Bill Baren Blog

As a business coach, I get a LOT of questions from very diverse business owners.

One of the most frequent questions is this:
“I’m very good at what I do… so why aren’t people hiring me?”

Is this happening with you?

If so, I am going to share with you three of the biggest mistakes people make when they are having an enrollment conversation with potential clients.
(By the way, “enrollment conversation” is another way of saying “initial consultation” or “sales conversation”)

MISTAKE #1 – Promoting your services before your potential client gets clear on what they REALLY want.
The consultation is about your potential clients and their needs, and not about you. So be sure to take a substantial part of your consultation to ask questions to understand you potential client’s needs before you offer solutions.

When you understand their deepest wants and needs - and I mean what’s keeping them up at night - then you’re in a great place to offer your services as a solution.

If you aren’t establishing the “Gap”, you’re going to have a hard time getting hired! The “Gap” is the frustration that potential clients feel about the chasm between where they are now and where they want to go with their life, business, health, web site, etc.

MISTAKE #2 – Trying to solve the potential client’s problem during your initial consultation. The consultation is not the time to help your prospect solve a micro-problem they are currently having.  It’s an opportunity for them to see much greater opportunities for themselves and for their business and to establish you as someone who can help them close the gap.

Here’s why this is a mistake. Often when you give them 1/20th of a solution to their problem, they think they’ve already received the solution from you and go off to implement it on their own – without hiring you.

This is not the best way you can be of service to them, since their problem is only partially solved. And it will certainly not land you the client.

And this isn’t just an issue for coaches – it’s often true whether you are a web designer, business consultant, healer or wellness practitioner, professional organizer, etc.

MISTAKE #3 – Not using a consistent system for your enrollment conversation.
When you’re having a conversation with a potential client about working together, is it something you do spontaneously, without a script or agenda? Does it feel kind of random, and you’re uncertain if your conversation is going to work? You may even feel like the conversation with your potential client is going well, but then they don’t hire you. And you don’t why.

If this is the case, I have to ask you, do you have a “system” that you are using in every sales conversation?

I am not a systematic guy by nature.  In fact, I have often been allergic to systems.

But after a while, I couldn’t deny that when I developed a system for enrolling clients during a one-on-one consultation, used it every time, continually made it better – the results spoke for themselves. My results jumped from a 0% success rate to a place where now 80% of prospective clients hire me.

If you are making one or all of these mistakes in your enrollment consultations, don’t despair!

Just make a conscious effort to change how you’re approaching your clients and holding these conversations.

And consider learning a more systematic approach to having enrollment conversations, such as my “Master of Enrollment” program.
Before you know it you these conversations will flow with ease, and you’ll allow new clients to say “yes” to you.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 25th, 2010 at 5:37 pm and is filed under Business, Coaching, Marketing, Getting Clients. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.