You go into the purchase of a house or a car (or an elephant) knowing that what you see is what you’ll get. You’re able to see the finished product before you buy, except for minor modifications or additions to the car or house,
Don’t use these big ticket items as analogies for your knowledge services work!
Your buyers are nervous about the purchase because it’s not tangible like a house or a car.
- The website with SEO Optimization,
- The safety program,
- The engineering plans,
- The video,
- The legal document or lawsuit,
- The financial statements or tax returns
—none of these can be displayed “on the lot” for the buyer to see in full.
The GREAT news is that we have a huge advantage over those sellers.
Our advantage is our knowledge and expertise.
It is not fixed, and we can adapt it to each client.
Leverage this advantage-deliver IMPACT in increments
Your clients are buying IMPACT for three different things:
- Needs—we must have that/do that now.
- Wants–it would be great to have that or do that.
- Desires—we have big goals we’re working towards.
And within each area they may want a lot, a little, or something in-between.
The client gains trust and confidence in you at a pace that works for them when you offer to deliver IMPACT at different levels,
Here’s How Presidents and Owners Work It
The President/CEOs of an accounting firm and a regulatory compliance firm adapted our three tier approach for their services. Here’s how they talk about it.
CPA:
Discovery and analysis: “We’ll look at all your financial records and analyze them in three areas: P&Ls, cash flow reports; and tax returns. We’ll report what’s working, what isn’t working, and what’s missing.”
Recommendations: “We will recommend improvements, and things you could discontinue. We’ll identify gaps and what you need to fill those gaps.”
Implementation: “We’ll guide your internal staff or help you find outside providers to fill the gaps. Alternatively, we will become your implementation partner for the time it takes to complete the implementation.”
Regulatory compliance (safety)
Discovery and analysis: “We offer three levels of discovery and analysis:
- Review safety policies and training courses (remote)
- Visit your locations (on site)
- Survey all employees to learn their perspective on safety at your company. (On site and remote)
We’ll analyze where you meet your own goals, where you meet external regulatory goals, and where there are gaps.”
Recommendations: “We’ll recommend actions to correct deficiencies and to fill gaps, including specific recommendations covering equipment, systems, personnel, and policies.”
Implementation: “We’ll guide your internal staff to implement the recommendations; we’ll help you find outside providers to fill the gaps; we’ll become your implementation partner for the time it takes to complete the implementation.
They Adapted Our Approach
After years of tinkering (I wrote the book on Tinkering!) I offer three levels of IMPACT.
You can do the exact same thing customized to your specialty.
Discovery and Analysis: We begin by learning everything we can about the client company. That’s discovery. You can’t promise to deliver life changing IMPACT without knowing where the client is today.
The IMPACT of discovery and analysis is how the various elements of your company fit together, the strengths and weaknesses, and the gaps.
NOTE: This IMPACT should never be given away for free. You may offer a complimentary coaching or consulting call, and give value during it, but please do not call it Discovery! Our version is the STARTER call.
Recommendations: We write a list of recommendations for future action based on our discovery and analysis. This as a separate step rather than being included in a bundle of discovery, analysis, and recommendations.
Seeing your discovery and analysis process is the proof they need to value your recommendations.
The IMPACT of recommendations is confidence that you have a working plan to achieve your goals.
Implementation: This is the period when we help clients take the steps we recommend. Our implementation support is customized to the level of intensity preferred by the client.
IMPACT of implementation is being invigorated and forward looking. You’ll have confidence that every one of the recommendations will be implemented.
It’s Your Turn
Take 5 minutes right now to write down:
- What discoveries about your clients are essential?
- In what areas would you make recommendations?
- Describe two or three levels of implementation you could offer.
Get comfortable talking with clients about discovery, recommendations, and implementation as three different offers that each deliver life changing IMPACT.
Let them choose what’s comfortable for them.
The likelihood is high that they’ll eventually choose you to deliver life changing IMPACT all the way to their biggest dreams.
When you let the client choose their IMPACT, they eventually will choose your firm to deliver their biggest dreams.
