Momentum Podcast: 66

What If Your Clients Arent Succeeding?

by Alex Charfen

Episode Description

Whenever my patients are doing well, I feel great and momentum is full-bore. As soon as anyone backslides or has any problems, and since I work with sick people, this can happen, my balloon just totally deflates. I feel like, “What's the use? I suck. Why even market to people?” I actually feel myself getting anxious instead of excited when we have new patients start with us, because now I have their expectations on top of the pile of expectations I already contend with.

 

Full Audio Transcript

I'm Alex Charfen and this is the Momentum podcast, made for empire builders, game changers, trail blazers, shot takers, record breakers, world makers, and creators of all kinds; those among us who can't turn it off and don't know why anyone would want to. We challenge complacency, destroy apathy, and we are obsessed with creating momentum so we can roll over bureaucracy and make our greatest contribution.

Sure, we pay attention to their rules, but only so that we can bend them, break them, and then rewrite them around our own will. We don't accept our destiny; we define it. We don't understand defeat, because the only way you lose is if you stop and we don't know how. While the rest of the world strives for average and clings desperately to the status quo, we are the minority, the few, who are willing to hallucinate, there could be a better future. Instead of just daydreaming of what could be, we endure the vulnerability and exposure it takes to make it real. We are the evolutionary hunters, clearly the most important people in the world, because entrepreneurs are the only source of consistent, positive human evolution, and we always will be.

I recently had a question from a client that I think is so good that I wanted to record a response to share it with everyone because I think so many coaches, consultants, experts, people who are helping other people create momentum in any way, go through exactly this. Now, this one is from a client of mine who's a physician, so this is from a doctor's point of view, but if you're a coach or consultant, an expert, if you're influencing or helping people in any way, just insert your perspective on this same question. See if you've ever felt like this.

Here's the question: Whenever my patients are doing well, I feel great and momentum is full-bore. As soon as anyone backslides or has any problems, and since I work with sick people, this can happen, my balloon just totally deflates. I feel like, "What's the use? I suck. Why even market to people?" I actually feel myself getting anxious instead of excited when we have new patients start with us, because now I have their expectations on top of the pile of expectations I already contend with.

This has to be the exact opposite energy needed for us to grow. I have colleagues that say they are on fire to heal the world, and although I get moments like that I can’t sustain it. I’ve been doing this for close to 20 years now, and while we can’t help everyone I think we have a pretty unique path to health. We just can’t seem to own it in a solid way, and my mood rises and falls on what kind of day my patients are having. Alex, would love your thoughts as well as insights. From all of you awesome Momentum seekers out there, thanks.

I think this is such a well-stated question because here is the biggest challenge for most coaches, consultants, physicians, experts, practitioners of any kind is that we got into this business to help people. We got into this business to change people’s lives, and in some way we give of ourselves, we give of who we are. We share our expertise because we want to help people move forward. The challenge is that in so many cases, the clients we have fail to move forward. They backslide, they don’t move forward, they don’t create the momentum we want.

In my career, I've identified three major reasons this happens, and I want to go through all three because this isn't one of those questions that has one answer. It really has more than one. So the first reason why clients of any kind don’t succeed is you have an avatar program mismatch. Let me explain what I mean by that. You are attracting the wrong people for your program. I work with a bunch of entrepreneurs that are scaling multimillion dollar businesses, and in those companies they get ridiculous results with their clients. They don’t have a big percentage of their clients backsliding.

In fact, they have a massive percentage of their clients create success. When Cadey and I were in the real estate industry, we had close to 50,000 ... We sold close to 50,000 units of a product to real estate agent. Over 90% of them finished it. Here’s why. We marketed exactly to who we wanted. Our product delivered exactly what we promised in our marketing. We told people who they were. We said, "Hey, we only want to talk to this type of real estate agent. We only want you to join if you care about your clients, if you’re willing to invest in your education, if you’re in this for the long haul, if you are willing to sometimes, in order to solve someone's problem you might even have to work for free."

That was pretty specific for real estate and as a result, we attracted the exact right clients, and they adopted our product. In a lot of cases where you have clients that come in, they pay you, they sign up with you, but they don’t succeed, often it’s because you've attracted the wrong client to what possibly could be the right product. I'll tell you very honestly, I’ve done this a lot in my career as I've figured out products, as I've understood what our real deliverables were, as I clarified my avatar, my target market. There’s been more than once where I've created a product, put it into the market, and just didn’t get the right result because I had the wrong clients in front of me.

In those cases, we have to make a major adjustment and try and figure out how do we attract the exact right client? You work backwards here. What are the results you offer, and who are they most attractive to? That is the group that you want to market to and bring into your business, bring into your office, your practice, your coaching, your consultancy, whatever it is. That's number one: avatar program mismatch. You're attracting the wrong people. The second reason I've seen this not do well is a lack of transparency in the marketing and sales process, especially today with coaches, clients, and even some physicians because unfortunately so many products are being sold as the 90-Day Way to Make $1 Million, or The Easiest Way To Start A Business Ever, or Have Your Health; Have Your Wealth, and have it all without really trying that hard, or Get In Shape: Feel Better, Look Better and Eat All Of The Foods You Always Have In The Amounts You Want To.

Let's be honest. We all know that those are not real, and maybe in some way you can justify making those claims in your program, but if there’s a lack of transparency in the marketing and sales process, you're going to attract people who don’t expect what the program has. Let me give you an example on this one. My organization has a $3000 a month coaching program that is for businesses that are doing over $1 million a month, and we help them create the infrastructure, the team, the systems around the owner, to grow and scale the business, to actually get to the next level, to get a seven-figure infrastructure in place that can get them eight figures.

Here’s what I tell everyone come into that program. I ask a simple question, after I qualify, after we talk about what they’re willing to do, after what they want to do, after I understand how big they want their business to be, I ask a simple question. Are you willing to change everything? I’m not kidding, because in order to grow and scale a business, the behaviors of a business owner in a business have to change 100%. If you go from one million to 10 million, everything you do will modify in one way. I ask up front, "Are you willing to change everything in your business in order to grow and scale it? Are you willing to change every behavior you have in the business, modify it, make it more applicable to a larger business?"

I’m completely serious because I don’t want anyone in that program that tells me, "I want to grow, I want to scale, but I want to keep everything the same," because it's literally impossible. You will fail, you will stay stuck, and so if you're a physician, if you're a coach, if you're a practitioner of any kind, are you asking the hard questions in the sales and marketing process? Are you saying, "Hey, as a patient, I want you to understand something. You're going to have to make radical changes in your life to get the results you want. Are you willing to do that?" Are you asking your consulting clients, "You're going to have to make radical changes in your approach to business in order to get the results you want. Are you willing to do that?"

If you have ultimate confidence in the way you create results for your clients, you should be willing to ask that because here’s what I know when I ask that of the prospects, the prospective client we talk to. They're taken aback by it, but then they say, "I’ve never had anybody ask me a question like that before, and yes I am. I’m willing to change. I’m willing to improve. I’m willing to modify," and it tells them upfront how serious I am about what we do in this program. It also lets them know that this isn't something that is marketed as easy. This isn't like a push the button and you're going to grow your business. I want them to know, I want any business owner to know, that if you plan on scaling your business, growing your business, you are going to have to change.

I often tell people, "If you don’t have the business you want, you haven't become the person who can run it yet, and that’s where we're going to really put a lot of effort." Then here’s the third place where clients don’t succeed, and I've had several exchanges on this in the past couple weeks, is if your frameworks and the structure for implementation for the client are unclear, clients have a hard time not just understanding what to do, but they have a hard time trusting what to do. If you haven't written out the frameworks, if there’s not a clear spelled-out process in your business, if it is not really easy to understand what to do next and why they’re doing it next, clients will have a difficult time implementing because I’ll be honest, me, you and everyone I know doesn’t trust a process that’s coming out of someone’s head.

I want to see that it's documented. I want to see that it’s proven. I want to see that other people have used it successfully. I think of one of the examples of a client that I work with, Gym [Launch 00:10:00], Alex and Layla [Hormosy 00:10:02] are showing gym owners how to be successful. That's got to be one of the most difficult categories of business there is. Most gyms struggle on a monthly basis to stay open, much less make any kind of a profit, but Alex and Layla, they attract committed gym owners who really want to help people, who are struggling with their marketing, who can’t get the right people in the door. When they get that committed gym owners, here's what they show them how to do.

Go out and find people who really want to get healthy, who really want results, who are willing to put in the time, who are willing to come into the gym. Don’t sign people up who don’t show up. Sign people up who show up all the time and your business will explode. So that’s kind of a double avatar match there, or a double clear structure and framework. Alex and Layla find gym owners and they give them a clear structure as to how to grow, and then they give those gym owners a clear structure as to how to serve their clients and how to help them grow. Here’s what happens. When one of those gyms who maybe is struggling, I've talked to people, talked to gym owners, who were literally going out of business in the month that they joined Gym Launch, they applied those written frameworks, those written structures that are really clear to their business, then they gave them those same Gym Launch structures to their clients, and overnight gyms are making 10, 20, 30, as much as 60 or $75,000 in the first few months that they work with Alex and Layla.

There’s a couple of gyms that had made six figures in a month. I think that’s an understatement. I’m saying a couple, but I think it's a lot more than a couple gyms now that have made six figures in a month with Alex and Layla. Why? Because they have an avatar program match, there is clear transparency in the marketing and sales process, and the structure is clear, and the framework is spelled out and in writing. So if you’re a coach or a consultant or a practitioner, here’s the biggest shortcut. Share how you really feel with incoming clients, and be completely transparent. If you're a practitioner and you have a new client or new patient, let them know, "I get anxious when my patients backslide. I get anxious and frustrated when you aren't successful, so here’s how I’ve set up my practice to assure that I work with people who are successful. I’m looking for a commitment from you. Here’s the commitments that we asked for," and then you go through what does your program entail.

When I work with a CEO or an entrepreneur that's growing and scaling a business, I say, "I ask for commitments from you." Here’s what I’m going to ask for. I'm going to ask that you change the way your company plans. I'm going to ask that you change the way you communicate with your team. You change the way you create job descriptions and structure within the business, and as long as I am providing you with momentum in the process and things are getting easier as we work together, I'm going to ask you to continue making those changes. As a result, I get highly committed business owners that are willing to make the change. If you're a practitioner and you spell that out for your clients before they sign up with you, here’s what happens.

One, you have now foreshadowed or pre-framed for them all of the change you're going to ask them to make. Their commitment level is going to be much higher. When they say yes to you up front, here’s part of the reason I do it, we invoke commitment to consistency; one of the principles of influence. Once someone has said yes to something, they are more likely to stick with it, they’re more likely to recommit and they're more likely to go through the hardship of implementation because we all know, whether you’re a coach, consultant, practitioner, physician, whatever it is, if you’re working to help people improve their lives and get past constraint, it's one of the hardest things in the world to do because most people, the status quo is comfortable for them.

Most people don’t want to make radical changes. Most people don’t want to do anything other than maybe pay someone in order to have their life improved. So for me, I make sure up front that I’m dealing with somebody who’s really committed, who is not just shopping for a solution, who is willing to go out and make a massive change in their life right now so that they get the results that they want. So if you're a practitioner, a coach, a consultant or someone who is changing lives in any way, remember these three things.

One, make sure you’re marketing to the right avatar. When you have an avatar program match, when you have an avatar delivery match, the customer coming in is right for the delivery, you're going to have a high level of success. Two, make sure you have transparency in your sales and marketing process. People don’t want to know that it’s easy. People want to know that it's going to be effective. People don't want to know that they can push a button and make everything get better because they don’t really believe it at the end of the day. You want to attract the people who know there’s going to be some effort on their side, some skin in the game. They're going to have to do something to get these results. Three, make sure that your framework and structure that you deliver to your clients is clear, it’s in writing, and it's defendable.

You can say, "Hey, the reason we do this is because it’s been successful over and over and over again." Then your final play, the most powerful thing that I think you can share is you tell people exactly how you feel. I was in a [Voxer 00:15:14] conversation with one of my clients yesterday, and I actually gave them a hard time because they weren't on one of our group calls. Most coaches, when somebody doesn’t show up for the group call, they're relieved because now they can add more people to the program. The way I look at it is, if somebody is not showing up to my group call, they might not implement. If somebody doesn’t implement, they're not going to succeed as a client.

So I’ll actually reach out and say, "Hey, my feelings aren't really hurt, but maybe a little bit, and I want to make sure you're on the next group call, because I know if someone follows the system the way we’ve laid it out, they're going to have radical levels of success." So for any of you who are feeling that anxiety when you sign up a new client, it is something you have to resolve immediately, and resolving these steps in the sales process and the delivery process will take that anxiety and turn it into confidence, because when you get a commitment from a client up front to the exact process you’re going to use, and you let them know how it’s really going to work, and then they sign up, you have a higher level of commitment, they have a higher level of commitment, and your program, whatever you’re delivering, whatever service you’re providing, you have a much higher chance at having massive success with that client.

So for all of you who are out there changing the world one client at a time, remember these three things, and then remember to be transparent about how you feel, and you will see your client results go through the roof. That is truly how you will grow a world-changing business. Thanks for being here with me. I appreciate you listening. The Momentum podcast, like I said earlier, is one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. Do me a favor, answer back. Go to iTunes, subscribe, and leave me a review. Let me know how we're doing, what you think of the podcast. Thanks, and I appreciate you being here.

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With gratitude,

Alex

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