Win More Clients With The Leadership Conversation Framework™

flow of clients leadership sales Apr 30, 2024

Winning new clients and building long-term relationships is based on a fundamental principle:

The mutual exchange of value.

Let's start with a few foundational definitions and concepts:

All long-term relationships are based on a mutual exchange of value.
Value is anything people will buy with their time and money.
Your prospects live in their own emotional whirlwind.
Ultimately, anything we buy with our time and money is to achieve one thing...
A higher emotional state. Or, put another way, to simply feel better.
Your prospect’s current circumstances in life are a direct result of their beliefs, attitudes, and habits.

To remove any negative feelings, thoughts, or opinions you have about sales, and any "ickey" experiences you might have had in the past, I want you to reframe how you see the conversation with your potential clients.

See yourself as a benevolent servant leader. Like, say, a doctor. You'll ask questions, diagnose problems, and propose solutions.

The purpose of the leadership (sales) conversation is threefold:

1. Find out if you can help them
2. Remove objections
3. Get commitment

The 6 parts of the Leadership Conversation Framework™ are:

1. Connect.

Connect has two goals:

• Build Rapport (find common ground)
• Frame the conversation

Rapport Tools:

“I noticed in your LinkedIn profile...”
“Congratulations on your...”
“I see that you and I both...”

Framing Tools:

“I have some helpful information that you want to jot down. Can you grab a pen and paper...”
So let me quickly set up this call for you...

I'd like to get you as much help as I can in the limited time we have here.

That means getting a quick sense of where you are now, your goals, and where you need the most help right now.

Based on that, I can provide you with actionable content that is relevant to your current business
challenges. Sound good?

2. Discover

Discover has three goals:

• Where are they now and where do they want to be?
• Discover the obstacle (problem).
• Can you help them remove the obstacle (solve the problem)?

Discover Tools:

“If you could wave a magic wand and change anything in your business, what would it be?”
“Imagine with me for a moment that we hop in a time machine together...”
“From where you stand today, what do you see as your biggest obstacle to achieving that?”

3. Diagnose

Your objective here is to diagnose the root cause of the problem.

Diagnose Tools:

• Cash flow
• Profit
• Multiple

“Tell me a little about...”
“Help me understand...”
“Could you please describe the...?”
“Could you walk me through...?”
“Would you like my help with...?”

4. Prescribe

The goal here is to articulate a clear, unique mechanism and roadmap they can follow, but only with you as the benevolent servant leader who can help them achieve their higher, more positive, future state.

Prescribe Tools:

“To reach your goal, we will...”
“During our journey together, you will...”
“In the first 30 days, you will achieve...”
“Would you like my help with...?”

5. Offer

Tell them what they need to do right now to get started on the journey with you.

Offer Tools:

“There are three ways we can work together...”
“Which one of those options is the better fit for you?”
“Great, what happens next is...”

6. Commit

Get three ascending commitments:

• Commitment to follow the process
• Commitment for your next session together
• Commitment for payment right now

PS: When you're ready, here are two ways I can help you:

1. We're looking for skilled professionals and coaches we can train to help small business owners succeed. We pay the training costs. If you're currently a business advisor or coach, or you'd like to put your hard-earned skills to work as a business advisor and fire the boss for good, here's a video that explains what we're looking for.

2. I publish a weekly email newsletter each Tuesday for business advisors called "The AI-Powered Business Advisor." You'll get the latest AI tools and prompts, as well as easy-to-implement strategies for growing your business advisor practice. You can learn more here.