Chris Barrow’s Blog

Another client question on Tuesday’s call-in day – “Chris – how do I create a business plan when I’ve never done it before?”

I asked what research he had done so far:

1. had a look on the internet at downloadable packages;

2. had a look in a local PC store at off-the-shelf packages:

3. had a look at his local bookstore.

He was bewildered and confused by the choices.

This client has been in my core dental programme for 3 years.

So I asked him the following questions:

1. have you written a 3-year vision statement?

Yes

2. have you created personal and professional cash flow forecasts?

Yes

3. have you written operational systems for the practice?

Yes

So I shared with him a formula:

Vision + Cash Flows + Systems = Business Plan

He had already written it – he just didn’t realise that those disparate pieces of paper could be joined together.

So, relieved that he has done 80% of the work, he is now off to polish his business plan.

One of my clients has recently completed an extended trip away from home, visiting with 4 of his top consultancy clients and spending quality time with them – first delivering some project work – second asking them what their greatest challenges are right now.

From these 4 conversations it has emerged that they all face a similar challenge in training a specific group of their sales team on lead conversion. Thousands of dollars are spent on lead generation and the weakness of their conversion systems (maybe even absence of such systems) is resulting in high acquisition costs and low sales.

My client was inspired to recommend a coaching school (one that as yet he has not created) to provide an environment in which these employees could be trained, consulted with and coached – to improve their skill, to provide ongoing accountability and to create a tribal community in which they can share successful techniques and debate common challenges.

Needless to say, the initial 4 clients want the school right away and are prepared to pay handsomely for it.

My client’s revenue targets for the year are looking more achievable by the day and we are now starting an exchange of emails on how his new “school” will be structured.

He is one happy and motivated bunny.

Isn’t it amazing – the same client has been worrying for a year about how he was going to transition from an exhausting consultancy career to a more balanced coaching practice.

He has thought about it – and discussed it with me – over and over again. No conclusions or action until now.

But once he got “outside” – into the world of his clients – and asked them what was bugging them – a ready made coaching school appeared before his delighted eyes.

Coaching tip: You can only see opportunity from outside your comfort zone.

And Dan Sullivan is correct (again) – the objective of a business is to make a profit – but the purpose of a business is to solve somebody else’s problem.

We just have to ask what their real problem is.

One of the advantages of focusing on my core programme for the last 8 years is that quarterly workshop preparation can be a fun experience.

About 6 weeks before each workshop month begins I pull up the trusty old PowerPoint slides that have served me so well over the years and then:

1. change the slide design for no other reason that to entertain myself – for a few years now I have subscribed to www.presentationpro.com and find their service invaluable;

2. change some of the graphics for the same reason;

3. change a little of the content, to reflect what I have learned since the last time I presented on the chosen subjects.

That all means that a full-day presentation can be polished and ready in about 2 hours – then loaded onto our intranet so that members of Team CB (Barbara in this case) can begin the process of workbook preparation with plenty of spare time.

The whole process gets me “in the groove” as far as the workshops are concerned – so now I’m really looking forward to my October tour and presenting my thoughts on marketing.

A client asked me “how come you know so many jokes and can use so much humour in your workshops and your coaching?”

I explained that I don’t tell jokes – in fact I am truly hopeless at telling jokes.

But I do use lots of humour – that’s correct.

And I’ve learned to observe how “stand-up” comics function.

The funniest stories they tell are those based on the absurdity of our reality.

How absurd it can be to sit in a 20-mile line of traffic, to receive appalling customer service, to deal with an angry and unreasonable client, to drag a drunken teenager to hospital.

They are all serious situations that we can laugh about afterwards – and that’s where the humour becomes the method by which we connect with our audience.

Because they see themselves in our story – and then realise that “this guy is just like me” – and then they connect with you.

My client was about to address a large gathering of financial services professionals and wanted to know how best to connect quickly.

I advised him to “connect with their quiet desperations.” And to use humour to connect.

I know that I will get some great ideas and insights today.

Its 8.30am here in Italy, I have written my ezine for the week and emailed it to Team CB for issue, I haven’t read any client emails – and yet I know it will be a great day for ideas. How can that be?

Because today is a “call-in” day.

We open an on-line appointment manager with 7 days notice.

We email our clients (coaches and dentists) and invite them to visit the scheduler and book themselves in for 15-minute laser coaching calls.

I make 3 such calls in every hour – I call them.

We get to the point and we coach.

And its one of my favourite days in the calendar.

Because it’s “live and uncut”, because each call is short and to the point (no moaning or prattling on) and because the clients themselves always come up with great questions that produce great answers.

So I know its going to be a good day – even before I start.

And “call-in” days are a fabulous way of leveraging my time and energy.

So that’s my inspiration – what about the interruption?

The road outside our Italian apartment is to be resurfaced this week.

Yesterday, an army of workers arrived and spent the whole afternoon with a pneumatic drill, cracking the concrete road surface.

They began again just a few minutes ago.

So my “call-in” day will have to move location into my 17-year old son’s loft bedroom – because that’s the only place I can hear and think.

He’ll be delighted when I wake him up before lunchtime.

Over the years I have been asked this question by many clients (both dentists and coaches).

It can often come as the last question or comment at the end of an email/progress report, where the client is listing their achievements and progress.

As a coach, I find it impossible to answer the question.

Since 1994, I have developed two programmes, designed to assist dentists with making “more profit in less time” and coaches with building a six-figure practice – so why don’t I know “what’s missing” for an individual client when they ask?

I was thinking about this on my flight from Manchester to Milan this morning when the “what’s missing” question came up again.

I know my stuff – and I know that both of my programmes have a linear element – but I just cannot get my coaching brain around the answer.

Its almost as if there should be a check-list of the 101 things you have to do to complete the programme – and as if I can tick the boxes on the list after I have read the client’s progress report – and then fire off an email that says “you have missed points 35, 58 and 78″.

But it doesn’t work like that – or maybe I don’t work like that.

Is it just me? Or do you feel the same way?

During an email coaching exchange with a client there came this moment of self-realisation yesterday.

That for the first 50 years of my life I was constantly searching for answers.

And that in the last 2 years I have changed.

Now I’m just trying to figure out which are the right questions

It’s proving far more difficult and much more useful.

So to finish off the laptop story – I revisited the QPT triangle and opted for high quality, customer service and a higher price.

The good news is that the supply/demand curve in technology is in favour of the customer at the moment – so our local Sony dealer was quite happy to sell me a new S-series Vaio (its so sexy) and agree that I can pay for it anytime in the next 12 months with no extra interest charge – I just deferred my payment to suit my cash flows and walked out of the shop with a splendid new piece of kit that will be used as a home-study centre.

I should also mention that John in the Sony centre was fantastic at customer service – nothing too much trouble.

Now on to “tired with no ticks”.

I have been an avid list maker since 1980 – so much so that I’m one of those sad people who add things to the list that I have already done so that I can tick them off!

In the 1980′s I began with a legal pad.

Then evolved to use a Franklin Day-planner, complete with sumptuous leather binder.

In the 90′s I became a techno-addict and found myself living in Microsoft Outlook, where I have been for maybe 10 years.

Just recently I rediscovered the joys of writing with a smart, black Lamy fountain pen – I use it to scribble prose and poetry when the fancy takes me.

I even more recently I regressed to the new Franklin legal pad sized project management lists and daily to-do sheets.

I get a bit stir crazy with sitting in front of my Vaio all day – so making lists with my Lamy pen has been a rediscovered pleasure.

Yesterday was one of those days where I started work at about 7.30am, finished at 7.00pm (by choice) and then realised that I hadn’t ticked a single task off my to-do list.

Don’t you get some days like that?

You never stop and yet you wonder what you did?

I had to take a moment over dinner last night and just reflect upon what I had actually done – or else feelings of self-doubt would have crept in.

I had done a lot – and resisted the temptation last night to write it all down so that I could tick the boxes.

Today I’m on a tick mission – we shall see.

Today I walked into a computer store.

I wanted to buy a cheap and functional laptop that would suffice for just email and internet access – wireless and a decent screen – not too bothered about speed or techie nobs and whistles – so it made sense to stay away from the bigger computer stores and support my local community a little.

I entered Grapevine Computers and walked into a footprint without any style or organisation – boxes piled all around – good news so far, because they are clearly not spending profits on appearance.

Remember the quality, price, time triangle?

You must only offer two of the three to be profitable – so if I want a cheap laptop that doesn’t break down, I’m looking for high quality at low price – I will have to compromise on shop appearance and on customer service – that is crushing logic.

The techie approaches and asks – “how can I help?”

OK so far.

“I’m looking for a cheap laptop with wireless and a decent screen – don’t need all the jazzy stuff – my budget is 750 pounds.”

“I’m sorry, all the sales staff are in a meeting at the moment.”

A moment of silence passed slowly by, clocks ticked, birds sang outside, we all grew older.

Bewildered, I apologised for trying to interrupt them and walked out of the store with my 750 pounds.

I wonder what they were discussing in their sales meeting?

How to increase sales perhaps?

Or maybe they were 750 below target for the week on sales and the manager was reading them the riot act?

Poor techie – doing his best in the absence of a system.

Proof, indeed, that the QPT triangle suggested by Harvard in the 1960′s is still valid.

I have very few actual “coaching” dates in my schedule for the rest of this month. Yes, the client’s weekly email reports will be answered promptly and we have a couple of telephone call-in days – but the rest of the month will be primarily dedicated to planning.

Planning the next 3-months, our 2006 marketing campaign, my 2006 calendar/cash flow and our overall 3-year vision.

Having written extensively about the distinction between the marketing funnel and the b/s funnel – does this mean that I am descending into the b/s funnel for August?

Nope – the b/s funnel is where you are doing work that other people can do better – you are either too broke or too tight-fisted to pay and, in any event, you would rather stay at home than network.

So I’m going to make a claim that my b/s funnel was closed and sealed many years ago. Maybe in thousands of years from now it will be broken open by archaeologists who will discover a treasure-trove of unfinished brochure designs, web site designs and undelivered programmes. Good luck to them.

Let’s say I’m going into a business development funnel (b/d funnel?) for the next 3-weeks before I share my updated vision with Team CB.

And maybe I’ll blog my way through that process as well, so that you can anticipate the rather frightening prospect of watching my mind at work.