You're talking to the wrong clients. That's right, you're talking to the wrong people who you're trying to make your clients and this has two disastrous consequences. Disastrous consequence number one is that the people that you're connecting with are wasting your time.

They can't work with you. They're never going to be able to work with you and you're wasting your energy. You're wasting your breath on them.

The second and even worse disastrous consequence is these people may become your clients and they're going to frustrate the crap out of you for as long as they're your clients because they're the wrong people. Want to know how you can qualify people before you even talk to them? Want to know what you should be looking for in your sales conversations? I've got all that for you and so much more on this edition of the Inside B.S. Show. Hey now, it's Dave Lorenzo.

I'm the godfather of growth and this is show 766. That's right, the 766th time we've done this and today I'm helping you connect with your ideal clients here on the Inside B.S. Show. So what we're talking about today is the qualification process that you can and you should and you must be using to identify people who are your ideal prospects so that you can convert them into clients.

This is a three-step process and the steps correspond with the qualities that these folks need to have. Now there's a fourth element to this which we're going to cover at the end so you're going to need to stick with me all the way to the end to make sure that you get the fourth element as well. The three-step process is fundamental to making sure that you're connecting with the right people.

So when you're looking to talk to people in a sales setting, these folks must have a problem you can solve. That's the first step in the process. So talking to people you need to understand what their problems are and make sure that they have a problem you can solve.

Now if you're talking to someone and they have a problem but they don't have a problem that you can help with, this is an opportunity for you to connect them with a center of influence with somebody who can refer you in the future. Refer the person to someone else who can solve their problem but get them the hell away from you as fast as possible. The examples that I give all the time are in the professional service space.

So if you're a CPA firm and you're looking to work with clients who need help not only with month-to-month bookkeeping but also need help with tax prep and somebody comes to you and they say, I'm going to sell my business. I need audited financials. Can you do that? And you don't do audits.

They need an accountant but they don't have a problem that you can solve. So you can refer that person to another accountant but you can't work with them so don't waste your time spending any time at all with them. Look for a problem you can solve.

That's the first step in the qualifying process. The second step in the qualifying process is to make sure you're talking to a decision maker. The best conversations you will ever have on earth are with people who have no decision-making authority.

You know why? They got nothing to lose because they can't commit to anything. The question that I ask prospects all the time when I'm having this conversation and they tell me they have a problem I can help them with, I say to them, it sounds like you got a really difficult problem there. Who else at your company is involved in working on this situation? And that will reveal everyone in the process and sometimes they'll be coy and they'll hold back because they want you to think they're more important than they are and you say I understand and you're obviously an important person in your company and this is something that is vital for you and your future.

Who else is involved in making decisions on these types of matters? And then before they bring you in to have a meeting you're going to say it one more time so you're going to three different times. Okay so we're going to meet and we're going to talk about this and I'm going to see if I can help you address this problem. Is there anybody else we need to include besides you from your side? I'm the person on our side who can work on this.

I'm going to bring my technical person with me so that we have a productive discussion. I just want to make sure I understand. You always put it on you.

I want to make sure I understand. Is there anybody else on your team that we need to include? Anybody else who's going to be involved in making the decision on this process? Three times you're going to ask that to make sure that you're dealing with a decision maker. The third thing and you can't have a meeting with a prospect without having this third element involved.

You need to understand whether or not the company has money and they can afford your services. If the company can't afford you, you're wasting your time. Don't get involved with a company that can't afford you.

So what you're going to say up front is how much are you prepared to invest in order to solve this problem? And they're going to say what do you mean invest? And you're going to say you're going to invest time. There's going to be time that's your most valuable resource that you and your team are going to have to invest in working with me to solve this. But number two, money.

You got to invest money. You're going to have to work with us in order to solve the problem and we're a for-profit business. So what's your budget? What do you have set aside? They're going to say they don't know.

They're going to say they can't tell you. And you're going to go back to them and you're going to say, look, in my experience, everybody has numbers in mind. You wouldn't have agreed to meet with me unless you had resources to apply to solving this problem.

It's just silly to think that. Give me a ballpark figure. You know, is it 10 million dollars or is it a thousand dollars? Narrow it down for me.

Work in that range somewhere. Play with them. Be light about it.

But you got to get a number out of them. If you don't find out if they have money, again, you're wasting your time. Now those are the three things you need to make sure you qualify before going to a meeting, before connecting with somebody who you think might be a potential client for you.

The fourth element, and this is something that we don't necessarily ask for upfront, but we try to figure out as we're going through this process, the fourth element is urgency. And urgency comes in the form of them saying, listen, if I don't solve this problem, my boss is going to fire me. Listen, if I don't solve this problem, the company is going to go out of business tomorrow.

I ask what happens if they don't solve the problem? And I like to do that in the upfront process. I like to say, all right, so you told me that this is a big issue for you. You told me that you got a situation here that is really keeping you up at night.

I get it. It's a problem. What happens if we don't solve this? And they're going to say, well, you know, if we don't solve it, it's just going to linger and it's been around for a long time.

And you say, no, why do you need to solve this now? And they'll say, well, I don't need to solve it right now. And then your answer, your question has to be, well, when do you need to solve it? This is the thing. If there isn't urgency, there are ways to help them see the urgency.

There are ways to create urgency. But over the long term, you don't want to manufacture something that's not true. So getting the first three qualifying elements correct is important.

After you get those correct, you can be there for them. And if the timing isn't right now, that's where follow-up comes in. That's where staying in touch comes in.

And that's going to be the subject for our conversation, our live LinkedIn live stream tomorrow, as well as tomorrow's Inside BS podcast. If you like what you heard today, you need to go to this website and sign up for the daily email updates. Starting next week, we're going to email everyone in our audience and let us know the days and times that we're going to be live.

So if you want to participate and ask live questions, you're going to be able to do that. The only way you're going to get these emails is if you go to this website, getinsidebs.com, getinsidebs.com. Go there, opt in for the daily emails, and we'll let you know what day and what time we're going live next. I thank you for joining me here today on the Inside BS Show 766 in the books.

Thanks for being with us. I'll see you back here again tomorrow. I appreciate you for joining me.

My name is Dave Lorenzo. I'm the Godfather of growth, and until tomorrow, here's hoping you make a great living and live a great life.