Is Your Check Engine Light On? You Should Probably Do Something About That…
Picture yourself driving down the highway as a business coach. It’s the same routine that you’re used to executing every single day. All is going according to plan when suddenly you hear a dinging noise. You look down at the dash and see that your check engine light is on and blinking furiously. So, what do you do? Do you pull over and look at the owner’s manual? Do you book it to the closest auto garage and seek the assistance of a professional? OR, do you simply ignore it, gun it down the unending stretch of highway, and simply hope for the best? If you answered anything other than the last option then this post clearly isn’t for you. It’s entirely too easy to get used to a routine once it has been established; however, there comes a time when we must realize that nothing is perfect and that adversity will happen. It’s in these moments when we have to decide to stay the course and pray it will all work out, or buckle down and get to the real root of the problem.
We all know that one person that is lackadaisical to a fault. Let’s just call this person Gary for the sake of time… Gary isn’t concerned about the intricate details of life. To Gary, anything other than the mission at hand or the repetitive task is a burden and not worth his attention or effort. Simply put, Gary is a slave to the doom loop. Gary has too much confidence in the phrase “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and a confidence level that would make Kanye West look like the poster business coach child for modesty. Gary believes that his systems and business model are 100% bulletproof no matter what comes his way. But what our dear friend Gary fails to realize is that no system is perfect or without the need for optimization. Life has a funny way of throwing a wrench into the complex machinery that we all strive so hard to create. And the only way to repair these malfunctions is to take a step back, assess the situation, find a way to patch the hole, and then create a fix for any future issues. At least, that would be the logical thing to do.
There comes a time where the average flow of business will inevitably be interrupted by an event that we thought we had prepared for. In my experience with working with business owners, this has come to fruition in many forms. Whether it be a lack of leads, a sudden halt in employee performance, an issue with marketing, or even poor life balance. The systems that we create in order to ensure a smooth flow of revenue will always come face to face with a new threat. The only fix is to refine the way that the systems are being implemented after experiencing a new issue. So let’s make this a little more real for a second. Let’s say that our best bud Gary spent months working on a new and revolutionary sales funnel for his business. He took out ads in order to get in front of his ideal and likely business coach buyers, he created scripts in order to guide his sales force to the promised land that is closing the sale, he refined follow up protocols to ensure he was receiving reviews from his customers to help boost his reputation, and he developed a repetitive plan for content that kept his business at the top of Google. Then, one day, Gary starts to realize he has a “lead” problem. Gary just can’t seem to get new leads to save his life. He’s stuck spinning his wheels wondering how in the world his bulletproof system isn’t generating new sales. He’s so sure of his full proof plan that he does nothing about it and eventually allows his business to fade into obscurity when in reality, he could have fixed the problem by refining the system he already had in place.
Most people believe that just because they offer a solution to a problem that the world will throw their dollars at them to acquire it.
It’s as easy as breaking down the pre-existing systems into their smaller pieces and figuring out where exactly the leaks are occurring. If we’re experiencing a “lead” problem, we have to take a look at our tracking to ensure that our marketing is actually geared towards what our customers are looking at. If marketing is perfect, then what? Perhaps we should be concerned with how often we’re reaching out to our leads. Most people believe that just because they offer a solution to a problem that the world will throw their dollars at them to acquire it. However, if our sales system falls short of actually responding to our clients then what’s the point of marketing at all? Simply put, call your freaking leads and you run a better chance of securing their business. So what if we are calling all of our leads back? Well my friend, if the script isn’t polished and intentional then how can we ever expect our customers to take us seriously? Role-playing and constant practice of the words we use when communicating with our ideal and likely buyers is pivotal in the sales process. Need I say more? The point here is that we can spend as much time as we want when creating business coach systems, but the truth is that we are never done maintaining them. Everything is done in iterations, and every now and then something will need to be maintained and patched. So if you hear a haunting dinging and realize that the check engine light is on for your business, don’t be the sad putz that continues to burn rubber without addressing the situation that’s occurring under the hood.
