March 2012 - Small Business Coach, Women Business Coaching - Client Attraction
[youtube width=”600″ height=”352″]http://youtu.be/Mox3CaNACfM?hd=1[/youtube]

When you get to a point in your business where you have a lot of clients and you’re at full practice capacity, sometimes you’re overwhelmed and it’s really hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. You can’t make more money because there’s no more ‘you’ to go around, not to mention no more time.

This is where a lot of people sometimes quit in their business or they just keep going at full practice capacity for many years without ever multiplying their business. So today I want to talk to you about multiplying your business by bringing on associates. Whether you’re a consultant, coach, photographer or you have a business where you do everything yourself now, there’s a point at which it makes sense to bring on other people that you train and teach to deliver what you deliver.

One of the biggest things that gets in the way of you doing this is often your mindset. This has happened to me in the past when I’ve thought about changing my business model to allow for growth. You might find yourself struggling with “But They Will Only Want Me” Syndrome.

I want to share with you that I’ve gone through this myself and we continue to grow through this. Instead of selling yourself (perhaps your website is all about you right now), it’s time that you begin to sell what you offer in a different way.

In coaching others how to do this so they can really leverage their business, I teach that there are four factors you need to consider. This week’s video will walk you through each one so be sure to watch.

The bottom line is you want it so that you are no longer indispensible in your business. This is more advanced client attraction material. This is for people who are at full capacity. They’re at our Leverage Lucy or Leverage Larry level. This is about you cloning yourself through associates. It all starts with your mindset. If you can sell yourself first on the fact that other people will buy your system and will buy your associates, then you can sell others on it.

Your assignment

Review the four factors I present in this week’s video and see how you can apply them to your own business. See if you can sell yourself on creating a program where other associates can be trained to do what you do. You simply cannot grow if you continue doing everything yourself. It’s time to clone yourself.

Writing a book is a smart idea to build business for a few reasons:

  1. It’s a great way to set yourself up as an expert
  2. Publishing a book is an impressive rite of passage
  3. It provides your first pass at earning passive income

So, I am all for books! Yet they do have one big limitation – the amount of money you can earn. When you are building a business, you want to maximize your earnings from each project – working less and enjoying more right? Unless you have an enormous and ever growing list, it won’t be easy to generate a significant income from a book which is usually priced between $20 and $30. This is the standard pricing in the book industry and it is difficult to convey greater value in order to charge a significantly higher price. Only a small percentage of authors get rich just from book sales

However, you can take this very same material and turn your book into an information product which has a much higher perceived value. For the same information you can find in a $30 book, you could sell it for $299 to as much as $1,000 by expanding the offering.

For example, take your book, add a couple of audios on CD, throw in a few worksheets, plus fax-in or email critiques and voila! You have a value information product. I talk about this in the Mindset and Marketing Breakthroughs Workshop in a Box. It’s relatively simple to create these products with my resources and vendors.

So, if you have already written a book, this is your next step to build a great deal more passive income. And if you are thinking about writing a book, consider how you can expand the concept to include audio CD’s, worksheets and access to you personally so you can set a much higher price.

Step away from the book paradigm and you will be able to charge a good deal more. Working smarter like this will help you achieve your income goals faster with not much more effort or cost.

Your Client Attraction Assignment

Take a look at the products you currently offer. How can you expand or build on them to create a valuable information product? Take the time to brainstorm about what you can produce easily – it will be well worth the investment for your overall bottom line.

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.

TV Interview in NYC

In this video, we share more about Derek and I working together on ClientAttraction.com – and the story of Derek joining me in the business and the success we’ve had together.

Earlier this month, Derek and I were in NYC for the last stop of my ‘Get More Clients’ Tour. Before I took the stage, we had the pleasure of sitting down for a few minutes with the team from IFV News, where we shared some great tips and strategies for playing BIG in business (and in life!).

Enjoy the interview and let me know what you think!

Selecting the right business name can make a tremendous difference in attracting the right clients. A well-crafted name also helps communicate what you do quickly, making it that much easier to let people know how you can serve them.

What I see with my clients however, is that they can tend to get stuck on coming up with a name they like. Sometimes they struggle wondering if they have created the best possible name which can lead to perfectionism and paralysis. That’s why I say there actually is no business name nirvana. No magic solution.

What matters more is to come up with a name that quickly communicates what you do. I believe in creating a business name around what result clients want most or what problem they want to solve. With my business name, Client Attraction, people can probably guess, without learning too much more, what it’s about.

Start by writing down all the things your ideal client wants. Add to that the results your clients have loved so far. Don’t work on this for too long a period of time. Then, by all means, get some feedback. Check with a few colleagues and run the ideas past a few of your favorite clients.

Then pick a name and stick with it for a while. This way, you are not mired in the decision making process. Instead, you are getting out there to build your business which is the road that leads to success.

As you gain experience marketing your business and offering your services, you will learn more about how prospects see you and what clients see as the benefits. In time, you may change your mind or re-brand if you come up a new and better name. And that’s OK too. I started out as Self-Employed Success and changed my name three more times to the name today, which as you know is Client Attraction.

Your Client Attraction Assignment:

Review your business name (or ideas for a name) asking yourself these questions:
1. Does it speak to the benefits clients get from working with you?
2. Does it highlight the problem that you solve?
3. Does it quickly bring to mind what you do?

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.

TV Interview in NYC

Earlier this month, Derek and I were in NYC for the last stop of my ‘Get More Clients’ Tour. Before I took the stage, we had the pleasure of sitting down for a few minutes with the team from IFV News, where we shared some great tips and strategies for playing BIG in business (and in life!). Enjoy the interview and let me know what you think!

[youtube width=”600″ height=”352″]http://youtu.be/YV8Ash1t9Fc?hd=1[/youtube]

One of the ways to play a much bigger game in marketing your business and really create leverage in your business is through speaking. Why? Because instead of talking one-to-one, you’re now talking one-to-many. Instead of marketing one-to-one, you’re now marketing one-to-many. That is the ultimate leverage.

There are two ways to speak. You can hold your own  and conferences or you can be a speaker for a group that has already done all the work to assemble your ideal clients for you. You just come in and speak. Either way there is one thing that you need either to fill your room or to get booked to speak and that is a compelling signature talk title. When you have a compelling signature talk title, it is the one thing that will fill your room.

A lot of people spend a lot of time with their content but their signature talk title is an afterthought. I want you to think about reversing that. Obviously you want to give good content in your actual talk but before a prospective attendee decides whether to come to the talk or not, they really need to be compelled by your talk title.

So I would recommend that you spend quite a bit of time creating a signature talk title that will have somebody say, “Wow! That’s exactly what I need. I’m going to cancel my Tuesday evening dinner plans with my friends to come and see this person speak.” It should be so compelling that even you would want to go even though you’re already an expert at what you do.

In the same vein when you’re booked to speak by a promoter or an event planner, the signature talk title is the thing that they will decide whether or not they will hire you to come and speak.

So how do you create a compelling signature talk title that will make somebody hire you or come to hear you speak? Well, I believe that your talk title should provide the answer to your ideal clients’ biggest struggle. So if your ideal clients’ biggest struggle is to attract clients then you want to put that in your signature talk title.

For example, for many years my signature talk title has been, How to Attract All the Clients You Need. It’s even the title of my free CD, I’ve done teleclasses on this. I get booked to speak all over the world with this talk title because all of my ideal clients are looking for more clients, whether they are just starting out or they want to really leverage and fill their programs.

So the way I want you to think about this is what would your ideal client do anything and pay anything to have—perhaps to increase or decrease, to acquire, or to let go of? What would they do anything and pay anything for? What are their biggest struggles, the biggest challenges that they have? Once you’ve written it down, turn it into a signature talk title by saying, “How to.” For example, if your best client has trouble growing their hair, then, “How to stop the balding and grow more hair” could be your signature talk title. Then if you want to make it even more interesting, add “in 30 days or less,” or “in half the time.” The idea is that the minute your ideal client sees the title, they will say, “Wow! I have got to attend!”

Your video assignment

Your assignment for the week is creating your compelling signature talk title. Give it a lot of thought and work it out. Then post it in the comments below on my blog. I want to read what is it that you’re going to use to fill your rooms or to get booked to speak. Good luck!

As you know, I encourage my clients to make the important shift from trading hours for dollars to offering packages. This is a key step for achieving your financial goals more quickly. It also simplifies your billing and fee collection when you sell packages vs. counting up the hours you worked and sending invoices.

But letting clients know about your changes takes a bit of finesse. This announcement can be a delicate communication that needs to be handled in the right way.

First, keep in mind that you want to let your current paying clients know ahead of time, before you make the change. And they are more likely to feel comfortable with the change if you share your rationale about why this is the best solution FOR THEM.

Write a letter that starts with what concerns they may have with your current billing system. You are setting up a problem they may have such as:

  • They might not want to bother us for changes
  • They might not want to pull out their checkbook every time we talk
  • They might hold off asking for help because they don’t know what the bill will be

Then follow up with how your pricing change will help them with these concerns. You might say something like, “Now we’re making it easier for you by having a retainer (package pricing, etc. – whatever you want to call it.) The point is to approach this as a way to reassure current clients that the new policy is in their best interest.

This is the kind of communication best handled with a letter rather than an email. No need to announce the change to your full data base in your newsletter because it’s not pertinent to people on the list who you haven’t worked with yet. When you think about it, your pricing change isn’t a selling point for prospects.

Shifting to package pricing is an exciting change for your business. How you handle it with your paying clients will make a big difference as to how they react. Follow these steps and you will find things should go smoothly.

Your Client Attraction Assignment

Is there an area of your business where you can make the shift to package pricing? If you are ready to make this change, congratulations!

When you prepare the letter to announce the new policy to your current paying clients, have someone you trust and respect read the letter. You want to be sure the wording makes your point clearly and the changes are communicated effectively, with your clients’ best interests in 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.

When you are starting out, your warm letter of introduction can be a highly effective way to get the word out about your services. Sending this letter educates your inner circle regarding what you are up to and how they can help. This can start the flow of referrals that will help fill your practice. If you know 250 people between family, house of worship, colleagues from past jobs, people you have met networking and friends, you can see the power of contacting these folks to help you spread the word.

Some clients have told me they find it hard to stuff all the envelopes and get everyone’s mailing address. They say it would be so much easier and cheaper to email everyone instead. Unfortunately, email delivers only a sliver of results that the actual letter in the mail can produce.

Sometimes clients decide to move forward doing things their way, even after hearing that the email won’t work very well. When I follow up with them a few weeks later asking, “How did the warm letter email go?” they would admit that it had little or no impact.

When you get an email that is more than a few sentences or even a couple of paragraphs, we often don’t read them. We might put them into our “read later” file, but let’s be honest; most people usually never get back to it.

On the other hand, when a letter arrives, you might open it at the kitchen table and read it while having a glass of wine or some cheese and crackers at the end of the day. People are likely to spend more time with a physical letter, where an email is fleeting and easy to ignore.

I absolutely recommend putting in the extra effort to send a snail mail letter if you want to get the results to help launch or build your business.

Your Client Attraction Assignment

1. Have you written your warm letter? If not, write it this week.

2. Better yet, have you mailed it? It’s never too late to send your first warm letter letting your network of contacts know what you are doing and how they can help.

3. Or, if you have already sent your first letter, update it and send another round to stay top-of-mind.

You never know who your contacts might meet that could take advantage of your services.

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.

When you are just starting to look for speaking opportunities, you may wonder where to begin. There are a number of organizations that look for speakers on a regular basis, sometimes monthly or even weekly. They may not pay you, but don’t let that stop you from accepting the gig. Every time you speak, you’ll still meet lots of new people and build your marketing list.

Here is a small list of groups to check into that frequently need speakers:

  • Traditional Groups
  • Rotary Clubs
  • Lions Clubs
  • Chamber of Commerce Lead Groups

Women’s Networking Groups
Women specific networking has become very popular and organizations with local chapters are popping up all over.

BNI offers its members an exclusive spot and features speakers from within the group only. But there are many spin-off groups that have cropped up in recent years that are open to outside speakers like you.

Groups tend to vary somewhat by location. For example, in large cities the Chamber of Commerce might not be the hottest spot since so many competing networking organizations exist. But in the suburbs and more rural areas, the chambers are likely to be where it’s happening. The same is true for Rotary and any organization really – you have to ask a few questions to find out if most people will match your target audience. Some Rotary Clubs have a lot of older members, where others have an influx of new and younger members.

Keep in mind too that there are probably many locally-formed networking groups in your area. You can Google to find out what groups are near you.

When I first started out, I spoke to almost any group within a 30-mile radius. So even if it was a room with only 12 people, I would pass around my sign-in sheet asking if they wanted to receive my free client attraction tools by email. While the number was sometimes small, it was still a nice addition to my list. Over time I sought out groups with larger membership and attendance. Now I won’t speak unless there is a minimum of 50-75 people because I’m already getting plenty of leads through my marketing pie.

As I gained experience with delivering my signature talk and working the room, I started reaching higher, contacting trade associations and meeting planners for more formal speaking opportunities. This helped me get in front of larger groups and over time I started getting the paying gigs. However initially, when you are starting to build your business, get some traction with the free talks so you can hone your program and skills, while building your ezine list.

Your Client Attraction Assignment

  1. Discover what groups are in your area seeking speakers.
  2. Ask the people you meet where else they network.
  3. Make a point of inquiring if they know any other places where you might speak.
  4. Contact the groups that sound like they are a good fit with your target audience and get yourself on the calendar.

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.

If you want to start making more being self-employed while having more time off, it’s crucial to outsource, delegate, and systematize different parts of your business, even if you’re a beginner. Let’s face it, it takes a lot to make your solo-business a Client Attraction machine, but even more so if you’re doing it all on your own.

One of the reasons so many solo-preneurs quit or watch their businesses fail is that they’re doing everything themselves and they eventually run the business into the ground. When we think of being self-employed, we often think it should be just “us,” like we’re out to prove something. Thing is, you CANNOT do it all on your own. (Believe me, I tried.) If you do, you won’t grow and worse, you’ll eventually burn out, both personally and professionally.

This is where you may need to let go of your ICF (“Inner Control Freak”) and start delegating and outsourcing some aspects of your business. I’ll admit; sometimes that’s easier said than done. The most frequent question that comes up when I talk to entrepreneurs about delegating and outsourcing is, “Where do I start? What should I outsource?”

The key with outsourcing is to LEVERAGE your time and resources by delegating specific things in your business to someone else who’s happy to do them for you. That said, here’s what you should begin outsourcing:

  • Stuff you’re not good at.
  • Stuff you don’t know how to do.
  • Stuff you don’t have time to do.
  • Anything outside of your brilliance/genius. (so you can focus on the stuff only  YOU can do. For me, that’s coaching, speaking, writing, and marketing.)

Outsourcing the above allows you to strengthen your strengths, not your weaknesses. Here’s what I mean. For years, I’ve been really good at marketing and attracting clients, both for myself and for my own clients. It comes to me naturally; it’s my passion and my core competency. Bookkeeping on the other hand, is NOT. For years, I would beat myself up for not being able to balance a checkbook, organize my receipts, make sure stuff was paid on time, or taxes filed on time. It was a big source of shame for me.

Quite a few years ago, I decided I was going to strengthen my weakness and get REALLY good at bookkeeping for my business. I bought a brand new copy of QuickBooks, cleared the whole weekend, pulled all the receipts, old bills, credit card receipts and tax papers out of the many shopping bags I’d stuffed under the bed and in the closet, and decided I was going to master this THING, once and for all.

Not only did it take me all weekend, but I got exasperated and anxious, depressed, and honestly, I cried more than once. You see, I was working OUTSIDE of my brilliance and “genius” work. I was trying to get really good at something I will never be really good at. And what I realized is, even if I got “really” good at it, I would only be a mediocre bookkeeper, in comparison to people who are brilliant at it. Even if I conquered this weakness, I would still not master it.

I realized that if I’d spent the same time doing things I’m really good at, like making money, I would have made a LOT more than what I would have paid someone to do this for me. Using the same number of hours marketing and writing, I could have written a new info-product or created a new program, both of which would have brought in thousands and thousands of dollars. But I chose instead to get good at bookkeeping? Never again.

Once I got really good at outsourcing, I had an entire virtual business team that worked with me to help me focus on what I do best: 3 virtual assistants, one transcriptions assistant, an off-shore team to take care of miscellaneous things, an in-person assistant to run errands and file, a bookkeeping team, an accounting team, a law firm, a fulfillment house, a CD duplication company, an event planning team, travel agents, graphic designers, ghostwriter, and more.

It sounds like a lot (and I certainly didn’t start out that way), but believe me, at that time just my 3 virtual assistants saved me SO much time, at least 117 hours per month, so I could work on what I do best. That’s almost 3 weeks’ worth of 9-hour days, not even counting lunch or bathroom breaks, and I’m only counting 3 of those people, not the entire team

Wow! Maybe you CAN have more than 24 hours in a day. That is, IF you outsource. If it doesn’t come easily to me, then I delegate it and use my time doing what I’m best at. It’s the ultimate leverage.

Your Assignment:

Take out a pad of paper and make a list of specific things in your business that you could outsource or delegate to someone else:

  • Stuff you’re not good at.
  • Stuff you don’t know how to do.
  • Stuff you don’t have time to do.
  • Stuff someone ELSE will be better at.
  • Anything outside of your brilliance/genius

Make another list of your strengths and then one of your weaknesses (it’s OK, we all have ‘em). Begin to focus on delegating your weaknesses and anything that’s not Client Attraction and client work. You’ll begin to see a MAJOR difference in your re-venues, often as early as within a couple of weeks. When you see more mo.ney coming in, you’ll want to outsource ALL you can and it’ll become a game really worth playing. You make mo.re, play more. Everyone wins.

That said, you may be wondering WHERE to begin finding people to outsource to so you can make Client Attraction a priority and market your business in a way that’ll give you the most returns with little effort on your part. 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.

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