we have, we want to pick up the phone for a lead once we understand and once we see what I call buying signs.

In one of my videos – The Top 9 Rules To Following Up, one of the things I talked about, one of the rules was “Seek buying signs”. A buying sign is something from a potential client that you see where they’re definitely interested or you can see that they’re interested in learning more about your product or your service.

Once you see a buying sign like where the person says: I’d love to talk to you a little more or I’d love to learn more about X, Y, and Z, or I’m definitely looking for someone who can assist me right now in my life. Those are buying signs. When you see one of those buying signs, if I get one of those in an email or a message, I am on the phone now!

That’s when I pick up that phone. If I don’t have that person’s number, if it came through Facebook or if they’re on Facebook, I will check quickly, a lot of the times in the “about” section, people will list their phone numbers. I will call the person up if I get their number that way. Otherwise if I have their number already, I will call them up.

If I don’t have the number as I was saying, I will email that person back and I will say something like “Hey listen, what’s your number?” Or give me the best number to reach you at. I’d love to give you a call right now if you have a moment. I’d love to talk a little bit more about your inquiry about one of my products or services. I love to find out a little bit more about what you’re talking about, what’s the best number to reach you at? I have a few minutes we can talk right now.

The great part about that is it’s not only you asking them for their number, but it’s a great what I would call a trial close, meaning if I ask you for your number and you willingly give it to me and you know that as a result of you giving it to me I’m actually going to call you up right then and there, that’s a great another big buying signal, cause that’s telling me that the customer’s interested enough to send me their number, and that they want to talk to me.

Think about it for yourself, if you’re not really interested or more, let’s say on the curious side of buying a product or service that you’re looking at, and that person says; hey, I want to talk to you, send me your number, if you are in the more, less interested side, or more curious side, why would you want to talk to that person? You know, because you’re not quite there yet, or you’re not really that serious. So I don’t really want talk to that person in that situation. But if I am serious, and I really want to learn more, I’m more than happy to give that person my number, I’m more than happy to create a dialogue on the phone with that person.

So that’s why when you ask for the number, if you don’t have it and they give it to you willingly, that’s a great confirmation I’d say, that they’re definitely interested or they’re a lot more serious than curious and learning of potentially buying your product or service. And as I said, if I have the number I’m just going to call that person right up. Or if they give me their number, I’m going to call that person right up.

A lot of the times I do that the person’s not expecting my call. But if we’re creating a back-and-forth dialogue on email, even if especially it just has happened, or even if an hour or more went by and I call that person, and they pick up the phone and I say; hey, it’s Jeffrey St Laurent. Every time I’ve done that, the person’s surprised but surprised in a good way. They’re like; oh wow, yeah we were just talking via email, or oh yeah, it’s great to hear from you.

I’ll get a dialogue and I’ll just say; hey listen, I know you are inquiring about this, so I just wanted to talk to you and learn a little bit more about what you are looking for. I wanted to talk you little more and find out where we were you at in terms of maybe purchasing my book, or I know in your email you said that you’d love to talk more, I’d love to talk a little more about that. Tell me about that, tell me what you’re looking for, tell me what you’re interested in.

This is coaching, isn’t it? The only difference is, this is sales. This is selling coaching. So in this it’s still asking great questions, it’s being a great listener, but it’s having the agenda of us finding out where this person is.

Now, we talked about why it’s so important to pick up the phone. We talked about when we pick up the phone, now we want to think about the objective once we’ve picked up the phone and we’re talking to this person.

The objective is to either move them forward to a decision of “yes, I want to do something” or move them forward to a decision of “no, I don’t want to do anything”. You’re qualifying this person. So the objective is to move the buying process along a lot quicker than we would if we were to just continue the email or that virtual dialogue.

So we create this energetic exchange on the phone, we’re able to go back and forth a lot quicker, and that moves the process from the lead to get clients and get paid… we’ve got to create this back-and-forth exchange, the phone is going to speed that up. It not only speeds it up, but it allows us to get to that decision quicker.

The decision we’re going for again, is “yes, I’m interested” or “no, not right now”. So I’m asking the questions and finding stuff out and if that person is truly interested and as I learn a little bit more I’m going to make a recommendation, this is important we’ve got to make a recommendation on what the next step is.

Do not expect to be on the phone and the person to say “yeah you know what? I want to do a complimentary session with you”, or “you know what? I want to buy your book” or “I want to sign up for that class” or “I want to register for this”. Don’t expect the person to do that. You must ask once you get a really good feeling or you’ve clarified that yes they’re interested.

They say: “Yes I’d love to learn a little bit more about your coaching services.”  You say:  “Great, what I recommend is, we set up a complimentary session, it’s about an hour on the phone, here’s how works. And then you move it forward from there.” Or let’s say they’re interested in signing up for one of your events, or registering for one of your events, you could say, “Hey listen, it sounds like you’re definitely interested in coming to my event, is that true?” Or “is that correct?” That’s really a yes or no question, and they say; “yeah, I definitely want to do that”, great what you say we get you registered right now? How does that sound? Throw that back to them, how does that sound? The permission; yeah, let’s do that. Great it’s X amount of dollars, or name and email address, or verify what you have, you know, move it forward.

The whole point is we’ve got to move it forward to that space. That’s if they’re interested… get them to the complimentary session, get them to sign up, get their information, get their credit card information – that’s moving forward with the yes.

If they’re not interested, it might go like:  “hey, it sounds like you’re interested in learning more about coaching, what I recommend is let’s set up a complimentary session and we can go from there, how does that sound?” Let’s say there’s hesitation. And they’re not quite sure: “yeah, well, yeah, that would be good”, you know they’re balking or hesitating, they’re slowing down a little bit, that’s when you want to clarify that, and you want to just give them out to see if they take it. Give them permission to say no.

“Hey listen, it doesn’t sound like you’re too sure about that” or “It still sounds like you’re thinking about a few things. Tell me more about that.” or “Talk out loud for me so I understand where you’re at.”

Once you start dialoguing about that maybe you’re finding out that they’re not that interested, let them off the hook, just say things like: “hey, listen you know what? It sounds like you’re not that interested at this time, I understand, I can always keep you posted on doing another event.” or “Doesn’t sound like the timing’s right for you right now, is that correct?” And see what they say.

“That’s okay, listen, you know what? I can keep you on my list to follow up with, and you can do this another time.” Either way, you want to get them to that yes or you want to get them to the no, and move them forward.

In summary, we went over three aspects. First was why we pick up that phone. And it’s so important because it creates that energetic and exchange, and it moves the process forward from getting clients to getting paid a lot quicker.

Secondly we talked about when we pick it up. And when we pick it up, is once we see a buying signal from the virtual communication. And lastly we talked about our objective. And the main objective is to move it forward to a decision – a yes or no so that we can move forward and get paid, or we can cross them off our list, keep them on the follow up, and go on to the next lead.

Hopefully at this point, you understand those three aspects, but the biggest thing is, and the biggest test to it all is… will you pick up that phone? So what I recommend is going through your lead list right now, going through emails of those people or those prospects, look at, see if you can identify some buying singles, and pick up that phone and call them up and see what it can create.

It doesn’t matter if it just happened or even if it was a month ago, or last week, give it a shot. You never know what’s going to come of it, and that’s the biggest thing about our business it’s you never know what’s going to happen when you follow-up with someone, and you create that call, and find out where they’re at.

Even if it’s an older lead, like a month, or a few weeks, just call them up and say; “Hey listen, you know what? I know we spoke last week, or we spoke a few months ago about this and you said you’re interested in X, Y, and Z, or one of my products or services. I’m just wondering is that still true? Are you still in that space where you were looking for a coach? Are you still in that space where you were interested in attending one of my events? I’ve got one coming up next week. I’m thinking about creating one in a couple months. Is that something you’d be interested in?”  All I’m saying is, that’s how we do business.

So if you’re ready to take that leap, always remember Selling Coaching is the absolute best way to fast-track your business from a part-time hobby to a full-time career. Now get out there, GET LEADS, GET CLIENTS and GET PAID.