51. Signing Clients – Our ConsultX Client Acquisition Formula

Signing Clients – Our ConsultX Client Acquisition Formula [Everything Business Consulting EP 51]

This week’s podcast is all about our Client Acquisition Formula that we have developed and used over the years. 

We have decided to do a podcast on it, as the Acquisition Formula is an easy way to explain to you what you have to do to be successful in the consulting profession, because we all need Clients.

The name of the game is to grow your consulting business as fast as you can so that you do not suffer a loss of income whilst you transition from employment to self-employment.

Client acquisition is one of the most important parts of being a Business Success Partner because we all need Clients so we can earn fees each month, what we are about to discuss is at the very foundation of effectively signing Business Owners to become your Clients.

Visit https://www.consultx.com/ for more information and to receive complete show notes for all of our podcast episodes. 

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Transcript:

David: Hi everybody, David Thexton here from ConsultX Business Success Program. ConsultX is an online program designed to train you to become a business consultant, or as we call you, a Business Success Partner, and to own and operate your own consulting business. Get out of the gridlock and the drudgery of employment and be your own boss, working with your own clients whilst having a great income and a lifestyle. Now to find out more, go to our website, www.consultx.com. 

And there are a couple of videos there, there's a little three minute one, and then there's a one that's about an hour 20, which is extremely comprehensive, and you'll find out just about everything that you'll ever need to know. 

This week's podcast is all about our client acquisition formula that we've developed over the years. It's an easy way to explain to you what you have to do to be successful in the consulting profession, because we all need clients. The name of the game is to grow your consulting business as fast as you can, so that you do not suffer a loss of income whilst you transitioned from employment to self-employment.

I've been a Business Success Partner since 2005, and even before that, for many years, I helped out friends who own businesses and over those years, right until today, I was still finding small ways to improve client acquisition. Client acquisition is one of the most important parts of being a Business Success Partner, because we all need clients so that we can earn fees each month. What we're about to discuss in this podcast is the very foundation of effectively signing up business owners to become your clients. 

80% of the businesses go broke in their first 10 years. That's a shocking statistic and it exists because the governments around the world gave them a license to operate with no tests or training to run a business, it's like dropping you or me into a jumbo jet at 30,000 feet and saying, go ahead, fly it. Yeah right, that's going to work, isn't it? Unless you're a pilot out there of course. 

As you move around your business neighborhood, 80% of the businesses that you drive by will be gone in the next 10 years, they'll have closed down, merged with another business or gone broke taking all the family assets with it. Think of the destruction caused to families when a business goes broke. And I think you all know somebody who has gone broke, and it's not much fun to do or watch. 

Back to client acquisition, the point I'm making is that potential clients are everywhere. There will never, ever be a shortage of potential clients in your, or my lifetime, no matter where you are. Not only are you surrounded by potential clients, you're also bombarded by thousands of ads from businesses who are looking for more business. Every business wants more business and needs help to get these new customers or clients. That's one of your jobs as a Business Success Partner.

All around you, and I see this every day, or just take, for example, where I live in Auckland, there are 22 major radio stations here and about another 50 little low powered radio stations in Auckland City, a town of 1.8 million people. Whole of New Zealand, by the way is about four and a half million people.

Every day I go down to my mailbox, it is clogged with pamphlets and little brochures from everything you can possibly imagine, probably happens to you too. Local newspapers, it just goes on and on, billboards, I drive down the motorway or freeway, excuse me, and there are cars, trucks, vans, all with sign writing on them.

It's just bombarded by advertising messages and all these people want more business. I have never met a business owner in my life, and especially in my consulting life, since 2005, who told me, David, I don't want any more business. I don't think that person exists maybe somewhere, but I haven't come across them.

So, this is what's all out there. This is all of the potential that's out there. And it is millions and millions and millions of businesses all around the world. It doesn't matter whether you're in south America, north America, South Africa, Europe, wherever you are. And Asia, all those places, they've all got radio stations, newspapers, billboards, pamphlets, and all those other sorts of things.

So at the start of any successful client acquisition strategy, it's a simple formula that is fairly common in the process of getting new clients. And it doesn't matter what profession or industry you are in, this formula is common to all. Think of the strategy as being like a law of nature, like gravity, light, heat, et cetera.

You're not going to be able to change this, it is fixed, it's there, it's there forever. Well, our client acquisition strategy or formula is exactly the same. If you want great results, then just follow the formula as we teach you, and you'll be able to sign up clients as you wish. So what's this formula?

You need to know the legend to understand it first, and it's not a complicated algebra type formulas, it's very, very simple. So I suggest you write this down. So stop this podcast now and go get a pen and paper and I'll just wait here. Great, you're back. So write this down. L equals leads, A equals activities, P equals prospects, T B V equals Trust Belief Value and C equals clients. 

Now, just to go back and explain these terms, leads are names of businesses that you've collected from observation, from listening to the radio, watching television, newspaper, pamphlets, billboards, cars, trucks, vans, all of these things, driving past business.

That's my favorite one, because when you drive past the business, you can see it. You can see what they do, you can see how clean it is, how modern it is, what industry they are in, how many cars are outside, all of these things. So you have leads, so you need to build a lead list, but we'll come to that in a minute.

Activity is action, it's activity. It's actually doing something to talk to these business owners, to take them through our process, to help them to become a client of ours, that's activity. P equals prospects, a prospect is somebody that you've actually met, you've shaken their hand and you've had a discussion with them.

TBV, trust belief value. What this is, is nobody is going to become your client unless they trust you, believe you, and they understand and believe the value that you're going to bring to the relationship TBV trust, belief value. And C equals clients, clients are people that you've signed up to become a client of yours, a consulting client.

So the formula is, write this down. L x A = P. Leads times activity equals prospects, come back to that in the second. P + TBV = C. So P prospects plus trust value belief, equals a client. So, unless they trust you, value what you're offering or believe what you're saying, then they won't sign up with you. So I'll go back and do it again. L x A = P, so leads times activity, lots of it when you're starting off, equals prospects and then prospects plus TBV equals C. And that's your trust belief value, and this is as simple as that. 

Now it all starts with building a solid set of leads. So let's say around a hundred as a starting point, and you can come back later and you can get some more if you need to. Leads times activity equals prospects. So the most important thing you're trying to do now is you're trying to put maximum energy or action into talking to these leads, by whatever method you decide to do that, so you can turn a lead into a prospect and a prospect is a somebody that you've had the first meeting with, remember?

In training, we cover lead list building in detail, but quite often activity is where people slow down the process. You see in your first few weeks, you've got to take off like a space shuttle at full power, absolutely at full power and there are fast and slow methods to acquire clients, ranging from walk-ins, which is my favorite, which are fast, all the way to slower methods , like networking, all these methods, and even variations or blendings of these methods, they all get there in the end, but I'd rather get established fast. So my favorite is just going in and talking to people. And other people's favorites are joining networking groups and things like that. Horses for courses, aye. So it depends on what you feel most comfortable doing. 

So you need good leads and a high level of activity, and I'm saying here about at least eight hours a day for the first few months, until you get your prospects and you've turned the prospects into the clients. So let's imagine you have your hundred leads and you're quickly working your way through the list, having discovery meetings, which is the first meeting that we have, and then the other meetings, the diagnostic, and then the proposal meeting.

And as you progress through the lead list, you'll find that you'll pick up more leads through referrals and observation of what's going on around you. You'll become very, very aware of what's happening. If a new business opens up or, I never saw that business before and you'll just see them around you. 

The next part of the formula is prospects, and of course, as I've mentioned that's someone you've already met with and done the discovery meeting with. Prospects plus TVB equals clients, TVB is trust, value, belief. I keep mixing that around actually don't I? So it's actually, it should be TBV trust, belief, value. So you've got to develop a high TBV in the client acquisition process before they'll become your client.

And this takes practice before you become good at this part of the process, please do not underestimate this simple formula because it holds your key to having a fast or a slow start in this profession. Remember that 80% of businesses fail in their first 10 years. So all these people you're driving past them and you're listening to the radio and they're advertising and they're in the newspaper, and 80% of them in the future are not going to be here. 

Let me tell you a little story about, excuse me. An area, business area where my business was, before I moved to Australia, this is the beverage business, and it's called East Tamaki, it's in south Auckland. And, well, I first moved there in 1983, I think it was. And, we built our factory there and then it got bigger and bigger and we got more land and we were all warehousing bigger, bigger. So I got to know East Tamaki very well, and I was there for 20 years and I knew every road around there. I knew just about every business that was around there. There would have been 500 businesses something like that.

And I was always driving around them and I was always buying things for the factory and doing things like that. And then we went to Australia for 10 years, and came back. I came back about five years ago and I went for a drive around there. And I can tell you that over 80 or 90% of the businesses that were there when I was there for those 20 years, were gone, gone and changed.

And whether they went broke, I don't know ,whether they moved, I don't know, whether they got bought out, they merge or whatever. I don't know, but it is amazing the turnover of businesses that carries on over the years. So this means that the market for your services is huge and it's increasing and it'll continue to do so well into the future.

So we need you to join ConsultX to help these people out because I tell you, they're struggling, huge percentage of them are struggling. There are many of you, who've been following us for a long time and I mean, for years sitting on the fence and there's over 4,000 of you, believe it, on our database.

So, why don't you take the plunge and become self-employed as a business consultant, we're here to help you. And we have on top of our training, webinars, podcasts, we have a membership group where everybody gets involved and helps each other out. And we even have some one-on-one coaching with me, if you want a fast start, now that costs a little bit more.

I hear so many stories of people all over the world, stuck in a dead end job, and they spent over 10 hours a week and sometimes a bit more than that, a lot more than that stuck in traffic. My daughter spends over 15 hours a week driving into Auckland, and with some people it's even longer. And then if there's a car accident, it's gridlock and it could take her three hours to get home.

Our consultants work from home, they work the hours they want, they take frequent holidays, they earn two to three times more than they used to earn working on wages on a salary, they take the kids to school, they attend school events. It's a great life, it could be yours. Just take the next step and join ConsultX.

We're here waiting for you to help you. For more information, just go to www.consultx.com. That's our website and watch the two videos, small one and a big one. And when you're ready, go to the pricing page at the top to sign up. There's no big franchise fee or ongoing royalties, that's important to remember. There are so many consulting organizations out there in the world where they want to charge you 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, a hundred thousand dollars, as a franchise fee, and then they'll want up to something like 18 to 20% royalties per month.

We just charge our normal US 199 per month for the subscription fee to be part of the international network. So, go to the website, sign up and become involved. We'd love to get you involved. So everybody, thanks for listening, if you have the time, please review our podcast on iTunes or Stitcher.

And I look forward to seeing you again next week, bye!