4 Green Lights To Getting "Yes"

Hey gang its Rich Scott here with another quick video. Today we’re going to talk about the four green lights that you need to get on route to a client saying yes to you. It’s kind of like the secret code for selling professional services and still being classy like the professional you are.

One of the top questions clients ask me about on a frequent basis is can I sell professional services and not come off as kind of cheesy or sleazy. The answer to that is absolutely yes. With human behavior we basically have to go through four check boxes and say yes before we naturally feel comfortable in taking action.

Is There A Fit?

Number one, at the top of the list is we have to feel there’s a fit. That fit is your professional services and really it comes into three areas.

1. Concept: The concept of what you’re offering as a service or a solution. The customer or client has to be comfortable with it and understand the concept.
2. Company: They have to be comfortable and feel that your company or your organization is a fit. It’s not just you. Don’t take it personally. It has to be the concept, your company, and then
3. You: You guessed it, super personal, it has to be you. Are you or the people on your team somebody that they feel is a good fit.

Who Is The Decision Maker?

Number two is making sure you are talking to the decision maker. Before we’re ready to go forward on any sort of action or change, we basically have to be talking to the decision maker or the decision makers. How many times have you put together a proposal or done up a quotation, talked about something that sounds like it’s all fantastic only to hear the phrase “Well let me just check with my partner, my husband, my wife, my boss.” That’s not a put off, that’s not a decline it’s just kind of a natural reaction because before we’re comfortable in moving forward we have to check with all the decision makers.

Is There A Deadline?

Number three is Deadline. This is really an important thing because without a deadline we tend to just float along and not actually make a decision. With professional services there are two kinds of deadlines. One is, it would be nice to have it done and number two, when it has to be done. The big question is asking the client what’s the impact. Is this a later thing or is this a now thing.

Is There A Budget?

Number four is budget. It’s the big question that often times we don’t want to talk about but it’s basically the money question and money isn’t always the most important part but it is important. There are two types of budgets. Number one is there’s the budget that they have but their always trying to lower you on, or there’s the budget that they don’t have or it’s not big enough and we need to either create it or grow it.

Review

Those are the four green lights that we have to hit.

1. Fit: Is there a fit. As we’re going through our process, if we don’t want to come off as being pushy, sleazy or high pressure all we have to do is verify does the customer feel that our concepts have fit, our companies have fit, and that we’re a fit. We can ask them direct questions in multiple different ways.
2. Decision Maker: Are you speaking to the decision maker? Or is there anybody else that we should involve in this discussion, anybody else that has some input?
3. Deadline: Is deadline? When do we need to finish this? What happens if we don’t hit that date, either good or bad?
4. Budget: Is budget, the money question? How much money’s been allocated for this? What’s the financial impact for this? Do we have any idea when we accomplish this what the ramifications are financially

All similar questions but they’re asking it in a different ways to find out that yes this person actually has four green lights because without them the car isn’t going anywhere.

There’s no need to push. We talked about the four green lights that help clients on route to getting to a yes and ultimately just asking them, serving them, teaching them, will help them answer these for themselves. Ultimately when they have four green lights all with fit, decision maker, deadline, and budget, they’re at a point where they’ve had enough information, enough education, enough service from you that they’re comfortable in moving forward. If they’re not then our job is to continue to education, continue to serve, and help them solidify the answers to that.

Bonus

Hopefully, this was helpful. A little bonus we have today. I have a worksheet with all four of these green lights and some examples of different ways you can ask the questions and some space for you to come up with your own.

Click the button below, download it, it’ll give you some examples. I would love to hear back from you. Throw it in the comments below and like always if you have any questions shoot me an e-mail, call the office.

Until next time I’m Rich Scott, thanks for listening.