Working With ALREADY Successful Clients (They Need You Too)

Working With ALREADY Successful Clients (They Need You Too)
By Fabienne Fredrickson

I’ve discovered something of a shift in my Client Attraction mentorship practice over the last few months that has made me more successful and happier than ever before. This seemingly subtle change has made a world of difference in how I live my life.

It all has to do with a NEW kind of client I’m taking on these days. Yeah, yeah, you can say, “Fabienne, you’ve talked to me about ideal clients before. I know that I need to figure out who my IDEAL client is.” But wait! This is different. Today, I want to share with you the exact KIND of client I’m now going after and that you should too.

For years, I’ve attracted a whole host of clients, many of them startup entrepreneurs who were in desperation mode and needed to be saved. These people needed clients BADLY and looked to me to hand them a life-raft to stay in business.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’ve ALWAYS been really clear that I don’t work with just anyone that comes my way. I’ve always cherry-picked my clients and almost always worked with people:

1. I would like and enjoy working with,



2. who had a need for my services and recognized it,



3. who would get great results from working with me,



4. who would write me great testimonials and refer others to me, and



5. who recognized the VALUE of my work and didn’t negotiate my fees.

But recently, I’ve had an epiphany. I’ve found the type of client I now attract are people of a totally different caliber: the ALREADY SUCCESSFUL CLIENT.

Now, you might say, “Fabienne, if they’re already successful, happy or healthy, why would they PAY to work with me?” I used to think this too. If they’ve GOT clients, why would they want to work with me to work on getting MORE clients?

Well, here’s my experience with ALREADY successful clients, let it be for Client Attraction, finances, health, or whatever. The best client:

• is already doing well and wants to do EVEN better,



• has a desire, rather than a DESPERATE need,



• knows an opportunity will be missed if they don’t act on this desire,



• could do it on their own, but would rather do it faster and better, with your help,



• understands the VALUE of working with someone for greater accuracy and competency,



• is accustomed to investing in education and expertise, and



• is usually more low-maintenance because the desperation isn’t there.

And you know what? I recognize MYSELF in this description. I’ve worked with MANY coaches, consultants, health practitioners, financial teachers, etc. And each time, I could have done or learned whatever we did together ON MY OWN, should I have wanted to take the time. But why would I, when I could learn things faster and better, just by working with a mentor who’s already been there?

So, I hired them and paid their fees, happily. The results were outstanding because we did things faster and better than I could have ever done on my own.

That said, when you ask yourself, “Would successful people actually PAY for me to help them with this?”, understand that there are so many successful-people-next-door who prefer to have things done well AND quickly, and who prefer to not do things on their own (even though they could).

When you think about it that way, would you be willing to market to those in your target audience that are already somewhat successful, healthy, knowledgeable, etc.? Would you change your marketing materials to speak specifically to those people?

YOUR ASSIGNMENT

Consider marketing to these people because they’re much more fun to work with. Primarily, you don’t have to educate them from scratch. Because they ALREADY know what to do in most cases, it’s easy to work with them. What you bring them is often more about accountability, brainstorming, feedback, resources, structure, etc.

If you’re working with the sinking-ship kind of client, consider switching to the I-want-a-bigger-ship kind of client instead. You will find it easier and much more gratifying. Best of all, they’re usually willing to pay a little more, because they understand the value of getting outside help to succeed. It’s a win-win! Try it.

Ok, so if you’re wondering how to FIND the already successful client and don’t know where to start, I suggest getting a copy of the Client Attraction Home Study System™. It’s everything you need to know to create a marketing message that will appeal to the best clients for you. You’ll learn how to decipher what makes your business remarkable, how to create Raving Fans so you get clients to call YOU, and lots of other crucial techniques to help you fill your practice quickly, including how to put together a simple marketing plan that gets you clients and then putting it on autopilot so you can have fun again. You can read more about it and get a copy at www.TheClientAttractionSystem.com. (Why struggle when you can just attract clients easily?)

© 2006 Client Attraction LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System™ and www.ClientAttraction.com, the proven step-by-step program to attract more clients, make more m’oney being self-employed, while having more time off to enjoy it all. To receive your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and get weekly how-to articles on attracting more clients, visit www.ClientAttraction.com.

Undervaluing What You Offer? You May Be Losing Clients

Undervaluing What You Offer? You May Be Losing Clients
By Fabienne Fredrickson

There’s a question in my intake packet for new clients titled, “What is holding you back or slowing your progress?”, as it relates to attracting all the clients they need and having a full practice. Having worked with hundreds and hundreds of clients over the years, I’ve seen it all. Other than “no knowledge of marketing,” one thing seems to come up over and over again, and it happened again this week, with a brand new client.

The client answered this: “Sometimes, the ‘Little Voice’ inside me asks, ‘Who needs my program anyway? This is basic information that I offer. People already know this stuff!’” This is so common, but in most every case, this is absolutely not accurate.

I have to admit, in the past, I too have taken for granted what I already know and teach everyday and started questioning my value in the marketplace. For example, when I was teaching holistic nutrition years ago, I sometimes wondered why people were paying me (or WOULD pay me) to teach them about whole foods versus processed foods. To me, it was a no-brainer that brown rice was more healthful than white. But to a person who grew up on Twinkies, it was crucial that I explain it to them in detail, and then the shortcuts to fitting in those brand new foods into their busy life.

I would also question the value of the cooking classes I gave once a month to 15 or 20 people crammed in my living room. As I was stirring carrots and onions on my Coleman grill in the middle of my tiny apartment, I couldn’t help but think “Are these simple recipes REALLY of value to them?” (I’d been through serious Boot Camp at the French Culinary Institute, so this came naturally to me.) But they kept showing up, asking questions, and referring friends. Go figure!

Even in the early years of my business coaching practice, I sometimes wondered about my value. Clients ask me daily about the secrets of marketing to get clients to call THEM and filling their practice by networking. For me, it was now ingrained and like second nature. I took for granted that I knew it, because I’d been doing it for so long and knew that it worked. I thought everyone knew it too and that it was common sense.

On the contrary! What’s common knowledge for us, is a secret to someone else. Because we “bathe” in our information all day long, and for years, we start taking for granted what we know. We forget what we know is actually a secret many others would do anything and everything to discover. It becomes the answer to their most pressing problem. It becomes the solution others have been praying for.

If you’re in this situation, you are probably OVER-estimating what everybody else knows. The more common what you teach is to YOU and the longer you do what it is you do, the more you tend to undervalue what you know.

The irony here, as I’ve discovered, is that the more we teach things to our clients in SIMPLE terms, the happier they are, the more referrals we get and the more we make. It’s not the convoluted teachings that people are looking for. It’s the practical and simple solutions.

The real shame about the whole undervaluing what you know is that as a result, you may be undercharging for what you offer. This is actually one of the major reasons why most people don’t have enough clients. Because they don’t see value in what they offer, they don’t charge enough, and there is therefore a low perception of value from the prospective client’s point of view. They then go somewhere else for the same exact information. Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy!

Some entrepreneurs even go so far as discounting their services, or offering a sliding scale, because of their lack of confidence and low perception of value in what they offer. In my book, discounting is a BIG no-no. Again, it portrays a devalued product or service and it’s NOT Client Attractive.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT

• Notice that your clients came to YOU for the information you take for granted. Sometimes, they may even have known some of what you know, but didn’t have the discipline, accountability, resources or structure to do it on their own. Many of my clients KNOW how to attract other clients, they’re successful, but they don’t have the discipline or accountability to do it on their own. So we do it together. This is actually my favorite type of scenario, because these clients are very driven and because we’re not starting from scratch in the learning process, we move at warp speed.


• Be confident in what you offer (read your testimonials over and over until your confidence comes back).


• See yourself as their problem solver. Charge accordingly and never discount your services. Ever.

To boost your confidence marketing know-how, you can also get a copy of the Client Attraction Home Study System™. It’s everything you need to know to create a marketing message that will appeal to the best clients for you. You’ll learn how to decipher what makes your business remarkable, how to create Raving Fans so you get clients to call YOU, and lots of other crucial techniques to help you fill your practice quickly, including how to put together a simple marketing plan that gets you clients and then putting it on autopilot so you can have fun again. You can read more about it and get a copy at www.TheClientAttractionSystem.com. (Why struggle when you can just attract clients easily?)

© 2006 Client Attraction LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System™ and www.ClientAttraction.com, the proven step-by-step program to attract more clients, make more m’oney being self-employed, while having more time off to enjoy it all. To receive your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and get weekly how-to articles on attracting more clients, visit www.ClientAttraction.com.

To Market or Not To Market: The Double-Edged Sword of Self-Promotion

To Market or Not To Market:
The Double-Edged Sword of Self-Promotion

By Fabienne Fredrickson

Have you ever felt strange about marketing your services for fear of people thinking you weren’t successful enough or good enough at what you do? I was reading a transcript of marketer Dan Kennedy’s Coaching and Consulting Business Boot Camp this past week at the beach and I came across a section about the fine line between the need for marketing and not wanting to look like you NEED business.

It struck a cord with me because I remember being stumped a few years ago, when a photographer I met at a networking function asked me, “So, if you’re such a marketing expert and you help people attract all the clients they need, what are you doing here at a networking group each week?” I didn’t know what to say at first. Never had it been posed to me that way.

But then I started thinking about it all and I realized that I always have clients, because I’m always marketing. I feel comfortable knowing that marketing is part of my business, a large part of it. It doesn’t matter what you DO for a living, your primary job is marketing and your “skill” is whatever else you do to get paid by clients.

So, if you’re a consultant, you’re not really a consultant, you’re a marketer who consults. If you’re an interior designer, you’re not really an interior designer, you’re a marketer who happens to help clients decorate their homes. And so on and so forth.

Until a client of mine really GETS that, they always put marketing on the back burner, and as a result of not making marketing a priority in the past, they’ve gotten lackluster, mediocre results. But when they realize that their MAIN job is marketing, then they just accept that that’s what you do and start to do it well. Alternatively, they can just go back to the corporate world and get a paycheck again while having someone else breathe down their neck. (Ouch!)

But I think the fine line we talked about between looking successful enough not to market and needing to market is really about CHASING clients. It’s like anything in life: if someone is TOO eager about something, you start questioning their motives. Here’s the line I read in that seminar transcript:

The Ultimate Incongruity: “If you’re so good, why are you so available?...let alone chasing business???”

The first key is that you never CHASE business. It’s just too cheesy and it doesn’t make people want to work with you. If you seem like you need them more than they need you, then you’re in trouble.

However, if you follow the Client Attraction System™ or are a client of mine, you know that it’s about creating value, trust, believability, and credibility over the long haul. It’s about establishing yourself as a problem solver to your ideal clients and their biggest problems. It’s about creating a RELATIONSHIP so that clients naturally come to YOU and no one else, WHEN they’re ready. It’s never about chasing clients or strong-arming them to sign up with you. Here’s the formula:

Value plus Trust over Time.

(As a side note, that photographer who almost stumped me with her question ended up being one of my favorite clients of all time, a RAVING fan and a consistent referral source of new clients to my practice. She’s also become one of the best and most diligent marketers I’ve seen, and she markets consistently, not just when she needs clients. She GOT it.)

YOUR ASSIGNMENT

So, now that we’ve gotten away from any semblance of you chasing business and looking too eager, what would you say if someone asked YOU that Ultimate Incongruity question?

Here’s what I say:

• “I market consistently because I know that if you don’t market consistently, you don’t always have clients. Even when I have a waiting list of people waiting to work with me, I still don’t stop marketing. I’d be foolish to do that.”


• “Two clients recently graduated, so I have openings for just two new clients.”


• “I have decided to take on more clients because…(tell the truth).”

Oh and by the way, always tell the truth. That’s what authentic marketing is about. That’s how being a marketer with integrity makes you stand out in the marketplace. Anything else would be sleazy and that’s not Client Attractive.

Don’t know where to start marketing your services? Consider getting a copy of the Client Attraction Home Study System™. It’s everything you need to know to create a marketing message that will appeal to the best clients for you. You’ll learn how to decipher what makes your business remarkable, how to create Raving Fans so you get clients to call YOU, and lots of other crucial techniques to help you fill your practice quickly, including how to put together a simple marketing plan that gets you clients and then putting it on autopilot so you can have fun again. You can read more about it and get a copy at http://www.theclientattractionsystem.com/. (Why struggle when you can just attract clients easily?)

© 2006 Client Attraction LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System™ and www.ClientAttraction.com, the proven step-by-step program to attract more clients, make more m’oney being self-employed, while having more time off to enjoy it all. To receive your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and get weekly how-to articles on attracting more clients, visit www.ClientAttraction.com.