The “One Call Close” Is Overrated: Here’s How To Follow Up With Potential clients
I recently spoke with a client who was finishing up my group program and wanted to work with me 1:1.
Before I could share the investment with him, he got a call from the hospital.
His dad was going into surgery and the hospital needed permission to proceed.
After my client popped back on, I asked him:
"Would it be better if we talked tomorrow? If my dad was going into surgery, I wouldn't want to be making a decision about whether to do a 6 month coaching engagement."
My client agreed. Then he said, "Thanks for your humanity."
We booked another time to talk and he ended up enrolling one week later.
This got me thinking about one of my pet peeves in the online coaching industry…
It's this idea that you should be closing everyone you talk to in one call.
Let me share with you why I don’t agree with this advice and what to do instead.
You Don’t Need To Close Everyone On The First Call
Many business coaches teach that if you let a potential client take time to breathe, they'll get scared, disappear forever, and never enroll.
Two problems with this:
First, it creates a justification for lots of manipulative sales techniques. You push someone to enroll on that first call “for their own good” (even if their dad is about to go into surgery, for example).
Second, it’s simply not true that if you don’t close someone on the first call, they’ll never enroll. In fact, 50% of my clients in the last 6 months had more than one call with me before enrolling. So if I didn’t do any follow-up calls I’d probably make about half as much money.
“One-call closes” work best when it’s a straightforward sale with not a lot of perceived risk for the buyer. As you can imagine, this isn’t always going to be the case for your potential clients.
“50% of my clients in the last 6 months had more than one call with me before enrolling.”
This begs the question…
If you don’t need to (and shouldn’t) close everyone on the very first call, how do you effectively follow up with potential coaching clients?
This is a great question. Because when you know how to follow up the right way, you don’t have to choose between enrolling the right clients and keeping your integrity. You’ll be able to confidently move those people towards a decision that they’ll thank you for later.
But when you don’t know how to follow up, you’ll lose out on a lot of clients who would have been a great fit for your services. And many of the people who do end up becoming clients will take forever to sign on.
Because here’s the thing: just because you don’t need to close every client in one call doesn’t mean you should go to the other extreme and stop being a leader. Maybe you’ve been ghosted by potential clients who said they would “let you know” and then never emailed you back. Or maybe you had a follow up call a couple of weeks later and noticed that all the momentum was gone. There’s a middle way between these two sales approaches and I want to show you what it is.
My “Middle Way” Approach To Sales Follow-Up
Before we get too into the nitty gritty, I’m just going to lay out my exact process and then we’ll go into more detail. Here it is:
Talk through their primary concerns
Suggest another call within 24 hours
Give them something to do between calls
Let’s start with number 1.
1) Talk through their primary concerns
If someone says they want to think about it, I say “Not a problem. I’m happy to have you take time to think about it. Out of curiosity, what specifically do you want to think about?”
It’s important not to jump right off the call here. Do your best to get to the root of their concerns, the reason why they’re not yet a Yes. This allows you to reframe their thinking or to clarify things that they might not be understanding.
It also allows you to figure out if they’re already a No and they’re just being polite (in which case you don’t need to schedule a follow up).
There are a whole bunch of different concerns that could come up here. One of the most common ones is “I don’t know if I can afford it” (click here for an article and video about how to respond to that). I also have a cheat sheet with my go-to responses for all of the common responses that you can download by clicking the button below:
2) Schedule another call, ideally within 24 hours
After you talk through your potential client’s concerns, one of three things will happen. They’ll either be a No, a Yes, or a Maybe.
If they’re still a Maybe, here’s what I typically say:
“Cool. Let’s get a time on the calendar tomorrow to check in. Does [x time] work for you?”
That’s my default, because often people end up just expanding into the time that they’re given to make a decision. If your default is to give someone a week to decide, I guess that’s fine, but you’re going to be spending a lot of unnecessary time closing deals.
If they’re uncomfortable with a 24 hour follow up, you can simply say:
“No problem. When would you like to check in on this?”
In the case that they have a specific concern, you can just speak to that directly. For example, if they want to talk to their spouse, you can ask “When do you think you’ll be able to have that conversation with them?”
The key is that you need to schedule the second call before ending the first call. This is important. If you haven’t reached a Yes/No decision, you must schedule a follow up.
3) Give them something to do between calls
How you frame the follow-up call is important.
You don’t want to make it seem like the whole purpose of that call is to hear what their decision is. This puts too much pressure on them having them figure it out independently. And they’re more likely to send you an email before that call with a No, at which point it’s very hard to understand how they came to that decision.
Instead, you want to say:
“This is just an opportunity for us to check in and see where you’re at. Write down any questions you have for me in the meantime and we’ll just go through that list together on the next call. You don’t need to arrive at a decision before that call.”
In addition to having them make a list of questions, I recommend that you give them homework between calls.
Ideally this is something that either a) builds your credibility or b) helps move them past whatever hang-ups they have about working with you.
So, for example, I send clients the audiobook version of my book Don’t Let The Fear Win. This helps them get past any mindset blocks they might have and it builds my authority as well.
I’ve also had clients do other exercises, like making a list of what would be good about reaching the goal they have and what might not be good about reaching it. For example, someone who wants to lose weight but subconsciously is scared of losing their friends in the process. This helps them work through any fear of success they may have and we can go through it together.
What To Do On The Follow-Up Call
I keep things really simple. After a bit of chit chat I just say:
“Cool, so tell me where you’re at with everything.”
Sometimes they are a Yes, sometimes they are a No, and sometimes they still have concerns.
If they have concerns, that’s great news. Because it usually means they want to work with you but they just need help getting there.
I’ve listed out all of the most common concerns in a PDF so that you know exactly how to respond to each of them. Click the button below to check it out:
FAQs
What should I do if someone still needs more time after the second call?
I usually take a refundable deposit of around $500 to hold their spot. They can always get that money back if they end up being a No. But it helps you figure out if this person is really worth scheduling a third call with. Before scheduling a third call, we need to agree upon the specific action that must be taken before being ready to sign up.
How do you decide whether to schedule a second call or try to enroll someone right away?
It’s usually a gut level feeling I get that says “Don’t push it.” Typically I’ll schedule a second call if the person has been burned before by another coach. They need to take it slow and really trust me. I’m also more willing to book a second call when I know the person personally or I’ve worked with them before.
What do you do if someone wants to schedule a call more than 1 week out?
If someone wants to schedule more than 1 week out, they probably aren’t going to convert into a client. I just tell these people they can email me if/when they’re ready and I let me content do the work (e.g. if they’re on my email list sometimes they’ll sign up years later). My experience has been that it’s not worth following up with these people individually as they so rarely come back.
Should I be sending them anything between calls?
Not necessarily. If they’ve asked you to write a summary of what you’ll be working on together, you’re welcome to do that. You can also text them to check in if it’s a longer period of time and see how they’re doing. Just know that the sale itself isn’t going to happen until you’re on another call.
What if the potential client messages me before the call to cancel?
If they realized they are a clear No, then I usually just wish them luck and cancel the call. But a lot of times they’re simply expressing a concern or saying that they may decide to go another direction. In these cases I usually say, “Not a problem, let’s keep our call on the calendar and we can chat about it. That way you have some clear next steps either way.”
What if they say they want to get back to me via email?
Some people advocate for this approach but I’ve never seen it work very well personally. Getting back on a call is key so you can actually talk things through. I don’t want to have 20 open loops of people who are thinking about it and have no idea whether they’ll convert. But you’re welcome to test and find what works for you.
Are there situations when it makes sense to enroll people on the first call?
Absolutely. Remember, only 50% of my clients are the result of multiple calls. That means that the other 50% signed up on the spot. Both types of clients can be equally committed and equally enjoyable to work with. The goal is simply to spend the time needed for that specific client — no more, no less. If someone is just a little bit anxious and needs reassurance, you can give them that on the first call.
I’m having trouble asking questions or scheduling a follow up call the next day when they need to think about it. I’m scared of being too pushy.
It’s not pushy to talk through your potential client’s concerns. In fact, it’s part of your job. In order to make sure this is a good fit for them, you need to understand what’s making them pause. Keep in mind that the sales process can bring out your own insecurities….about money, your value, and the value of your coaching. Deciding to invest in coaching will likely bring the client out of their comfort zone, which will make you uncomfortable. But that’s when they need your leadership most. Pretend this person is already a client and you’re helping them make an important decision about investing in themselves (but that it has nothing to do with you). This little mind hack will help you activate your coaching skills without it feeling so personal.
