A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the follow-up game when a prospect has said that they can do it themselves, and they genuinely believe it.

Follow-up is inevitable.

You simply cannot close everyone on a call.

But, it’s a whole lot nicer if you can effectively sidestep the need for it in the first place.

When the prospect thinks they can do it themselves, you have to help them realize it through questioning, not by telling them.

Why?

Think back to the last time you were sure you could do something, and someone told you you can’t.

You most likely dug your heels in and thought - screw that guy, he doesn’t know me.

The default line, which I'm not a fan of is, “If you could figure this out by yourself, why haven’t you done it yet?”

In theory, it’s the perfect line.

The reason this should be used carefully - you’re forcing them to defend themselves.

They have to accept that they’re incompetent, or have failed in some capacity by not already being there.

This will go one of two ways.

They will:

• Tell you where to go
• Or close up and get off the call as quickly as possible, often with a fake “yes” or “think about it”.

What you need to do is systematically pull apart what they’re saying in a collaborative/supportive manner. 

It’s a combination of labelling, NLP, and assumptive questions.

Example: Scaling an agency.

They’re at $50k per month now, and have set the goal of getting to $400k per month over the next 6 months.

The key to this is knowing the top 2-3 resistance points they will face. They also perfectly align to what your program fixes.

In an agency, it’ll most likely be:

• How do you start selling the higher value work?
• How do you go about recruiting the talent?
• What will the systems on the backend do for seamless delivery once you scale past a certain point?

It goes something like this

Acknowledge:

That’s great, I can see why someone like you would be suited to this line of work. Starting an agency can be a whole lot of fun, but one thing that we’ve noticed amongst the most successful agency owners is that they all come up against the same few things when they’re trying to get to that mark.

You’re probably across them.

Sales

With regards to sales, what’s your process for selling these high-end jobs?

Ahhh I don’t really have a process per se.

Ah, ok. But you’ve sold a lot of these $50k contracts to businesses in the past, haven’t you?

Ah no, not really.

Gotcha.

How would you go about doing that then?

I’m not too sure, but I’m sure I could figure it out.

Team

Of course, and as for building out that team that will take you from the 50k mark to the 400k mark, how many of those have you built in the past?

I haven’t built a team, but I’ve had juniors.

Gotcha, have you mapped out how many team members you’ll need to get to the $400k?

Not really, how many do you think?

You’ll need at least 5 creatives, 1-2 salespeople/account managers, and an ops manager.

Silence.

Do you have people in your direct network who would be prepared to jump across while you scale?

Umm, maybe one or two, but I’ll need to find more.

Ok, makes sense.

Have you ever had to manage a team that size?

I haven’t, no.

Ah that’s right, you said that before. How do you think you’ll go about managing and upskilling them?

I’m not too sure, I didn’t realize I needed that many.

That’s fine, you wouldn’t believe how many times we hear that. With regards to learning how to do all of that, who in your network has already done this before and could guide you through it?

I don’t have anyone.

Sorry?

There’s no one in my immediate network that has done this before.

Ah, ok. No worries.

Systems

Probably the biggest thing we hear, once you get past that $100k per month mark, the systems that got you to that point, delivery systems, communications channels etc, they just aren’t enough to carry the load.
All of our members, without fail hit that $100k mark and their delivery and client experience dipped. That’s when they got their first bad reviews and complaints. I’m not definitely saying that will happen with you, but the question I have, how will you go about making sure your systems can transition ahead of time as opposed to too late?

Well, I’m not too sure. When you say systems, what kind of things would you guys show us how to implement? And what kind of complaints did they get?

(Unpack this and directly relate it to the raving reviews they have already go, as well as what they said earlier about already doing 60 hour weeks)


Bring it together

Knowing that’s what the next steps look like, do you think you’ll be able to figure it out in the next 6 months?

Ahh.. maybe.. Probably not. I would probably need a bit of support to do that. But do you teach all of that in the program?

We do, but that’s the foundational stuff to just get you moving. The best part is once we get you past that $250-300k per month, people love the content that scales you past that. But looking at getting you to that $400k in the next 6 months, can you think of any reason you wouldn’t be able to hit that alone?

Yeah maybe actually. I don’t know how to get the right people, and I can’t work any more. I’m already doing 60. Every time I take on an extra job, it just adds to more hours in the week. I don’t want that.

I can see that. So, what would you like to do?

You said before you have training on heap of areas. Can you take me through that a bit?

Are you sure?

Yes

Close the loops you opened on the 3 friction areas via a custom pitch (as they all should be)

You can apply this to any sale.

Scaling a company.

Getting to passive income

Losing weight.

All you’re doing is opening loops as to what they need to know, making them fully problem aware, and then the clear solution here is your program.

And guess what?

If they still don’t buy, you haven’t burned this lead.

You will just keep them in your follow-up system and get them in the next 6 months.

Action Steps

Map out the top 3-4 things that your program teaches.

Map out the top 3-4 reasons why someone would not be successful alone if they weren’t to buy your services.

Overlap these, and you have your 3 loops to open and close if this objection comes up.

And as always, if you don’t get the sale, do not burn that lead.