115. You're Also Interviewing Them: 5 Discovery Call Questions They Won't Expect

I took on my last OBM client even though I saw red flags on the discovery call. I needed the income, so I dismissed the tingles and took her on anyway. It was not great. Not great at all.

Here's what nobody tells you about discovery calls: You're not a candidate hoping to get picked. You're a business owner deciding whether this is someone you want to work with. It's a two-way decision.

In this episode, I'm sharing five questions to ask on discovery calls that will reveal whether someone is actually a good fit, what red flags to watch for, and why the real solution isn't better questions, it's having a clear offer that pre-qualifies people before they even book the call.

Because when your offer is clear enough, you shift from "audition mode" to "vibe check mode."

⚡️ New free resource: 10-minute Scaled Chaos Assessment at dancingleafsolutions.com/chaos

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Andrea Elibero: Andrea here, your host and passionate business coach and scaling strategist for soulful service providers and coaches. Welcome to another episode of Solepreneur Scaling Stories. Have you ever wanted to look behind the curtain of your fellow entrepreneur's business to see what actually went into scaling it?

[00:00:22] Andrea Elibero: Well, you are in for a treat 'cause that's exactly what we are doing here. In each episode, we will be uncovering the truth of the lessons and the stories behind what it truly takes for sold entrepreneurs to scale their businesses intentionally. I'm hoping that their stories will help you to unlock the true potential of your business so you can create your own soulful, abundant, and aligned laptop lifestyle through intentional scaling.

[00:00:46] Andrea Elibero: So whether you're just starting out on your scaling journey or you're a seasoned entrepreneur seeking inspiration, this episode has something incredible in store for you. Are you ready to rise, grow, and create a business that fully supports your dream life? Well, let's dive in. [00:01:00] Before we begin, make sure to hit that subscribe buttons.

[00:01:03] Andrea Elibero: You never miss an empowering episode filled with real stories and soulful insights.

[00:01:10] Andrea Elibero: Welcome back to Solepreneur Scaling Stories. I am so excited today to dig into discovery calls, but not in the way that you might think. So we are not going to talk about handling objections. We are not going to talk about how to sell yourself. How to structure them, anything like that. I'm going to dive into something that actually means even more than any of that.

[00:01:35] Andrea Elibero: And how this came to me was that I often talk, when I talk with my clients, when I talk with my people who are doing free business audits, a lot of times they're working with clients who. They don't quite mesh with so well. And for instance, in my case, my last OBM client was the biggest example of this.

[00:01:57] Andrea Elibero: Uh, but she was somebody who I saw, you know, some [00:02:00] little tingles of things on the discovery call I took her on anyways, because let's face it, at that time I said, okay, I need the income. Let's try this out and. It was not great. Not great at all. And so I know that I am not alone in this because like I said, I have clients who come to me with similar things, similar stories where, you know, this one client in particular, she, she's not necessarily burnt out.

[00:02:25] Andrea Elibero: But she is dissatisfied, right? She doesn't love the clients that she's working with, some of them or the work that she's doing, so she's carrying this weight on her that doesn't need to be there. And it's interesting because when you go back, you say, oh yes, there were definitely signs on the discovery call that this is how it was going to be.

[00:02:43] Andrea Elibero: And she had noticed them, but kind of dismissed them because just like me at that time with my OBM client, she said, no, I need the money. I really want them to hire me. And so it'll be fine, but. It was not fine. Right. And so the thing is, is that this story [00:03:00] is not at all unusual. Um, again, it's happened to me more than once.

[00:03:04] Andrea Elibero: It's happened to probably every service provider that I know, and it's something that. People don't really dig into so much or talk about when people are teaching you or saying, okay, like, how do you do? How do you run your discovery call? So it's the best match possible. But before we get into it, I am so excited because I have a new free resource that I want to share with you.

[00:03:29] Andrea Elibero: It is a 10 minute super quick. Scaled Chaos assessment. It's in the show notes. It is@dancingleafsolutions.com slash chaos. It is a guide or an assessment that evaluates what growth phase you are and then which specific pattern? There are three, three patterns that I see constantly that. We need to break and what you can do like today to get you to that next level of growth.

[00:03:57] Andrea Elibero: So download that and let me know what comes up [00:04:00] for you. Okay, so now let's jump back into discovery calls. So every piece of advice that you are going to find about discovery calls is about how to show up for them, right? For your potential client, how do you answer their. Questions. How do you handle objections?

[00:04:15] Andrea Elibero: How do you close them? You know, and how do you not sound so desperate? How do you sound confident? How do you nail your pitch, et cetera, et cetera. Obviously, all of this matters, but it's truly only half of the conversation because you also have a business. You are also interviewing them, and I know it might feel a little bit odd at times because you're like, no, like I need clients, but.

[00:04:41] Andrea Elibero: When you take up all of your space with clients who are not good fits, you're not growing your business, right? You're actually just pausing it. You're not letting yourself grow. Because inevitably what happens with these clients, like I mentioned before, was that, is that you. Are not gonna be working with [00:05:00] them for very long.

[00:05:00] Andrea Elibero: So it doesn't help you to grow your business. When you take on these clients that are not aligned with how you work with what you do, then it's going to not be a successful partnership. So you're not going to get the reviews that you want, the testimonials or the referrals that you're looking for.

[00:05:18] Andrea Elibero: You're not gonna be doing work that you love and you're not gonna be doing it with people that you wanna be doing it with. So you're causing yourself to stay at. This same level or lower than you're at, right? When you're taking on these people. So if you kind of switch how you're thinking about this, it's when you say no to these unaligned clients, then you are opening up space for these amazing clients who want to pay you, who want to work with you, who are going to refer you, right?

[00:05:44] Andrea Elibero: For all of that. And so, okay, so now let's get back to, okay, like how do we interview them? What do we actually do? So you are not a candidate who's hoping to get picked. So please, if this is your mindset, please look into that, right? You are a [00:06:00] business owner. You are deciding also whether or not this is somebody that you want to work with.

[00:06:06] Andrea Elibero: It is a two-way decision, and so when you start treating it like a two-way decision. And not just intellectually, but really embodying that and genuinely operating from that place. Then how you show up also changes. Right? Now you're in charge. Now you automatically have more confidence. Right now you automatically are like, oh wait, yeah, I can do the work you want, but like, do I want to do it for you?

[00:06:31] Andrea Elibero: Right? Like that's really cool. That's a cool shift to have. And if you're thinking like, okay, like that's easy to say, but I need clients and can't afford to be picky again. I hear that. I really, really, really do. And in addition to what I said earlier, another reason that you might feel like you can't afford to be picky is because.

[00:06:54] Andrea Elibero: You're not attracting the right clients, and why are you not attracting the right clients? Because your [00:07:00] offer is really vague. You're not entirely sure of who you want to be working with or what exactly it is that you know. You know what you do, but you don't know how to word it. You don't know how to actually attract those people.

[00:07:13] Andrea Elibero: You know, you might be trying to serve everybody. Because you just need to fill up your books, quote unquote, right? You wanna book these calls, and when you are operating under that space, then you are actually putting so much more pressure on the call itself, on the discovery call. Because now, right?

[00:07:32] Andrea Elibero: You're like, okay, like you have a vague offer. You work with kind of a vague, ideal client. And so now it's like, oh, I really have to sell myself, right? Because you honestly sound like everybody else, right? So how can you differentiate yourself, and that's what you do on the discovery call, right? But what if you are able to actually talk about your offer in a way that is so clear that they, the person who books [00:08:00] the call already knows like, oh.

[00:08:01] Andrea Elibero: This is for me, right? Like, oh yes. And like you are, they're already kind of pre, they're filtering themselves out. So now the call is so much easier to do at the end, right? So then it's not so high stakes because now you can't filter out somebody when you don't have a clear picture of, right. If like, if you don't know what right fit means, then you can't even do that.

[00:08:21] Andrea Elibero: Right? But I'll come back to that. what I just said is actually the biggest piece of hope, the whole thing. But first, I wanna give you some practical things that you can do right now, like today on your next discovery call. So the first question, and these are questions to ask them, and when you ask them these questions.

[00:08:38] Andrea Elibero: It. One shows that you are experienced, that you're discerning, and that you're the boss, right? And they're like, oh, this person knows what they're doing. Right? That you're more like leading. You have questions to ask them. So, and then in the answers that they give you to these three questions, it's not about if they're perfect or not, [00:09:00] right?

[00:09:00] Andrea Elibero: It is about noticing the patterns and if it's aligned with something that you want to be doing. So now here is question one. Have you worked with contractors or done for your service providers in the past? Now they're gonna tell you yes or no, and then kind of maybe get into it a little bit. So now here what you're listening for is to whether they can talk about those relationships, how they describe them, and if they take any accountability.

[00:09:29] Andrea Elibero: In them? Is there any self-awareness on their end? Or did they say things like, oh, like it hasn't worked out and I've never hired a good person. Right, like that, that's a red flag answer. Like, oh, you've gone through a number of people just like me, and you're not able to hold onto anybody. Like that's a little strange, right?

[00:09:46] Andrea Elibero: Like, what's going on here? So if they have this entire history and a long list of disappointments, that is our, that's data, right? Because the only thing all of those relationships have had in common is them. But if they're [00:10:00] able to answer that question, like, oh yeah, I've had somebody on my team for four years and they're leaving, like, okay.

[00:10:05] Andrea Elibero: Like, you know, so that makes you feel a little bit more like, okay. Right. So just things, again, no right answer, but things to look for. Now, the second question that I love is how do you prefer to communicate with your team? How do you communicate day to day? And so what you're looking for here is whether their answer matches how you like to work.

[00:10:26] Andrea Elibero: So if somebody is like, oh, like if something comes up, oh, like let's hop on a quick call for a few minutes, right? It is like, okay. Are you not? Like, are we're really gonna hop on calls? Is that something that you want to do? Right? Like, maybe they don't understand async communication. Maybe they don't even know that Slack exists.

[00:10:42] Andrea Elibero: Right? But like, are they malleable to that? Are they opened, right? If somebody's like, oh, I have a standard meeting every two weeks. That's how I like to operate. Okay. Like. Does that match you? Right? Or like, okay. No, I like to to WhatsApp message all my people. Like, okay, does that match what you like to do?

[00:10:59] Andrea Elibero: Right? So [00:11:00] it's more about like, how does it match how you like to work? Are they going to send 15 messages in the morning and expect you to get all of these things done? Same day? I once had a client who said like, no, like when I wake up I like to like, put things all into email, but I don't expect you to do them.

[00:11:17] Andrea Elibero: Uh, but I just need to get it out of my head. And so these are really good follow up questions, right? Like, okay, so if you send all of these, what's your expectation? You know, and, and things like that, right? So again, it's all about the match between how they communicate and how you like to work. And that's really important to know because as you know, there's such a variety in terms of communication and it can make such a difference in your working environment.

[00:11:45] Andrea Elibero: Oh, I lied. There's, there's five questions. Oh my goodness. Okay. I said three. There's five questions. Okay. So the third question is, what does handing something off look like to you? Ah, and this can be really big, especially for [00:12:00] OPMs, right? Because a lot of clients believe that they really want to delegate, but they have a hard time doing so and like truly, truly letting go.

[00:12:09] Andrea Elibero: So are they going to trust you to do the job? Are they going to be micromanaging you at every step? And you can kind of hear it in their answers, you know, if there's like, well, I like to be copied on everything. I wanna sign off before each step, like things like that. Then if that's not your working style, that gives you a.

[00:12:25] Andrea Elibero: You know, a good idea of what it's like to work with them. If you need the autonomy, you want the autonomy that might not be the best fit client for you. And then vice versa, right? If they're like, like, okay, they have a process, or they're chill about it, or maybe if they are worried about it, but you can dive into that deeper and tell them how you like to work and then see how they respond.

[00:12:45] Andrea Elibero: It's all about knowing, you know, the expectations upfront and how they are upfront, and then seeing how take it from there. Okay. Question number four. What happens when something urgent comes up on your end? Now you're gauging [00:13:00] whether they have realistic expectations about what urgent really means and whether they respect that you have other clients, that you have a life, that you have a schedule.

[00:13:10] Andrea Elibero: You know, if they really, really are like, no, I want things handled same day. If they're willing to text you at 9:00 PM or on a Friday and expect you to get it done right, like maybe this is normal for them, but you need to see like, how do they operate? How is their business set up? And then lastly, have you ever had to part ways with a VA or whoever, OBMA done for you person?

[00:13:32] Andrea Elibero: And what happened? And again, this one is really revealing, right? Because they can be mature. Oh, it just wasn't the right fit. And it also tells like, maybe it wasn't like maybe really terrible things happened, but if, if they're sharing all of the details, then that's also a sign of how they might talk about you in the future, right?

[00:13:48] Andrea Elibero: So are they spilling all the tea? Are, are they. Talking about it in a mature manner. Are they talking about it like it was a betrayal? You know, like, like pay attention to the [00:14:00] emotional charge around the story that they're telling, because then you know what you're walking into. And so with all of these five questions, again, we're not looking for perfect answers.

[00:14:10] Andrea Elibero: You're looking for self-awareness. You're working, looking for working style, and are these things that align with how you like to work. And because you can have this amazing person, this amazing client, you know, and at the same time. It can be somebody that you don't really work well with. This has happened to me too.

[00:14:31] Andrea Elibero: I've had clients that I've really liked, but their working style does not match mine. And so it's really important to know these things from the get go. And so, for instance, I had a client in expansion, which is my one-on-one coaching program for VAs and oms, um, who. Started asking some of these questions in her discovery calls, and she had actually turned a client down.

[00:14:58] Andrea Elibero: And because [00:15:00] it was not a match on the discovery call, and so she felt a little bit like awkward afterwards, right? She felt like, oh, like did I do a, did I make a mistake or did I do this wrong thing? And then she was like, she sat with it for a little bit and was like, oh, damn. Like I turned somebody down.

[00:15:18] Andrea Elibero: I am A CEO. I'm a business owner now because not everybody, I'm not just a person who just does things for people, right? And she then was really proud of herself that she was like, this wasn't a good fit. It wouldn't have worked out well. And then she was like, I got to turn them down. And that benefited both of us.

[00:15:36] Andrea Elibero: And so that's a shift that I invite you to take as well, to step into that. And it connects again, like this shift and really connects all to what I was saying earlier about the real root of this problem. So here is the thing that in addition to these questions, I really, really invite you to sit with this because.

[00:15:57] Andrea Elibero: This client that I told you about, right? This was before she [00:16:00] had truly developed her core offer, her really, really clear offer that has a framework that she was, you know, then after that, this wasn't a problem anymore, but at that time, at the beginning of working together, she didn't have this clear offer.

[00:16:15] Andrea Elibero: And then afterwards she did, and guess what the difference was? When your offer is clear, when you know exactly what you do, exactly, who it's for and what the process looks like, you know what kind of client gets results from working with you. Then when you're talking about that information, when you have it on your web.

[00:16:34] Andrea Elibero: Site when you know it's all out there and wrapped up so nicely. Now you are pre-qualifying everybody and you have a much higher chance of the right fit person even getting on a discovery call with you, your content, your messaging, your offer is doing the work for you. And all of that is signaling really clearly enough that the wrong fit people select themselves out before they even make it to [00:17:00] the call.

[00:17:01] Andrea Elibero: And so that means now on your discovery call, you're not in audition mode, you are in vibe check mode. Now it's just like, okay, like let's just make sure that this will be a good fit. So like how amazing would that feel? You know, it would feel so, so cool. So the question is, no longer will they choose me, it becomes then do I want to work with them?

[00:17:22] Andrea Elibero: And these are such different conversations. They're such different levels of confidence. They're such different vibes when you're on these calls and the difference in how you feel. It shines through and then it influences your probability of them wanting to work with you. And so again, this is what I worked with with that client that I mentioned, right?

[00:17:43] Andrea Elibero: We built out her clear framework around her core offer, got really specific, really tightened up the language about how she talked about what she did. And then within a couple of months, the quality of the people booking these discovery calls completely shifted. And now she was like, oh, I look forward to these [00:18:00] calls and now like.

[00:18:01] Andrea Elibero: 90% of the people who get on calls with her are ones who are like amazing clients. They're such good fit clients, and that is not a small thing at all. And so when you're in that place, when you're using these questions. That I shared earlier, right? This all becomes so much easier, right? You're not desperate for a yes anymore.

[00:18:21] Andrea Elibero: You can see the red flag waving from miles, miles away. You know, you have a clear framework to filter against it, and you know exactly what a good fit client looks like, so you can spot them. Right away. And now that's the full picture of how to really have amazing, amazing discovery calls. And so I'm so curious, which of the questions that I shared earlier of the five questions was really interesting to you?

[00:18:46] Andrea Elibero: Like, oh, I need to use that one. Did any of them make you think and be like, oh, like I've never asked that before. And do you have a clear enough picture of your ideal client and your offer that then you could filter these people out and not even necessarily have to use these [00:19:00] questions? Because if you're not sure, and if you're wondering whether your offer is clear enough, whether your positioning is attracting the right people and whether there's a better way, then I have a limited number of free business audits that I do each month.

[00:19:15] Andrea Elibero: So it's a 45 minute conversation where we look at your current setup, your offers, your clients, and figure out what is keeping you stuck, plateaued at this level. And what specifically you need to shift. And so you're going to get real clarity, real action steps, not like some vague, like whatever, you know, advice.

[00:19:32] Andrea Elibero: Uh, well, we'll see. You know, is it a positioning problem? Is it an offer problem? Is it a mindset problem? Is it all three? Like, what is going on? So please take a look. You can book one of these calls. Um, the link is below. It is at density. Leaf solutions.com/audit. Again, it's linked below. And again, I only have a few number of spots per month.

[00:19:53] Andrea Elibero: And so if you are thinking about doing this, like don't sit on it 'cause I want you to get in there. And so with that, that is [00:20:00] all that I have for you today. please connect with me. you can text me actually through here, but please let me know where your Instagram handle is or whatever. So I can, you know, write you back and let me know which question you are going to start using.

[00:20:14] Andrea Elibero: And with that, I will see you guys on the next one. 

[00:20:17] Andrea Elibero: Thank you so much for joining us today. I really hope you found inspiration and insights from today's episode. You know, scaling your business intentionally and from the inside out is a transformational process, but I'm here to support you every step of the way. Head on over to dancing leaf solutions.com/resources for free tools to help you do just that.

[00:20:42] Andrea Elibero: And thank you again for being a part of the Solepreneur Scaling Stories community. Your presence and dedication to growth inspiring me every day.