LNCPracticeBuilder.com Blog

All too often I see Legal Nurse Consultants and Small Business Entrepreneurs show off their fancy brochures, tout their years of experience and show me the special discount offers they are sending out to potential clients. However, as they wax on eloquently, I often wonder how many of those potential clients they turn into actual clients. This week we are going to take a side-step from marketing tools and learn some tips to creating a call for action.

Like many of you have read from previous blogs, I believe that every website needs a clear “call to action.” Meaning, when someone comes to your website what do you want them to do? Buy services? Contact you for more information? Send you a case? If your website doesn’t have a clear call then give us a call at LNCPracticeBuilder.com and we can help.

Like any good website, you need a call to action (read: closing the sale) as part of your in person marketing strategies.  When you get to the end of the client meeting, what do you do? What do you say? Do you pause with anxiety and try to hurry up out of the room?

Is this you?

“I don’t want to appear too pushy,”

“If they want to work with me they’ll say so, won’t they?”

“What if they say no?”

Although intellectually you understand that asking for business does not make you a beggar, nor pushy, yet the very idea of asking makes you quake with fear.

To dispel that fear, I am presenting here the two-part solution model that we work with in the Practice Marketing Workshops we offer.

First, conduct an ideal client assessment to find out if there if you are a good fit with your potential client’s problems and the solution that you offer. (The 30 Second Speech Isn’t Working: Now What? Book) Second, schedule a meeting with that client and be prepared to find out exactly what his/her needs are as they describe them. You should already have a pretty good idea if you’ve done your research.

Once this is done, imagine money is not an issue. Imagine that the only question that needs answering is: Do you have a way to help this person solve his or her problem? If the answer is no, say so, and if you can, offer to make a referral to another LNC (additional referral income who might be able to meet this person’s needs.

If the answer is yes, you have an appropriate solution, then begin to move towards selling your services to the prospect.

 It’s that simple. Need + solution = potential client.

Fear of Asking

Now you know that the potential for the sale is there, asking can be scary, unless you already know how to ask in a way that feels natural to you. As silly as this seems, as with anything else…practice makes perfect. Stand in front of the mirror and repeat them until they feel comfortable rolling off your lips. For me, even as outgoing as I am I still practice asking for the sale in the car on my way to the meeting. I use the rearview mirror and I’m sure that people think I’m just talking to myself. If you put in your earpiece, then you may not look so crazy. Here are some phrases that will help you ask for the business/case more comfortably.

As a Legal Nurse Consultants you may have never been exposed to these “asking for the sale” phrases; however, in the business world people hear them all the time and are accustomed to wrapping up meetings this way. Change some words, combine some phrases, put your personal spin on it and make it yours. But use them! Asking for the sale may make all the difference between a wasted meeting and your next big case.

The words

1. Now that you know what I can do for you, where do you want to start?

Give people a way to say “Yes!”  Studies have shown that when potential clients are giving a jumping off point they are less likely to say no.

2. You mentioned that you needed help immediately (or that your nurse is getting ready to go on maternity leave or you are way too busy to make changes in your practice); if we got started today would that be helpful?

Remember…need + solution= clients

3. I’m glad you think the XYZ package is the one that will work best for you, because it’s the one I would recommend. Shall we work out the details now?

Make it their idea and the sale is 80% complete. Enough said.

4.  If you have no more questions, there’s just one left for me to ask: When would you like me to start?

Every once in a while you need to throw in an oldie but goodie.

5.  This really sounds like a case I’d like to work on. What will it take to get started?

As in dating, people want you to be excited about what they do. Showing your enthusiasm for a case is an easy way to get more than a foot in the door.

6. It looks like we’ve created the right solution for your practice. Are you ready to move forward? I have a working agreement for you right here.

Being prepared is an easy way to close the sale. It leaves a potential client who might be on the fence less time to say no and once committed to working with you, it gives you the opportunity to capitalize on that commitment and shine.

7.  Earlier you said that you’d like to have to make a decision on this by the end of the month. Working backwards, that gives us two weeks to get all the records in order, so I’d recommend starting on Tuesday. Does that work with your schedule, or would you rather begin on Monday?

This shows that your mindful of their time schedules and that you can provide organized service. People like it when you think backwards. Ha! Seriously, it does show that you are re-routing your workload to make theirs your priority. Always good customer service.

Remember, asking for the business is the natural conclusion of a successful discussion. If you have the solution to your prospect’s problem, all you have to do is say so, and ask when you can get started, so then all that’s left to do is work out the details. Yes, there is a chance that your client will back-pedal, but all that means is that the solution you’ve proposed isn’t perfect (yet), so go back to working on resolving the problem, and ask again. If it isn’t working out, accept it, acknowledge it, and ask if you can refer this them to someone else. (You just might close the sale yet!) But even if you don’t, you’ve shown that your goal (and practice philosophy)  is the satisfactory resolution to your potential attorney client’s problem, and that’s just good business.

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