How To Win New Clients With the Magic Wand Question
One set of words that makes a potential client more open to working with you
One set of words that makes a potential client more open to working with you
When you meet a potential client, they have something they want to achieve and they think you may be able to help them. But if you ask for their goals, sometimes they only say what they think is possible, not what they truly want.
This keeps you from tapping into their most important desires and kills your chance at making a sale. So how do we get them to reveal their biggest dreams? One solution is to ask the magic wand question.
What Is the Magic Wand Question?
It is a question that gets your prospect to go beyond what they think they should want or what is possible and tap into what they truly yearn for.
The question is: “If we had a realistic magic wand, what would you like to see in your life/business in the next six months to a year?”
The magic wand question is quite simple on the surface but it is designed specifically to tap into a client’s achievable dreams. That’s why we say “If we had a realistic magic wand” so they think of what is possible in the real world, not money falling from the sky. And we ask them to look ahead six months to a year so that they get beyond the nitty-gritty day-to-day details which are quite limiting and feel free to aim for something higher.
In fact, part of the power of this question is they will describe a goal that’s big enough that they don’t know how to achieve it. That’s what they need you for.
As you listen to their answers and validate their dreams, the client bonds with you. They get the sense that you will support those dreams as well. They are getting to know you as someone who helps them tap into the best of themselves. They see you differently than those with whom they only have ordinary conversations each day. They might start seeing you as someone they need in their corner.
How Do You Use the Magic Wand Question To Help Your Client Sign Up With You?
First, I suggest asking this question in the context of a discovery call, a call coaches and consultants have with prospective clients to see if they are a fit. That way you can legitimately follow up with an offer at the end of the call.
Second, follow up with: “If that happened in a way that’s right for you, what would that do for you?”
Third, ask the second question more than once until you get to an answer that feels like you hit the emotional core behind what they want.
In one discovery call, I met with Martin. When I asked him the magic wand question, he said his goal was to leave his job within the next year. Then I asked what that would do for him.
He said: “It will allow me to start a business that’s more in line with my beliefs.”
I then asked what that would do for him.
He said: “I’d feel like I was living with integrity — that what I did and who I was are in sync.”
As he said this, I could tell he’d hit something very valid for him. His eyes teared up. He shared that he’d been doing work he didn’t fully believe in for years and wanted to stop. He hadn’t got in touch with it as a positive desire before. He was all about escape. Now he could see that there was a positive force behind his need to leave his job.
This moment was a turning point that allowed him to start making realistic plans for a goal he’d been meaning to achieve for over a decade.
A Common Mistake When Deploying the Magic Wand Question Is To Use Too Short a Time Frame
A coach who sells a two-month program might think it makes sense to ask the client what he or she wants to achieve in eight weeks. This might seem to make sense but it can be a problem.
If you ask about hopes and dreams for such a short period, you’ll get something much smaller and weaker. But if you ask about a year, people start to dream much more. You tap into much higher aspirations that are still achievable.
Is this question manipulative?
According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary manipulation is “to control or play upon by unfair, or insidious means.”
So as long as you ask this question honestly, not as some kind of trick, but as a way to discover your potential client’s highest aspirations so you can help them achieve them, you are not being manipulative.
Summary
The magic wand question helps you access your client’s realistic dreams.
Its power is in that it gets the client to reach for something achievable but still beyond their current knowledge and abilities. Therefore they will require your help to reach it.
It’s important to follow up this question with “what would that do for you?” a few times until you hit the emotional core behind what they want.
Keep in mind that this question is honest only as long as you really intend to help your potential client achieve their dreams.
Use the magic wand question early in your discovery calls with clients, you’ll find it makes a world of difference to them and that it gets the relationship started from a place of enthusiasm and energy.