Today, we’re talking about calling subcontractors for legal middleman projects, and in this post, you’re going to learn about the very effective Discovery Call structure that maximizes your time invested.
I recommend that you think of your first phone call to a sub as a Discovery Call. A Discovery Call is predominantly defined as the asking of questions to uncover a solution to a “discovered” problem. It can protect you from yourself, and it can protect you by revealing red flags to look out for.
In a Discovery Call, you have the power. You’re not desperate for a quote. You’re curious. You’re interested to learn how this would benefit the subcontractor, and to learn if they see it the same way as you. If so, then maybe you have a partner. But you have to give it a fair shake with some real questions, beyond “do you want to quote this job”?
General questions to ask during a Discovery Call that can be effective include “what does your current customer base look like”, “how long is a typical contract for you in the commercial space?”, “have you ever performed on a government site?”, and “do you have any customers you would fire and why?”. These answers will really help you understand the inner workings and motivations of their business.
And for those of you who find yourselves hearing “no” a lot of the times when you ask if a subcontractor is interested in quoting a job. A lot of those “no’s” are really them telling you they don’t see the value in it for “them”. Structuring a Discovery Call bakes in questions that will hopefully align with some of the subcontractor’s pain points, and by the end of the call, the sub should be asking you how they can quote the job.
The Discovery Call can also identify potential red flags for teaming partners that you do not want to work with. Red flags can be a subcontractor who’s been burnt in the past by another prime contractor and has now become cynical. This partner could drag their feet the entire way to make you pay for the errors of another. Or you may find a potential partner who says all the right things and convinces you on their interest, but when it comes to actually providing you with the proposal information you need within the deadlines that you need it, they are proven to be unreliable.
The goal here is to elevate your approach to calling subcontractors to one that is more discovery in nature. Think of a traditional visit of going to the Dr when something ails you. She listens to your symptoms first. And then she recommends her treatment based one what she’s heard. If she just started writing prescriptions without even listening to you…well that’s a topic for another day.
If you need help working on your Discovery Call, our products at legalmiddleman.com can you help with this and a lot more. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you in the next one.