#175: What to Do When a Prospect Wants to Meet for Coffee or Pick Your Brain

Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast, helping you propel your writing business to a whole new level. And now, here's your host, Ed Gandia. Hey there. Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast. I am your host, Ed Gandia, and this is the podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to earn more and less time doing work they love for better clients. Just a reminder that you can find detailed show notes for this episode@b2b launcher.com episode 175. Those notes include a summary of our discussion as well as links to resources mentioned during the show. So I got this question during a coaching call in one of my groups, and it's something that's come up before several times, and I wanted to address it publicly in this show because I know, first of all that it is a frequent challenge for a lot of writers and most writers aren't really sure how to deal with this. And in fact, when they choose a solution, it's often not the best solution they could they could use. So the issue essentially is you get an inquiry, right? And the prospect is excited about getting your help. But, and here's the kicker, she wants to meet for coffee or schedule what clearly sounds like a call to pick your brain and get ideas. Now, in many cases, this is a local prospect, but not necessarily. I mean, it could be someone who really wants to just pick your brain over the phone. And, you know, this creates a dilemma because what should you do? I mean, are you expected to meet? If you don't, what are you giving away? What are you walking away from? And you know, your time is valuable. What's the answer? I've always thought that prospects who have that kind of time, and especially when they are local and they've clearly asked you to meet in person, they're either unsophisticated marketers, they're maybe too new, and I hate to say this, but clueless. Clueless in terms of, you know, what it is we do as marketing or business writers, they are time wasters in many cases. Sometimes they just like talking to people and they are really more interested in kind of brainstorming, in thinking about ideas and coming up with all these concepts and plans, but they don't actually take action. Or sometimes they're just plain weird. They just really enjoy just getting out there and talking to people. And they have like no real intention, even if it does sound like they do, but they have no real intention in actually doing anything or hiring someone to help them with these things. Or sometimes it's all of the above, here's what I found. Good clients are almost always busy the kind of people you want to engage with, and I'm generalizing here, but in most cases, they're going to be busy people. And, you know, so. So that's a good indicator if it's someone who seems to have all the time in the world and they want to meet, you know, over for lunch or for coffee. I'm not saying that automatically disqualifies them, but it instantly raises a red flag for me. I find that the level of commitment in any kind of relationship, and frankly, not just professional, but personal, the level of commitment needs to be proportional to where you and the other person are in the process of getting to know each other. So by that I mean that when I see high enthusiasm and commitment on their part too early in the process, that is a red flag. And frankly, you know, you also need to think about this from your prospect's point of view. When you are showing a very high, a disproportionate high level of enthusiasm and commitment too early in the process, that can raise a red flag to them. So this is really something that goes both ways and it's something to keep in mind. You know, I learned this the hard way back in my days of corporate sales. And I remember I would get so excited when I'd get this inquiry and everything seems so great. And I thought, here we go. I, you know, this is my chance. This is the opportunity I've been looking for. And I would spend all this time meeting with this prospect and giving them ideas and doing all this legwork for them and only to find out later that they didn't really even have a budget or they were really just shopping around or they were already committed to somebody else and they were just using me, or they were just plain, I mean, just not altogether, you know, in the head. And it took quite bit a quite a few times because I'm just a naturally optimistic person. So I'd always automatically assume that, hey, this is, this is going to be great. But it took quite a few times for me to realize, you know, there needs to be some alignment here. If I see too much good stuff too early in the process, that's probably not a good sign. I'm not saying walk away from it or stay away from it, but do a little bit more digging and just make sure that I understand why there is that level of excitement and enthusiasm and a willingness to really kind of commit too much up front when you're starting out. And I should really just make a clear point here. For those of you, if you're in a position where you're just starting out your early days, right, you just in the process of launching your business or this is like your first year, I want to make sure you understand that, you know, what I'm going to be sharing here today is not going to apply to you right now. Okay. I think in your first few months or your first year of business, you need to adopt this say yes to everything philosophy to growing your business because honestly, you don't know which lottery ticket is going to be the winner. Right? So you're just by saying yes to everything and this is not literally saying yes, but meaning by being much more open and willing to try different things, you are essentially buying lottery tickets and you're hoping that one of them will make it, one of them will be the winner. Once you're a bit more established though, it's crucially important to guard your time and to be much more careful in these situations. Okay, so I did want to make that, that point very, very clear because I don't know where you are in your journey. Now let's go back to this idea. Before you commit to a lot of your time or energy, it's important that you first see if there's potential value in doing so and then also try to get an idea of how much value. And after some initial screening, if there seems to be good potential value, then you can commit to more time or energy. So again, you're kind of thinking throttling things back and making sure that things are aligned and that it's proportionate with where you are right now in the relationship. If it seems to be off, off balance, you're just trying to make sure you understand why and doing enough digging without spending a lot of time early on just to see what's going on. So this is basically what I'm about to share with you. It's a very simple two step process. So when you get an inquiry like this, you need to first pre qualify the prospect and if that checks out, then you qualify further. And qualifying further could be in that in person meeting or that longer phone conversation or what have you. Now the good thing I should point out that I'm using this coffee meeting example to teach you this information. However, you'll see that this applies to really any prospect inquiry, not just those who want to you to commit a lot of time or resources upfront. Okay, so we're talking about two steps. Pre qualify and then qualify. Now let's talk about pre qualify, you can do this a couple of different ways. Okay. And let me, let me share what they are and then you can decide what's best for you. You can do this with a simple form on your website, on your contact page. Usually that just asks simple questions. So some of the suggested areas of questioning could be obviously contact information. And by the way, this, if you do it on your contact page, this should essentially be your contact page. So it shouldn't be, hey, you can fill out this form or you can email me here and call me here. I would make this form the centerpiece of your contact page. Now, it doesn't mean that you can't include your contact information, but I would make it kind of a secondary thing and make the form your kind of the first and the focal point of how prospects should contact you. I always like to include phone number, at least phone number and an email somewhere in there. And again, I'm suggesting maybe a little bit further down for those who are ready to pick up the phone and talk about a very specific project. So I don't like to make it hard for prospects or clients to contact me. I want to make it easy. However, I also want to invite people who I don't know yet, people who don't know me, to give, give me a little bit of information first so I can see how to proceed. So going back to what you could include contact information should be part of that. I also would encourage you to ask how they found out about you. Just an open field, hey, how did you find out about me? How did you learn about me? Some kind of field where you ask what they need help with. So essentially you're trying to get a sense for why are you contacting me? What's your challenge? What's your problem? What are you trying, trying to accomplish? Asking about timing, that's another one. So here we're getting into logistics, but roughly what's your timing? And then finally, what's your budget range? And by the way, I've given you these in the order in which I would address them. Okay, so budget should be last. And we'll come back to that. One quick tip, if you do use a form, I suggest using a dropdown list for the button budget range. And that's because you're forcing them to pick one of several answers. And the biggest thing you could do there is to make sure that your lowest possible choice includes your lowest possible number. So in other words, don't start, don't do zero to 500. Okay, don't use Anything where the low end of the range is zero. You are communicating something when you start, let's say at $1,000. Something along those lines. You can determine what that's going to be depending on where you are in your business and you know, what types of clients you work with, type what types of work you do, but always have a minimum. That's not zero. I encourage you to do that because what will happen is many prospects will automatically pick the lowest one and you're not really sure. Well, gosh, did they mean zero as in like, I have no budget or did they mean no, they're like in that 0 to 1000 or 0 to 500 somewhere in there, but above zero. So it doesn't really give you that much information. Now, as an option, you could do this via email so you don't have to have a form on your website. You could actually go through the same process by, when you get an inquiry, just respond with, hey, great, thank you, and ask a couple of basic questions that will give you a lot of information and a lot of insight very quickly. Now, if you do this via email, I suggest limiting the questions to remove the friction in the process. So rather than. And by friction, I mean to make it easier for them to respond. So you kind of want to put an obstacle there and you by, by asking questions, but you don't want to put too many obstacles where when they read it, they read all these questions and go, oh, I don't have time for that. And then they go to somebody else. So you want to strike the right kind of balance. I suggest limiting the questions to just a couple. One would be what they need help with. You know, can you give me an idea? And many times when they send in the inquiry, they will tell you, okay, so sometimes you don't need to ask that. But if they didn't tell you, then can you give me an idea of what you might need help with? Also, what is your timing? So timing could be another good one and how they found out about you. And in fact, the way I like to do that is great. Thank you so much. I'm just curious, how did you find out about me? Also, can you give me an idea of what, what you need help with and what your timing is like so you can ask those questions. Don't notice. I did it in a very organic way that doesn't feel like I'm giving them homework and adding a lot of obstacles and making them jump through hoops. Okay. Now if you've been in business for a year or longer. It won't take you long to determine when they reply if this is a viable opportunity. So that's the beauty of asking these questions, in this case over email, or at least you'll be able to know if it's a definite no. And I think that's what we're getting at here. It's like, look, I don't know if this is going to be a good or great or average opportunity, but what you're trying to do is, okay, let me at least find out which ones the definite nos are going to be. So that's maybe the better way to look at it. You want to, with this process, whether you use the form or whether you do a via email to know, okay, can, is this a definite no? Because if it is, let's just go ahead and take care of it now, you know, let's go ahead and address it early so we don't have to waste a lot of time on this. Now if it's a maybe or definite yes, then go ahead and agree to the meeting. But here again, don't agree to the way they're suggesting you meet blindly or automatically. So here are the questions that I like to ask myself. Okay, And I suggest you ask yourself too, especially if it involves an in person meeting. First of all, what does your schedule look like? You know, what do you have going on? And with that I should also bring back something I said earlier. Where are you in your business life cycle? You know, early days where you're much more open and flexible, or somewhere in the middle or somewhere where your time is extremely valuable. Another question would be, how long would a coffee meeting take up? And by that I mean it seems like an obvious question, right? But I want you to ask yourself total time. So let's think about this, right? Grooming, getting dress, makeup, getting in the car, fighting traffic, finding the address, finding parking, meeting time, which is the one that the only one many people take into account. Then possible overage, we'll address that in a few minutes, Then driving back. And then here's one that a lot of people miss out on or don't take into account. Getting back into the game. So getting your head back into wherever you left off before you left or back into the swing of things. Because let's face it, you get home many times you're either hungry or you're now distracted. You're off your schedule, you're kind of off your rhythm. And now you have a pile of emails in your inbox. And so that email leads to then checking Facebook. And before you know it, it's just another hour has gone by since he got home and you've gotten nothing done. Now it's three o' clock and now you gotta go pick up the kids. And so you see where I'm going with that, right? Be realistic. How long would this meeting take up? What kind of a disruption would it create in my day, and what's that worth? Okay, so I know I'm making it sound like a very negative thing. I don't mean to do that. You need to think critically about this and think, you know, what is that worth? What am I giving up? Does the potential here really justify the cost? Another question is, would it make sense to meet over the phone first? Would it make sense to just schedule a brief conversation first, just to see, you know, maybe you see enough possibility here to take it to that next step after you've pre screened them or pre qualified them, but maybe not enough. Based on the two questions I've just asked you to really say automatic and automatic yes to the request to meet in person. So sometimes you can really do a lot over the phone, even a 15, 20 minute conversation. And then finally, where on the pre qualification yes, no scale do you feel they fall? And this is kind of an obvious one, it's kind of a gut feel, right? So other than everything I've just asked, you know, once they answer the questions in your form or over email, where on that scale do they fall? Obviously if it was a no, they're out. Okay, but on the yes maybe area, where do you feel based on your intuition, based on gut feel, based on what you've seen, what do you think they are? Because if this sounds like a really promising opportunity, obviously that really drives things in one direction. If it's a maybe, it could go either way. And if it's a I said yes to this, but it's borderline no, then that kind of points more toward a quick phone conversation. Now it's a fact. Okay? Meeting the right prospect in person will increase your probability of landing that client by a significant factor, everything else being equal. Of course, there's nothing like in person interaction to build rapport and trust quickly. So that's why I don't want to take away from the value of meeting a good prospect in person. But that is the operative word there. Good, a good prospect. So this is why the pre qualification process is so important. So don't accept automatically and don't base your decision also on fear. Fear in the way of, you know, oh gosh, what If I turn them off, if I suggest a phone meeting first or fear that shows up in the way of, you know, what if this is a great opportunity and they don't, they think I just don't care or I don't want the business, or I, you know, I'm acting like a prima donna, you know, who am I to, to try to, you know, maybe make a few, ask a few more questions and qualify the opportunity a little bit further? You know, I should be, maybe they feel that I should be really kind of just grateful that they've contacted me. Okay. Making those decisions based on fear rarely works out. And I found that. Look, good prospects will always respect that kind of thinking and that kind of professionalism. And by that I mean the fact that you are asking follow up questions, that you are, you know, thinking about it a little bit more critically and that you're just trying to make sure that there's a potential fit here. Good prospects will always respect that because you know what, that's what they would do or should do if the tables were turned. Think about that. I mean, do you think prospects who are busy, who are really good at what they do, the kind of clients you would like to work with, do you think that they would automatically give in to, you know, requests like that? No, they, they would, they really value their time. And if, if you have a good prospect, they're going to respect that. In fact, I would even argue that if they start getting a little testy with you, if they start feeling or making you feel like you are not respecting them or the not just looking at this as a valuable opportunity, that to me is a red flag. So rather than looking at the fear and saying, oh yeah, you know, I messed up, look at it as a, as a great sign that maybe this is really not a good prospect. So really, look, if an in person meeting just doesn't make sense to you based on the factors I just mentioned, the bottom line here is suggest a phone call first. Okay. All right. So with that, let's talk about leading that meeting or that longer phone conversation. Now, the advice I'm about to give you will apply whether you're meeting in person or again, if it's over the phone first, I suggest that you schedule the meeting so it backs up against some other commitment you have. And here's what I mean. Schedule it so that it kind of backs right into or close to when you may have to pick up the kids from school or at the bus stop, or when you have a call or other meeting that you have to go to or when you have a doctor's appointment or something along those lines. And the reason you want to do that is so you have an excuse to wrap up the meeting if it starts getting long or out of hand. And frankly, just so you have a way to end it. Even if it's a great opportunity, you don't want it to go too long. You know, you want to be able to be very a good steward of that time and make better use of that time you have available. Even a great prospect. A 45 minute long meeting should be sufficient. It's hard to do these things in 30 minutes. In person, in a phone call you can get away with 30 minutes, but in person it's a little bit harder. So 45 minutes is better. In person, I find that an hour is too long, definitely too long for a phone call and too long for an in person meeting. If you can do it in an hour, you can do it in 45 minutes. So just kind of plan ahead and figure out what you have coming up that day and back into it that way. You only have, let's say, 45 minutes if it's going to be an in person meeting and in order to then leave and make it to your next appointment or make it to that call or what have you. And then that way, as you're approaching that time limit, you can honestly say, listen, I hate to do this, but I have to leave in about five minutes and I still have a couple of questions. I have a doctor's appointment I have to go to or I have to pick up the kids from the bus, whatever. Now, in the meeting, you want to be prepared to hit on a few key points. I'm not going to get into a lot of detail here, but I want to make sure that you understand what you want to accomplish and what areas you want to touch on. The first one would be, and I'm going to give them to you in order, the first one would be what are they trying to accomplish? You're trying to get a sense for what, where they're trying to go, what they're trying to achieve, what results are trying to get. The other one would be why, why they're trying to do that, you know, and by the way, that leads to the third one. What's getting in their way? What's their challenge? Why has this been a problem in the past? And this could really come in a lot of different flavors. So maybe why are they, why are they being challenged? Why are they having trouble getting this stuff Written or done or produced or published. Why are they having trouble finding a writer who can really hit the mark? Those sorts of things. So what are they trying to accomplish? Why are they trying to do that? What's getting in their way would be the third one. The fourth would be logistics. So by logistics, I'm talking about timing, some of the basic components of the project, how they're looking to get this done, other people involved and so forth. And then finally, money. You always want to talk money. In fact, I have an acronym for that. Atm. Always talk money in that. In that first conversation, even if it's in person. But you always talk money only after you've discussed everything I've just given you. So money always comes last. And one suggestion that I may have for you is to, if you're going into the meeting, or of course, if you're on the phone, either way, create a little cheat sheet of these points in your notebook. And that way you make sure you hit them all. So think of them as like, I gotta, like, check all these off by the time we're done with our meeting. Make sure you cover all the important basis. And then finally I would say, look, those are all great things, but always leave the meeting with the next step. So you gotta cover all those things, but make sure, in fact, you even write that down as a bullet point or as an item that you can check off. Always leave the meeting with the next step. And by next step, I'm talking about, you know, whatever makes sense here. Any other info you'll need from them to put a quote together, Maybe that's the next step. You know, that they, it's on their balls, on their cord. They got to get you some information when the next step could be, hey, it's on your side, you're committing to giving them a quote by a certain day. I'm going to have a quote to you tomorrow. By noon. For example, another next step could be when they'll make a decision or when you can follow up. So in fact, you can combine some of these. Great, Bill, I'm going to get home, I'm going to work on this either tonight or tomorrow morning. But I will have a quote to you by noon tomorrow. When do you think you'll make a decision? Or you may say, when can I follow up with you? I usually combine those. When do you think you'll make a decision and when? When would I be able to follow up with you? When could I follow up with you? Always leave with the next step. Okay. By the way, again, I've said this before, but these same tips apply whether the meeting is in person or over the phone. Okay, so the only thing that changes here is the fact that in an in person meeting is probably going to be a little longer. An in person meeting will probably help you develop rapport and trust faster, but the same concepts apply. So let's recap. Threw a lot at you and I want to make sure that you have something actionable here and you understand where to take this. The first point, key point, is to not automatically agree to in person meetings with local prospects or even longer phone conversations. Your number one job as a professional is not compliance. Your number one job is to make sure that you use your time wisely and frankly, good prospects are going to respect that. They're going to understand. The second key point is to have a two step system in place that helps you give up your time according to the potential value you see as you move down the process of working or talking with a prospect and it makes sense to do so. It's okay to agree to more time, but having a two step system in place enables you to automatically just write off your say no to the ones that are obvious no's and that way you don't have to have fewer people you're saying yes to and then even then you're proceeding with with caution. Okay, the next point was to always talk money during the call or meeting, but don't get into detailed money discussions until you've had an opportunity to uncover the prospect's challenges first. Because only until you have that can you actually show value and have the prospect understand how that value matches up to the fee that you're charging. If you talk money too early, they're not going to have the right context to be able to make the right decision. And that leads me to a final key point. Don't feel like you need to give away a lot of free advice and a ton of time up front as a way to demonstrate your value and to make you more attractive to prospects. That is a very common and dangerous misunderstanding and misconception. Too often it backfires and even if it doesn't backfire, it's just not needed. Instead, concentrate on uncovering what the prospect needs, what their challenges are, what they're looking for, what's getting in their way, and then explaining how you're well suited to meet those needs, how you're well suited to help them basically bridge that gap. And once you're you've done that, you will be in a much better place to show the value and provide that value context for your fee. So don't feel like you have to show everything you know and then you have to give them all this free advice. Totally not needed. Okay. Instead, let them talk about what they're trying to accomplish, why, what's getting in their way, what they're looking for and what would, what would a win look like for them, and then present yourself as the obvious solution. So that's it for today again. Hopefully this is something that you can now use whether you're being asked to meet with somebody or whether you're you're asked to meet with a prospect over the phone, or whether they want to pick your brain, you know, and ask for some free advice. This gives you some boundaries. You can set any process you can use and follow to ensure you get the maximum value out of that time you're investing. This has been Ed Gandia. Hope you have an awesome rest of the day. Take care. Go home. High Income Business Writing Podcast is a production of B2B business launcher. Learn more at B2B launcher.com.