Stop Being A Wimp With Your Clients!

QUOTE: “Substantial value is created when the client achieves more than they expected. One of the best ways to ensure the client achieves more than they expect is to ask more of them than they expected you to.” – Thomas Leonard, founder of Coachville

My translation: don’t be wimpy with your clients! One of the most interesting shifts I’ve seen in my Client Attraction coaching practice and Masterminds over the last 11 years is that clients are seeing infinitely better results than at the beginning, when I first started.

Yeah, yeah, I thought the same thing you’re thinking now. At first, I thought, “Well, duh, that’s normal, I know more than I did a few years ago and I’m getting better and better at what I do.” That’s a logical thought, but over the last few years, I’ve also been doing something drastically different: I’ve been expecting a LOT more out of my clients.

Now, you may have heard me say I cherry-pick my clients, and I don’t work with someone who’s not deadly serious about doing what it takes to get clients. Frankly, I don’t really have as much patience for people who aren’t serious or committed (sorry, it sounds harsh, but it’s just not as much fun).

What I’m talking about today is a different twist on the same concept.This is about EXPECTING more of each and every one of them, knowing that when they push themselves just a little bit harder to reach their goals, they usually exceed them, especially with me right behind them, giving them just the resources they need and cheering them on.

A client bcc’d me on an email to her friend a while back, saying “Fabienne will give you a lot of work and expect a lot from you. But the thing is, she’ll also give you all the resources, letter examples, scripts you’ll need to get it done and she will cheer you on when you do. It’s simple, but it’s not easy, and it works. You should talk to her.”

At first, I thought, “Oh great, this prospective client will NEVER want to work with me, thinking it’s going to be too hard!” But the more I thought about it, the more I was happy she’d written that. YUP. I do expect a lot out of my clients. Hard work, focus, dedication, and my all-time favorite, a no-excuses approach to doing what it’ll take to get clients, quickly, consistently and for the long haul. And to get really extraordinary results (see my client testimonials), I expect more of them.

So when I coach my Winners Academy clients on how to manage their OWN clients, I’ve been telling them recently to ask MORE of their clients, expect more and this will translate into more clients for them.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a therapist, a financial planner, a mortgage broker, a coach, acupuncturist, consultant, or nutritionist, it’s time for you to start asking more and expecting more of each one of your clients. Expecting more of them will have them take YOU more seriously, most importantly, they’ll take themselves more seriously, they’ll invest in themselves more, and they’ll do what it takes to get even more results than they originally came in for. That creates a raving fan.

Hey, just a caveat here: I too don’t always get to ALL the work I’ve promised my coach, when I work with one, to move my business forward. We all get sidetracked by life or a too-fast-momentum upfront (at least I do). I like knowing that the person supports me to think big and to act accordingly.

So, you don’t want to beat your clients up if they don’t get everything done in the time they first committed to. That’s not the point we’re talking about here and it defeats the purpose of championing them. Instead, it’s about caring for them enough to want more for them than they want for themselves. In turn, you’ll get more referrals and more clients out of the deal, so it’s a win-win situation all around.

Your Assignment:

So, go for it! Expect more of them, lovingly. In turn, you’ll have more satisfied clients and those types of clients become RAVING fans who refer like crazy.

• Make a list of your current clients and think about the goals they’ve set for themselves. Are these goals exciting enough? Do these goals literally PULL the clients into their future or are they a little weak?
• Let your clients know upfront that you’re going to expect a lot from them. You can put this on your website or in their welcome packet. It’s been my experience this is actually really exciting for them. Most times, they don’t ask enough of themselves because of fear of failure (and strangely enough, fear of success too).
• Let them know you want to play this game with them and see where it goes. Most people love this, especially high-achieving go-getters (my favorites!).
• Take a soft approach to this though, not an aggressive one (you don’t want to turn anybody off). Ask them permission to help them double their goals or reach their goals in half the time. Explain to them that they have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Why is that so Client Attractive? Because, your clients start getting amazing, really kick-butt results, they’ll start telling EVERYBODY about how awesome you’ve been for them. That, my friend, means referrals, referrals, and more referrals for YOU. Cha-ching!