How to Identify Who is "Closeable"
Lesson 39 from: Command the Fees You DeserveIlise Benun
How to Identify Who is "Closeable"
Lesson 39 from: Command the Fees You DeserveIlise Benun
Lessons
Day 1
1Class Introduction
14:12 2The Big Ideas: Your Mindset
17:20 3Deciding Your Goals
20:17 4Do You Have What It Takes?
12:40 5Overview of the Top 5 Marketing Tools
21:43 6Tool #1: Your Elevator Pitch
21:00 7Tool #2: Effective Networking
22:29Tool #3: Your LinkedIn Profile
26:56 9Tool #4: Your Marketing Smart Website
22:18 10Tool #5: Your Email Newsletter
18:34 11The 4 C's of Marketing
09:06 12What to Do Each Day
25:05 13Case Study: Skype Guest Jill Anderson
21:03 14Intro - What We've Learned So Far
11:06 15Red Flags: Chaos & No Budget
17:41 16Red Flags: Cluelessness & Disrespect
09:58 17How to Decline a Project with Grace
12:25 18How to Handle Drama Queens
07:00 19How to Clone Your Favorite Client
30:52 20How to Find Your Focus
21:45 21Target Market Brainstorm
15:28 22How to Locate a Viable Market
09:37 23How to Research Your Best Prospects
17:09 24How to Approach Your Best Prospects
17:07 25Anatomy of a Warm Email Message
14:30 26Warm Email Prospecting with Ed Gandia
16:59 27Reasons You Don't Talk Money
10:19 28How to Talk Money & Gauge a Prospects Budget
16:12 29How to Decide Whether to Do a Proposal
19:00 30Session 3 Intro - What will we cover?
08:42 31What Are You Worth?
09:38 32How To: The Science of Pricing
13:19 33How To: 4 Pricing Strategies
26:45 34How To: Art of Pricing
09:05 35Charging Your Worth with Terri Trespicio
11:33 36You Got Them Hooked: Now What?
26:02 37Anatomy of a Proposal
18:21 38Best Practices for Proposals
18:08 39How to Identify Who is "Closeable"
10:38 40How to Close the Deal
26:58 41Negotiating Tips
05:07 42Negotiating for Creatives with Katie Lane
19:08 43Q & A: Any Remaining Obstacles?
13:37 44Putting It All Together
16:03Day 2
Day 3
Lesson Info
How to Identify Who is "Closeable"
Lesson thirty six how to identify who is close herbal so the first question is does excited equal close herbal if a prospect is excited about working with you does that mean they're close herbal let's put that out to the in studio audience and I'm kind of implying what the right answer is but if a prospect is really excited to meet you and to receive your proposal does that mean they're close herbal justin what do you think I know why not because I mean the clothes will means that there were ready to spend some cash on excited in cash don't necessarily like mixer absolutely it's true and that is the right answer thank you and I and I bring this up because so many people seem to be confused they get may be overwhelmed by the feelings of excitement that air coming for from their prospects and imagine well how could it not be happening how could they say no or fall off the face of the earth or stop responding to me they were so excited right so really important to realize that excited doe...
s not mean close herbal and likewise you've already said this you prefaced what I was about to say which is that excited does not necessarily mean they are ready right? Because ready is ready to work with you ready to put the money down ready to start the meter essentially and excited isn't necessarily the signal of readiness now, if the prospect is silent if they're not responding we talked a lot about this silence that is sometimes very painful in segment too does that mean they are close herbal raina, what would you say? I think they still could be I don't think it's a clear indication one way or another right answer because it's true and as I was saying a lot so far silence you cannot interpret or assume what the silence means and a lot of people do the opposite if they're excited that means they're close herbal if they're silent, that means they're not plausible or they're not ready. None of that is true and here's a question for you, zane is silence rejection? Not necessarily I mean they could just be waiting for someone else. Um getting approval from ah higher decision maker so doesn't mean that's a rejection, so silence again does not mean yes, it does not mean no, and I guess the the point I want to make is that you have no idea and I think maybe this is the human condition we like to fill in the blanks when we don't know what's happening and for some reason often people fill in with a negative I don't really know why maybe that's one of those parental things we've been talking about, but really if possible you have to establish I don't know the answer to this question and so I'm going to live in the unknown and not make assumptions about what silence means what excited means here's another question does silence mean you're too expensive let's all together now no thank you silence and that is another one of these assumptions that people make is oh I'm not hearing from them it must have been too expensive for some reason they go directly to that not true we do not know so I've made this point don't make any assumptions so now let's talk about how you actually close the deal first you have to have criteria for closing right? We've established some criteria for other things for qualifying your prospects you also have to have criteria for closing the deal and these are criteria for your prospects were going to talk about your own criteria shortly actually, but here our criteria for your prospects is first is their mindset what is their mindset if they are open to continuing the conversation and readily taking your calls, that is a sign that they may be close a ble right? So the silence doesn't necessarily mean they're not interested, but they're probably not close a bill yet number two pricing criteria for closing is you've talked about price and they've agreed to a budget if you've talked about price and they've agreed to a budget than they could be ready to close the numbers are clear and there on the table. There's. No questions about the numbers number three timing their need is imminent, and they have a realistic deadline in mind. Sometimes this I think we talked about this in one of the other sessions. A client comes, but they have no deadline. If they have no deadline, then they may not be close herbal until they have a deadline on. Sometimes when they do have a deadline it's tomorrow, right? Then they are close apple, but then they become perhaps a red flag kind. So they're timing has to have an imminent need, plus a realistic deadline. And finally, number four criteria for closing influence. Your contact is the decision maker or has influence over the decision makers. All right, so let's go to the exercise for this lesson and asked the question that we can put on the table here in the room and also in the chat room. Can you think of anyone in your pipeline who fits some, if not all, of these criteria? Right mindset, timing, influence on budget? Who are you thinking of? Actually, raina was talking to me at lunch about a proposal that she has on the table, so maybe we can think about that particular prospect, are they ready to close? Tell us the situation I think they're ready to close now they are looking I know they're looking at other people teo I think a very limited number like one maybe two um we've talked about a budget range that they seem to be comfortable with so that's a good sign and their trusted longtime client that really likes working with me so I think the chances are good um I was going to say even though maybe you've established that the budget range is okay for them, there might still be an issue of somebody else comes in lower and they perceived the value to be the same or better, you know, I mean, it doesn't mean that they want to pay the high end of what their budget allows and actually you were telling me that because she was experimenting with some of the techniques that we were talking about in the last segment in terms of presenting the proposal right and putting on the table this is how I'm going to present the proposal and they came back to you and said, well, can't you just send it to us? We'll look at it first and then you can walk us through it and she said to me, what should I say? And I said, you say no, this is how I do it and unless they have a really good reason for not doing it that way, they should comply and actually I wrote back to them and I said, well, would another time be better? And um no, no, I said I said I gave the reasons and I said it will be much better if I could walk you through an answer any issues or questions that come up in the time and then he said, well, I'm going to be travelling all day with client calls and it sounds like, oh god, no, I'm making things complicated for him and then I said, well, you know, maybe the next day would be better or the day before that you basically showing I'm flexible and now he just brought me back and said let's, do it the week after I'm like, oh my god, I have another week it's fantastic wow that's great! So and the point I wanted to make here also actually is you were talking about the value or the perceived value in the proposal as part of the criteria for closing. So the fact that you're going to have the opportunity to present the pros proposal means that the proceed value you will have more control over it and you will be able to see how he responds and answer any of those objections so that sounds like a perfect situation great, I think we need a round of applause for raina a good job okay, so anyone else can you think of anyone in your pipeline and let's put this question also in the chat room our people already answering we'll keep our fingers crossed for three eighteen media because that he's actually working on a proposal right now and he talked to them over the break so he's hoping to close the deal today wow, excellent well way we'll need the results of that and flocks appear saying yes I've now got a client who's gone silent on me so I don't believe it's worth pursuing so I've now stopped following up well and that's a question right? How much should you follow up when there is silence now in general I like to air on the side of more follow up rather than less you're obviously not going to harass them very few people who are afraid of follow up even get close to that line of harassment so you can always do a little bit more and really I love what justin said in the previous segment also is you make it clear how much you want to work with them often that kind of enthusiasm and excitement at least gets them to respond really also like uh the email scripts that we talked about in the previous segment how you know if they don't get a response in a certain time frame then they'll follow up again you should mention that in the email when following up absolutely. And actually in the facebook group which I was looking at during our lunch break, several people have posted examples of language you can use in the follow up to break the silence. So check that out also, all right, anyone else have a prospect in their pipeline who fits some, if not all, of these criteria? Zane yeah, there's uh, there's a few people that I'm pretty consistent about in terms of falling up. I think main thing is just constantly make sure that you're following up in the right manner. I heard the phrase called followup or fail, so I think that's, very key and what is the right manner for follow up? That's a good question, right? Because you can essentially say the same thing over and over you, khun say, are you ready yet? Are you ready yet? Are you ready yet? Or you could pass information along you could curate content that is relevant to this particular project to this particular client, and passed that along just as a way to say, I'm still thinking of you, I'm still here absolutely right.
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Ratings and Reviews
Rashida B.
I wasn't able to catch this during the day, but I stayed up literally all night for three nights watching the replays. AMAZING. This definitely goes up there with the best of the best and most useful Creativelive courses ever. Pricing isn't the most exciting topic in the world. However, Ilise was passionate about the subject and her enthusiasm made this not only interesting but fun. I loved how she infused it with her vast knowledge and real world examples. Her guests were just as interesting. This was all around GREAT!
Steve-O
Helping others help themselves. Ilise Benun is clear and well-organized. The methods she shares are easy to understand while honest and straightforward in approach, stating from the git-go that work on my part is required. Ilise draws on her own experience as well as the methods and experience of other professionals in this course. She welcomes us into a proven plan for successful growth embracing an attitude of progress rather than perfection and attraction rather than promotion. This is my kind of mentor!
TxWhimsyArtist
Oh wow! My favorite course to date! Ilise's expertise was tremendously helpful. Thanks to Ilise, I'm not "stuck" any longer and I'm so excited to implement the wealth of knowledge I've gained from this master Marketing Mentor. This course is well worth the cost at any price!! Thank you so much Ilise!! Tammy@GammysHouse.com
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