5 Tips to Book More Discovery Calls
One of the key ways to sign more clients is through discovery or sales calls.
These calls help you introduce yourself to those interested in your services. They'll see what you're like, learn more about what you do, answer any questions they may have and you'll have the opportunity to invite them to work with you.
But sometimes it can feel really difficult to book discovery calls. It feels like no matter what you do, they just don’t get booked. It can feel like you’re yelling out into a void and nobody is listening. Frustrating for sure.
I’ve learned and implemented a few strategies in my business to help increase the number of discovery calls that get booked.
In today’s blog post, I’ll take you through my 5 tips to help you book more discovery calls in your business. Let's dive in!
1 - Consistently Share Your CTA (Call to Action)
In your marketing, it’s important to be talking about your offers. All the time. Sharing all about how you can help your ideal client, what they gain by signing up for your offer / working with you, etc…
Pick a few non-negotiable marketing tasks that you can stick to consistently and show up for your audience, give value and share your CTA every single time. For instance, one of my non-negotiable marketing tasks is to send a weekly email out to my email list. It works, I like doing it, so I can be consistent.
When it comes time to share a call to action, in a lot of cases it’s better to share an invitation to your discovery call as a call to action vs. something else (like sending them directly to a proposal).
It doesn’t feel as scary to book a free call vs. signing up for an offer. Most people will want to talk to you, see how they feel during the conversation, and if they get a good vibe from you, they’ll be much more likely to sign up to work with you.
Another thing to consider is that you need to share your offer and CTA over and over and over and over… You’ll feel like everyone is sick of hearing about you and your offers and your discovery calls. But trust me, they aren’t sick of it.
If they’re on social media, they may not see every one of your posts. If they’re on your email list, they may not read every single email. You just don’t know. And even if they get sick of it and unfollow you or unsubscribe - it’s ok. Maybe they’re not the best fit for your services, or maybe they’ll come back later.
Keep at it. Keep sharing your offers and your CTAs.
2- Make it Easy For People to Book Calls With You
You want to make the process of booking a call with you as simple and straightforward as possible. That means using a scheduling tool is a necessity. A scheduler will help reduce friction in your booking process and you’ll end up with more calls booked.
If you aren't using a scheduler, and you’re going back and forth with people over email or DMs trying to find a time to chat, you are adding friction to your booking process and are going to lose leads.
If you don’t have a scheduler, you can use a CRM like Dubsado which includes a scheduler, or if you’re not ready for a CRM you can use an app like Calendly - which has a free plan.
Once you have a scheduler for your discovery call set up, you can:
Share the link to your discovery call scheduler in your CTA. This is great if you don’t have a website yet.
Embed the discovery call scheduler on your website. If you have a website, this is the best option for you because you are sending traffic to your site.
3- Optimize Your Discovery Call Landing Page
If you’re embedding your scheduler on your website, you can customize the content on that page. I’ve learned that what you put on that page has a big impact on your bookings.
You want to explain to your audience:
Why it’s a good idea to book a call with you.
The steps to book a call with you.
What to expect / what will happen once they book a call.
Place some testimonials on the page to reassure them.
They may be feeling nervous through this process and you want to help ease their fears and offer some reassurance.
4- Place Your Discovery Call Link Everywhere
Once your Discovery Call scheduler link is ready, place it everywhere you can think (I mean everywhere) of to encourage your audience to book calls with you.
Here are a few places you can put your link:
Email signature
Email newsletter (as a CTA or in the footer)
Facebook profile
Facebook page
Instagram bio
Pinterest bio
YouTube channel links
YouTube video description
Blog posts
LinkedIn contact info
Social media posts
You get the idea.
On your website, place multiple ‘Book a Call’ CTAs across the different pages, inviting visitors to book a call. It’s important to have a single clear CTA throughout your website to avoid confusing visitors. You basically want all paths to leads to booking a call with you.
5- Make Sure They Attend The Call
After someone books a call with you, you want to make sure they attend. One way to increase the attendance rate is by sending confirmation and reminder emails.
Scheduling software will give you the option to send confirmation and reminder emails. Just keep in mind that some free plans may limit a few of these features.
Confirmation Emails
Once someone books a call with you, its important to send a confirmation email to let them know that their call is booked, in this email you can include:
Date, time, duration of the call.
Clarify how the call will happen (via Zoom/Google Meet, via phone). You can include the videoconferencing link or let them know that you’ll send it in the reminder emails.
Share a link to add the discovery call to their calendar.
Explain what to expect during the call.
Share a services & pricing guide - optional.
Invite them to download your freebie or sign up for your newsletter - optional.
Invite them to follow you on social media - optional.
BONUS (optional): use a redirect URL in your scheduler, and once they’ve booked a call send them to a thank you page on your website with a short video. In that video you can thank them for booking a call, let them know what to expect before, during and after the call and share how excited you are to talk to them.
Reminder Emails
Once the call is booked, you want to make sure they don’t forget. Sending reminders is a great way to help people remember to show up for the call, especially if they’re booking the call over a week out.
In your reminder emails, you can include:
Date, time, duration of the call.
If using video conferencing, include the link. If it’s a phone call, include the number you will be calling.
A quick reminder of what to expect during the call.
A rescheduling or cancellation button.
BONUS: if your scheduling software has the option to send text reminders, make sure you enable this as it’s a great way to remind people of their call with you. Most people are looking at their texts much more frequently than their email inbox, so you’re likely to get more people attending the call.
Set up the reminders to go out 24 hours and 1 hour before the call.
Why?
I find that some people cancel after receiving the 24 hour reminder. People may forget about the call and when they get the reminder they might get nervous and decide to cancel. I’m perfectly ok with this, because if they’re not ready to talk to me or work with me - then it’s best to cancel.
Life happens - illness, emergencies, etc. - and the 1 hour email will remind them about the call that’s about to happen. Once they see it, they can reach out and let you know that they can’t make it, or they can reschedule or cancel on their own.
What Happens If People Don’t Show Up?
Sometimes people won’t show up to the call.
Personally, I’ll wait for a few minutes and if they’re not there, I’ll end the call and reach out to them via email and let them know that they missed the call, and invite them to book again. That’s it.
Some people have a zero tolerance policy for no-shows, and they won’t reach out to them if they missed the call.
It’s completely up to you.
In the end, there is only so much you can do to get people to show up, the rest is up to them.
How To Reduce The Number of No-Shows
If you’re getting a lot of no-shows to your discovery call, there are a few things you can do:
Do not put the scheduler on your website, and instead put a lead capture form. Once they submit the form, you can review it and decide if they’re a good fit to work with you. If they are, you can send them an email with a link to book a call.
This option is great if you’re getting a lot of calls booked, and are finding that you don’t have enough time to take all the calls.
Keep in mind that with this option you are increasing the friction in your booking process by increasing the number of steps it takes to book a call.
When setting up your scheduler, include a question in your form that can look like any of these options:
“If I am not able to make it to this call, I commit to rescheduling or cancelling 24 hours before the start time.” (checkbox)
“The investment for (insert name of offer) is $XXX. If we decide to work together, are you prepared to make this investment?” (yes/no)
Want me to setup Dubsado for you?
If you need help setting up Dubsado to automate tasks (like your inquiry process and booking discovery calls) in your business the first step is to book a free Discovery call.
Book a free 20 minute no strings attached discovery call and let's see if we're a good fit to work together and see if a Dubsado setup is right for you 👉 Schedule your call