Andy Neary, CEO of Completegame Consulting, walks through eight steps to run better discovery meetings for insurance professionals. He covers prep work, setting expectations upfront, finding who actually makes decisions, and nailing the follow-up.
In this video, you will learn an eight step process to ensure you crush your next discovery meeting.
Hi, my name is Andy Neary, CEO and founder of Completegame Consulting, where we help insurance professionals turn brand awareness into business growth. And in this video, I'm going to teach you a simple eight step process that's going to ensure you hit all the right points in a discovery meeting. Hey, I'm not a sales guru, but I like to break things down into a simple format or checklist that I can follow to make sure I am hitting upon every point I want to hit upon to help my prospect take the next step with me. And that's what I'm gonna help you do in this video. Because for most insurance professionals, there is no plan when it comes to the discovery meeting. The plan is simply, I'm going to puke my knowledge all over this prospect. I'm going to impress them with how much I know. And you end up walking out of the meeting feeling like you killed it. But the meeting goes nowhere. Welcome to the first 10 years of my career because I didn't have a process. And what we're talking about today is nothing more than having a simple process to make sure you're maximizing everything you want to get accomplished inside a discovery meeting. When you learn these eight steps, you'll be able to walk out of that meeting and check the box of all eight to know that you put yourself in the right position to get the second date. So let's talk about those eight steps. Step number one. Pre call. What are you doing before the meeting even starts? When that appointment gets booked into your calendar and the calendar of your prospect, what are you doing stand out? Are you sending them a welcome email? Does that welcome email include a video where you're introducing yourself? Are you attaching an agenda Agenda to that email? So you are preparing the prospect for a great conversation in the discovery meeting. You see, most producers fail to actually do anything before the first meeting because they're too afraid if they do, the prospect's gonna cancel. Well, I got good news for you and bad news. They're gonna cancel no matter what. But the best thing you can do is to stand out before the meeting even starts and do that by introducing yourself, including an agenda, because you are showing you value your prospects. Time. Second step promise. When that discovery meeting starts, what are you doing to set the tone for the meeting? Are you setting clear expectations? Are you going over the agenda? Are you telling your prospect what your sales process looks like? The promise you make to your prospect at the beginning of the meeting is what is going to give them the confidence to keep having conversations with you. Which leads to step number three. Players. You need to quickly identify who the key players are going to be that are going to be the decision maker. There is nothing more frustrating than meeting with a prospect, feeling like they're eating out of your hand, getting them to the finish line, thinking they're going to hire you only to learn you were talking to the wrong person the entire time the actual decision maker wasn't in the meeting. They have other relationships with other advisors, that advisor is their brother in law and you learn you just spent weeks trying to win the business of a prospect who is never going to hire you. So early in a discovery meeting you have to quickly identify who the key decision makers are going to be to ensure you get an opportunity to present to the decision makers that is going to give you the best chance to win. Which leads to step number four. Power four. These are the four questions you must ask in every discovery meeting no matter what kind of fact finding you do. Because it's going to allow you to create your prospect story. Question number one. What is your number one goal right now? You need to find out what the prospect is trying to accomplish. Question number two, what would it mean if you could achieve it? You want the prospect telling you where they want to go, what kind of destination they want to paint. Because now that you know where they want to go, it's going to be easier to craft a solution to help them get there. Question number three, what is the challenge keeping you from the goal? Find out what their biggest issue is right now. Because you're going to have to create a solution that solves that problem. And question number four, how is that challenge impacting you in the business right now? They are telling you what failure looks like for them today. These four questions provide so much content for you to deliver an amazing proposal when you come back with your solution. So do not forget to ask the power four which leads to step number five, Process. Now it's your chance to talk about your process and how your agencies process will bridge the gap between where they are today and where they want to be. You need to be clear about what you do to help prospects like them overcome their problem and achieve their goal. Which leads to step number six. Proof. There's nothing more powerful in a discovery meeting than you sharing an example of another client. Just like the prospect who who you have helped overcome their challenge and achieve their goals. When you provide proof of the work you do, it Gives your prospect that ability to say, hmm, if they've helped them, maybe they can help somebody like us. The more you make that case study look like somebody like them, the more powerful that case study is going to be. Now, you've done everything you can up through step six. You have delivered on your promise. You have identified the key players, you have asked the power four. You have walked through your process. You have shown proof of the work you do. Now it's time for step number seven, pivot. This is where you throw a little curveball at them.
Now you need to ask them, based on everything you've seen, is there anything that would keep you from doing business with us? This is where a no is a yes. You see, just because you've done everything you could to identify their challenges, identify their goals, show them how your process can help them overcome their problem and achieve their goal, your job isn't done. You need to throw this question at them to determine how serious they are about buying from you. Based on what you've seen here today, if we can help you solve your problem and achieve your goal, is there anything that would prevent you from doing business with us? You see, if they give you, well, our advisor is a cousin of ours or a brother in law or we've been with our advisor for 30 years. Wouldn't you rather know now versus at the end of the road when you've busted your tail for weeks, you got to ask that important question which leads to step number eight. Proceed. If they give you a buying signal, they say, nope, based on what we've seen, everything looks good. Now you've got to proceed. And the best thing you can do at the end of that meeting is to commit to meeting number two. Proceed is creating clear next steps so that they are clear about where you're taking them and you are clear about what you can do to help solve their challenges. You see, I'm not a sales guru, as I mentioned earlier. But by breaking down a discovery meeting into these eight steps allowed me to go back to my office after the meeting was done and just go through every step. Make sure I hit upon every step. Because I knew at that point I have done everything I possibly could to put myself in the best position to proceed with that prospect. So give it a try. These eight steps changed my sales career. It took me from somebody who was a failed insurance professional to have a lot of financial success and I know they could do the same for you.
