4 Common Mistakes to Avoid Making with Discovery Calls so You Can Enroll More Clients

A question I’ve had come up quite a bit recently has to do with discovery calls. After doing some digging around and asking more questions, two of the coaches realized they weren’t asking for the sale at the end of the call.  I know what it’s like because I made this mistake when I was a new health coach too. You think you’re telling your potential clients all the right things, so they should ask you – but that’s not usually how it works.  They are relying on YOU to lead the call and let them know if you are able to help them with the goal they want to achieve or the problem they are looking to solve.

There are a few common mistakes that are easy to make, and I’ve made all of them when I was starting out, so if you’re making any of these, you are not alone, but it’s easy to fix them and start getting more clients signing up to work with you.

Once I found a good flow for my discovery calls and I asked better questions, I had a much better conversion rate – it was quite a while ago, but I think it was around 90% which is amazing.

Download my your FREEE Discovery Call Guide that comes with a complete script you can customize, along with 6 other awesome client resources in The Ultimate Health Coach Toolkit here. 

Let’s dive into the 4 common mistakes to avoid with discovery calls.

Mistake #1 – The first common mistake made with discovery calls is not being clear about who the call is for and what the calls are about.  The problem with this is that you will likely not get enough of the right people booking calls with you. Be up front about who the call is for; It is women who want help losing postpartum weight? Is it men who need help balancing their blood sugar, menopausal women who want to balance their hormones and lose who weight?  Who do you serve?  This goes back to knowing your niche, and it’s important because this will help weed out people who are not a good fit for working with you, and it will increase the number of more qualified leads you get. 

You can do include these details in your emails and in your social media posts, so you are calling out who the call is for. 

An example of a social media post could be something like this (make sure you know your ideal client’s pain points, so you can include that in the post, so they see you are talking to them).  If you’re a woman over 50, and you’ve found that weight has seemed to sneak up overnight, especially around your middle and no matter what you do, you can’t seem to shed the extra pounds, I invite you to schedule a FREE discovery call with me to see if my Hormone Rescue program is right for you.  During this complimentary 30-minute call, I’ll find out your top struggles and goals, and see if we might be a good fit to work together.  There is no obligation and absolutely no pressure to join.

Click here to find a time that works for you and let’s chat- “ 

So, you’re letting folks know who it’s for and what to expect – a 30-minute call to find out their top struggles and see if you are a good fit to help them. This will also help weed out people who just want to pick your brain or ask for free advice.

Mistake #2 – Not making it quick and easy for people to book a call. The easier you make it for people to schedule a call, the more discovery calls you’ll do. Use an online scheduler like calendly or acuity. Calendly has a free version that is very easy to use.  You want people to only have to take one easy step to book a call. Instead of the back and forth with email or messaging, take the time to set up an online calendar, and you will have more people booking discovery calls. 

Mistake #3 – Not sharing enough of the benefits of your program and how it can help them. People don’t care so much about the stuff they get (these are the features – such as how many sessions and resources and how they access the program, etc.) and you can share a bit more of that info later after they say they are interested. How can your program get them from point A to point B? Point A is where they are now, and Point B is where they want to go.  That’s what they want to know before they can make a decision.

Benefits are the outcome, results and feelings they will experience, and this will be different depending on your niche.   

If your niche is helping people balance their blood sugar through a whole foods approach, benefits could include:

  • Improved blood sugar control
  • Weight management
  • Better mood
  • Increased energy
  • Improved digestion

These are all about the results clients can expect, which is the reason they will invest in your help. 

Mistake #4 – Not inviting your prospect to work with you.  On your discovery call, are you letting people know how they can work with you?  Think of it as inviting, rather than selling. If they scheduled a call with you, they are looking for a solution to a problem they have. Ask them if they would like to learn more about how you can work together. That’s easy, right?  Towards the end of the call, recap what they said about what they want and why, and what they find challenging about figuring it out on their own and let them know that is something you help your clients with, and would they like to hear about how you can work together. 

The more practice you get, the easier this gets and the more clients you will have signing up to work with you. You’ll get better every time you do a call.

For a complete Discovery Call Outline and Script to make this super easy, download my Free Ultimate Health Coach Toolkit which has 7 client resources including a discovery call script.  You’ll get a step-by-step outline, so you know exactly what to say, so you’ll feel more confident, and you’ll enroll more clients.

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