Chris Barrow’s Blog

In Krishna De’s blog at http://www.krishnade.com/blog/wp-trackback.php?p=231 she mentioned a quotation that I attributed to Thomas Leonard and, I should add, the coaches I trained with at CoachU in the 90′s.

Leonard commented that:

“The coach doesn’t do the work – the client does the work.”

I wonder how many coaches would recognise that in fact he was wrong….

The quote should have been:

“The coach doesn’t do the work – and the client doesn’t do the work either!”

I have to say that my own evidence for this addition to Thomas’s wisdom is born out of my experience with over 450 clients in The Dental Business School and over 100 clients in The Coaching Business School.

Here is an interesting distinction between dentists and coaches as clients:

The quarterly workshops – dentists and teams 100% attendance, coaches 100% attendance.

The weekly email progress report – dentists 20%, coaches 100%.

The monthly call-in days – dentists 25%, coaches 100%.

The monthly conference calls – dentists 10%, coaches 100%.

The open-access email availability (coaching gym) – dentists 20%, coaches 100%.

Dan Sullivan at The Strategic Coach http://strategiccoach.com/ describes his ideal clients:

“Slow learners with deep pockets”

And, with that in mind, I concluded some time ago that dentists were ideal clients.

It will come as no surprise to discover that my opinion of coaches and consultants as clients is different. That’s “different” – not better or worse before you start getting outraged.

Different because they are fast learners with shallow pockets – they have the inclination (and, dare I say it?) the spare time to take part in ALL of the services you might provide to them. So if you intend to work with coaches and consultants – make sure you have lots of time to invest for little return.

Maybe that’s why the “snake oil” sellers are doing so well with all of their virtual get rich quick schemes?

Bless my dentists – they learn so slowly and pay so well. And it’s not for my want of trying! I moan at them every workshop about making better use of my services.

It was some comfort to read, last week, the musings of another coach who works with lawyers and offers a “coaching gym” – he has a 20% usage.

So it’s not just me – and it’s not just dentists.

I suspect that it’s all smaller professional service providers.

The clients’ who don’t do the work – and come back year after year for more.

Thomas was simply living in a world of coaches as clients – and swamped by their participation – me included. In time, I’m sure his clients would have explained to him what was happening to them – and he would have adjusted his philosophy – and, no doubt, sold a new programme to deal with it!

I’ve called an extraordinary management meeting today – pulled Team CB off the road and we are all going to meet at Bonnie’s house.

Why?

Because I monitor my cash flow like a hawk, using an Excel spreadsheet that we call the “MOAS” (mother of all spreadsheets).

The MOAS is created during my annual retreat in August each year – and then updated and monitored on a weekly basis throughout the year.

As income exceeds or falls short of budget, as expenses rise or arrive unexpectedly, we alter the numbers.

This year I am reinvesting heavily in the Team and the business – and I’m also seeing some unexpected expenses both professionally and personally.

Bonnie and I looked at the numbers last week and saw that we are shooting almost £45,000 over budget by 31st December.

That’s cash that I don’t have in the business and do not want to introduce from outside the business – we have to take action NOW.

Options:

1. Increase prices – I don’t want to do that because I don’t believe the market is ready;
2. Increase targets for client acquisition in our core programme at The Dental Business School – I don’t want to do that because I feel that all of my Team would lose their belief that the targets are realistic and achievable;
3. Increase variety of product and service offerings – more payable steps in the marketing funnel – that’s a good idea;
4. Reduce costs – we have already decided to shelve some big reinvestment projects for the balance of the year and I am also consolidating some short term debt to reduce our repayments;

So the focus for today’s meeting will be “how do we increase our product and service offerings in a way that:

• will be of great value to the clients
• will generate an additional £45,000 of revenue before the year end and
• will NOT exhaust me – we have to look carefully at ways of leveraging my time and energy – just adding more “gigging” days to my calendar is not a workable solution.”

Should be a good meeting – my head was already spinning with ideas on this morning’s run.

I consider the MOAS to be my most important business management system – at least we can identify a cash flow problem 5 months in advance and do something about it. I also pride myself on being a great customer – we have no long-term trade creditors in the business – we pay our bills on time, every time.

Strong and well-monitored cash flow is the single most important source of professional peace of mind.

I’ve taken a plunge.

After a search on Google I found Mark White at http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/.

After starting to read his free e-course on business blogging I called him in a technical emergency last week and found his style to be “right up my street” as well as in the same time zone and in relaxed English.

A telephone call yesterday had me happy with “what he had to say and the cut of his jib” and so I have hired him as a blogging coach, to assist in focusing this work.

Expect to see some changes in style and content over the months ahead.

This morning I enjoyed another coastal run before settling down to write this week’s ezine.

In a few moments I’ll be driving over to meet with my business manager, Bonnie and interviewing some potential suppliers of services to The Dental Business School – I’ll tell you more about that later this week.

Another recommend is a book I’m reading this week called “Get Known Fast” by Kiwi coach Tessa Stowe http://www.salesconversation.com/gkf.html

OK – I confess – Tessa sent me a complimentary copy of the book because I am one of the 21 coaches she interviewed in its creation – and yes, I did read my own interview first because I have a super-charged ego.

BUT

It’s a great book – and comforting to realise that all of the coaches hold to the same basic principles that building a coaching practice is about:

1. Visibility – gig, gig, gig, gig and
2. Persistence – recognising that the process takes years not months and
3. Specialisation – working with a very narrowly-defined niche market.

Each coach has found a different niche market and a slightly different way to create momentum (which makes the book such a good resource).

Finally – I am so pleased that every coach interviewed seems to have an ego as needy as my own – phew!

I’m about to start my third week of working mainly from a desk (although that desk has been alternately a home office and a garden table during our recent glorious weather). This is in stark contrast to months of “road warrior” lifestyle in the first half of the year.

It has been a chance to come “off the road” and create the space in which to think, plan and prepare for the months from September to December, when I have ambitious marketing plans and sales targets.

I will be conducting my annual retreat with Team CB in 10 days from now and the preparation for those three days is already beginning in my mind.

With that objective, I have been enjoying some reciprocal coaching with a friend and former client, Joel Deceuster www.joeldeceuster.com, who utilises “Best Year Yet” goal-setting systems and software.

Joel and I have been discussing my 90-day goals, 12-month plan and 3-year vision for about 3 months now (I’m a terrible client) and, last week, I finally did some homework and began the process of creating written goals, plan and vision using their proprietary software – you can take a look at their products and services at www.bestyearyet.com (although the software is, in my opinion, only as good as the coach who coaches – and Joel is an excellent coach).

Joel respectfully pointed out that my first set of goals weren’t goals – they were visions, deftly cut and pasted from my mission statements – so it’s back the drawing board this week – to set some goals that are much more specific and measurable than just “make more profit in less time and be happier!”.

I have also made a significant change to my work/rest/play habits this morning.

Having “health” as one of my core values has been an enigma these last 3 years, as the vissicitudes of my personal and professional life have left me an ex-Marathon runner whose nutrition, exercise and meditation have been a poor third place in the priority list, after work and work.

Today I made a decision – that I have to exercise before I switch on the darn technology and get sucked into the time machine of virtuality.

Today I rose at 5.45am and drove 10 minutes to the coast – there, I ran along the coastal pathway for an hour, inspired and exhilarated by the rising sun, by the waves crashing on the cliffs and by the absence of people and technology.

Arriving back to shower, change and breakfast, I switched “it” all on at 8.45am, instead of the usual 6.00am.

We shall see what difference that makes if I can keep that successful habit going for 21 days.

In the 1980′s I was a financial planner and fortunate to work for what was then Hambro Life Assurance (now Allied Dunbar).

Then, it was an owner-managed business and Sir Mark Weinberg was the inspirational leader who drove a talented management team to build a young, upstart, unit-linked life assurance company that “broke all the rules” – not in terms of business ethics but in terms of changing an industry that had been stuck in its ways since the Battle of Waterloo.

Fortunate, because they taught me to sell, to be proud of my profession and to to acquire all of the skills around personal and professional development that have served me since.

Earlier this year I reached a moment of truth – realising that “passive marketing” had provided me with a highly-leveraged one-man consultancy that had reached a plateau of earnings – and that if I wanted to grow a “bigger business” I would have to do something differently.

The difference (after possibly 2 years of contemplation) was the initially reluctant conclusion that I had to revert to my 80′s persona (although not clothing style and haircut!) that made me succesful in the first place.

To start actively selling The Dental Business School – which we have been doing again this year.

With the help of Team CB and especially the talents of my sales manager, Paul Nelson (he of the knotted handkerchief earlier this week), we have galvanised our sales (lead conversion) systems to add to our already robust marketing (lead generation) systems.

Business is just as hard to come by as it was always – prospective new clients (PNC’s) still procrastinate and wriggle on the hook – but we firmly and ethically keep tabs on them.

The biggest single difference has been introducing “taster days” which allow those PNC’s to attend a Dental Business School workshop and see me in action as well as mingle with existing clients at various stages of coaching. It has been extremely successful as well as introducing a valuable and profitable new income stream.

It has also been an enormous reminder to me that there are no “get rich quick” formulas and also that the much vaunted “passive revenue” cult that has grown in coaching, consultancy and internet marketing is just snake-oil being sold to desperate practitioners who struggle to find clients.

I wouldn’t describe us anything remotely like an insurance sales outfit – but I would describe us as a sales-driven organisation again.

Too many coaches, consultants and even dentists think that if they put enough effort into marketing, the clients/patients will come.

Remember Kevin Costner’s famous quote in “Field of Dreams” – “If we build it – they will come”?

Well in practice-building – it doesn’t work.

If you build it – they will put it into their “around to it” pile.

You have to take your products and services to the market, create visibility, create a reputation for value – that’s all marketing.

But every working day, somebody in your organisation needs to ask people to buy and eliminate their reasons for delaying that decision.

How robust are your lead conversion systems?

I reflect upon a conversation with a prospective new client last Monday.

He is an orthodontist who first heard me speak at the annual conference of the British Ortho Society (BOS) last year. This encouraged him to subscribe to the ezine, which he has read since then.

Initially he called our offices about 2 months ago with a general business enquiry and this was handled by my sales manager. Normally, a phone call between the dentist and Paul would suffice but, in this case, the dental practice was close to Paul’s home – so he called by.

It became clear that the dentist’s problems were specific and immediate, so a conversation about The Dental Business School and a year of business coaching was important but not urgent.

What was urgent was the fact that he had opened a new practice on the strength of a contract for service promised by the local Primary Care Trust (PCT) – for the uninitiated, that means a contract with the Government to provide service under the National Health Service (NHS).

Having invested heavily in property, equipment and people, the PCT offered zero funding in April this year, quoting “lack of funding and adequate coverage”. The first is true, the second is a very un-funny joke, with children in the area waiting over 12 months for treatment.

He faces financial ruin unless he can quickly market his services on a “private” (independent) basis.

Which is where I come in – I have the knowledge to help him do that.

But time is the enemy – I simply don’t have the time to run around the country doing “International Rescue” – and my daily earnings rate cannot be sustained by individual practitioners (I’ve created a highly leveraged business model that spreads my services across large numbers of clients in workshop environments – my average daily earnings rate is £3,250 and no individual dental client is going to pay that for a day’s coaching – neither would I ask them).

To solve that problem, I referred my caller to another coach, who is a qualified dentist, is fully Barrowed-up and I know can help. He runs a lower-leverage business model and can provide advice at a more realistic investment level for the client.

What caught my attention was a chance remark by the client towards the end of our conversation.

“There are lots of other orthodontists in the UK going through the same crisis at the moment.”

“How many?” I asked.

“Maybe 250 practices that I know about, through our various email groups and the BOS.”

“Well”, I asked, “would it help if I were to put on a roadshow in September, travel around the UK and speak to groups of ortho principals about how to fast-track their marketing?”

Needless to say, the response was very positive and he even thought the BOS would broadcast the event to their members.

Yesterday I ran this week’s ezine, with a request for any other ortho readers to respond to this offer.

This morning I have a number of emails saying “yes, please – get yourself on the road and we will recruit attendees.”

A small door opens to reveal a much larger opportunity.

I reflect this morning that I could have “fobbed off” the original call as being a “no income” opportunity – but I didn’t – I kept listening and stayed focused on helping the caller get his outcome.

At first glance – I handed a perfectly good client to another coach, with no prospect of income.

At second glance – I may have opened the door to a major business opportunity – The Orthodontic Business School as a specialist subdivision of The Denatl Business School.

I’m feeling quite pleased with myself.

Read a great blog article this morning on the top 10 characteristics of superachievers – bearing in mind the amount of discussion I have facilitated on “leadership” these last few weeks, this was a good summary.

http://careerintensity.com/blog/2006/07/11/superachievers%e2%80%99-top-ten/

Yesterday was my monthly meeting with Team CB to dicuss “the broad concept” of The Dental Business School:

Â
• where we have been in the last month
• where we are today and
• where we are going in the next 90 days, 12-months and 3 years!

Â

It’s customary for us to begin with a review of our 3-year vision – to ascertain what macro-economic factors may have changed my views (external market conditions in coaching and in UK dentistry) and also what micro-economic conditions may influence change (my levels of attitude, skill and knowledge, how the team are feelings, what is working and what is not).

This time our discussion on vision was far-reaching. I have written extensively in recent ezines, blogs and articles about my “predictions for the future of dentistry” (in fact, you can access that article over on the right hand side of this page) and I feel that The Dental Business School is about to change radically to make the best of those predictions.

We have already planned to invite a group of our former and current clients to a “brainstorm” in September (at my expense) so that I can figure out what exactly is on their shopping list of ideal products and services in 2007 and beyond.

I have received about 40 requests to attend that meeting and we are adding the final touches this week for a formal invitation – exciting.

After the “vision thing” it was down to basics:

Â
• review our financial position
• current marketing plans – we have to plan well ahead for dentists because most of them have calendars full of patients 3-6 months in advance
• current sales (lead conversion) progress – budget versus actual
• operational resources review (mainly technology) and
• making sure that the team themselves are happy in their work.

Â

What was especially enjoyable about Monday’s meeting was the opportunity to meet at the home of my business manager, Bonnie Mockett and take advantage of the warmest July weather that has been recorded in the UK for some years.

Our meeting took place in her garden, laptop free and the environment was uplifting.

So much so, in fact, that Paul Nelson, our business development manager, slowly stripped down from his formal shirt and trousers, to a much more relaxed version. Now that’s quite something for Paul – normally Mr Cool in his pin-stripe suit (my alter-ego?).

By the end of the meeting we were game for a laugh and so we added to his entourage a traditional item of Northern clothing – the famous knotted handkerchief on his bald pate to protect him from the sun.

He will kill me for publishing this photo

You’ll notice over to the right and under “Websites” Kim Black has added a link to the archive of my ezines – so if you haven’t read enough of my scribbles, you can immerse yourself in the last 12 months of business and personal reflections by looking there!

One of my objectives for many years now has been to take 12 weeks vacation every year (which I have managed to do in 8 of the last 10 years) and also to work a 4-day week in each of the 40 weeks I work.

However, the 4-day week is subject to two conditions being met:

1. the business is thriving and healthy and
2. market conditions are normal

This year, neither of those conditions was in evidence:

1. in January my business manager gave me three months notice of her intention to move forward in life and
2. in April the conditions in UK dentistry changed in a way that forced many dentists to look at offering private treatment options and, thus, seek out the services of a business coach

So since 1st February, my business has been on red-alert. I have rebuilt and added to my support team and we have channelled much of our activity into lead generation and lead conversion – making hay whilst the sun is shining you might say.

I checked my calendar this morning – in the last 12 weeks I have taken 1 – just 1 – Friday as a free day. I have been working a minimum 5-day week and some have been 6 days as I have attended Saturday conferences as a guest speaker.

That’s one of the reasons that I find myself exhausted.

So I’m happy to say that July and August are months in which I can “catch up” – with sleep, rest, nutrition and exercise – and these 4 activities are going to become my focus for the next 2 months.

Looking ahead, in the 8 weeks between now and 1st September I will be taking 7 free Fridays (which means a 3-day weekend) and I also plan for 3 of those 8 weeks to be pure vacation – not necessarily travel/holiday but absolute rest.

The focus on sleep begins now – my normal work routine is a 5.45 am alarm call and I will maintain that on the working days but finish earlier in the evening and get to bed sooner (I’ve been known to work 12 to 15-hour shifts on working days).

The focus on nutrition began earlier this week, with a careful eye on the quality and quantity of my consumption.

The focus on exercise is long overdue. This 14-marathon runner hasn’t trained since February (that’s one of the habits that went out of the window when the proverbial hit the fan) and my body has regressed considerably.

I’m suffering from a lot of niggling injuries that weren’t present for years – aching hip joint (diagnosed as the effect of a couple of twisted vertabrae), a painful knee (IT band) and a general recovery from 18-months of sel-inflicted cigarette smoking (its been a month now since I packed them in).

I have work to do on this – or should I refrain from calling it “work” and just say to myself that these summer months will be about getting myself in shape again and enjoying the experience?

Oh – today is the first of those free days – so what the hell am I doing writing this blog? Because it’s definitely not work – its fun. I have been journalling since August 1987 and it has become an integral part of my life – somewhere in storage there are hand-written journals covering 1987 to about 1998 – goodness knows who would ever read them – but that’s not the point. They have been my catharsis for 20 years now – I can write (or now type) and release my emotions.

The sun is shining outside – I’m going to go and read some more of my current book “Istanbul – memoirs of a city” and then get some fresh air.