118. How to Run a Valuable Consultation that Converts
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Melissa: [00:00:00] Well, hello, welcome to the doing business like a woman podcast. You are listening to episode 118, how to run a valuable consultation that converts. I'm your host, Melissa Kellogg Lewick. I'm a marketing coach, CEO, and founder of the Avanti business Academy for women. I'm committed to helping make marketing simple.
So So you can get out of confusion and get into confidence, share your message and make the money you want. How are you? Things are a little different around here. If you noticed we didn't have a musical intro. I am practicing some of the things I preach. Imagine that just simplifying the production of this podcast.
It has started to feel very heavy and overwhelming. So that really is [00:01:00] always a trigger to. Stop and question everything and think about what I'm doing and what I need to be doing, what I wanna be doing, what's frustrating and what's going to get the results that I wanna get. And I think the purpose behind this podcast is really to give you all the support that you need to get out there and market yourself your business in a simple way.
And make the money you want to make with your business. So ~that is not necessarily what, what am I going to say? What was I trying to say?~ It's not necessary in order to achieve that for me to have fancy music and fancy. Editing and all of that. So I have decided to simplify the production value of this podcast and increase the value, the level of teaching and really focus my time.
Rather than editing [00:02:00] it to really offering you great value, great teaching and really thinking about how I can help you to get where you want to go easier and faster and making less mistakes than I have. How's that sound? All right. Are you in? Awesome. Okay. So what I want to teach you today is something that I have been talking to quite a few of my clients about.
And I realized that I have never taught this on the podcast and it is the process of how to run a valuable consultation or a sales conversation that converts. So this has been, you know, it's funny cause I've been doing this podcast for what? Almost three years now. And I know why I've never had a podcast on this because this has been my own work, right?
And it's still something I continue [00:03:00] to work at of running a valuable consultation that really. Feels great to me and also gives enormous value to my clients. And so I feel like I, well, obviously I know and have as much an expert as I've ever been in this. So why not Teach on the podcast. Cause it has been something that I've been teaching my clients, quite a few of my clients.
And, and the way I teach it is different than a lot of the ways that I learned sales in the past. A lot of ways that you may have learned. But I want to offer you a different way and a way that I really have come to love. So, so yeah, I've been honing this process and making it my own and I've really feel so much more comfortable.
And I've heard from clients and women that I've been on consultations with about how valuable just coming on a consultation with me is so I [00:04:00] wanted to share it with you and teach it to you so that you can take what parts of it sound great to you and implement them and incorporate them into what you're doing.
So, and also if you have ever thought you might like to schedule a consultation with me and wondered what it would be like. Here it is. You're going to get the full experience right here. Except I would much rather do it with you personally. Right. So we can chat. Okay. So the problem that I most often see that I've experienced myself and that I see my clients and women that I work with experience is that.
And I'll just refer it to myself, right? Like I used to get so nervous and squeamish when it came to sales conversations or consultation calls. And one of my mentors calls it the clutch. Like you feel that tightness in your gut, like, Oh no, you know, I've got to sell [00:05:00] something. And for me, it mainly stemmed from my thinking that the point of a consultation call is to sell something to someone and overcome all of their objections and keep them on the phone until it's a yes.
And that just always felt awful for me. And so I can't even imagine what it felt like for the person on the other end of the call. Right. And you may have experienced this yourself consultation calls. And I know I have like this where the person that you're meeting with won't let you leave until you give them the answer they want.
And the consultation call goes on for hours and hours and they, Keep throwing their things at you. And I know I've experienced this and it's awful. And unfortunately it's cost me thousands of dollars too, because I end up saying yes to something I really don't want. And you know, just to get off the call, [00:06:00] have you ever been there?
And I'm not a people plea. Well, hopefully, right. I'm not a people pleaser like that any longer, but I've been there. So How about you? So if you can relate either from the side of being being the client on a call like this or being the coach or the consultant or the trusted advisor on a call like this, it's just not fun for either person, right?
It doesn't feel good. And I don't think it really serves anybody. So yes, it may serve the serve the bank account of the person that's selling the salesperson's bank account for a little while, but And long term and sustainability of your business and of yourself and your enjoyment is really not what's happening.
So here is your simple solution to this. I'm going to offer you a completely different frame, different lens to look [00:07:00] through for. The reason and why we do consultation calls, it all starts. Yeah. So it all starts with understanding the real, what I say is the real purpose of a consultation call. So what if the real purpose of a consultation call is not to sell, but instead to serve the client.
What would change for you as the trusted advisor, the consultant or the coach, right? What would change for you if you thought about all your consultation calls as an opportunity to serve your client before they've ever paid you? The purpose of a consultation call is to help them, the client experience total clarity in how to solve their problem or to get their end result in a way they have never understood before.
The purpose is to leave them with total clarity and [00:08:00] empowered, feeling empowered to take their next step. Whether their next step is working with you or not working with you, both are fine. You're going to be fine either way. Right. But we want to think of it as an opportunity to really empower them to make the best decision for them in their next step, it's also an opportunity to assess whether their challenges and what they're facing are best suited to how you can serve them.
Right? Because we all need to have good client filters, right? And know who our best clients are, who we can really help get the best results. And sometimes we don't know that. until we go through this consultation process with them. And so we're thinking about, is this someone that I can really help get really great results?
So it's that, and do I want to work with them? Right? It's that process as well. [00:09:00] So if the goal is service and clarity for the client and not you or the salesperson getting. Something from them, getting a sale, getting money, right, or getting a yes. Then if service is the goal, then the whole spirit of the call takes on a completely different tone.
You can probably get that right. Like just how that feels in your body. Like if you just completely abandon the idea that you're trying to sell something that your entire purpose of getting on this call is to help this person figure out how they can solve the problem that they're facing. Right and help them in a way that's really going to serve them that's going to give them understanding about their problem like you have, but like they have never had before.
Right? So it [00:10:00] becomes a very magical experience. And so how do you do this? I'm going to. Talk about that. I'm going to share with you how I do it. So very simply put the process to do this is to first find out where they are, what are all the things going on for them right now that bring them to you, right?
So you find out where they are. Then next you want to find out where they want to be. What's their goal, their dream, their their end result that they want. And then. And then you will share with them what you see as the process that will get them from where they are to where they want to be. That's really all it is.
And then you answer questions, you know, clarify any concerns. address anything that comes [00:11:00] up for them, and then invite them to go to the next step with you, invite them to work with you. So that is very simply the process. And this is the process that I follow on all of my consultation calls. And it works really well.
I have been steadily increasing my conversion rate as I have Made this process my own in a way that really feels great to me. And so I'm going to talk you through how I have come to this point and the simplest and the clearest illustration or way to illustrate that is that I most often use for my clients.
That seems to really speak to people is it's like going to. a medical specialist, a doctor that's a specialist. And so for example, a couple of years ago, I had tendonitis in my hip flexor TMI, right? Who knows how [00:12:00] it happened, you know, from running or hockey or who knows. But it was really bothering me.
And so, and really limiting My ability to do the things I wanted to do to do my sports. So I went to see an orthopedic. And so I'm gonna use this kind of as an example of the way I think about a process and how I go through the process of having these sales consultations or, you know, a sales conversation.
So so when you go to a specialist, when I went to see the orthopedic. For a special or this specific problem, they it was this wonderful gal. She's amazing. Like one of very few female Orthopedic doctors in this practice. So it was real. I of course loved getting to see her anyway. So she brought me into the exam room and she asked me what's going on.
What's the problem [00:13:00] that you're having? What have you tried already to solve this problem? You know, how much pain are you experiencing on a scale of, I don't know. What's the pain scale? One to 10 or whatever. What's the discomfort, you know, is it limiting your movement? So she took the time to get a really good picture of where I was, what was going on with me and you know, how did this happen?
Just getting all of the data from me, right? Getting a full picture of where I am. And. Obviously as a doctor, she did some diagnostics, right? Had an x ray. She moved my body around manipulated my body so she could see what's hurting and what's not hurting, gathering all the data. And so you will also do this in your consultation.
You'll gather all the data, ask all the questions that you need to in order to get a really clear understanding of what's going on with your client. [00:14:00] Right. And Then she asked me, what's my goal? Like, what do I want to be doing? Why do I want to solve this problem? Cause I mean, obviously I was in some pain and discomfort, but it wasn't so that's one that was one goal, right?
But. I also wanted to be able to run. I wanted to be able to continue to play hockey. So she talked to me about what's my goal, what is the end result? And so, you know, I told, that's what I told her. And so then after going through all the diagnostics, understanding where I want to go, what's my goal with treatment.
Then she gave me her diagnosis and. She went through all the steps that she recommends to treat this hip flexor tendinitis. and she said, you know, we're going to try some things out. We're going to try this, this, and this, and then you're going to come back in and we'll see how it's [00:15:00] going. And then, you know, maybe we need to adjust and do this and that and the other thing.
And so she gave me all the steps, everything that she suggested I do to get the health and the healing and back to the activities that I wanted to be doing. Right. And. And then they'll ask, or she asked, you know, what questions do you have for me? And, you know, she went through, showed me my x rays, showed me my imaging, you know, And then answer any questions that I have.
And she asked me, how willing are you to solve this tendonitis and how far are you willing to go if you've ever had tendonitis, you know, it takes a little while to heal. Right. And that's often where we get into trouble is we don't have patients and doing the treatment in order to heal it. And so. You can exacerbate it.
So, so that's a great question. Like, how [00:16:00] willing are you to solve this and do the treatment and follow the process, you know, and you know, whether it's doing the exercises or whatever. And so we talked through all of those things, like talk through the treatment and talk through, you know, how hard is it going to be?
Is it going to work for me? All of these things, right. And answered all of my questions and concerns. ~ And so if they're a good doctor, like she was a good doctor,~
~ she was a good doctor, so, and I know I really felt like her end goal and the priority. And so if they're a good doctor with my end goal in mind, or with your end goal in mind as the client, that's their priority, then they'll talk through everything you're thinking. You know, they're happy to talk through your concerns. So~
if they're a good doctor with your end goal as their priority, then they're happy to talk through with you, everything you're thinking, all of your concerns with that. Spirit of being an advisor, right? A helper. They're sitting alongside you, not as a combative, judgmental, convincing weirdo, right? And they'll help you think through and talk through all the reasons why you might be, Concerned or questioning whether this treatment [00:17:00] is going to work for you.
Anything that comes up for you, they're willing to just chat about it, right? And, and talk through it with you. And I know for many of us this level of care is rare, right? I, there's probably, I could probably count on one hand all the doctors that I've seen that have been this caring, but this gal definitely was and the ones that have been this caring, I've gotten amazing results in working with them, right?
And it's the same with coaches ~when it's~ an advisors and consultants, right? When we take the time to really understand what's going on for our client and see these sales conversations, these consultations as an opportunity to empower them, to make a great decision and really give them clarity and~ help them see,~
help them see how we can help them, then they're going to get better results. They're going to be much more fun to work with. You're going to have a [00:18:00] much better relationship too, right? So ~and what I also want you to notice that I always notice in this case. So~
what I want you to notice is that throughout this whole process, the focus is never on the doctor. Or what they need or how much money they're going to make or not going to make or trying to talk the patient in or out of their objections. It's about the doctor, the specialists offering their expertise to help the patient all the way to the point where the patient can make the best decision for themselves, that they are empowered to make great decisions.
I know it's funny to think about, but normally you wouldn't even hear a doctor talking about like all the times they've successfully treated this, you know, hip flexor tendonitis or gotten good results or, you know, talked about all the people, you know, the numbers of people that they've helped.
they're still totally [00:19:00] focused on you as the patient and what you're thinking and answering your questions, right? So as a patient, when I got all of my questions answered and believed that this orthopedic and the solution she was offering was going to work for me, I felt really good about making my decision to work with her.
Right. And so when, when you run consultations this way, You help people to make an empowered decision that they feel great about rather than having a sleazy sales conversation that you feel awful after and maybe forced, you know, got forced into or felt like you got forced into a decision that you regret.
And of course, this is never the way we want to start a relationship with a client and or trusted advisor, right? [00:20:00] It can never go well from there. So I think this this shift. Has for me has changed everything right and rather than thinking of consultations as an opportunity to get something from someone just making the shift of it's all about what can I offer them?
What can I give them? What can I? What kind of clarity can I offer them understanding? Can I offer them so that they understand how they can solve the problem that they're experiencing? And but if you've done your consultations in this way of getting, getting, getting in the past, there's no shame.
We all have. Right. I'm sure I've been a weirdo on plenty of sales consultations over my 19 years of having my own business. And I was in sales before that. And so I'm sure I was a weirdo. You know, I've been a weirdo for decades [00:21:00] possibly, or I was right. But I'm telling you just shifting your focus from getting something or getting the sale to focusing on serving the client and offering them that clarity and deep understanding.
and then inviting them to do the work with you will change everything for you and your business and your, your conversion rates. Right. But I think even most importantly, it just feels so much better, so much cleaner and in integrity. And for me now, I absolutely love Consultations because I love getting to be on a call and learning about other women's businesses and hearing her stories and why she started her business and what are her big dreams and goals.
And then having the opportunity to really pour into her and offer her clarity on how she can make it all [00:22:00] happen. I absolutely love that. It's so magical and we have so much fun And really another important piece of that is sufficiency, right? I need to feel sufficient and feel sufficiency in my body and going on that call and knowing that there is nothing I need.
I don't need anything from her, right? I don't come to a call needing anything from her. I come to the call 100 percent focused on her, on giving and serving and loving her. And then there's no tension. No pressure because if I'm feeling pressure, like I have to close the sale it feels awful for me. And then that's automatically going to translate and make it feel awful for her too.
Right? So just making this subtle shift feels great for both parties. And so I hope [00:23:00] this helps you whether you conduct sales consultations in your business. or have been wondering what a consultation is like with me. And if you've thought of scheduling a consultation with me, but have been afraid to, or been afraid, it's going to be weird and pressury.
Now, you know, that's not how I do things around here. And if you wonder why your consultations have not been converting, this could be part of it, right? So listen, think about this. If you increase your conversion rates, like even by 10%, You can, you can make more money like you could make 10, 20 percent more money instantly, right?
By just increasing your conversion rates. So maybe it's worth jumping on a call with me and let's figure out, talk about your consultations and figure out what's going on for you and help you to get all this [00:24:00] clarity that you need to improve your sales. Feel more comfortable with your marketing and showing up.
I'm here for it, my friend. I'm here for all of it. And if that sounds something like something you want to jump on, do it now. Just visit the link in the show notes and schedule a call. And, or you can visit my website, melissamkellogg. com and click on the book a call link. And the link to the website is also in the show notes.
And that's what I have for you today, my friends. I hope this has been helpful. It's been something that has been really making a big impact for my clients and changing so many things for them. And, and because once you improve your conversion rates, improve your consultations, you have feel more comfortable having these types of conversations, then your business is going to, you're going to be able to bring in so much [00:25:00] more revenue.
It's going to feel great and be more fun. And you're going to attract really, really great clients this way. So I hope this has been helpful and I will talk to you again next time. Bye!
