Stop Getting Ghosted: Discovery Meetings for the Win
One of the most important – and overlooked – parts of the sales process is the discovery meeting. More than a fancy sales term, it’s the conversation you have between the initial inquiry and the proposal you send out to a potential client. It’s also the part that most sales people skip over too quickly.
When people ask me how to stop getting ghosted, the first question I ask is, Are you doing a discovery meeting before you send out your pricing? Nearly everyone says, No. Well, there you go. That’s the biggest reason you’re getting ghosted. You’re straight-up scaring your prospects with a lame pricing PDF or too much information that has nothing to do with what they need.
Stop sending pricing to people who don’t know what they need or don’t know the value of what you offer.
Instead, get new inquiries on the phone as soon as possible. Your goals here are simple: 1) uncover their needs, 2) build trust, and 3) learn about their decision-making process. When you can do all three of these well you’ll see your conversion rates increase big time.
Uncover Needs
The primary reason for the discovery meeting is to learn prospective clients’ needs so you can offer specific services that match what they’re looking for. Most engaged couples have no clue or are totally confused about what they want or need.
A conversation with them is an excellent opportunity to help them identify what they don’t want, what they liked last time, or what they might want for themselves. When you fully understand what’s going to appeal to them, then you can start pitching your services – but not before.
Build Trust
The biggest consideration for a potential buyer is whether they’re making the least risky decision when choosing you over someone else. Research shows that at the end of their decision-making journey, this is what they’re going to ask themselves: Is this the least worst choice I can make? Not making a bad decision is often more important than making a good one.
This means you have to do all you can to establish a strong foundation of trust with the buyer. The earlier you start the better. In the discovery meeting, you have the chance to let them get to know you, your personality, your approach, and your ethics.
Getting them to see you as trustworthy is important in and of itself. It’ll also help them open up to tell you what they really want and need for their wedding. Double-win for you!
Decision-Making Process
Not every buyer has the same criteria to make the decision for your wedding services. Different factors drive different people to make the same choice. One of the biggest things you can do is identify what is going to trigger a purchase for this particular buyer. That’s a lot easier if you create the opportunity to have a conversation about it.
Most decisions for weddings aren’t made by one person, they’re made by several. The fiancé and parents, as well as BFFs, are often involved in making the final choice for wedding vendors. A fundamental of any sales approach is to make sure you’re talking with the decision-maker – or -makers.
Take time in the beginning to know who you need to put in front of you or send information to, so you can prevent someone coming in at the end to upset all the work you’ve done with the initial inquirer.
Fast is Slow, Slow is Smooth
As you can see, the discovery meeting is a crucial step to getting in front of your potential clients. It’s not something to overlook and certainly not something to skip. You may think it’s best to get your leads all the info about what you offer asap, but if you move too fast you’re going to set yourself back. More likely, you’re going to get ghosted and blame the prospect. Too bad it was you who scared them away.
Slow down, work the buyer’s journey by giving the right information at the right time in the right way, and you’ll see higher conversion rates.
