The Client Letter
June 6, 2012
Sedona, Arizona
Sunny 51 degrees
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Ever shortchange yourself when you’re on the phone with a client? You won’t after you have this.
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If you’ve ever made a phone call to a prospective client and explained that you were calling to “follow-up,” today’s issue is for you.
And if what you read below makes sense to you, then you’ll probably never do that again… EVER.
Here’s the reason.
Let’s imagine you have a basketball in your hand. While it’s in your hand, YOU control the ball right?
That’s simple enough. And it makes sense.
So now imagine yourself picking up the phone, calling the prospect you submitted a proposal to last week and getting her on the phone.
She says, “Hello…”
You say, “Hi, I’m just calling to follow-up on the proposal I sent to you last week.”
I imagine this conversation happens thousands of times per day across the world and it puts you at a huge disadvantage.
Remember that basketball? Well when you make a call like that, you take the ball and place it squarely in the hands of your prospect. You give up control of the ball, you give up control of the game. Really, you put your future in the hands of someone else.
Hopefully, it’s clear why this is a bad move.
Just in case it’s not, I’ll just remind you of one possible response from your prospect. It’s the one where they say… “Oh, I haven’t had a chance to look at it yet. I’ll take a look and get back to you.” [CLICK]
Then you wait a week and repeat the whole procedure. You call again to follow-up and forever cement yourself as a needy client chaser.
So how do you keep the “ball” and control of your future?
With a question of course 🙂 The difference is that you use a smart question.
Here’s a better way to do this…
You dial your prospect…
She says, “Hello…”
You say, “Hi, this is [name]. I submitted a proposal last week about the design project. I’m calling to see what questions you have that I can answer.”
And then you shut your mouth.
If you’re the next person to speak because the silence makes you uncomfortable, you will lose.
So don’t say a word and hold your mouth shut if you have too. It’s that important.
So here we have a situation that puts service providers in chase mode thousands of times per day… and we just flipped it around so that YOU stay in control of the conversation.
Remember, the person asking the questions is in control. If this is a new topic for you, then you need this. It will totally transform your business… I guarantee it.
This is your business. Don’t give up control of it to someone who has no reason to care about its success.