Jessica Osborn [00:00:03]:
You're listening to she's the business podcast and today we're talking about how you find quality clients amongst the hordes of flaky non committal ones. So stay tuned, it's coming right up. All right, so today we're talking about quality clients and this is an important conversation. We'll know immediately if you've been in business, for example, any amount of time. Usually once you pass that first year and you've realized there's a big difference between someone who will pay you, who will become a client, and somebody who's a quality client. Because you've probably experienced the polar opposites, right? You, on one hand, you'll get people who sign up and they say they're keen and then they just don't follow through. They don't show up, they, they don't take on any advice, they don't take the action and then they start blaming everything. They blame their life, they blame their method, they might even try to blame your process even though they haven't implemented anything that you've been teaching them.
Jessica Osborn [00:01:10]:
And on the other hand, the clients who get the results have the qualities of absolute commitment, like they invest in themselves. Usually these are the ones who've said signed up to your higher paying products because they've got more skin in the game, they're going to show up and do the work, right. But they're also the type who, who serious about their business, they're not expecting a magic pill overnight result. And that shows, they show up, they do the work, they take the advice, they actually take the action and get it done. And it is really no great surprise that these are the people who, who get the results. So how do you find more of them, more of that type of client who's an absolute dream to work with, who will get the results that you promise and actually show that hey, your stuff does work. If they also take on their part and put in the effort versus, you know, all of these people who are what I call the flaky clients, you know, and there's been an explosion of them. Why? Because with everything that's happened in our world, the culture that we have, this instant gratification culture where, you know, you turn on the tv, you can just start watching the show you want to watch.
Jessica Osborn [00:02:31]:
There's no waiting, there's no patience. And it's kind of been embedded in our psyche. And a lot of people out there, they want a business, but they don't want to do any work. They want a magic pill to have some overnight result. And I think that that's the way it's just going to happen. And because they've probably gone on the Internet and found someone with some crazy story how they just started posting on Instagram and overnight something went viral and boom, they've got, they've made X amount of money that they think that this is normal and common and that it'll happen to anyone. And while it can happen to anyone. Absolutely.
Jessica Osborn [00:03:10]:
The interesting thing is if you look at any of those literal overnight success where they started from nothing and it was literally their first business experiment, usually find because there was no process, no strategy, nothing behind it, they just stumbled upon a tiny piece of magic that happened and worked. That though they aren't around, they're not around a few months later or a year later because they never had the business strategy in the first place of even understanding how they created that success. Some of them try to sell it. They try to sell it instantly. And then you see, well, actually these people aren't around for very long because there was no substance behind it. They actually didn't really know how they created the success. They just did something that worked in that moment, in that instant. And who knows why.
Jessica Osborn [00:03:59]:
Sometimes the universe conspires to make that happen, which is incredible. But my point being, there are a lot of people, and this is growing scarily quickly, who are out there searching for a magic pill. They want to take the pill and drop into the Matrix and have it all work instantly. You know, be able to do those insane slow motion backflips in the air and knock out the, the agents. Sorry, I'm trying to remember all the, how the Matrix went again in that movie, but you know what I mean, it's like they, they want the outcome without actually doing anything. And while, yes, we don't want to make it sound hard like, oh, it's going to take you a really, really long time to get this success. We also do want to attract people who are going to take the action that you're advising them to. Like, you don't want to attract people who are literally just lazy.
Jessica Osborn [00:04:59]:
They're looking to press a button and have it all done for them. So how do we differentiate this? Well, there are some nuances, absolutely. In how you are marketing, how you're positioning yourself, how you're positioning your offer and the messaging that you're using when you're talking about your offer that will absolutely help you to tune into the right sort of client versus the one who's flaky. And you'll know Whether you're attracting those flaky sort, because you will actually already see the signs of it right now. So it looks like we have people engaging with your posts. Maybe they find you on wherever you're posting, Maybe it's on LinkedIn, maybe you're on Instagram. They might follow you and be engaging and then all of a sudden they've kind of gone, they disappeared. So if your audience, you're noticing you have new people following you, but your numbers aren't growing at all.
Jessica Osborn [00:05:57]:
You've got people joining your email list and then unsubscribing. You've got people who are engaging with you but then not doing anything. These are the ones who are just on this hunt, right? They're the scrollers. They're scrolling, they're trying to find the thing. They're looking, looking. They are the shiny object chasers and they'll latch onto something that sounds magical. They absolutely believe in the overnight magic pill. And you know, it's a hard one because I want to say, yes, magic does exist.
Jessica Osborn [00:06:29]:
Yes, things can literally explode. You can have a quantum leap. The funny thing is, every significant quantum leap that I've ever seen and witnessed, the behind the scenes of, not the, the social media version that people are talking about, but what's actually happened behind the scenes, it hasn't happened overnight. It's happened over a number of often months and years even. But maybe that the shift has happened quickly. The thing is that they've been building up for it for quite some time and when it's dropped, then there's been a significant shift that's happened in a short amount of time. Like for example, I can think of one of my clients, Miranda, she came into Business Jam. In the first three months she had a 170% increase, which is great.
Jessica Osborn [00:07:18]:
Like, goodness, who wouldn't want to more than double their business, you know, almost triple it in that time, in that short amount of time. But that wasn't a significant result in terms of some of the people we had through. So, you know, that was great. And she carried on. Within the next nine months she had increased by another 260% from, from that new level. So again, wow, that growth in. And the percentage growth is increasing all of the time, which was great. But she then had an 825% growth that happened in just eight weeks.
Jessica Osborn [00:07:56]:
But this was her third growth trajectory since she had joined Business Jam. And each one of them was actually caused by something slightly different in her strategy. But had she attempted to do the third one up front, right at the beginning, it wouldn't have happened because she wasn't ready for it. Then we had to go through this process and she had to go through these phases and actually get ready for it. And then once she was ready, the breakthrough happened. This was in her pricing, this was in how she was actually positioning her pricing and the way she was doing it and she was ready for it. So in being able to suddenly make a change to a price in which, as you and I know, it's really easy to do, you can literally just change the number. Doesn't take a lot, right? That can be really fast.
Jessica Osborn [00:08:46]:
The thing that makes it slow for most people is all of the resistance that you have to changing the number, right? So if you're not ready to change it, if you're actually not in the place where you're able to step into your authority, own it, and know that this price is absolutely a steal and a bargain, but it's still significant and a massive for you. If you're not ready for it, it won't work, right? So we've got to put in that groundwork to get to the place where you can have the quantum leap growth. Thing is, most people, they're not even ready to do that. They're wanting to you to give them the secret funnel. They want you to give them the magic pill. It's like, here is the plan. Do this and overnight you're going to drop 10 kilos, or here's the plan, Implement this funnel into your business and I've already prepared it all for you. Click a button, it'll drop in and boom, tomorrow you're going to be a millionair.
Jessica Osborn [00:09:39]:
There are people out there searching for those magic pills and trust me, they're not the people you want to be attracting into your business because they aren't going to get the results. They're not ready to do the work, they're not invested in themselves. They're wildly, you know, putting their hopes and dreams on the fluff on the stories and the fluff that people are selling out there. And yes, sometimes it is those people who've had a miraculous thing happen and then they're trying to sell that to others because they, hey, I've got this crazy result and I'll help you do the same. But they don't have the process and the structure and the strategy behind how they did it. So how can you sell that to someone else? That's why you get so many people disappointed, because they invest in that coach who had that miraculous thing. Happen to them. And then they're like, but it's not happening for me.
Jessica Osborn [00:10:33]:
I'm like, yeah, because they don't actually know how it happened in the first place. They've just got a result that they're selling. So the real coach you want to look for is someone who has got the results for other people. When other people have worked with them, they have got the result. Well, there, you know that that coach has a structure, a framework, strategic approach that is going to work for other people, not just for themselves. And that's really, really important. Now, this episode, I think I've gone off down a slight tangent here, but I get so passionate in talking about this stuff. I could literally talk about it for days and weeks and months.
Jessica Osborn [00:11:12]:
We're talking about how you find those quality clients. And you know, as I already mentioned, there are some nuances. There are a few key things to look at, which is what I build into my strategic framework that my business jam clients go through. The very first thing is actually about how you're showing up. And I don't mean that in a fluffy way, like, how do you show up on social media? It's like, who are you actually being in your business right now? Are you presenting yourself wherever it is that you are engaging with people, whether it's face to face, online, whatever platform you're using, are you showing authority in that you know what you're talking about? You absolutely know your own expertise and not all. You know, it doesn't have to be all of your expertise. I'm like, cannot say this often enough. You've got a lot of skill, you've got a lot of expertise.
Jessica Osborn [00:12:08]:
You don't need to sell all of it. Like, where is it that you really shine out? Where is that soul alignment happening? Where it is your authority. And it's something that's quite different. When you really find this place within you, it. It has a uniqueness that people can't get from someone else. Okay. They can't go off and find someone who's doing the exact same thing as you and just being a different person. It's like, no, this is actually an expertise that they can only get from you because it's something you have created.
Jessica Osborn [00:12:41]:
Right there is that authentic creation, which is why you will see the people who are trying to use AI to build their business and AI to, to create their positioning. And all of their stuff is like, there is zero authentic authority happening there because they haven't created it from within. They've asked a computer to create it for Them, oh my God. And it's using the Internet and everybody else's stuff in order to design it. That is a disaster waiting to happen. For anyone who's wanting to be a true thought leader like you, you do need to. If you want to be someone that people trust, they can feel it, they want to follow you. You're clearly guidelines makes you magnetic.
Jessica Osborn [00:13:24]:
Then you need to be standing in your own authority. And trust me, if you have experience and skill, if you know that you can get results, you have the ability to do this even if you're doubting yourself right now. And so many women do. We, we are so critical of ourselves, we, we doubt whether we know enough, whether we have enough of anything. And you see this by people who will go out there and get more and more and more qualifications or they'll go and try to win more industry awards, anything to sort of boost themselves and prove to themselves that they have enough expertise to even think that they could be a thought leader or show up as an expert in their space. And there are other ways of doing it. You don't need to go down that long path of the continuous cycle of trying to earn excellence, external praise to show that you have enough expertise. It actually comes from within you just decide it.
Jessica Osborn [00:14:24]:
And yes, there are definitely ways that I can help you to get to that place much, much, much faster with far less stress and effort. But that is the first thing. You need to have that number one, because I'm going to open up the discussion around the energetic exchange that happens and you will no doubt have heard of. And I always sort of hesitate in saying this because I know that you're instantly going to jump to a different space. But the law of attraction, it's not about, I think something I want it, it's that like attracts like. So who are you being you showing up with? The type of authority and expertise that therefore attracts somebody who also has that level of expertise, that level of commitment, that level of belief and drive in themselves. Maybe they're not in the place you are, but they are a like minded person. You want them to absolutely see you as a leader and a guide and as someone who's got to the place that they want to get to.
Jessica Osborn [00:15:30]:
Absolutely. That's not what we mean by like attracts like. It's more that you're showing up as the, the sort of person who's committed to your business, takes yourself seriously and isn't afraid to stand in your own shoes, make the decisions and take action. You're going to then attract people who are ready to take action, who are ready to invest in themselves, you know, and you've got to be doing the same yourself. You know, you can't not invest in yourself and be afraid to show your authority and then expect someone to turn up and see you as an authority and invest. Right? Because if you're not investing well, they're not going to invest in you. If you're not doing the work to be and step into your true authority, have the right sort of offer that is a reflection of it, an actual true, valid reflection of your authority. If you're not ready to do that yet, then you're not going to attract the client who's ready for it.
Jessica Osborn [00:16:29]:
You're going to attract the ones who are flaky, who are not ready because they're going to see and feel that in you. They're going to feel the doubt, they're going to feel that inability to, to really take yourself seriously. And I say that with love and respect and also empathy because I've been in those shoes too. You wouldn't believe, or maybe you might believe it, but after 20 years working in corporate, I had, you know, on paper, should have all of the evidence. I was head of marketing communications for the last six years that I was in corporate, leading a company that we took from startup to a multi billion dollar firm. Within six years I had all of the evidence I could possibly want that I had a lot of expertise or have, I should say I'm not in past tense, but a lot of expertise in marketing strategy, in understanding how to connect an audience, how to sell services and really tailor that service to a target audience, making it work, right. But yet I started my business to guide others as my own business owner, as a coach. And for some reason I discounted all of that evidence, all of that experience and treated myself like I was a newbie, like I'm a beginner and thinking, well, I'm just going to help someone who's a little step behind me and, and not including all of that authority that I really had.
Jessica Osborn [00:18:01]:
So I say that with love and respect because I've been there, I know what it's like. And then I've seen the huge difference when I realized why am I playing small? Why am I holding myself back? No one else, you know, there's no one coming along to give me permission to suddenly say, hey, you know, Jess, you've got enough experience now and you've got enough authority to show up and be an expert in this space. No one's saying that like You've actually got to decide it and they won't see you as an expert until you actually stand up and show yourself as one first. Okay. There is no proof, evidence or permission that's coming before you're allowed to do that. You actually have to stand up and be that so that others will see you as it. So anyway, that's my TED Talk. Thank you for listening.
Jessica Osborn [00:18:53]:
That is the first thing that we need to attract the right sort of quality clients. If you're not doing that first piece, that first part of the strategy, I like to call it the domino, because once that piece is in place and it falls, all of the other ones fall into place, then you know you're just going to continue putting out a lot of content, being busy on the hamster wheel and attracting flaky clients. But the second part that's really important is you can't just sort of show up as an authority and then not have the offer to match. If your offer is in any way lacking, mediocre, just sort of like an average thing that's priced against others out there in the market, people are not going to sign up with you. You're going to actually repel those quality seeking clients because they're going to be highly disappointed that here you are showing up as the, this authority, leader and guide who they want to follow. And then blur. Your offer is just this like bog standard thing. You're trying to sell a packet of sessions or you're trying to sell, you know, an amount of hours or you know, a service with all of these features and it's just like one of those boring technology feature lists with all the stuff that you're like, I didn't really care about any of that, just can you get me to the result? That's what they're thinking, right? So do you have the offer that matches? If you don't, then that's probably the hole they're falling down.
Jessica Osborn [00:20:16]:
Right. And the last two pieces of the framework that I use in business jam, the ones that you see, which is how you actually communicate it. So how you talk about it, how you actually connect and make that emotional connection with your audience, which is partly your brand, but most part of it is in the messaging, is in the words that you're using. The way that you're using your words is what makes that connection, that's what sparks that emotion within them. The gut feel that they say, yes, this is for me. And of course then we need a vehicle or method to have a platform where you're making Those connections. So that comes in your sales system in, you know, I call it your sales system. It is where you've combined marketing and sales activities into one just super simple connected system where someone can find you, lean in, get to know you, you know, become a lead and become a client.
Jessica Osborn [00:21:18]:
Now, it may only have a couple of activities in there. You know, the most simple sales systems have one to two. Some might have 10 steps. It's up to you how complicated you want to make it. And I always advise, let's go with simple and lean first. They are far more effective than the more complicated ones, but you will no doubt add more complexity as you grow. We just want to get it working with the fewer amount of steps first. Right.
Jessica Osborn [00:21:46]:
Otherwise you've spent a lot of time building a complicated machine that doesn't need to be that complicated. And you could have got there a whole lot faster if we just made it simple. So that's it. There you go. I have done a huge brain dump on you today. I hope that you've enjoyed this episode. And now you're starting to think, well, what stood out to you? Where is it in your business that is potentially the trap where you're not attracting the quality clients? Is it the way you're showing up, the lack of authority and positioning in the market? Is it the offer that's not aligned that actually doesn't demonstrate that authority? We falling down in our messaging? And do we even have a system in place in order to connect with those people and help them come through? If you don't, if you're relying just on referrals, then there's a sign, right? The signs are there. And now it's your job as the inspector, as the scientist or the investigator to go and figure out what are the clues that your business is presenting to you and that will show you the path that you need to follow.
Jessica Osborn [00:22:54]:
Okay, until next time. Enjoy your day. Enjoy your the rest of your week, your weekend. Don't forget to hit subscribe if you'd like to hear more from this podcast. I have an amazing lineup of guests that are coming out over the next few months. I'm really excited about some of the interviews that I've just had recently because I've just heard the most incredible stories from women just like us. You know, they've had a career, they've had a job, and they have found a. And they have found that there is something that creates success that's different to what this standard advice is out there, to what, you know, the generic, very male centric advice is telling us, go, go, go.
Jessica Osborn [00:23:49]:
Just, you know, here's a funnel, here are the steps. Do this three times a day and you'll have success. There's always so much more to it than that, and that's what I love to do, is challenge the status quo. Challenge those generic messages and especially the bro marketing kind of advice out there, and make it something that, that aligns to you and, and actually helps you as a female to, to leverage your particular gifts and skills to find better success in business. So until then, enjoy, and I'll speak to you soon.
