Is this going to get me clients fast?

Smoke and Mirrors

The internet tends to fool us. It creates this illusion that everything is a click of the mouse and we’ll be bringing in 6 figures or that if we do these 7 things in 2019, we’ll be sitting on the beach in a month sipping umbrella drinks working 3 hours a day.

This isn’t truth. There’s nothing about this that is valid. If a magic wand exists, then I haven’t found one.

I get asked plenty every single week for a “quick win” or “what’s the best way to get clients” or “how long will it take before I get results.”

I always say that these questions are the wrong questions to be asking. If you are asking these questions then stop talking to me, and everyone else, and only talk to those that will pay you.

Get out there, ask your network of friends and family, even previous employers and see if there is something that you can help with.

If you want to build a business, you can’t do it without revenue bottom line.

You may fall into one of these

If you have zero clients right now and looking for them, spend the next day, 8-10 hours, making calls and reaching out to potential paying customers.

If you have one client right now and looking for more, then spend 6 hours today looking for clients by reaching out to potential customers.

If you have clients and need money to pay bills that are piling up, spend 4 hours today reaching out and looking for clients.

This is the hustle part of the business.

The first 2 are scenarios where you are most likely starting out or in a downturn in your business. The 3rd is often a matter of your expenses outpacing your revenue. In that case, you need to raise rates and get that higher paying and higher value clients.

Now don’t get me wrong, I get that this is all easier said than done. And seeking out on Google and putting into the search “how to get clients” is much easier, but that won’t get you anywhere fast.

In fact, you may find yourself back inside a cube.

That was only the first step…

I applaud you though for looking to better your business through education and coaching, but these are foundational lessons in business. They won’t land you a client today. I turn folks away from Feast when I get a sense that they should be cutting expenses and focusing on the hustle part.

Some still subscribe and buy-in, but they soon realize it’s not what they need right now, which is what I told them in the first place.

Searching Google and investing in your business as I said is the easier thing to do. It’s also the part that you have control over. Therefore, it may seem like you are doing what’s needed to get clients, when in reality the act of getting a client you honestly don’t have any control over.

You have control over all the possible actions leading up the decision a potential client has to either go with you or not. That’s what your focus should be on.

Early on, it’s about reaching out one-on-one and asking if you can help.

As you land those, then start the building blocks back from that to help you with all the things leading up to the close of the deal.

That’s where courses and coaching comes into play. These are the long games of building a business. If anyone is telling you otherwise, they are lying to you.

Here’s how this all works together

If you have no clients and need work today, spend 8-10 hours calling and talking with potential customers. Then spend 30-60 minutes thinking about and outlining a piece of content about a question a potential customer will ask you and you can answer.

If you have a client right now and looking for more, spend 6 hours talking to and reaching out to potential clients and then spend an hour a piece of content about a question a potential customer will ask you and you can answer.

If you have clients but need to pay bills, spend 4 hours looking for clients. But every potential client that moves forward in conversation, give them a rate that’s at least 1.5X what your current rate is.

Then spend an hour looking at your sales process and pinpoint spots where you can ask questions earlier on in the process to filter out clients that wouldn’t pay your new rate.

Benefits to increasing your rate when you have clients and need work

Increasing your new rate will do a number of things for you.

• You’ll need half as many projects for the same amount of revenue
  • You’ll learn about the problems those larger, higher valued clients have
  • You’ll learn the language the higher valued clients use when talking about the problem they have and solution they are looking for
  • In this scenario, you are under-valuing yourself
  • You start to have leads that are price buyers, disqualify themselves, leaving your headspace available for clients who respect what you are doing
  • You’ll be surprised how little you get push back on it

Bottom line, if you need work, go get it, stop distracting yourself from the thing that you know you need to do.

If someone gave me 8-10 hours in a day to find work, I’d find work.

But then after putting that hustle in, take some time and build those building blocks of the business so that in the future you don’t find yourself in this scenario again.