Get next steps on the books

After you collect the information you need, talk about the next steps in the hiring process with this prospect. Ideally, this transition happens naturally after you feel you have all the information they need, but it could also be triggered by hitting 25 minutes into your 30-minute phone call.‍

Before you move onto this step, do the calculation in your head if you want to work with this person. You don’t want to waste anyone’s time, so it’s best to be honest and direct while on the call.‍

What to say if it’s not a fit

Great, thanks so much for sharing all that with me. After evaluating, I’m not sure my expertise matches your current needs. I believe searching for an ad expert may serve your needs better?‍

If it is a good fit, how to transition

Sounds like we’re on the same page – I’d be super excited to help you out with this.

Head to the workbook and write down your script for cases where they are not a good fit as well as where they are a good fit.‍

Then, sell the next step

There’s no exact answer to what the next step should be, as it depends on what was agreed on during the discussion. 

Most likely, it will be one of the following:

• A follow-up call: You may need to dive deeper into the scope of the project (for full branding and website projects, for example) or to meet with the main stakeholder to get the final buy-in. Again, we don’t recommend giving away your time for free but some projects upwards of five digits or more may be worth your time investment.  

• A proposal: If you promised package options or your prospect needs to see the nitty-gritty of price and what goes into the project, send them a proposal. This is also common if more people need to agree before hiring you. 

• A contract and invoice: If everything went smoothly on the call and you got their buy-in at every stage along the way, you go in for “the kill” by sending the steps to book with you directly. 

What I’d like to do next is send you a formal proposal via email which will include the scope of work, the timeline in greater detail, payment terms, and some previous work I’ve done. Have your team review it and if everything looks good, we can put it in the books for an X start date. Would you like me to include anything else in that email?

Head to the workbook and write down your script with a proposed next step between you and the prospect. 

In this step, you learned to close a call gracefully and keep the momentum going by booking the next step with your prospect. Congrats! That’s the entire discovery call process.