Blow the Doors Off Business as Usual: 6 Steps to Unlimited Clients & Financial Freedom – in Just 7 Minutes with David A. Fields

Resources/Links:

• Free Outreach Scripts: Finding new clients don’t have to be hard! Download this two-page example of scripts that will convert your outreach process into consistent, new leads

Summary

David Fields is a consulting firm expert, speaker, and bestselling author. He helps build consulting practices so that they both lucrative and lifestyle friendly. He’s got a consultancy ranging from one person startups to the consulting divisions of some of the world’s largest companies.

In this episode, David shares how he helps clients to accelerate growth, increase profit and create lifestyle-friendly practices.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 01:23 – David’s ideal client: Runs a small consulting firm, might be one person, might be 200 people but usually not going to be any bigger.
• 01:35 – Problem he helps solve: “I solve two problems. One, how do we make more rain or have more rainmakers, and two, how do we increase profit? How do we scale profit, that’s it.”
• 01:58 – Typical symptoms that clients do before reaching out to David: “Most consultants know if they’re the revenues not coming in well enough so if the revenue is not as high as you want. If your margins are not as high as you want. If you’re working too many hours and it’s not as high as you want, you definitely have it.”
• 02:29 – Common mistakes people make when trying to solve that problem: the belief that if I was just in front of more prospects by more visibility, I’d win more business. And the second mistake is looking in the mirror and saying “Ooh gee, what does that person in the mirror want to do?” As opposed to looking at the market.
• 03:18 – David’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): “Pick up the phone and just talk with people find out what they want.”
• 05:57 – David’s Valuable Free Resource(VFR): http://www.davidafields.com/blog/ and davidafields.com/outreachscripts
• 06:40 – Q: So, David what’s going on in the world that you think would help my people? A: Here’s what’s going on in the world. There is a huge huge trend towards independent consultants in a way from the big companies. And so if you were thinking, “You know what? I’m too small, I can’t really compete with the big guys”. The fact is you can. And so, take advantage of that trend, that’s what I would say to everybody listening. You, if you’re running a one-person shop or a 100 person shop you can compete with the biggest firms in the world. So, don’t undersell yourself.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“Pick up the phone and just talk with people find out what they want.” -@_davidafields Click To Tweet
“Think right side up. And that means, thinking about the client first. The number one rule of consulting is it's not about you, it's about them.” -@_davidafields Click To Tweet

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland: Hello everyone, a very warm welcome to another edition of “Marketing the Invisible”. My name is Tom Poland, joined today by David A. Fields no less. David, good day.

David A. Fields: And it’s good day to you also.

Tom Poland: Thanks mate. Where are you hanging out? I’m in. I’m in Australia. Where about to you?

David A. Fields: I’m in Connecticut in the United States of America today.

Tom Poland: Perfect. And hands across the water. So, for those of you who don’t know David. David is a consultant speaker and bestselling author. He helps build consulting practices so that they both lucrative and lifestyle friendly. I thought those two are mutually exclusive as consultancies David, but apparently not. He’s got a consultancy ranging from one person startups to the consulting divisions of some of the world’s largest companies.

Tom Poland: His latest book “The Irresistible Consultants Guide to Winning Clients” is Amazon’s, get this, highest rated book on the business of consulting released in the past 30 years. Wow! So, our subject today is how to blow the doors of business as usual. Six steps to unlimited clients and financial freedom. David A. Fields your time starts now. Question number one is who is your ideal client?

David A. Fields: My ideal client runs a small consulting firm. Easy as that. Might be one person, might be 200 people but usually not going to be any bigger.

Tom Poland: Fantastic. Question number two as six minutes 45 seconds left. What’s the problem you solve with them?
David A. Fields: I solve two problems. If firms have two problems. One how do we make more rain or have more rain makers, and two how do we increase profit. How do we scale profit, that’s it.

Tom Poland: Perfect. Question number three, six and a half minutes left. What are some of the typical symptoms that a consultant would experience who’s got these problems of a lack of rain, a lack of new clients flowing in and lifestyle issues? What are some of the symptoms? How would they know? They look and they go, “Yep that sounds like me”?

David A. Fields: Yeah well, most consultants know if they’re the revenues not coming in well enough so if the revenue is not as high as you want. If your margins are not as high as you want. If you’re working too many hours and it’s not as high as you want, you definitely have it.

Tom Poland: Double whammy! Working too many hours still not generating enough revenue and yeah sacrificing the quality of lifestyle. So, we’ve got this consultant who wakes up in the mornings and then says “Look I got to fix this problem, I’m working too many hours, I don’t have enough time with my family and, you know, I’ve still don’t have enough generating. Dang, this is no good”. And they get a rush off so question number four is what are some of the common mistakes that these people make when trying to solve that problem, five and a half minutes left.

David A. Fields: OK, I’m going to give you two big mistakes. One big mistake is there’s the belief that if I was just in front of more prospects by more visibility, I’d win more business. Thing is all a visibility game. That’s actually a mistake, that’s usually not where the problem is. And the second mistake is looking in the mirror and saying “Ooh gee, what does that person in the mirror want to do?” As opposed to looking at the market, looking through the window at the market and saying what are the people out there actually want to buy.

Tom Poland: Yeah. Cool. Thank you. So, our title was six steps and this might fit in to question number five. We’ve got five minutes left which is fortunate thanks to your succinctness. What’s one, we were talking about a valuable free action that an audience member can implement that’ll help us solve the problem. Maybe these are the six steps.

David A. Fields: Ok. Well I’ll give you the six steps and I’ll give you the one free action. How’s that?

Tom Poland: Ooh, bonus. Cherry on top!

David A. Fields: Six steps, one, think right side up. And that means thinking about the client first. The number one rule of consulting probably most professional services is it’s not about you, it’s about them. It’s about the client. So, stop thinking about yourself think right side up which is the client first. Step number two is to maximize your impact where most small consultancies go wrong as you’re trying to maximize your visibility. No no no. You need to maximize your impact when you get actually in front of a person. How are you making them pay attention to you? Step three then is to look at your visibility maximize your visibility so get out there in the world. Step four is a special case which is just connecting with people. So how are you going to connect…connect…connect, build relationships, nurture relationships, leverage relationships? Step five is to become the obvious choice. So, when you’re talking to someone and they say “Hey, I’ve got, you know, the problem maybe you can help”. Well maybe you can and maybe other people can. So how do you make yourself the obvious choice? And step six is to propose, negotiate, and close. Which sounds like three steps but it’s one because if you’ve done the first five, the rest is easy.

Tom Poland: Right. It’s perfect.

David A. Fields: Ok, so I’ll give you one valuable free action. One valuable free action is to pick up the phone and just talk with people find out what they want. Not talk about you, pick up the phone and talk about them. And that’s it, really easy. It’s hard because it’s hard to pick up the phone sometimes but that’s all it takes to generate business most of the time.

Tom Poland: Interesting. So how would you frame that conversation. How would you, when the person says “Hello” and you say “Hi there, its Tom here”, what would I then say to introduce that, those questions.

David A. Fields: You mind, I’m assuming I know you already.

Tom Poland: Yes indeed.

David A. Fields: So we’re gonna go for standpoints so “Tom it has been, gosh, it’s probably been like six-eight months we’ve talked, since we talk, which is totally my fault. I’ve been meaning to keep in touch. So, tell me what is going on in your world. What’s new?”.

Tom Poland: with all the top of mind issues that they have. Thank you so much. It’s so simple. Wow!

David A. Fields: It is. But remember you’re not calling to make a sale. You’re calling to create a relationship and to listen. And believe me if someone has a problem that you can solve, they will raise it and they will ask for your help. You can’t jam your service down someone’s throat if they don’t need it. That’s not the business where I am, least that’s my belief.

Tom Poland: Yes indeed. Well, I’ve had great results was a simple how’re things call “What’s going on?”. And because top of issues come to mind and “Hey, actually I’m glad you called David because you know I’m just thinking of you the other day and I forgot to reach out to you so it’s great you’re on the call. Can we talk about…”, and so off we go. Okay, cool. So, two minutes left, a whopping two minutes left. Question number six, one valuable free resource that we could direct people to that’s going to help them a bit.

David A. Fields: Can it be my resource or should be something out in the world.

Tom Poland: I’d be yours because you know we want to get some traffic back to your landing page may be a blog.

David A. Fields: Ok, we can, we can throw center to the blog. So, here’s where you go, davidafields.com. I’ll give you two places to go. You go to the blog because there is a ton of free content there.

Tom Poland: Fabulous.

David A. Fields: If you want to make those phone calls I was just talking about and you want some scripts to help you, go to davidafields.com/outreachscripts.

Tom Poland: Wow.

David A. Fields: Outreach scripts just run it together and there’s a little sign up with for free scripts.

Tom Poland: Fantastic.

David A. Fields: Just map that out and see pick up the phone it’s that much easier.

Tom Poland: We’ll have those posted but that’s davidafields/outreachscripts and we’ve also got David A. Fields full stretch blog. Now we’ve got a whopping one minute 10 seconds left. Question number seven therefore is, what is the one question I should have asked you but didn’t.

David A. Fields: Well you could have said, “So, David what’s going on in the world that you think would help my people”.

Tom Poland: David, what’s going on in the world that you think would help my people?

David A. Fields: Here’s what’s going on in the world. There is a huge huge trend towards independent consultants in a way from the big companies.

Tom Poland: Wow.

David A. Fields: And so if you were thinking, “You know what? I’m too small, I can’t really compete with the big guys”. The fact is you can. And so, take advantage of that trend, that’s what I would say to everybody listening. You, if you’re running a one-person shop or a 100 person shop you can compete with the biggest firms in the world. So, don’t undersell yourself.

Tom Poland: Very interesting. Thank David A. Fields. Thank you so much. A whopping 20 seconds left you are a consummate master of your subject.

David A. Fields: And I do my best and you know what, you ask great questions makes it easy.

Tom Poland: Thanks David, cheers.

David A. Fields: Cheers.

Tom Poland: Thanks for checking out our marketing the invisible podcast if you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.