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We will help you get there by sharing with you the best marketing, sales/enrollment and mindset practices known to humankind today… All of these practices are tested and come from the people who are the very best at utilizing and teaching them. These will be some of the most extraordinary people on this planet. Get ready for your Big Shift!


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Archives for March 2010

Are you overlooking these 7 areas in your business?

March 25 by 1 Comment

Have you ever had this experience?

You learn a new word that you seem to have never heard of before, then, all of a sudden you start hearing and seeing that word everywhere.

Is the word being used more now that you’ve learned it?

Or,

Are you simply noticing it more because you’ve increased your possibilities by learning a new word?

When you open your attention to new things –> you increase your possibilities

When you’re stuck, it simply means that you’ve gotten into a rut of looking at the same things over and over again.

When you widen the range of what you pay attention to and then begin to change your actions accordingly, you shift.  You get unstuck.

I call this “The Perception Principle.”

The perception principle is at the heart of why certain business owners stagnate or fail, and why others achieve success and create businesses that allow them to have financial freedom.

When you put your attention on “what works” in successful businesses, (including your own), you expand the scope of what you notice, learn and apply from what works, your business grows, your confidence soars, and your stress disappears.

Heres a list of areas that I find most business owners need to pay extra attention to:

  1. Your Audience – Knowing your audience and their needs and being able to articulate it
  2. Your Promise to Your Audience – Knowing what you’re promising your audience that they are actually willing to invest into
  3. Your Business Model – Figuring out the optimal way to set up the packages, offerings, and money flow in your business
  4. Your Marketing Flow – Understanding and optimizing the entire flow of how you attract and retain clients
  5. Your Team – Continually finding ways for you to do what you love, and let others take care of the rest
  6. Your Systems – Creating ways to get great results EVERY time (no more needing to constantly reinventing the wheel)
  7. Your Self – Total commitment to mastery in your areas of expertise including knowing yourself and getting better at being YOU

It’s not always easy to notice NEW POSSIBILITIES in each of these areas.  And it certainly is not easy to commit to devoting time and energy to working ON your business in this way.  Yet, the more you pay attention, and the more you can see your business with new eyes, the more your business expands to include new opportunities for increased revenue, better teams, greater partnerships and making more of a difference.

So let me know in the comments below – what is one area that needs more attention in your business?  How can the perception principle help you focus on this area?

 

Filed Under: Blogging, Business, Coaching, Prosperity, Time Management

Are You Sabotaging Your Sales Conversations?

March 25 by 1 Comment

As a business coach, I get a LOT of questions from very diverse business owners.

One of the most frequent questions is this:
“Im very good at what I do! so why aren’t people hiring me?”

Is this happening with you?

If so, I am going to share with you three of the biggest mistakes people make when they are having an enrollment conversation with potential clients.
(By the way, “enrollment conversation” is another way of saying “initial consultation” or “sales conversation”)

MISTAKE #1 – Promoting your services before your potential client gets clear on what they REALLY want.
The consultation is about your potential clients and their needs, and not about you. So be sure to take a substantial part of your consultation to ask questions to understand you potential clients needs before you offer solutions.

When you understand their deepest wants and needs – and I mean whats keeping them up at night – then you’re in a great place to offer your services as a solution.

If you aren’t establishing the “Gap”, you’re going to have a hard time getting hired! The “Gap” is the frustration that potential clients feel about the chasm between where they are now and where they want to go with their life, business, health, web site, etc.

MISTAKE #2 – Trying to solve the potential clients problem during your initial consultation. The consultation is not the time to help your prospect solve a micro-problem they are currently having.  Its an opportunity for them to see much greater opportunities for themselves and for their business and to establish you as someone who can help them close the gap.

Heres why this is a mistake. Often when you give them 1/20th of a solution to their problem, they think theyve already received the solution from you and go off to implement it on their own – without hiring you.

This is not the best way you can be of service to them, since their problem is only partially solved. And it will certainly not land you the client.

And this isnt just an issue for coaches – its often true whether you are a web designer, business consultant, healer or wellness practitioner, professional organizer, etc.

MISTAKE #3 – Not using a consistent system for your enrollment conversation.
When you’re having a conversation with a potential client about working together, is it something you do spontaneously, without a script or agenda? Does it feel kind of random, and you’re uncertain if your conversation is going to work? You may even feel like the conversation with your potential client is going well, but then they don’t hire you. And you don’t why.

If this is the case, I have to ask you, do you have a “system” that you are using in every sales conversation?

I am not a systematic guy by nature.  In fact, I have often been allergic to systems.

But after a while, I couldnt deny that when I developed a system for enrolling clients during a one-on-one consultation, used it every time, continually made it better – the results spoke for themselves. My results jumped from a 0% success rate to a place where now 80% of prospective clients hire me.

If you are making one or all of these mistakes in your enrollment consultations, don’t despair!

Just make a conscious effort to change how you’re approaching your clients and holding these conversations.

And consider learning a more systematic approach to having enrollment conversations, such as my “Master of Enrollment” program.
Before you know it you these conversations will flow with ease, and you’ll allow new clients to say “yes” to you.

Filed Under: Business, Coaching, Getting Clients, Marketing

Become A Master Of Enrollment

March 19 by 4 Comments

That was an exciting call on becoming a master of enrollment last night!
The outpouring of emails has been amazing, and I loved the passionate questions on the Q&A after the call.

Id love for this to be a place where you can share with me and with others what youve learned!

If you missed the free call, it’s not too late! You can get it here.

Take a minute and share your thoughts on one of these 2 things:

(1) Share a learning, insight, or action you’re going to take, based on last nights call
(2) Explain your biggest challenge when it comes to enrolling new clients, whether one-on-one, in a teleseminar, or speaking to groups. I want to make sure I’ve covered every question and every aspect of this in my new program.

Leave me your comment below, and thank you for your help!

Filed Under: Business, Coaching

It’s Time To Fire Your Inner Perfectionist

March 4 by 1 Comment

Imperfect action

I’ve got a wish.

I wish I could erase a word from your vocabulary. That word is perfection.

I know I am being dramatic here and it’s not really the word I want to erase, but I do want to erase the baggage that comes along with it.

When were attached to perfection:

  • We spend a lot of time learning, and not much time implementing
  • We procrastinate and procrastinate
  • We spend too much time making it just right (and its still not perfect anyway!)

Heres the thing – whatever you’re doing will never be “perfect” until you try it out in real life with real people.

So heres my favorite motto: Imperfect action is better than no action.

Taking lots of imperfect action is what gets us new clients and new business.

I want to share a success story to inspire you to imperfect action.

Last month I was teaching the art of mastering enrolling conversations on a coaching call.  I gave a participant a basic script for what to say in a sales conversation.

Instead of waiting months to get the script perfect and after almost “wimping out in the last moment,” she leapt into imperfect action right away and used the script with a prospective client. She stayed open and relied on her curiosity to get connected to her prospect. And by the end of the conversation, it was her prospect who asked if she had any packages she could offer her!

YES, this imperfect conversation turned into her client committing to working with her for the next 5 months. This imperfect action not only resulted in a long-term client, it also renewed her confidence in her business and her ability to enroll other prospects into her business.

Here are a few lessons for enrolling new clients and overcoming your desire for perfection:

Imperfect Action Is Better Than No Action: Stop waiting for the perfect time, the perfect idea or the perfect package. Use what you have and “just do it”. You can always improve on what you have later but by if you don’t put it out there in the first place you’ll never make anything happen

“Perfection” Is Not A One Time Event – Its A Process of Trial and Error: Try something out (such as a sales conversation script), learn from every time you use it, and make an improvement every time.

Be Honest: Honesty is always the best policy. During enrolling conversations don’t fret about following the right steps or losing the prospect. Be in your element, show genuine interest in your prospect and trust your instincts. When you are honest and passionate about who you are and what you do the rest will fall into place

Celebrate All Victories: By trying to be perfect all the time, we forget the small things we accomplish. Instead of just focusing on the things she forgot to do, I asked my client to celebrate the fact that her client ASKED for her services. What a great success!

ARE YOU READY? LET ME KNOW BELOW IN THE COMMENTS
If you’re a perfectionist and my ode to imperfect action inspired you, I’d like to ask you to share an imperfect action you’re willing to take in the next 7 days in the comments below.

Filed Under: Business, Coaching, Creativity, Getting Clients, Success, Time Management