Salutations friend! It’s RJ here, and in today’s conversation, we’re talking about decision-making criteria to help you decided which programs are the best fit for your business. Between the online courses, the coaching programs and hiring a consultant, there are a lot of options out there. Today’s conversation will help you better evaluate which one is right for you.
Salutations friend! It’s RJ here, and in today’s conversation, we’re talking about decision-making criteria to help you decided which programs are the best fit for your business. Between the online courses, the coaching programs and hiring a consultant, there are a lot of options out there. Today’s conversation will help you better evaluate which one is right for you.
The 6 alignment criteria we covered in today’s episode are:
And before we forget, did you know that we held an information session for our signature program Systems That Scale? If you want to learn more about the program without any of the pressure to purchase, check out the replay below!
Links:
Salutations, friend, and welcome to an episode of The Profit Scale. This is the podcast for consultants, experts and service providers who are either already serving corporate clients or transitioning towards it. This is the place where you can find tailored solutions to help you close your first, next, or biggest client yet.
I'm your host and Income Strategist, RJ Connell, and if you are looking for expert strategies to help you build on your existing success, then you, my friend, are in the right place. Turn up the volume and lean in, 'cause we're about to get started.
So you have been working in your business for over two years now and you are struggling to cross that six-figure mark or to stay there consistently. Are you feeling frustrated and discouraged or maybe even overwhelmed by the amount of work you are putting in and not seeing the results match up? Have you taken the online course and hired the business coaches and spent thousands of dollars and you still feel like you have nothing to show for it?
Friend, let me help you understand why this is happening.
Salutations, friend. It’s RJ Connell here and welcome to another episode of The Profit Scale Podcast. In today's episode, we are going to talk about the “why” behind the overwhelm and the frustrations you may be experiencing as you are trying to grow your business.
Before we jump into today's conversation, did you know that we held an information session for our signature program, Systems That Scale? We provided all the information you need to know to decide whether Systems That Scale is the right program for you, and the best part was that there is no pressure to purchase. So if you are ready to work with corporate clients or if you are looking for a premier program that will help you do just that, then attend a replay of our Systems That Scale Information Session.
There are only two steps you need to do to access the replay. Number one, click the replay link in the show notes and to your name and email address, and number two, confirm your email by checking your inbox or your spam or junk folder for an email that says action required.
Once you confirm your email by clicking the button inside, then you will receive the “replay” directly in your inbox. If you don't see it there within an hour or so, just double check your spam folder just in case it ended up there. Systems That Scale is opening up for one last time in 2020, and I would love for you to have all the information you need to decide if this is the right program for you.
So let's jump in.
Over the years, I have worked with many entrepreneurs through our signature program, Systems That Scale, and each one of them come in with a past experience having taken online business courses and worked with coaches to help them grow their business.
The more I would ask about their past experiences and why they feel it did not work out for them, the more I would notice a pattern. 9 out of 10 times, it was not because the program itself was bad, or the coach was not knowledgeable, or even that they themselves as the entrepreneur, did not do the work. More often than not, the problem existed because there was no alignment between the clients that they were being taught to serve and the clients that they were meant to serve. This is a pattern that I continue to see today.
So let me break this down a little more. I myself have invested in several online courses. I have attended more webinars than probably university courses. I have hired business coaches, and I have joined countless email lists through e-books, guides, checklists, workbooks. Least to say, I have literally done the most. I have done it all, but at the time, it made sense for where I was.
When I was opting into everything I could get my hands onto, I was at the beginning stages of my business. I was looking for more information before I invested because I did not have enough experience to actually know what was right for me, so I was hoping that I would find the answer somewhere inside of one of those free resources or maybe on the 77th webinar that I attended that week.
As I grew as an entrepreneur and my business began to see more success, the free resources that I used to spend so much of my time consuming became less and less relevant for me.
The more experienced I become, the more I realize this truth. 90% of the content and online business programs target beginners and they teach beginners how to help other beginners.
I want you to take a moment and to think about if this actually applies to you. Maybe this has been your experience so far. Do you see more programs that say, “Learn how to scale your business from seven figures to multiple seven figures?” or do you see more programs that teach you how to start a business? Do you see more programs that teach you how to grow a sales team, or do you see more programs that teach you how to land your first sale? And do you see more programs that teach you how to create an organizational chart for your business and delegate masterfully to your team, or do you see more programs that teach you how to grow your email list and your Instagram (IG) account and create compelling content all yourself?
If you really think about it, chances are more of the programs you have encountered online are geared towards beginners and not entrepreneurs like you who are already further along in your journey. I believe that that is why the more experienced you become in your business, the less useful many of these programs online are for you.
At some point, you get to the place where instead of learning how to do it all by yourself, you are ready and willing to pay someone to do it for you. That is a clear sign that you are past the beginner stage. If you have ever invested in an online course or program, and you feel as though you have not received your Return on Investment (ROI), this could be the reason why. While there is nothing wrong with the program itself, I do not believe online courses do a very good job at helping entrepreneurs understand if they are too advanced for the program.
They do a good job helping you identify if you are not ready for the course or maybe the coaching, but not a great job telling you that you are past the stage where this program makes sense for you. So if these experiences apply to you, and as of late, you have been investing into programs, but leaving them empty-handed and empty-pocketed, then let's talk about how to choose the right investments that will not only serve you where you are now, but also where your business is going.
There are alignment criteria that I use when I'm deciding whether or not to make an investment, and I want to share them with you in hopes that they will help you invest your money in the right areas. There are five main criteria that you can assess to determine whether or not a program is a good fit for you or not.
So let's take a closer look at each criteria.
Return on Investment (ROI)
A good way to evaluate this is to clearly understand the promise of the program. In other words, what problem is that program coach or consultant solving for you, and what are they saying will be different after having worked with them?
The program promise will help you understand whether to expect your Return on Investment to be in the form of revenue for your business, improved operations, better team culture or something else. The better you understand this promise, the easier it is for you to manage expectations and also to evaluate whether or not the program was successful for you.
You can also find clues to help you identify what the expected ROI will be based on client experiences through testimonials, maybe on a sales page or an information session, or simply by asking.
Target Clients
This one is easy to overlook. A very simple way to gauge if a program is aligned with the direction you want to grow your business in is to see the product, service or skill set you receive during the program is tailored towards the type of clients you want to serve. For example, if your client base is experienced entrepreneurs who have been in business for 10 plus years, then a coach who only works with new entrepreneurs probably is not the best fit for you.
As simple as this is, taking the time to think about and even to ask if the program you are considering investing in can apply directly to how you serve your unique clients can go a long way towards helping you make an informed decision.
Level of Support
The third criteria is the Level of Support provided in the program, and that means identifying whether the level of support offered meets your current needs. Some programs may include one-to-one sessions with the expert that will be leading you. Other programs will offer exclusively group training, while others offer a mixture of both. Some programs may offer community or group support, while others may offer personalized individual support.
Now, one way is inherently better than the other, but it is important to first understand what you need and then see if what is being offered aligns with your current needs.
Type of Service
The fourth criteria blends nicely with the third, and it is the type of service being offered. Under this criteria, you typically have one of three choices.
In both my experience and research, I found that a “Done for you”service is usually what you receive when you work with a consultant. They provide expert advice and recommendations, but they also have the skill set and resources to implement those recommendations on your behalf.
“Done with you” services are typically what you get when you are working with a coach. A business coach or life coach, as an example, tend to operate like a guide. They guide you towards finding the answers you need on your own, but they very rarely dictate what you should do and to do it.
The “Do-It-Yourself” service is most commonly found with digital courses and products. They tend to be designed for easy implementation and often have a little or no one-to-one support.
Each of these three service types tend to serve you well at different stages of building your business, but you will find that as you grow your business, you will tend to outgrow Do-It-Yourself services and will grow more into “Done with you” and “Done for you” services.
When you understand what type of service will serve you best with where you are right now in your business, then you can determine whether the program you are about to invest in is in alignment with what you are looking for.
Maintenance vs Growth
There are times in your business where you will need help to solve a current problem that is existing. For example, setting up automations that will allow you to serve your existing and new clients with greater ease, and there are other times when the product, service or program you are investing in is to help grow your business in the future.
Ironically, the investments that focus on the growth of the business do not always have immediate results, and so those are the ones that we tend to put off, like hiring a team or developing internal processes and systems, whereas the investments that are focused on maintenance tend to be more immediate in their results, like on how to grow your social media following, for example.
Both types of investments are necessary in your business before you can grow. You need to be able to sustain where you are right now, but the more experienced you become in your business, you begin to make more CEO-type decisions and investments that are focused on the future of the business and not only the present.
Depending on where you are on your entrepreneurial journey, your business may need support that is focused on helping the business grow and not just maintaining where you are at right now.
Each one of these criteria will allow you to take a more objective view of a program coach, consultant or course before you invest in it to help you determine whether it is both the right fit and the right time for your business.
The more you run through these criteria, the easier it will be for you to make decisions about what and when to invest in your business. And best of all, the decisions you make will more often than not be the right ones.
So let's recap today's conversation.
We first talked about the fact that many of the programs online are geared towards beginners or entrepreneurs who want to serve other beginners. We discussed that there is nothing inherently wrong with those programs, but it is important to know if there is alignment between what you need and what is being offered so that you do not leave the program empty-handed or empty-pocketed.
We went through five different alignment criteria that will help you determine if a program is the right fit for you, and they are:
Doing a quick assessment in these five areas of a program before you make a commitment will help you manage the expectations and will help make sure you leave any program with exactly what you need.
Friend, as you know, our signature program, Systems That Scale, is opening up for one final time this year and space is very limited. We are only accepting 10 clients in this last cohort.
To help you make an informed decision, we held a no-pitch information session this past weekend. This information session was designed to provide you with all the details you need to know about the program, including the program promise, the client experience, what you will learn, the return on investment and more. A bonus was that you got to hear from a past Systems That Scale client directly.
There was absolutely no pressure to purchase because we will not open up for another few weeks. If you want to learn more about Systems That Scale and apply these five alignment criteria we discussed today to see if the program is a good fit for you, all without any pressure to make a purchase, then don't worry, we have a replay available for you.
As mentioned at the beginning of our conversation today, you can access the replay with these two steps.
And again, if you don't see it within an hour or so, just double check or spam folder, just in case.
We, here at RJC Consulting, are excited to welcome 10 new clients into the program in a few weeks, and I personally hope that one of them will be you.
Friend, as always, it has been a pleasure to spend this time here with you today. I value our conversations so much.
If you haven't already, remember to register for our August Coin-versation on the myths, mistakes and mindset behind pricing your services. It is August already and the year is flying by, so make sure you reserve your seat because August 22nd is just a few weeks away. Just click the link in the show notes to register and you will be ready to go. Until next week, friend, I wish you coins, confidence, and all the bags. Bye for now.