BRX Pro Tip: Consistent Prospecting

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. Lee, there are definitely some key disciplines to running an effective business, particularly in the professional services arena, I believe. But one of those disciplines, and we have to have systems in place that support this effort, we have to be consistently prospecting.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:26] Yeah. Prospecting is something that you have to do every week. This isn’t something that you do once and then you’re done. Because it’s one of those things that if you don’t do it, you’re not going to notice that things are bad until, you know, two or three months down the road after you stop prospecting.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:42] But then, guess what’s going to happen? You’re going to notice them in a big way. And once you have this kind of flywheel going and you have kind of a flow of prospects, even if you’re busy delivering services, just start a wait list. Just do something to not stop prospecting. Because when you stop prospecting, you have to restart this flywheel again. It’s a lot harder than it is to just keep prospecting on a flywheel that’s moving. So, just keep doing the work.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:11] And if you don’t have the time to deliver the service, then just start a wait list of people and go, “Okay. We’re not going to start that cohort until next month or in three months or whatever.” But at least get people excited to sign up and then just put them somewhere to hold them for a while until you’re ready for them, rather than just ignoring them and not having anybody. And then, when you need a client, then you’ve got to start from scratch and then build up the entire pipeline again.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:36] Just keep the pipeline going. Keep the sales funnel producing. And then, move them onto a wait list rather than just starting from scratch. Starting from scratch is hard and it’s frustrating. And it’s a lot easier just to keep the funnel flowing rather than it is to restart it.

BRX Pro Tip: Do They Want Advice or Support?

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, when someone is sharing challenges, frustrations, and maybe getting some input, it’s important isn’t it to find out as early as possible, get some clarity around whether they really want your advice or support.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:27] Yeah. I just think that certain people are wired a certain way. So, if somebody asked you a question or they have a challenge, a lot of times your first move is just solve the problem for them. But a lot of times they don’t want the problem solved. They just want to kind of vent about the problem. And they don’t really want an answer, necessarily. They just want to be heard.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:50] And if you ask them, “Hey, do you want advice or do you want support,” early in the conversation, you’re going to save yourself a lot of frustration and grief. And you’re going to kind of manage the expectations of the person you’re talking with. And then, that way, everybody is clear.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:04] So, that way, if you go in there and they just want to vent and you just say, “Yeah. I know. I understand that must be frustrating.” And you’re just listening and kind of affirming what’s happening, that’s all they want. But if you try to solve the problem, they might be frustrated that you’re not listening to them or they’re not being heard. So, you think you’re helping, but you might be making something worse. So, it’s important to get clarity around this, and that’s why communication is so kind of fragile in this way.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:33] A lot of times we jump to conclusions and we’re not really listening as actively and precisely. And we don’t really know what the person wants and we think we do. And we’re making assumptions, and a lot of the times we make the wrong assumptions and we each end up frustrated at the end of this.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:49] So, if you can get clarity around do they want advice or support, then you can react accordingly. Just because they want to vent and be heard, that’s fine. You don’t have to come up with an answer. And not everybody is coming to you because they want you to solve their problems. Sometimes they just want you to listen and you can help them just by asking more questions than solving something.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:14] You know, we’ve been doing this Coach the Coach show for a while now, and that’s something that I’m learning from them, the coaches, that sometimes you can help them more just by asking more questions and helping them get clearer around their frustration rather than coming up with a solution for them. Not everybody wants you to solve their problems. Sometimes they just want to be heard. So, listen and ask, and then you’ll see you might find this works at your house as well as it does in your business.

Stone Payton: [00:02:48] Well, I was just thinking while you were talking, this clearly has plenty of application in the professional environment with clients and colleagues. But I’m going to try to take this discipline home with me.

BRX Pro Tip: Experimenting

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] And we are back with BRX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, it’s something we do an awful lot here at the Business RadioX network, we feel on the corporate side of our operation it’s important that we do this, and it may sound a little chaotic, a little unstructured, but, really, there are some key disciplines that should be exercised when we begin to experiment. Let’s talk about experimenting.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:27] Yeah. And I think this is one of the important values that we add as kind of corporate Business RadioX, is, we’re out here playing around and experimenting with different services, different softwares, and different resources out there in order to find what’s working, what’s not, and always stay on top of the industry and what’s happening in the industry.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:49] So, I think that’s just a critical part of the value we provide all of our studio partners is that we’re doing this kind of work. And I think it’s fun also, for me, to keep things fresh and interesting. And anybody who likes that kind of staying on top of things, this is a good kind of discipline when it comes to looking at things rather than we’re trying this thing. Everything is framed as an experiment. So, it’s nothing personal. Experiments, you don’t expect every experiment to work. So, it’s okay for them to fail. It’s okay to try things that don’t work because there’s still learning that happens from that.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:25] But when you are experimenting, you have a higher probability of success after have done lots of these experiments. An experiment will perform well if it’s performing well right at the beginning. If you’re having to really kind of keep tweaking it and trying different ways to make it work, it’s probably not going to end well. So, I would definitely look at an experiment and pay attention to what’s happening early. If it’s hard, or it’s cumbersome, or you’re not getting a good vibe, or you’re not feeling great about it early, that’s probably foreshadowing for what’s going to happen down the road.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:59] So, if you are getting some success, I would recommend doubling down on the experiments that are performing well early and start pruning experiments that start off poorly. If you do this persistently and relentlessly, you will stumble onto success a lot faster. So, everything kind of sounds good at the beginning, but the things that perform well at the beginning tend to be the ones that kind of work for the long haul. So, the bottom line is, experiment, lean into your winners, and cut your losses as soon as possible.

BRX Pro Tip: Get an Accountability Partner

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] And we are back with BRX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, you talked to me about this very early in our relationship, well over 15 years ago. And it’s so important to building a sustainable business and a sustainable practice if you’re a practitioner. The advice is get an accountability partner.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:26] Yeah. I’ve thought about this ever since I was doing ‎Dr. Fitness and the Fat Guy, and accountability partners were part of that program. But, now, I emphasize even more as we do these Coach the Coach shows where all of the coaches, one of the big value propositions for a lot of these coaches, is being an accountability partner.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] So, here’s an easy way to become an accountability partner with somebody. It doesn’t have to be a coach. It doesn’t have to be a colleague. It can be anybody, really. But it’s the simple exercise that you can do is just become an accountability partner to somebody else. And then, each of you holding the other accountable for some activity. And it doesn’t have to be in your business. It can be part of the business. It could be your personal life. But whatever the thing is.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:12] An example of doing this is like, say, you wanted to have an accountability partner hold you accountable for inviting five guests on your house show every day. And you tell that accountability partner, “Look, every morning I’m going to send you the names of the five guests I invite on the show the next day. And then, every week we’ll check in to make sure that I do this. And I’ll be your accountability partner for something else.” And they’re like, “Well, I want to lose weight, so I want you to be my accountability partner. I’m going to send you my food journal from the night before.”

Lee Kantor: [00:01:48] So, it’s not like you have to read the food journal. It’s not like they have to kind of check to make sure the guests are right. They’re just kind of making sure you’re doing the work and you’re making sure they do the work. This way you can exchange kind of accountability goals. And then, you’re going to see that just the act of having someone to report to, “I got to send that thing in at 9:00 in the morning to let them know what those five guests were,” then you’re going to do it because you don’t want to break that promise to them.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:15] And that’s something we realized with Dr. Fitness is that people break promises to themselves all the time, but they never miss appointments. They always want to keep their word to somebody else. So, if you can make this just part of your daily routine and you know I got a report in, then you’re going to report in. And then, this person doesn’t have to solve the problem. They don’t have to fix anything. They just have to be there to say, “Hey, where was the thing you promised me that you would send this thing in and why didn’t you send it in?”

Lee Kantor: [00:02:42] And that, for most people, is enough of an accountability partner. That’s all they have to do. And then, they’ll stay compliant and they’ll keep doing the work. And then, you’ll see by doing the work just kind of religiously like this day after day, whatever it is, no matter even if it’s a small thing, if you do it every single day, you’re going to get that compounding effect. You’re going to see you’re going to make extreme strides in whatever you’re trying to accomplish.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:07] So, find an accountability partner, just test it for a week. See if you can do this for a week and you can help them for a week. It doesn’t have to be a business partner. It could be a friend. It could be a cousin, a sister, or brother. It could be anybody. Just each of you hold the other accountable for something important in their life to help them achieve a goal that they’re working towards. And this system will help you accomplish that.

BRX Pro Tip: Hiring a Professional Services Salesperson

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] Welcome back to BRX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, let’s talk a little bit about some strategies, tactics, disciplines for hiring a professional services salesperson.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:15] Yeah. Finding someone that can sell in professional services is a tricky endeavor. It’s something that you need to do at some point in time. But a lot of times, founders, especially, will try to do this too early, and they won’t have a lot of good luck in this and they get frustrated. So, if you cannot effectively communicate who your ideal customer is and the best ways to find them to someone else, then you are setting yourself up for a bad situation.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] You already, before you hire someone, must have pretty tight systems in place to identify, then reach out to, and then persuade your ideal customer before you hire anyone else. You have to have this documented. You have to have this so it’s simple and clear that people understand it and they can execute it. Once you do that, then you can bring the person on. And when you’re choosing between salespeople to hire, look for somebody who has sold something. And then, call some of the people they sold and see if they really were able to sell something.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:18] Because a lot of people can be an order taker and it appear like they’re selling somebody something, but they’re not really selling. They’re just taking orders. And somebody that can take orders is a lot different than somebody who can sell somebody something. So, make sure you do your due diligence and you check out some of the sales that this person has done. And talk to the person that bought. And find out for yourself what’s real and what’s not and how effective this person was in selling.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:49] There is a huge difference between an order taker and a salesperson, and don’t waste your time with order takers unless you have a system that’s so tight that you don’t really need a salesperson, you just need somebody to just kind of take down the orders and clear credit cards.

BRX Pro Tip: How and Why to Creation Version 1.0

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, let’s chat for a moment about, not just how, how and why to create version 1.0.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:14] Yeah. I think it’s important to build systems, document processes. That’s how you kind of can take your business to a new level by making it replicable and delegate more effectively. When you’re authoring version 1.0 of any process, to me, the person who should be kind of documenting that is the person who is doing that actual work, not that person’s boss. So, whoever is doing the work should be the one documenting how that process is done today. And how that process is done today is now version 1.0.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:50] So, once we have it down, whatever that process is, and we know the steps that it takes and all of the minutia it takes to execute whatever that process is, now, we can pressure test that process to see if there are ways to make it better, ways to make it more efficient, ways to make it more cost effective.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:07] But you always want to start with the process as it is today, and that it becomes the benchmark. Then, we try to improve it and make it better over time. And there is no one better to document the current process than the person who is actually doing the work today.

BRX Pro Tip: How to Test Your Systems

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Today’s topic, Lee, how to test your systems.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:10] Yeah. It’s important to make sure that your systems are effective in communicating what you want them to be communicating and doing what you want them to do. A simple way to test them is just write down the system or the process you’re trying to explain, and as simple as in terms as possible as if you’re explaining it to a child. If you can clearly explain what you do or what you want a child to do and the child understands it and they truly understand it, then it’ll be easy for you to explain it to someone who isn’t as familiar with the subject as you are.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] A lot of times we make assumptions because we’re so immersed in our stuff that we think that everybody else understands the language, the terminology, and some of the strategies, and exercises that we do that we implement every day. And they don’t always understand or they miss steps. And if you can explain it to a child, then you know you’re on your way to effectively explaining it to an adult. And remember, teaching a person that’s new at this is a great way to get clear on your own messaging, your own instructions, and a tighter, more effective processes.