How to Streamline Your Client Discovery Process

Connecting with a potential client can be equal parts exhilarating and anxiety-inducing. 

While the thought of landing some new business is exciting, it can quickly become overwhelming when you’re constantly fielding inquiries and following up with prospects. In fact, it might feel like your business is running you, rather than the other way around.  

So what’s a new biz owner to do? While generating new leads should always be a priority, there are ways you can make the process more efficient so you can spend less time writing emails and more time building your empire. 

1. Get clear on your sales process

What’s a sales process? Simply put, it’s a potential customer’s journey from realizing they have a need for a product or service to making an actual purchase. For example, let’s say you meet a potential client at a networking event. Then they book a call with you to learn more about your services. Then you send them a proposal and contract, they sign it, and boom! You’ve got a new client. Those different actions are all part of your sales process. 

Not sure if you have one? Well, think about all the clients you’ve worked with so far. How did they find you? What information did they need from you to make a decision? How did you close the sale? Write down your answers and look for emerging trends and patterns. If you need help with this, you know who to call. Contact Us

By building a clear sales process, you will be able to sell value, enhance trust and create a stronger bond with potential customers – all at the right time.

2. Create easily repeatable tasks

Guess what? You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Don’t waste time thinking about what to say (especially when you say the same things all the time) or manually writing the same emails over and over again. 

Instead, pick one of your most successful emails and turn it into a script or template that you can easily copy and paste. Same thing with your invoices and contracts. Most software programs allow you to duplicate documents and save customers and packages so you don’t need to build everything from scratch each time. Repetition is the name of the game. 

3. Automate tasks where possible 

Once you have scripts and templates ready to go, take it one step further and set up some automation. There are even whole platforms like Zapier and Zoho that are dedicated to helping you connect your apps so you can focus on the important stuff that machines can’t do. 

For example, you could use these tools to send automatic reminders before sales calls. Depending on your bookkeeping software, you can set up your proposals to turn into invoices and your invoices to turn into projects. Not only will this save you a ton of time, but it will also help you serve your customers better as you will be able to offer a quicker and more consistent customer experience. 

4. Delegate responsibilities to scale your efforts

Do you really need to do it all? Even with standard processes and automation software, you will likely still have some tasks on your plate that you could outsource to someone else. For instance, maybe you spend a few hours every week researching leads and contacting leads. Or perhaps you need to schedule some follow-up calls with prospects. 

Your time is valuable. So while you might think you’re saving yourself some coin by going the DIY route, if you really want to grow your business without burning yourself out in the process, you need to get some help. Fortunately, there are so many affordable options out there. From virtual assistant services to freelance job sites like Upwork and PeoplePerHour, there are lots of resources that you can use to free up some more hours in your schedule. 

While you might need to invest a bit of time and money into setting all of these processes up, your future self will thank you for putting in the work and getting her high-value hours back. Trust me.