Ever find yourself nodding along to a client’s jumbled monologue, sensing their scattered focus and yearning to say, “Hey, let’s pull over and plot the course”? If you have, welcome to the journey we’re about to embark on—a quest to navigate clients through the labyrinth of indecision to a radiant vision of success.
This episode shares:
- Current Status vs. Destination: Why clarity on the starting point and end goal is imperative.
- Role of Overwhelm: Unveiling the invisible wall that can block progress.
- Digging for the ‘Why’: The golden key to making strong decisions.
- Crafting the Plan: Building the roadmap tailored to true objectives.
- Solidifying Reasoning: Creating a fortress of logic.
- Rely on the System: The trick to maintaining emotional balance and steady progress.
Current Status vs. Destination
Where Are We and Where Are We Going?
Clients often find themselves stuck in a maze, meandering aimlessly. The first step in directing them is understanding where they are and where they want to go. How can you drive someone to their destination if they themselves don’t know where it is? A comprehensive understanding of their current status and the goals they have in mind can work wonders. Remember, a well-defined destination simplifies the journey.
Tip: 💡Ask your clients to detail their current business status and to vividly describe their ultimate goal. Provide them a template or worksheet to fill out if necessary.
Role of Overwhelm
Ever had déjà vu with a client? The same discussions over and over, yet they don’t retain a word? Chances are they’re overwhelmed. When overwhelmed, the mind is a foggy landscape, incapable of processing new information.
Tip: 💡Identify the signs of overwhelm and take immediate steps to address them. Recommend mindfulness exercises or even a break to clear the head.
Digging for the ‘Why’
We often find ourselves caught in a swirl of should-do’s. Ever wonder why? Asking “Why?” is like wielding Excalibur; it cuts through the clutter and gets to the heart of the matter. Without this why?, the foundation of decision-making remains shaky.
Tip: 💡Always ask your client, “Why do you want to do this?” before setting any plans into motion.
Crafting the Plan
Once the destination and the ‘why’ are clear, crafting the plan becomes an invigorating exercise. Multiple pathways may lead to Rome, but which one aligns best with your client’s objectives.
Tip: 💡Develop multiple pathways to achieve the goal and then select the best one, explaining to your client why it aligns with their objectives.
Solidifying Reasoning
Nothing steadies a wobbling tower like a strong foundation. Back up your chosen plan with solid reasoning. Create a clear rationale for why this is the pathway forward.
Tip: 💡Document the reasoning behind the chosen plan. This can be a crucial reference point for any future hesitations or doubts.
Rely on the System
Having a system in place helps both you and your client from becoming emotionally attached to outcomes. When doubts creep in, the system acts as a lighthouse, guiding you back to your well-reasoned plan.
Tip: 💡Revisit and remind. Keep your documented plans and reasoning accessible. Use them as touchstones when you feel that you or your client are drifting off course.
And… that’s a wrap!
So, ready to be the GPS in your client’s journey of self-discovery and goal attainment? Remember, guiding a client through the quagmire of indecision doesn’t have to be a Herculean task. With the right approach and a tailor-made plan, you can turn the labyrinth into a highway to success.
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Follow along with the transcript
E19 How to help clients who don’t know what they should do
Leanne Woff: [00:00:00] Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to our next episode of the Audacious OBM. I’m Leanne [00:01:00] Woff and today we are talking about how to help clients who don’t know what they should do. I’m sure that there has been a time for you where you have been chatting with a client and they feel like they’re pulled in lots of different directions or they’re trying to achieve goals and they don’t know how to get there.
In this episode, we are going to talk about how we can get them to get clear on where they need to go and how you can support them to actually get there instead of them going on lots of different tangents and then being in the same position a year later. All right. So the first thing that I want to talk to you about is.
The current status versus the destination. When we’re working with people and they feel stuck or they feel like they don’t quite know where they’re headed, there are two things that we need to look at first. The first one is where they are [00:02:00] now. So getting a really solid idea of what’s happening in their business, what’s happening in their life and where they have gone so far.
What has led them to this place? That gives us something concrete we can work with. And then the second thing that we need to look at is the destination. How can you create a pathway to an end goal if you don’t know where you’re going? And it can be fun to have no destination and to go on a wild adventure.
But often, if your clients don’t know what to do, they want someone to help them work out what to do. And to do that, we need to work out where we’re going. And once we have a really solid idea of, okay, this is where we’re starting now, this is our current status, this is what led us here this is what feels good, this is what doesn’t feel good.
And this is where we want to go. What is that big destination? And it can be [00:03:00] as specific or as broad as you want, because then once you have a destination, you can break that down. And no one has ever, ever run a business with just one plan. There’s a plan and then there’s plans inside those plans. So what we’re trying to do with our clients in this first piece, is get them to solidify on something.
Something that is true and feels good about what they’re wanting. Now once they know, okay, this is where we want to go, then what do we do? I want to explain the role of overwhelm. Usually, if people know where they want to go but they don’t know how to get there, or they can’t see clearly, or they’re doing too many things, or they just can’t choose, It’s because they’re overwhelmed.
And when someone is overwhelmed, you [00:04:00] actually can’t process any new information. You could be working with a client and finding that you’re having the same conversations over and over again, and they’re not retaining what you’re saying. And there’s two things. One, you can get frustrated and feel like you’re not being heard.
Or two, it’s because they’re actually very overwhelmed and they’re not They don’t remember what you’ve said. They can’t fully grasp it and they might be able to grasp it kind of on the edges as you’re talking to them, but they won’t be able to hold on to that idea. When we’re trying to help clients navigate through decisions and knowing what to do. We have to recognize when overwhelm is at play and deal with that, because if we can’t deal with that, you’re not going to get anywhere and they’re not going to be able to choose. They can’t decide and they can’t see clearly. So it is then working out the root of that [00:05:00] overwhelm and helping them transition to a place where they can think clearly.
Alright, now, if we have a few different ideas of where we want to go. And, some things we need to decide on, how do we help them decide? The thing that I have always done with my clients, is dug deep enough until I know why we’re doing something. So a lot of the time in business, we do a lot of things because we think that’s what we have to do.
And we do it, we do it, we do it, we do it. We’ve got to do this, we’ve got to do that, we’ve got to do this, got to do that. But we don’t step back enough, frequently enough, to think about what the purpose is. And so often, that is the reason we end up pulling in different directions, and we can’t make solid decisions.
[00:06:00] It’s because we’re doing what we think we should do, or we’re just spiraling in the day-to-day of keeping everything running, that that foundation has become loose. And so when we talk to our clients and they say, I really want to grow my list, I ask them why. Now there could be a hundred different reasons someone wants to grow an email list, but, and I can assume I know which one, but I wanna know from them, why is it that you wanna do that specific thing?
Because I want to make more money. It’s like, no, growing your email list isn’t a direct line to making more money. So is it that you want to grow your email list or is it that you want to make more money? Because, let’s look at the thing you actually want and need, and then let’s come up with a plan that gets you [00:07:00] there the fastest, that is tailored to that one objective.
Whereas clients often will tell you the tactic that they’ve tried, or so and so said, I need to do this, so that I can do this, this, this, this and this.
Without that why behind it are we doing this so that you can make more money? Because if you need money and you need money fast, slowly building an email list ain’t going to get you there. If you need to be able to take a holiday from your business, that’s another thing. If you want to increase the number of speaking opportunities that you’re getting, all of these different things have different vehicles to get us there.
And so, really digging in and pushing back with clients to find out what it is we’re doing and why we’re doing it. What is it underneath that we want this to give us? That’s where we can get some solid [00:08:00] data that will help make decisions. And so what we want to do from that is we want to create a plan. So once we know, okay, no, we don’t actually want to create, we don’t actually want to grow an email list, that’s not our goal, we need to make more money and we need to make more money fast, we want to create a plan that supports that and say to our clients, have you thought about doing it this way or this way?
Have you thought about going back to past clients and offering them, you know, and to work with you again, have you thought about checking in with all the leads that you currently have? Have you thought about having a small upsell somewhere? There’s so many different ways that you can make money quickly, that where it is a direct if this works, I get money in my pocket, not if this works, I get people on my list, then I nurture them, then I have to sell them something, then I have to convert them.
So we [00:09:00] want to create a plan that gets to our objective, but that feels good. And what you’ll notice is as you’re talking to clients and giving them different options and spitballing different ideas, you, they will naturally gravitate towards one of them. And even if it is a case of quite often, we don’t know what we want, but we know what we don’t want.
Every time you come up with an idea that is not what your client wants, it’s one step closer. And we want to keep going until we’ve got something where your client goes, Oh, yes. Okay. That makes so much sense. I can’t believe I didn’t see that. And when people say that to me, I’m sitting on the other side of the screen or the table going I know why you didn’t see that.
Like you’ve been over here, overwhelmed and just trying to get through each day to get to where you need to be. Like, of course, you’re not going to be able to see everything. And [00:10:00] so it’s about keeping on going based on what we’re trying to achieve, what’s that why under there, until we’ve got a plan that they feel good about, because if they feel good about it, it means when we’re implementing it, and they wobble a little bit, because we’re humans, so we all wobble, it’s going to be easier to get them back on track and focused.
Once we know what our plan is, we want to develop a really clear reasoning behind why this is the plan we chose. And this is a conversation with your client and it is about, okay, if there are three different ways we can go about this and then you and your client and decide on option two, what you need to do is really dig around to ascertain why option two is the one you’re going with. Why do they think option two is the best? Why do you think option two is the best? [00:11:00] What is not as great about option one and three? And get that really solid, logical reasoning. Because then, you need to put in a system to remind them. This is why we chose this.
You don’t know what to do. We know that you want to get here. We then discovered that this would be the best way to get there and here’s why. So if right now you’re worried or you’re thinking maybe I should do something different, let’s look at these pieces again because the likelihood is you’re going to come to the exact same conclusion.
Oh no, I shouldn’t change the plan right now because the plan actually makes a lot of sense. And then they feel calmer. But if you haven’t got that solid reasoning, you’re going to still have this wobble and that foundation will still be rocky. And that’s not what we want. We want confident clients. [00:12:00] And then the final plea, the final piece to helping clients who don’t know what they should do is to then rely on that system and to not get exasperated.
So the more that we are attached to something, the more our emotions go up and down, and we want to see success. And so we are worried about the outcome we’re attached to it. And so if you have this system of no, no, it’s okay. And hey, this is what we’re doing. And it’s fantastic. And this is actually going to get you what you need.
And you have this on repeat. So every time you notice there’s a wobble or there’s a concern or they go back into that. Oh, should I be doing this? Or should I be doing this now? I can’t see clearly again. You’ve already built in that system to go hang on. That’s okay. This is just this. We’ve done this before and we re explain why we’re doing what we’re doing and [00:13:00] how we’re going and how they’re feeling.
And it will get them back on track and it will help them feel secure and they’ll be confident in their decision because if they’re wobbling in the decisions, then you never get as much traction. You never get as much success because they haven’t bought into it. So that is my opinion on how you can really help your clients when they’re stuck and they need to make decisions or they want to progress and they don’t really know how.
This is how you can do it and it’s systematic and for me, every time I’ve done it this way, it has worked and then all of the opportunities for my clients business is open because we have a clear direction that makes sense to them and they feel good again and they have energy again. So I hope that that helps you let me know what you think.
If you are listening to this podcast, please leave me a raving review [00:14:00] because that’s how other people find the podcast. And that’s how I know that I’m on the right track and giving you what you need. Thanks so much guys. Have a great day.