Today, I am Puzzled.

Sep 23

Jigzone.com is a great place to do some puzzles online

Today, I’m puzzled.

As I am out and about at various networking events here in the DFW metroplex, I meet a lot of struggling solopreneurs.  It seems like many businesses just aren’t doing as well as they were a year or two years ago.  Something about the economy?  Anyway, the usual topic of conversation when we have facilitated group discussions is around needing more clients or customers.

What I’ve noticed in these conversations is that what these folks used to do to generate business isn’t working for them anymore.

As I’ve been here and there, I’ve been sharing a program Grow Your Business Grow Your Life which is going to be in Richardson, Texas on October 2-3.   This is not news.  You all have seen this in my eZine, on my events page, and on every social media site that I do anything with. I went to this program in Kansas City back in January and just loved it and what it did for my business.  I think that any service-based solo-preneurs who are having challenges with their sales and marketing (e.g. – those business owners whose businesses are not full) would benefit from going.

It isn’t like I wanted anything for marketing this event.  It made sense.  I left with a lot of goodies.  It’s very affordable ($97), and I thought it was the best Sales & Marketing training I’ve ever attended.

Why?  Most S&M trainings are led by people who are both excellent marketers and who assume that our brains work like theirs.  Most of us know we need to articulate what differentiates us from the competition.  We know we need to be able to tell people the benefits of our services.  Knowing WHAT to do is very different from knowing HOW to do it.  If our brains worked like theirs, we wouldn’t be in their trainings.

So, here’s what puzzles me.  I get all sorts of odd reactions when I recommend this event.  I find the money one most odd.  If a business can’t afford $97 to improve its results, how can they afford not to be there?  Someone help me out here.  I don’t get it.

Another odd response… Carolann, you’re just trying to sell something.  Me?  Really?  Well, yeah, I guess I am trying to sell my coaching services because I too like to have a full business, but does this look like coaching middle managers?  That sure isn’t my picture on the website.  I put a little color on my black (sorry Mike!).

So, my very-serious-not-at-all-sarcastic response was, “Am I to take it that you don’t want me to invite you to events that I think you’d be interested in?”  (Silly me.  Here I am thinking that I am being helpful.)

The answer was no, they still want to be invited, just not to stuff like this.  I never got decent clarification on what “stuff like this” meant.  (I know, it was a rare poor demonstration on my part.)  Someone help me out here.  I don’t get it.

Do you think it is a value thing?

I can understand that.  I’ve been to plenty of inexpensive seminars that provided no value and were basically hours long sales pitches for a much more expensive program.  (Now that I think about it, that would really have pissed me off had I spent 14 hours roundtrip in the car only to hear a two day long sales pitch.  Thank goodness that didn’t happen.)

This isn’t the only time that I’ve observed this behavior.  Similar things cropped up with Jeff Klein’s Network to Success Teleseminar.  I find it odd that people will waste money on lunch and belong to a networking group week after week after week, make no sales, and think we’re trying to get something over on them when we recommend a great training program. It puzzles me.

Be Your Best You Today,

Carolann

Tags: Action Coach, Brain-based Coaching, business coach, Carolann Jacobs, coaching, Corporate Coach, Executive Coach, Executive Coaching, Extraordinary Results, Inimitable Leadership, Inspired Workplace, Leadership, Legacy Leadership, Life Coach, Neuroleadership