ASN Connect · resource · open this while you work
Twelve steps, in order, with the words. This is the video meeting — the phone call only books it. Keep this open while you run the call.
Keep it open on your laptop while you work — it's built to be scanned mid-call, not memorised. The bar at the top jumps to any section.
You're a 1099 contractor, so none of the technique here is mandatory — it's what's actually worked, written down. The compliance rules are the exception: calling hours, DNC, recording consent and never promising rankings are legal obligations of the engagement, and those aren't optional for anyone.
1 · Never explain GEO. The prospect will not retain it and does not care. They care that when someone asks AI who's best, it isn't them. Sell the result. Never the mechanism. If you catch yourself defining "generative engine optimization," you have lost the call.
2 · They talk more than you until step 9. Everything before the pitch is questions. If you are talking for more than about 30 seconds at a stretch before step 9, stop.
3 · Never sell on a phone call. The phone call books this video meeting. A call back is not a meeting. Camera on, both sides.
4 · Every number you say must be true. We publish our sample sizes. If you don't know, say you don't know and find out. One caught exaggeration costs more than the deal is worth.
Open — get their reason on record
60 seconds. You want them to say out loud why they took this meeting.
Why this matters more than anything else you'll say: whatever they answer is a reason they gave. For the rest of the call you never have to argue for value — you just point back at their own words. Write down exactly what they say.
Get permission to ask questions
Buys you the next ten minutes without it feeling like an interrogation.
Discovery — five questions, in this order
You are looking for: what a customer is worth, where they come from, what's been tried, and who else decides.
Listen for "we" and "our." The second you hear it, ask who. A decision-maker who wasn't on the call is the most common way a good meeting dies. Get them on this one if you can, and the next one if you can't.
Run the scan — the most important 90 seconds
They watch it happen. You do not narrate, sell, or soften.
Run it live. Share the screen. When it lands, read the result flat — no adjectives, no apologising:
This is our single biggest advantage and most reps talk over it. Every competitor has to describe the problem. We put it on screen with the owner's own business name in it. Let it land.
Give something away, free, right now
Proves competence and creates obligation. Costs us nothing.
Find a real one on every call — a wrong NAP, a missing category, an unanswered review. Never invent one. If you genuinely can't find anything, give them the honest version: "your foundation's actually clean, your problem is purely that nobody's vouching for you."
Have them confirm the problem
They state the problem our product is shaped around, before hearing the product.
Let them describe the product
Whatever they pick, that's what we sell. Now it's their answer, not your pitch.
Both are the same product. Note which they chose and use their framing for the rest of the call — "like you said, you want to see every step, so here's the dashboard…"
Make them do the arithmetic
They set the price anchor before you name a number. Never skip this.
Never quote a price before this step. A number quoted into silence is expensive; the same number quoted after they've valued two customers is obvious. This one move does more for close rate than anything else in the script.
Proof — the part nobody else has
Short. Specific. Numbers with sample sizes.
Most people in this category cannot say a sentence like that. They sell reports. Say it slowly.
Scarcity — but only the true one
Real constraint, verifiable, and it creates a deadline that isn't invented.
Price — say the number plainly
Price, then terms, then stop.
Hard rule from the Academy: never quote a FINAL price live. The range is public and you say it plainly — hiding a price behind "high four figures" protects a number that can't survive daylight. But the scoped figure comes in the 24-hour proposal, because quoting live boxes you in, undersells the work, and skips the scoping that makes the number honest.
Ask for the decision
If yes
Get the verbal commitment and confirm the scope out loud. The proposal auto-drafts from their own scan and goes out within 24 hours — tell them exactly when to expect it, then make sure it lands.
If they need a partner
"Totally fair. When can the two of you get on with me — this week or early next?" Book it now, with a date. "I'll get back to you" is a no with extra steps.
If it's a no
"No problem at all. Can I ask what it came down to?" Then log it in the call notes. A real reason is worth more to us than a soft maybe.
Answer, then ask a question back. Never answer and stop — that hands them the silence.
It's too expensive.
"Compared to what?" — then wait. Nine times out of ten they're comparing us to a $99 tool. "Those send you a report telling you what's wrong. Somebody still has to go do it. We do it. You said a customer's worth [X] — how many would this need to bring you before it paid for itself?"
I need to think about it.
"Of course. What specifically do you want to think through — whether it works, or whether it's worth it right now?" Those are two completely different objections and you can't handle either until you know which one it is.
I've never heard of AI search mattering for a business like mine.
"You just watched it. That was your business, and your competitor's name came back instead of yours. The question isn't whether it's happening — it's whether you want to be in that answer before they lock it in."
Can you guarantee I'll be number one?
"No, and I'd walk away from anyone who did. What I'll show you is exactly where you stand now, what we changed, and where you stand after — every number with the sample size behind it. If it isn't moving, you'll see that too."
Never promise a ranking. We promise visibility and published measurement.
We already do SEO.
"Good — keep doing it, we do that too. But your SEO guy is optimising for a search results page. More and more of your customers never see one; they get one answer. Different game, same customer."
How do I know you're not going to disappear?
"Fair question for anyone this size. That's why you own everything we build, in writing, from day one — domain, site, profiles, content. If we vanished tomorrow you'd still have all of it. Most agencies hold that stuff hostage."
Send me some information.
"Happy to. What would you need to see in it to say yes?" Then send exactly that, and book the follow-up before you hang up. Information without a booked next call is where deals go to die.