If you are a coach who sells high ticket products, it's most likely that you would be using Discovery
Calls because Discovery Calls are still the number one vehicle for converting clients
onto our premium offers.
One of the biggest frustrations though of coaches who offer Discovery Calls is no shows.
People book an appointment on your calendar and you block out that time to be there for
the appointment, but when you show up, they are not there.
This ends up wasting your time and frustrating many coaches that some people actually think
of giving up on Discovery Calls.
Here on this episode, I'm going to share with you a few things that you can do to significantly
reduce no shows in your business so that you can convert more clients using Discovery Calls.
You're going to enjoy this one.
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Hi and welcome to episode two of The Coaching Business Mentor where I am committed every
week to show up and give business advice for heart led coaches like you who want to get
clients, serve more people and make more money.
Now in today's episode, we're going to be looking at reducing no shows at your discovery
calls.
This particular question was sent in by a coach.
His name is Sami Thompson.
Now funny enough, Sami is someone who I've actually known for quite a while, even long
before I started Profit from Coaching in 2014.
He reached out to me sometime in 2012 when he needed help with his business and through
that time, so for over 10 years, he has been following me and plugging into what we're
doing and this is an opportunity for me to shout out to you Sami and say thank you for
being an amazing client and he's referred so many clients to our business over the years
and I feel this is a good time to acknowledge you and recognize you and let the whole world
hear about how much of a brilliant client you are and how amazing you have been to our
company.
This is the question that Sami sent through.
First of all, before I tell you the question, just a little bit about Sami.
He helps busy, successful professionals grow wealth by levering the power of the Forex
market but there'll be a lot more details in the show notes.
Check them out, you can see all his social links there.
Anyways, this is his question.
He says, Prospects book a free 30-minute discovery session but they don't show up.
How can I reduce or eliminate this trend?
Discovery call no-shows are a big challenge for coaches who offer discovery calls.
Very quickly, I think I should help those of us who may be wondering what actually is
a discovery call.
Well, a discovery call is kind of like a doctor's appointment.
This is how I like to describe it.
Just imagine that you had a bellyache and you went in to see a doctor where you booked
an appointment to go and see the doctor.
You sit down with the doctor, you explain what the situation is, what's going on, the
challenges.
They may ask you a few questions.
When did it start?
What part of your belly is aching?
Was there anything unusual?
Did you...
No.
They may ask you different questions and they may come and they might just check your belly
and prod a little bit.
And after they've done that, then they would probably say something along the lines of,
from what I've seen, it seems like this is what's going on and this is what I recommend
we do.
And then at that point, you can then say, okay, sure, that sounds like something I'd
like to do.
Let's do it.
That whole conversation that you had with the doctor where you had a problem, you booked
an appointment, they basically asked you a few questions to understand a little more
about what's going on.
They asked to get a little more background information and then based on their knowledge
and expertise, they were able to diagnose what the issue is and then make a recommendation.
Within the context of coaching, I want you to see yourself as that doctor.
That's exactly what a discovery call is.
It's where you have a prospect who has a problem or a difficulty or a challenge that they're
looking to overcome and books an appointment with you to discuss this issue.
And they discuss this issue, you ask a few questions to understand what's going on.
And at the end of the day, you kind of help them understand what the issue is and then
you make a recommendation.
And it's at this point where we can then discuss whether they want to work with you to help
them address that issue or if they want to go up and do it by themselves.
Now that pretty much is what a discovery call is.
They're really, really great for coaches because if you're offering high-end coaching solutions,
which I do recommend that you do offer, the easiest way, the most stress-free way for
a coach to be able to convert high-end clients is by using discovery calls.
Discovery calls are something that I'm really passionate about.
I developed a discovery call magic system.
I wrote the book.
There's the workshop, there's a masterclass.
And I recommend if you are a coach, one, to use discovery calls in your business.
And number two, to get the discovery call magic system.
It's discoverycallmagic.com, but you can check the notes as well.
And the links to get the book are there.
I've explained who uses them.
I explained why we use them.
Now, but the thing is no shows.
What is a no show?
It's really simple.
Someone books an appointment.
They go onto your calendar.
They'll book an appointment, which these days is usually online, maybe Zoom or MS Teams
or Google Meet.
Again, some people still do face-to-face appointments.
So sometimes it could be a face-to-face appointment.
So people book an appointment, and that time is blocked off on your calendar.
And then you show up sitting in front of your computer.
You're logged into Zoom, ready for the meeting, and then the person doesn't show up.
This happens a lot for coaches who offer discovery calls.
The percentages are ridiculously high.
And it can be very frustrating when you're making time to be available for this prospect,
and then they don't show up for their meeting.
And it's just a waste of your time, a waste of your energy.
And it can be very frustrating for coaches.
What we need to understand is we've got to understand why is it that people don't show
up?
And I'll identify three main reasons.
Number one, they book the appointment, and they just forget that they booked the appointment
because their lives are so busy.
The second reason is because they just lose interest.
Maybe in the beginning they were interested when they booked the appointment, but along
the way they just lost interest in whatever it is that you were offering or even the problem
that they were looking to solve that by the time it gets to the date of the appointment,
they're just like, ah, I can't be bothered.
And then the third reason is because they just weren't really interested in the first
place.
And I want to address that one first of all, because if you don't eliminate no shows, not
only is it frustrating and time consuming, but actually you're losing money as well.
You actually are losing money as well.
So let's quickly address the very first, the last one there, which is they weren't really
interested in the first place because this is one that you can easily fix.
You need to stop doing a couple of things, right?
You need to stop overselling your discovery calls.
I see it with some people on their websites everywhere is screaming, book a free call,
book a free call, book a free call.
You are undervaluing your time.
Your time is your most valuable asset.
Stop overselling a free discovery call.
Stop saying to them, my time is not so valuable so anybody and everybody can book a free call
with me.
Stop plastering the book a free call over your website.
There needs to be a process people need to go through before they qualify for a discovery
call.
I'm not going to go into detail around that because we just don't have the time, but I
might cover that sometime later.
But what I will say is definitely stop overselling your booking process.
The other thing is stop oversimplifying your booking process.
Someone just comes, they click a link and straight away they have access to your calendar
and they book the appointment.
The thing is there's no barriers there for them to overcome.
So a lot of unserious people would only just book an appointment because you know what?
It was just so easy.
I just clicked the button, boom, my email address, boom, that's it, done.
You don't want to do that.
You really want to make it a little more difficult for the people who are not really interested
so they can't book an appointment with you.
How do you do that?
Basically, just put on a form, a form where they have to answer a few questions.
Just imagine you were going to go and see your doctor, right?
Before you went in to see the doctor, you would probably speak to someone at reception.
They would ask you a bunch of questions that you would need to answer before you come in.
You're not just going to call and just say I want to book an appointment with the doctor
and they just give you an appointment.
They would ask a bunch of questions to see if you actually qualify to see the doctor.
If they think, you know what, this doesn't seem like something that's really that important,
especially here in the UK, what they would do is they would redirect you to a helpline
or to a website these days where you can get some guidance.
If you've done that and you still have some issues, then book an appointment.
What they're saying to you subliminally is are doctors times valuable?
We need to make sure you qualify for their time.
So have a qualification form built in where you ask a bunch of questions.
What are you hoping to achieve during your appointment with DJ?
What have you actually done to address this situation before now?
A good number of healthy questions that you want to ask them so that you can pre-qualify
them.
People who are not really serious, they'll just go, oh, there's too many questions here
and they won't book an appointment, which is good for you because you've eliminated
a time waster rather than them blocking off time on your calendar and they are not going
to show up.
So I hope that kind of makes a lot of sense.
That's the very first thing you want to do.
Just by doing this, you would already reduce the number of appointments, but the reality
is the people who are not going to book because you do this are the people who are most likely
not to attend your discovery calls.
The second thing that I want to recommend that you can quickly implement straight away
that would change things around is to be flexible with your availability.
I see a lot of coaches, they want to look like they are very, very busy.
So they make it seem like they have no time available for appointments.
So I come onto your calendar, I look two weeks ahead and there's only two slots.
The thing is, maybe because I do want to see you, I'll go ahead and take one of those slots,
even though that slot is very inconvenient for me, but I still book it anyway because
that's all that's available.
Now the challenge with this is the more inconvenient it's going to be for me to attend, the less
likely I am to attend.
So what I do say to coaches is, yes, I do know we're busy, but be flexible.
Don't create artificial scarcity on your calendar.
Any time slots where you know you can be available for appointments, make those time slots available
to make it easier for your prospects to book a time that would be convenient for them.
The more convenient it is for them, the more likely they are to attend.
And then the next thing I want to quickly talk about is where you're making it possible
for people to book too far ahead.
The reality is the further ahead people need to book, the more likely they are to forget,
the more likely they are to lose interest because life happens for people.
My recommendation is no more than two weeks ahead.
But when someone books an appointment two months from now, I mean, two months, they're
definitely going to forget.
They're definitely going to lose interest between now and two months from now.
My recommendation is no more than two weeks.
Two weeks is just what I would feel is good time to be able to keep them engaged so that
they actually do book an appointment with you.
So I talked about keeping them engaged because that's really critical.
So their appointments happening within the next couple of weeks, these people have actually
filled in a form which shows a level of seriousness and commitment.
But now how do we keep them engaged and keep them excited enough so that they will show
up for the appointment?
Let's go on a short break.
And when we come back, we're going to dive into that straight away.
Are you a coach?
Do you need to get paying clients consistently, but you don't want to waste countless hours
trying to be famous in social media?
Do you want a calendar full of appointments with quality prospects who want what you offer
so you can convert premium clients month after month without stress?
Now you can do just that when we help you implement the predictable profit machine for
coaches, a business system that helps coaches consistently generate profits in their business.
All you have to do is visit coachingbusinessmentor.show forward slash machine.
Watch the short explainer video and then go ahead and book an appointment.
Let us help you build a predictable profit machine around your own coaching expertise
so you can start earning predictable profits in your business month after month.
Welcome back.
So just before we went on the break, I did highlight the fact that you don't want your
prospects to book their appointments too far ahead.
The further ahead that they book, the less likely they are to show up.
So I did say probably two weeks maximum.
That's what I'd recommend is you don't have appointments available beyond two weeks.
And secondly, try to be as flexible as you can be with your availability.
The more flexible you are with your availability, the more likely your prospects are able to
identify a time that is suitable for them.
And the more suitable it is for them, the more likely they are to show up.
Okay.
So now that they've booked the appointment, what is it that you want to have in place to
help ensure that they show up and significantly reduce no shows?
There's two key things you really want to create with your prospects between when they
book the appointment and when the appointment actually happens.
The first thing is a high desire.
You want them to really have a high level of desire to attend the appointment.
And the second thing you want is a high level of commitment to attending the appointment.
Now the key thing about desire is this.
It's all about keeping them in the zone where they believe that attending this meeting could
help them get from where they are to where they want to be.
As long as they have a strong belief that this meeting could be crucial towards them
achieving whatever goal your business is promising to help them achieve, the more likely they
are to attend the appointment.
So you want to build up this desire and there's a few things that you can do.
The key thing is you want to establish credibility and authority with this prospect.
You want them to begin to think this person really gets me and this person understands
my reality and my context and I believe that they just might be the one who could help
me get from where I am to where I want to be.
What I normally suggest we do is between when they book the appointment and when they attend,
you want to follow up with them with some value adding content that connects with them,
that helps them unlock a few things, even if it's just a few mind blocks, these sort
of things and helping them to begin to see things in a different way from how they used
to see, they get more clarity as a result of what you're sharing with them.
It begins to help them begin to believe that maybe, just maybe this person could be the
person I'm looking for.
So plethora of different things you can do.
You can use video.
Maybe you have some video clips that you know really resonate with your audience, with your
target audience.
Maybe there's some articles that you've written you can pull from them.
You can either send them to those articles or maybe you could build those articles into
emails that you send to them.
What about maybe you have some audios or some podcast episodes or radio show episodes?
Anything that you know is, like I said, it doesn't have to be heavy content.
So don't be sending them a one hour video.
It could be a short three minute video from you that really resonates with your target
audience that helps unlock things for them and really helps them to begin to have more
hope and have more belief.
And they associate that with you.
So want to follow up with value added content.
Think about things like case studies.
Case studies are really brilliant in building a desire because when you share the stories
and this is one of the things that works very well for me with our predictable profits machine
is when people book an appointment to attend with me, I share a case study of one of our
clients who we helped to build a predictable profits machine around their business and
it transformed their business.
So when people read this story between when they book the appointment and when they attend,
they read the story and they connect with it.
They resonate with the client's previous life before they started working with us and they
get excited when they begin to see the journey this person has traveled having implemented
my system.
These prospects start feeling very hopeful and they're looking forward to having a meeting
with us.
So I do recommend definitely looking at case studies.
A few other topics I'll quickly share things like mistakes to avoid is another good one
because when you share mistakes to avoid type of content and people either read or they
watch this stuff or they listen to it and they hear you describing the things that they
have been doing that have not been working for them and you are literally describing
what will happen when they do those things helps them think, you know what, she gets
me.
He understands me.
It's so true.
That's the mistake I've been making and that's exactly what's been happening for me.
This person really knows their stuff.
They just might be the person who could help me.
Mistakes to avoid content really, really works in between when people book appointments and
when they attend.
So these are the, this is the sort of content that you want to be sharing with your prospects
to really build a high desire and get them really excited about wanting to attend the
meeting with you.
I'd also recommend you build this into an automated email system as well as an automated
text messaging system.
So people are getting text messages, they're also getting emails from you between when
they book the appointment and when they show up.
These are the things that you will do and when you do them, you will have this prospect
who is literally waiting for the day of the appointment, looking forward to it because
they're really excited about what you could possibly help them achieve.
Now, the second thing that we want to achieve in addition to high desire is high commitment.
You really want this person to actually just make a commitment that they have to be there
with you.
And there's a few things that we really want to do to really build this commitment that
work very well.
The first thing is very early on from when they book the appointment, it's the information
on the confirmation page and the information on the confirmation email.
Now the confirmation page, let me explain what this is.
When a prospect books an appointment with you, they will be taken to a confirmation
page where you confirm that the appointment has been booked.
And as soon as they book the appointment, your auto responder system that you're using,
your calendar system should send them an email also confirming that the appointment has been
booked, the date and the time of the appointment, as well as the link that they would use to
join the appointment or the address of the appointment if it is an in-person on location
appointment.
Now, you actually want to share some specific things with your prospect at the point that
you're confirming the appointment to begin to build the commitment early on.
And I'm going to share a template that you can use.
Use this to maybe have a video on the confirmation page or if you'd rather use text, you can
use text and write this stuff on the confirmation page as well as have this on the confirmation
email that goes out to them.
I'm just going to break this down step by step.
This is one of these ones where you might want to write it down or actually what we
will do is I'll leave it in the notes for you so you can go ahead and grab it from there.
First thing you do is you want to let them know that you're excited that they've booked
an appointment.
Hey, I'm really excited that you've booked an appointment to meet up with me where we
will discuss your challenges with XYZ and help you to begin to move towards achieving
ABC.
And the second thing you then want to do is you want to clarify that this is not a sales
call.
It's really important that they understand this is not a call where they're coming in
for you to try to sell to them.
I just want to clarify that this is not a sales call.
The purpose of this call is not to sell anything to you.
The purpose of this call is to understand your own unique context, understand the challenges
you are facing right now and identify what's blocking you and work out a plan to help you
get out of these blockages and move on to achieving what it is you're looking to achieve.
And maybe we'll discuss if there's a possibility of us supporting you and what that would look
like.
Can you see that?
So it's really important that you stress that it's not a sales call, but actually it's a
meeting to identify what the issues are and explore how to support them.
Once you've done that, you also then are saying that you are coming prepared and you ask that
they do too.
So you would say something along the lines of, I'm coming into this meeting really prepared.
I'm going to take my time to look at the notes from your answers to the question that we
shared and I'm really coming into this meeting focused and intending to make sure you get
the most out of it.
I only ask that you do the same thing.
Two, I want to encourage you to come into this meeting prepared, you know, coming really
understanding what it is you're looking to achieve and basically being committed to making
sure you make the most of the time that we spend together.
Can you see that?
So you basically say to them, I'm coming prepared, you should come prepared too.
And all this is subliminally preparing them for the meeting, but also you're building
up the value of the meeting.
The more they value the meeting, the more they would commit to attending the meeting.
And then highlight the fact that you value their time and you will be there on time and
you request they do the same.
Again, these are all subliminal things.
They all add up.
So something along the lines of, I know that your time is important to you and I'm going
to make sure that I show up on time and prepared to make, to help you and support you with
what it is you're looking to achieve.
All I ask is you do the same.
Can you see that?
All I ask is you do the same.
So you're basically saying to them, I'm going to show up on time.
I'm going to come in prepared.
And I'm asking that you do the same.
I value you and your time.
That's why I'm doing that.
And I'm asking you to do the exact same thing.
So you put that out there within the confirmation message, on the confirmation page, when, and
then the confirmation email that goes out to them as well.
And this is really important is you want to give them an opportunity to actually reschedule
the meeting or to cancel if they're not able to attend.
You really want to make it easy for them to reschedule or cancel.
So they're not just wasting your time.
And what I usually say is, by the way, I know that life happens and sometimes you might
need to move things around.
So what I've done is I have made it possible for you to reschedule your appointments up
to 24 hours before our meeting.
So if something happens and you're no longer able to attend that day because life has happened,
it's okay.
All you need to do is just go ahead and click the button in this email and you would be
able to reschedule the appointment for another day.
Or if something happens and you no longer need to attend the meeting or you're no longer
interested in attending this meeting, please go ahead and cancel the appointment so that
that spot is freed up for others who might need my time.
Can you see how you do that?
So you basically fed it in there that, hey, you can reschedule if you need to and you
can cancel if you need to, right, up to 24 hours before your appointment.
So you definitely want to build that into your confirmation message.
And then the final piece of the confirmation message is where you basically say to them
that you're looking forward to meeting with them and you're looking forward to helping
them achieve their goals.
And that's pretty much it.
That is a confirmation message that builds commitment because it really helps them to
begin to see that even though this meeting is free, that this discovery call is free,
it actually is important to them.
And so they really need to commit to it, but also they need to understand that you're giving
them so much so they need to respect and value your time and your expertise that you are
bringing to this meeting.
You begin to do this and you will see that you will have fewer people not showing up
for your appointments.
So you, number one, if you're not booking your meeting too far ahead, number two, if
you are making it easy for people, so being flexible with your availability, don't use
this false scarcity where you're making it seem like you're hardly available and people
only see one or two slots over a one week period.
You know, sort of things really make it difficult for people to be able to book a time that's
convenient, which means you're more likely to have no shows.
You also want to feed in between when they book the appointment and when they show up
content that connects with them, that resonates with them emotionally and intellectually,
that get them really excited because they're beginning to believe that you just might be
the one who could help them get what they are looking to get.
And then finally, you want to look at building in high commitment.
I talked about the confirmation messages, but not just with the confirmation messages.
You also want to build commitment into every piece of content that goes out from you to
them.
So when you're sending out those contents through those emails, you also want to build
into that the commitment messages.
Remind them that this is a really important meeting.
Remind, remind them that they have up to 24 hours before to reschedule or cancel the meeting
if they're not able to attend.
Every piece of content should remind them of their commitment.
You build all this in and I promise you, you would significantly reduce the number of people
who don't show up for their discovery calls.
Now the final little tip that I'm going to share with you, it's just a little really
interesting thing that does tend to work and it just reduce the no shows a little more.
And that is by offering them a gift, a promise of a gift.
It could be anything.
It could be one of your books.
It could be a program of yours, just a product of yours.
I usually use a digital product so there's no real cost to delivering it to them.
So it could be one of your mini courses or it could be a video, a one hour video master
class that you have run in the past that you have recorded.
It could even be an audio master class recording.
So it could be a one hour, a 90 minute master class recording that you have available from
something you've done a couple of years ago.
You just literally build that into the promotion.
So the way this works is you build it into the confirmation message saying to them, and
also when you show up on the day, I'm going to give you a special gift as my way of saying,
thank you for committing to your commitment.
The gift I'm giving you is, and this is where you build the value of what they're going
to get as a thank you for them committing to their commitment by showing up on time
for their appointment.
It's got to be something that is really relevant to your target audience.
I promise you, you build this in and again, this is going to reduce your no shows by a
really interesting and exciting percentage.
Now all this stuff together that I've shared with you, I want to encourage you to just
go ahead and implement them in your business now if you use discovery calls.
I did say earlier on that my book, Discovery Call Magic, and my Discovery Call Magic system
is really all about getting really good and mastering the skills of having non-salesy
discovery conversations with prospects that easily converts the right people into buyers
of your premium offers.
So the Discovery Call Magic system covers that, but it doesn't really cover what I shared
here on this podcast, which is what to actually do to ensure that when people book appointments,
they actually do show up.
So when you marry what I've shared here on this podcast with what you would learn in
Discovery Call Magic, you will have fewer people not attending your appointments and
then you'll be able to convert more of them into your clients, therefore making more money
for you and your coaching business.
I hope this has been really useful for you.
I hope you can see how you can implement this and start to see amazing results pretty much
immediately.
Like I always say to people, it's not what you know that counts, it's what you do with
what you know.
So I want to encourage you to go ahead and take everything that you have learned here
and just look at implementing this in your business.
If you are not using Discovery Calls in your business, you should be using them.
And if you are using Discovery Calls and you have not been getting the results that you
desire to get, I want to encourage you to just go ahead and use this system and start
to reduce the no-shows, get my Discovery Call Magic book and get the whole Discovery Call
Magic system and implement that into your business and you will see that things will
start to turn around for you.
Great.
This is DJ Sabanjo, your coaching business mentor.
I'm really excited to have been here with you in this episode.
Again, I want to remind you if you want your questions answered on the show, yes, you can.
All you need to do is go to coachingbusinessmentor.show forward slash question and then go ahead and
submit your questions and we just might go ahead and answer your question on the show
and feature you as well on the show.
Thank you so very much for listening.
Keep on being the amazing, phenomenal leaders that you are.
Let's keep on changing lives and let's keep on getting paid.
My name is DJ Sabanjo.
I am your coaching business mentor and I look forward to being a part of your success story.
Look forward to the next episode.
I promise you, you're really going to love that one.
See you then.
You have been listening to the coaching business mentor podcast.
The podcast focused on giving premium business advice to heart led coaches, helping them
get more clients, help more people and make more money consistently.
If you enjoyed this episode, I'd like to encourage you to do three things very quickly.
Number one, subscribe to this podcast.
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Thank you so very much for listening.
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It's DJ Sabanjo and I look forward to continue to be a part of your success story.
Let's keep on changing lives and let's keep on making our world a better place and getting
paid as we do so.
This is DJ Sabanjo.
See you on the next episode.