18: Red Carpet Experience: Preparing for the Consultation Call

In today's episode, Nikisha is continuing the Red Carpet Experience on how to prepare for the consultation | sales call.

In this episode, you will learn the following:

• How to create a clear agenda for the call.
• How to guide your potential client through the call.
• How to get your potential clients to say yes to the next step.

Remember, the consultation | sales call is everything in a business. It's the necessary component in helping you earn revenue for your business to grow. 

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• Finding Fulfilment in Your Brand

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Transcript

Ep 18: Red Carpet Experience: Preparing for the Consultation Call

You're listening to Nikisha King Podcast, leading her way, episode 18. Do you have a dream or a mission or a fire that has ignited inside of you to create an amazing business that can grow and scale, but at the same time, you don't want to sacrifice your life, your family, relationships, or values in building this dream.

If this is you, welcome to the Nikisha King Podcast. Leading her way.

Hello, gorgeous and welcome to Leading Her Way. I'm your host Nikisha and welcome to the Red Carpet Experience Series. This is one of the series that I find really amazing. I am really loving the sales process and it's not something that. All business owners enjoy because we have to put ourself out there.

But what I've learned in the last year is how to reframe the thought about it. Selling is not selling for me. It's literally understanding someone's position, what they need and going, how can I help you if I can help you? And then working on that, working on producing the value to help that person in their journey.

When I look at it that way, all I'm doing is sharing what I do in the world and how I help people. And usually when I do that, the people who are for me, they go, Nikisha, how can you help me? I would love to get information or be a part of something. And that's usually what happens. So in the red carpet experience, I've created a lead process that allows you to build trust with your potential clients.

The more they trust you, the more they're willing to invest in you. And when they actually get on a call with you and learn about how you can be of service, the opportunity for you to book them is increased. It's higher. However, if you're not getting on a call and you're just setting brochures, Or any emails, and there is no call as a service base professional, the possibility of you booking them decreases, hence the reason why there are certain online companies that send you potential clients and then they just text you, I want more information and then it just feels back and forth without a call.

Those feel sometimes less fruitful, but if you have a good process in place, even on those platforms, you can do really well. This is what the red carpet experience is, is about helping you create a lead process that will always increase your possibility of making a conversion or a sale. And that is what I truly, truly believe.

How can I help you make money? How can I help you live your dream? How can I help you bring your visualization to a reality? It's all possible once you believe it and you're willing to take the small, simple steps to acquire it. So in today's red carpet experience, what we're going to speak about is preparing for the consultation call.

In my world, I call it a discovery meeting. It's really a discovery meeting because I'm trying to discover the pain points of my potential client. Just like any service business provider, you can be in the wedding world, you can be in the medical world, the health world, the therapy world, the plumbing world, the engineering world, no matter where you are in your service based company.

The reason your service is because you have to know the pain point of your potential client to serve them. A plumber can come to my house, he can't just work on any pipes. He has to know what's the problem. What are you dealing with, right? So he'll ask those questions, but guess what? He's there. He's physically in front of you or on the phone.

But he's not just coming to my house or he's not just saying over the phone, okay, open your drain and fix it yourself. Therefore, having a call is so important. And if you're not someone who like speaking to people as a business owner, you can hire someone. Or you can figure out why and create a solution for that.

So today in preparing for a call, what we're going to go over is an agenda, a presentation, and the conclusion. Agenda guides you through the call. Presentation shows your process, your work, what you're doing, help inform them. And conclusion, what's the next step? And those are the three things we're going to cover in this episode.

So agenda, what does that mean? An agenda can be easily a bullet point list. For our brand, an agenda is a script. It's not even a script because when I say the word script, you think we read off of it, but it's not. What it is, is a list of questions that has a checkbox in front of it. You can do it in a Google Sheet.

And it's asking questions to the potential client. And it's in front of me. I could rephrase it or I can use it specifically as is. So I have that option. Same thing with my team members. I have these things in place because they're part of our system. So if someone else is doing this work, they know what questions to ask and they know the.

Order to ask it in and creating an agenda for our meeting or for my potential clients. The first thing I do on the agenda is I tell the potential client what we're doing in this meeting, what to expect. So what that looks like is I go, our meeting will be 45 to 60 minutes. We're going to be speaking about the investment.

We're going to be speaking about what are things you envision for your stationary. We're going to be speaking about what they need, like if they have a weekend events. Cause some people do, so they need more items. And pretty much when we're finished with our time, if we feel like we're a fit for one another and we want to work with one another, then we'll go into a retainer to hold your date and then we book your proposal meeting.

That's the way my agenda outline is. And that's what I share with my potential client in the beginning of the meeting. So they know what's coming up. What are we going to be talking about? Always help your potential client. Know what's happening before it happens. Be forthcoming with information they're asking in the back of their mind.

When you do that, you are taking all of that mystery out of the experience, and this is what they truly love about service based professionals. Once I do the agenda, I go straight into it. So I asked them questions about their vision for the design, what they have in mind, trust me, they've been looking all over the place with ideas, and I would like to know what those ideas are.

I would like to know why they're doing custom and not online. What is it that they want? Do they want a full service where we'll do everything on their behalf? Are they looking to do some things on their own? In regards to the production, do they have a certain preference in the paper we use? Do they have a preference in the printing method we use?

Management, do they, would they like us to manage their RSVPs? Would they like us to build their website? These are all of the questions I would ask and I would get answers and I would like my potential clients to speak so much more than me. I don't want to hear myself for the first 15 to 20 minutes of the call.

I would love to just hear them because the more they speak, the more I'm going to hear things, the more you are going to hear things and you're going to be like, Hmm, what's that about? Write the question down, hold it someplace so at when it's your turn to speak, then you can ask. So for example, if a potential client of mine is like, well, we love.

Like letterpress printing, but we would like to possibly do something that's like embellished a little bit more, right? When I hear that, that's a potential of adding foil or engraving. We can embellish it with embossing. When they say embellish, I might question it. Well, what do you mean by that? Would you like texture?

Oh, I can then add wood elements to their suite. That is how I usually generate information to know what to ask and how to present when it's my turn. So listening and having your potential client speak more is so important. Now, after them speaking, it's your turn. Your second. Remember, this is not about you, it's about them.

Make it about them. Ask yourself, how can you serve them? So after hearing everything they shared with you, it's your turn to present. This is where you have a client presentation. You know, in my previous episode where I mentioned that 10 page brochure or five page brochure, A 23 page brochure that can be turned into your client presentation.

That's when now you pull that brochure out and you go, well, this is our services and this is our investment point or our minimum or information. Now you have them in front of you. So when you speak about it, you can explain it and they can ask questions. If there's any, think of a presentation in a way where for us, we do design, we do production and we do management.

So, my presentation usually has a welcome, how we serve, then it goes into what makes us different in our design, production, and our management services, and then the last part is the investment, because what I would like them to know is this, all the things that we do, on average, our client spends this and this, but our minimum is this.

So what that usually sound like for us when we finish our presentation, we get to our investment page. It usually goes on average our clients spend between 15, 000 and upwards of 25, 000. However, our minimum for printing and production starts at 8, 995. And that usually covers all of the things they're seeing.

And usually that gives them some type of, how can you call it, anchor. When I tell them on average what our clients spend and what our minimum is, it anchors our number. It lets our number stand out in a way that's, oh, that's not bad. On average, our clients do spend 15K because of all the other custom elements they add and services they add.

This is what people don't realize in a service based industry. Everything you offer can be customized. They have options to choose from. That's not just like a menu. It's not an, uh, kind of curated thing. There's a base. I have a base. That's what my minimum, my intentional collection is. It's a base. People always build on that base.

They always would like a little bit more up level and our base is pretty much up level, like it's a letterpress, it's double thick, but they like to add other elements to it. And we also love to design for them. What that means is I'll do a, you know, our base, but then I'm going to show them something a little bit more because I want to serve them the best way.

And based on that first conversation, I get to know them. And if I get to know you, then I go, Oh, my base is just the base. Here's a couple of things that will make this even more of you. Right? And that's what we're here to do. Serve our clients. So in regards to the presentation, that's how I usually have it.

Now when we get to that investment page and I speak of everything, I let them take it in. I might just shut my mouth. If I do that, they usually talk first. It's kind of fun. I love doing that. So I just, you know, tell them that and I listen for what they want to say and they might just go, well, this sounds really good and I'm going to ask next, is there anything standing in your way to move forward to scheduling a proposal call?

They might go, no, there's nothing, let's schedule it. Right, great. Right then and there, I put them on our calendar, take the 65 retainer, hold their date on our calendar. And then there's a possibility of, well yeah, right now, the investment might seem too big. And then I go, okay. Can you share a little bit more of what that means?

What, like, in the beginning of our meeting, I usually ask them what number are they working with? What's their investment that they think they're going to spend and what services would they like to accomplish for that? In the beginning, I asked that question and I didn't mention it here, but in the beginning, I do ask that question.

Because it gives me a point where they're thinking, because some people just think of paper. They're not realizing the service. If I just sell you white paper, that's great, but the information's not there. The design elements are not there. That's where our expertise come in. So, when they get to that point at the end, and if it's a question about the investment, then I get a little bit...

nosy on that. I'm like, well, what is it that you have in mind? What number would you like? And what will that include? And I hear what they're saying. Cause some people are going to minimize everything about the management and be like, well, we can send it out. We can do this. Guess what? For me, that's great because that's something that I don't offer.

I am very adamant on taking care of my clients. So I'm going to do all of that. And I like doing it because when I do it, it's still in its natural state. Some people might use different things and it can change the state of the paper or the whole way of wrapping it and sending it out in the mail. So I like doing that part.

Therefore, if someone says the objection is that they want to do things, AKA a do it yourself, AKA a DIY, they're not a good fit for our brand. Therefore, I can release them. Because anyone who constantly thinks they can do it themselves and they want to hire a custom company to do it for them, a service based company, I know we're not a good fit because when we're doing things in the process, designing, they're always going to try to hold the control.

And if people are holding control while we're trying to do our creative work. It doesn't work for us. Therefore it's easy to go. That is completely understandable. And I totally understand. We're not a good fit for you. And we're happy that we've come to this realization, right? Cause you keep, you minimize all of the.

Extra issues you're going to experience and I can just pass that up and I like that because here's how I think of passing up an opportunity. When I pass up an opportunity, I am leaving room for a new opportunity. I am leaving room for someone else who's willing and who's going to say, yes, let's move forward.

And that person who did this process is my person. This is why I put processes in place. This is why it's important. Usually I'm able to see red flags and red flags are when someone doesn't want to trust you or release control. And if that's the case as a creative, it doesn't work for our brand. However, if you're in counseling, you can help them.

If you're in plumbing, in all honesty, they can't hold control because they don't know how to change the pipe. That's why they're calling you. So understand to do your best work as a service based professional, you need to be trusted. You need someone to trust your expertise. The only way they will trust you is when you show them a reason for them to trust you.

That's why the red carpet experience is amazing because you're building trust before they invest in you. So. Let's go on now. You come to the conclusion, you show the investment and there are, yes, they are so into you. They're like, let's move forward in concluding my presentation or my discovery meeting, how it works for us.

We have a proposal call. I've learned this process from a woman, Maria Bayer and irresistible selling a sales group that I'm a part of. And I learned this because it helps the process. When I first was told about the proposal meeting, yes, all of what comes up for you right now came up for me. All of it.

Let me share what came up for me. I was like, another meeting? They're not going to want to speak to me again. Oh my God, I'm asking for more of their time. Oh my goodness. What happens if they all reject me? I'm never going to get paid. Those were the feelings and thoughts that came up for me. And instead of allowing that thought to fester and remain and never put it in play, I put it in play.

So I remember the first time I did it, I was like, okay, after the discovery call, I was like, the next step is to schedule a proposal meeting. Would you like to do that? Yes. And we did that. And I was able to acquire the information I needed. And this happened, I think, January, 2022. And this came up where I had the proposal meeting and I was able to run through the proposal with them.

And I was like, this is good, but it's not great. And what I realized is that. As a business owner, I have an agreement. My agreement might be three to four pages long. Everyone doesn't read the agreement. Therefore, when we actually start working together, it's like I never sent it, but they signed it. So what I incorporated in my proposal course to do the proposal and agreement in the next episode, I'm going to speak about that, but this is something that you or any service based professional should be doing.

And I'll show you how to do that or tell you how I do it. That gives you ideas. So, in concluding my presentation or discovery meeting or consultation, I schedule a proposal meeting right on the call. I do it right there. I don't do anything later. And at the same time, I tell them, okay, there's going to be a 65 retainer.

So I get the, their card and I can put it in for them. I'm doing it right there on the screen with them. I usually do zoom and I could share my screen, so I'm doing it there. Or yeah, I usually take the information, put it in our system and schedule their appointment. This is how we go into the next stage.

Once your appointment is scheduled, we get off the phone. That's it. I get the proposal ready. I let them know they'll get that like five, 10 minutes before our proposal call. I do not send the proposal days or anything prior five minutes before our proposal call. I'll send it so they can walk through with it if they would like to.

And that's what I do. This is how I prepare for my consultation. And this is how I have the consultation. Preparing is that agenda, that script that guides the conversation. I have my links in there. I have any additional questions I got from their qualifying form in that document. This is where I get to listen to them.

I hear them, I pick up on things and then I can sell to them by telling them how I'm going to solve that concern that they have. This is where I get to then present to them based on what they spoke to me about and say, these are some of the things that you were interested in and this is how we serve you.

Then I show them what that number looks like for our custom services. It's broken down in regards to, they get save the dates, invite, stay up, what's included, what quantity. And then I go, would you like to move forward? And they go, yes, we scheduled the proposal. If they go no, I then ask what's standing in their way of scheduling that proposal call?

What's stopping them? Now they have an opportunity to tell me what their concerns are that they didn't tell me in the beginning. I always give people that opportunity. If I can help them with that concern or that objection, I'm happy to. However, if the objection is something that I choose not to be of service because I know I'm not decreasing my minimum, then I'm not able to help them.

By hiring them or by them hiring me. However, I might have a creative partner in the stationary world who offers the rate that they do, and then I can forward them over to that person who will be an assistant to them, or the creative partner I'm partnering with. My planner may have some other stationers who might work in their price range.

that they can work with them. This is how I work or prepare for the consultation, aka discovery meeting. It's one of the things I enjoy a lot because when I show up to this meeting, I truly want to know the people. I don't care if I work with them or not, but getting to know people is so much fun. Seeing their cues when they're nervous about the money, the rubbing of the hands, the rubbing of the heads.

Sometimes they disappear, AKA. The male partner, they would just disappear. And you're like, Hey, come back, come back and enjoy the best part of this. Me telling you how much it's going to be. Let me tell you, people have a way with money because of the money mindset. And I'm looking forward to creating a series around that money mindset is a thing.

We're given a gift of thoughts about money, but money is just paper. The value you put on it is what creates the power of it. So we're going to speak about that in a whole nother series that should be September series. So once again, in preparing for your call, you want an agenda, a guide that guides you through the call, a presentation.

This is great for your brochure that you would send via email where they can review a brochure of what your services include. This is what you go through with them. So this is something you need. And the next step after that, what are you going to do? Are, if they say, yes, we want to work with you, what's your next call of action?

What would you like them to do? If you decide you don't want to do a proposal call that works, you might say, I'll send you a proposal. Please send it to them within 24 hours or less. Nothing more. You should have a proposal set up in your system. If not, let's talk so we can get a template in place. Yes, all creative companies have a base and you can build on that base.

So your proposal is the base. I've spoken to so many creative partners. Oh my God. Everything is so different. We don't know. We don't have some, a template that I'm like, listen, if you're a florist, you know, you're doing a bouquet, a boutonniere, you're doing flower decor. I'm a stationer. I'm doing save the date.

Invite day of right. I do full service, so I don't break it up anymore. This is what your base looks like. Let's have a conversation about that if you're not sure. So you can definitely have a base proposal or a template proposal. Get that prepared, then set a timeline on that proposal. If you're sending it without a call, even better, you can do a video running through the proposal.

If you don't want to do a call, so you're still being personable. That's another great opportunity. And if you're not sure how to do that, we can work together and I can show you that. So listen, this is how you prepare for your call. This is a great addition to what you're doing. If you find yourself struggling in one of these areas, I'm happy to assist.

Start small. An agenda with bullet points is great. I have a page and I have my checkbox. That's me. I had to develop that system. Then I kept. Improving it over time. Once you start the opportunity for improvement is there for you. But if you never start, there's never room for improvement. So that is how I prepare for my sales call, my discovery meeting.

That is how my team, when they are able to do it, they have all of the elements in place and they can just take over. This is something I love doing, creating a process. So I hope you do as well. I hope this episode was able to give you such amazing information and value. And I look forward to speaking about it more.

I look forward to you. Signing up to my mini course for the red carpet experience, which I'm going to be offering. And I love that I can offer this to everyone who's interested in getting better with their lead process and unstuck in this sales process. And if you haven't yet in our show notes, there is a link, get your free ticket today to the book, more weddings summit.

Yes, it has the word wedding in it, but we're still service based professionals. So if you are growing your business, it's not wedding focus. But you are service based, definitely get the ticket and definitely look at all of these amazing presenters who are giving value. Get your pen and notebook and write all of the information down.

You'll be able to also have the opportunity to invest in it so you can have it in your educational folder and have access to it anytime. Do what's going to help you grow. Take what you can get, especially when it's not a cost. But your time, and if it's your time, you still have power over that cause you can go today.

I can do 10 minutes of this video, make things simple and at the same time grow. Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode or podcasts leading her way, the red carpet experience series. I look forward to seeing you in the next episode, and please, you're welcome to share any feedback on our Instagram, Nikisha King Podcast.

Speak to you soon. Hold on. Before you go, I have a free gift for you. Join me from August 21st for the book, more weddings. Summit is tailored for wedding professionals, but all service professionals will benefit from this free conference. It's a five day online conference. You don't have to leave your office and I'm doing a presentation on getting unstuck in the sales process.

You will also have access to our private Facebook group where you and I get to speak. You can ask me all your questions. Stop overthinking it. And register now for this free conference on August 21st. Put it on your calendar. The link's in the show notes and I'm excited to meet you there.

Thanks for spending time with me today. And if you received an aha moment in today's episode, Hit the follow button and share a review. But more importantly, if you have a friend who will truly benefit from today's episode, click the three dots and share this link via text. You never know how this small action can help someone tremendously.

See you next Tuesday and have an amazing day.