[youtube width=”600″ height=”352″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXpFnRun74c[/youtube]
This week’s video strategy focuses on getting you to be more productive in your marketing so that you make a lot more money. You create some of your very best results, in terms of more clients and more money in your business, from just a few, but very specific things that you’re uniquely qualified to do. So, what would happen if you do more of those specific things?
Pareto’s Principle of Productivity (also known as the 80/20 rule) states that you get 80% of your results from only 20% of your efforts. If you can identify where you’re spending that 20% of your time in order to produce 80% of your results, you’re on your way to BIGGER results in your business!
Your Video Assignment: Two questions to ask yourself
- What are the specific actions that take 20% of the time to produce 80% of your results and your income? Get really clear here. List them out. The key is to identify them.
- How can you do even more of those specific actions? Start right now and see the impact it has on your business.
Answer these questions and you will get more clients, make more money, have more fun and create even bigger results!
You may have heard that “Nature abhors a vacuum”. This saying is used to express the idea that empty or unfilled spaces are unnatural as they go against the laws of nature and physics.
Here’s the definition of “vacuum” from www.Wikipedia.com:
“A vacuum is a volume of space that is essentially empty of matter, so that gaseous pressure is much less than standard atmospheric pressure. The root of the word vacuum is the Latin adjective vacuus which means “empty,” but space can never be perfectly empty. A perfect vacuum with a gaseous pressure of absolute zero is a philosophical concept that is never observed in practice, not least because quantum theory predicts that no volume of space is perfectly empty in this way.”
Now, I’ll be honest with you. I don’t quite understand the scientific part of it (that’s not my strong suit; marketing, manifesting and mindset are), but I can tell you how I use this law of nature and physics for my own business purposes.
I’m a big believer in Feng Shui and how clearing clutter can leave room for new things in your life (in large part because of Karen Kingston’s outstanding book called Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui.) I’ve recommended it to hundreds of people by now, because it has helped me in so many ways.
By the way, in my experience, clearing clutter and emptying out spaces to attract new things applies to many things in life. One example is that if you clear MENTAL clutter, you end up focusing on one thing and attracting that one thing.
If nature seeks to fill any empty space, and if that is a scientific law in the Universe, then why couldn’t we use it for getting clients too?
So, I tested this out a few years ago, and then, whenever I really wanted to attract a new client quickly, for whatever reason, I would set the intention with setting up a system of folders.
So back then, in my hanging file drawer, I had all my existing client folders hanging and sorted in alphabetical folder. But sometimes, I’ve forgotten to get rid of the folders for clients who had already completed their coaching with me, the Graduates.
If a whole bunch of “graduate” client folders were cluttering up my file drawers, the Universe didn’t have as much room for sending me new clients. So, it was time to clear out the old and make room for the new.
Take out all old client folders and put them in another space.
Next, I grabbed as many brand new client folders as I intended to attract (let’s say 3 for this example) and I put them in the hanging file drawer.
I then added colorful stickies (Post It notes), one on each folder, that said:
- New April Client 1
- New April Client 2
- New April Client 3
As I opened my client folder drawer several times each day, I saw the folders with their bright pink neon sticky notes attached to it.
These folders were quietly, confidently waiting for new clients to fill them.
I was able to “FEEL” what it feels like to see them being filled. And they do. It’s worked every time for me.
And as I signed on one new client, I took the “New April Client 1” sticky off and filled in the person’s name on the folder.
Then, as I signed on another new client, I took the “New April Client 2” sticky off and filled in that person’s name on the second folder, and so on.
I got a sense of accomplishment as I do this.
The best thing about this technique is that it takes almost no time to set up and it’s worked for me every time.
I guess nature really does abhor a vacuum, after all. 🙂
That said, this one’s a no-brainer because it only takes about 30 seconds to implement, so there’s no reason not to do it.
I have many, many tools that I implement regularly to put the Universe to work in helping me attract what I want into my business. I share ALL of them during my FREE Quick Start Guide to Attracting 3 New Clients This Month Special Report at http://www.3newclientsin30days.com.
You’ve heard of the Law of Attraction, you’ve watched the movie The Secret more times than you can count on one hand, and you probably love the idea, but haven’t figured out a pragmatic, practical way of applying these to your small business success, ON A REGULAR BASIS.
Where most people don’t use the Law of Attraction properly is that they think they can just put a thought out there in the Universe, do some positive thinking and wait for the results to come to them. Well, in my own experience, it doesn’t work quite that way.
There are several components to using the Law of Attraction (or “Manifesting”) to attract what you want into your business, in addition to marketing:
1) Create the thought
2) Soak in the feeling
3) Take action
4) Be grateful
Today, I am sharing with you exactly how I use some of these principles to attract more money, more ideal clients and more opportunities in my own private practice. Strap on your seatbelt, because you’ll be surprised by how easy these tools are to implement and yet how wildly successful they will be for you, as they’ve been for me. OK, let’s get started…
First things first, we need to get some clarity about what you want.
The first thing you want to do is get super clear about what you want to attract in your business. That said, what you want to attract right NOW.
I used to say, “Oh, I want to be a multimillionaire helping others” or even, “This year, I want to make $500,000.00 working half the time.”
I still want these things and am getting closer to attracting them, but what about the day-to-day?
Sometimes, it’s the day-to-day focus that seems to be missing. Without focus, attracting clients, or money, or anything else you want seems to fall by the wayside.
You see, we’re taught to dream BIG, and so we do. But without a pragmatic way of looking at something you want to attract, it’s much more difficult to bring it into your physical reality.
So, the first thing I’d like you to do, right now, is to figure out what you would like to attract, this week or this month. Is it 3 new ideal paying clients? Is it 150 paid registrants at your upcoming live event? Is it a radio or magazine interview in a prominent business publication?
Get super clear on what you want and write it down.
Great. Now, before we keep going, let me ask you this. Was it written in the positive or the negative? What I mean is, did you write “I have no more debt” or rather “Money comes to me easily and joyfully” or “I am financially independent”.
Are you being specific enough?
“I attract lots and lots of new clients” isn’t as powerful as “I attract 3 new ideal clients in April.”
You see, whether you’re spiritual or not, the Universe will bring you exactly what you ask for. When you’re not being specific, it’s more difficult for you to actually GET what you ask for, or rather, you may get a version of it you didn’t really want.
For example, if you offer 3 different programs, with one bringing in more money than the other two, then perhaps you want to focus on saying, “I sign on 3 new ideal clients for my Fast Track program.”
That said, let’s see if you can rewrite your request below, with more specificity (think: how much and by when.)
OK, now it’s time to launch that rocket into the Universe and make that an official request.
I have many, many tools that I implement regularly to put the Universe to work in helping me attract what I want into my business. I share ALL of them during my FREE Quick Start Guide to Attracting 3 New Clients This Month Special Report at http://www.3newclientsin30days.com.
When you reach a certain level in your business, you must go from doing everything to doing only the work that is your unique brilliance. Why? Because as your business continues to grow, you have less time. There’s only one of you to go around so you must focus your time and effort on money generating activities only and delegate everything else!
Everything that needs to get done on any given day falls into four categories: things you’re uniquely brilliant at, things you’re excellent at, things you’re competent at, and things you’re incompetent at. It’s time to take a close look at how you’re spending your time and delegate everything other than your unique brilliance…
Your Video Assignment
Your assignment this week is simple and straightforward. I want you to ask yourself the following three questions. Give your answers some thought. Then write them down.
1. What is the most important thing that you are doing in your business right now that someone else could do better? You want to focus on letting go of all the stuff you are not uniquely positioned to do.
2. What is the single most important thing you are lacking in your business that can be supplied by someone else? What’s currently not getting done that someone could come in and do for you?
3. What is the single most important thing that your business provides that other people are incompetent at doing? Here’s where you really hone in on your unique ability.
Get specific with the answers to the above 3 questions. Once you do, take action. Get the support you need to allow you to only work in your unique brilliance. Once you do, you’ll throw open that door to grow, multiply and scale your business to that next BIG level. Wooohooo!
Consider charging different rates for different programs. When first starting out, I would offer only one rate and the offer was basically “this is what I charge, take it or leave it.” So people would either take it or leave it. Then I realized that clients work in a different way. Many people like options (I do too). They don’t want to be “forced” into taking something that doesn’t suit them. They want the option of small, medium or large. There’s also some psychology to it. Some people naturally go for the biggest, fastest, “supersized” option, just because that’s their personality. Others are more cautious and like to take their time doing things. Sometimes, it’s simply a question of money and what they can afford. I started making available an option for each of these types of people (and budgets). The result? I started signing on considerably more clients offering options than when I used just one rate.
Why? Probably a few reasons:
1) There were options to fit different budget levels and it took care of the “am I charging too little or too much?” syndrome.
2) The client probably felt more in control and part of the decisionmaking process, which is less threatening.
3) It gave me confidence that my rates, as a whole, were just right for my ideal clients.
My different options used to look like this:
The Maverick Program — Real-time, Just-in-time Coaching
(All the help you need, exactly when you need it)
Two full hours of coaching per month
“I want my coach when I want my coach!” This option is for mavericks who work best outside of a routine or want to move extraordinarily fast. It’s also for those who prefer not to wait until a scheduled appointment to move forward and like to set their own schedule. We make our calls when you want them, for as long as you want them, and as often as you need them for up to 2 full hours per month. (And yes, we can schedule more than 2 hours per month and we’ll rate that time accordingly.) You may choose to break this out into four 30-minute calls, if you prefer consistency. Note: to keep you on track and for bookkeeping purposes, your time does not roll over into the next month, so use it!
The Fast Track Program
Three 30-minute calls per month
This option is for high achievers who want to take consistent action in practice building, strategize, collaborate and brainstorm with me on any issues or assignments that come up. (For some people, having the last week of the month to finish assignments works nicely, even if results aren’t as quick.) With this option, we schedule three solid 30-minute calls per month, one per week, to get you moving quickly, stay on track and eliminate any obstacles currently in your way so you can get clients faster than you would on your own.
The Basic Program
Two 30-minute calls per month
This program was created for independent self-starters who don’t want to speak as often as those in the Maverick or Fast Track Programs. It includes the same Client Attraction tools, resources and consistent action to attracting clients as the others, without the brainstorming or the added collaborative time with me. The focus is on solo assignments outside of the two 30-minute calls per month. This option can also be used for Maintenance after 6 months of one of the other programs available.
Your Client Attraction Assignment
Create different price points in your offerings. Use the provided one for inspiration, but create different options that work for you. Let there be an incentive to go for the higher option (more time with you or reduced cost per hour as frequency grows). Make it almost irresistible to go for the highest option, but recognize that some people may just not be able to afford it or may choose not to go that route. That’s OK.
Name your different options so that you can refer to them without actually using the dollar amounts. I’ve used the terms “Fast Track,” “Basic” and “Maintenance” programs for my different options. What could you call yours?
If you liked this article about packaging your services and making more money in your small business, you’ll love the free audio CD: “How to Attract All the Clients You Need”.
Picture this. As a successful entrepreneur, you’re making more money than ever before – your marketing is on track, sales are through the roof, you’re attracting plenty of clients, and yet you’re working ALL the time – exhausted and finding there’s just not enough time in the day to get it all done. Sound at all familiar? What you need most right now are reliable SYSTEMS and knowledgeable SUPPORT so you can effectively leverage your time and get everything done. Listen to our call this month with Online Business Manager, Tina Forsyth. Learn how to recognize the signs of Leaky Bucket Syndrome in your business along with the 3 key elements required to “plug” that leaky bucket. We’ll go deep into the operations management and team development required for you to create a strong foundation for your thriving business and the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make with their systems and what you can implement right now that will have a major impact on your business (and your sanity!)
Have you heard the big news? The Inner Circle Monthly Special Topic Calls are now F.R.E.E! Register now to join this live call with Fabienne and her special guest. It’s not just ONLY for Inner Circle members anymore and anyone can join!
One of the major complaints new clients of mine had before working with me is that, although they are sometimes able to attract a sufficient number of clients, the clients are not sticking around long enough for the person to make money or really help them. What happens is, they spend most of their working hours attracting new clients, as opposed to working with their existing clients and bringing them results. I don’t blame them. If clients didn’t work with me on a continuous basis, I’d have to work much harder than I do now to make sure my new prospects list was much longer.
It takes a considerable amount of time and effort to get a new client and when you’re not keeping them around long, you have to put that much more effort into getting new clients.
The client, on the other hand, is not getting the full benefit by working with you just once or twice. Often, it takes regular appointments (depending on what you do) to get continued and lasting results, so the client loses too. This doesn’t sound like a win-win situation to me.
When I first learned nutrition at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York (www.IntegrativeNutrition.com) we were taught to offer 6- month programs instead of one session at a time. I thought this was brilliant for several reasons:
1) As the practitioner, you were able to sign the person up for 12 sessions at a time, rather than trying to have the person sign up for one more session each time, one after the other. It made payment easy, scheduling easy and you made more money than if you just offered a session here or there.
2) Even better, the client got SO many more benefits that if they’d only come once or twice. Think about it. If it’s taken you 12 years to put on 50 pounds, then having just one or two sessions to help break old habits AND create new ones, while giving you all the resources you need to stay on track, isn’t really realistic and doesn’t really set you up for real success. Having someone to guide you through the process, slowly but surely, was what created LASTING results for the client. (And with lasting results, the client stayed healthier and would write raving fan testimonials and send referrals.) This wouldn’t have happened if we’d scheduled only 2 or 3 sessions.
So, I noticed early on in being in private practice that offering a program was better for me AND the client.
Client example: a personal trainer client of mine, years ago, was struggling to make ends meet before we worked together. He was spending all his time trying to find new clients and these new clients would only come in once in a while for a personal training session in the gym. The problem was, my client wasn’t making a lot of money doing it this way and the clients weren’t sending him lots of referrals (probably because the dramatic results they’d wished for weren’t there).
Then I shared this “continuity package” idea with him, showing him that the way he was doing things wasn’t working. I told him we needed to come up with bigger packages, based on frequency and time periods. At first, he resisted. He’d say that this wasn’t the way things were done in his industry, but I asked him to be open to a drastic paradigm shift, even if other personal trainers weren’t charging this way.
So we came up with several different packages and programs, at a much higher frequency than what his current clients were accustomed to. The biggest package (Fast Track) consisted of something like 3 or 4 sessions per week, the second slightly fewer and the third, one session per week, each with a price incentive over the one time only session. Lo and behold, he started selling PACKAGES as opposed to one on one sessions and his clients started getting amazing results, most not even worried about the extra cost because they were seeing the results. Do you think he got more referrals because of his clients getting better results? You betcha!
You can do this for almost any service business. Ask yourself what quantity or frequency level would give your clients the most beneficial end-result and the greatest incentive to stay on with you.
Clients then won’t have to worry about scheduling or staying on track (you’ll have done that for them) and that’s one less thing they have to worry about. Additionally, they’ll get better results than working with you just once, and when clients are happy, they start telling others about you.
That means more client referrals. You can’t beat that.
Best of all, you’ll finally be able to forecast your revenues for the year like you’ve never been able to before. That’s a HUGE relief for any entrepreneur.
The client benefits, you benefit. Now that sounds like a win-win scenario.
Your Client Attraction Assignment:
Why have someone work with you just once or twice if you can get him or her to work with you on a consistent basis? Instead, create a continuity package that keeps the client receiving your services for an extended, preset period of time.
Transform the services you offer into continuity programs that include continued time periods (weekly, 6-months, a year, or several sessions per month, at a certain number of months) or agree to work with them this way until further notice.
Put these on your rate sheet and eliminate the one-shot session once and for all. It doesn’t serve you OR the client.
Think about how you too can package what you offer into a program that gets people better results, and keeps them staying with you longer than just one session at a time.
Now, if you’re just starting out and trying to fill your practice in the FIRST place, then follow a step-by-step system that feels easy and authentic to you. The Client Attraction Home Study System™ gives you the most important things to do to set up simple, solid systems, so that you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. Easy. You can get it at TheClientAttractionSystem.com.
You need to be paid well. But, when it comes to raising your rates, you may get resistance from clients who have a hard time justifying paying as much as you’re charging. You’re experiencing what I call price resistance. In today’s video I’m going to walk you through just how to position what you offer so that clients can see the real value they’re receiving. They need to know the Return on Investment from working with you. So tune in and I’ll show you how to position your marketing and what exactly to say to do just that.
I see this with my Platinum, Sapphire, Diamond clients and even clients in the Gold level of my Winner’s Academy. The minute you raise your prices, you’re met with resistance so here’s what your rationale needs to be.
It all comes down to believing in personal investment. When you do and when you live it yourself—by working with a high level mentor or being part of a mastermind group that will stretch and pull you into your future—then you will be able to receive high level rates and be paid well for the work you do.
From there you will have the words and the rationale to talk to your clients about Return on Investment (ROI). When you take the focus away from ‘cost’ and instead put it on ‘ROI’, clients and prospects will be able to see the true value of what you have to offer.
Your Video Assignment
1. Paint a picture of what your clients receive as a result of working with you. How will working with you make a difference in their life?
2. Position your marketing in a way that focuses on ROI. Use wording that can clearly express what they’ll get out of working with you.
3. Practice positioning what you offer in terms of ROI. Remember ROI doesn’t always mean money. It could be health, increased energy—think of it in terms of how will your client’s life be changed.
You’ll find that clients will happily pay you with future money that they earn back from working with you.
How to follow up on prospects is one of the most common questions I get and there are as many experts with an answer to this as there are ways to do it. I take a cue from a good friend of mine who happens to be my life insurance agent.
One day, Rob was celebrating a big new account he’d just signed on and I asked him how he got such a great client. Rob told me that it was persistence and “Just Checking In” on a regular basis that landed him the sizable account. The story goes like this: One day, my friend was given a referral for this potential client, let’s call him Joe. But Joe wasn’t ready to buy life insurance from Rob quite yet, so without thinking that this meant “I don’t want to do business with you, ever” as many of us think when someone doesn’t bite right away, Rob kept Joe on the equivalent of HIS warm prospects list and followed up with a phone call, once a quarter.
And each time, he’d called and say, “Hi Joe, this is Rob from XX Financial, just checking in to see how you are and see where you are in your process of changing your life insurance coverage…. OK, not quite ready yet. No problem! I’ll be back in touch.” And Rob did this every quarter or so, until lo and behold, a couple of years later (yes, sometimes it takes THAT long for someone to come around), Rob was doing his routine “Just Checking In” with Joe, and Joe handed him the account, for over $10 million.
As he was handing over his business to Rob, Joe told him that the reason he chose Rob as opposed to the half dozen other people he knew in the insurance business was that 1) Rob never pushed him or became aggressive, 2) he felt he could trust Rob because of his reliability in following through, and 3) he liked being “checked in with” without being pressured. He liked the consistency and felt that if Rob was this consistent before he even became a client, that he’d be even better once they worked together. Awesome story.
What I get out of that is: 1) “Not right now” doesn’t mean “NO”; 2) pressuring doesn’t work; 3) a friendly approach does work; 4) consistency builds trust; and most important, 5) following up gets you clients.
That said, I now use this “Just checking in” method with people on my Low-Hanging Fruit list because it feels comfortable and I hate to push myself on others. This is just a friendly way of seeing where the person is in their process and has helped me convert lots of clients into paying clients, even years after they initially expressed interest.
Which brings me to something else: never take someone off your Low-Hanging Fruit list unless they tell you to stop contacting you. A prospect is a prospect is a prospect until they become a client, no matter how long it takes. So, just keep checking in with them until they do.
Your Client Attraction Assignment:
Go through your Low-Hanging Fruit list and “Just Check in” with people to see where they are in their process of wanting to work with you. The objective is to get them into a one-on-one conversation in person or over the phone, where you can then see if it makes sense to start working together.
Now, if you’re just starting out and trying to fill your practice in the FIRST place, then follow a step-by-step system that feels easy and authentic to you. The Client Attraction Home Study System™ gives you the most important things to do to set up simple, solid systems, so that you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. Easy. You can get it at TheClientAttractionSystem.com.
Most people don’t follow up on prospects because of the following reasons:
• They’re afraid of appearing too pushy
• They’re afraid of being turned down or rejected
• Their negative self-talk (that gremlin) gets in the way
• They’re afraid to have to talk about money (dreaded subject)
• They have a fear of success
• And simultaneously, a fear of failure too
Problem is, following up on leads is often 90% of the game. You spend all this time networking, marketing yourself, making calls, looking for the right client, but what’s it worth if you don’t follow up on the leads you DO have?
This is a major obstacle for many of my clients and a shift gets created when I share the Low-Hanging List with them.
If you think about low-hanging fruit on a tree, it’s usually the fruit that is the ripest and therefore the lowest and most accessible on the tree as it is the heaviest. But mostly, I use this analogy to show you that low-hanging fruit is the easiest to pick. You don’t have to tug at it to get it off the stem or branch. And when you think about warm prospects in terms of how ready they are to work with you (cold, warm and hot – hot being they’re already signing on the dotted line) you can easily equate the “warm” prospects as being similar to the low-hanging fruit.
Warm prospects are people who’ve expressed interest in working with you, in one form or another, over the past year or more. This could have been either in passing (“Oh, I should work with you one day” to “I want to work with you, but I’m not quite ready yet”) or with more intention (“Let’s set up a time to talk about working together”) via e-mail, verbally or third party referral.
Go through your mental Rolodex, sticky notes on your desk, day planner and past potential-client folder to see who in your network has expressed interest in working with you over the last 6 months to a year and more. It’s usually many more than you immediately think of, especially if you’ve been in business for awhile but have no tracking system for warm prospects.
Then it’s time to follow up with these people with the objective of setting up a conversation about working together. (We’ll discuss this further in the following step.) You can also use this list to send invitations to your upcoming events, to send articles on relevant topics, invite to a golf outing, etc.
The bottom line is, when I use my Low-Hanging Fruit list, I sign on a lot more clients than when I don’t use it. And many of my clients have said the same thing when they’ve used it religiously.
Your Client Attraction Assignment:
Have a chart on your desk with several columns: 1) name, 2) phone number, 3) e-mail address, 4) referral source, 5) that client’s particular concern and 6) status/when to contact next.
Please list all of these “low-hanging fruit” on the chart. This can also include those you met with previously but who never signed up, for whatever reason. Fill it out in pencil and keep it on your desk at ALL times.
This will be one of your more important documents to use for signing on new clients.
It’s about prioritizing and focusing on the “low-hanging fruit” rather than starting the process from scratch with cold prospects who’ve never heard of you before. It’s somewhat deceptive because it’s so simple, but the good things usually are…
Leave this sheet on your desk at all times. It’s the only paper on my desk and, yes, I do use pencil when I fill it out, as things change constantly and having it hidden in my laptop’s hard drive would take it out of my sight.
And you know what they say, out of sight, out of mind…
Now, if you’re just starting out and trying to fill your practice in the FIRST place, then follow a step-by-step system that feels easy and authentic to you. The Client Attraction Home Study System™ gives you the most important things to do to set up simple, solid systems, so that you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. Easy. You can get it at TheClientAttractionSystem.com.
