How to open, what to ask, what to never promise, and how to hand the work off without losing the customer.
When you finish this lesson you can
Run an opening conversation without pitching a product in the first two minutes.
Handle the five objections you will actually hear.
Hand work to production and stay the customer's person.
The shape of it
Ask, listen, show, quote, hand off. In that order, and most reps lose it at the first step because showing is more comfortable than asking.
You already know how to do this - it is the part we cannot teach and the reason you were hired. What is new is the subject, not the skill.
Open with a question, not a product
Have you ever asked one of those chat assistants about your own business? Then stop talking. Whatever he says next tells you which lesson you are in.
Never heard of it - you are teaching, gently, and the Health Check is your next move. Tried it and it was wrong - he has already sold himself and your job is not to oversell on top of it. Tried it and it was fine - ask what it said about his hours and his service area, and watch what happens.
Show him his own business
The Free Website Health Check exists for this. Nothing you say about accuracy lands like an owner reading something wrong about his own shop.
Two rules. Do not gloat - he is looking at a mistake and people get defensive about their own business. And do not oversell what it means. Here is what is wrong and here is what fixing it involves is enough.
Quote from the page
Pull up the pricing page and turn the phone around. Published prices, no negotiation theatre, no special deal for today. Where the price depends on scope, say that, and say he gets it in writing before anything is billed.
If you do not know, say you do not know and find out. Every made-up answer becomes somebody else's problem in production and lands back on you in month two.
The five you will actually hear
I already have a website. Good - who keeps it current, and when did it last change? You are not attacking the site.
My nephew does it. Fine, and no argument. Ask what has been done about how assistants describe the business. That is a gap, not a criticism of the nephew.
I do not need AI. Agreed, he does not - he needs to be found and described correctly. Drop the word entirely and describe the work.
I tried a marketing company and got burned. Almost everyone has. Do not defend the industry. Point at published pricing, month to month, cancel any time, and that we do not promise rankings or leads.
Too expensive. Ask what he compared it to. Often he is comparing to nothing, which is a different conversation, and there is a free level and a $4.99 level.
Hand off the work, keep the customer
You sell, production builds. You do not build, you do not quote a build timeline you were not given, and you do not go quiet once the order is in.
The handover is where reps lose accounts. Tell him what happens next and who does it, then be the one who calls when it is live. You get the account - that is the point of all of this. And then you go back and ask how we are doing and what else you can do for him.
Flashcards
Click a card to turn it over.
Check yourself
Nothing is recorded and nothing is scored. This is for you.
What comes first in the conversation?
Why: Ask, listen, show, quote, hand off. Most reps lose it at step one because showing is more comfortable than asking.
He says he got burned by a marketing company two years ago.
Why: Do not defend the industry and do not buy trust with a discount. The honest structure of the offer is the answer.
You do not know whether something is included.
Why: Every made-up answer becomes production's problem and lands back on you in month two.
The order is signed and passed to production. What now?
Why: The handover is where reps lose accounts. You get the account - staying the customer's person is the whole point.
Work to do away from the screen
Write your opening question and your first three follow-ups.
Write your answer to all five objections, in your own words. Not these words - yours.
Run a Health Check on a business you know and write how you would show it to the owner without making him defensive.