You finally get that Consult (you might call it a sample session or discovery session) and they say they are interested, but you don’t hear back from them?

Recently, one of the members of our Coaches and Holistic Practitioners who Change the World Facebook Group shared that she did two consultations where the potential clients said they were interested, she emailed them her different offerings, and she hadn’t yet heard back from them and wanted to know when she should reach out again.

I commented, “It’s essential you offer your services during the consultation. You have to say the words. You have to be willing to have the money conversation. You have to be willing to say what it costs to work with you during the consultation and not save that for an email.”

If you have been making that mistake, we invite you to stop sending your offer via email — and be willing to offer your services during the consultation. Making this one change will likely have 50% more people saying yes.

How can you share about your offerings during the Consult so it doesn’t feel gross or manipulative?

Before you get the template, let’s talk about why Consults don’t turn into Paying Clients.

There are MANY reasons…

Assuming the potential client is a good match, each of these reasons someone says No fits into one of three main areas that you must have mastery in if you want to attract lots of clients.

We’ll call these three areas “CAC” to make them easy to remember.

CAC stands for:

Code – Attract – Convert

Let’s do a quick self-diagnosis to determine how you are doing in each of these areas.

Code: Are you sharing about your work in a way that has your ideal clients say, “I need to work with you” or “I know someone who needs to work with you?” If not, then it’s time to create your 100% unique “Client Attraction Code” Statement.

Hint: If you don’t have the “Communicate” area mastered, it’s really hard to get results with the few consults you’re likely to get.

Attract: Are you taking regular action that results in your ideal clients contacting you to request a consult?

There are many ways to get consults, such as social marketing, Heartselling conversations, speaking, online workshops, challenges, email marketing and more. We teach 10 strategies here at Thrive that fit into 3 categories: Organic (free), Partnerships and Paid.

Most Coaches and Holistic Practitioners should focus on getting good at organic (free) marketing first.

During our upcoming, “Book 5 Consults in 5 Days” Challenge, we give strategies, tips and templates to get consults.

Many of the people participating in the Challenge used a few of our Social Post templates and got requests for Consults.

This is just one way to get those Consult requests–and it’s essential you’ve got 2-3 things you do to consistently attract your ideal clients to request Consults.

Convert: Are the people who are requesting Consults turning into paying clients?

If they’re not, it’s important to look at the Code and Attract areas first, to make sure those are working for you.

If you are getting regular requests for Consults from your ideal clients, but they aren’t saying Yes to working with you, then it’s likely that whatever you’re doing during the Consultation could be improved.

Which of these areas do you need support with to get more consults and have them turn into paying clients (share below in the comments)?

Now let’s talk about how to go from Consult to Client…

First question:
Do you have a proven Consultation Template that aligns with your style and values?

Our “Get Clients” Free Consultation Formula is a series of questions where your ideal client is simultaneously going to discover more about themselves, while they talk themselves into working with you (if it’s a good match). (We’ll be giving away free copies of this as part of the “Book 5 Consults in 5 Days” Challenge, so stay tuned.)

You’ve got to follow the Formula and also pay attention to the energy of the conversation.
Simply using a template, without paying attention to the energy of the conversation, won’t get you the results you’re looking for.

Now, let’s talk about the part of the formula where you share about your work so they’re more likely to say Yes.

Earlier in the Consult, you want to make two brief recommendations that move them closer to the result they want.

Your third recommendation, if you feel it’s a good match, is to invite them to continue working with you.

Here is how you can say this:

“My third recommendation is that we continue the work that we’re doing together now…

“The mistake I see a lot of people make is they get inspired by their vision of___________ (what they said they wanted) and then they go off and try to get there by themselves without a strong support system. So I recommend that we continue to work together in ___________________ (your package or program) so you can get _____________ (whatever result they said they wanted).”

This is where you might think it’s time to just send an email with your different offerings. Yet, this is a mistake. This is where it’s SO important to have the conversation. If you send an email, it’s like you’ve just opened the door, but you’re not willing to walk through it with them.

So how do you walk through that door?

You ask:

“How does this sound?”

Now you want to check-in to their energy. Are they energetically leaning in or are they leaning out?

If they are leaning out, you can say:

“You seem hesitant…”

And they might automatically say “I’d like to, but I don’t think I can afford it.”

(This blog post would be too long if we were to get into “Transforming Concerns” right now. Just know that opening up the conversation with this last sentence can turn into a healing and empowering conversation for your potential client.)

If they are leaning in, you move forward. You say:

“I’m happy to share about my package. Before I do, if we were to work together what would you see yourself getting?”

And then you let them talk. They might even talk themselves into working with you after this question, if you just allow them to share what they could see themselves sharing.

After they share what they want to get, you use this truthful and inspiring statement:

“I can’t promise you’ll get _____________ (results), but I’ve had many clients get these types of results OR I have seen this work create these types of results.”

And you ideally share an example here.

Now it’s time to share about your offering:

“I charge ______ dollars per hour…

And based on what you’ve shared, I recommend a package of ______ sessions for $________, which means you save $______.”

And then you say:

“How does this sound to you?”

If they say, “that sounds good,” you can ask:

“Would you like to get started?”

Or you may hear a concern about time, money or something else (and that’s where you’ll want to dance with their concerns to discover if it’s a good match).

If after reading this article, you start offering your services DURING your consults instead of via email, then you should see a big shift in your ability to turn Consults into Clients.

If you want more Consults that turn into Clients, we invite you to join us for our upcoming “Book 5 Consults in 5 Days” Challenge that’s happening Feb 8-12.