Three reasons why a Get Acquainted Call beats a free consultation

When you are looking to get new clients, one of the best ways is to have a phone call with prospects to get to know them a bit and tell them about your services. Some people offer a free consultation, but I tell my students that this is not the best positioning for what the call is really about. Instead I recommend offering a “Get Acquainted Call.” Here are three reasons why this is a much better approach to get clients: 1. People Love Free Stuff. There can be a lot of confusion around this first call and what it really involves. When people show up, they expect you to consult with them like a free session. They tend to take the information and go off with it, but don’t hire you. 2. You Must Set the Expectation. When you call this initial session a Get Acquainted Call, you are not offering any free service. You will be talking about the person’s needs and struggles and how you can help. This sets a completely different expectation, one that is far better for converting prospects into clients. 3. No Problem Solving. A Get Acquainted Call allows you to learn about the prospect’s situation. You can simply start by saying, “I want to hear about your situation and see if I can help.” This gives you lots of information to understand what the person’s struggles and needs are. Using this language prevents prospects from assuming you are going to start helping them improve anything immediately. You are just having a conversation to discover how you can help and engaging in a process to determine if you are a good fit. Once you figure this out, then you can share your programs to see if the prospect wants to become a client. If you feel there is good potential to work with the person, make sure you follow up with, “Yes I can help you with that.” You may want to add a few happy client examples of people who got good results with similar issues. This way prospects know you have done this before and feel confident you can help them too. Your Assignment: If you’ve been offering free consultations, rewrite your script for discussing this initial conversation. Get comfortable talk about the “Get Acquainted” call and be clear you will be getting to know the person. This will make a difference in your ability to close and get clients and will tend to attract fewer tire-kickers who waste your time.