Step 5 – MEET

Ask the expert. Okay, so the traditional sales process for a lot of people is this great big jump, so they go from cold prospects, someone on the ground, to then trying to get them into a chat, which is often a really big step. Then from the chat into a client and then client into referrals. It's not how relationships really go. We've talked about this in other modules, but what we need, it's not how you walk up stairs, it's not how to build relationships. So how we build relationships is usually a series of small steps and that's what most people are missing in their sales process.

So once you implement your Monkey's Fist first and you get people to request that, it's a very easy step for them to take. The next step is gonna be the ask the expert question where they can shoot you a 10 minute chat with you and ask the questions, okay? So we're gonna focus today on the ask the expert phase of this whole thing.

So it kicked off for me because I used to people to go straight from Monkey's Fist into an LCC, which is still a big step really. I mean, it does work quite well but people wanna have a chat with an architect first, and I do. I wanna have a chat even if it's a mortgage broker.

I remember I was looking to change some mortgages over and I had four or five rental properties. I got recommended this guy who had won an award for being a top mortgage broker. So I contacted him via email, he came back to me via email, I think we had a quick chat on the phone for about five minutes. He did some analysis, sent it back to me and I looked at it, said, "Okay, can we meet for a coffee?", because I just wanna get to know ... I didn't know what he looked like, I hadn't met him, I wanted to know that if I have a problem, that I've got rapport with this guy and he could help me out, he would sort me out, so I wanted to meet a coffee. He sends me an email back saying, "Sure we can have coffee. It'll be $350." I was like, "Oh, man."

So I'm all for charging people money to do things, but you gotta give them at least one meeting where they can at least, especially come to you, and just have a chat high-level, okay? You let them know, "It's not about me giving you advice. This meeting is not for advice, it's just to learn about your project and make sure we're a good fit for each other. So if you want to do that, come to my office at 04:00 on Thursday and what sort of coffee do you like?" Something like that.

But then I saw this guy here, so I didn't have that step. I was just telling people to jump straight from Monkey's Fist into an LCC,  then I remember one of the clients, I think it was Mike Bennett, saying, "Oh, there's a guy up in Seattle," I think it was, "Who was doing this architecture for 5 Cents." What it was, was in 2008 just at the start of the global financial crisis, he's been made redundant. So he had to go out on his own, he probably didn't plan on doing it, and one of the things he did is he went to the local markets and put up a stall, a stall at the local markets, and said, "Architecture 5 cents."

Now that website, you can see that is no longer valid. I tried looking it up, it's a pity, but you can look on YouTube. If you look up Architecture 5 Cents, you'll see about him. What he did is he just set up a stall, he'd have a little tin can there and people would come along and they had to put a nickel in and he would get them started. He said, "I don't actually give them any advice, any information, but it's a way to start a conversation and it's kind of fun for 5 cents."

So that kind of spurred me, we need a small, free checking thing that people can go into. So our objective today is to craft a script and written offer that converts some of your Monkey's Fist subscribers into a conversation. All we're trying to do is get a conversation going, give them an official thing that they can go into that's easy to say yes to, right? As John Morefield, who was the 5 Cent architect said, that person-to-person conversation's critical. It's the foundation of our business. He's quite right.

Okay, so how do we sell it? Listen, I'm gonna give you some cut and past scripts and cut and paste stuff that you can just use, but I wanna explain, I guess, the psychology behind it. Look, this happens all the time that most people just say, book a session with me. They have their Monkey's Fist and then they end out an email saying, "Do you wanna book a session with me?" But they don't sell the value of that session, okay? So I had Gary sent me an email a couple of days ago and I said, "Listen, Gary, I signed up for your Monkey's Fist, got an invitation to book a session with me, problem was it didn't sell the value of that session. Good news is everybody makes those mistakes and fires blanks." So I emailed back to Gary with some suggestions and then I liked my suggestions. If you don't mind me saying, I liked my suggestions so much that I'll share them with you here.

Okay, so Gary, and everybody else, you need to sell the value of the session. So here's what you need to tell them: Number one, what it is. What is this session? Why they need it, what disaster could happen if they don't have it. Number four, what will happen on the call? No one likes surprises on these things, tell them exactly what'll happen. Number five, what they'll be able to do immediately after the call. Number six, how their life or their project is gonna be better ongoing. Not just immediately but ongoing because of this call. Tell them what to do now, for example, click on the link and you'll be taken to a page that looks like this. You can make a video showing them what will happen if they click on the link. That's how you sell it.

Now what most people do is just say, "Hey, if you wanna book a session with me, click here." Well, that's not enough. So let's go through how to sell it and I'm gonna step by step, okay?

So what is it? What words would you use? I'm pretty good at writing copy, maybe you're not so good, so let me help you. So, here's how you would say it, here's what it is. It's a 10 minute ask the expert, that's what it is, so that answers that questions. Number two, I said, tell them why they need it. Well without the right answer, you end up stuck or making too many assumptions and head down the wrong expensive path, that's why they need it. Less possible disasters if they don't do it. Well, not feeling confident causes some projects, and I'm saying the word projects, to stall for months of even years. A lot of people can relate to that. Others rush ahead without the answer, throwing money down a dead-end street. No good. With over 70% of projects going over time and over budget, it shows most people do not do their homework up front. Okay, we can say that.

What happens on the call? Well, we'll review the obstacle that's holding you back and answer the [inaudible 00:07:11] question you need to know. Richard will give you his big picture roadmap and outline your next steps. So that's it, here's the answer to your question, here's the big picture and here's what I suggest you do next to overcome that obstacle. If he cannot help you, he'll direct you to someone in his network who can. That's it, that's what happens on the call. Pretty simple.

What happens immediately after the call? Well, with your next steps mapped out, you walk away motivated and confident because you have a clear action plan to move forward. How will their life or project be better after the call? A great project is the result of great planning and eliminating the assumptions. Because you took the time to find the right answer, you're putting solid foundations under your future project. Not only do you end up with a better result, but your project is more likely to be delivered on time and on budget. You can change any of this, I've just made this stuff up right, but it sounds reasonable. You get to avoid that frustrating expensive sentence, "If only I'd known." That's good, nicely put.

Right, tell him how to book a session with you. You have to be really specific and I would actually make a little video stepping them through what they have to do. But if you were gonna write it out or this could be your script, "Click on the button below, you'll be taken to a page that shows my calendar. Choose a time and date that suits you, enter your details into the form and you're good to go." Number four, "You'll be sent a confirmation email that contains a short questionnaire. This allows me to prep for our call." Number five, "Remember to enter our appointment into your calendar and bring along anyone else who is an important stakeholder."

So we'll go through an overview of the ask the expert funnel. So first thing that's outlined, what I want you to know is what is the learning objective? Well, what we wanna do is review what the ask the expert funnel is and why you need it. What's the outcome I want from this video here? I want you to have close to enough that you can go and set up your ask the expert funnel. Now if you feel you need more details and go deeper into the training, and I want you to go deeper into the training anyway, but if I can give you enough just on this overview video that allows you to go and set up your ask the expert video just with this video alone, then that would be a great result.

So, just to put it into context, you're about to set up four automated sales systems, or funnels or robots. Any of those words we use, okay? So they are ask the expert funnel or the ask the expert call, the project planning pack, the dream team directory, the low-commitment consultation. Now the reason we get you set up the ask the expert system first is because all the other three systems end up, if they go well, directing people to book a call with you. So we need this ask the expert session booked up first. All roads lead to booking a session with you and that's what this funnel is.

Okay, where does the ask the expert first system fit in the system? Where does it fit? Okay, let me just review the big picture. So at the top here we have the strategy stuff, the goals, the niche, the positioning statement. You've gotta have that in place first, then actually not in this order, you would set up the green zone stuff next, but in terms of a logical sequence, you would then start promoting it. Then you have your systems. So we've got the Monkey's Fist, the ask the expert system, so when they book a Monkey's Fist, they'll also be given the option to book a system with you. That's why it needs to be set up first. An LCC then gets offered to them, and then design. That's usually the logical sequence and order things would go in. Of course you could be offering an ask the expert session or a 15 minute consultation with you before the Monkey's Fist, it could be a button On your website. So it doesn't have to go in this order, but it often will.

Okay, so you have draft pages for each of those landing pages already created for you, so all of those four systems I showed you before, you've got draft pages set up for each of them. What we need you to do is to add the words, okay? So now you need to customize each of these pages by submitting your own words to replace the generic content, I'll show you what I mean in a minute. You can submit for multiple funnels at once, so all four funnels at once if you're ready, if you got the content ready, otherwise you can do one at a time. Let's just get started with the ask the expert funnel.

Now, you do need to have it right first time because up until now, we have never set up funnels for other people, okay? So what we've decided to do, and you have to help us out with this, but we have got a staff member who we've got set up who will set these up for you in ClickFunnels and using a booking system. They'll integrate it all together for you and we'll do that for free, at no extra charge, okay? The only deal is that you have to get all your content ready and do it right first time because we aren't really set up as an agency to go and do multiple changes and for you to go and make it perfect later on, things like that.

Okay, so normally what would happen is you would get your own ClickFunnels account and you would get your own BookingSystem account and you would do it, okay? So as long as we're clear on the fact that we are gonna do this for you but we can't support it and go and make changes forever. If you need one change pretty quickly with something like that, I'm sure we can accommodate a couple of changes but generally expect that once we've set it up, we can't really go and change it for you. If you need to make changes then you really should set up your own system within ClickFunnels and you can make as many changes as you want, okay? That's the disclaimer on that one.

So officially you will not get a chance to review your funnel, you just need to input your data and you can't give feedback before it's taken live. You just need to submit the data and then that's it, we'll have it up and running for you. Now if you really wanna see it, once again if you wanna see it, you wanna make changes, that's perfectly understandable. Then you should set the funnel up yourself, okay? We're just trying to make it easy for you. On this occasion, we're gonna see how it goes, okay? If you wanna make changes or modifications later on to your funnel or you wanna use your own domain, please contact us at support@archmarketing.org for instructions on how to create your own ClickFunnels account.

Okay, so what is the ask the expert session? Well, it's really just an automated system where people can book an appointment with you. That's it, that's all it is. It's a short session for them to ask you a couple of questions, and it could be called anything. You could be calling it a feasibility session or a next steps session. If I was setting it up, I probably wouldn't call it the ask the expert session. I would call it my new favorite name for it, would be the next steps session because you think a lot of people have got stuck, they're confused, they know they're not gonna get everything answered but if there's someone who can give them their next steps, then that would probably be worth having a 15, 20 minute chat with an architect just to tell them what I've got and ask what are my next steps would be, so I think that would be a good thing.

So, let's have a look at an example of an appointment booking system. In this case, Kurt Krueger has called it a free feasibility call. So let's go and have a look at his actual website so you can see what the finished product looks like. Okay, so here we are. Kurt Krueger architects. You notice that there is a headline up here and you'll need to fill out what you want in your headline. There's a statement here, you'll need to fill that out. There's three bullet points, you'll need to work out what you wanna put in there. There's "About the architect," you'll need to work out what you wanna put in there.

Okay, notice there's a button here to click on, but let's just have a look at the whole page. You can put in these type of things here, if you have them. A couple of images of some projects, he's done some pretty nice looking projects, right? We call Kurt the king of Brentwood. Right, what people say, he's got his testimonials, he's slotted those in there. You're gonna have to get your testimonials and you have to get some photos ideally, that would be ideal. You don't have to have this section in here, but ideally you should. Then once again, apply for your free project feasibility call, and the bullet points, which are probably a copy of the bullet points above. You click on the thing and I'll enter their details in here and that is submitting now. It'll take me through to their calendar system. This is the YouCanBookMe calendar system, which you are gonna have to set up an account for, and then you see the times that Kurt's available. So I would click on here.

Now all the stuff that's within ... this is now outside the ClickFunnels account that we would set up for you, this is now into the YouCanBookMe, which is an appointment booking software. Okay, so we're in a different system now and you'll notice it comes up with different details we want and a whole lot of questions. Where did you hear about Kurt? Are you a property owner [inaudible 00:17:14] to make changes? Which best describes your project? Square footage, my property is which one of these? Current status of my property? So we're really doing a lot of qualifying here. I'm ready to start my project now, 6 months, 12 months, great. My project is ... pick one of these. Brilliant, right? So we're finding a lot of information before our 20 minute meeting, which is what we want. Then we confirm the booking, boom. Okay, so that is what it looks like when it's all set up. Pretty slick.

But, at the moment when you go in, your one is gonna look like this. It needs a photo, it needs the details. It's got some basic details there but you're gonna have to go on there and fill it all in to your specifications, okay?

Why would we run the ask the expert? Well, it's part of your sales process. Without our sales process, in this case automated, you can't do effective marketing. We need things that we can send people to, so when we do promotions, we need Monkey's Fist that we can send people to, we need appointment booking facilities that we can send people to, we need LCCs that we can send people to. Now in this case, because your sales process or the appointment booking process is automated, that works 24/7, 52 weeks a year. Better than a sales person and certainly better than doing it yourself.

Okay, just a quick thing. What is a lead? Because sometimes we use this term. It's someone who has requested say, your project planning pack or dream team directory or any other Monkey's Fist. They may have requested a meeting with you, but they're not qualified yet, therefore they are not a prospect. So lead is someone who's contacted you. A prospect is someone far more qualified. Okay, they need to be qualified.

Qualified means they have shared with you four things, that they have a real project they're seriously considering, they have a reasonable budget, like they have the money or they can get the money, that they make the decisions, they're the decision maker, and that they have reasonable timeframes. Once you know those four things, you can qualify them as a prospect. Those are the type of things you're gonna look to find out on that call, when they book a 20 minute call with you, you can see Kurt asked those questions in the questionnaire they had to fill out before they could book the call. You might also seek clarification when they're on the call as well, when you're answering their questions. So that would be a prospect and this is what we're looking for, qualified prospects.

So just to visually portray this, often people talk about a funnel. Well imagine this is a funnel and with your promotions, you pour a whole lot of promotions out the top and it generates leads into the top of the funnel. Okay, so there's all the leads going in there. Now we need to sift them and filter them because not all these people are necessarily good quality. You might've seen on Kurt's page that summary says, "Listen, once I've read your questionnaire that you submitted to me and I've looked over that, I may call you back and say that I'm not suitable for you." Okay, so a meeting with Kurt is by invitation only or by application only, and he reserves the right to call back and say, "Listen, I just don't think we're suited. I don't think I'm the best person for you, but here's someone who might be better suited."

So all these leads come in, we qualify them. One of the ways we do that is by putting them through the ask the expert, or the appointment booking funnel. Then once that, if they go through that process, then we end up with good quality prospects. There's a lot less prospects than there are leads, obviously, because not everybody is qualified. Then from the prospects, we move them into the LCC, and then we move them into the zone clients. That's kind of how a funnel works, isn't it? Less and less people at each stage because they're being filtered out.