10 times your business by implementing this key number 1. In this episode, we
are going to address the very first key on how to ten times your entrepreneurial
practice. How to attract the perfect customers.
So, get ready I'm going to share with you some concepts that I have invested over
three million bucks in my life to learn. And I'm going to give it to you free.
So, I'm Doug Andrew and I've been a financial strategist for more than 45
years. But during that time period, I've actually trained over 3,000
entrepreneurs, business owners. In fact, I've been in mastermind groups and
invested over 3 million bucks in my life sharpening my saw as Stephen Covey would
say. And so, through all of the hundreds of principles that I've learned, I have
narrowed down the top 10 that were game changers in my life. This is how I 10
times my income in less than 5 years in my professional practice as a
financial strategist. And so, I actually have a book coming out titled 10 keys
to a meaningful transformation to the top of your industry. Whatever you do. I
don't care if you're a doctor, a dentist chiropractor, a realtor, a CPA, an
attorney and a pollster, whatever you do; you can 10 times your income while
simplifying your life. Not making it more complex.
And so, I actually have a scorecard where I go through these ten principles. This
episode is about the very first principle. On this scorecard, I always ask
my students when I teach this to score themselves on each principle on where
they are currently at. From a scale of 1 to 10. And so, I usually arrange
things from poor, fair, good, better, best. And so, on this very first principle, how
do you attract the perfect customers? This is a principle that is so powerful
because many people know and understand what we call the 80% rule. What is
that? Most people who are entrepreneurs or in business 80% of their income is
made up from the top 20% of their clients or customers. But where do they
spend 80% of their time with the ones who only make up 20% of their
income? So, I taught them I continue to teach them to flip that so
that you're spending at least 80% of your time with the people that make
up 80 percent of your income. To do that, you have to understand how to attract
your ideal client. So, the first key on this is to identify and focus on the
profile of your ideal client, customer or patient. You're ready? I'm going to read
through this and then I'm going to share four questions you ought to ask yourself
about your customers. So, was I read through these from poor, fair, good, better,
best; I sort of know what you're going to want to have for your future. But I want
you to think of where you're at currently. Okay, the first one: You feel
desperate and will work with anyone who listens. You are not aware of any profile
of an ideal client or customer. That would be poor. Next, you know the
attributes of your ideal patients or clients or customers but you don't know
how to teach or reach or market to them. Okay? That's that's not... That's just fair.
You have enough patience, customers, clients but you're not sure how to
improve relationships with them or how to best deliver your service. That's
where a lot of people are professionally. How about this? You know the profile of
your ideal customer but only 20% of your time is spent with the people that make
up 80% of your income. Can you relate to that one? Well, here's the best: You devote
80% of your time with the people, the clients, the customers the
patients that make up 80% of your income. Now, that's where I want to be. So,
how do you do that? I learned that you have to ask yourself often maybe once
every 6 months, at least every year or 2 these 4 questions on how you can
redefine the profile of your ideal client or customer. Are you ready? I
credit this idea to a book titled Attracting Perfect Customers.
I think the authors were JAN BROGNIEZ and STACEY HALL. And so, I adapted these
questions to my entrepreneurial practice. The first
one is "What are the attributes of my I deal client?" So, I wrote them down. And I
remember the first time I said, "Well, they're punctual, they're appointment
keepers. They're grateful for my advice. They do what I asked them to do. They
follow through and so forth." They use the tools that I provide and so forth. Those
are my perfect clients or customers. The ones who don't just take up my time and
then they don't follow through. That was the first question. I got super clear on
the attributes of the people I love to work with. Because it was synergistic. We
accomplished a lot together. That was number 1, question number 2, what
makes my ideal client or customer tick. In other words, I would ask them
questions and I would find out what their main purpose was for living. Who
and what is most important to them? My sweet spot were people in my financial
practice. People 55 to 70 years old, they were about to retire and I wanted to
help them not outlive their money and so forth. And so, I knew what was important
to them. And it wasn't just not out living their money. It was their family
their children not spoiling them and so forth. Once I found out what made them
tick and who and what was important to them, I could become a confidante. So, that
when they came to me, they knew that I understood. I was sincerely interested in
their entire situation not just their money. This helped my practice go through
the roof and I begin to attract the perfect customers because it resonated.
It wasn't people who just wanted to come in and deal with money. It was the people
that knew that money wasn't the most important thing. Let's go through the
final 2 questions. So, the third question I had to ask myself and I do
this regularly. "What do your ideal clients, customers
expect you to deliver?", okay? Now, I did learn thank goodness that you want to
under promise and then over deliver. But what did my
clients expect me to deliver? First of all, the same advice and direction that I
would give my mother to my own spouse, my children, my grandchildren because I
didn't want to ever recommend anything that I was not implementing myself or
with my own family. What else? They wanted me to return phone calls to stay in
touch, to have the latest and the greatest, to be on the cutting edge and
to understand how to deal with flexibility with the changing world we
were in. Instead of just giving the same old-same old advice that I learned 20
and 30 years ago in college, in dental school, in medical school. They wanted
maybe on the cutting edge. They wanted me to be courteous and professional and
deliver prompt responses to meet with them annually, help them get clarity, make
adjustments. This is very powerful. You need to have clear understandings of
what your ideal clients and customers expect you to deliver. And then the
fourth question: "What do you need to do to improve your relationship with your
ideal clients and customers?" So, as I thought about this, relationship is
everything. And so, I first of all needed to communicate my desire to improve the
relationship. I wanted to clarify their plan and make sure that we stayed on the
same page of what our goals were. Meet annually and show them what little
adjustments we needed to make. I would ask them questions like what
has changed in your family situation or with your business that we need to make
adjustments? But I needed to be responsible and answer questions "What
have I done to create value for you and your family during the last year? What do
I intend to do during the next year to create value for you and your family? And
what makes me unique? Why should you continue to do business with me?" I felt
like I needed to answer those 3 questions and be accountable every year.
And that built really good relationships with my clients. I also needed to be
sincerely interested in them instead of just not paying attention to what they
were sharing. What was keeping them up at night and their greatest fears and then
addressed them. And so, I wanted to communicate that they met my profile of
an ideal client and I appreciated them. And frankly, those who didn't when I
attempted to fire the client by saying, "I don't think this is right fit."
Some of them beg. They say, "We're so sorry. I was just raised with
trying to get my money's worth and so I was trying to make you do all these
reports and do everything like that. Can we stay your client? We'll change our
ways. We'll be courteous" and so forth. And I was like, "Oh, okay. Because that's miserable.
You want to have the office brighten up when they come in instead of brightening
when they leave, if you know what I mean. And so, you want to provide reasons for
them to respect you and create what I call a meaningful transformation for
them. Instead of them viewing you that you're just a commodity. You're just like
any other doctor dentist or financial planner. No. You are not providing just
unique products. You don't get just give good service. It's a unique experience.
Every time they come in and meet with you and you're providing a meaningful
transformation. So, if this is resonating with you, this is the very first of ten
keys. But when you implement these 10 keys of entrepreneur after entrepreneur
that I've trained, their practice usually grows by 10 times often in less than 60
months like mind did. These are powerful concepts. So, number one is you want to
identify and focus on the profile of your ideal client or customer. So, I would
encourage you to click on these additional episodes. Learn the other 9
keys to make a meaningful transformation in your professional practice so that
you can have 10 times growth.