—By Mike Pietrzak
One year ago I put myself through the gauntlet of Tony Robbins’ Business Mastery, and on this anniversary I'll be sharing my top 24 lessons from that unparalleled 5-day "MBA through a firehose".
This is Part Three in the series, and the focus today is on Tony Robbins' Top 4 lessons about CLIENTS.
Lessons About Clients
Lesson 15: Get to Know your Clients
For me, entrepreneur Dean Graziosi had to be one of the most compelling speakers at Business Mastery. His main message? “Get obsessed with the conversations going on with your customers.” Why?
Because they are dying to tell you what they want to pay for, and if you don’t talk to them before you create a product, you’re likely to create something nobody wants.
In the book This is Marketing, author Seth Godin suggests that you find a lock, then fashion the key. In other words, find the client in need, then create the solution. You do this by talking to them—not by guessing at what clients want.
How I applied this lesson
I took this one to heart, and as mentioned in Lesson #5, I interviewed 10 of our best clients to get to know their needs at a deep level. I also sent out a survey to our mailing list with five short questions and got hundreds of responses back.
What I learned from this outreach was not only the primary motivations of our clients, but what they were willing to pay for. Then we started to create writing programs that delivered exactly what they told us they want.
We also began offering free, 15-minute writing consultations, which put our sales team face to face with potential buyers.
Quick wins for you
If you don’t have clients yet, go hang out in Facebook, Reddit, and LinkedIn forums where you think your ideal client might be lurking. Listen for their pain points and desires, then build products to ease the pain.
Surveys are key! You can use SurveyMonkey or TypeForm to create simple, free surveys for your clients.
Set up some calls with your best clients and pick their brains. Of the 10 that I invited, not one declined.
Lesson 16: Create Raving Fans
With all of this survey data in hand you can choose and focus on a niche, and ignore anyone who doesn’t fall into it.
Then, serve this niche with a shock and awe campaign. Make your clients feel loved like family.
Serve them at a level that turns them into raving fans: apostles, VIP clients, cheerleaders—whatever you want to call them. They will spread the good word about your business, and become customers for life. They will refer their friends, and frequently.
Create raving fans by nurturing powerful one-on-one relationships that Instagram ads and SEO can’t buy.
How I applied this lesson
At soyouwanttowrite.org we started offering a series of free, high quality writing workshops to build goodwill and trust. We also added bonus sessions to some of our most popular programs. And from time to time I’ll reach out personally to our best clients just to ask how the writing is going. People are amazed to get an email from a real human.
With my coaching practice I installed a weekly habit where I ask myself, “How can I go the extra mile with my clients this week?” and I reach out personally to each of my active coaching clients to offer something that will benefit them: an article, a book, or a piece of knowledge.
Quick wins for you
Talk to fewer clients, but more often and for longer. Over time you’ll enjoy a new lineup of referral traffic at your door.
Align your marketing with the way people buy. Many people do 100% promo: “buy my shit!” What works so much better is if you do 10% original content, 85% sharing & engaging, and only 5% promotion.
Create great content! See Lesson #11.
Adopt a policy to always exceed client expectations, and make it the core of your company culture.
Lesson 17: Solve a Real Pain Point in the World
A decade ago I read The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. In it he describes how to set up an ecommerce business, hire virtual assistants, and sit back and collect your passive income. I oversimplify his thesis, but at the time this was my naive view of how the process would unfold for me.
I created a men’s fashion accessory store, stocked up on wallets, watches, and bags, recruited a dropshipping company, and waited for the dollars to roll in. They didn’t. Over 18 months I was lucky to break even. My fatal flaw, besides seeing this as a get-rich-quick scheme and grossly underestimating the workload?
I put zero thought into what client pain point I was solving. What I quickly realized was that nobody had an ailment that required the salve of generic sunglasses from China.
Like 2012 me, too many entrepreneurs start with a key (product) then try to find a lock (clients). To succeed, turn this formula around. First, talk to clients to understand their pain points (see Lesson #15 above). Then, make your client’s problem your mission (see Lessons #2 and #5). Finally, use stories (see Lesson #7) to constantly talk about those pain points, and offer the solution.
How I applied this lesson
I closed that men’s brand back in 2015, content to walk away with a valuable lesson. Since then I’ve done only a moderately good job of solving pain points. We’ve talked to hundreds of writers to understand their problems, but I still let my preferences dictate which services we offer.
In my coaching practice I still have more work to do to understand what exactly my clients want. It looks like it’s time to send out a survey!
Quick wins for you
Before you even think of choosing a product or setting up a company, listen to the conversations that are happening in the market, with an ear for true pain points. Note that people will not always tell you outright what they want, so read between the lines.
Not to sound like a broken record, but you really need to talk to your clients—hundreds of them, and regularly. This means surveys or user interviews. Ask: “what problem do you think I helped you solve?"
In all of your marketing, talk about the problem, then present the solution.
Lesson 18: Obsess Over Product-Market Fit
Product-market fit exists when the puzzle pieces of your product and your ideal clients’ needs fit together perfectly. You’ll know you have it when the dam bursts and you’re buried under an avalanche of sales.
At Business Mastery, billionaire Bill Gross made a bold point that struck me: “It’s not a little bit about product-market fit, it’s ALL about product-market fit.” When I heard this, I understood why Silicon Valley icons were always preaching about it: success will continue to elude you until your key fits the lock.
How do you achieve product-market fit? Put a product in front of customers, then see what they do with it,” says Gross. At Business Mastery he explained how one of his software products wasn’t selling until he went to stores and literally stood in the aisles talking to customers. “You never get it right out of the gate. You need to iterate,” he said.
How we applied this lesson
Straight up, I think we have a weak P-M fit. I don’t believe that I understand my market well enough, and if I did, I would likely make changes to my services. But that’s exactly what I’m working on now: creating, watching, listening, tinkering, and creating anew.
Since Business Mastery I listen far more closely to my customers and watch how they interact with my services. I do more client after-care. And although the pace of change is slower than I’d like, I’m improving my P-M fit.
Quick wins for you
Go listen to and obsess over conversations that are already ongoing on Facebook pages, Quora, and Reddit. Go read product reviews on Amazon. Schedule 30 minutes a day to do this. Find out what your ideal clients are saying, then create a solution to their problems.
ABT: Always Be Testing. Small changes are ideal. Sometimes only a very small adjustment to your product or marketing can create massive changes in outcomes.
Hook your ideal client by making all of your marketing speak to their exact problem. Use stories (see Lesson #7).
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Without paying clients you don't have a business. Knowing this, the challenge then becomes, how do I get me some clients?! This is the billion-dollar question for all entrepreneurs, marketers, and salespeople.
The unskilled entrepreneur asks, how can I sell my product or service?
But the wise and conscious entrepreneur first finds out what is their ideal client's problem (pain point) then what that client needs to feel better. She fashions a product (key) that fits the existing lock (client).
She then over-delivers massive value and service to the client at a level that client's can't help but tell their friends about, and rolls around in piles of money, satisfied in the knowledge that she's making a positive impact in the world.
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