Ep #11: The Birthday Cake Strategy for Getting Clients
Clients are the engines of our businesses, so why do so many people have trouble getting them? If you’re not seeing the results you want in your business and you’re not getting the amount of clients you want, it means there’s a clarity gap. And this week, I’m showing you how to close that gap and start getting more clients.
What I’m teaching you isn’t just for those with smaller businesses. It impacts all business owners. If you’re in the energy of why isn’t this working? or you’re confused about what to do, this episode is for you.
Join me this week as I show you how to make the necessary shifts in your strategy and business to find your people and get the clients you want. I’m helping you with the most direct and advanced stages of client acquisition, where your messaging needs to be for each of those stages, and how to identify whether your current strategy matches up with your current messaging.
If you would like help getting clear on what you are offering and how to talk about it, you have to join us in The Clarity Accelerator. It’s 60 of the best-spent days you’ll ever have, and you’ll get my eyes on your business and your messaging helping you dial all this in. There’s a spot available for September, so click here to schedule a call with me as soon as possible to learn more.
What You’ll Learn From This Episode:
What The Birthday Cake Strategy is and how to use it to improve your messaging and get more clients.
The quickest way to bring on clients.
Why sales don’t happen without resonance.
The reason people aren’t knocking on your door even if you’ve been showing up consistently.
Some actions steps that will help you if you’re struggling to find clients, get sales calls, or meet revenue calls.
Three umbrella categories my clients fall into when they come to me.
The difference between being salesy and offering something no-strings-attached to people.
Listen to the Full Episode:
Featured on the Show:
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Click here to sign up for my newsletter and find out how the Connect The Dots Method has helped clients in all stages of their business.
Follow me on Instagram for behind-the-scenes content from my trip to Italy as well as my daily value bombs!
Full Episode Transcript:
Today we’re going to talk about how to get clients and how to go out and find your people. And what I’m going to say is not just for those of you who are just starting out or have smaller businesses. Regardless of where you are, if you’re feeling yourself in the energy of why isn’t this working, or in the energy of holding back because you’re confused, this is for you. And especially for those of you who are like, “Just give me the steps, I just want to know what to do and when.” You are going to love this episode.
You’re listening to The Uncommon Way Business and Life Coaching Podcast, the only podcast that helps you unlock your next level in business and life by prioritizing your clarity and your own uncommon way. You will learn to maximize your mindset, mission, messaging and strategy in order to create a true legacy. Here is your host, top ranked business coach and reformed over-analyzer turned queen of clarity, Jenna Harrison.
Hey everybody, welcome back to The Uncommon Way. I am prerecording this so we’re not actually in Italy yet. By the way we did find someone to watch Sky, actually two people. We had to break it up in the end so all is good there. Dillon has been my little shadow which happens whenever he starts to get a little disconcerted, he belongs onto my side like a little barnacle. And really the excitement is starting to kick in. It’s going to be so fun. So, when this drops I will be in Italy. Come over to Instagram, say hi, you’ll see pics of the house.
And there’s this area I’m so excited about. The house is right on the beach by the way in Sardinia. And there is this area that juts out from the house and it’s kind of dug into the ground and there’s a firepit and seats all around. And of course, since we’re staying into October it is going to get cooler at night. It’s just going to be so fun. My brother-in-law and his wife are coming as well and my mom will be there. Yeah, it’s going to be just great family time. And I’ll be posting pictures and updates the whole time. So, I would love it if you’d come along for the ride.
So, we have been receiving such great questions about the Clarity Accelerator. I know you’re excited about this opportunity. There’s really nothing else out there like it that combines clarity and messaging in this way, plus the human design and energetics work for those of you that are interested.
I was talking to a podcast listener the other day who decided to sign up. And she said, “You know, I just realized I had doubts about several areas of my business and I wanted the best help possible to get myself super clear and grounded on this foundational stuff so that I can move forward with confidence.” And I was like, “Yeah, that is exactly what this program is all about. It’s an investment in your future but it’s also a gift to yourself where you carve out the space to do this because I know how it is when you’re running a business.
There’s so many things to do, so much learning and research you could be doing. And yeah, deep down you know you should do some mindset work. Maybe you know your belief’s a little shaky here and you’re not really sure about your client there. I have been there. In fact, I am there. I’m always there. Why did I say I’ve been there? I do the work in the Clarity Accelerator at the same time as my clients over, and over, and over again. I never stop doing this work. And I usually find the time on our calls, on our workshop calls to prioritize this for myself as well.
So, I get you but you owe it to yourself and your future clients to take 60 days of think time, really it’s think time to just do this. It’s like when dust bunnies are building up under your sofa and you know you need to get to them but you aren’t. Your business is your house and the actions you’re taking and the way you’re showing up are never as powerful when your house has you feeling on edge. And what you don’t realize is that you’ll actually have someone cleaning out dust bunnies you didn’t even know were there with you, which is me by the way.
Am I going too far with this analogy? I am the one cleaning out the dust bunnies. Let me give you an example, that’ll help. So, I was talking to a client the other day, I remember she was telling me about a call that she had with someone who ended up becoming her client. And as she was relaying this she was telling me the story for a completely different reason. But of course, my brain, the way my brain works is always thinking about the client language, and the copy, and the psychology, and what that really means.
And so, there were a couple of times in that conversation I was like, “Stop that. You need to do content on that. You need to incorporate that in your explanation of the program. That is so good right there.” And she was in her story and she wasn’t even taking that broad view, that overview to be able to see those things and how perfectly it all comes together with the work we’ve been doing. And this is why it’s just such a gem to have someone that knows you and your business and can see the things that you can’t see.
So yes, all of this to say that if you want more info on the Clarity Accelerator right now the best way is to hop on a call with me. Not because I’m trying to withhold info from you. At some point I’ll put out a podcast episode just on this. But because I know you’re excited now and you don’t want to wait. And really the timing is perfect to enter in with us now or next month because then you start off 2023 with this clarity under your belt and imagine what you can do with it the rest of the year. How your results will shift because of it.
So, I have call spots open Mondays and Fridays. And I’m happy to break everything down for you module by module, answer any of your questions. It is a four figure investment, an absolute steal for what you get. My eyes on your business and your messaging with limited availability, on purpose I’m keeping it small. And don’t worry, our call will be very easy going and I’ll ask you all the questions I know to ask to make sure you’re a good fit and will actually get results.
I’ve been doing this for five years. I’m not going to make you an offer if it’s not a fit. That wouldn’t serve anyone. It’s not good for the other members of the collective that want to be surrounded by women that are both aligned and capable, frankly, of this work. So, you will be in good hands. We’ll make a clean decision and you’ll know then if this is for you.
Okay let’s talk about getting clients, although I really prefer the term, calling in clients for the record, but that’s semantics. So, most people say that they have trouble getting clients. See, that’s my client language. The reason we’re focusing on this is because, well, this is the engine of our businesses after all.
But also, there are basically three umbrella categories that my clients fall into when they come to me. Either they’re unclear about what they’re selling to whom or they’re unclear about how to overcome some mindset issue of some sort. Or they’re unclear about how to bring on more clients and create messaging that calls in ideal clients. And recently I’ve had a string of conversations with people talking about not finding clients. So, I want to respond to that and lean into this side a little more.
This is the universe sending me signs that this is something we need to talk about on the podcast. So today I’m introducing you to the birthday cake strategy. This is something that I’ve been teaching online for years and people tell me how useful it is so I know it’s going to serve you too. And even though it may seem like it’s geared towards entrepreneurs with smaller businesses, it applies to everyone.
Because you might start to notice a recurring theme in this podcast which is that many six and even seven figure problems are solved by going back to the foundation and closing a clarity gap. If you’re not seeing the results you want to see in your business there is a clarity gap. Maybe you’ve altered your messaging in some way.
Just recently I was on a call with a seven figure earner who was talking about a launch that didn’t do well and it all came down to a clarity gap in her messaging. As she evolved as a coach she had started to speak differently and speak about different things. And so, her audience wasn’t feeling resonance, conscious or subconscious. And remember, sales don’t happen without resonance. Luckily I can help you create resonance. I can help you get clear on what your clients want and need to hear.
But first you’ve really got to understand that this works in stages. If you haven’t watched my training on the Clarity First Strategy then you need to pause this. Head to my homepage, theuncommonway.com and sign up for that free training. It’s going to save you so much time focusing on all the wrong things and help you identify exactly where you need to go back to, to fix any current problem you’re having.
So, let’s talk about the most direct stages and then the more advanced stages when it comes to getting clients. Where your messaging needs to be for each of those stages and whether your current strategy matches up with your current messaging. Okay, now I love a good metaphor. They always help me clarify things in my mind because lord knows I can get into some complexity somersaults if my brain is left to its own devices.
So, if your brain’s like mine and maybe you’re currently either stuck in the analysis stage of maybe I should be doing this to get clients or this person over here says this thing really works. I’m not sure but I know I don’t want to keep doing that thing anymore. Or if you’re trying everything, throwing spaghetti at the wall, burning out and/or you’re beating yourself up with like damn it, you should have figured this out by now then here’s my suggestion.
Think about your client getting strategy like birthday cake. And here’s what I mean by that. You know when you take a bite of birthday cake, the part that’s closest to you on the fork is the least sweet, that’s the cake itself. As it gets further from you, you have the filling, some sort of yummy fruit or cream filling, that’s a little sweeter. And then the furthest away from you is the icing. That’s the sweetest of all. So, relating this back to clients in your business, think about people that are the closest to you that are within your network or maybe they’re one step removed from you.
Maybe you have a friend that referred this person to you, or maybe you have a client that referred the person to you but either way there’s some level of personal connection there and that’s why they feel a good amount of trust. The cake is like the messaging and actions required to bring on a client from that realm of people. The truth is it doesn’t have to be as sweet because when you have 20, 40, 60 minutes on the phone with somebody, it makes up for a lot of imprecise messaging.
Your language doesn’t have to be as tight because there are so many other ways to transmit value, trust, safety and warmth. It’s so much easier to make a connection and create resonance. You have your body language, what you transmit through your voice and whatever you can respond to. The person you’re talking to says, “I need to x.” And you say, “I can help you with x.” This is why you don’t want a set sales script where you just read something off.
By the way, this is why you want to be able to respond and engage to exactly what the person’s saying to you. Or the person says maybe, “I have a four year old son.” And just naturally you’re like, “So do I.” But the person says, “It just feels like I’m on this hamster wheel but I’m not actually getting anywhere in my business.” And you say, “I remember exactly how that feels.” So, you really don’t need the perfect hook statement or concise delivery at this point.
You need to be a human that they can relate to and trust, that can help them create different results. You need to show them how they’ll get those results. That’s it. Now, let’s talk about the people at the other end of the spectrum. These people are called traffic, people that you would advertise to, or they just came across you some other way like through SEO or a hashtag strategy and they don’t know you at all. Just like the frosting on your cake your messaging needs to be extra, extra sweet, extra tight.
You need to know these people inside and out if you’re going to be able to get through to them and they’re not right in front of you giving you all of this great information and clues. And then somewhere in the middle of those two groups are people that you could maybe be speaking to in a Facebook group. Or maybe you both took a course or a certification together or something and so they don’t know you personally. They’re not hearing the intonation of your voice but there is some level of trust.
And what I see so often when people come to me and they’ve been struggling, they say something like, “You know, I’ve been blogging for a year, I’ve been being and consistent. I’ve been putting it out there.” I mean that was my own experience blogging for a year. Or, “I’ve been running Facebook Ads, I’ve been showing up in Facebook groups consistently. I’ve been posting on Instagram every day. Why aren’t people knocking on my door?”
Well, it’s because you’re speaking to people that are too far removed from you. And your language isn’t tight enough yet for them to feel compelled to action. It will be, you’ll get there. But in the meantime, you need to make a decision. Do you want to keep doing what you’ve been doing or do you want some clients? Because if the answer is clients, you need to shift your strategy so that your efforts are focused on people one step closer to you or they’re focused on quickly getting people as close to you as possible.
You need to think about how you can actually get into a really human interaction with people. The same with my entrepreneurs that have bigger businesses. If your messaging is falling flat you need to get personal again just for a little bit. Go back and listen to my episode on Knowing Your People 101 and Five Steps to Nail Your Messaging. Even if you’re using the exact copy from a funnel that used to be successful, your audience might have become more sophisticated. Yes, you need to personally engage in your business to take it to the next level.
And I know, we don’t want to, our brain doesn’t want to reach out and engage with strangers. We want to hide behind our computer screens with this call me maybe kind of language. Because our brains don’t like discomfort. Expect that. It doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong. It means you’re human. When my brain starts whining, but I’m an introvert, maybe there’s another way. Just do this other thing first. I should be past this by now.
That doesn’t mean I stop doing what’s best for me, my brain also wants to drink half a bottle of wine every night but I don’t unless I’m in Italy ha-ha. Now, sometimes people are attracted to my work because they love the idea of doing all this self-exploration and finding their secret source and they’ll never have to interact with a human because they’ll just put it up somewhere and clients will just flow in.
Now, the work we do does greatly accelerate the process of creating resonance, no doubt, and on a much deeper level than anything you’ve learned in some kind of persuasion copy course. But you still have to test your ideas and tweak them. And I recommend doing that with real humans. It’s by far the fastest and most informative way. It will spark so much great thought leadership which helps you create your blue ocean. And because of what I’m explaining here, it also ends up being the most lucrative thing to do when you have a smaller business.
So here are the action steps if you’ve been struggling to find clients, get sales calls, or meet your revenue goals. First take an overview look of your client getting strategy. How much of your focus is being spent on activities where your clients are further away? And how could you reprioritize and bring that a little closer? If you’ve been posting on Instagram maybe you could send an email to your friends or colleagues saying, “Hey, this is what I’m doing. These are the kinds of people I’m working with. Do you know anyone that would need this help?”
Or maybe you want to spend less time on Instagram and more time going to meetups or networking events, or coffee chats where there are the kinds of people you’re looking for and you can just listen and respond to what they’re saying. Let them know there are ways through what they’re experiencing and offer to get on a call and talk about it more. It’s so simple.
If you’ve been focusing your efforts on a semi warm audience like showing up on Instagram or a Facebook group, instead of just posting and putting information out there where you need your copy to be tighter, what can you do to get people on a call? The order’s kind of like this, in person is best. They can pick up on your energy more directly. Then a video call where you’re interacting directly with them. Then a live webinar where you can interact with them via chat but at least they can see or hear you.
Then some other form of video. There’s no interaction but they can see or hear you. Then some form of audio like a podcast. And finally, the written word. Way too many of you are spending way too much time with the written word and wondering why you aren’t getting results. All you have to do is back it up a little. So, the biggest bang for your buck, the quickest way to bring on clients is going to be through a conversation. What can you do to facilitate that?
You might be wondering, what if I don’t have much of a following yet and the Facebook groups all say no promotion, then what do I do? I would challenge you to get creative. I have a friend who does free in person events at local libraries. There are so many ways to do this. But even if we just focus on the easiest Facebook groups, those are the easiest because you know the kinds of people hanging out in them and it’s very searchable and very easy to get to.
A lot of groups offer free promotion days and so you can just put it out there. You can just say, “Hey, are you having trouble with x? I can help. This is what I do. Maybe here’s some social proof. I’m opening up a couple of spots to help people through this. Here’s why. Here’s what you’ll get out of it. If you’re interested, comment below or message me.” We go into more detail with this strategy in the Clarity Accelerator for people that want to explore this and personalize it to you and what you’re doing but that’s the gist of it.
It's really being a human but let’s say there are some groups that don’t allow promotion. They often will have a thread on a certain day of the week and you can offer a free call then. And even if they don’t allow promotion there are still ways. Get creative, be a human, strike up a conversation like you would in person and then move from there. And if you’re thinking, I would never do that. I would much rather drive them to a webinar or something. That’s fine, you can totally do that.
My clients build their businesses all sorts of ways because it’s never about the specific tactics. It’s about stuff like this, understanding the underlying dynamics of what creates resonance. But I will say, if you’re not currently booked out with clients then we need to talk. Because there is a mindset issue that is dragging down your growth, if you’re not willing to speak to a person and tell them that you can help, or you’re being challenged with visibility issues.
Alright, the first action step was evaluate your efforts and see where you can shift to more in person higher converting strategies. So, the second action step then is to think up a free offer, that’s something your clients really, really would love and would really help them to see that the end result they want is absolutely possible. Nowadays people don’t usually jump and raise their hands if you offer a free coaching call. But if you can offer something they really want, maybe some kind of specific result and they find it enticing enough, they will.
This is one of the things I teach inside the Clarity Accelerator is how to create a mini offer like this that aligns with you and leads your people to get on a call with you and makes sense for them to then continue working with you. And they will feel lucky to get on a call with you, this is possible. I remember when I was doing this, people would say, “Oh my God, I was just asking the universe for this and then it just appeared. I couldn’t even believe that you were offering this.”
And then of course I also teach what it takes to move your ideal clients through to actually becoming a client. How to think that through before you even get on the call or eventually on a sales call if they’re interested in learning more about what you do. Because the beauty is that I’m going to be honest, not everybody hits this out of the park on their first go. But once you’ve been successful at this with just a few people, I’m saying three people, you all, you can scale that system. You can create a webinar with the same kind of information or a PDF lead magnet, whatever you want.
So instead of spending a ton on Facebook Ads to drive people to a webinar that they may or may not attend, that you may or may not be able to convert in, you’ve done the groundwork with real humans. And because you are on the phone with them, you know what questions came up for them. You know what objections came up for them.
You can tell that I’ve taught this before to real humans and I know the main concerns. Some of them are I wouldn’t know what to say in my post. Facebook groups won’t let me promote. I wouldn’t have a big enough following. And the big one, I don’t want to seem pushy or salesy. Let me tell you, and I’ll be doing a whole podcast on this at some point but salesy is an energy. When you’re like, “Hey, I’ve got this thing you can benefit from, here’s how, here’s what to do if you want it.” That’s not salesy. That’s offering them extreme value for free with no strings.
Yes, you heard me, no strings. If you do something like this, this mini offer strategy and your energy is, I need to turn them into a client, I need this. I’m not going to let them get away. No, don’t do that. What you want to be thinking is, this is so win, win. I am practicing my messaging here and they are giving me all of this great information and they’re going to get such great value, I can’t even believe I’m giving this for free. And we’re going to part friends. And who knows? Maybe they’ll go on to tell someone about me and that person will end up becoming a client.
I don’t know. I don’t know how this is going to work out. It doesn’t matter, I know it will. When you’re in that energy and you’re just excited to get on a call and talk with someone and practice this, and get their feedback, and help them move a step forward. I mean it’s just a beautiful value exchange.
I had a client the other day, she said, “It’s right and true.” I just loved that. It’s so beautiful. It’s right and true. So, when you’re thinking about this mini offer, give them a quick win. And there are different ways to do this. You could help them get a little bit of the way there so that they get excited and then maybe they want to take the rest of the journey with you. A classic example is maybe they want to lose 20 pounds and you help them lose the first two.
When I was doing this I was helping people figure out what kind of business they really wanted, basically what they wanted to coach on. Because they’d be far more excited about hiring a business coach to help them build out a business if they had landed on a business that was really connecting the dots of their life. So, it was very strategic for me to offer that and ‘give that away for free’ because I knew it would set them up to be in a position to want to move forward.
And they probably had had disbelief about how I’m not going to be able to figure this out or this is going to take me a long time to figure out. And then when I’m able to help them through that so quickly then they’re really excited, they’re in the energy of wanting to keep moving forward and continue that momentum. You can also serve somebody by giving them the pitfalls or showing them what they’re doing wrong.
This is very common. You’ll see people like web designers, social media people that will offer to do an audit. And that really shows them the gap between where they are and where they could be. That is very valuable. When you are doing things and you’re not quite sure if you’re doing it right or what could be improved, what could be optimized, that is hugely valuable. You could also offer to diagnose what the real problem is, what’s really going on for them. Or you could give them an overview to show them what’s really possible.
That’s what I used to promote on my webpage, I’d give people a personalized roadmap based on their business and based on their goals, how they can get from where they are to where they need to be. That’s a huge win for people that have been struggling with overwhelm and they’ve been thinking about how in the world they’re going to make it happen and doubting that it’s going to happen. I see you. And then you can say to them, “Hey, look, this is doable. You can do this.”
I hear you saying maybe you can’t because you’ve been trying x, y, z but that’s exactly what my clients and I used to think too but here’s what’s different. Here’s what you’re going to do, and by the way, don’t worry too much about giving away too much information because even if you tell somebody exactly what to do, it doesn’t mean they know how to apply it to their situation specifically, or that they’ll actually do it. Come on, how many podcasts have you listened to from business coaches sharing great ideas that you haven’t implemented?
How many courses have you bought and not implemented? Join the club. But there’s always a reason and this is why we invest with coaches, to get out of our own way. And you can even explain that to your person when you’re on the call. You can say, “Look, I’m giving you the roadmap but here’s what tends to happen afterwards.” That puts you in the role of expert because you can see into the future about what’s not even on their radar yet. And that’s how you create the opportunity for them to enquire about getting your support to create the results.
They want to trade money for support. They want to trade money for faster results. You aren’t twisting their arms. When I hired my parenting coach, I knew I could read a ton of books and learn good techniques. I didn’t want to do that. I’m busy with my business, plus I didn’t want all the cognitive dissonance of one person says to do it this way and another person says to do it that way. No, I wanted someone I trusted who knew all the things and had distilled down the best practices that actually worked to just give that to me and help me when I was feeling stuck, or confused, or getting in my way.
And once you’ve had a personal interaction like this with an ideal client and you’ve gotten them some kind of win, it’s very natural and easy for them to feel safe about going further with you. They may or may not, again there are no strings, but it makes sense that they would. Wouldn’t you?
So just to review, birthday cake, the least sweet is what’s closest to you and the sweetest is something that’s far away from you. So, the further your clients are from you, the tighter your copy needs to be. The sweeter the enticement. If you’re not converting where you are, your first step is to evaluate and see how you can move your efforts back down the metaphorical birthday cake. No shame, audiences change, you change or you’re just learning this, it’s all good. It doesn’t have to take forever, you’re not going to be there forever.
You’re looking for just three clients that you actually want to work with, who respond to the same kind of offer and then say yes to working with you using basically the same kind of sales conversation. And then you can move a step closer to the icing and try it there, do a webinar or an Instagram post, or a Facebook Ad, depending where you are. And if that doesn’t work, just question, what was it that made it work before? If it’s your warmth on the call or how relaxed or confident you are, how can you bring more of that into the webinar for instance?
And if you’ve gone back and seen that your messaging is still on point and you’ve evaluated and checked all the blocks then it’s probably a mindset thing. It might be an undisclosed fear, or an upper limit, or something that’s not aligned. We all go through this at all different stages of our business. But at least now you have a clear guide for what you need to be doing at this point in your business and where the hang-up most likely is. And if you’re earlier in your business, you know what to focus on now, what your strategy should be.
And the second step after evaluating is to reflect upon what your clients really want and then test out your offer, paying attention to what they need to hear in order to feel compelled and safe about moving forward. So, I hope that helped. I’ll see you next week. And remember, you know who you are and each day you’re moving further into what you’re here to create.
Hey, if you enjoyed today’s show, you do not want to miss next week’s. Seriously. Follow the show wherever you listen to your podcasts so you don’t miss an episode. And would you please leave a super quick rating and review about this episode? It’s how you’ll let me know what you liked and what you’re so curious about so I can create the most valuable content for you going forward, as well as how you’ll help other highly driven but slightly uncertain entrepreneurs, find this show and get the tools they need. Thank you so much.
Thanks for joining us here at The Uncommon Way. If you want more tips and resources for developing clarity in your business and life, including the Clarity First Strategy for growing and scaling your business, visit theuncommonway.com. See you next time.
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