One of the top mistakes I see being made by business owners of ALL walks — physicians, attorneys, multi-location brick & mortars, etc. — is this critical error of NOT building a bridge between the initial interest of a prospect, and the “sign on the dotted line” moment at which the prospect becomes a paying client or patient.
You will never double, triple or ten-times your profit unless you have carefully choreographed answer to THIS question:
What happens between an ideal prospect finding out you exist and can help them and that moment when prospect actually signs on to become client or patient?
There are many steps BEFORE that initial moment of interest from a prospect. (Knowing your market intimately, choosing the RIGHT Market, for example.) And savvy business owners know that you REALLY want to get a sale in order to create a lifetime client, so there’s lots to be done AFTER initially collecting the check or co-pay or retainer, too. But, what’s frustrating way too many business owners is that they simply don’t give a lot of attention, expertise, strategy to what happens “in the middle.”
For our purposes here, we’re calling the bridge between your prospects initial interest and their initial payment a Profit Strategy. A solid profit strategy will allow you to build that bridge between a bunch of INTERESTED prospects (i.e. crickets) and a bunch of COMMITTED CLIENTS (i.e. cha-ching).
I created this article to help facilitate and guide this process of creating a CORE profit strategy.
7 Questions To Help Guide The Creation of a Profit Strategy that Works:
- Where or how do people typically make contact with you for the first time? Perhaps it’s at a networking meeting, or maybe they see your ad in the local paper, or perhaps you spoke at a large event. Where they met you will help you determine what they are likely to know already — and what they still need to know.
- Why do these prospects make initial contact with you? This is uber important. I’m increasingly aware that my prospects — for both arms of my company — come to me with one of 2 core “whys.” They either want to fully leverage the potential and profit of their business (and anything less than impressively solid and fast is too slow and disappointing.) AND / OR They’re sick of spinning their wheels in one of 3 areas: income, impact or influence. They want more of one or more of those “i” words.Why people are in conversation with you — liking your facebook page, reaching out to you via your business card, visiting your website, stopping by your showroom — is important! It dictates your content strategy… what you say, what you lead with, how quickly you engage them in a selling conversation.In my humble opinion, there’s a lot more focus on the WHY of the business owner these days than what is infinitely more important: The why of your prospect. So, don’t just question WHY they’re in conversation with you. Question Why now? What is compelling them to reach out to you right now?
- What questions / doubts / hesitations / suspicions are they likely to arrive with? This is also a big one. Most of us know the hesitations and objections we’re likely to be up against, but we choose to avoid them like the plague…. all to the detriment of our income, of course. Don’t avoid the elephant in the room. Call it out. Acknowledge it. Give it a name, and show your prospect why this big old animal isn’t nearly as scary as it seemed before. NOT bringing up a known objection creates doubt and distrust. This is a bridge remember? So, walk with them over it. Side by side. Point out the benefits of being with you in the land of paying clients and also address things that may be an inner dialogue of your prospect.
- What do they need to know, trust and believe as true in order to do business with you? Quick example: for people to MOST QUICKLY walk across my own proverbial bridge, they need to have accepted the following:
— For better or for worse, it is NOT the best in any industry that makes the most money, it is the best MARKETED in that industry.
— MOST of what is taught and shoveled down our throats about marketing and business success is hogwash, B.S., fools gold.
— Bright shiny objects have cost me money, time and opportunity, so I might as well get back to basics.What’s on YOUR list? Once you make your list, work the answers into your own prospect indoctrination process. - What are you trying to sell? This seems obvious, right? Unfortunately, it’s not always obvious. Most of us have AT LEAST a small menu of what we can sell to our market. Most of us also leave that menu out for our clients and then let them decide what they want. Wrong, wrong, wrong.It’s wrong because it extends the bridge while complicating the decision process for your clients. Without a prescribed offer, you can get a YES from a client… a vote of confidence, a “let’s do this” response, but NEVER actually make the sale.
Do you want to leave them with a Yes/ No question? Usually not. However, the MOST profitable in EVERY industry PRESCRIBE what’s next for prospects. They prescribe a few options off the menu.
- What’s plan B for you? RUH-ROH…. Your prospect turns back — half way across the bridge — without consummating the deal. Look — this happens, so you might as well plan for it. How will you re-engage with that prospect that disappears on you? How will you re-establish conversation? Some clients are just “not now” clients. Don’t dismiss them when they don’t show up with dollars. Keep nurturing them closer to the right decision for them.
- What do they need to see from you to know they are in GOOD HANDS? Buyers today are shopping and doing business and making decisions with burned and bruised fingers… results of making poor buying decisions in the past that they regret. So, instill confidence in them. Make your testimonials or patient stories easy to find on your website. Invest $34.95 in a book of before and afters for your waiting room table. (Have it printed as a hard bound book!) In the media? Show off your celebrity. Do what it takes to instill confidence in your prospect.
Answer these questions and you’ll be well on your way to creating a wow-worthy, cash-producing profit strategy.
