Author: Lisé Kuecker

I am an extraordinarily happy person. I have been accused, more than a few times, of being too cheerful for my own good {except first thing in the morning—that has never happened}. I see the glass half full, the positive side, the best possible outcome.

 

Except when I meet a new client. Because while I can see the outcome that I can bring and I get excited about it I also know, one fact:

 

Pain sells and possibility retains.  

 

Pain sells more than any benefit, any remarkable change, any miraculous testimonial ever will.

 

Possibility keeps your clients going, when they are at their wits and wondering the next breakthrough is even possible.

 

My business clients are, generally speaking, horrified by the idea of any type of pain. I mean I get this…you’re saying things like:

“I don’t want to be depressing…I love what I can do….I can’t possibly talk about the bad side of things—they’re here to buy!”

 

Yes, they are here to buy. And, what likely triggered them to come wasn’t to gain the benefits you can provide…it was to avoid the pain they are already in.

 

And, if you can use your client’s pains and possibilities as you educate them you’re ten times more likely to see the results of your dreams and to watch your clients hit their goals time and time again thanks to their insane motivation.

 

So how do you harness these cues?

 

From a psychological perspective, pain and possibility are primal cues. The therapist’s daughter in me has always been fascinated that deep down, we’re often motivated by our subconscious brain that’s been around for a long time.

 

So let’s take a journey to our caveman past and imagine how, without the help of google, they managed to not just survive, but thrive.

 

Pain is an easy one for our caveman ancestors. In fact, my now 7 year old, was remarkably primitive as a 1-3 year old.

 

Hot fire=Hurts=Don’t touch.

 

Red Berry=Sick after eaten=Don’t eat.

 

Lessons are learned fast when pain is involved and we’re quick to adapt our habits to avoid that pain. Yes, that means that people will hire an assistant to avoid collapsing under too much work, call that graphic designer after they’ve beat their head against a computer for six hours or show up at the gym at 5 AM against all of their urges for sleep.

 

They’ve rallied against pain.

 

The problem is that while pain subconsciously triggers your clients to reach out to you, most haven’t really identified what this problem is really doing to their life. They sense they’re frustrated, they may have literal physical pain, but is it really that big of a deal? In order to drive them towards purchasing your services, you have to allow your clients to verbalize what that pain looks like.

 

Now, if this is sounding way too 50 Shades of Grey, don’t worry…it’s much easier {and less painful} that it sounds.

 

But before we get there, I can’t forget pleasure.

 

Two years ago, I was diagnosed with Graves Disease, which is simply a disorder where your thyroid produces too much hormone. My mother also has Grave’s Disease, except 20 years ago it was an under diagnosed condition and after a year of heart problems, she finally had her thyroid removed with radioactive medicine. It remains one of the scariest moments of my life.

 

So, while I’d known something was wrong with my thyroid for two months, I avoided it like the plague. I was terrified of having my life change the way my mother’s had.

 

Once, I landed myself in the hospital with a 150 beat per minute heart rate, that fear changed….you’ve never seen someone get to a doctor faster.

 

The treatment plan was simple—medicine to slow the thyroid down—and a recommendation to see a functional medicine doctor. That doctor dramatically changed my diet, shifting me to a Paleo regimen that left this Louisiana girl in tears….no rice, no beans…had she ever been to New Orleans on a Monday?

 

But, after a week I felt good. After two weeks, I felt great. After a month, I looked like a different person.

 

And, when I stared down a KingCake or saw Peeps land on the shelf at Easter, my pleasure was so high in my body without sugar or wheat or dairy, that I was able to keep going.

 

Pleasure was my retention.

 

Your clients are the same way. Pain may drive them in, but pleasure keeps them going when they’re confronted with their greatest obstacles, their deepest desires and their strongest fears.

 

So…how do you harness these primal cues?

 

It all comes down to knowing your Core Client.

 

Many of you have created an avatar. If not, an avatar is not just a James Cameron movie. It’s simply an imaginary ideal client. If you could take all of your clients and combine only their similarities, you’d have your ideal Core Client.

 

You know how old your client is, their sex, their general demographics, maybe even what their days look like.  This is all helpful, but to really change your client’s purchasing

 

I need you to go a step further.

 

I’d like you to build 10 moments in your Core Client’s life.

 

What are the five worst moments this problem has led them to?

 

What are the five best moments they’ve had in overcoming it, in moving beyond it, in living without it?

 

And, where do you fit into to having them leave behind those worst moments and live in the best?

 

Now, if you want to dive in a little bit more, I’ve sat down with my amazing counselor mother {who ran a few insanely successful businesses in her day} and built out a workbook we use when we’re building these top ten moments in our Core Client’s lives. We use these moments in all of our marketing, in the questions we ask our prospects and even when we’re dreaming up new programs and services to offer. It’s that important. Click Here to Download Your Copy Now

Why do I need a lever?

Let me paint this scenario: A client comes in. They are incredibly excited. You educate them perfectly. You have them prepped to become a long-term customer. And, then they hesitate.

That hesitation means one of two things.

1. You have the wrong package.
2. They are waiting for you to sweeten the deal.

Sweeten the deal? Yes…some clients just need to feel like they got an extra special deal on their services.

And, you need to make sure that they purchase {and prefer it to happen today, since your odds of making them a client will drop with ever day they don’t make this choice}.

Cue the lever {aka the carrot}.

Now, since I have a 7 year old and a whole lot of clients who need encouragement, I operate under the principle that most people need carrots or sticks. Carrots are the good that pulls them forward. Sticks are the bad the drives them ahead. Whether I choose to offer a carrot or a stick comes down to the client in front of me and what I feel that need.

That said, while a stick can repel some people, a carrot encourages most.

A lever is simply the small incentive you offer out to your client to have them complete the sale. I don’t use this with everyone. In fact, since our closing rates are quite high and we know how to educate our prospects well, I use this rarely. But, I always have that lever in my back pocket in case I need it.

If you’ve ever seen a high-pressure lever {hello used cars and crazed gym salesman}, please erase that memory. This is not what I am going to ask you to do.

Instead, I’m going to ask you to read your client’s interest levels and if you find yourself stuck with an interested client in the midst of analysis paralysis, to have something ready to move them forward gently into the sale.

What does a lever look like?

1.Value Add Service: If you’ve heard me chat about sales, you know I don’t do traditional sales…I educate my clients on what they’ll really need to reach their goals. And, often times during this education, I’ll share additional services that might be great for them.

If I reach the hesitation mark, an ability to add a small service that I know would be ideal for their end goal is a no brainer {it’s also the best way to transition them onto this for the long-term}.

For a Facebook ads expert, this might be having a Facebook cover designed that matches the campaign.

If you are a chiropractor who offers massage services, this may be a 30-minute starter massage.

And, for a yoga studio, this may be your first yoga mat…remember, this value add, doesn’t have to be a service. It can be a tangible object that your client will use during your time together…even if you’re a virtual provider. One of my all-time favorite value adds, was a customized Moleskine journal with my name on it.

This is my favorite lever…it works, it keeps my value high and typically leads my client to bigger services.

2. Payment Abatement: Before I share payment abatements, I want you to understand that this is a tricky option and works best if your service is not high ticket.

Your client is likely paying for a set number of sessions. One way to encourage your client to begin immediately is to provide the first week or two weeks of services at no cost or at a highly discounted cost. Their payments begin one week or two weeks in and they receive that complimentary time.

The only negative to this option is the question of whether or not your client will make their first payment. Generally speaking, we’ve screened our clients so well that this isn’t an issue, but I’d still be leery of offering any expensive services without a payment.

3. The Discount: Then, there is the most common lever—the discount. Don’t get me wrong. This is highly effective. People love a discount…it’s why sales work so doggone well.

The problem is that it sets you up to undermine your value before you’ve ever gotten started.

If I’ve gotten you excited about levers enough that you’re ready to try one, you can download our Lever Design Package today. These are some of the most common levers our clients love ready to be customized and printed (Yes, we love fiverr for this kinda thing)

Click Here to Download Your Lever Design Package!

Let me introduce you to three of the most powerful words in our entrepreneur’s language.

Think.

Tank.

Time.

For the overworked, overloaded, and overstretched reading this, I can guess you are shaking your heads and saying, “Ha…has she seen my calendar. Does she get what my life is like?”

And, my answer is yes. If given the opportunity, between clients, kids and commitments my calendar would become a 40 hour a day spot where I would never find room to breathe.

I’ve been there.

I’ve done it.

I have the t-shirt and the sleepless night to prove it.

And, a few years ago I had to make a choice to set serious boundaries because my work life had overwhelmed my life, seeping into my evenings, my dinners, my breakfasts, my Sunday mornings, until it felt like a vine that was strangling every ounce of joy.

I thought I had overcome this little problem until the last few weeks hit.

You see, a lot has happened.

We’ve sold a business.

We’re opening a new business {across the country, because I believe in making everything very simple}.

We’re moving our current businesses to another epically incredible level.

And, this little part-time consulting practice? Well, it’s grown…fast.

Truth be told, the consulting part gives me amazing joy because I’m working with clients one-on-one and the results have been incredible. A few weeks in people are doubling their revenues, hiring the staff they’ve needed for years and taking control over their businesses. A few months in and I don’t recognize my clients—their lives and their businesses are totally different.
And, these kinds of results make me passionately dive in to see how we can make it better, grow it and help even more people.

This has meant growing a new and extremely talented team to provide incredible support for our customers.

This has meant months of training to make sure that we can see and use every person’s specific zone of genius {Total Fact—I have many team members that are far more talented than I am—we make sure to work in the areas that we are great at, which means our clients get the best results}.

This has meant lots of new technology implementation, headaches and processes.

Add all of these projects together, and, this has meant a lot of meetings, not all of which I needed to be on. Let’s face it, I was excited and I wanted to hear about everything {hello, type A, a role I had gleefully given up}

Meetings are lovely. So are bookkeeping, graphic design, Facebook page management, SEO research and website maintenance.

The problem is that they can remove any time to actually focus on deep diving into our business. And, as an entrepreneur, these aren’t necessarily the roles, I’m now called to fill in my business.

We feel busy so we must be doing something right. But, in reality, it’s the wrong kind of busy. It’s the busy that stagnates businesses and prevents long term growth.

Why? These roles are not directly producing revenue, growing my company, and building my client base. They are better served by a contractor who is focused on them at a much lower hourly rate than I currently charge.

And, I need to be doing things like:

• Analyzing this month’s numbers and looking for trends in what’s going right and what could use a tweak.
• Sitting down with my team for intensive training {and let’s not forget having the time to analyze who might need to be hired next to fill a crucial void, putting together the hire and training a new team member }.
• Developing the plan for the next stage of our company.
• Having time to actually connect with former clients and re-establish a relationship with them.
• Having time to meet with new clients and establish relationships with them.
• Planning out our goals {and the exact action steps on how to reach them} so I’m never just busy…every single action step has a purpose that keeps my business moving forward.

See where I’m going?

To do those things, I need actual white space—unscheduled, quiet time to move forward.

Enter Think Tank Time.

I didn’t invent this. In fact, thanks to a little bit of luck, I just realized it was what I’d been looking for.

My husband is currently an advisor to an amazing man, with a schedule that makes mine look like it has nothing on it. I called a few weeks ago when I was planning a surprise trip for Dan and wanted to make sure that I could pick him up half an hour early to get to the airport in time for our flights.

The response: “Don’t worry, it’s a TTT day.”

Me: “TTT?”

Response: “Think Tank Time—It would be hard to get much done if he didn’t have time to actually move forward on crucial projects. When we open up space on his calendar it’s filled right away, so we leave these pockets for our big projects.”

{Light bulb Moment}

So here’s my question—I’m just learning how to make Think Tank Time work for me in this new phase of my business. How can you make it work for you? Email us at support@lisekuecker.com and share your stories. I’m looking for a little inspiration and can’t wait to learn from you!

We’re buying a new car.  Actually two of them, since while I would drive my 8 year old Volkswagen until the day it died, my husband has refused to drive to me with jumper cables ever again.

While Dan and Remy {plus his bestie Jack} hopped in the very cozy coupes for test drives, I hung back at the dealership with one of my favorite books—The Talent Code.

For personal reasons, I love this book, because I have always believed that you were born a genius and there’s no other way to become one.  This belief has stopped me form doing more than a few things I loved because I wasn’t naturally great at them.  The Talent Code, flat out denies that…yes, 10,000 hours of practice is really necessary to become great.

Regardless of how many times, I’ve picked up this book, I’ve always glossed over Gary McPherson’s long term study on children’s musical development {shocking you say—yes, I am nerd}.

Continue reading “Why 157 kids taught me all I needed to know about dramatically changing my client’s results.”