Last week I sent out an email saying that to attract better clients, you need to stop trying to sell to those who are not a good match.
I had written that recently someone reached out to me and we exchanged half a dozen emails. “…It quickly became clear to me that this gentleman had views about business that were very different from my own and we were not a match.”
Well, several hours later, this fellow, who we’ll call “J” wrote me the following:
Hey Dov,
I did not have that impression during our dialogue. I don’t feel that we had very different views on business. I believe that the difference between our views was in that I was looking for coaching more from the ground up. I think you are looking for clients that are further down the path than I am. In short, I am working towards being one of your prospects and do not qualify. Yet. I believe that will change soon.
Regardless, I am not at all offended by being the subject matter of your email blast. I actually appreciate that you appreciate my response. It is still refreshing to deal with people like this in business. It gives me hope for the future!
Hope all is well,
“J”
I went back and reviewed my email dialogue with “J” and he’s probably right. It’s not so much that we have a different views on business. It’s that he’s not yet ready for my coaching programs.
What does ‘ready’ mean?
From our email conversation, it seemed to me that “J” is still at a stage where he’s trying many things, going in many directions, running hard, playing hard. So he’s not lazy and not afraid to work. From that sense, he’d be great to work with.
At the same time I got the sense that even though he know that he’s chasing too many rabbits, it doesn’t yet bother him enough. He’s not yet ready to focus on mastering the fundamentals.
It’s like if you go to a karate studio and all I would want to do is learn the fanciest katas. So you dance around punching, kicking, swinging the nunchucks or whatever flashy things the advanced students get to do.
Then it comes to a real world fight and you get your teeth kicked in because all that prancing around is useless if you never mastered the fundamentals.
So yes, “J” is correct. It’s not that we have fundamentally different ideas about business. It’s just that I work best with people who’ve had their teeth kicked in and are now ready to master the fundamentals and build up from there.
It’s a stage I had to go through myself, so I understand it all too well.
As soon as he gets there, he’s welcome with open arms.
Dov Gordon
PS – If you’ve been doing the fancy pants kata dance and you’ve come to understand that it’s time to master the fundamentals, you can apply for a free “Consistent Flow of Clients” strategy session with me.
Who is it for? If for coaches, consultants, experts and entrepreneurs who should be able to add $100,000 or more to your income in the next year. You’re just not quite sure how…
If that’s you, go request a session at http://dovgordon.net/freesession and I’ll get back to you within a few days.
