Here’s a short consultation that I did with a delightful lady named Clara Davis. Clara’s business is coaching people to start up their own home-based businesses. For years, she’s been helping people practically for free but now she wants to start making some money.
After discovering my web site, www.HardToFindSeminars.com,  she’s decided that she’d like to model her web site after mine, not only with information about her services, but with free downloads and information for her viewers. She wanted my opinion about what to name her web site. Listen as we come up with a few great possibilities and the reasons why the name of her web site is so important.
She would still like to do free consultations over the telephone. You will hear us discuss the importance of recording these free telephone consultations for her web site as well as to create Information Products that she can sell.
Clara is in the process of revamping her business to include Marketing Consulting services. She states that her main problem is that people want her services for free and that she’s having difficulty placing a dollar value on her services.
I encourage her to download the free Opportunity Analysis Worksheet from my web site – a tool used by HMA Consultants to determine if her prospects are qualified or not. We discuss the HMA System and how, by using it, she would be able to easily place a value on her coaching and consulting services
At the end of the call, Clara was so excited about her web site and adding Marketing Consulting to her suite of services. She promised to keep me posted on her progress and I hope that I hear from her soon. Enjoy!

Michael: This is my biggest secret. You need to get a digital recorder and then start recording your calls.

[MUSIC]

Michael: Hi, it’s Michael Senoff with www.hardtofindseminars.com . Here’s a short, 15-minute recording. I received an email from Clara Davis and she was having trouble coming up with a name for her website. So, you’ll hear me give her my best advice on how she should name her website and why. We also talk about other important marketing tactics and included in this recording is information on how and why she should be recording all her telephone consultations for her consulting business. I think you’ll find some good helpful information in this recording. Enjoy.

Clara: Good morning, Academy. May I help you?

Michael: Hey Clara, it’s Mike Senoff. I just got your message from Sarah.

Clara: Well bless your heart. I appreciate you taking time to call me back.

Michael: No problem. How are you?

Clara: I’m wonderful. How are you?

Michael: I’m doing really good.

Clara: I wanted to share something with you that I think will be of interest. You and I share the same birthday.

Michael: You’re kidding.

Clara: Yes we do.

Michael: Well, happy birthday. How long ago was it?

Clara: A week before last to be exact.

Michael: Well, you’re a Pisces, aren’t you?

Clara: Yes.

Michael: You must be a real kind, sensitive, real intuitive person.

Clara: I am.

Michael: There you go. I believe in that stuff, don’t you?

Clara: I do totally, indeed, and I can tell you’re the same because you’re darn generous.

Michael: And are you like that, too?

Clara: Yes, I am. Michael, I’ve been doing this not intense consulting, but coaching all my life and for the past…prior to say two years ago, I’ve been giving the stuff away. I’ve created seminars and I’ve created this and that, all under the guise of coaching and I speak to groups wherever for free, but now it’s time to make some money with it.

Michael: Well, we all just want to be loved, don’t we?

Clara: Yes.

Michael: Well, that’s good. You know, I was the same way. I mean I was giving it away. People like getting the free stuff, but that “give and you shall receive” didn’t work, so I’m giving a lot of stuff away, but believe me I’m selling stuff, too.

Clara: Yes, I’m sure you are. And I’m going to model my business after you and what you’re doing. When I go through your site, I’m thinking golly what a creative, generous man.

Michael: Well, I really appreciate it. That makes me keep going and going and going.

Clara: Well, I don’t say things that I don’t mean, so I really meant that.

Michael: Where are you, in L.A.?

Clara: No, I’m in North Carolina.

Michael: Oh, you’re in North Carolina.

Clara: Yes.

Michael: Where in North Carolina?

Clara: The Raleigh research triangle area, which consists of Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill; that weird like central North Carolina.

Michael: I’m from Atlanta, so I’m from the South originally.

Clara: Okay. Well, I lived in Atlanta for about three years. In fact, I lived in Decatur. In fact, I made a big circle. I lived in New York, lived in New Jersey, then I went to Atlanta after a relationship didn’t work, then just came back to North Carolina where I grew up as a child.

Michael: I see, great. What was your company called? What was it Academy?

Clara: Home Business Academy and Research Instituting.

Michael: I like the name.

Clara: Thank you. The reason I made the call is to say all what I’ve just said, but I’m trying to create a decent web name or web address to bridge the coaching/consulting. Does that make sense?

Michael: Oh yes. I’ve got some advice. So, this is for your coaching and consulting business, right.

Clara: Right. I want to bridge it in such a way that it is creative and will let people know exactly what I’m doing.

Michael: How about ClaraDavis.com?

Clara: I thought of that.

Michael: I mean there’s only one Clara Davis, right.

Clara: That’s true.

Michael: I would advise that because when you’re selling no matter what, you’re selling Clara Davis.

Clara: That’s true. And you know, I don’t know why I didn’t think of that because I spent 16 years as an insurance agent/broker. Obviously, I had to sell myself before I could think about trying to place a product with someone.

Michael: Yes, absolutely. That would be my number one choice.

Clara: As I’m jotting down, I did for the company name to house this, I’m thinking Clara Davis International, Inc. However, let me ask you this question, if I run it under Home Business Academy, would that match?

Michael: Well, how many different things are you doing?

Clara: Well, the Home Business Academy started out as a coaching business to help people start businesses from home. And so, that’s what I was doing, helping with the startup process and providing information through seminars and whatever to show a person what they needed to do to just get the business started and up and running. That’s what the Home Business Academy…

Michael: Domains are so cheap, Clara. Maybe you can have both. Have ClaraDavis.com and then also have HomeBusinessAcademy.com.

Clara: Okay.

Michael: Or HBA.com, which is easy. You want to name that’s very easy to remember for people. When you’re doing your HTML stuff, HBA can be parenthesized and you can have Home Business Academy written out and stuff like that. If you go to godaddy.com…you can get websites so cheap.

Clara: Oh yes, I deal with godaddy.com. They’re wonderful.

Michael: Do you do your own seminars yourself?

Clara: Yes, so far I have.

Michael: People come to your seminars. Now, are these free ones or are you starting to charge a little bit?

Clara: I started to charge a little bit, but I’m revamping everything to get fees for coaching and then learn and add the marketing consulting piece. That’s where I am right now and, obviously, I’m going to need some guidance to pull all this stuff together. And I have a _____ class coming up the 23rd.

Michael: Are you recording any of your stuff?

Clara: Not yet.

Michael: Well, you need to start right away.

Clara: Okay.

Michael: If you want to start selling stuff, as you’re doing what you’re doing, you need to start recording whatever you’re doing.

Clara: Okay.

Michael: If you do a teleclass, you need to get it recorded, whether you use a service or get your own digital recording device and record it. And then Clara Davis has got a product. And if you’re really hot that night and you put on a great teleclass and there’s great feedback, you’ve got something valuable that you can sell.

Clara: That’s wonderful.

Michael: Oh yes. I mean look at all the audio that I have on the site. Have you started to listen to any of the stuff on marketing consulting?

Clara: Oh yes.

Michael: Okay. So, all of these are giving great value, but they’re also selling you on me and on the product and I sell a consulting training. My biggest advice, you need to start recording when you’re doing consulting over the phone with people, just like I’m talking to you--you want to get their permission first--but you want to record those consulting calls. After a month, you may have ten great calls and then you’ve got consultation transcripts of Clara Davis live doing consulting over the phone.

Clara: What a great idea because I have an appointment set with someone next Monday.

Michael: This is my biggest secret. You need to get a digital recorder. I have a recording on my site that tells you how to record web audio. You need to go to Radio Shack and get one of those things you plug into your phone. It’s kind of a pain getting it setup, but you can do it, and then start recording your calls. You’re also doing a real service for your client. So, you tell your client that you’d like to record the session and you’ll be able to provide them a recording so they don’t have to take notes. That’s just an added service. And you let them know, of course, you’re going to get to use the recording for promoting Clara Davis or selling down the road. They say yes all the time.

Clara: Oh wow, Michael that is so wonderful. Now, what do I ask for at Radio Shack?

Michael: You want to just go onto www.radioshack.com and search telephone recording or record phone calls. You’ll see a couple of different things pop up. It’s this little black box. It just looks like a little black jewelry box. That’s what it looks like and there’s a cord coming out of each side. I think they’re $29. Just write down the model number and call your Radio Shack and say, hey, do you have that little black thing that I can record my phone calls with. So, you’ll need that and then you’ll need a digital recorder. There are all kinds of them. I use one that I can get at Circuit City. It’s called Sony and the model number I use is ICD-ST25 Stereo. It’s a little digital recorder. You’re little Radio Shack thing will plug into it. You’ll record it, just like the old times when you record on a little cassette player.

Clara: Right.

Michael: So, you’ll record the call digitally and it comes with software that allows you to save the audio recording onto your computer as an MP3 file. There’s going to be a learning curve. Don’t let that throw you off because once you get through learning how to record and save the files to your computer and convert them and stuff, then you are way ahead of the game.

Clara: Wow. So, these two pieces of equipment will allow me to record and save to my computer.

Michael: That’ll allow you to record your telephone calls. When you’re on the phone it will record both sides of your telephone calls.

Clara: And then the Sony equipment will also allow me to save it to the computer.

Michael: Yes, the Sony will come with software. You’ll plug it in. It has a little USB port plug and then it’ll open up the _____ file that you just record and then you can save it as a WAV file to a folder on your computer. And then your next part is editing. So, there’s some simple software. There’s one called www.goldwave.com . There are others. This is the only one I learned how to use and it’s the fastest. They have a new version 5 dot something. I don’t like that one. I use the older version 4 dot something. You can download a free trial. You can learn how to edit your recordings. So, if you’re flubbing up in the beginning or your sneezing or the phone is beeping in or the kid is crying in the background, you can edit all that stuff out.

Clara: That’s amazing. I love technology.

Michael: The quality comes out perfect. There are some other nuances you need to learn. It’s a learning curve. If you can do this and start recording what you’re doing anyway, you’re really leveraging your time and you can create your own products. Of course, once you have your products, then you’ve got to do the promotion. You write about it. You tell the benefits of it. You create an audio infomercial. You can have a skilled interviewer like myself interview you about ClaraDavis.com and the services that you offer and really create a sales piece.

Clara: Wonderful. I’m so excited.

Michael: Well, you’ve just got to do it, Clara.

Clara: I am. I’ve been working on this for so long and beating my head against a brick wall so to speak because I didn’t know where to go or to whom to go to get what I needed. But God sent you along and you’re plugging up the gap here.

Michael: Well, your consulting, are you dealing with mainly small businesses?

Clara: Yes.

Michael: Tell me how is it going? What are the big frustration points?

Clara: People seem to want it free, Michael, and my fee right now for an hour consulting or coaching is $75. And I thought I would offer some 30-minute free stuff. I have this one person who went to an auction and bought three of my certificates. That’s 90 minutes, which is okay. I’m going to honor that, but I’m going to break it up into segments. But I’m finding people are kind of wanting to sometimes get something for nothing and I’m having problems placing value on what I’m doing and what I’m offering. That seems to be my biggest challenge.

Michael: There’s a potential prospect and you’re giving a free consultation that’s fine, but there’s recordings you’ve seen…the ones with Richard. Have you heard the recordings of me taking these people through an opportunity analysis?

Clara: I haven’t listened to that one yet.

Michael: If you email me, I’ll send you to the page where all of these are. And I have the exact questionnaire that I use when I interview someone over the phone. Now, you’ll hear me taking someone through the opportunity analysis. This is the first step of this consulting program that we sell and we teach people to do. It’s on how to get the client.

And you’ll hear two examples of people I’ve never talked to before. I take them through this opportunity analysis, which is really Clara Davis looking to see if this is a good potential client to sell your services to or if they’re a good potential client that you’d want to do consulting for. So, you’re looking for the money in the business. You’re looking to see if they have hidden assets. Do they have customers that they’re not utilizing? Do they have some expertise that they’re not letting their customers know about? Do they have incredible customer service or great food or whomever you’re talking to? Every business has some kind of assets that their not letting the public know about or they’re not letting anyone who sees their advertising know about. So, it’s a way for you to determine if this guy is sitting on a gold mine or not. It’s as simple as that.

I have the exact questionnaire that you can download and follow along listening to me doing this for real. You’ll hear one specific client who called me. He had a tanning bed salon. He had like seven tanning beds. I’ve never met him. It was the first time I talked to him and we did the opportunity analysis. And the way I do it is I did it for free. I didn’t charge him for that first call. And then I closed him on developing a USP, a unique selling proposition for the business and that was a $1,200 sale right over the phone.

Clara: Wow.

Michael: And then you’ll hear another situation, a guy who had a stringed cheese distributorship. He was packaging and selling stringed cheese in the convenient stores. The first project is always developing a USP and that’s coming up with what’s unique about the business, why someone should do business with them. Until you have that, you can’t really interject the reasons why a customer would want to sell. And nine out of ten businesses don’t even know what a USP is. They don’t have one and they need one. They need one and I won’t work with anyone until that project is done. It’s a project that’s not going to bring them money right away, but it is something that has to be done before the money comes.

Clara: I thought I heard you say that you did charge to do that project.

Michael: I charged for the project, but not for the consultation. You’re selling consultation certificates…if it’s $75 and it’s a gift certification that’s fine. You charge for that time on the phone for you to investigate whether this potential client is worthy enough of Clara Davis to do consulting for them.

Clara: Okay.

Michael: And that’s the attitude you have to have. If you listen to the examples that I do of me taking people through this opportunity analysis and you’ll be able to follow along. You’ll have the exact same questions that I have. You’re selling them on the idea of them doing business with you. You’re showing them the hidden assets in their business that they’re not optimizing, that they’re not utilizing. The money to pay you is going to come out of optimizing these assets.

So, let’s say you find a customer who has 200 customers that they’ve never followed up with, but the business is really good, they give great service, but they don’t have the money to pay you. Well, you say you’re going to have the money to pay me because once we implement a call back strategy with all 200 customers and invite them back into the store or invite them for another service or a new product you have, that new income is going to pay for Clara Davis. So, they’re not really spending anything else in addition. They’re just using the assets to turn into new money for the business that they’re going to pay you one time, but they’re going to reap the benefits for as long as they have the business.

Clara: And the assets are assets that I just help them to find.

Michael: Yes. You’re going to take them through the questionnaire process and you’re going to uncover the assets through a series of questions.

Clara: This opportunity analysis.

Michael: When you email me…you’ll see the recordings. You can download that opportunity analysis right from the website. I’ll give you all the tools to sell someone and to get a client. Now, once you have your client, let’s say they say okay Clara, I want to do business with you and then you’re like okay, well how the hell do I grow this guy’s business. Then I’ll sell you my consulting training and show you step by step how.

Clara: Okay.

Michael: You’ll have all the information on how to do the first step because that’s all over my site.

Clara: Right. Okay. And I’m also listening to the videos and that stuff.

Michael: That presentation online?

Clara: Yes.

Michael: That’s very good because that presentation outlines basically what we do for potential clients for marketing consulting.

Clara: This is absolutely wonderful.

Michael: Well, you’re very welcome.

Clara: Yes. Thank you so much. Now, you’re available here and there?

Michael: Emailing is the best way to get in touch with me. Usually I have my calls forwarded to Sarah. I had some time to call you back.

Clara: Okay.

Michael: Just shoot me an email. I mean I can help you.

Clara: Okay. I will.

Michael: All right.

Clara: And thank you so much and I’m certainly going to stay in touch with you long term and model my business and myself after you.

Michael: You’ve got it. Go do it.

Clara: Okay.

Michael: All right. Talk to you later.

Clara: Have a great day.

Michael: Bye.

Clara: Bye-bye.