Step 4: Test Their IQ – The Qualification

Written by on December 11, 2015 / 60 Second Sale

This is step 4 in the process. The title is: Test Their IQ – The Qualification.

Step Four: Test Their IQ – The Qualification

Step Four is the testing of the IQ. The second step, the qualification. We need to qualify everyone we suspect will be a good client for us, and we need to convert them into prospects. And there are three things qualified prospects have that make them people we want to invest our time in. I want you to focus specifically on these three things, so you know you’re investing your time productively.

The first thing is the ideal prospect will have a problem that you can solve. Makes no sense for you to sit down in front of someone who has a problem that you have no ability to solve whatsoever. You need to spend your time focused on people who have the ideal problem that your product or service will solve.

The second thing that your ideal prospect will have, is they’ll have the ability to make a decision. Often times you’ll find that you have the best meetings with people who have no decision making authority whatsoever. They have no skin in the game. There’s nothing at risk for them. I want you to have contentious meetings with people who really have the ability to invest in your services. I want you to challenge them and to help them see that they will never be able to survive without using you, your product, or your service. So we need to make sure they have the ability to make a decision right up front before we even walk in the door.

The final thing, and probably the most important thing, they need to have money to invest in you, your company, your product, your service, or your experience. They have to have money, and we need to qualify them right up front to make sure they have that money to spend. Now, in order to do this, and in order to continue in this process, in order to convert these suspects into really well qualified prospects, we have to get them to raise their hand and say, “Hey. I’m interested in hearing more of what you have to say. I’m interested in having you help me in my business.”

How do we do that? We use a tool that I call a honeypot.  That’s right, a honeypot. I nicknamed it that because the honeypot was always what people in the Winnie the Pooh cartoons were after. They were after the honeypot because it was the most important thing to them. This is what will attract your prospects. It will draw your suspects out, and it will get them to raise their hands and say, “I’m interested in what you have to say. I want to hear more from you.”

 

So, how do you determine what you’re going to use as your honeypot? Well, simply, honeypot can be an educational device. Something that’s an information product that you offer when you’re delivering a speech or when you’re writing an article. I’m going to get into some specific instances when you can use the honeypot. And I’m going to get into how you should develop your honeypot so that it’s the most effective it can be, and it can help you soar through those suspects and convert them into highly qualified prospects.

Let’s go through some of the types of honeypots you can use in order to get prospects to raise their hand and say, “Yes. I’m interested in hearing more from you.” The first type of honeypot is the most common and that’s the free report, or the white paper. And this is very easy to produce. It is an educational document, and it is designed to deliver the qualifications for doing business with you along with some valuable educational content that is spot on to relieve some pain the reader is feeling or to help them relieve the frustration they face on a daily basis or to help them achieve a goal or an outcome.

The second type of honeypot you can use is an audio interview. If you don’t have time to compile a white paper or a report and go through the process of writing it down, simply list out some questions, and have someone interview you. This interview will bring out the qualifications for working with you, and it will also be an educational device so that you can help your reader or your audience member understand exactly what they need to do to solve one of their problems. And they’ll understand the qualifications for engaging you on a client basis.

The audio interview is probably one of the easiest honeypots to use because someone can sit down and simply pitch you the questions, and you can answer them. And then once you answer the questions you can simply send the honeypot out either electronically via email, through an MP3 file, or you can send it out as a physical product by burning it to a CD. This can be given out at speeches, it can be used in a number of ways. So, if you don’t have time to do a free report you can have someone interview you and record the audio and send it out as an engagement device that will help convert suspects into prospects.

The third type of honeypot is a video. It can be an educational video that solves one of your client’s problems or that helps him or her understand what he’s facing and how he can focus on relieving some of the pain he feels. Videos are used much in the same way an audio is used. It can be you speaking directly into the camera as I’m doing with you right now, or it can be someone interviewing you and you answering the questions. The video can be sent out via email to a link that plays automatically on their computer. If you need something physical you can burn it to a DVD, and hand it out or send it out via direct mail.

Now, let’s talk about where to use these honeypots as tools to convert suspects to prospects. The first place to use them is at the end of a speech. As you’re wrapping up your speech, you make a statement and you say, “This is a topic that has great importance to you, and this is something that I can’t cover fully in a one-hour talk. What I’d like to do is offer you the opportunity to take away some additional information on this subject. I’ve prepared a free report. All you need to do is pass your business cards to the center aisle. I’ll come down and pick them up, and everyone who gives me a business card will receive my free report in the mail after this speech.”

And you can send the free report via email. What that does is that helps everyone in the room who’s a suspect identify themselves as prospects. It helps them say, “Yes. I’m interested in hearing more about what you have to offer.” You collect the business cards, and then you send them out your free report via email after the speech is over. This is very, very effective for identifying who’s really interested in your services, and when you construct this free report you’re going to put in there the qualifications for doing business with you.

So you know anyone who’s received the free report and gone through it and then calls you to meet with you to determine how you can help them, knows what your qualifications are for investment purposes in terms of how much money it takes to work with you. Knows that they have to be able to make a decision before they even sit down with you, and you know, because they read this report, they have a problem that you can solve.  So at the end of a speech offering your honeypot is one of the most valuable ways to convert suspects into prospects.

The second place you can use a honeypot is in an article. When you write an article, whether it’s on a website or whether it’s published in a trade journal or business publication, you’ll get what’s called a byline. The byline will include your name and you can put some sort of a title in there. I would encourage you not to put some braggadocios description about you, who you are, and what you do, how great you are. Instead put a link to a website where they can receive more information. And that website will ask for their email address. You can even try to get their phone number, as well. And in return you’ll offer them your honeypot. You’ll offer them your engagement device in return for their email address and maybe even their phone number. This is a valuable way to use your writing to convert suspects to prospects.

The third place you can use your honeypot is in a direct mail letter. Let’s say you go to a networking event and you meet with some evangelists or maybe even meet with some perspective clients at this networking event. You take their business card, and you get back to the office. You write them a letter, in the mail, send it out to them. And in that letter you say, “We were talking about X, Y, and Z, and it just so happens that I’ve written a report 15 Ways to Relieve the Stress of X, Y, and Z. If you like it just send me a note via email or give me a call on the phone and I’ll be happy to get it out to you right away.”

This direct mail solicitation as a follow-up is another way to use the honeypot to determine whether that person you met is a good prospect for you doing business moving forward. So, direct mail is the third place that you can use this engagement device, this honeypot, to qualify suspects and convert them into prospects.

Now I’m going to give you four bonus places to use this incredibly powerful engagement device. The first bonus place is on your website. Right on the top right-hand side of your website put a little box up there where you offer your free report or your audio program. Give it a really sexy title, and include the number of steps that you have in order to solve whatever problem they’re facing. Ask people to just put in their email address, and they’ll instantly receive your free report or your white paper. This is a great way to get website visitors who are just there to receive your free content and convert them from visitors to your website into actual prospects who could potentially do business with you.

The second place to use your honeypot is in all your videos. So whenever you’re making a video, as you conclude your video that you’re putting on YouTube or anywhere on the web, you can say, “For more information on this subject send me a quick email,” and give your email address, “and I will send you my free report, Five Steps to Relieving the Pain You’re Feeling in Your Business.” You have to give it a really potent sexy title, but at the end of the video offering that as an opportunity for them to engage you is a powerful way to convert viewers of your videos into actual prospects for your business.

 

The third way is during a radio or TV interview. Usually when you’re being interviewed on a radio or TV they’ll give you 10 seconds or 15 seconds to plug a book or a product. If you don’t have something that you can plug, and plugging your business really is not going to be effective in a 10 second segment, you can plug your free report. For my free report, Five Ways to Relieve Your Pain Right Now, simply go to this website and enter your email. That’s the easiest way to convert people who are watching an interview or listening to an audio interview on the radio into people who are actual prospects for your business. Offer the free report. Offer the white paper in return for them leaving their email address on your website.

The final bonus place to use your honeypot is at a trade show. So often we’re standing at booths at a trade show, people come by, they throw their business cards in a bowl in order to win a raffle. Well, that doesn’t tell you if they’re interested in your product or service. So, instead of having people throw their business cards in a bowl to win something in a raffle, ask them for their business card so that they can receive your free report, whatever the title is, that will help them relieve the biggest thing keeping them up at night. Anybody who gives you that business card is a qualified prospect. They’re someone you can do business with in the future. Trade shows are another powerful place for you to use your honeypot.

Let’s talk now about the seven steps to creating the ideal honeypot for you. The ideal free report or audio program that will separate suspects from prospects that will qualify people to do business with you. I’m going to break these down into seven specific action items, and you can use this as a step by step guide to creating your own engagement device, your own honeypot, that you’re going to offer as we discussed in any number of ways.

Number one. You want to create an emotional connection during the opening of this free report, this audio program, or this video. Creating an emotional connection can be as simple as telling a story that highlights the pain that your audience member, your reader, is experiencing. This emotional connection is what makes you valuable to the person reading, and it’s the hook that really draws them in. So, in your opening you need to tell a story that highlights the pain that the reader is feeling and the reason they requested the report in the first place.

Action number two is to frame the problem your reader is experiencing. So you need to help the reader understand what he’s missing out on by not solving this problem. Human nature is such that we all don’t take action. We don’t want to take action. We view doing nothing as easy. You need to frame the problem your reader is experiencing, the reason they requested this report in the first place is because they have this problem, you need to frame it in a way that they realize that missing out on the solution of this problem will create far greater pain than doing nothing. That’s the battle you’re really up against. Is getting the person off their butt, getting them off their rear end, getting them to take action. So frame the problem from the standpoint of doing nothing is the enemy.

Number three. Offer them a general solution. Or you can even say a generic solution. Offer them the opportunity to solve the problem in a way that they can make a selection. So, for example, if the problem was that the person reading had a sales issue, you could offer them the solution to take a sales training course. You’re not offering them the opportunity to work with you just yet. You’re offering them the opportunity to solve their problem, and you’re giving them the path to go ahead and do that.

Action number four. You’re going to list the consequences of making a wrong decision. So the consequences of making a wrong decision will be — And you’re going to list all the points of pain that come along with that. And the reason you’re going to do this is because you want the person reading this report to understand specifically what could happen if they make the wrong choice.

Action number five is you’re going to outline the qualifications of the right solution. Now, these qualifications should match the qualifications you possess or your business possesses. So, in your report you’re going to outline the qualifications of a really good solution, and these should be very general. They’re not focused on you yet, but you’ll notice that they happen to match you. So, for example, if you have 25 years of experience, the qualifications of a good solution should be, you should work with someone who has 20 year’s experience or more. If you happen to have a particular competitive advantage the qualifications should include the competitive advantage that you have.

Action number six is to give them an actionable first step. Tell them what to do immediately upon finishing reading the report. Say to them, “Right now what I want you to do is this.” Give them something to do right away. If you don’t give them something to do they will wander around aimlessly. That’s what you need to have in the back of your mind. Give them an actionable first step.

And then action number seven in this section, the final action in your free report, your honeypot, is to specifically list your qualifications. Put your bio in there. They will connect the dots. They will link it up that your bio matches the qualifications of the solution you’re providing. Those are the specific action steps for creating your ideal honeypot. That’s the engagement device you use to take suspects and convert them into prospects.