Probably not, right?

But what if you could clearly see “Target B.” And “Target A” was out of view?

Most people will then aim for “Target B.”

A dogged few insist that they will find and hit “Target A” one way or another; sooner or later.

Each month I give away about about 5 – 7 free “Consistent Flow of Clients” strategy sessions.

Probably the biggest error in thinking – and therefore action – that I see consistently in these conversations is an entrepreneur who really wants “Target A,” but he’s not sure HOW to get there.

So instead he settles for Target B.

“Target B” isn’t what he wants. It’s what he thinks he can have.

Why does he think he can have it? Because it’s what he already knows.

I recently spoke to an entrepreneur who was working hard to attract clients who would pay $1 – $5,000.

But what he really wants is clients who would pay $20,000 – $50,000 and more.

Alas, he knows how to attract the former, but not the latter. So he’s built his entire business around attracting the $1k – $5k folks.

Nothing wrong with that, except that:

– It’s not what he wants.

– It’s not necessarily easier. And his current business is full of frustrations and disappointments. So for the same effort – or probably less – he can be attracting the clients he really wants.

Now, wouldn’t you agree that it’s kind of unfortunate? To design your business to bring you clients who don’t offer you the possibility to grow and contribute to your true potential?

Only because you don’t know HOW to attract the clients you really want?

Mull this over: The change you want must be clearer than the path you’re on. Or nothing will change.

And the only way I know to do this is to get yourself a mentor or coach who’s already achieving what you want to be achieving. And to join a community of people who are on the same path.

Follow that mentor’s guidance to the letter.

Brainstorm with your peers on the same path.

And you’ll reach “Target A” – the target you really want – as the change you want gradually becomes clearer to you than the path you’re on.

If you’re ready to aim for what you really want, rather than settling for what you think you can have go now and request a free “Consistent Flow of Clients” strategy session with me.

It’s a valuable experience that I give away to people who are actively looking for a coach to help them add $100,000 – and then more – to their income in the coming 12 months.

Dov Gordon

Hi Dov,

I’d like to book a consulting session with you. Please could you let me know what you charge?

As I’ve continued to apply your training, I’m doing pretty well on the first parts. But I’m finding I have a debilitating weakness.

At the hard wired level, I’m highly motivated to help people and enjoy a significant sense of satisfaction when I can see that I am able to help. The problem happens when I talk about price…

Because I’m so eager to help, I invariably tend towards mentally reassessing the offering and favoring the prospect, often to my own disadvantage.

Have you encountered this scenario? Do you think that a consulting session will help?

Regards,
A. B.

My reply:

Hi A. B.,

If you are “reassessing” your offer in favor of the prospect, I suspect there’s more here than merely wanting to help.

You want to be liked.

You’re don’t value yourself enough. And you’re afraid to lose the sale.

One thing that will help you more than anything else:

You need to experience that you have nothing to be afraid of. As the adage goes, “Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.”

Your top priority: Have a single sales conversation where you lead it as if you had ZERO fear of losing the sale.

Follow the Elegant Sales Conversation process. Really connect with your prospect.

And when it’s time to make your offer, state your offer as you would if you have $1,000,000 in your mattress. And another $10,000,000 in the bank.

Do that once. If you lose the sale, you’ll survive. And the experience of surviving through what you fear is precisely the kind of experience that will help you rewire your brain.

You’ll experience that it’s not as bad as you imagine if someone doesn’t buy. It’s really their loss to not be doing business with someone like you.

And if they do buy, you’ll experience a value far dearer than being liked: Being respected.

I’m not sure if a session with me is the answer. It may be part of the answer. If after reading this you feel it will be helpful, we can schedule something.

But get this experience once. And then once more. And then once more.

There is no faster way to turn your finances around.

Ultimately, you need to BELIEVE that you are worth what your asking for. And you need to believe that asking for it is in your PROSPECT’s best interest as well as it is in your own.

A client who respects you – and therefore pays you well – will get far more from you than a client who steps on you.

Dov

What’s your opinion? Do you agree with my advice for A. B.?

Would you advise something else? Do you have your own experience or story that you’d consider sharing for the benefit of others?

Please post your reactions below in the comments section.

Dov Gordon

We all start with a dream. With confidence that we’ll make it. Knowing we are smart, talented and have something valuable to offer. Surely the market will notice and buy.

Ah, if only it turned out that easy, right?

The clients I’ve seen make the greatest progress, fastest are usually the ones who’ve struggled – often for years.

They’ve invested thousands – even tens of thousands of dollars – in self development. Info products. Seminars. Coaching.

Many still carry this as massive, stifling credit card debt. A daily reminder of their disappointment in themselves.

There have been ups and downs. Excitement and dashed hopes.

They’ve considered quitting. More than once.

But they didn’t.

Because as bad as it looked on any given day, there were always the omens. The little signs life leaves along your path to remind you that it is only a matter of time.

First, there is that Inner Knowing that you are on the path you are meant to be on. And then there are the smaller omens.

The teleseminar you weren’t going to listen to turns out to be the source of an important insight you’ve been missing.

The new client who shows up just in time. Again.

A failure that, upon reflection, contained a lesson you needed to learn.

You have just enough success to keep the lights on. Sometimes a bit of extra. Often not quite enough. But that Inner Knowing keeps you going.

Yes, the struggle breaks many. But there are a few who do emerge stronger.

The key difference is this:

Those who break through, heed the omens.
Those who don’t, heed their fears.

This is why they have the courage to continue to invest in themselves despite all the ‘valid,’ ‘rational’ reasons not to. To take actions that would otherwise be just too scary.

Hopefully, by then you’ve learned to enjoy the journey because you know what happens when you do break through?

You start all over again at that new, higher level.

Dov

PS – This month I’ll be giving away a handful of free “Consistent Flow of Clients” strategy sessions. If you’re working hard, but it’s not adding up to a consistent flow of clients for you yet, this might be for you.

Obviously, I am limited in how many of these 45 – 90 minutes sessions I can give away for free. So please only request a session if:

– You KNOW you should be able to add $100,000 or more to your income in the coming 12 months. You may already be over the $100k mark, but you’ve hit a ceiling you want to break through. This will be a valuable session for you.

– Adding at least $100,000 in the coming 12 months is your top priority.

– You’re looking for the right coach or consultant to help you. These sessions are free, and more than 9 out of 10 find them tremendously helpful. If we do schedule one, you are under no obligation of any kind.

But priority goes to those who are looking for help attracting a consistent flow of ideal clients – and after reading and listening to some of my material, feel I might be the right person to help.

If that’s you, go now and request a session. Fill in the questions here and I’ll get back to you within a few days.

A grandma is treating her granddaughter, probably 10 years old, to breakfast at the table behind me.

But Granddaughter is paying a price for this ‘free’ breakfast. She’s got to listen to Grandma.

“Your biggest meal should be your breakfast. Then you work off the calories throughout the day…”

“My friend Judy eats fruit and fruit juices for breakfast. Then she’ll have a carbohydrate meal, like sushi… When you come this summer, I’ll introduce you… She exercises…”

She then went on to talk about table manners. And how to treat other people.

Five minutes into the lesson, something began to nag at the edge of Grandma’s consciousness. She could sense that her message wasn’t being received as she intended.

So, hardly pausing for a breath, she assured Granddaughter “You’re perfect just the way you are.”

And then quickly returned to her agenda.

“When you see a person who has a quality that you admire, decide to incorporate that into yourself. Into who you are. And you can become like that person.”

To top it all off, she advised her granddaughter, who seemed more interested in her omelet, that she should focus on improving herself because “You can’t change anyone in life. You can only change yourself.”

All in all, this was good advice. But will it be effective? Does Grandma realize just how hard she is trying to change her young granddaughter?

Does she realize how she would influence Granddaughter far more if she was living the example rather than talking about her friend Judy?

It’s always easier to help others when you’ve got that particular area of your own house in order first.

If you’re trying to help others improve their businesses or lives, but you’ve got lots of work to do yourself on many of the same issues, NOTHING will do more for your own impact than to get your own house in order.

You can’t change anyone in life. They can only change themselves. And they do it when they’re inspired by your example. Not by empty words.

If creating a steady, consistent, predictable flow of your own ideal clients is an important step for you, then this is your immediate next step.

Dov Gordon

I had written that recently someone reached out to me and we exchanged half a dozen emails. “…It quickly became clear to me that this gentleman had views about business that were very different from my own and we were not a match.”

Well, several hours later, this fellow, who we’ll call “J” wrote me the following:

Hey Dov,

I did not have that impression during our dialogue. I don’t feel that we had very different views on business. I believe that the difference between our views was in that I was looking for coaching more from the ground up. I think you are looking for clients that are further down the path than I am. In short, I am working towards being one of your prospects and do not qualify. Yet. I believe that will change soon.

Regardless, I am not at all offended by being the subject matter of your email blast. I actually appreciate that you appreciate my response. It is still refreshing to deal with people like this in business. It gives me hope for the future!

Hope all is well,

“J”

I went back and reviewed my email dialogue with “J” and he’s probably right. It’s not so much that we have a different views on business. It’s that he’s not yet ready for my coaching programs.

What does ‘ready’ mean?

From our email conversation, it seemed to me that “J” is still at a stage where he’s trying many things, going in many directions, running hard, playing hard. So he’s not lazy and not afraid to work. From that sense, he’d be great to work with.

At the same time I got the sense that even though he know that he’s chasing too many rabbits, it doesn’t yet bother him enough. He’s not yet ready to focus on mastering the fundamentals.

It’s like if you go to a karate studio and all I would want to do is learn the fanciest katas. So you dance around punching, kicking, swinging the nunchucks or whatever flashy things the advanced students get to do.

Then it comes to a real world fight and you get your teeth kicked in because all that prancing around is useless if you never mastered the fundamentals.

So yes, “J” is correct. It’s not that we have fundamentally different ideas about business. It’s just that I work best with people who’ve had their teeth kicked in and are now ready to master the fundamentals and build up from there.

It’s a stage I had to go through myself, so I understand it all too well.

As soon as he gets there, he’s welcome with open arms.

Dov Gordon

PS – If you’ve been doing the fancy pants kata dance and you’ve come to understand that it’s time to master the fundamentals, you can apply for a free “Consistent Flow of Clients” strategy session with me.

Who is it for? If for coaches, consultants, experts and entrepreneurs who should be able to add $100,000 or more to your income in the next year. You’re just not quite sure how…

If that’s you, go request a session at http://dovgordon.net/freesession and I’ll get back to you within a few days.

There are two problems with overnight millions:

1. Only one in a thousand (probably less, really) can do it.

2. Even the few who do manage it tend to crash as fast as they rose.

I’ve taken the approach that even if I could make overnight millions, I’d rather build a business that will serve me – and my clients – for decades.

And a business like that needs a strong foundation, which has a couple of ingredients:

1. You need information and knowledge. But more importantly you need wisdom and mastery. And this only comes from learning, implementing what you learn, and getting feedback from a mentor, coach and peers walking the same path.

2. You need restraint. It wouldn’t be wise to mix your concrete with ashes and it’s not wise to accept inferior clients.

That’s why I politely turn away the people who are not a good match for my philosophy and way of working.

Recently someone reached out to me and we exchanged half a dozen emails. It quickly became clear to me that this gentleman had views about business that were very different from my own and we were not a match.

While I was polite and helpful, he got the message because he ended his last email to me like this:

“Anyways, it sounds like I am not the type of person that you are looking to work with at this time. I have, however, enjoyed the dialogue. Thank you for your thoughts!”

If you read my emails and have listened to my free seminars and have a feeling that you and I might be a match, go and request one of the handful of “Consistent Flow of Clients” strategy sessions I’ll be giving away this month.

Fill in the form here and I’ll get back to you.

Dov Gordon

You’ve done your homework; you know how to get visitors to your site.

But if they don’t ultimately hire you, what was the point of getting them there?

In a recent study (by Adobe), it turned out the average business spends $92 on traffic for every $1 they spend on conversion optimization.

In other words, they spend $92 to get people to their sites but only $1 to turn those visitors into clients.

Even if your $92 gets your ideal clients to your site, the money and effort can easily go to waste.

If they don’t convert, your bank account will show a steady decline no matter how impressive your traffic statistics are.

Give people a reason to listen to you

As harsh as it may sound, people expect a new site to be a waste of their time.

That bias to looking for reasons to not care about what you’re trying to say causes the typical small conversion rates.

The antidote? Communicating a clear, strong value proposition.

Sure, there are countless things that affect your conversion rates. But nothing comes close to how the clarity (and strength) of your  value proposition affects conversions.

Your value proposition is a believable collection of the most persuasive reasons your target clients have for taking the action you’re asking for.

The most effective websites revolve almost entirely around the value proposition they’re intended to communicate.

When you go to one of those sites, you know immediately what you can get. And you know why you should choose that company, product, or service instead of any other.

That’s what your website needs to be like.

You need to tell your visitors what you can help them with. And why they should choose you rather than your bigger, better-known competitors.

Whey else would they even consider you? Unless you’re already the market leader, you’re fighting an uphill battle.

The core of your value proposition is the short-list of reasons people should choose you. That is, even if you’re not nearly the cheapest option.

The reasons that make the short-list describe what you offer. They’re the things your target customers value, your competitors don’t offer, and you can believably claim to deliver.

Getting across those two or three aspects makes all the difference.

When people understand them, they stay on your site.

It’s the foot you can stick in the door. It earns you your visitors’ attention and gives them a reason to want what you offer.

If you need help with figuring out what the core of your value proposition is, try this 5-step process.

And if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask them in the comments.

Right now, Peter Sandeen is probably knee-deep in snow with his wife and dogs (he lives in Finland). But you can download his 5-step system for finding the core of your value proposition and landing page checklist to improve your conversion rates.

Peter Sandeen

I hosted a small meetup last Thursday night in the lobby of the Roosevelt Hotel in New York. Right under the portrait of Colonel Roosevelt.

If you’ve been around here awhile, you know I study the US presidents, with Teddy Roosevelt being a particular favorite.

Here’s me standing under a portrait of TR, each of us holding a tool of our trade.

We had a small but high quality group trek over for the meetup.

Everyone shared a bit about what they do – and their most perplexing challenge right now. We then solved them.

Here are some things I learned from the discussion:

• - Retirement isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
• - You can have a highly valuable skill, in a great niche. But if no one knows about you…
• - Many of us just have to go through years of frustration or suffering because that’s how we learn what we need to know to go and help others.
• - It’s really hard to see our own situation clearly. To the point where when you’re asked about your most perplexing question, it’s common to have a hard time putting it into words.
• - There’s tremendous power in process. When you approach any problem by following a relevant process, you can quickly spot the few things that make a big difference.
• - Most people, even when they know that they should be focusing their marketing on a single problem, still have a hard time articulating it in a way that gets the interest of their ideal client. By default, they still talk about it from their own professional perspective. That won’t work very well.
• - We tend to over-complicate things. To over-think our issues. Another benefit of process is that it helps you simplify. And there’s power in simplicity.

Here are some more pictures from the evening:

L-R above:  Laverne Berry, Kristin Fraser, Ruthi Backenroth and Mike Krasner

L-R:  Mike Krasner, Slava Gordon (my sister), Dov Gordon, Laverne Berry, Ruthi Backenroth and Kristin Fraser

Dov Gordon

A few weeks ago I was interviewed by Tera Maxwell together with 20+ others, each sharing ideas about what it takes to be prosperous.

While many of the others, I believe, talked about mindset – very important, I talked about practical next steps. And as usual, I was probably a tad too opininated.

Go here to register and watch my video interview with Tera Maxwell at The Prosperity Summit.

Dov Gordon

A few years ago I wrote an article called “What to do when you’re unclear, confused and don’t know what to do.”

I also have a chat box, which is a convenient way for people to ask questions when they want to buy something, such as my “Manual – How to Systematically and Consistently Attract First-Rate Customers.” Or occasionally someone will use the chat box to report a mistake.

But at some point a couple of years ago I started getting lots of chat requests from people who were on the “What to do when you’re unclear…” page. They were always something like this:

“What should I do, I’m so confused…”

“I broke up with my boyfriend and now he wants to get back togther. What should I do? I’m so confused!”

“My parents want me to go to medical school but I want to do something else. What should I do?”

I’m a softie. And at first I would reply with a few minutes of guidance.

Then one day I felt a flash of suspicion. I wrote: “Hi. Did you read the article on this page?”

“No. Not yet. I was hoping you could help me…”

“Read this article. And do what it says. It will point you in the right direction.”

Next time I asked the same question. Again, they had not read the article.

I continued to ask out of curiosity. And not once had the person asking for free help bothered to read the article first.

I no longer respond to those kinds of chat requests.

As nice as I am, I only work with people who do their part first, not those looking for me to carry them around on my shoulders.

But how are people finding this page? I wondered.

Somehow – I don’t recall how – I discovered that if you type “What to do when you’re confused” into Google, my article is the #1 result.

So while this page does nothing for my business, it does have some really good advice on what to do when you’re confused.

And it’s got more Facebook ‘Likes’ than any other page in my site. (Hey, if you like the article, would you please press the Like button?)

Who doesn’t feel confusion from time to time?

The human condition, for most people is darkness and fog with the occasional flash of lightning. You’ve only got a brief moment to take it all in and burn it into your mind, or you’ll soon be groping in the dark again.

In the article I share another way.

A way that can make clarity your default with only momentary confusion.

If you ever feel that you’re groping around in the dark as you grow your business, go read “What to do when you’re unclear, confused and don’t know what to do.”

But please, don’t start a chat asking me if you should dump your girlfriend or run away from home or disown your oldest son.

Dov Gordon

PS – On Thursday, April 25th, I’ll be hosting a small, informal and free ‘meetup’ in mid-town Manhattan. We’ll meet from about 4:30 pm until about 7:00 pm.

If you want to join us, email me at dovgordon@dovgordon.net and I’ll tell you where we’ll be meeting.