8 Rubbish reasons not to become a client of mine
“I don’t like Facebook”, said an agent to me recently. He works with one part-time admin, from a serviced office, and has been going around five years.
Last year his annual revenue was £53,000.
“Where’s your business going?” I asked him.
“Well, I’d like to get to £60,000 this year,” was his response.
This guy is in his thirties, with a young family. Whilst I accept his lack of enthusiasm and ambition to grow his agency, I have to admit I found our conversation frustrating.
It’s a bit like sitting in front of a homeowner and them telling you they don’t ‘need’ (read: want) to move. What can you do to help someone who isn’t motivated to be helped?
That’s how I feel when I talk to some independent agents who apply to join my Add £100k With High Value Homes programme, but who seem entirely resistant to any kind of change, aka growth. Of course, it could also be a confidence issue. Maybe they are just too scared to make the changes necessary or even hear what changes need to happen. It could be that they’re facing ‘imposter syndrome’, where they doubt themselves and their abilities so much, they live in constant fear of being found out as ‘fraud’. Of course, it’s not true, but it is if your mind says it’s so. Just like the fear of flying, or spiders. It can paralyse you and prevent you from developing both personally and professionally.
So here are some of the challenge agents face when they are trying to decide (or pluck up the courage) to work with me and join my programme, and my responses. Maybe they’ll help you too.
#1: “I already have too much marketing stuff.”
I get that. I know you don’t want books and tutorials, you want results, habits, and skills.
I want to give you exactly what you need to reach your goals on the programme, and beyond. Everyone’s different, so every experience of going through the programme will be different. That’s what makes it work so well.
#2: “I don’t have the money.”
Mix marketing and education and you have a self-liquidating system. This means that you put in time and money in one end, and out comes more time and more money. If you could play a slot machine that was guaranteed to spit out more than you put in, so long as you followed a process, how much money could you find to feed it? I’m guessing, everything you had and more. Yes, you might have to borrow, or change your financial priorities, but you’d do what you had to do, right? I once joined a programme that was $40,000 a year. The first payment wiped me out, but I did it anyway, because I had complete faith I would make that back and more. And I did. Within 8 weeks of following my mentor’s proven system, I had recouped the entire year’s membership fee. That was 5 years ago, and I’m still benefiting financially from the system I learned in those first 8 weeks. I could have paid ten times as much for that programme, and I would still be in profit now.
#3: “I am a one-person operation, I don’t have the time.”
If you can’t take the time off, how are you going to find the time for strategic planning? What’s more important than building your business? Join the programme and learn how to unlock your time, by scaling your revenue to pay for extra help.
#4: “I am already doing really well.”
Are you, though? If you really lack the motivation, then this programme is not for you. But if you’re just kidding yourself that you’ve hit your income capacity, then by being around ambitious, successful agents, will help you reach higher, and achieve so much more than you ever thought possible. I want you to have bigger goals, and to smash them..
#5: “I want to wait until I’m more organised or ready.”
How long are you going to wait? Being ready is just a psychological barrier, and one that you can choose to ignore. Remember, “Soon is not as good as now” [Seth Godin]. Without fail, every single member of my programme says they wish they’d done it earlier. Check out what some of them had to say after joining here. Besides, if one of your competitors becomes a client while you’re ‘getting ready’, you’ll miss your chance. I’ve been working with some clients for many years whilst their competitors sit frustrated on the wait list.
#6: “My business is totally different.”
Yep, mine too. And theirs. Honestly, every business is unique, because every business owner is unique. But the proven process for growth remains true of all independent agencies. With tweaks and edits, you can take our blueprint and literally fit it into your agency. Isn’t that easier than re-inventing the wheel?
#7: ”I want to wait until I have a great team in place.”
Most entrepreneurs are great salespeople and not great team builders. We truly have a wonderful team at AshdownJones – one of the best. We’ll show you the systems and processes we have in place to not only hire the right people for the right roles, but also make sure those team members love their jobs, and do them brilliantly. Not only that, but you’ll also – as a member – have the opportunity to talk to anyone on our team, and ask them any question. How valuable could that be for your agency?
#8: “I want to see if I can do it on my own.”
No one is ever super successful in isolation. It takes learning, coaching and membership to be all that you can be. If it was easy to do it on your own, how come Andy Murray and Mo Farrah have coaches? A coach will bring the best out of you, and challenge you with accountability and results. Don’t you want the best for yourself, and to be the best you can be?
“There are two types of suffering in this world, long and short, and you have to decide which one you want to have. I personally prefer short.” -Dan Sullivan
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