Utilising Discovery Calls to Boost Your Holistic Business

Do you speak to your clients before you work with them? Is it just an informal chat with you waiting to see if they book with you? If this sounds familiar, you’re missing out on enrolling new clients.

The idea of sales calls can be challenging for holistic practitioners but that is exactly what a discovery (or exploration, or compatibility) call is. These calls are simply about connecting and communicating with someone to discover if you’re a good fit for each other, and they can be done in a non-sleazy way that feels good for both of you and is a great way to boost your holistic business.

I’ve moved away from using the term ‘discovery call’ as I wanted my invitation to be more personal and offer a helpful call with the following copy: Your success matters and I’m here to help! Let's have a chat so I can learn more about you and your business, answer your questions, and recommend your best next steps. But in essence, it’s still about getting to know people and finding out if and how I can help them.

Making calls easy to book and having a simple plan for them will help you and your prospective client make the most of your time together. I’ll use the word ‘discovery’, so you know I’m talking about the initial sales call with a prospective client.

What a Discovery Call is Not

The discovery call is not about trying to solve a person's problems there and then. That’s your job once they’re working with you and paying you for your time and expertise.

I’m not saying don’t be generous and signpost people to resources and support, but just be mindful of not oversharing at this point.

Booking a Discovery Call

Make it easy for your clients to book a call. If it takes too much effort, it will be a barrier and they will find someone else to help them.

Automated scheduling systems like Acuity or Calendly are perfect for this. You provide a link, and they book straight into your diary at a convenient time.

You can also use the schedulers to gather the information that will help you make the most of the call. A great question to include is how they found out about you as it will help you understand what marketing is working.

Prepare Clients for The Call

Once someone has booked in to speak with you, it’s a great opportunity to let them know about you and your services. Testimonials from happy clients and links to useful content in the confirmation emails will help to build trust.

Booking a call through a scheduler means people will automatically get a reminder, meaning they’re more likely to show up.

Have a Structure

Whilst your call shouldn’t be scripted, having a framework will help you cover everything you want to during the call.

Set the scene for the call so they know what to expect. This is to find out whether you are a good fit to work together and whether you’re able to help them.

Listen to their problem - use this as an opportunity to really understand the problem your prospective client is facing. People love to talk about their problems so give them the space to do this and they will feel heard but make sure you don’t spend all your time here.

Ask questions - what do you need to know to make sure this client is right for you? They provide an opportunity to understand whether this is a priority for the client and how ready they are to work with you. Questions you could ask include:

• Where are you struggling most with this problem?
• What have you tried before to resolve it?
• How would life be if this was no longer an issue for you?
• Do you have the budget/time to invest in your health and well-being?

Offer your solution – focus on the benefits of your solution rather than just the features. A feature is part of your service, the benefit is the impact it will have on your client – it's the reason why they'll become a client, they connect at an emotional level. For example, a feature is a 1:1 health coaching appointment, the benefit is being supported to eat healthily to achieve your goal weight.

Tell them the next step – don’t assume someone knows what to do, make it easy for them to take the next step to work with you.

Are They a Good Fit for You?

Remember this call is about making sure you’re a good fit for each other. If you feel you’re not the right practitioner for them, walk away and make any recommendations you feel are appropriate.

We’ve all been there trying to help someone that instinctively doesn’t feel right for us. Those relationships tend to end up being the most challenging ones and leave you feeling like you’re not doing your best work. Discovery calls are a perfect way to help to avoid this happening in the future.

Follow Up

If you've had a call with someone and they haven’t taken action – follow them up. People are busy and they may have just forgotten to book. This can be as simple as a quick email asking if they have any questions.

If you don’t follow up, it could appear like you don’t care so don’t let worrying about checking in with someone get in the way of you finding your next lovely new client.

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