Make Your Intake Form Do The Selling For You With Heidi Taylor

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Diane: [00:00:00] Hey everyone. So this week I am chatting to an Instagram friend who I started following because of one of her regular Instagram story features. So I am super excited about this conversation. Heidi Taylor specializes in the art of the intake form and how we can make all that part of a sale. So if you're like me, you have filled in way too many. Intake forms that left you feeling like a bit meh about the actual call frustrated or sometimes just like downright violated. So be prepared to have your mind blown with Heidi's tweaks. Hey Heidi, welcome to the show. Heidi: [00:00:33] Hi Diane. I'm thrilled to be here to talk to you about my favorite topic. Diane: [00:00:39] I'm very excited to hear all the nitty-gritty of this cause I love watching you do them on the Instagram stories. Before we dive in, would you tell the listeners a little bit about you and your business? Heidi: [00:00:49] Yeah, I would love to. So I've been in business for seven, eight-ish years. I do one on one work with service-based business owners, lots of coaches. stylists, you know, anybody doing high touch work one-on-one and some membership groups when it comes to intake forms, membership group owners also like to talk to me, I'm a business coach and I come at business coaching from a very… my highest strength is my emotional intelligence. And so I am not sort of your business strategist type. I want to talk to you about your feelings, your zone of genius, your strengths, and also, you know, how can you ask the right questions to get the information you need from your potential client? I'm Canadian and a dog mom, so that's pretty much me. Diane: [00:01:39] How has that business evolved with you and your lifestyle? Heidi: [00:01:43] it's evolved massively in so many ways. I think the more I've been in business, the longer I've been in business, the more I have really understood what my clients are looking for and what they need, and what I really want to get from the work that I'm doing with them. I started my business, my coaching business from my living room, having clients come to the door and they would sit in my living room and we would, you know, have a coaching session and then it got to the point where I was like, I realized, okay, I need to take this bigger. And I also love, because my work tends to be pretty, intense is not the word. There's some emotional, in-depth discussion, I found that having a screen between my client and I was just this beautiful, tool to support the conversation. My clients would show up on time versus coming to my house and realizing, Oh, well it feels like she's my friend. I can show up late. I'll get my coffee first and then I'll go visit Heidi. It's like, no, no, no, that's not. This is a business. This is very different. So, being on zoom was just like a miracle for me. I love that part of my business. Diane: [00:02:55] I love that. I always find when I'm doing mindset work with my coach, I don't even like to be on video. I like that distance to just be able to talk through something without the feeling that somebody is staring at me. I can't even imagine doing that in the same room as someone. Heidi: [00:03:09] The energy people can be pretty intense. Diane: [00:03:12] So sales I find is a space where entrepreneurs seem to get themselves in a super big tizzy on a multitude of issues. So I love this idea that we can move people down our pipeline from prospect to that buy moment, using the intake form to just try and lift some of that pressure off the actual sales call. I have to say no intake form I have ever filled in for anyone has ever made me more excited to work with them. I was either excited before the intake form and it didn't have an impact or I was super excited, I did the intake form and I was dreading the call. how do we change that? Heidi: [00:03:50] what you described is exactly why I do the work that I do. And I share it freely on Instagram because everybody is missing that. I can't think of a time where I found an amazing intake form where I've gone. Wow. this business owner is hitting all of the points of the journey. and I think the reason that is happening is because we're wearing all the hats. Thinking up intake form questions is exhausting. And I think there's people that are teaching some crazy tactics. And I was Googling it, the intake form questions, just to see, what would come up of course. And, some credible sites were sharing things that just made my skin crawl. So, you know, we really don't have any teachers out there that are showing us the way. To be relational and human. And so instead of using the intake form as a tool to build a relationship, to help our buyer buy-in further, we're using it as a tool to transact and it feels gross. Most of the time its transactional. And it's also, pre-qualifying. I love the intake form being a sales tool that helps you prequalify your client. It's the way you prequalify that I have a problem with. Diane: [00:05:08] Yeah, I feel like I was always taught like even more aggressive than pre-qualified. I feel like I was taught that my intake form was like my protector of my time. You needed to check all of these boxes or you didn't deserve the strategy call and I get it. I get people are busy and stuff, but that is, I can think of at least two or three people whose programs I have been in with that was very much the vibe of, you know, this intake form is there to protect you from the time-wasters. Heidi: [00:05:41] It's very adversarial. Diane: [00:05:44] Definitely. Definitely. When you do some of the reviews, I have a quite chuckled to myself cause I'm like, yep. I've used that question. Yes. I've used that question. I know who taught me that question. So how do we do better? Heidi: [00:05:57] Yeah. How do we do better? So I come from the position that you're an expert. if you need an intake form to screen clients for fit, you're an expert in the work that you do. So an expert knows how to ask the most amazing question that their buyer would never know to ask themselves. that's the filter that I use as I'm looking at intake forms. What are the challenging questions that you were asking from your expertise that are helping me as the buyer, if I'm taking a buyer's perspective, to go, “Oh my gosh, I had not even thought of that. ” And then as I'm writing my answer, if I'm the buyer, the more I'm expressing back to you about this problem, I didn't even realize how deep it went. The more I'm expressing that the more I'm realizing, Oh my gosh. Now I really need Diane. I knew I liked her. There was something about what she was saying that was working for me. And I was signing up for this call. But now that she's asked these questions, I realize how much her expertise is, what I need. Or maybe they realize they're definitely not the right person to be there or anywhere in between that spectrum. But ideally your intake form. If it's thoughtfully created with strategy and emotion, your buyer is going to go deeper into their challenges. It's not even just that you want your buyer to see challenges because some of our buyers aren't coming to us because they have a big roadblock. Right. Some service providers will serve people who are very resourced, but not in that particular area that you are. And so giving them space to be able to say, yeah, I'm really great at all these things, but I just need a little extra, I need your eyes on this part of my business or my life or whatever. I'm thinking about a stylist. So a business owner’s coming to a stylist because maybe they're ready for their photoshoot. They don't have a block. maybe they're having trouble with visibility or what do I wear? I don't have time to think about it. They may not have, or realize like this really in-depth block until the stylist starts saying what do you need from the clothes? What do you need for them to do for you? And so then the client goes, Hmm, what do I really need? What am I wanting my clothes to communicate on my behalf? And then that starts a really different conversation. Right? Diane: [00:08:25] Yeah, for sure. And I could see how that would work. Maybe in a design perspective as well. if you're having a full rebrand website done. I can remember getting asked questions about what should your logo say to the world? Me being like, I don't know. I just know I need one. And so it's almost like you're saying that intake form. It's almost like the client’s first mini win with you because even if they don't solve the problem, they now have moved from not knowing they had a problem to knowing they have a problem and have started thinking about it. Heidi: [00:08:55] Yes. They've started thinking about it. And they're also thinking about, am I ready? I'm just using your name. Cause you're here. Am I ready for Diane? Is now the right time for us? Is she asking the kinds of questions that I want her to be asking me? This is what I love about the potential for your intake form questions, your buyer should be going, Oh my goodness. I had a revelation and I haven't even met with Diane yet. Just based on how she's taking me through her intake process. Right. She's asked me the questions that I need to know. I hadn't even thought about the sequence in my business until Diane asks him this specific question. And so think about your niche. If you're a business owner, think about your niche. Think about what are the questions that my clients aren't asking and how can I really weave that information into my questions. So instead of asking super generic, tell me about your business, how long have you been doing this? What goals, challenges, timeline? All of those you can ask that of anybody walking down the street. If you have a clarified niche, you want to be asking questions from the perspective of your expertise. So that your client goes, okay, I'm not just working with a generic coach. I'm working with somebody who is a hormone expert or finance expert, Or a P and L expert. I don't know, like whatever, whatever the thing is Diane: [00:10:18] so I guess we're getting into a kind of open-ended question intake form where we're asking in-depth questions and we're letting them speak like a whole bunch. How do you deal with asking something like can this person afforded me or for an intake form do you still think we should have the ones that are like I'm prepared to invest 5k, 10k, or my revenue for the year was up to 50, up to a hundred. We all know this exactly what you're trying to like, can you afford me as the question? They seem like really generic and really just not particularly helpful unless you are saying, Hey, I only work with people who make over 500,000 for example. Heidi: [00:10:56] Yeah. so there's many different ways to handle that question in general. It really depends on this sounds like a vague answer, but if. It really does depend on the kind of business you have. what is your sales process look like? what did your client or potential client do before they even got to the intake form? let's just say your website headline is I only work with eight-figure entrepreneurs. That's going to quickly help people go, Oh, okay. If I'm not in that eight-figure category. I'm probably not going to be signing up for your intake form. Maybe I still will be. So that's what you can start to frame it, right? It's in other copy. It's in the intro to your intake form. You're asking questions that, really only an eight-figure business owner is going to be able to, to adequately answer. And when you see the answer as the business owner, you're going to identify this person is my ideal client. I think what's happening is they're having so many people sign up for their intake form questions that they're answering them. They're showing up for the call. They maybe aren't that great having a sales conversation. So they feel like they're getting a lot of tire kickers. When in fact, they're not able to read the room, essentially. They're not looking at the intake form answers with enough clarity and understanding about their ideal client. They can't recognize their ideal clients or when they're having that sales conversation, they're not asking the questions and helping the close along. This is why copying drives me absolutely batty because Diane can ask a question that if I copied would be absolutely insane because we've completely different businesses. if you're going to ask an investment question, just know that not the entire sale is not riding on it like I would say most of the internet assumes it is. And that really makes me crazy because I've had, you know, in my DMS on Instagram, I have high-income earners comment to me and say I don't care how much they tell me they're making, that's not a pre-qualifier for me, not everybody is going to prequalify based on money. Because I don't know what's in your pockets. I don't know what you value until we have a sales conversation and you tell, start telling me things. And I ask you questions that you go, Whoa, nobody's asked me that before. You're totally my coach. Diane: [00:13:13] I think it's also going back to that protective mechanism, I find in the entrepreneur space, everybody's super like, high vibe I love everyone. I want to serve everyone. And it makes people incredibly bad at having difficult conversations. So I come from a really long corporate background where You needed to learn how to say no to someone and make them feel good about it. And so I'm on a call with someone and five minutes and I'm like, oh, I'm not your person. it's easy for me to say, Hey, here are some resources. I really don't think that I'm a great fit and I don't want to waste your time. Whereas I know a lot of people will do the full call. so they've put up these barriers where they're now, I don't want to have those awkward conversations so let me block more people. Heidi: [00:14:03] When in my world, anyways, when you're screening someone for fit, you're asking strategic questions if you've been working with people long enough, you kind of have a sense for, okay. I work with people who are really good with, let's say you're delivering a program that is all in Google docs. Right? A lot of my work is in Google docs. I need to know that the person understands what Google docs is, can use it is willing to use it. so I want to ask questions that allow me to understand their level of tech-savvy, their level of time in business. You can and get very strategic and depending on again, depending on how you deliver your service you can reengineer your questions to help you understand if somebody answers. No, I don't know how to do blah, blah, blah, or it could even be a mindset thing that when you see it, it's a red flag for you that that's not a good fit person. Awesome. We want, we want to be able to ask those questions and know like I'm thinking about a business owner right now who told me that in their mastermind group. Their client said, Oh, I love such and such an influencer. And as soon as she heard them say that she went cold because she was really completely misaligned. if her client loved that influencer, she's thinking, how did she get into my mastermind group? and that person ended up exiting. So my job is to help you not get into that situation where you have to have someone exit and you've gone through all the onboarding and the investing in there, your time in them. Let's ask those questions upfront. Diane: [00:15:39] I know you always talk on your Instagram stories about a particular sales technique. Heidi: [00:15:45] Yeah. So BANT is the acronym and it's, the B is budget. can the person afford me? A is authority. Do they have the authority to make this buying decision? Do they need to talk to their spouse? Are there business partners involved? N is need. How badly do they need what I have to offer them? And then T is for timing, which kind of goes with need, right? How desperately do they need it and how soon can they. take advantage of my offer. And so it's interesting to me because BANT, I see it on, I dunno, I feel like 80% of the intake forms that I look at again, because I think a lot of people are copying, other people's intake, form questions, it's sort of industry standard. and then the other acronym that's come along after BANT that I haven't been talking about in my intake forms. That I will be talking about because I'm seeing a lot of it is the acronym is G P C T and it's goals, plans, challenges, and timeline, right? You're shaking your head like, Oh my gosh. I've seen this a thousand times. Diane: [00:16:51] Yeah, as you went through BANT, I was like, this is the question. And this is the question. I didn't even have to think about Oh, I wonder what that question would look like. I could word for word, put that in there. some of them are a bit like, prove to me you want me. And for me, that just puts me on the defensive. So I don't go into that sales call in a loving, Oh, let me go deep with you and tell you where all my dark secrets lie. I'm like, tell me how much, get me out of here. And then the problem is then I get in the program and I'm like, Oh, this is not a fit for me. Heidi: [00:17:22] Yeah. I mean, that just reveals what a huge gap most intake forms have in terms of, I want to see your style, your personality. There's two ways to do this. I've seen people who ask, what's your favorite brand of whiskey? Sure. That's maybe that's your taste. It's not actually going to help your client move further along in the buyer’s journey. if that's a part of your brand, I suppose, ask that question. but I really want to see your expertise. That's what I'm hiring. That's I'm putting down my hard-earned money for and to me, to most buyers, that's super important. How can I know that this person's the right person? And so when we're assuming that asking about somebody's goals what it does is it has people perform, I believe. As a buyer, they're performing for the seller so that they will get through to the next round. To me, it feels like The Bachelor, right? How can we prove to them in my audition that I am going to be the one that can win this thing? these ridiculous questions about like, how do you know I'm the right fit for you? Feels like a question where you're auditioning to prove that, Oh, I've been watching you for six years and I know that your favorite color is red. And I know that you like high achievers. It's like, really? Do we want parrots for clients? No. Diane: [00:18:38] I'm cringing as you're saying some of these things cause I think my worst ever intake form question was through all of them completely, completely BANT and my end “what's your favorite whiskey” one was on a scale from one to Chuck Norris, how amazing are you? You can't see Heidi she's attempting not to throw up all over her microphone at me admitting this. I want to be super clear that this was several years ago and it was very much a copy-paste in a particular program. Nobody's going to go, oh, I'm probably a two. I'm not even that into Chuck Norris. I couldn't even, I wasn't even original enough to come up with my own one to who kind of question. Heidi: [00:19:25] Yeah. there's so many, there's so many, different perspectives on what makes a business work. And I think, if somebody thinks having super, snappy copy is the answer to getting clients, then it's going to show up in their intake form. And they're going to ask ridiculous questions about Chuck Norris. So if you want your intake form to be fun, and also have your client learn more about the process. You can do that, but let's do it in a more emotionally intelligent way. And I really don't think that that's a high bar. However it, again, I think everyone's so busy that the intake form just is something everybody thinks they have to have, and they have a love, hate relationship with it because it doesn't always bring them the results they want. And, you know, that's a big part of my work on the internet right now is to try and show people. I really am trying to disrupt intake forms and their practices. I keep getting these awesome DMS where people are like, I can't look at an intake form the same way now. I'm judging everybody's intake forms because I've been watching your intake form review, which I love. I also had somebody dm me and say, I couldn't get through this, this awesome. It's somebody within very, knowable name they're known for this thing and the person that DMed me and said this person, you know them. And I said, yes, well, I couldn't get through their intake form because I've been watching you on reviews and they're making all of the mistakes that you're showing. And so I can't align myself with that regardless of how great their results are on the other side. Diane: [00:21:02] It's almost like a precursor to what the sales call is going to be like. And if that intake form is like, how much money do you make? How much can you spend? Will you sign? If we agree that you're a good fit we'll do you like promise to turn up on the call and with your credit card in hand and everything? So when I see that, then I know I'm in for a sales call where somebody is going to go hard at me about every single objection. everything's going to be a mindset block and I'm going to leave the call feeling like I need a shower really bad about myself. And if I'm in a down moment, they might actually get my credit card. So for me, when I see that as a, as a kind of intake, I'm like, no, Because I don't want to experience those 60 minutes. Heidi: [00:21:45] that's what I really hope that people take from this conversation is that your intake form is a reflection of how you offer your service and who you are and how much integrity you have, how you're going to treat your buyer and their money and their time. as a buyer is going through an intake form and feeling that way, that is a massive red flag to abort the mission and do not finish their intake process because that is really the beginning and the end of everything. the way you can be using your intake form as a sales tool, that's also human and also relational is to really look at your entire process. Look at how you sell. Look at your sales page. Look at your client delivery. Look at the people you've loved to work with. Diane: [00:22:32] I'm sure like a lot of people are going to be listening to this going. Hmm. Okay. Now I know my form’s rubbish. Now, what do I do? So where can they get some more intake form insights from you? Heidi: [00:22:46] Yeah. So go to my Instagram stories. Run, don't walk! Yeah, because I'm trying to decide how long I'm going to leave the highlights up there because literally people go through my highlights and they send me a message and say, I cannot believe the value you're delivering for free. So go to my Instagram bio, look at my highlights. There's, I can't tell you how many examples of all of the mistakes that I see that are happening. And then I also give examples of, instead of asking this generic question, ask this, I'm usually running my intake form reviews every Wednesday for free on Instagram stories. And then if that's not enough, you can go to my website and sign up for my newsletter and I will do a free review so there's lots of options to learn for free Diane: [00:23:33] those intake forms you and I started talking in the DMS because of them. They are super entertaining as well because once you get into it and you've watched a few of them, you know what's coming. I like to guess the person's business. I like to guess who taught them the thing. I like to guess what the correct question would be. So it's all just like a super fun game for me. As well as learning, obviously. Heidi: [00:23:55] the intake forms I use are real. they're screen grabs from Instagram or wherever else on the internet. And I never named names, never, ever, ever, will I name people. I don't feel like that's effective. That's not going to help anyone. My job isn't to take anyone down. It's the industry that I want to change, not one person. Right? So that's why I'm offering this part of my service for free because I want people to see the mistakes, the here's how we can do better. Diane: [00:24:22] Yes. Even if you join the newsletter and you decide to volunteer your intake form, you don't have to worry that anybody's going to ever know that it was your intake form. So even when I'm guessing to Heidi in the DMS, like I never get to find out who's form it is. So like even in private, she doesn't reveal it. And while she's doing it for free now is the time to like get in there, especially if you have any of those questions that have done little red flags for you in this conversation. This has been so much fun. This topic I'm kind of obsessed with it. so to finish up, I ask a couple of questions of all of my guests. So, first up, what is your number one lifestyle boundary for your business? What will you not give up for your business? Heidi: [00:24:59] I don't want to be available all the time. I won't give up all of my time for my clients. I know myself well enough that I know that there are certain times of the day where I need quiet, I need focus. I don't start client calls till a certain time of the day, because for me to be really effective, I have to be in touch with what's going on inside. So integrity, authenticity, those things. It's all tied in for me, with my boundaries around my time. Diane: [00:25:24] I love that. I think a lot of people will say to me time, but they mean like I will only work 40 hours a week. that's a really hard boundary, but I like that yours is also an energetic boundary. I'm kind of the same. I will generally not do client stuff on a Monday because I just know on a Monday I'm just that little bit slower, I need to get my brain in place. So usually unless it's something massive, I'll do it later in the week when I know I can show up in a different way. Heidi: [00:25:49] When you first, like were posing this question to me, I thought, well, I have seven pages of boundaries that my clients get. And usually, the people that are a great fit for me are like, I want to work with you just so I can see your boundaries. that's one of the ways I know I've a right fit client is that they really respect boundaries. Diane: [00:26:05] Do you like work that into your intake form? Do you promise to read, if I decide to make you a client, do you promise to read my seven pages? I feel like I've seen a version of that question a few times. Do you promise to show up to the call? I had that, but it was a full-on, like you had to type out the I promise to show up on time to the call ready and coachable or something like that. Something along those lines, which was of course a direct copy from someone else. But yeah. The really silly thing about that is I would just copy and paste it. If I see that on somebody, else's one, I don't type it I'd just copy and paste it zero effective. But I like the idea that you know, we put one on about boundaries. what's the worst piece of cookie-cutter advice you ever got as a lifestyle entrepreneur yourself? Heidi: [00:26:53] You know so much, but the funny thing is what came to my mind with this question is I had a coach, not that long ago, tell me that no one is going to buy into intake, form reviews. Like, why are you going down this road? Don't do this. And so to me that what they're saying is like, don't trust your intuition. don't do the thing that you think, you need to do. Listen to me. I think that's the piece of advice that drives me, really just batty is all of the providers who are basically saying, buy my blueprint, be like me. You're not going to be successful unless you do what I do. I think it's such a clever niche because everybody has one of these things. Nobody has taught anything other than copy-paste, these hideous questions, and everybody is moving into a much more. I think even as we come through COVID, she says optimistically, as we experienced this pandemic people are already becoming more like I want access to you. I want to know who you are. I want to know what you stand for. And so getting this jarring, how much money do you make? How much money are you prepared to give me? And are you prepared to give me your credit card on the phone, regardless of whether you have time to think about it? it's just not going to fly anymore. that's my hope. That's my hope is that you know, the more people that are getting this message out there, people will start to see through it. But, it's gonna take some time. The internet is so much about money. That seems to be the first and highest value. How much money are you making? Can you spray it around the internet? how can you work it into your copy? How can you hold people to it? How can you use it as a sales tactic? It's just, it's such a small piece of the entire pie. Diane: [00:28:33] well, this has been incredible. I feel very inspired to go and work on intake forms and to actually go back and watch all your stories and highlights again. Cause they're just so good. Thank you for sharing all of these strategies with us today. I assume that the best way for people to carry on the conversation with you is like we do, which is on Instagram. Heidi: [00:28:52] That's my place. Diane: [00:28:53] definitely go watch those stories. go join the newsletter, get your intake form done. Heidi: [00:28:58] just a quick note, my Instagram at name is at Heidi listening. It's not Heidi Taylor. It's Heidi listening. Diane: [00:29:06] I will make sure that's in the show notes for everyone as well, so they can find you. Awesome. Thank you so much. Heidi: [00:29:13] My pleasure. So wonderful to connect.


An intake form is a standard piece of the entrepreneur’s toolkit but few of us use them as effective selling tools.

Heidi walks you through how to transform your intake form from the protector of your time to a welcome mat at the door to your business.

Key Takeaway

Your intake form is a reflection you – it’s that first glimpse at who you are, how you treat your clients, and what your service will feel like

We talk about

  • Why your intake form could be doing you a disservice 
  • How to create an intake form that does the selling for you
  • The worst examples of questions Heidi’s seen (including mine!)
  • How to figure out the right questions for YOUR intake form
  • Heidi’s lifestyle boundary for her business
  • The worst cookie-cutter advice Heidi’s been given on her lifestyle business

About Heidi

Heidi Taylor is what happens when a sales coach collides with a life coach. Her style is relational. Her system is proprietary. And her approach is a yin yang of both kind and direct. Heidi's popular weekly Wednesday feature on Instagram stories called the Intake Form Review is a tutorial-style value-packed review of how to use your intake form as a sales tool.

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