Your Pinnacle Practice
January 2004
Welcome to YOUR PINNACLE PRACTICE!
A monthly practice- building newsletter for "go-getters" and
pioneering private practice professionals.
Each month we bring you the best information and resources we can find
to help you build your ideal practice and achieve the pinnacle
of success in your field.
If you are recieving this from a colleague and wish to subscribe click
here
CONTENTS
ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. January 7th Free Practice Building Seminar-
Endless Referrals
with David Steele and Dr. Jackie Black
The number one goal of most private practice professionals is to GET
CLIENTS, and by far, the most effective way to get clients is WORD OF
MOUTH REFERRALS.
Start the new year by learning how to:
- Effectively develop endless referrals from colleagues and allied professionals
- Stimulate endless referrals from past and current clients
- Get endless referrals from people that don't even know you!
We will cover seven distinct pipelines for creating endless referrals
for your practice.
9am pacific/Noon eastern on Wednesday January 7th.
Watch for the bridge # to be e-mailed separately in a reminder to our subscribers
a few days prior.
Don't miss this seminar- put it on your calendar today!
For more information about this and future Free Practice-Building Seminars
click
here
To subscribe to this newsletter and receive free seminar announcements
click
here.
2. Register
Now for January Practice Building Intensive!
- Ready to build your ideal practice?
- Want to work less and make more?
- Would you like to learn how you can
actually have fun building and marketing your business?
If so, then join our January Practice Building Intensive!
We will meet for 12 weeks on every Thursday at 12 noon EST beginning January
8th and you will learn everything you need to have a successful private
practice.
This step-by-step program includes:
- E-book version of How To Build Your Ideal Practice In 90 Days
- Weekly assignments with all the step-by-step instructions needed to
complete them
- Weekly consultation teleclass, Thursdays 9am pacific/Noon eastern, recorded
for your listening convenience (web audio recordings also available)
- E-mail discussion list for your questions, ideas, feedback, and support
- Discounted spot coaching available if needed
- Access to our exclusive Practice Development Resource Bank, Knowledge
Bank, and Audio Catalogue for the best "how to" information and free/low cost practice-building
resources
- Alternative programs to fit your needs and budget: On-line version, Group Tele-program,
and Individual
Facilitated by David Steele, Mentor Coach and Author of "How
To Build Your Ideal Practice In 90 Days" and Jackie Black, Ph.D.
And the REALLY great news is that this 90-day program is very affordable
(as low as $29.00 per month!).
Now is the time to jump in and get the information and support you need
to build your ideal practice.
For more information click
here
3. February Free Practice Building
Seminar- How to Get Results with a Call to Action with
David Steele and Dr. Jackie Black
The most important feature of any marketing activity is motivating prospects to contact you.
In this seminar you will learn how to get results from your marketing efforts by designing a call to action that will attract your ideal clients.
For more information about this and future Free Practice-Building Seminars
click
here
To subscribe to this newsletter and receive free seminar announcements click
here.
4. Welcome Dr. Jackie Black to BuildingYourIdealPractice.com!
Dr. Jackie Black, a psychologist from Palm Desert, CA, has accepted the
position of President of BuildingYourIdealPractice.com to take the reins
from Ken Donaldson.
In private practice for many years, in the past few years Jackie transitioned
to a 100% virtual/portable practice and has a lifestyle of freedom and
travel that many of us dream about.
She brings extraordinary experience, skills, ideas, and energy for supporting
helping professionals to have successful practices, and I look forward
to working closely with her for your benefit.
Your first opportunity to experience Jackie will be for our free tele-seminar
on Wednesday January 7th. She will be co-leading the January Practice
Building Intensive as well. She is walking her talk and will be an invaluable
resource for members of BuildingYourIdealPractice.com.
Jackie@BuildingYourIdealPractice.com
1.888.79 COACH (1.888.792.6224)
www.DrJackieBlack.com
5. Coming next month- PC Survival Guide
Somehow, I have become the computer guru for my family and friends, as well
as clients and members of RCI and BYIP.com.
Hey, I'm just a schmuck using a computer as a tool in my business just like
you! I have experienced, struggled with, and learned from all the same computer
problems that you have, or will soon have. Recently, when I was able to
help a friend get control of her computer from viruses and unwanted popups,
it occurred to me that I might have some useful tips worth passing along.
Watch for PC Survival Guide coming next month.
If your computer has been giving you problems and you would like to avoid
a costly crash, this do-it-yourself article will provide specific tools
(most are free) and tips for preventing and solving the most common, and
vexing, computer problems.
Table of Contents
FEATURE ARTICLE
How to Get Clients: The 24 Hour Challenge
by David Steele
We start the new year with this comprehensive article in which you will
learn:
- Getting clients and marketing are not necessarily the same
thing!
- How to avoid the most common mistakes that practitioners make
in building their practice
- How to guarantee your success in private practice
This might be the most important practice-building information
of the year for you.
If you want to "go for more in 2004" please read this article
carefully and consider accepting the 24 hour challenge.
What Is Marketing?
Very simply, marketing is communicating what you do. There are two primary
forms of marketing:
1. External Marketing: The process of reaching
people that don’t know you to develop prospects.
External marketing activities include advertising, speaking engagements,
submitting articles for publication, publishing a book, radio and television
appearances, special events such as trade shows, conferences and festivals,
networking events, internet marketing venues such as search engines, pay-per-click
advertising, banner exchanges, etc. You provide a very personal service,
and it is unlikely for someone to hire you if they don’t know you. Getting
clients starts with getting prospects for your internal marketing activities.
2. Internal Marketing: The process of building
your relationship with your prospects so they refer to you and/or hire
you.
Internal marketing activities include asking for referrals, offering complimentary
sessions, newsletters and e-zines, e-programs, e-mail broadcasts, mailings,
telephone calls, sponsoring a niche community (in-person or on-line),
free or low cost seminars or events for your subscribers, membership system
with member benefits, etc.
Research shows that 80% of sales require five or more contacts. Internal
marketing is how you engage your prospects over time and bring them closer
to hiring you.
Getting Clients: Bluebirds vs. Boulders
As you will learn below, getting clients and marketing are not necessarily
the same thing. Your ability to succeed in practice will depend upon learning
and practicing the skills needed to get clients, as much or more than
your marketing or your helping skills. Mastering the skills necessary
to get clients will guarantee your success in your private practice.
In getting clients, I make a distinction between “Bluebirds” and “Boulders.”
“Bluebirds” are the clients that are so strongly attracted to you
that they respond to your marketing efforts immediately, fly into your
window and hire you. In my experience, most private practice professionals
unconsciously expect this to be how they fill their practice.
“Boulders” are prospects that are interested and attracted to you,
but require a lot of time and effort to push and pull them into working
with you.
It is often hard to understand why it’s so hard when they appear so interested.
Often they have objections such as “Gee, I’d like to, but I just can’t
afford it right now,” or “I don’t have the time,” or “I have to think
about it.”
In my opinion, it is rarely about time or money or needing to think about
it, they are simply experiencing fear and need your support to overcome
it. While we might wish for a practice full of bluebirds, my philosophy
is to design your marketing for the boulders, and the bluebirds will follow.
If the 80/20 rule applies here (and I think it does) you can expect 80%
of your clients to be boulders, so if you focus on the bluebirds you will
most likely not have a full practice.
Does Marketing Create Clients?
If you review the various external and internal marketing activities listed
above, you might notice that it is quite possible to do them all and not
get any clients.
Advertisements, presentations, newsletters, and websites are all effective
in communicating what you do, but do not create clients on their own.
Private practice professionals often make one of the following two mistakes:
1. Over-focusing on marketing
These professionals expect their marketing activities to convert their
prospects to clients and spend their efforts on their websites, seminars,
writing, etc, and are discouraged when they get few clients from them.
2. Over-focusing on services
These professionals want to help their clients, not market. They hope
that they will attract new clients by doing a good job with their existing
clients. They take more trainings, read more books, and work harder for
their clients, hoping those activities will attract more clients. They
feel helpless and discouraged when their hard work doesn’t result in clients
flocking to hire them.
Marketing vs. Enrollment
I make a distinction between “marketing” and “enrollment.”
As we discussed, marketing is communicating what you do to people that
don’t know you, and building your relationship with them. As we saw, you
can market till the cows come home and not get any clients.
“Enrollment” is the process of individually connecting with a prospect
with the intention of converting them to a client, if appropriate.
This is why the "free initial consultation" or complimentary
session is so highly recommended and utilized by professionals as an enrollment
activity; it gives the prospect an experience of you and increases the
likelihood they will hire you.
However, you can give away your services to hundreds of people and not
get any clients if you don’t “close the sale” and enroll them as a client.
The Four Closing Questions
When engaging a prospective client in a free initial consultation or complimentary
session, I recommend “closing the sale” by using the following questions:
Closing Question #1: “Has this been helpful to you?”
Five to ten minutes before ending, asking this question transitions the
focus of the session from coaching them to evaluating their experience
of your coaching. Almost always the answer will be “YES!” and they will
most likely have a positive feeling and mindset towards working with you.
Closing Question #2: “Would you like to continue this conversation
sometime?”
A natural, casual follow up question; you are not putting them on the
spot asking them for their money or a commitment of any kind. You are
simply asking if they like the idea of getting together and doing this
again.
Closing Question #3: “When would be good for you?”
You’re moving gently, casually closer to the idea of working together.
Usually the prospect will respond by then asking specifics about working
with you, such as cost, length of commitment, etc. It is far better to
address these when the prospect brings it up, as it indicates they are
ready to think about them. Bringing up the cost too early creates immediate
resistance because they are not convinced of the value or ready to consider
the investment.
Closing Question #4: “Do you know anyone else that can benefit from
my services?”
Always remember to ask for the referral, especially when a client has
had a positive experience with you.
TIP: It is very important to be prepared with how your
client and prospect can refer to you. Asking for their contact information
raises privacy issues, expecting your client or prospect to remember to
mention you is chancy, so I recommend giving them a stamped envelope pre-stuffed
with a brochure and/or flyer, cover letter, and business card, and asking
them to address it to their friend and mail it.
While you’re at it, give them one or two for their own use or to pass
on. When handing out your card, brochure, newsletter, or flyer, be sure
to always include extras with a request to pass them on to anyone they
know that might be interested.
Overcoming Objections
Most private practice professionals freeze when a prospect states an objection
such as “Gee, I’d like to, but I just can’t afford it right now,” or “I
don’t have the time,” or “I have to think about it.”
As mentioned before, in my opinion, it is rarely about time or money or
needing to think about it, they are simply experiencing fear and need
your support to overcome it.
The challenge here, and why so many professionals have difficulty with
this situation, is that the prospect is interested and attracted
and not saying “no.”
If a prospect does say “no” and indicates they’re not interested, chances
are you would immediately respect that and proceed no further. Helping
people overcome their self-imposed limits to reaching their goals is what
you do as a helping professional!
If they were your client and experiencing fear and resistance to something
they wanted to do, how would you handle it?
Think about it. You help your clients overcome their fears and take action
all the time. Why not do this with prospective clients as well?
Remember, most of your prospects (perhaps 80%) will be “boulders,” and
you need to be effective in helping them past their fears to hire you.
This is a pivotal choice point in their life. Behavior is not random,
it follows patterns, and unless you can help them past their fear, it
is likely they will continue to follow this pattern and stay stuck where
they are in their life.
Just to be clear, this applies to prospects that ARE INTERESTED, but are
hesitant. This DOES NOT APPLY to prospects that are not interested or
say “No.”
How do you help your clients move past their fears? Can you do the same
with your prospective clients?
Sample coaching questions for helping clients and prospects past fear:
1. What do you risk if you do/don’t do this?
2. What would happen if we did/did not work together?
3. How would your life be different if you did/did not do this?
4. How else does this stop you from going after what you want? Are you
ready to change that?
5. Are you willing to brainstorm ways to make this work?
6. Where do you want to be in 5 Years? How will you get there? When do
you want to start?
The 24 Hour Challenge
As we discussed, marketing and getting clients (or “enrollment”) are not
necessarily the same thing.
You do need to market and build your business, but without the skill of
enrollment you most likely will not get many clients. Enrollment is a
huge obstacle for many private practice professionals, and I have had
a lot of success helping them overcome their fear and resistance by issuing
the following “24 Hour Challenge:”
“Pretend this is a reality TV show and you will win
a million dollars if you get one new paying client in the next
24 hours.”
What would you do? If one million dollars could be yours tomorrow if you
get just one new client, you would overcome your fear and resistance and
get creative!
While there are many possible ways to do this, the easiest and most successful
way is to simply get on the telephone, start at the top of your prospect
list (or people you know), and work your way down until you get a client.
Here are some suggested steps:
Step 1: Gather the contact information of everyone you
know.
Dig into drawers for forgotten business cards, find old address books,
look through the yellow pages for colleagues you forgot you knew; look
through your e-mail addresses and website favorites.
At some point you will want to compile all these people into a database
that you can use for your internal marketing, but for now, you just want
to collect enough prospects to keep you busy on the telephone until you
succeed in getting one paying client from them.
Step 2: Write a script for leaving an enticing voicemail.
Assume that you will mostly get their voicemail, what can you say that
will compel them to call you back? Get creative!
Step 3: When you get them on the telephone, share that
you are now in private practice, give them your laser speech (or simply
describe what you do and for who), and ask them about their situation.
Your goal is to get them to talk and naturally enter a coaching conversation
with them as if it were a complimentary session.
Step 4: Use the “Four Closing Questions” explained above.
That’s all there is to it!
If you push through your resistance and fear and do this long enough,
you WILL get a client!
If you can get one client, you can get two, and three, and so on. You
will have proven to yourself that you can get clients whenever you want
to, which will hopefully raise your confidence and ability to enroll other
clients, and guarantee your success in your private practice!
©2004 by David Steele / All rights reserved
David Steele, MA, LMFT, CLC is founder and CEO of BuildingYourIdealPractice.com
and Relationship
Coaching Institute, and author of “How to Build Your Ideal Practice
In 90 Days.”
David conducts a 90-Day Practice Building Intensive for private practice
professionals who desire to build their ideal practice, and invites readers
to join his free Monthly Practice Building Seminar Series; visit www.BuildingYourIdealPractice.com
for more information.
Build your ideal practice in 90 days- join our January Practice Building
Intensive!
click
here for more information.
Table of Contents
CONGRATS!
Our PBI Participants Share Their Wins
CONGRATS To RCI's Director of Singles Programs Laurie
Cameron who writes:
"I am so pleased to announce that my new Divorce Adjustment Coaching
project is underway!
www.HappyAfterDivorce.com
is a new website designed for people who want to live happily ever after...
after their divorce! It offers Divorce Adjustment Coaching and resources
to support those who are ready to reclaim their own power after the ending
of a long-term committed relationship.
I use the term "divorce" to mean the ending of any long-term committed
relationship, regardless of legal status: common-law, same-sex, or traditional
marriage. Who can benefit from Divorce Adjustment Coaching services and
resources?
~ Anyone who is contemplating a divorce, or is in the process of one
~ Anyone in divorce recovery
~ Anyone who gave themselves away to a relationship and is wondering who
they are without a partner
~ Anyone who's divorce has been final for a while, and they're struggling
with any aspect of re-creating their life as a single adult
~ Anyone who is tired of merely surviving their divorce and is ready to
THRIVE!
SOME OF THE SPECIAL FEATURES OF www.HappyAfterDivorce.com:
~ A free weekly ezine, "Thriving After Divorce" (tm), to help people live
the "Nine Secrets to Living Happily Ever After...Divorce." (sign up now,
the inaugural issue goes out Jan. 6!)
Subscribe here
~ A free Divorce Adjustment Coachability Quiz (tm) to help people determine
if they are ready for Divorce Adjustment Coaching.
~ The Divorce Adjustment Review (tm) to assist anyone in uncovering specific
areas of difficulty during and after their divorce.
I invite you to visit www.HappyAfterDivorce.com
today! And please pass this along to the people in your life who are either
going through a divorce or have been through the experience, and are ready
to move confidently from surviving to THRIVING after their divorce!
Laurie Cameron Divorce Adjustment Coach
www.HappyAfterDivorce.com
COOL RESOURCE OF THE
MONTH
Start the new year by getting all the information you need to build your ideal practice in 90 Days.
- "Practical solutions that really work"
- "Complete road map"
- Rich in content"
- "Simple yet powerful"
- "I'm working less and making more"
- "So full of enthusiasm I thought my computer would catch fire!"
- "Like putting a stick of dynamite under my new business!"
- "Phenomenal resource for anyone wanting to build a private practice"
- "The definitive book to help professionals market their businesses both effectively and economically"
If you want to go for more in 2004 visit www.BuildingYourIdealPractice.com
and check out this book today!
INVITATIONS
- We invite you to share this newsletter with a colleague.
There is a tremendous need for our services, and we need to work together.
Practice development is always in need and we want to be the leaders
in our field.
- Please contact
us with ideas and resources you have found useful so we can pass
them on!
- We invite you to get the support you need to be successful in your
practice.
We are available for information, training, ideas, mentor coaching,
etc.
- We invite you to become an affiliate of BuildingYourIdealPractice.com
and begin to earn extra income just by sharing our programs and products
with your friends and colleagues. For more info click
here.
- If you are a private practice professional who received this from
a colleague, we invite you to visit our web site and contact us for
information on joining us.
How do you like our newsletter? Your feedback is welcome!
Until next time…
David Steele, MA, LMFT
Founder and CEO of BuildingYourIdealPractice.com
The purpose of this newsletter is to connect, support each other,
inform, and build a strong community of helping professionals who want
to have thriving businesses and fulfilling lives.
Feel free to share this with a colleague. Your submissions and feedback
are welcome!
Our Mission: To provide the tools, information and support to help private
practice professionals have their ideal practices in the most effective
and efficient ways possible.
Copyright notice: This newsletter is copyrighted and all rights
are reserved. Feel free to share with others as long as our contact information
and authorship is included. U.S. Library of Congress ISSN#:1530-3055
Table of Contents |
