12 Question Framework to Rock The Enrollment Conversation: Worksheet
Let’s imagine you’re on the phone right now, or you’re sitting with some-body, and you’re about to start the enrollment conversation with them. Where do you start? How do you begin?
First, it’s important to reinforce or state why you’re there.
You might say something like:
« Hey, thanks so much for joining me for today’s conversation. Here’s what I’d like to accomplish in our conversation today. Number one is I’d like to help you crystallize your vision of the future.”
Now, for me, I say: « Number one, I’d like to help you really crystallize your life story and your message in today’s call. »
If you’re in the health business, maybe it’s crystallizing their health plan. If you’re in the financial, maybe it’s crystallizing their financial plan.
« Number two, I want to talk to you about the biggest challenge that’s pre-venting you from doing X.”
I might say, “…preventing you from getting your life story and message to millions,” and for you it could be what’s preventing you from having better health, preventing you from making more money, or preventing you from building the business you’ve desired.
« Number three, we’re going to create a plan and path together on how to accomplish X. We’re going to create a plan and path together on how to ac-complish spreading your life story and message to millions. »
Now you’ve stated what it is you’re going to do so your client knows what to expect: #1, crystallize the vision, #2, the big challenge that’s stopping them, #3 creating a plan and path to get there.

Question #1: « What inspired you to show up and have this conversa-tion with me? »
I like this question because it’s a light game starter and allows someone to tell me what inspired them to be here. Their answer will tell me why they’re here. It tells me how serious they are. It gives me a little insight about them.
Question #2: « If you could create anything for your future in the next year, what is it that you’d like to create for yourself personally, profes-sionally and financially? »
With this question, I ultimately want to get into their vision.
I’m giving them specific categories of professionally, personally and finan-cially so as they start thinking about their vision and what they want to cre-ate there are some categories to get them focused in.
There’s times where I’ve asked « What’s your vision for your life? » That question is too general. It’s a big question. A lot of people don’t have a vi-sion.
If I get more specific and ask: « What would you like to create for yourself in the next year personally, professionally and financially? » I tend to get more specific answers from people as they start to talk. It opens the conversa-tion.
I recommend you use the same phrasing. When somebody is thinking about, « If I could create anything, if I could have anything, what
would it be? », it helps them activate their imagination, their vision, and their dreams. This question sets the foundation for what we’re really going to dive into in this meeting.
They tell me a little bit about it. They give me a general canvas or platform of what they’re envisioning for their life and what they want to create.

Question #3: « Let’s get specific on what would you like to see. What’s most important for you to accomplish in the next year personally, pro-fessionally and financially? What’s most important for you? »
I want to know what they’re excited about.
Here’s the psychology of this: I want to get into their most important goal because if I can get somebody clear on the thing that’s most important to them, and we have an agreement that this is the most important thing for them, when it comes to enrolling them at the end of this conversation, they’re saying yes to what’s most important to them.
That’s really important for this conversation because now it’s no longer about my program, but it’s about their most important goal and what they really want for their life.
I ask about the same categories I asked about in the previous question, and I go through each of them. I’ll ask: « What’s most important for you per-sonally? » I’ll listen to that. « What’s most important for you professionally? » I’ll listen to that. « What’s most important for you financially? » I’ll listen to that.
When I get into their financial goals, I get into detail:
> « Tell me about your financial goals. Where are you currently finan-cially? »
> “Have you invested in yourself before? »
> « What’s your income? »
> « What would you like your income to be in the next year?” I’m getting an idea and understanding their financial goal, so when I get to the end of our conversation and I’m about to go into one of my programs, I know which programs are a fit to present to them be-cause I know where they are financially.

Early on in the conversation, you want to find out and calibrate where somebody is financially.
> Then finally, sometimes I’ll throw in: « From a contribution standpoint, what’s the most important contribution you want to make maybe to your family, or to your groups, or to society the next year? »
That question gets them a little bit out of themselves and I ask it because, for me, I think that coaches, speakers also have a social responsibility, and they have a responsibility to help mankind. That’s a bigger vision that one would hold for themselves. I want to see where they are in their contribution goals to the world.
When I’ve got their personal, professional, financial and contribution goals, I then zero in. I follow up with this:
« Tell me, what’s the most important goal out of your personal, profes-sional and financial goals that you just shared with me? »
I’m getting really clear on what’s most important to them, because that’s su-per important to the conversation.
I might go as far as to ask: « What’s the second most important thing? What’s the third most important thing? »
If I have their top goal, I’m golden. If I have all three, I’m triple golden. I’m getting clear on what’s most important to them.
At the end of this question, I should have established what’s most im-portant, which sets up the enrollment at the end.
Why do you need to ask about all these different areas of their lives?
I’ve had chiropractor clients who have said to me: « Ted, my clients are coming in to fix their back pain, or they’re coming in to fix their body. I’m not going to ask them about their finances, and their personal life, and profes-sional life and all that stuff because it’s not relative to them. »

I always say, « Well, that’s exactly the problem. That’s probably why you’re having a problem enrolling clients. It’s probably why you’re having a prob-lem getting paid what’s your worth. It’s probably why you’re not great in en-rollment, because you’re looking at what you do in an isolated case. »
If I look at a chiropractor, and I go, « The chiropractor just helps me solve my back pain or my back issues. » That’s one outcome. I’ll pay X for an out-come. I’ll pay maybe a hundred dollars for one outcome.
But what if that outcome of freeing up my back pain is related to my life in a wider context?
For example, I used to have back pain when I played tennis in college. If my back pain was relieved, that meant everything to me because it gave me the freedom to pursue my ambition of playing tennis. My back pain was related to my life. It was related to what was important to me personally.
It was also related to my professional goals because, for me, I viewed ten-nis as a career when I was in college. It was something very important to me.
It also related to me financially. I wasn’t playing professionally, so I wasn’t making money from playing tennis. If I had a bad back, I couldn’t go wait ta-bles when I was in college, so I would lose money.
So now, answer me the question: does somebody’s back pain spill over to every area of their life? The answer is yes.
How can you separate that one thing you’re working on with an individual from every other area in their life? You can’t. One thing that relates to somebody’s life, relates to every other thing.
That’s where I find most people get short-sighted is they only look at one outcome. Here’s how you can work through finding multiple outcomes?
« If somebody’s back pain goes away, what would happen then? » « I would have the ability to exercise again. »

« If you had an ability to exercise again, what would happen then? » « I would feel more vitality in my life. »
« If you have more vitality, what would happen then? » « I’d have more energy. » « If you have more energy, what would happen then? » « Well, I feel like I could do a lot of stuff. »
« If you could do a lot of stuff, what would you do? » « Well, I would go travel more. »
« If you travel more, what would that mean to you? » « Well, I’d be free and feel free and be fulfilled. »
« If you’re fulfilled, what would that mean to you? » « It’d open up more opportunities for me to go do things that I want. »
« What else would you want to do? »
I can take one thing and I can relate it to a person’s entire life. Ultimately, I could swing that back to all of their professional goals, financial goals, eve-rything.
Even if they didn’t bring up money, I’d say: « Tell me something. You have a job. If your back pain is gone, in your job, you have more energy, what does that mean? » « It means I’d be more productive. » « If you’re more pro-ductive, does that give you an opportunity to give you more promotions? » « Yeah. » If you got promoted, would you make more money? » They go, « Yeah. »
« Ultimately, improving your health and your back would help you make more money. Is that true? » « Yes. »
What I’m doing is I’m finding out and looking at somebody’s situation in any practice. You take back pain and I’ve turned it into a financial result. You take back pain and I’ve turned it into a lifestyle. You take back pain, I’ve turned it into more freedom.

Where you might be falling short is not probing enough to find out what somebody really wants for their life. That’s the purpose of asking what they want personally, professionally and financially.
Question #4: « Tell me why that’s the most important? »
What I’m doing here is I’m fueling the energy behind the goal by getting to the real meaning.
For example, if somebody says to me, « Why is that the most important that you go play tennis? »
I say: « Well, I’ve worked really hard to play at the collegiate level and be here. My coach told me years ago that I should try out for the team. Now, I’m actually starting on the team. It was a dream for me to be starting with all these amazing people that are on scholarship and some of these guys that were professional players. What it means to me is playing with the best of the best. I’ve always dreamed that for myself. »
Now, you know my goal and now you know why it’s important. Now, you’ve got something personal for me and now you also have my belief systems of what I believe about life.
I listen to what people say, and I will utilize their words when it comes time to enroll. If they say something about their beliefs like “I want to play with the best”, when it comes time to enroll them and they don’t want to make a decision to be the best, even though they say they believe that they should be with the best, there’s a conflict right there.
In their answers to my questions, I’m looking for the words they use when they talk about what they believe and what they want for themselves. Then at the end, I’m looking for the sabotaging underlying belief that creates con-flict and can prevent them from having their dreams. I’m trying to eradicate the underlying conflicting belief and enforce or reinforce the positive em-powering belief that they have.
Example:

Let’s say you’re a financial adviser and somebody tells you, « I want to have a million dollars in retirement. »
You ask: « Great. Why is that so important? »
The client says: « The truth is I’ve always felt scarce with money. I’ve always felt like I never deserved to have money. I’ve always felt like money wasn’t abundant. For me, to have that, it would mean that, one, I have a nest egg there. Two, I want to have an abundance of money there. I also want to be able to enjoy my retirement years and, at the same time, I also don’t feel I’ll ever retire. Having lots of money will just fuel more of my dreams. »
Now, what does that tell you? It tells you their beliefs about what money is there for and it tells you about their belief about retirement. They’re saying, « I don’t really believe in retirement. I believe that money is there to fuel my dreams. »
It’s telling you their underlying purpose behind why having a million dollars is important to them personally.
Right here we’re accessing belief systems. These can fuel us to uncover past beliefs that have held them back from achieving this goal, like scarcity, but we can also uncover things that they want and empowering beliefs they hold. We can also see if they’ve got a conflict here and if they do, you can work on eradicating the underlying sabotaging belief.
Question #5: « What is stopping you from having this number one goal? »
What we discovered with the example of getting rid of back pain, the num-ber one goal was not really getting rid of the back pain. That was the ur-gency or necessity goal. The number goal was really to get back to playing tennis or get back to feeling like they can be the best.
We’re going from the surface level of a million bucks to what’s really under-neath it. You have to connect the surface level goal with the driver beneath it.

The person who wants to make a million, their number one goal is not the money, it’s funding their dreams. Healing my back means playing collegiate tennis with the best of the best. When you connect the surface goal with the underlying dream they really want, that’s powerful.
Now you want to know: « What’s stopping you from having it? »
Ultimately, what’s stopping them is some type of belief that they have or lack of knowing how to go get it. We want to uncover that.
« What’s stopping you from going out and having the million dollars to fund your dreams? »
« What’s stopping me is being around the right people. » « What do you mean? »
« Finding somebody who I trust that can help me manage my money and knowing that they actually know what it is they’re doing. »
They’re giving you something really good here. They want somebody they can trust to manage their money. They’re telling you they are looking for an adviser, so we’ve uncovered that.
Then you keep asking them, « What else? What else is stopping you from this? »
They go, « Well, my commitment to putting money away and saving money, I just feel like because I’m using it to fuel the things that I want right now, I don’t feel like I can part with putting money away and saving it. I just have-n’t committed to a plan of doing it. »
Now, we’ve got an element of fear to put money away. (I know all these be-cause I used to be a financial adviser, asking these questions all the time.)
« What else is stopping you? »
« My fear that I could go make more money. I’ve got a little bit of fear around that. I’ve never made a whole lot of money. »

Now, you’ve got another fear of somebody not making a lot of money and feeling like they can’t generate something.
We’re getting tangible things (“I need an adviser”) but we’re also getting into intangible things (fear, limiting belief system).
My strategy now will address each of these things – for example, I would be helping them create a plan they can commit to and also helping them believe in the fact that they can go generate more money.
Question #6: « What would it mean to you to solve this challenge? »
This is a big question, because now we’re getting personal.
Let’s say somebody says: « Well, I’ve been suffering with this money belief my whole life. To actually commit to something, and stick to it, and have somebody holding my hand to do it and feel like I have support and a part-nership, it would mean everything for me to have this solved. »
I’d respond: « When you say everything, what do you mean? » I will ask probing questions to encourage the client to get specific.
« Well, I think so much of life has to do with money. Funding dreams has to do with money. Feeling secure has to do with money. Taking care of family has to do with money. It’s a big part of today. »
Now I’m getting to deeper layers of what their most important goal really means to them – family is something important.
I’ll probe a little bit more: « Tell me a little bit about what it would mean to you to do this for your family? »
I’ll listen carefully to the answer because when it comes to the enrollment conversation and I talk about them stepping in to make a decision about the future, I’m going to use what they tell me about their family.
« Well, I just want to be a role model for my kids. »

« Do you feel like you’re being a role model financially for them in all areas of your life right now? »
« Not fully. »
« Great. This would really mean you’re stepping up and being a good exam-ple. What does it mean to you be a good example? »
« It would mean the world to me to know that I’m living my truth, and I’m standing by what I truly believe and what I want to believe in my life, of do-ing this for my kids. »
« That’s great. I’m really excited for you. I want to help you do that. »
Notice how my responses all validate what they want. My job here is to help them get what they want.
Question #7: “On a scale of one to 10, how committed are you to solv-ing this challenge?”
I want to see where somebody’s level of commitment is.
« 1 means you’re not committed at all. It’s really not important to you, which I don’t think you’d be here if you’re at a one. 10 means you’re fully commit-ted. You’re ready to step in and go do this thing. How committed are you to solving this challenge? »
I haven’t asked: « How committed are you to joining my program? » That’s not relevant right now. I just need to know are they committed to solving the challenge.
Most of the time, somebody will say: « I’m a nine. »
Question #8: “What’s stopping you from being at a 10?”
I’ve done this enough to know when somebody says, « I’m a nine, » they’re really a six or a seven. It’s like pulling teeth to get them to step them into their vision or their dreams.

I don’t want to get into a conversation and start talking about: « How I can serve you in doing this if you’re not committed to your own vision, your dreams? »
I want to know: « What’s stopping you from getting to a 10? I want to hear that.”
They’ll tell me something like: « What’s stopping me is that I’ve never done this before and I don’t know how. »
Then I can handle it. I’ll respond:
« Assuming you know how – because I’m going to share with you how – as-suming you knew how to do it, would you be at a 10? »
They go, « Yeah. I think I’d be at a 10 then. » Then I probe further.
Question #9: « What it’s going to take to get you to a 10? »
If somebody says « I’m at a 10. » Great. We put it to bed.
When somebody agrees they could get to a 10, there’s always something underlying that. This is so important that I don’t want to let a client slide on this.
I probe further: « What will it take to get you to a 10? » « Well, I need a little bit more of time. » “Well, now is a great time to make that decision, don’t you think?”
Notice what I’ve done here. I’ve got questions 7, 8, 9 which are all about getting them to level 10 commitment. I’m working towards getting them to commit at a level 10.
Question #10: “What is it costing you not to take action on your vision and dreams?”

What I’m trying to establish with this question is the COI, the Cost of Inac-tion.
My friend Alex Mandossian says: “The COI is greater than the ROI. You can sell ROI all day long. Which if you sell ROI, it comes back to bite you because you don’t know what people are going to get. You should ask about the cost of inaction – what is it costing you not to do it? »
People start to open up when you ask this question. They go, « It’s cost me my fulfillment in doing this. » I say, « Yeah. » I say, « What else did it cost you? »
They say, « Well, sometimes I can’t sleep at night because I know that I should be out here living my vision, and I’m not fully living my vision. » « What else did it cost you? »  »
Well, I think it’s cost me an opportunity to go out and help people. » « What else did it cost you? » « I think it’s cost me being a role model for my family. »
I keep asking “What else?”, and going deeper into what it’s costing them.
Here’s how I might establish a health or monetary COI:
« A lot of times when I do this with people, one of the realizations is that it’s cost them sometimes their health where they’re in a deep amount of stress because they’re not expressing themselves fully in their life. People find that it’s even costing them money. That’s a huge thing, too, when it costs somebody money, because if you’re starting this business and maybe you have a goal to make $10,000 a month and right now, you’re at a place where you’re making $0 doing this, it’s costing you the opportunity to make $10,000 a month doing something that you love. You might be doing some-thing now that you’re not really passionate about. You’re making $5-$6,000 a month doing this. You could be making $4,000 more a month doing something you love. So the gap is, #1, you know you’re not getting paid what you’re worth. #2, there’s a $4,000 per month gap because you know you can be making $4,000 more a month. That’s $48,000 a year. #3, you’re not even getting paid right now to do the thing that you love. Clearly, the cost is pretty high for you. »

Question #11: « What are you going to do about it? »

Now, I’m putting in their space for them to originate their next action step.

This is an opportunity for them to tell me, « I’m going to take action on this. I’m going to do this. I’m going to go after my dreams. I’m going to follow my most important goal. »

Anything less than “I’m going to take action” or “I’m going to make this hap-pen”, anything less, I have to dig underneath it for those conflicting or limit-ing beliefs and deal with those.

I handle all objections before I even get to question #12 and talk about my program. If somebody says, « I’m going to take action and do this, » I go, « Great. »

Defusing Objections Using a Story:

If I ask someone: « What are you going to do about it? » and they go, « I don’t know. » I’ll say: « Let’s revisit this. Are you at a 10 right now or are you not? » « I’m still not at a 10. »

« What’s stopping you from being at a 10? Let’s recap this for a moment. Number one, you told me your most important goal is to have enough money to fund your dreams and be a role model to your kids. Is that still true? »

« Yes. »

« Is that important enough for you to be at a 10? »

« Yes. »

« What’s stopping you from saying, ‘Yes, I’m a 10 right now,’ when clearly you said this is the most important thing to you? »

« I don’t know what it is. It’s just keeps coming up for me, the feeling that I’m not at a 10. » « What is that feeling? What’s going on? » (Notice how I’m prob-ing « It’s just this feeling of just self-doubt, this feeling of not feeling like I can do it. » This is when I would use a story to overcome the objection:
“I get it. It’s totally normal. I know when I started out on this journey myself, I had that moment of indecision. I know when I still go to make investments in myself. I can think of an investment that I was making in myself about three months ago, and I was sitting there with the person. It was a sizable investment. It was over $40,000 and I was going to write the check and pay in full for it. I knew I wanted to do this thing but there’s an element in me that didn’t want to part with the money. I had the money and I had the re-sources. Not only I had the cash, I had credit that I could put on if I need to do that, too. Also, I had savings that I could tap in also. I had three sources of money to be able to this, but I still was in the space of can I really do this and what’s the outcome going to be for me? Can I make the time for this? This was my rationalization, justification.
“That person stood with me. They brought me back to it. They said, « What do you really want out of this? » I told them what I want. I told them, « I wanted to learn to get results through my team. I wanted to learn to get re-sults through other people. I wanted to grow a bigger team and leverage and get my message out bigger in the world. »
“They said, « That’s exactly what this is designed to do. If that’s your number one priority, then what’s stopping you from doing this? » I go, « You’re right. What is stopping me? » I wrote the check.
“I get what you’re going through right now when there is a logical dream that you have that means something to you, that means something to you for your dreams, to fund your dreams. It means something to you to be a role model to your kids. Now it’s time to make a decision, to get into action. It’s normal to be feeling something like this. I’m not saying everybody feels it, but I know many people have felt this. Maybe one day we’re going to get to a place where we don’t have a world full of doubt, and fear, and shame, and not feeling good enough. Most people I run into have some element of that.
I’m here with you right now to get you to a place to step in, and own this, and to be a 10, and to not let the feeling of I’m not good enough or I don’t know if I can do this get in the way of your commitment to your number one goal of being at a 10. Those are two different things.
Is your commitment at a 10 to the goal? Yes. Your feeling and your ele-ment of I don’t feel I’m fully at a 10, that can just be uncertainty and doubt. That’s normal. I think the way to solve a feeling of not being able to do something is just getting into action and doing it. I can know and learn something but until I go do it, I’m not really educated in it. Until I go do it, I haven’t proven to myself that’s it’s possible. I may know in my head and look at it and go, « Yeah, I should go do this goal. » Until I go do it, I’m not go-ing to have that total sense of certainty. That’s how the way it is for most people. Don’t worry about it. It’s normal. So are you at a 10 in your commit-ment? That’s all I need to know right now. »
« I am. » “Awesome.”
You notice I just told a story that defused the time objection and also the money objection, because I got back to what was most important. What’s most important will always trump time and money.
Defusing a Time Objection:
If somebody says: « Well, I don’t know. I just can’t find the time for it. »
I respond: « Well, if this is your most important goal, where are you spending the rest of your time? It would be just logical that if this is most important, it should deserve some of your time. Won’t you agree? »
They go, « Yeah. »
I say: « Need I ask what goal number two is and how you’re allocating your time to that because you should be allocating to the thing that’s most im-portant to you. Would you agree to that? »

They go, « Yeah. » « Is time really a factor? » « No. »
« Hey, here’s the thing. You’ve been successful already. You have a certain element of thrust in the world. You have a power in the world and you’re an able person otherwise you wouldn’t be here right now. You have dreams of improving your life. In knowing that, should there really be an objection around time, or are you the type of person that can make things happen and find time? »
All I’m doing is reinforcing their goal, telling them to allocate their time or even find time and make this thing happen because it’s their most im-portant thing.
I’m trumping their time and money objection with their own most important goal.
You see the power of this, of getting somebody in, question number 11, to fully commit that they’re ready to take action? If they have things that come up around time or money, it’s just something that they’re bringing up that is a smokescreen that really isn’t relevant.
How would I know this? Earlier on in the enrollment conversation, I found out about their financial situation.
Now, when time and money come up, is it really an issue? No, it’s not.
I know money is real for people, but I know where they are financially and even if they can’t do my one-on-one consulting program in this enrollment conversation, I could pivot and then offer up a lower tier program for them and still enroll them.
Question number 11 is really an opportunity to flush out their objections and get them to originate what they are going to do about it. They’re origi-nating their answer and it’s total free will on their part to make a decision about taking action.

By ensuring total commitment before you even talk about your program, this is how you take your ratio of 1-2 out of 10 people saying yes, to 10 out of 10 people saying to their vision.
Doesn’t mean everybody writes a check? Does it mean everybody moves forward? No, it doesn’t. There are other things that come up that I will teach you how to handle, so somebody is not getting off the phone too early, or they’re not giving you “I have to think about it”.
Every time a person says no, your ability to help people achieve their dreams in the world has gone down. You are lowering the number of dreams that are taking place in the world as a result of not getting good at this enrollment conversion. That’s how important this is.
Question #12: « Would you like to hear a little bit about my programs and how I can help you take action on your vision and dreams? »
This is the final question before you transition into the enrollment part of the conversation.
Action Steps:
If you are brand new, your job right now is to get into action and drill it with three people this week.
If you’re a veteran, get into action and start asking the questions.
If you’re brand new: you’re going to want to rehearse this. I suggest you get with a friend, maybe an accountability buddy from the Facebook group, and role play these 12 questions.
Part of doing this is drilling these questions and getting comfortable at ask-ing them, but there’s a system to it and also an art.

The art evolves when you’re totally comfortable asking each question, and you use probing questions to get as much information as possible. Remem-ber this is a conversation – don’t methodologically ask the questions and forget about the person in front of you.
Too many times people use this 12 Question Framework and they just ask the questions like a robot, and they’re not connected to the person. The style of how you ask these questions is super important and it’s really valu-able for you to practice it.
I suggest you drill it at least three to four times in the next week and get comfortable with drilling the questions.
If you’re a veteran, you might be jumping in and going, « Ted, I know my programs and this is really good stuff. I’m going to go out and just apply it. »
I highly recommend you get into action and just start doing it and make this thing happen.

12 Question Framework Cheat Sheet
Remember this is a conversation – follow the flow and ask probing ques-tions as you go. Before you begin, remind your client of the structure of the conversation.
Question #1: What inspired you to show up and have this conversation with me?
Question #2: If you could create anything for your future in the next year, what is it that you’d like to create for yourself personally, professionally and financially?

Question #3: Let’s get specific on what would you like to see. What’s most important for you to accomplish in the next year:
> Personally?
> Professionally?
> Financially? (Tell me about your financial goals. Where are you cur-rently financially? Have you invested in yourself before? What’s your income? What would you like your income to be in the next year?) What’s the most important goal out of your personal, professional and financial goals that you just shared with me?
Question #4: Tell me why that’s the most important?
Question #5: What is stopping you from having this number one goal?
Question #6: What would it mean to you to solve this challenge?
Question #7: On a scale of one to 10, how committed are you to solving this challenge?
Question #8: What’s stopping you from being at a 10?
Question #9: What it’s going to take to get you to a 10?
Question #10: What is it costing you not to take action on your vision and dreams?
Question #11: What are you going to do about it?
Question #12: Would you like to hear a little bit about my programs and how I can help you take action on your vision and dreams?