In this episode of The Abundant Coach, Rich Boggs reveals the proven 7-step framework for a discovery call that closes with ease. You’ll learn how to connect, reveal the gap, build trust, and make a confident offer—without ever feeling pushy or salesy.

Key Takeaways

• A discovery call is a transformational conversation, not a sales pitch.
• Open with leadership and connection, like a confident tour guide.
• Use the pain–pleasure principle to help prospects gain emotional clarity.
• Present your offer only after confirming fit, leading with value.
• The close is simply service: reconnecting prospects to their dream and their decision.

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00;00;01;12 - 00;00;28;05

Mat Boggs

Welcome to the Abundant Coach. This is a weekly podcast about creating full spectrum success with a thriving coaching business, while making a profound difference in the world. Each week, you'll discover insights, strategies, and inspiration to help you attract your ideal clients. Create real transformation and grow your coaching business while living your purpose with true freedom and fulfillment.

00;00;28;07 - 00;00;55;19

Rich Boggs

Have you ever found yourself wanting to know the script or the framework for the sales conversation that actually works? Desiring to find longing for that template that you know, you could take every single potential client through and enroll those that are a great fit to work with you in a way that is heart centered and impactful and full of strength and love for their dream, and not at all salesy.

00;00;55;21 - 00;01;20;20

Rich Boggs

Not at all slimy. Well guess what? That framework, that system for enrollment does exist. We created it here at the Brave Thinking Institute over ten years ago. We have trained thousands and thousands of coaches and heart centered entrepreneurs in using it. They have thriving businesses today, many of them seven figure businesses. And today I'm going to give you that framework right here, right now.

00;01;20;23 - 00;01;47;29

Rich Boggs

So buckle up. Rich Boggs here again. Welcome back to the Abundance Coach podcast. Your sales that serve series today is episode number three, The anatomy of a heart centered sales conversation. So welcome back. We have gotten many, many questions about sales here at the podcast. And today I'm going to give you the framework for the conversation that actually closes.

00;01;48;01 - 00;02;12;01

Rich Boggs

It's going to answer many of your questions. I'm just going to read some of the questions we've received. And you can know with confidence that these are going to be answered in today's podcast. Number one, what is the purpose of the enrollment conversation in general, and why is it not just a get to the yes, good question. Or how do I create a sales experience that builds trust and alignment and clarity and doesn't feel salesy?

00;02;12;03 - 00;02;33;14

Rich Boggs

Good question. Why do most of my sales conversations fall apart in the first few minutes? And what are some other common mistakes in sales that coaches make? How do I stay authentic when also following a proven structure? Great question. And the last one, what do I do after I've had the conversation with clients who say no? What do I do after?

00;02;33;14 - 00;02;59;19

Rich Boggs

00;02;59;22 - 00;03;33;02

Rich Boggs

The coaches were asking all the questions that I just posed that you've been asking, how do you do this? How do you sell in a way that serves and doesn't feel salesy? And so being the chief sales officer here, I was tasked with creating the system along with another co-founder, an amazing young woman named Jennifer Menez. Now, I come from 30 years of sales training, building sales teams, training salespeople, and Jennifer is a top, top sales professional in her background and number one global sales professional in many different industries.

00;03;33;03 - 00;04;15;03

Rich Boggs

So together we created something called conversations that closed. Today is known as the Brave Thinking Sales system. And Jennifer had a very specific way of taking people through a process that we blended with my 30 years of sales experience to create this amazing program that has served, like I said, thousands and thousands of coaches and heart centered entrepreneurs just like you, to crush and feel super confident about the system that they employ to generate clients, to go from a prospect, somebody that is interested in maybe working with you, to knowing that you have enrolled the perfect people, where their problem and what they're looking for is exactly what you do.

00;04;15;03 - 00;04;37;17

Rich Boggs

And the conversations not only are highly converting, but also feel powerful and heart centered. But you are on purpose in the center of your passion for what you do. So here's the system right here. It's seven steps, and let's dive right in with the first step. The first step is connection. Step one. Write that down at the beginning of your conversation.

00;04;37;20 - 00;04;56;22

Rich Boggs

You want to take control. Just like a tour guide takes control. The energy of the conversation. And we encourage our coaches to have as many of these conversations on zoom as they can. Where the people get to see you, they get to feel your vibe, what you're all about. So we highly encourage these to happen. Just like I'm talking to you right now.

00;04;56;28 - 00;05;17;24

Rich Boggs

If you're watching this podcast right now on zoom and the energy is just like a tour guide, I took my family to Rome a couple of times, and the second time we went, we had this amazing Roman woman as this tour guide, and she was not abrasive in the way that she was taking control. She was like, and we're walking and we're walking, and now you can see this, this is the Colosseum and this is what happened here.

00;05;17;24 - 00;05;39;13

Rich Boggs

This is what happened here. And no more questions, Richard. I had a million questions. And now and now we're down and we're walking to this other part of the Colosseum, and we're walking. And now I'm explaining, and now we're walking. And now there's some time for questions. Okay, no more questions. And now we're walking. And the tour guide energy is very, very important because your client is going to feel you're in control of what's going on.

00;05;39;13 - 00;05;58;26

Rich Boggs

And there's an experience that you want to give throughout this one hour enrollment conversation that you have with your client today. So we open the opening of step one. The connection is the vibration that you're here to serve your client. You're going to unpack your client's vision. You're going to unpack the discontent in the client and many more things.

00;05;58;28 - 00;06;29;10

Rich Boggs

But the opening of the call is you taking control with this tour guide. Energy. Also part of the step one connection is letting your clients know how long we're going to be together today. You've let them know this in advance, that they've got to have this amount of time. It's usually an hour blocked out. Your client has to be in an environment where they can focus on the results that they would love to create, and what has been in the way up until now.

00;06;29;13 - 00;06;56;18

Rich Boggs

So you've got a focus client with a commitment that they've got an hour blocked out and they're not in the car and they're not walking through the shopping center with their kids that they are focused on creating. This new result. So that's the energy of the connecting part of the call. Along with that, you also want to allow some time for a little chit chat, just like you might do with a tour guide when you're first meeting them at the beginning of some of some foreign city tours.

00;06;56;25 - 00;07;28;27

Rich Boggs

Right? So the reason for the connection is to build trust, and a little chit chat can build a lot of trust when you find common ground, and you can find common ground with anybody on this planet through kids, through the weather, through geographical location. Where are they? Where are you even sports? At times, if you figure out that they might be, you know, the fan of some sport from where they are in the world and your work in the world and their work in the world.

00;07;28;29 - 00;07;54;06

Rich Boggs

So work sports that also includes hobbies. Kids, pets are a great one. Geography and the weather. Don't be afraid to make a little chitchat and warning. Not a lot of chit chat. We're talking about 1 to 2 minutes of common ground finding because that builds trust. So there's step one. Your connection. Step two is the heavy lift in your strategy session.

00;07;54;06 - 00;08;12;25

Rich Boggs

It is the pain pleasure principle. This is where you're going deep into what would it look like if they created the results that they were looking for in the world, which hearkens back to why are they on this call with you in general? So their vision and you want to give them permission to go deep into the vision.

00;08;12;25 - 00;08;33;01

Rich Boggs

And here's how you do that. You take them through a little time machine exercise. We imagine it's a year from today. So it's this date, here's the year. And this situation has gone amazing. You are living the life that you love. Tell me what that looks like and share it with me. In the present tense, we call that a time machine exercise.

00;08;33;01 - 00;08;53;17

Rich Boggs

And you want to do a mini time machine exercise and have them share with you what it's like to have this problem solved in the present tense. This might be easy for some of your potential clients. This might be difficult for your potential clients, but that is the goal to really boogie up the confidence in them, to share what it's like to have this problem solved.

00;08;53;20 - 00;09;13;13

Rich Boggs

That's the pleasure. Then the pain is tell me what you would change right now in your life. First, if you could, if you had a magic wand and could eliminate longing and discontent, what would that feel like? What would that look like? And really give that give them permission to really share what it would be like to have this problem solved.

00;09;13;20 - 00;09;35;05

Rich Boggs

Some people are going to be really naturally good at sharing their vision, but not their pain. Some people are going to be the opposite. They're really good at complaining about what's not working, and they have a tough time sharing the vision. And so the work here is paying attention to which pain or pleasure, which part of it they might be struggling with, and really lean in and give them permission to really go there.

00;09;35;08 - 00;09;57;20

Rich Boggs

The goal in step two is to help them get highly emotional about the life they'd be living. When this problem is fixed, right? The pleasure, the vision, and help them get equally emotional about what it's like to not have this problem fixed. What's in the way? What's the longing? What's the discontent? Really help them lean into their voice with both emotion about both.

00;09;57;20 - 00;10;21;07

Rich Boggs

Because that leads us to step three. And once you've got a highly emotional vision with your client and a highly emotional longing and discontent. Step three is reveal the Gap. Step three is easy. If you've done step two really well, reveal the gap. I like to say imagine you've got two snow globes, one snow globe over here. This is the vision.

00;10;21;10 - 00;10;40;15

Rich Boggs

This is the life. A year from today you've created that you love. And here's your life today with the longing in the discontent, which is again, you normalize it. We all have longing and discontent. We all have things that we want to change, and you can hold them up and then put them closer together and say, here's the difference between the life you have today and the life that you would love.

00;10;40;17 - 00;11;01;18

Rich Boggs

There's a gap in between the two and really help them acknowledge the gap. Once you've revealed the gap and they've acknowledge that there is a gap, then the next logical question is helping them understand if they could have bridge this gap on their own with the tools, with the support they already have, they would have already done it and get they were agreement with that.

00;11;01;20 - 00;11;17;17

Rich Boggs

Which leads us into step four, which you want to make it easy for them. Step four is get the yes. I would love some help with this. You want to make it easy for them to say yes, I would love some help with this. And that's by not making it about you yet. It's not about your help yet.

00;11;17;19 - 00;11;47;07

Rich Boggs

It's about in general. Would you love if there were some help out there that you knew could really help you bridge the gap? And it were easy for you to invest in that time wise, money wise. Would you love that? Make it easy for them to say yes? Step four is the yes, I need help. Then you move on to step five, which is the good fit revealed, which is helping them see that what you do, the kind of result they're looking to create, is a bullseye, an ideal fit into what you do for a living.

00;11;47;07 - 00;12;07;06

Rich Boggs

This is my work in the world, helping people go from here, where you are now, to here where you would love, and then helping them acknowledge that they understand what you're saying, that what they need and what you do happened to be a great vocational fit. And you're going to understand more about them. They're going to understand more about you.

00;12;07;06 - 00;12;28;08

Rich Boggs

And then you ask them, does it feel like it would be a good fit for us to work together? Everything else aside, time and money aside, does it feel like there's a good fit here? Notice I'm not saying perfect fit. I believe there's no such thing as a perfect fit, but this is a good fit coach client good fit here 99% of the time.

00;12;28;08 - 00;12;57;02

Rich Boggs

At this point, they're going to say yes because of how you described it. It feels like a good fit. And then you move into step six, which is the offer. Now you're only describing what you do and how you do it. And your offer now is your program and the benefits of the program and the bells and whistles, and how many weeks it is and what time of day it is, and all those things you're only describing it here because they've said that they would love some help and this feels like a good fit.

00;12;57;05 - 00;13;15;22

Rich Boggs

They admitted all of that. If you've got somebody that isn't sharing their vision, isn't sharing their pain, doesn't understand the gap, doesn't feel like a good fit. You're not sharing right here what you do, how you do it, and what the investment is. If you share the investment at this point, it starts to lean into this salesy arena.

00;13;15;22 - 00;13;39;07

Rich Boggs

00;13;39;10 - 00;14;08;00

Rich Boggs

The value only 20% is the actual deliverables. It's 12 weeks. It's one hour a week. It's this time of day. It's a group class or it's one on one. What you do here, 80% of it is the value, the benefits. Only 20% of it is the actual weeks you describe how many weeks it is, what's entailed, what's the value of it, where they're going to be when you're done in 12 weeks or six months, right.

00;14;08;02 - 00;14;29;23

Rich Boggs

00;14;29;23 - 00;14;54;19

Rich Boggs

They're going to say, well, how much is it? And you're going to say, we will get to that. Let's imagine, though, all of that's easy. How does that sound? Does it sound like my program and the benefits and the values? Does it sound like the program could easily help you get the results that you're looking for? They're going to say yes 99% of the time because of how you've laid it out and the sequencing that I'm talking about.

00;14;54;21 - 00;15;17;28

Rich Boggs

And then you say, great, then you share the investment and the different investment options, and then you stop again and say, how does that sound? Or let's get you started. At that point when you follow these six steps like, I've described, it is amazing how many potential clients at that point will say, my, my next question is, do you take American Express?

00;15;18;01 - 00;15;41;24

Rich Boggs

My next question is how do I invest? This sounds great because at that point, what they want, their vision and the pain they want to eliminate and how you've described, how systematically you help people do just this. Exactly. It's going to seem like a no brainer for them to enroll in creating a vision in their life with you as their coach, remembering they're investing in the vision.

00;15;41;27 - 00;16;02;07

Rich Boggs

They're not just giving you money, they're investing in their dream. With you as their coach, it's going to seem like a no brainer. So many of them are going to say, I'm in, you know, here's my credit card and you might be shocked the first time you get that by using a system, you will not be shocked the second time, the third time, and the 300th time after that.

00;16;02;09 - 00;16;27;18

Rich Boggs

So get ready for the easy. Yes. And we also have a step seven because people have their paradigms. People have their habitual thinking. That is the thinking that's created, the stuckness that they're employing you to help them transform. Right. So step seven is the close, and step seven is the different ways that you can take a client through different processes to really help build up the vision.

00;16;27;18 - 00;16;50;26

Rich Boggs

But we have the the confidence in them, help them really understand I can do this with with with some new support and some pretty simple support. It can actually be pretty quickly that I can help transform where I'm stuck and create this version of the life that I would love. Step seven is for those people that don't automatically say yes, and there are processes that we train our coaches in to really help them close the deal.

00;16;50;26 - 00;17;22;22

Rich Boggs

But knowing step seven is simply the seventh step of seven. Simple, easy steps. The clothes shouldn't be some heavy lifting the way that we do. The brave thinking sale system, which is nicknamed conversations. In the close it got that nickname because it works, it closes deal. So when you use these seven steps, look out because you are going to find some easy yeses that maybe you're not used to yet, but the seven step is helping them understand you can do this.

00;17;22;22 - 00;17;41;21

Rich Boggs

Here's your life today. You said having your vision. It's going to feel like this. I'm going to feel like this, and you're going to be doing this. And today you're feeling stuck in this way and this way and that way, taking them back to the emotion around the vision, the hope for gain and the emotion around where they're stuck.

00;17;41;21 - 00;18;11;16

Rich Boggs

Right. The fear of more pain. Taking them back into that idea is what the close is all about. And so it's not like typical sales. Well, for the first six steps you have a halo above your head, right? And then when you get to the seventh step, the clothes, the horns come out. It is not like that. It should never be or feel like that the clothes is simply more of the same of the other six steps teaching, guiding, encouraging, helping them with your heart centered persuasion.

00;18;11;16 - 00;18;37;02

Rich Boggs

Understand they can create this result that they would love, and they're going to need some new support to do so. And that what they're looking to do and what you teach, what you coach, happens to be an ideal fit. And let's do this thing. So here it is the seven steps to the heart centered enrollment conversation. This is something that we train all of our certified coaches in.

00;18;37;02 - 00;19;02;18

Rich Boggs

You have the framework now you're free to use it. I hope you took some really good notes. Step one the connection. Step two the pain. Pleasure principle. Step three reveal the gap. Step four get the yes, I would love some help. Step five the good fit revealed. Step six is the offer 80% on value and results only 20% on the actual deliverables.

00;19;02;20 - 00;19;24;07

Rich Boggs

And then if needed. Step seven is the close up. ReEngage the emotion of the vision and reengage the emotion of the longing in the discontent. Again, simple doesn't make it easy. It does take repetition. It does take rehearsal. We have full scripts that we give our certified coaches as well, and a full training in that. But this is yours now to take into your coaching business.

00;19;24;10 - 00;19;49;22

Rich Boggs

These seven steps. I would practice it on a friend, a couple of friends and family members, and then I would take it into your work and watch how just the system itself works. So beautifully and really helping these conversations feel powerful, feel impactful, and help you close deals. Because remember, a close deal is you're closing your client on the decision to step in and do this thing.

00;19;49;22 - 00;20;10;03

Rich Boggs

Or the decision not to write a no is okay. A yes is a lot more fun. But what the seven steps also teach you, if you learn more about them, is understanding that an unclosed loop is where you're not serving your client, and the unclosed loop is. I want to think about it. I can't make the decision today.

00;20;10;07 - 00;20;27;11

Rich Boggs

I have to talk to somebody first. I want to do this, but I can't. All of that is an unclosed loop. And so this system really helps your clients say yes and then take a step in the direction of their dream by investing in you as their coach, or say no if they say no to your particular offer, that's okay.

00;20;27;11 - 00;20;47;05

Rich Boggs

It's not personal. If they say no, they're much more likely to then go say yes somewhere else, which is what we're looking for. We're looking to change lives. So I hope this has served you here in episode three of the Sales That Serve Abundant Coach Podcast and on episode four, we're going to be answering some other very powerful question.

00;20;47;07 - 00;21;27;11

Rich Boggs

And mostly it's the question around, why don't I go ahead and give my clients what the investment is up front? If you've ever stumbled over the moment where somebody has asked you, well, how much does it cost? How much does how much is your coaching? Just tell me why won't you tell me? I'll break down exactly how and when and why to save that investment part of your conversation to a very specific moment in your sales conversation where you have buoyed up or you have helped your client understand some very important things first, before you talk about the money, it is critical to running the most epic version of your work in the world.

00;21;27;13 - 00;21;42;06

Rich Boggs

This is crucial. I'm going to talk all about that in episode four of the sales that serve a series here in the Abundant Coach podcast, so I will speak with you then. And until next time, remember, think bravely, act boldly. See you soon.

00;21;42;08 - 00;22;01;24

Mat Boggs

Thanks for joining me this week on The Abundant Coach. To dive even deeper. Visit our website at BTI dot com Coach Certification. If you love today's episode, be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. And while you're at it, please rate and review. I'll see you in the next episode.