Why High-Paying Clients Are Different Back in science class everyone learned that a chain reaction is a sequence of reactions that causes additional reactions to take place. In nuclear physics, what happens to a single neutron can result in a nuclear explosion. A metaphor for a chain reaction is a rolling snowball causing a larger snowball until finally an avalanche results (aka the "snowball effect," which Warren Buffett biographer Alice Schroeder uses to explain the world's greatest investor's success in The Snowball). Chemically, the equivalent to an icy avalanche is a spark causing a blazing forest fire. Those who want to attract high-paying clients are looking for the secret of creating a client attraction chain reaction. Peter Drucker, a founder of management science, famously said, "There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer." To do this, each and every independent consultant or business coach must answer three classic questions: What is my business? Who is my client? What does my client consider valuable? (Drucker, 1954, The Practice of Management). The number one challenge for independent consultants, professionals, and coaches is attracting new clients. Ironically, many consultants and coaches feel marketing is too time consuming, expensive, or undignified. Even if they try a marketing or business development program, most consultants, professionals and coaches are frustrated by a lack of results. They even worry if marketing would ever work for them. And no wonder According to David Maister, a retired professor from the Harvard Business School, the typical sales and marketing hype that works for retailers and manufacturers is not only a waste of time and money for consultants, professionals, and coaches, it actually makes them less attractive to prospective clients. However, research has proven there is a better way. There is a proven process for marketing with integrity and getting an up to 400 percent to 2000 percent return on your marketing investment. My trademarked name for this client attraction chain reaction system is the Educating Expert Model, and the most successful professional service and consulting firms use it to attract high-paying clients. To attract new clients, the best approach for consultants and coaches is to demonstrate expertise by sharing valuable information through writing and speaking. For consultants and coaches, this I believe with my heart of hearts: the number one marketing tool is a book and the number one marketing strategy is a speech. Research shows independent consultants and coaches can fill a pipeline with qualified prospects in as little as thirty days by offering advice to prospects on how to overcome their most pressing problems. What should consultants and coaches do to increase revenues? First, understand that generating leads is an investment and should be measured like any other investment. Next, quit wasting money on ineffective means like brochures, advertising, and sponsorships. The best marketing investment you can make is to get help creating informative websites, hosting persuasive seminars, booking speaking engagements, and getting published as a newsletter columnist and eventually book author. Rather than creating a brochure, start by writing how-to articles. Those articles turn into speeches and seminars. Eventually, you gather the articles and publish a book through a strategy called print-on-demand publishing. Does it work? Here is a list of three business best-seller titles that started out independently published: The One Minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson: picked up by William Morrow & Co. In Search of Excellence, by Tom Peters (of McKinsey & Co.): in its first year, sold more than 25,000 copies directly to consumers- then Warner sold 10 million more. Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun, by Weiss Roberts: sold half a million copies before being picked up by Warner Even if you believe in the Educating Expert Model, how do you find time to do it and still get client and administrative work done? No business ever believes they have too much time on their hands. The answer is to buy out the time for marketing. You need to be involved, but you should not do this all on your own. Trial and error are very expensive learning methods. Wouldn't it be better if someone who knows the tricks and shortcuts helped you? We can show you how to leverage your time and get others to do most of the work for you, even if you are a solo practitioner Mark LeBlanc, author of Growing Your Business and my coauthor of two books, has coached more than 1,000 consultants and coaches and advises them to invest 35 percent of gross revenues into business development and 15 percent into office and administration expenses. If that is what it takes to create a client attraction chain reaction, the investment is well worth the snowball effect it will generate in attracting a sophisticated clientele. How To Attract A Sophisticated Clientele If you want to attract just any client, then this book is not for you. The Client Attraction Chain Reaction is about attracting a clientele that is a cut above. When marketing pros talk about a sophisticated clientele, what they are really talking about is attracting high-paying clients. Based on twenty years of research in the field, my definition of a high-paying client is a client that will pay more than $10,000 for a service, and there are many such clients. Novelist Ernest Hemingway is responsible for a famous misquotation of fellow novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald. According to Hemingway, a conversation between him and Fitzgerald went: Fitzgerald: "The rich are different from you and me." Hemingway: "Yes, they have more money." High-paying clients have more money and are more discerning than someone who will pay less than $10,000 for a service. Author Neil Rackham, who analyzed more than 35,000 sales calls to write his classic book Spin Selling, called it the large, complex sale. Others term these people as sophisticated prospects. "Sophisticated prospects make a series of decisions in buying services, but the first decision is to buy from those who can solve problems," says business development thought leader Scott Love. Love is a high-stakes headhunter for international law firms and has a high-paying clientele. I know him as a professional speaker for business groups who speaks on recruiting, retention and client development. For those who deal with sophisticated prospects, Love says there are four keys to keep in mind when discussing your services: Value leads to trust, which leads to relationship. "Many people try to build a relationship first without showing value and without building trust," says Love. "Many people think they must build a relationship first, but this is incorrect. You must earn the right to build a relationship by showcasing your value to them, and at that point you have gained access to the path that leads to a relationship." Understand that you are not the only provider with whom they are speaking. "Differentiate yourself by asking intelligent questions," says Love. "Probe more than pitch. Listen first for the problem, then show your services as a solution. The very notion of asking questions is so unique that it will actually differentiate you from your competitors. Further, your own uniqueness is magnified as you do so." Lead them forward. "Once you sense that they see you as a solution to their problem, then discuss where you are headed in the relationship," says Love. "Discuss the next step and ask for their permission to go forward. I refer to this concept as the two magic questions. Explain how you will go forward, and then ask them this: 'Does that make sense?' Assume that they respond affirmatively, then gain agreement and permission to go forward by asking this: 'Are you okay working this way?' By them giving you a verbal response, it heightens their commitment to you." Give them a way out. "When you squeeze a prospect, then the prospect usually disappears," says Love. "Hard core closing skills are what sophisticated prospects fear most. They are either going to work with you or not. If they are, then you increase the odds of getting their trust by showing them the exit door. I recruit partner level attorneys and I tell all of them something like this: 'As we go forward, and if you believe my client's opportunity is not for you, then please be honest with me. The only thing that counts in this whole process is that you do what is clearly in your own best interests. All I ask is that you are honest with me about what that is.' When they see that your motivation is clearly aligned with their own self-interests, then they will trust you." A final piece of advice from Love. "You do not know the buying motives of prospects until you ask. If you ask them, they will tell you." Why You Need To Think And Grow Rich Your Brand True story: The year was 2005 and I was waiting in a hotel lobby in Denver to meet a client. I had a name but not a face. A man hurried into the lobby, scanned the room, and came up to...
