If you’re an attorney, designer, coach, accountant, consultant or other professional service provider, chances are you do some sort of free consultation. And if you’re doing a free consultation, chances are, unless you’ve worked at this, that you are giving away a whole bunch of information your prospect needs, perhaps to the point of “easing their pain” so well, that they no longer feel compelled to hire you.

This doesn’t serve either of you, because you’ve given them an aspirin when they really need surgery.

Are prospective clients slipping through your fingers?

If too many qualified prospects are leaving your consultations without hiring you, here are a couple of pointers to keep in mind:

• A free consultation is not the place to give away free information!
• It’s a place to learn about their goals, challenges and obstacles.
• It’s a place to assess how critical resolving their challenges and achieving their goals are to them.
• It’s a place to let them know that you can help, that you’ve helped many others with the same type of problems/issues.
• It’s a place to tell them that you have the solution to their problems and give them an overview of what you’ll do to help them, without telling them exactly HOW to do it. (after all that’s what you get paid to do!)

Are prospective clients slipping through your fingers? Apply for a Business Sanity Strategy Session to learn more about how I can help you turn more prospects into paying clients.

Initially his staff was excited about it, but the enthusiasm quickly dwindled after they got some negative feedback from the client mid-way through, and Ron didn’t hide his displeasure.

Ron had chosen Charlie to head up the bid project. He had always had faith in Charlie’s abilities, but now he was disappointed and second guessed his choice.

Things came to a head when Charlie arrived late for a meeting the next day. Ron, still angry about the negative feedback, laced into Charlie in front of the other staff members, embarrassing himself, Charlie and everyone in the room.

Rather than motivating the team to rally and make the needed edits to the bid, Ron’s responses left them defeated and disenfranchised instead.

Ron felt that Charlie needed to be held accountable for his actions, but he knew somewhere inside, that this wasn’t the way to get positive results.

We talked about what happened and laid out a strategy for dealing with situations like this one in future.

Here’s what it looked like:

1. Inhibit any knee-jerk response. Take a breath, bite your tongue. Refrain from shooting from the hip. Realize that the person or people involved already feel bad enough without you rubbing their noses in it.

2. Consider what your goals are for the situation from a big picture perspective. Be crystal clear about the outcome you want to achieve. Most likely it will be to improve performance or to “fix” a failed effort, not to make someone feel bad and undermine the chance of a positive outcome.

3. You have choices here. Make them carefully. Be specific about what they need from you to help them to turn the situation around.

How do you handle it when an employee disappoints? Join the conversation below:

Procrastination help:

A few weeks ago I outlined some strategies to break through the “procrastination zone”. Here are some additional solutions:

As you may recall, I suggested that you pinpoint your priorities and then break down the prioritized tasks into simple, manageable chunks, that can each be accomplished (easily) in one sitting. And these sittings should be short, 30 – 60 minutes to prevent the task from seeming overwhelming.

As you complete each task, check it off your list. If you stick to this strategy, within a short time, you’ll really be able to see that you’re making progress. And seeing that progress is being made will motivate you to keep going.

If you’re seeking procrastination help, you might also want to try scheduling your day, it’s a great way to avoid procrastinating or wasting time. This may sound a bit obvious, but it’s something that many people who struggle with time or procrastinate often fail to do.

Think of it this way: If you don’t have a plan for your day, your time is more likely to get eaten up by others needs, distractions or whatever comes along.

Be realistic about what can actually be accomplished in any given hour. If you’re not used to doing this and are afraid you might underestimate, start by doubling or even tripling the amount of time you think it might take.

Then set specific appointments with yourself to get things done. During these times, close your door, shut down the internet and email and let voice-mail pick up the phone…just focus on the task at hand!

If you’re seeking procrastination help, please start to utilize this strategy today and stay tuned for more ways to increase productivity in your small business.

Are productivity challenges causing you to lose sleep? Learn more about my ACHIEVE small business productivity program.

What are you experiences with procrastination? Join the conversation below:

1. What do you do? Not everything you do, but the stuff that most excites you and solves a significant problem for a specific group of clients.

2. Who do you serve? Not just anybody, but the clients who really struggle with that problem, the ones who get the greatest value (ROI, relief and or benefit) from working with you.

3. What results can you promise?

4. What makes you different/better than the competition? Not just different than any competitors but the ones who specialize in the space you occupy.

5. Where do you market? Where you find the clients who have that problem who are desperate for those results and most appreciate your value.

Why does this work?

By being ultra specific about what you do, who you help, what results they’ll get and why they should buy from you rather than that other guy; you target those and only those clients who will get the best value out of working with you and be willing to pay you what you’re worth.

Take this simple marketing test – does your current strategy answer these questions?

My Small Business Profitability Program can help you hone your sales and marketing skills and increase your income.

Share your results, comments or questions below:

If you want business results you must take action, because action (at least the right kind of action) leads to business results.

Managing by crisis keeps you on the defensive and leads to re-action. It stymies forward movement and wastes precious time, energy and money that could be invested in positive action paving the way for business results, instead.

But there is often resistance to taking action. In fact, many business owners find that reactive mode is the path of least resistance; and so they stay stuck, putting out fires and never getting around to taking the positive action that yields real business results. When this happens, you end up feeling like the hamster on a wheel, working hard, but not making progress.

So how do you stop being reactive and start taking the positive action that leads to business results?

1. Take the time to stop, think and plan strategically.
2. Deal with any resistance that comes up.
3. Take action on your business goals daily…no excuses!
3. Have support, guidance and accountability in place to help you stay on track.

Are you taking action, or just re-acting?  Join the conversation below.

If your marketing isn’t working the way you want it to, you may be overlooking one or more of these marketing basics:

1. A compelling marketing message.
2. The ability to build and sustain relationships.
3. Staying in front of your target market consistently.

Are you overlooking any of the marketing basics?  If so, you may benefit from speaking with me about your business.

As you may know, it ain’t always easy. But it’s even more difficult when there are internal obstacles in the way, the ones that keep you stuck, or can even push you into a downward spiral.

And so I’d like to relate a short Native American folk-tale, whose message is still relevant today:

One evening, an elderly Cherokee Brave told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.

He said “My son, the battle is between two “wolves” inside us all.

One is evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego.
The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather:

“Which wolf wins?”

The old Cherokee simply replied:

“The one you feed.”

Which wolf are you feeding? Join the conversation below.

PS: I want to thank Robbie Akeret for passing down the story, a favorite client for research and the Nanticoke Indian Tribe.

But Lisa’s finances are not the only things that are hurting, as undercharging also effects her own feelings of self confidence/worth, her brand and her ability to take charge of her business and her life.

When we first started to work together about a year ago, she was very discouraged, not just financially but emotionally as well. It was draining to put in all this work, all this effort and not be able to support herself without taking on another job.

I urged Lisa to research the going rate for therapeutic massages services in her area. No surprise, she was at the bottom of the market. Although Lisa recognized that she had to do something about it, she was very reluctant to do so.

Lisa rationalized that the market that she catered to didn’t have enough money, that she just didn’t attract clients that would/could pay more. But part of the reason she had so much trouble doing this, was because she didn’t feel worth it inside.It was difficult to get her to stop undercharging even though she knew there was no good reason to do it.

We took a multifaceted approach which included tweaking her marketing, sales and pricing strategies as well as working with her own inner feelings, building confidence, and challenging some long held beliefs.

It took a bit of work, but today Lisa is reaping the rewards of her efforts. Her income increased 34% last year, she was able to quit the part time job, and is on target for an even greater increase this year.  But more importantly, she feels better about herself, her business and her life, and now is enthusiastic about going out and marketing her services.

Are you guilty of undercharging? Join the conversation below.

My Small Business Profitability Program will teach you how to charge what you’re worth and get it.

How did this year go?  Were you able to achieve business goals you set earlier in 2014? If so, congratulations, it’s time to celebrate and set some new goals that will bring you even more of what you want for your business and life this year.

But if you’re not quite there yet…if you’re admonishing yourself, moping around or making excuses as to why you weren’t able to achieve what you set out to do…if you find that you’re giving yourself a “do-over”, telling yourself that this year WILL be different…well… then it’s time to ask yourself if you’re willing to commit to changing the way you’ve been doing things and leave behind the old habits, patterns and behaviors that kept you from achieving success this time around.

So before you start to set goals for 2015.  Before you start making empty promises that you’ll find hard to keep.  Take a moment to reflect and see what’s really worth working towards and what you’ll need to do to realistically achieve it.

And if you’re serious about making things happen in the upcoming year, and achieving business goals this year, click here to learn how you can get my help to do so in 2015.