Week 1, Getting Started

Lesson One – What we’re here to do

This is a five-week course designed to help you bring in new clients through sales conversations.

If stress about money is high enough that you can’t focus on long-term development for your business, it’s worth taking time and risking some discomfort to bring more business in now.

Plus, selling is a basic business skill that will serve you for the lifetime of your business.

One of the odd things that has happened in the last 5 or 6 years is a huge emphasis on online marketing, building your list, and leveraging your offers. These are all valuable techniques, but they are not always appropriate, or the most useful, in the early stages of your business.

If you are in the very early stages of your business, or if your business does not yet bring in steady income, or your business has stopped bringing in steady income, I recommend that you focus first on enrolling one-on-one clients through sales converations.

And I recommend you do it in simple, direct ways like writing and speaking to people in your personal network, attending live networking meetings, and reaching out to groups of people you already belong to. If emailing your list or using social media is not currently producing the leads you need, I encourage you to add these simple, basic strategies to your plan.

Why?

You can do it right away without any ramp up or fancy tools. All you need is the courage to talk to people.

You can bring on clients right away when they are ready. You don’t need to get a group of people ready to go all at the same time.

You are flexible, you can change your offer, who you offer to, and what you charge person to person.

One-on-one clients usually bring you more money quickly than trying to enroll lower-priced groups.

If you mess up, it’s only one person. You can regroup and try again.

Growing your private practice builds your confidence and prepares you to offer bigger, more leveraged programs.

So, this is my proposition to you.

I want to invite you to reach out over the coming weeks using the means you have available to you now and invite people to have a conversation with you about how you might help them with a clearly defined challenge.

Your goal starting in a few weeks will be to book a certain number of conversations each week over a period of several weeks. Odds are very good that if you increase the number of sales conversations you have (because yes these are sales conversations), you will make more sales.

In fact, you may find that this is a practice you want to do on an ongoing basis in your business.

So, your step for today is this:

Are you game? Are you willing to stretch, be uncomfortable, and move through any fear that comes up along the way?

If it’s a yes, stand up, raise your arms, and say “yes” out loud!

If it’s a maybe, that’s ok too. What I want is to ask if you can commit to taking action each day in response to each lesson, even if you’re not sure you’re doing it right, or if you can. Just try your best with each lesson.

I’ve done my best to break this down into manageable steps for you.

Week One and Two we’ll get ramped up and focus on WHAT you can offer now for sale, without minimal prep or development.
Week Three and Four you’ll look at WHO you can make offers to who are already around you or within reach.
Week Five and Six you will learn a simple structure for a sales conversation and start reaching out.
Week Seven and Eight you will reach out until you reach your goal of scheduling a certain number of conversations.
Week Nine and Ten you will tweak and refine your efforts and decide how you want to proceed.

Lesson Two – Do You Know What to Offer?

This may sound like a silly question. Of course you know what to offer.

But the truth is, there may be stages in your business where you are getting started, or revamping, and the truth is, you could be a little fuzzy. Or maybe you have so many options, you aren’t sure what to lead with.

Let’s imagine that you are sitting in front of prospective client who is perfect for you. You’ve just had a great conversation and learned more about their needs and what they want. You know you can help and make a difference for them.

At the end of the conversation, what would you offer them? What specific program, package, or service would you suggest?

Are you clear what to offer?

Do you feel good about what you are offering?

It doesn’t have to be a one-size-fits-all package. It can be a custom offer based on the conversation, if you can create those easily.

What I want you to assess honestly is how clear YOU feel about what to offer and how GOOD you feel about what you can offer.

If you would normally make a proposal based on the conversation, that’s fine.

If you would offer one of a few options, that’s fine.

On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 low, 10 high, how clear are you what to offer?
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 low, 10 high, how good do you feel about what you currently offer?

If you are at a 7 or above, you may not need the following three lessons.

However, if you feel confused about what to offer, if you wait for the prospect to ask if they can work with you, if you feel your current offers aren’t meeting with much success, you may want to explore if there is something new you might want to have ready to offer for your next sales conversations. That’s what we’ll do in the next three lessons.