How to avoid clients leaving at random?
How to avoid clients leaving at random - especially when it feels like you spent all this time/money digging up a well, but they quit RIGHT BEFORE they actually hit the water?”
You are brilliant at what you do! Your ideal clients happily hired you for two reasons. They are CONFIDENT you can help them get results. They are CONFIDENT in their ability to do the work.
As their guide, work with them in a way that maintains that confidence. Ensure clients know and can easily follow the journey you're taking them on to get results.
Doing this also helps you create an effective, efficient, and repeatable client experience that is scalable. Here is how.
A vague journey to results breeds client confusion and unpreparedness.
It is very common for:
A) Coaches/consultants to sell group or hybrid programs with the following:
A specific number of 1:1 (with either themselves or their success coach)
A specific number of group coaching calls
A resource vault with 100s of worksheets, videos, etc.
Access to replays
Access to a private Facebook group or online community.
B) Coaches/consultants to sell 1:1 programs with the following:
A customized blueprint or roadmap
A specific number of 1:1 calls
A customized blueprint or roadmap
Access to a private Facebook group or online community.
The challenge is many coaches/consultants never go beyond this level of detail. They never spell out the process they use to get their clients to their promised destination.
During your sales process, you list the features your clients can expect. But never spell out how you use them in your process to help your clients get promised results.
As you deliver your services, you give access to resources and calls. But you only reveal the next step when you get to it or leave your clients to figure out when best to use them.
That vagueness about the journey to results breeds client confusion and unpreparedness. These two culprits are often misdiagnosed as client inaction or mindset issues. They grow and grow until clients mentally check out (reduced engagement) and randomly leave your program.
Let’s look more closely at both scenarios.
SITUATION #1: Your clients feel unprepared to do the work with excellence.
Your clients are willing to do the work. Yet it is hard for them to perform well when you throw ad hoc activities and expectations at them like:
Needing extra financial resources to make purchases they didn't budget for.
Needing extra time to finish unplanned time-intensive activities.
Needing expertise or resources to finish tasks they had no idea they would need to do.
For example: Imagine a coach who helps her clients land more clients. Her process requires her clients to create a website, but she doesn’t share this until the middle of her program. This was something outside her clients’ expertise that they aren’t prepared to handle. And even if they can afford it, it was hard to hire someone on such short notice.
Situations like these make things harder for you and your clients. It wrecks their confidence in you and themselves.
Some clients may figure out a way to keep going (even as they decide never to work with you again). While others just can’t keep up and it fills them with guilt. So, they give up and stop taking action. Eventually, they exit your program with no one but you knowing how close they were to results.
SITUATION #2: Your clients feel more confused each day.
You are the expert, that’s why your clients hired you. Yet it becomes hard for them to continue seeing you as the expert when:
You are unable to easily guide them along your path to results. You know those gaffs you keep apologizing for.
They (the non-experts) are left to assume and fill in the blanks about your process. They have no clue how you’ll guide them to results or why each step matters. They don't understand their role in the journey and what they can expect from you.
Your path to results has gaps or unclear dependencies that confuse your clients.
For example: Imagine a coach who helps clients with organic messaging. His process requires clients to do market research to understand their clients. Incomplete market research means clients lack what they need to write effective content. That’s a critical dependency!
When these scenarios occur, at first, they confuse your clients. Then it shifts to them second-guessing themselves and eventually, second-guessing you. Once this happens, they tend to leave your program mentally. Eventually, they exit your program with no one but you knowing how close they were to results.
Breaking Down Your Journey to Results...
Keeping your process to results at the feature-level has severe consequences. It hurts you and your client’s ability to get results with ease. It affects your client’s confidence in you and themselves. Eventually, they leave at random (and request a refund). This hurts your reputation and revenue.
This is why we encourage experienced coaches, experts and consultants to break down their process to results into a step-by-step guide. Include every program activity, resource, and call. Then assess each step to confirm that they flow and are necessary. That’s how you create a repeatable client experience that is effective, efficient, and scalable as your business grows.
Your guide positions you to communicate with confidence. And increases your clients' trust in you and themselves. It increases your ability to guide your clients through your steps to results efficiently.
It aligns you with your clients during onboarding and even in your marketing. Plus keeps you and your clients on the same page as you deliver. Both of you know the direction you're heading, how you plan to get there, and what you both need to do to get there.
Finally, it positions you to establish a robust support system. You can monitor your clients' progress, give much-needed guidance, and proactively correct their steps.
Desire clients who stay the course and win with you as you deliver a repeatable client experience that is efficient and scalable? Create a clear simple process to results.
Invitation to Work With Us...
If you have not simplified or broken down your steps to results yet, we can help. This is one part of the work we do with experienced coaches, experts and consultants to create a repeatable world-class experience that gets client results with less work for them and their clients.
We also clarify what you and your clients need to get results so you enroll clients who are easy to deliver to. Then refine your client support system so you can effectively guide your client and give them the right support at the right time.
We do this through our 1:1 VIP client success consulting service. It's perfect for coaches, experts and consultants who have a new offer (or relaunched offer) and want to deliver an efficient repeatable world-class client experience that gets results with ease for them and their clients. Let us help you trade in your bootstrapped client delivery processes for a simple, repeatable and delegate-able client experience so you can finally take that month-long vacation you've always longed for.
Send us a message and we can have a no-obligation chat about whether it is a good fit for you.
Until next time,
Chanel & Danielle
