STP 144 | How To Guide Your Clients From Curious To Committed
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[00:00:06] James Marland: The first stage is curiosity. What curiosity means is this is for those. People who are scanning quickly for solutions saying, can you help me survive? Am I going to do I need this to help me survive and thrive?
[00:00:24] People often don't buy the best products. They buy the products that they can understand the fastest and best.
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[00:00:36] James Marland: Hello and welcome back to the Scaling Therapist Podcast. This is your host, James Marlin. This is the show where I help you turn your wisdom into income. Today we're continuing our series on the three pillars of scalable income. Those pillars are clarity, connection, and confidence. Uh, go back to the last couple episodes where we talked about [00:01:00] the clarity section.
[00:01:02] Just a quick recap of that clarity section is we, we talked about clarity of people, clarity of problem, and clarity on product. The clarity that you need for your scalable income on the people is who do you serve best based on your authentic. History, like who you are as a person. Next is clarity on the problem.
[00:01:24] What's the real problem that people want solved? People aren't searching for your product. They're actually searching for their problem and what they want in the future. So focus on that, not your product. And then clarity on product and price is yes, you do need clarity on what you are offering. One clear offer that solves one clear problem.
[00:01:48] Today we are going to be focusing on the connection point where we create an easy path for your client to follow, to get from where they are now, [00:02:00] and use your solution to get to where they want to be. Once you know who you serve and what you solve the next, the next question is simple is how do these people actually find you and decide to work with you?
[00:02:15] First off, let's talk about this pillar. What is the connection pillar? Well, simply a simple definition is that connection is how strangers become students. Clients over time, people start out not knowing you exist. And in fact, they probably don't start out knowing they have a problem and then they start searching for ~solutions among all the other solutions that are out there.~
[00:02:40] ~And they're looking for a way to solve it among all the different ~solutions. They need a connection point. The connection is the bridge from your clarity. Without the connection, you, the, the item that you are solving, the, the most, the, uh, the product that you are selling doesn't [00:03:00] even get looked at. So there's three parts of getting connected.
[00:03:04] There's a path to follow. There's a page to show. There's a promotion to share the path, to follow maps out your client journey to get them from curious to committed The page to show, could be a webpage or a document or an email, but it's just the words you use and the pages you use to explain how you can help.
[00:03:28] And then the promotion to share is how you show up and give value and invite people in. So you need all those three things. For the connection pillar, but today we're gonna talk about the path to follow. And just as a small aside here, human connection is gonna be more valuable than ever as we go forward with this AI world.
[00:03:51] And as AI things are made and it's easier to make and it gets better and better over time. Like remember, we're just in the first year or [00:04:00] two of this AI revolution. It is going to get better, but what it does, it is often missing is the experience and connection of a human. So as automation gets better, people will pay more for the experience of a real human.
[00:04:18] People want. Others and experts that they can look up to. They want people that they can relate to. They want people who they can see that they are just like me and I want to be them. And we talked about that maybe 15, 20 episodes ago with, Danny uh, it was that episode 1 13,
[00:04:38] uh. 37, 38, 31 episodes ago wow, time flies. But anyways, he called that the obvious offer, resident identity and intuitive path, and I would definitely check out that episode. I'll have a link in the show notes about that human connection. But Danny's not the only one that talks about the [00:05:00] human connection.
[00:05:00] Seth Godin says, people don't buy goods and services, they buy relationships, stories, and magic.
[00:05:10] People will choose you because of who you are, not because you have the best AI solution. So if connection is about resonance and trust, how do we actually structure this type of journey for our clients? Well, we make it easy for them. We give them a path. And the path to follow is your clients on a journey.
[00:05:36] Now, this is something that marketers get wrong sometimes, and I alluded to it. They talk about their product and what they bring, which makes them the hero, but clients are not looking for you to be the hero They want to be the hero they want to put agency into their own story. This all comes from many, many books, but the one that I refer to often is StoryBrand from [00:06:00] Donald Miller.
[00:06:00] But your clients are on a journey. They're the hero. You show up and you be the guide. It is your client's story. So get that framework in their mind that they have a starting point and you guide them through their part of the journey. And then there's an ending point. There are three stages to the client's path when they're using your product, and this is outlined in Coach Builder also by Donald Miller.
[00:06:29] There's the curiosity stage, the enlightenment stage, and the commitment stage, and you can almost build this like a ladder that reinforces that they're climbing towards a journey. I like it as a path. I also see it as a bridge. They start out curious. They're enlightened and they're committed on the other side.
[00:06:50] But whatever illustration you use, they're on that journey.
[00:06:57] Why this matters is [00:07:00] once you understand that people are on a journey, it does take the pressure off because there are, as you know, as in your, therapy work, people are, are just at different places in life. Some are ready right away. You present them with a solution. They buy in and they're ready.
[00:07:15] Other needs proof. Other needs time. The just, everybody's on their journey. So when they first are introduced to your product, if they don't buy right away, that's fine. You just get to support them as they move through curiosity, enlightenment, and commitment, and you have a clear path. To be scalable, you need to have products or interventions.
[00:07:39] If we use that term at each stage at the curiosity stage, enlightenment and commitment, and this path represents timing and products and solutions that you can offer to them that add value. Instead of forcing sales. So let's walk through this path together. Let's go through those stages from [00:08:00] curiosity to enlightenment, to commitment and see what you know, just brainstorm some things.
[00:08:05] What could it look like for people who are adding an income stream to their, to their services? The first stage is curiosity. What curiosity means is this is for those. People who are scanning quickly for solutions saying, can you help me survive? Am I going to do I need this to help me survive and thrive?
[00:08:31] People often don't buy the best products. They buy the products that they can understand the fastest and best. You get to answer in this stage, you answer these inner questions from, from the client.
[00:08:43] Do they understand my world? Do they understand my pain? Are they just, you know, selling me something? Does all the value go to them when I buy something or am I going to get something out of it. And many people looking for a solution are in this curiosity stage.
[00:08:59] I don't know how many [00:09:00] times you've typed in a problem on the internet like, Hey, I need a webpage, or I need a social media manager, or, you know, I need a new pair of headphones. When you type in that problem, you're looking for a solution and all of us are getting better at scanning. We're scanning for the solutions, scan, scanning for answers, and we're looking for people who, who.
[00:09:21] Serving us, serving me, you know, serving me. Are you serving me? Do you represent me? Do you represent my values? Do you understand my problem? So things that are tools that can be used in the curiosity stage are podcast interviews, podcast episodes, social media posts, one-liners on your webpage, your header on your, webpage, blog posts.
[00:09:47] A lead magnet, some sort of free value, a guide a checklist steps, a tool, an introductory guide starter kit. One of my favorite ones, which I'm probably going to [00:10:00] use in the near future, is a starter kit. So, tad Hargrave, one of my favorite social media. Coaches. Uh, he's probably not a social media coach, but that's why I find him.
[00:10:12] He's all about ethical marketing, and he has a starter kit for marketing. I'm like, oh, that is brilliant. I think he sells the starter kit. No, no. He gives away the starter kit, which leads you into, oh, I can do all these things. And then it leads into his other webinars and his workbook at Mastermind.
[00:10:30] It's a wonderful curiosity like, oh, I need to do marketing. How do I do it ethically? And so, oh, here's an ethical marketing starter kit, and it's just a way to show, I get you, I know you, you wanna be ethical, you need to market. I'm your guy. It's just simple.
[00:10:47] The goal here is not to close. You know, you're not in the pressure sales and many of us in the helper field, this really aligns with how we view things. We're not here to [00:11:00] manipulate people into doing things. We're ~to ~here to help and offer value. So that's what the curiosity stage is. You need to make 'em think.
[00:11:09] I wanna hear more. ~They, ~they get me. They know me, they understand my problem. I want to hear more.
[00:11:17] Just think here, what's one piece of advice that you give over and over again that might be a good quote unquote starter kit for your clients, for the people that you want to serve. There's probably something that is easy for you to reproduce that is valuable to your people, and that will solve a problem that you could produce ~in a, ~in an hour or two.
[00:11:42] Even less if you know some AI or you can hand your product to somebody who's like, make this worksheet for me. ~You know, you, ~you can do that. So curiosity opens the door and we have to respect the journey that people are on and make them curious to go further. But that's [00:12:00] just not enough. Once people are curious, they need something else, they need some sort of enlightenment.
[00:12:06] So we're gonna move on to stage two, which is the enlightenment stage. ~No longer are we asking, ~no longer are your people asking in this stage, can this person help me? They're, they're beginning to think, they're beginning to ask, will this work for me?
[00:12:22] So you're in this stage, you're answering your client's inner questions. Does this person understand my specific situation? Can I see myself in their stories and examples? What would working with them actually look and feel like? And so in the enlightenment stage you have some tools that ~are, ~are probably for sale.
[00:12:45] They're lower investment, but they also give people an exposure to what you do. And this could be workshops. Webinars, low cost consultant or services, [00:13:00] mini trainings, walkthroughs, case stories. One of the things I like to do, and I offer this free on ~the, ~the webpage, is just a goal setting consultant.
[00:13:10] Like ~I, ~I wanna meet with you for 35, 45 minutes. Review your goal, review what you wanna do. Then do some assessment on what assets you have and what you could likely do in the next 90 days to six months. Then I give you a plan. What I hope at that point is you start breaking down the process and seeing, oh, this is possible.
[00:13:35] I can do this and James can help me. And that's just part of my enlightenment tool that I, that I use. I love talking to people with goals and dreams, and one of the things that ~I, ~I never wanna have happen is somebody to have this desire to help people in a different way. And they have a dream of doing it, but then life gets on them and it buries [00:14:00] them because they just don't know where to start.
[00:14:01] So I like to help get people get started and if they sign up with me, great. If they're not ready to sign up with me or they sign up with somebody else, that's fine too. I just don't want their dream to die in a desk drawer.
[00:14:15] You are still giving value at this point. Remember, at every stage you are giving value. The book Go-Giver. It's an excellent book and some of the ideas. From that say, your true worth is determined by how much you give in value, then how much you take in payment And enlightenment here is really just giving value before asking for a long-term or expensive commitment.
[00:14:41] And you know, this works. I mean, it's worked on me. I have signed up for things. Because somebody invited me to a free workshop, then gave me a low cost activity, and then I signed up for something much more expensive. Not in a week, probably over the two [00:15:00] years or so, but they kept adding value and every time they added value and demonstrated their worth, I wanted more and more and more.
[00:15:08] It's the be more human add value before you demand value process. So that is the, enlightenment stage of curiosity and curiosity. Crio curiosity says I see you, enlightenment, says, I see how this could work for me. And so the final step then when somebody chooses to walk with you is the commitment stage. In the commitment stage. This isn't like you have to sign on the dotted line, and when do we go into high sales James? Or high pressure? This is an invitation.
[00:15:39] Some clients get here really fast. They're curious, and then they move right to the commitment stage and that's fine. Some move very slowly for me, I'm probably more of a steady plotter you know, sometimes for these big decisions, it takes me months to years and there's a percentage of the people who are like me, but there's also a percentage of the people that are [00:16:00] much quicker on, uh, taking those risks.
[00:16:04] So your job here is just to make it clear, all right, you've been enlightened. This is how you get more. We're not forcing people, we're inviting people. Your client's inner questions would be, at this stage would be something like, is this worth it? Is it worth the time and money to get this? Is there a return on investment here?
[00:16:23] They'd also ask, do I trust this person with my goals, with my story, with a significant investment? Is this really time to do something different? Should I be investing this much time and energy in this stage? The commitment tools here. That can be employed at this stage would be a cohort, like my step group cohort a one year program a fractional, like there are fractional CFOs or COOs.
[00:16:52] Your masterminds, your long-term programs. Your ongoing [00:17:00] coaching or consulting, your high ticket workshops, are the types of things here. These are things that, drive your revenue and they also offer the highest value. They also offer the most of you. They're high touch groups like retreats or signature programs.
[00:17:21] These are the programs that take specific people to their specific destination. I've said it before, but you can offer a boat trip that drives around the lake. But if you offer a specific boat trip with a specific destination to specific people, you'll get people who want to go there and they will pay you, pay you more, because they know exactly what they're getting.
[00:17:46] They know exactly where they're going, and you've built the relationship and trust that they are ready to commit to your service.
[00:17:54] So that was a quick overview of the path, curiosity to enlightenment, helping your [00:18:00] clients find your way to your product. So ~let's, uh, talk, ~let's do a little exercise that might be able to help you as you maybe draw out this path. For yourself. You draw out the ladder and you can find this exercise in the book, ~uh, ~coach Builder from Donald Miller.
[00:18:16] But you just draw a piece of paper and draw a ladder with three boxes or three rungs, ~and ~the bottom rung is curiosity. The next rung is enlightenment, and the top rung is commitment. ~And ~under each box, write one thing that you already have. So ~if ~under curiosity, if you have a blog page, you have a blog product, if you have a lead magnet, you have a lead magnet.
[00:18:39] Under enlightenment, you might write that you've, uh, done a webinar or maybe you need to do a webinar, some sort of webinar workshop. Consult, low, low commitment, high value, low low commitment, low cost, high value engagement. To enlighten them, [00:19:00] and then, you know, what's your main offer? What's the top rung of that ladder?
[00:19:04] Where do you want them to go? There's right one thing in each ladder. You, you've, you learn. The longer you do this, you fill this in, you find the gaps, but you can start with just one in each and fill in the gaps as you go. Remember, you just don't need to build it all at once. Uh, you're gonna build and grow and build and grow and build and grow.
[00:19:25] The key here is intentionality, not perfection. Don't get hung up by saying you have to be perfect. I know I've done that over and over again. Just pick something. Pick where you're, start where you're at and move forward. So if you want help actually defining this path, you can go to the webpage and schedule a call with me.
[00:19:46] Remember, I like to talk to people who wanna take their ideas out of the desk drawer and bring them to light. And if you don't know where to start, just gi gimme a call. We'll talk for a little bit and you'll come up. We'll have [00:20:00] a, 90 day plan where you can start getting some, putting some steps in motion.
[00:20:04] So click, click, uh, go to the show note, click the links and set up a call. for the therapist out there, you are not meant for maxing out and burning out. You are not meant to just continue to work towards a full schedule. Thinking that that is success, but actually leading to burnout.
[00:20:28] You can take your information, ~your, ~your experience, your knowledge, the valuable human contact that people are craving, and turn it into a scalable source of income that will take care of you now and in the future. This is James Marland. It's now time to put your mission in motion. We'll see you next time.
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