What to Say on your Next Discovery Call to Close more Sales

All right, today we're going to dig into the discovery call and what you need to do in the discovery call so that you can advance your sale. I'm going to assume, as we should in all sales opportunities, that you've already had your first time appointment. And just briefly, remember the purpose of the first time appointment in a 15 minute meeting. Number one, the purpose is to make sure that you share values. This is actually a client you want to acquire and you want to work with. And number two, you want to make sure that they're financially qualified, that they understand you're not the cheapest game in town. So when we show up for the discovery call, we're going to practice walking our walk and talking our talk. So what that means is first we're going to open with an upfront contract. What an upfront contract does is it helps the client get comfortable with you. Because remember, when you do a discovery call, they don't know what you're going to ask them. And it might feel a little bit like an interrogation. So what we do, and I'll model this for you, what we do when we open a discovery call is we say, hey, I really appreciate you taking time to meet with me today. As you know, today we're here to learn a little bit more about your company, how it works and what's troubling you. Now, I'm focusing on what's troubling you because every client that we go to visit has a reason for wanting to do business with you. So you might as well get that reason out on the table. Okay. But the difference between a first time appointment and a discovery call is that when we're in the discovery call, we are going to dig deeper into the pain. So let me model the full upfront contract. Hi. I really appreciate you taking time to meet with me today. As we discussed, we're here to learn a little bit more about what's going on exactly in your business and whether or not we might be able to offer any assistance. So naturally, you're going to have questions for me. Obviously I'm going to have questions for you. But typically at the end of this, say, 30, 45 minute meeting together, we are going to make a decision about what our next step should be or if there even is a next step. So does that sound okay to you? Do you mind if I go there first with my questions? Thank you. Now, when I go first with my questions, the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to have studied in advance using the discovery Call guide that's available to you inside the Elite portal. Another good reason to be an elite member. We're always updating the Discovery Guide with a flow of questions that are topical for where people are right now. So the first thing we're going to want to do is we're going to want to understand how the business works, what are their goals, what's the role of technology in helping them achieve their goals, and what issues or problems they are having both with their technology and with their security. And the exact questions that we ask in a Discovery call is going to move and flow a little bit depending on their answers. But what is important for you to do is to exit the discovery call with a clear understanding of these three things. Number one, where is there pain? What is wrong in that business? And what role does technology play in either exacerbating the pain or solving the pain? Number two, you want to understand how the business is organized. You want to know who's involved in decision making and what, if any, budgeting process they have. And then the third thing you want to know is what they have tried in the past to solve their problem. Now, I'm not saying you get them to tell you what they've tried over the last 10 years, but over the last couple of years, yeah, it would be good to know what they've tried to solve their problem, or why their problem suddenly bloomed and arose and got big enough that they can no longer ignore it. So those three things, once you have a pretty good understanding of what's going on in the business, you now want to pivot to summarizing their pain. Now, pivoting to summarize the pain is something you're going to want to practice. So the first few times you do it, you may not feel comfortable, and that's okay. It's okay to be a little uncomfortable when you're summarizing the pain, because when you do it well, and even when you don't, the client will be nodding their head. And when you get something a little bit wrong, they'll correct you. And because they're listening intently and they're emotionally involved with you, and they say, well, yeah, you've got that right. But there's one more thing I need to tell you. You continue to get more and more information. So that's how that's going to work for you. So you summarize their pain, and then you use that beautiful technique from our dear friend Chris Voss, and you say these words. Do I have that right? And if you don't have it right. They're going to tell you, no, no, no, you don't have it right. Here's the thing you missed. Here's the nuance you don't understand. Here's the stakes that you're ignoring. So this is why saying, do I have that right? Is so powerful. But when you do have it right, what do they do? They go, oh, my God, you understand me. You understand my situation, you understand my pain. Oh, my God, here's somebody who actually understands me. And that is the purpose, that is the real purpose of the discovery call, to establish that shared understanding about what's going on in the business. So now you've said, hey, do I have this right? And they said, yes, you do. Okay, now here's the next thing. What's your next step? Well, you know, typically, you know, at this point, I'm going to do one of two things. I'm going to ask them, do you have any questions for me? Well, I'm always going to do that. Do you have any questions for me? But then after I answer their questions, I'm going to be very careful about how I answer those questions. I'll come back to that in just a minute. But then the next thing I'm going to do is I'm going to pivot to my solution. Now, I'm going to be very directive here. The end of every discovery call requires a cybersecurity risk assessment. And the way we do cybersecurity risk assessments, you know, this is very different. It's very deep, it's very intense. We build rapport with the client, we learn their business. But just because every discovery call ends with a CSRA does not mean that every client is the same. They're clearly not. So let me give you an analogy. You're going to go to the dentist. You say to the dentist, my tooth hurts. And the dentist says, great, I'm going to pull out three of your teeth. You go, wait a minute, Wait, wait, wait a minute. Don't you need to take X rays? Of course you do. So why is it that people are willing, business owners are willing to let a technical person come into their business and tell them what they need when there has never been a single minute of diagnostic work done done in the business? It's like yanking out three teeth. Who does that? Uninformed and unsophisticated buyers do that. So part of what we do, when we go the discovery process and we ask questions, we learn more about how they have purchased technology and security in the past. We Learn what's important to them, what their values are, what they care about. And then what we're able to do is summarize their page pain. And we understand why they have that pain because they've made decisions in the past that maybe didn't serve them well. Okay, so typically, let me model this for you. Typically, at this point, we make a decision together about what our next step will be. And based on your answers today, I would recommend the cybersecurity risk assessment. This is a comprehensive project or consulting engagement, whatever terminology you want to use. But we put our best people on this work. And what we do, what we do is we come in and we learn more about your business than the average hacker is going to learn. We learn where your weaknesses are, where your security gaps are, where your technology mismatches are. And based on that, we're able to make a very, how can I put this? A very tuned set of recommendations just for your company and how your company operates. The fee for that cybersecurity risk engagement is this much money. And we're booking work these many weeks in advance and we would have the results available for you at this day and this time. Is this something you'd like to move forward with? And that's how we do it. Okay. It's really simple. Just because everybody gets the same answer doesn't mean they're all the same. I want to be very clear on that. Okay. Because you wouldn't go yank three teeth out right, from somebody who doesn't even smile. You don't even know what their mouth looks like. So why should you go give them a security solution or a technology solution just because you walked in the room and shook their hand? So don't shortchange yourself on what happens when you do a first time appointment for 15 minutes and then a discovery call for 30 to 40 minutes. Don't shortchange the fact that you are not the only person involved in this process. Your buyer, your decision maker is involved in this process. And they need time between the first time appointment and the discovery call to basically come to grips with the idea that, that they are going to have to change what they have been doing in the past. So have you ever tried to make a decision where you were going to have to change something? What you were doing would only take you so far. Have you ever had one of those moments in your own business? I want to just take a minute and have you reflect on those feelings. And if you've got a piece of paper, maybe even write this down. But when was the last time in your business you had to make a change and it wasn't one that you were comfortable with? I want you to feel those emotions for just a minute, because more often than not, those are the same emotions that your buyer is feeling when they're talking to you on a discovery call. And that's why their go to move all the time is, how much is this going to cost me? So here's the thing. If you float a price in the discovery call, which you may feel compelled to do, but if you float a price in the discovery call, the odds are you're going to be out of the game before the game starts. But don't be afraid to say this. I can't tell you what it would cost because I don't know what I'm walking into. I can't tell you what it would cost because we haven't done a thorough inspection. Back to the dentist example, you think they're going to give you a price until they run the diagnostics? No. Same way with the doctor. Right. And it's a great thing that every business is just a little bit different, even though 80, 90, 95% of it might be the same. It's the things you don't know that will eat your profit. So don't give your profit up before you get started. Okay, so we've talked a lot about the discovery call. And remember just a moment ago, I asked you if you've ever had to make a decision in your business that maybe you weren't 100% comfortable with? Well, this is one of those moments you might be asking yourself, hey, where can I learn more about this? I want to dig into this deeper. Well, I'll be honest with you. There's the slow way and the fast way. Okay, the slow way is you click the button down there and there's probably a sales webinar that you can show up for and learn more. Consume our free resources all you want. Okay, but let's be real for just a minute. You don't want just the free resources, do you? You want to put a rocket ship on your business. There's one way to do that, and that's to join the seven figure MSP elite program. And when I say put a rocket ship on your business, I want to be very clear. It's not magic. You can't just snap your finger. You have to do the work. But it is so much easier to do the work with people who care about you, who want you to be successful in a community of people. That wildly share what works and what doesn't work with no embellishments. You're going to get the good, the bad and the ugly. And we pick pivot on a dime. And that's one of the reasons that our program is so successful. So Chris has some great guarantees that go with the program. If you were to book a call, and I think there may be a link down here somewhere where you can book a call. But if you were to book a call, you can get a full explanation of what the terms and conditions are. And what I want to invite you to do is I want to invite you to do two things. Number one, I want to invite you to just for a moment, think about what it would be like if you could add massive revenue, massive monthly recurring revenue to your business over the next six months. Where would you be? How would you be different? Where would you invest in your business? Where would you invest in yourself? You know, one of the things that, that still stays with me is a moment I had back in February of 2020. I had been working with Chris for, I don't know, maybe a month. And one of our members, I don't think he would mind if I used his name, Steven Giacoppo. He called me up and he was doing his first two sales calls using our method. He closed both of those deals on the same day and added $4,900 in MRR to his business. Now, that might not sound like much to you if you're sitting on 2 or 300k in MRR, but I want you to take yourself back in your business life to the time the first time you tried something and it worked. And when Steven called me up and told me that, I knew that he had lit his rocket ship and he was just going to take off. And so I want to give you the same advice I gave to Stephen back then. You've got to have a plan for the money. When you have a plan for the money and you can see your way clear of the hurdles and obstacles that you have today in your business, that's when you decide to take action.