About a month ago, I wrote two issues of Sacred Space Notebook about attracting clients by having high-value conversations with more potential clients.  That must have put something powerful in motion inside me.  Since then I have gone to a deeper level with clients, potential clients, colleagues, family and even strangers who might receive value from spontaneous coaching!

And I am fascinated to notice that simultaneously I am taking my “job” as an agent of transformation more seriously and I am holding it more lightly – having tons of fun with each of these precious connections.  From a tough money conversation with a client to a strategy session with my niece about initiating conversation with a guy she’d like to know better to putting accountability in place with the cable guy to take the next step in making his dream of opening a restaurant a reality . . .  Everyone has goals, dreams, desires.  And, how great is it to have a job that helps people take the action to create the life and work that is uniquely, beautifully theirs?!

I’m not sure why I had been stingy with these rich initial conversations in the past.  Maybe it didn’t feel “appropriate” to talk to the cable guy about his dream.  Or maybe I felt concerned about pushing a client too hard.  Or maybe I didn’t want to come on too strong with a potential client.  What all of those “excuses” have in common: me feeling self-conscious about me.

I’ve noticed that I’ve become more willing to put my focus on the other person, allowing myself to be less focused on my image. And, I can tell you that is working for me!  My life and work feel more gratifying, more playful, more fulfilling, more exciting, more meaningful.  Each morning, I’m curious as to what gifts I might be able to give and to whom. 

The fabulous by-product: more people hiring me.

And, it seems to be working out quite nicely for the others: clients, potential clients, colleagues, family and strangers, alike!  I’m sure there will probably come a time when I offer coaching to someone in one of these conversations and they won’t want it or they’ll feel offended by what I say.  That’s a risk I am becoming more willing to take because the price for not taking it has become way too high!

So what about you?  How can you put yourself out there more: serving more, offering more of the best of you?   

Feel free to post your comments . . .

Last week, we talked about becoming willing to step past the fear of real conversations with potential clients and not taking a “no” as personal rejection, but rather as practical information.
 
By focusing our conversations on what’s most important to our potential clients, we more consistently relax about the conversation AND make it easy for them to become clients.

So, how do we know what’s most important to them?  

We ask directly.  For example, since one of my primary focuses involves helping my coaching clients attract more clients, I will often ask in an initial conversation something like, “So, tell me a bit about your biggest challenge in attracting clients.  And, what is working best for bringing in new clients?”  

If you are a career coach, you may ask something as simple as, “What's going well in your job search?  What have you found most frustrating about finding your ideal job?”  If you’re a health coach, you might open a conversation with, “What's your strongest habit for keeping yourself healthy?  What keeps you awake at night right now about your health?”

Then once you move into the meat of the conversation, you can continue to ask clarifying questions like, “So, I hear you saying that plenty of people ask about working with you and few hire you.  If we could put a structure in place to help them know the value of working with you, how valuable would that be for you?”

As you listen both on the surface and deeply, you cannot also at the same time feel self-conscious about whether or not you can “get this person as a client.”  And, you will clearly hear their situation and know if you are the best person to help them and specifically how you could help them – it truly is that easy!

Try it out!  Use this approach for yourself and feel free to share your results in the comments.

In Steve Chandler’s ebook, “How to Get Clients,” he reminds us over and over again that no one ever got a client without a conversation.

Yet, every day, I talk with coaches and other service professionals who want to know the best way to get clients WITHOUT having to talk with them!  They want to know how to create a better LinkedIn profile, what to write in their newsletter, how to get more traffic to their website, if they should write a book or ebook or my personal favorite: how they can use Law of Attraction.

While each of those activities could attract clients, they certainly won’t if we aren’t also excited about having the conversation that moves the potential client to hire us and become a client.  It’s also easy to fall into the trap of overwhelming ourselves with so much marketing and self-promotion that we have no time or energy left to have the quality conversations that lead to people hiring us.

Why does it feel so attractive to hide behind social media, our blog, our website, the articles we write?  Fear.  If we send out an ezine, it’ rare that we hear “no.”  We may see a few “unsubscribes” or have a low “open rate,” but we don’t have to hear, “I’m hiring someone else.”  Or, “I can’t afford you” (read: I don’t see enough value in what you offer.)

If we allow ourselves to step past the fear and into the conversation, if we don’t take a “no” as personal rejection, but rather practical information, then we have created a rich environment to focus on the potential client, which already increase the odds of them becoming a client . . .