Ed Gandia shares a two-part question to ask every prospect on discovery calls. It helps you qualify whether someone is actually ready to buy and willing to invest in your work.
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 another episode of the High Income Business Writing Podcast, the number one podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to earn more and less time doing work they love for better clients. With over 1 million downloads from listeners just like you across 101 countries, this episode is much shorter than usual rather than my typical 45 minute format. Today I'm sharing a quick tip with you. This is part of the audio insights I publish for my private coaching clients every weekday and I thought you'd find it helpful. So here we go. Hope you enjoy it. Years ago, I started asking inbound prospects a very simple question right at the beginning of a discovery call. How did you find out about me? I found this to be an excellent icebreaker. When I get on the phone call with a prospect, it's just an easy question to ask and to answer. And their response gives me some great clues about what type of prospect they might be and how viable the opportunity is. Very often a key insight would come out of their reply and the ensuing conversation why they decided to reach out to me specifically. Now, I didn't ask that question about why me? Why did you reach out to me specifically? But I think in many cases that's a very natural piece of information to share with someone who's asking how you came across their name. It's often just part of the natural conversation, but not always. And that's why years later, I turned my icebreaker into a two part question. And it goes like this. How did you find out about me and what motivated you to reach out to me specifically? So what do I ask this last part? Well, for one, many prospects won't tell you the answer if you don't ask. So I just started asking the question. And the reason their answer is important is that it sheds even more light on what type of prospect they are and their probability of turning into a client. So let me give you some examples. What if you got this kind of response to that question? Well, I started searching on Google for writers and you were one of about six or seven I decided to contact. I narrowed down to about half a dozen. You seem to know your stuff. How would you feel about this opportunity, everything else being equal? Not great, right? Well, what about this response? Well, I got about three recommendations from colleagues. But what impressed me about you once I went into your website and started reading through it was your experience in logistics and supply chain software. It's impressive what you've written there, the kind of clients you've worked with, and you seem to really understand that industry in that space. That tells you so much about what's important to the prospect, doesn't it? It gives you an opportunity to build on that when making the case for hiring you instead of someone else. Here's another one. Well, you reach out to me about two years ago. I don't know if you remember that, but at the time I was with another company and we had staff writers already, so we were handling everything in house. However, I held onto your information because I was impressed with your prospecting email and how you presented yourself. I'm now at a new company and I'm being charged with launching a much more aggressive and strategic content marketing program, and I'd like to talk with you about how you might be able to help us here. Again, that's excellent intel to have. These days. I ask every single prospect that second question. Why did you decide to reach out to me specifically? Coaching, which is what I do now, 100%. Like writing and copywriting is a relationship. So when it's clear that a prospect is either just shopping around or doesn't know why she picked me, or points out something about me that shouldn't really be a reason for making an inquiry, I adjust my approach and proceed with caution. And of course the reverse is true. When I get some great signals and I can tell that this is someone who really wants to try to find reasons to hire me, that's a very different situation. It's good to know that up front. So give it a try. It takes some practice to find the exact language to use for that question. It should feel natural, but keep tweaking and testing your question until it just flows naturally and gives you the insights you need to better qualify the opportunity. Well, that's it for today. I hope you enjoyed the episode and just a quick reminder to grab your free copy of my latest book, Earn more in Less time the Proven Mindset, strategies and actions to prosper as a Freelance writer. You can get your free copy@b2b launcher.com or you will also find the detailed show notes to this and all my other episodes. Enjoy and have a great day. Sam.
