Chapter 14 - Surviving the People Crisis and Chapter 15 - Where does the work come from?

CHAPTER 14

Surviving the People Crisis

Through part 3 I have discussed different aspects of building a team for a professional service firm. In any professional service business you compete for team members with other professional service businesses. That is a reality that you need to accept, professionals have lots of opportunities and they are going to take what is on offer from time to time. You need to spend time working with your team, educating them, working with them and coaching them. That is the only way you will build a sustainable 7 figure business, I am sure by now that you can see how this works and how what got you to a 6 figure business won't work to get your to 7 figures. 

A great saying that I was told when I had children equally applies with your team, 'you get what you project'. If you truly want to grow your business from 6 to 7 figures then you need to work through these steps and lead your team by showing them how to do all of the things discussed in this book and in particular this part. You need to show them how to do their work efficiently, how to delegate more efficiently, and show them a clear path for the future in the firm. 

When dealing with team members and especially when you are going through the hiring process, remember that it takes 6 months to hire and train someone before they start to become useful in your business. So take your time, you want this person to be working with you for a long time so hire slowly, get to know them and don't rush your decisions. Always motivate them and let them walk around with their head held high, what they do afterwards is a decision for them, it is not a decision for you. Remember that just because you want a certain path for them doesn't mean that they want that to. 

Retaining key members takes time and patience, you need to communicate the progression that you have laid out in your firm. You need to see how that resonates with them, what do they see as a better way forward? If I want you to take one thing away from this part is that communication is the key, if you don't communicate your intentions for the future and where you are going, then they won't communicate that back to you. So be bold and lead, you will get what you project.

QUESTIONS AND TASKS

Before you move on to the next chapter I encourage you to really think through these questions:

1. How can I motivate my team better?

2. Where am I not delegating enough?

3. Critical Thinking - How can I lead better? I encourage you to be open and honest with yourself on this point so that you really make changes that will help you and your team.

Visit jeremystreten.com/grow for more on this topic.

Part 4

YOUR CLIENTS

“Don't find customers for your product, find products for your customers.” — Seth Godin

CHAPTER 15

Where does the work come from?

Without clients a professional business can't function or pay it's own expenses. I like to think of finding clients as opposed to customers. Clients are people that come to you and then come back time and again for more work, customers come to you for a one off piece of work. They often have great work but they are not long term clients. 

People make decisions based on emotion and then justify with logic. This is often said about buying decisions but I believe that this is the way that everyone makes every decision. For this reason the relationships that you and your team build are key to building a great business from 6 to 7 figures. This is not an area that you can do all of the work on, there is simply not enough time in the day for you to do all of the client relationship work, you need to have a system for doing this and then scale it with your team.

How do Clients Choose?

It is very rare that a client chooses a professional to work with based on their skills alone. There are not many professional areas that are truly unique and that another professional could do in your place. I'm sorry to say this but you simply aren't that special in your technical ability. As I said above people make their decisions based on emotion and then justify those decisions with logic. This means that for every person there are different motivations that will apply to their decision to engage you in certain work as opposed to another professional. 

As an individual you are special and people will resonate with you, some will resonate with your team, they will resonate with your message. To resonate with your ideal client you need to consider who is your ideal client. You may have heard of this before, it is a process of working out who it is that you want to work with so that you can work out how to reach that ideal client. 

The question that a client is asking themselves is usually not 'can they do the work?' it is 'Do I want to work with you?'. People want to work with professionals that they know, like and trust. Again here you get what you project, when you love working with someone it will show, you will be enthusiastic and so will they, so thinking about your ideal client will help you to determine who it is that you want to work with and who it is that you will work best with. 

You need to consider a number of different factors when building an ideal client avatar, a simple way to do this is to ask yourself these questions?

? Who do I want to buy from me?

? Who are 3 people that are your ideal client? and why?

? Who are 3 people who are almost your ideal client? and why?

? Who are 3 people who aren't your ideal client? and why?

Then ask yourself these questions:

? What questions do they ask themselves before they buy?

? What are your capabilities?

? How well do your capabilities align with your clients questions asked before they buy from you?

? What depth of personnel do you have to solve these problems?

? How good are your references?

Once you answer these questions you can start to build your ideal client avatar, if possible give it a name (use someone that embodies who you love working with) and have that person in mind as you read the rest of this part.

Repeat Work

For most professional businesses it is between 6 to 9 times cheaper to get repeat work from a client then it is to find a new customer and do new work for them. Put simply if you are not looking at ways to obtain work from existing clients then you are spending way too much money on finding new clients. The untapped potential of your client list and work that you could do for them is often a scary exercise for business owners to realise. 

There are many techniques to get repeat work from existing clients. At the end of the day you will get repeat work where the client knows, likes and trusts you to do the work. The most simple and easy to implement is to do a great job and then follow up with them. A person is not your client if they haven't heard from you in 3 months, this is simply because they will be bombarded with so much noise from other sources that if you aren't front of mind they will forget about you. This can be as simple as sending a newsletter every month, for bigger clients I recommend going and see them or talking to them on the phone.

Another way to distinguish yourself is to under promise and over deliver. Often professionals know exactly what they need to do and how to do it. When something is your profession, something that you do everyday it becomes mundane. Remember that for the client this is often the first time they have needed this particular service and they need to be educated on what needs to happen. If you under promise and over deliver they will always remember you as someone who is different from other professionals that they have dealt with.

People are busy, your clients are busy, they have so much going on in their lives that they often aren't thinking of ways that they need to engage with your services. You have to ask them if they need help in different ways. Often professionals see this as dirty or worse salesy, but it doesn't have to be that way. If you communicate what you do and do it well then you can get a lot more work. As an example in my previous book I explained the Business Legal Lifecycle. This started as a research project that I undertook to work out the legal lifecycle of businesses. I did this as I recognised that business owners have a lot of blindspots around what they need in their business from a legal perspective. This also provides a pathway for business owners to see what they are missing in their business and what they need to do next.  This technique is a great way to ask for more work by showing your clients what else they need to do based on what successful businesses have done in the past.

Referral Work

I am sure that one of the key ways that you have built your professional firm to 6 figures is by way of referrals. They are the life blood of any professional business as other professionals are the ones that have your ideal clients, those clients come to the professional with a need and they refer the work to you. Building a professional firm on referral work is a great way to expand and is a strategy that should absolutely be part of your journey to growing your business to 7 figures. A good referral often overcomes a clients concerns in the know and trust factors in choosing a professional to do their work. If they don't know someone then they want a referral from someone that they know, like and trust to do the work.

Done well, building referral work helps you leverage your business and contacts, helps you build great relationships and network with like minded professionals. After focusing on obtaining repeat work from your existing clients this is the next and easiest method to grow your business to 7 figures. Here you can also build partnerships, most of the time these are informal partnerships in the sense that there is an understanding between the various people that they will refer work to each other.

As I discussed in chapter 3, managing and organising your time is one of the foundation keys to being able to successfully grow your business. Setting aside time to have meetings with referral partners is a key part of that strategy. You should be aiming for at least 10 meetings with referral source/partners a month, that may not sound like much but over the course of a year it means that you should be having around 120 meetings. 

I often get asked the question, how do I decide who I shall meet with? The answer is simple, who refers you the most work? and who do you enjoy working with? The only way to determine the answer to the first question is to track your leads, if you don't have a lead tracker go back and analyse where your work has come from over the last year or so. Often you may be surprised as to the sources of work and the people that are referring the most amount of work will be (remember to look at the most amount of work but also who's referrals convert into clients the most and who sends the most valuable referrals). 

Once you know who these referral sources are, go and see them, you don't have to have a formal agenda other than to catchup and see how they are going. This is not a waste of time people refer work to people that they like and if you show a general interest in them then they will love you for it. A good measure that I was taught is to ask simple questions about how they are, how their family is and how business is going. Then shut up and listen most people don't get asked these questions so let them tell you how they are going so you can see how you can help them.  

If you have gone out for a coffee or a drink then you should aim to finish your drink before the other person, obviously don't drink it too quickly but if you are finishing your drink first it is usually because you have listened more. I often walk away from meetings thinking that I haven't said a lot but then hear from other sources what a great conversationalist I am, that is because I shut up and listen. 

To truly grow your business from 6 to 7 figures you need to scale these meetings with your team. Encourage them to go through the same process to figure out who their top referrals sources are and go and meet with them. Get to know them and you will build a great source of work that comes into your business. 

Another important point to remember is that when a professional refers work to you they are taking a chance. Their reputation is on the line, as they will have a level of trust with the person that they are referring to you. You need to do a good job, which I am sure that you will, and address any issues that arise with them. If you don't then the referral source may feel that it is not safe to refer work to you as they could lose face with their clients. Always remember that people are thinking 'what's in it for me', often reputation and trust is what they are looking for in a referral relationship.

New clients

In addition to working with existing clients and referral sources, you also need to get in new clients. As you grow your business from 6 to 7 figures you need to obtain new clients, you won't be able to grow without them. There are many different techniques that you can use to get new clients and you need to look at the different methods that will work for you and your business. In general the techniques include, advertising, networking, putting on events and market intelligence. A word of caution here, often we may just experience the thrill of the chase for new clients so make sure that if you are looking at finding new clients that you work out your plan before you engage in the process.

Advertising 

Depending on the type of work that you do and your ideal client advertising can be a good idea. You really need to consider what it is that you are hoping to achieve with the advertising and how it will impact on your ideal client. People see thousands of signs and advertisements every day, just take notice next time you go for a walk or drive how many signs there are. Unless you target your advertising to specific clients you will simply get lost in the crowd. If you want to use advertising to build your brand recognition you really need to think through what the benefit is for your business and what your return is. If you want to target specific clients then you really need to get to know your avatar well to ensure that you will get reward from what you do. Tracking the results from your advertising is also crucial to ensure that you know what you are getting from the investment that you make. 

Networking

Done well networking is a powerful way to grow a business through obtaining new clients. Poorly done and networking can make you feel dirty and have others avoid you. When you go to a networking event don't just hand out your business cards. You have no doubt been at the event where the professional just walks around and hands business cards to every person they meet. The rules that I discussed above around clients and referral sources applies to networking for new clients. You need to build relationships, you need to get to know people as otherwise why would they expend their trust capital with their clients on someone they don't know, like or trust. 

Proper networking takes time, it takes patience and above all it takes a realisation that you have to genuinely like people to get work from them. I am passionate about helping professionals do networking the right way, there is no better way to start relationships then through networking done well. If you are going to a networking meeting I encourage you to follow these rules:

Rule 1 - Ask yourself the questions: What is it that you want to achieve out of the networking group? Who in the room are potential clients or referral sources?

Rule 2 - Create a compelling elevator pitch. The key word here is compelling, how do you stand out from the crowd? What is interesting about you? If you find a way to distinguish yourself people will remember you.

Rule 3 - Add value first. You are an expert so provide helpful advice where people ask for it as well as your insights and experience. If you have an opportunity to do a presentation, do it and be different, make sure that you are known for your difference as people will become interested in you.

Rule 4 - Always follow up first. If you want to discuss an issue with someone or get to know someone then ask them questions, go and see them outside the networking group and follow the rules about listening to them first.

Rule 5 - Know it takes time. Be patient and the rewards will come, the more you are seen as a source of expertise in your field the better you will do. Often you don't realise how well connected some people are, you may not know that the persons best friend or neighbour is your ideal client, get to know them first and you will find a great way of building new referral sources.

Events

Hosting an event is another way that you can use to generate new lead sources (it also works for nurturing existing clients and referral sources). Before you run an event you need to ask yourself the question 'What am I trying to achieve by running this event?'. There are different types of events including:

? Educational events in person - here you might put on a seminar about an important topic or an important change in your area of expertise that people find interesting;

? Education events online - more and more professionals are conducting educational events online. A word of caution here you need to make sure that your audience is engaged during the presentation online. It is far too easy for the distractions of notifications and computer, let alone what is going on around them, to distract them from what the are doing.

? Fun events - sometimes just taking people out and doing something that they enjoy can really help to build a new client base. The purpose of this type of event is to build on the know and like factors with different clients.

Putting on an event is not easy, there are lots of steps that you need to get right and lots of planning to do. Make sure that you brainstorm the ideas of the events that you want to put on and really plan them. If you do an event the last thing you want to do is to do it poorly, no one will remember that you put on the event they will simply remember that you mucked it up. Done well though and an event is a great way to build a business. 

Market Intelligence

An often under utilised area of finding new client work is to undertake some market intelligence. There are different businesses out there that can do this for you, or you can do it yourself. The actual process is outside the scope of this book however I will raise three important points that market intelligence can help you with:

? How do clients think?

? What challenge are they experience right now?

? How can the industry do that better?

You can do this yourself if you are willing to listen to your clients and referral sources to see what it is that they are thinking. The third question is deliberately not specific to your business as people won't give an honest answer if they are criticising you, it is designed to elicit an answer that will help you define what you can do differently in your industry and thus distinguish yourself from your competitors. If you choose to do this, make sure that you record their answers so that you can consider them later.

Conclusion

Understanding what clients you want to work with and what they need is another key aspect of growing your business from 6 to 7 figures. Tracking your leads and where your work is coming from will help you to work out where you are getting work from and allow you to focus in on those sources. Next work out how you can get more work out of your existing clients, where can you provide more value to them? Then make sure that you are nurturing your referral sources and finally look at ways to get new clients.

QUESTIONS AND TASKS

Before you move on to the next chapter I encourage you to really think through these questions:

1. Track your leads? Where are they coming from? What percentage turn into clients? What is the value of those leads?

2. How can you get more work out of your existing clients? 

3. Critical Thinking - Who do you want as your ideal client? Spend an hour thinking through this question and you will gain a lot of clarity on who your ideal client is.

Visit jeremystreten.com/grow for more on this topic.