Why People Far Less Talented Than You Get the Clients and You Don t

Transcription

1 Why People Far Less Talented Than You Get the Clients and You Don t

2 From: Jason Leister Editor, The Client Letter Dear Service Provider,! It s frustrating to see people far less talented and capable than you get what you think you should have.! But it happens all the time! The writer who, according to the purists, can t write, gets a New York Times bestseller. Ends up on the TODAY show. Maybe even gets interviewed by Oprah.! Or maybe it s the second rate hack of a PR expert who somehow picks off the best clients by weaseling his way into A-List cocktail parties.! Of course there are always those financial advisors who most other financial advisors could easily run circles around. And yet, these guys end up with the affluent clients.! Sadly, the best service providers don t always get the clients.! It can get frustrating. In fact, it can lead you to asking questions like What the H*ll is Wrong With The World?! The fact is, there are a lot of clients out there with your name on them. They re just sitting there right now, dealing with the problems that your service helps solve.! But if you don t figure out how to attract them, someone else is going to.

3 ! And chances are, that someone is probably not nearly as talented or capable as you are.! But that won t matter.! Because your potential clients need solutions to problems.! They need relief from pain.! They need clarity in the midst of confusion.! That means the clock is ticking. And if you don t do the work to show-up first and better, then you re going to lose.! The person who should have been your client will work with someone else.! So why does this happen?! Why do they get the clients even when the quality of your service is better way better? They Get the Clients (Your Clients) Because They Have Developed a Stronger Force of Attraction Than You Have! In the client business, nothing matters until you acquire a client.!! So that means attraction is everything. Developing your force of attraction is the game.! And to master the game, you have to invest focused effort on that mastery.!! If you want to attract more clients than you have, then it s time to take the focus off of improving the quality of your service and put it on the quality of your system for attracting clients.! Notice I used the word system.! That means you have something that has been deliberately created to produce a desired result. In this case, that result is more clients.! (This removes luck, hope and the once a year Holiday card as client attraction strategies.)

4 ! Also, notice that the phrase is attracting clients not getting clients.! Getting clients implies you re going out there and dragging them home.! This might work sometimes, but it s a dumb long term strategy.! Just how much do you think you can charge when you convince someone to work with you?! Not much. Not much at all.! Attracting clients means they come to you.! And this makes all the difference in the world. How Yours Truly Realized He Had No Idea How to Play The Game!! Most of this report is going to be about the attraction of clients into your business.! But humor me for a moment while I tell you a little story.! It s a story of a talented musician we ll call Mr. Naive.! It s during this story I m about to tell you that I er I mean Mr. Naive first encountered this phenomenon where second rate professionals make it to higher perches than first rate ones.! In a former life, I was a classical musician. A concert pipe organist to be exact.! (Please, no lectures about practical career choices. I ve heard all of those already.)! The biggest problem with choosing to pursue a career as a concert organist was that I hated playing concerts (go figure). The second biggest problem was that, while I was a really good player (OK, I was pretty awesome), I was really unprepared for navigating the political world of music.! In other words, while I knew how to play the organ, I had no idea how to play the game.! And as it turned out, playing the game was really the only way to secure the opportunities to play the organ.

5 ! And that leads me to the story of the man who introduced me to this game. We ll call him Mr. Savvy Schmoozer. Don t read anything into the name. It just fits, so let s run with it.! Mr. Savvy Schmoozer wasn t an amazing player, but he was an expert at playing the game.! And he also understood that playing the game was a prerequisite for playing the organ as a professional.! Over the years, I watched him maneuver throughout the organization we worked in (a church). Some people might call him a two-faced something but I ve learned to reserve judgement about people.! At the end of the day, I believe people are basically doing the best they know how to do.! Actually, he taught me something valuable.! What I learned from him was that this game existed. There was this whole other side to becoming a successful musician that I really had no idea was there.! I certainly didn t know the rules or how to win.! While Mr. Naive thought that being a great player was the way to the top, he soon found out it was maybe only 30% of it.! Without developing the skills to play this game I was toast. I soon found out what it felt like to be toast.! Now if you think this is leading to the point where I suggest you become some manipulative, scheming, political player, don t worry it s not.! I tell you this story simply to show you that there s a way most people think success is created in a business and then there s actually THE way it really happens.! In the music business, I thought success was all about the music. It wasn t.! In the client business, the game is mastering the art of attracting clients. This art is priority number one. Actually working with clients is priority two.! And yet, if you look at how most service providers spend their time, most of the focus is on the actual working with the clients.

6 ! This is the key to understand. Even more important is that you take action on this simple concept.! The secret is to master your ability to acquire clients.! Enclosed in this report are 7 Strategies you can put to use to help work towards that result.! Understand, this is a process that evolves, not an event with a beginning and an end.! There s a lot of good stuff in here, so read this carefully and jot down any ideas that come to mind about how you can work some of these strategies into your daily routine.! Once you put some of these strategies into practice, you ll probably start to notice a few things. First, you ll be treated differently by your prospects and clients. Instead of being treated like a vendor, you ll be perceived as a professional. (NOTE: Professionals make more money.)! Second, instead of doing business on your clients terms, you ll soon realize you have the power to do business on your terms. And that s really just the beginning.! As your power of attraction grows, so will your results.! So let s go: STRATEGY 1: Stop Saying How Great You Are and Create a Way to SHOW It! Why do you want to stop this? Why would you want to stop telling the world how great you are?! Isn't that what attracts clients?! No way Jose. I don't think so.! And the reasons are simple.! It's not because you're not great at what you do. You probably are, or at least you're dedicated to getting there.! The real issue with trying to get clients by "beating your chest" and telling them about all the great things you've done is twofold:

7 1. Everyone else does it, so it's hard to get noticed. 2. Your clients don't care about you. They care about them.! What do YOU think about people who can't stop talking about themselves and how great they are?! I know that I can't stand people like that.! Now I'm a copywriter and marketing consultant. I write things that sell products and services.! Take a look at what I used to send out to get clients...! (The funny thing is, this actually got some results too. Turns out, sometimes all you have to do is do SOMETHING.) What's the problem with this?! It's all about ME. Talking about ME is no way to attract anything. In fact, it s a good way to repel things.! Here's the kind of thing I eventually MOVED to when I wised up a bit and decided to do some original thinking: Now how often could I send stuff like example #1?! Not too often without getting annoying.! But example #2? Is there a limit to how much value you can deliver to a potential client? I don't think so.! Ask yourself, "How can I SHOW my expertise in a way that adds value to my potential clients?"! Answer that question, then take some action.! Show them, don't just tell them.! Sending out that first letter I showed you was a bit of a mistake on my part. I really didn't know better at the time, I was just writing the same stuff I saw other people creating. Learn from my mistake, don't repeat it.

8 ! As a new subscriber to The Client Letter, you ll soon see just how open I am about revealing some of the biggest and most expensive mistakes I ve made in my business. Hopefully, hearing about my mistakes can save you from making them yourself. STRATEGY 2: Consistency, Consistency, Consistency, Consistency! I remember long ago hearing Dan Kennedy talk about how marketing is a PROCESS not an event. I thought it sounded like common sense, but I had no idea just how valuable that one sentence was at the time.! When you're out trying to attract clients, it is VERY easy to get frustrated when you send out a mailing (are you sending out mailings? :) and have little to nothing happen.! When you invest all of that time, effort and money and NOTHING comes of it... well, it can get you down.! That's when a lot of people probably quit and say something like, "Well THAT didn't work..."! That's the moment at which you need to remember that marketing is a process not an event.! We're kind of lucky in the "attracting clients" business, because our conversion rates can be absolutely TERRIBLE and we can still do well. Really well, actually.! If you're selling widgets for $29 and they cost you $18 to produce, that's a tough road. You have to make your marketing CONVERT or you get killed pretty quick. You're only working on an $11 margin, which has to include overhead, marketing and your profit. Ouch.! In our business, I don't care if I have to pay $5,000 to talk to 1,000 prospects... Because if even 1 of those people becomes a long term client, I can make my money back many, many times over.! Do you see what an advantage it is to be in a high margin business? The margins and numbers play in our favor there.! The thing is, you aren't given X-Ray goggles to see what's actually going on in the head of your prospects. So even though the clients didn't call, you can't tell if you've made progress.

9 ! One day, they're not interested in hiring you. But 4 months from now, something CLICKS and they give you a ring.! Just think of it like you're pushing a big train up the hill. It's a TON of work sometimes. You push and you push and push and the train inches forward. If you stop pushing too early, the train slides back and you get crushed.! But at SOME point, you get the train up over the hill. In a split second, you go from pushing to watching the train fly down the other side.! In a SINGLE MOMENT everything changes.! I think that's just like marketing.! Which brings us again to the title of Strategy #2: Consistency, Consistency, Consistency, Consistency! You just have to keep adding value to your prospects. Eventually, the right clients appear.! You don't always control when or how that happens, but you keep marketing anyway.! Consistency, consistency, consistency, consistency.! It's one of the best competitive advantages I know of in this business.! Stick around and keep marketing... it pays off.! If you're not seeing the results you want, then the first place I'd give some attention is the true state of your marketing.! Are you doing it CONSISTENTLY?! Be honest about this. You know if you're doing the work or not.! Let's be real, unless you have thousands of readers, writing a BLOG post is not really marketing.! I should know... I've done a lot of them. They haven't brought me much.! That's mainly because there's a pretty good chance that your next client doesn't read your blog... or even know you exist.

10 ! Sure there are exceptions to this but...! Here's what the internet has done:! It's given us tools that make it FEEL like we're getting something done even when we're NOT.! To a large extent, this point and click world we live in has made us lazy. We forget what real work is.! The question you need to ask yourself is this:! How many MORE people know about me TODAY than knew about me YESTERDAY?! If the number is too embarrassing to say out loud, you've got work to do.! Once you ramp up your marketing machine, prospects will start calling. All you have to do then is make sure you re prepared to make that first call awesome. You don t get to redo that first impression. So you don t want to screw it up. STRATEGY 3: Get Out of the Selling Business and Into the Sorting Business! I touched on this issue just a moment in earlier, but now we're going to dig deeper into it.! What's the issue?! The issue is: how do you get out of the habit of "selling" a client to work with you?! We've all done it. Maybe you need the money, or maybe there's a client that you REALLY want to work with. No matter what the reason, the sequence of events is pretty much the same.! The prospect shows up, you want the business, and so you go after it.! You do your best to communicate how awesome you are. Maybe you show them a lot of your work or maybe you give them a bit of free help... just to show them that you know what you're talking about.! I'm sure clients like to get free stuff, but in my opinion, the harder you work to "get" the business the more likely it is that you WON'T get the business.

11 ! Things you chase tend to flee.! This is one of those counter intuitive strategies that just doesn't make sense on the surface, but it really, REALLY works.! The first order of business is to generate enough prospects. You have to figure out how to do that. (That's a BIG topic, so we'll deal with that some other time.)! I think that many freelancers and professional service providers struggle simply because they don't have enough prospects knocking on their door to have a fighting chance of success.! Instead, they have to POUNCE on the one prospect they get every week.! How many qualified PROSPECTS did you talk to this week?! I'll give you a second to figure out your answer.! OK. Your number is either great or not.! My guess, though, is that it probably sucks.! If you need to generate more prospects, THAT'S where you should be investing your time.! Once they start coming, THAT'S when the big part of this strategy comes into play.! Here's Strategy #3: Get Out of the Selling Business and Into the Sorting Business! Never forget that your job is NOT to sell, your job is to SORT.! Selling has you emotionally tied to the outcome. That's a problem.! Sorting is just a mindless activity you do. I'll take that one, I don't want that one... She's a keeper, no to that one...! Sorting kind of implies you don't ultimately CARE. At least that's the energy you give off.! It's not that you're unprofessional, it's that you are so confident in YOURSELF that you don't need to chase anyone.

12 ! Bizarrely enough, that will tend to attract more clients :)! The cool thing about this strategy is that you can use it even if you DO only have one prospect a week to talk to.! This is about changing your MINDSET.! You act the same regardless. That's key. If they can smell that you need the business they will RUN. Trust me.! I only recently realized just how many things in my life and business I do to PLEASE other people and to be validated by them. As you might imagine, this can cause a LOT of problems when you're working with clients. I ve made a lot of mistakes over the years, and this is a big one. STRATEGY 4: Stop Selling What You DO and Start Selling What Your Clients Really GET! Now we jump into Strategy #4. It's one of the shortest, easiest to comprehend and most powerful ones ever. So you want to be sure to REALLY get this one down.! Getting this right can mean the difference between struggle and success.! Here's Strategy #4: Stop Selling What You DO and Start Selling What Your Clients Really GET! Let's say you're a web designer. You design websites for businesses. You sell web design right?! WRONG.! No one cares about the web design. In fact, if they could reach their goals without having to pay a web designer, they might just do that.! The web design is only a MEANS to an end.! Find out what those ends are... find out the real goals of your client and sell with THOSE in mind.! This is simple to understand. Common sense really.

13 ! But ask yourself, am I DOING this in my business? Am I framing the conversation around what my client GETS (the real benefits) because of what I do?! If you're not, it's time to make a change.! It will pay off.! This is the type of thing I work on with my private coaching clients. It s worth figuring out. STRATEGY 5: Stop Trying to Chase Prospects and Sales! Ever have a potential client who you spent time talking to just up and disappear?! What did you do next? Did you just go on your way and talk to the NEXT prospect?! Did you "follow-up" with them 4 or 5 times to see what happened?! It's easy to go into "chasing mode" when you're working with a prospect, but hopefully today's is going to show you why you should stop doing that once and for all.! Here's Strategy #5: Stop Trying to Chase Prospects and Sales! It sounds obvious to say that your job as a freelancer is to SELL your prospects on working with you, right?! Isn't that what we all do in this business?! WRONG.! In my opinion, the goal really shouldn't be to SELL them at all. At least that's not the mindset you want. A smarter way to view the sales process is simply as an exercise to get some facts.! Facts about whether or not a client is right for you and you for them.

14 ! Framing the whole scenario this way, removes the "I need you to say YES" dynamic from the equation.! Doesn't that sound crazy? Doesn't that just sound like semantics? Well it's not.! It might be hard to remember sometimes... especially when you "need the money." But those are the times when it's most important to remember.! I suggest you try it.! Just try to get the information YOU need to make a good decision about whether or not a particular client is a good fit... remind yourself to make THAT the priority.! You ultimately can't control your prospect's decision, but you CAN control yours.! So never forget to get the facts you need to make YOUR decision. You are in control of whether or not you want to work with this potential client.! There are many benefits to this strategy. First of all, you can just be yourself and not have to worry about what they will think if you say X, Y or Z.! You have nothing to prove to anyone. You're just doing your best to get the information you need.! Second of all, it will be VERY clear to them that you aren't chasing them. And it will also be clear to them that you don't NEED them.! This will probably do more for your sales results than anything else.! Just imagine the shift in energy that you will encounter if THAT'S your goal instead of having "SELLING THE CLIENT" as your goal?! Totally different.! Trying to "sell" someone puts them in the driver's seat since they have the ultimate decision over whether or not to say yes.! The other way puts YOU in control... you have a decision to make.! That's what this is about.! Is this client worth your time, effort and expertise? Will this client move you measurably closer to your goals?! You'd be asking yourself these questions if you had millions in the bank. There's no reason you shouldn't ask these same questions even NOW.

15 ! I've learned a lot in this business by repeating the same mistakes over and over again.! For example, I've learned that NOT being a people pleaser will lead to more success than going out of my way to please people.! How did I learn this? By spending WAY too much time as a people pleaser. Yes, I've made quite a few mistakes over the years. Mistakes that have cost me dearly. STRATEGY 6: Be Different! Before you can be successful as a freelancer or professional service provider, you have to get some great clients.! And before you can do THAT, you have to GET NOTICED.! If no one knows about you, they can't very well send you money right?! So how do you get noticed?! Here's Strategy #6:! Simple enough right? Be Different! Well, apparently not. Because if you look online, you see a bunch of freelancers and other service professionals doing the exact same things.! They get a website...! They get a blog...! They hook up all the social media gadgets and gizmos they can find...! They start commenting on OTHER blogs...! They write articles...! Hmmmm... I'm not saying those things have NO value, but you can be sure that the value is greatly diminished if EVERYONE else is doing them too.! So be different.

16 ! How do you be different?! Get creative. Use your noggin. Real thinking is the hardest work there is. It's also the best competitive advantage you can have.! Take advantage of the fact that the majority of your competition is LAZY.! While they're sitting on their couch watching movies, you can be doing stuff that's actually going to turn into clients.! Here's an example of one way to do it to give you some ideas: You can print something like that on real paper (yes, actual paper) and send it out using the REAL mail.! Heaven forbid. :)! Your clients have inboxes that are overflowing. But how many of them get REAL mail like this?! Take your ideas and your value and package them up in ways that others AREN'T.! Deliver them using MEDIA others aren't using.! Be DIFFERENT. Sounds almost too simple to be powerful please don t let that stop you. THIS is half the battle.! Here's Strategy #7: STRATEGY 7: Don't Let Working With Clients Block Your View of Your Real Goals Don't Let Working With Clients Block Your View of Your Real Goals! As the old saying goes, "When a person does not know what harbor he or she is making for, any wind will do."! I've made the mistake of periodically running my business "without a harbor" a few too many times.

17 ! I've let my client projects grow far too large in my mind... so large that making the project a success became my #1 goal.! Now I'm all for wowing your clients with great work and results... but I went further than that.! I lost track of the reality that any one client of mine is really only a stepping stone for me to reach my REAL goals. The BIG goals I've set for me, my business and my life.! To reach those goals, I have to actually set some.! You see, for a while, my big goal was to "get clients."! But the longer I kept doing that, the less satisfied I felt.! Because "getting clients" really isn't a goal. There's no way to measure it and there's no destination to arrive at. It never ends.! It's just a continuous rat race for MORE.! "More Clients" ISN'T a destination. And it's not really a goal.! Here's a smarter strategy:! Set some REAL goals based on what you want in life. Not goals for the rest of your life, but goals for NOW. For the next 12 months. For the next 24 months.! This takes time. And it takes a lot of thought. Figuring out exactly what you REALLY want isn't the easiest thing in the world.! But as you do that work, you'll realize there is another HUGE benefit to actually having some real goals:! The HUGE size of your real goals will make all of your challenges, roadblocks and problems with clients seem a whole lot smaller.! It will make them seem like bugs on the windshield.! That way, you can see them for what they are and keep on trucking towards what you really want to achieve.! Remember, goals aren't forever.! Here's the best part about setting clear goals in your business:

18 ! You can always change them... at any time.! But specific goals give you structure. And they give you a VERY easy defense system to stay away from clients you shouldn't be working with.! Here's how it works:! For every client or new project that shows up on your doorstep, you just ask yourself this question:! "Will working with this client move me closer to my goal or farther from it?"! All you have to do is listen to your gut. It will tell you the right answer every time.! Good luck! FINALLY: You Can Be Wicked Smaht About Working With Clients But None Of It Will Matter If You Don t Do Anything! Each day, I send out a new issue of The Client Letter to subscribers all over the world. You are now the newest subscriber and I hope you find the letter valuable. One reason I send it every weekday is because it s easy to forget to do the simple things that create success.! Even easier is to forget to do the simple things consistently. That s when magic happens.! Consider The Client Letter a gentle reminder to take action.! I m grateful to have you as a subscriber and I wish you the greatest success.! Jason Leister!