Respond Low Budget Social Media Roleplay

#
68
Chris Do
Published
September 7, 2017

Chris Do answers a Pro Member's question about discounting services to accommodate a client's low budget.

Chapters

There are no supplemental materials to accompany this video.
Read Transcript

I think sometimes we soconfident in our price.We don't know where togo after the client says,but this is our budget.So let's say we eatat a certain bracketand the client says ourbudget is 20% less than that.And we don't discount, sowe normally cut things outof the project.But sometimes it means we'llneed to cut critical things outof the project.We normally getstuck at that point.I don't know what to do,even though we reallywant to work with the client.Discounting to mefeels like a sin.It feels like wediscounting the valueand we know how much work we'regoing to put into the project.OK, so what?What part of the worldare you in South africa?South africa?Is that a South African accent?Yes Yes.OK threw me off therefor a little bit.I have a friendwho's South African,but I was like, I recognize it.But it's been a whilesince I've talked to him.OK all right.Some cultures don't feelright about themselvesunless they negotiateand haggle you down.We know that.I'm not sure SouthAfricans are like that,but if that's theculture that you live in,just add that price beforeyou start talking to them.So if you want to ask for100 just start at 120.That's the beginning of it,so that you don't feel like,oh, man, I'm losingsomething now,you're put in thisweird position,the weird positionthat you're put inis this is that youreally want this client.And when you want itmore than they want it.You're going tolose a negotiation.So Blair talks about thisin price and creativity.You have to want it a littleless than the other person.Now, we just had astaff meeting yesterday.And my executive producer,Scott Rothstein says to us.We have about.700,000 in New business to closebefore the end of the month.Now, if I was much younger,like when I was in my 20s,I was like, Oh my god, $1,000.This is crazy.And I'm like, OK,what's the next topic?What do you guys need for me?Otherwise we've got to move on.This is calleddetachment from money,and working withspecific clientsis what makes you a betternegotiator, a better.Uh, caretaker of your business.So as you're going to hearthis theme over and over again,as I talk about, I don'tknow anything about zen,to be honest.But a lot of people say, oh,that's a very zen approach,so I'm just going to take it.I just remove expectationand anticipation from as muchas I can in my life.I find that I'm much happierand much more calm and at peacewith everything.I'll give you an example thatI think you guys can relate to.I like to go and watch movies,and every time I tell my wife,let's go watch this movie.So what's this about?Who's in it?What's the plot?And then I just respond,what's the point?Let's just go watch it.I don't know ifit's good or bad.Right, so I just do a quickprelim check, sometimeson Rotten Tomatoes as afilter, if it gets above 70on Rotten Tomatoes.I will go see it or I'llconsider going, see it.Anything less than that.Generally speaking, when I goand see those kinds of films,they're terrible.That's my threshold.And I say to mywife all the time,like, why do you want to knowso much about this thing?As if any of that is apredictor of whether or notthis film is good justbecause Scarlett Johansson isin it or BenedictCumberbatch is in it?Does it mean anything?Why don't we just go in withan open mind and open heartand let it be whatever?So she does the samething to herselfwhen we go to see films,when we eat at restaurantsand all that kind of stuff.Unless you ride thisreally crazy roller coasterof emotions from highhighs to low lows,because the higher theexpectation, of course,then the more likely youare to be disappointed.So you kind of comeinto it neutral.Doesn't matter.OK, so if you approachyour client and sayit's a job like all jobs.Some are more pleasant, someare less, but that's OK.And if we startwith a higher price,knowing that there's a veryhigh likelihood that they'regoing to negotiate us down,that we leave room for that.But you probablyshould not ever cut outessential parts of the bidbecause you will actually do ityourself and just not get paidfor it, and what you'll dois you'll resent theclient and a little bit.Sometimes you'll resentyourself for doing it.Now in our staffmeeting yesterday,we talked aboutthis and the guysare like, man, if allthese jobs booked,we're going to bereally stressed out.That seems like a fairlylogical reaction to this.And I was thinking, well,none of these things book,I'll be really stressed out.I would rather havethe work and figure outwho to hire than not tohave work and figure outwho to fire.So it's a matter ofperspective here, right?So I think everybodyis trying to lookfor that golden sweetspot on our teamwhere it's not too hot, it'snot too cold, it's not too firm,it's not too soft.It's like, you know what?It is, what it is.Let's walk into itand be appreciativethat we have 600,000 ofopportunities in front of us.Let's do our best to bringthem in, and once we get them,we can figure out whoto hire, how to staffand how to manage the timelineso that we don't kill ourselvesbecause there's so much work.But we also have to realize thatwe don't have a lot of controlover this, that there'sthis feast or famine thing.And sometimes whenit's time to feast,we've got to eatand gorge ourselves.Because when it'slean times, youwill reflect back on thismoment in time and say, man.Should have taken that job.Right so if you like, I cando a little role play with youright now or one.Would you like to do that, orare you OK with the informationthat I said?Um, let's do that.You are now steppinginto thunderdome, ok?I'm worried because I've seenyour role players on YouTube,so I don't know what to expect,but expect the unexpected.No expectations.OK, now I'm going to assumeI'm and you are the client.OK what are we selling them?Um, let's say it's a three monthsocial media digital campaign,so this involves posts todesign so various social mediaelements and let'ssay it involves.Basic management of theaccounts, OK, got it.How much money are you askingfor, let's say three months,let's say on a monthlybasis, let's say $5000, ok?It's 5,015 1,000 or 15,000.So total, let's say 15,000.OK is that a fairprice for this?I don't know.I'll pull those numbers outof the air is kind of basedon previous projects.Yes, it is.OK all right.Three months, probablynot, maybe four, four.But let's just say,for argument's sake,we need to be at thispoint in three months.What we should be gettingfor three months, right?So I'm going to say this isthat I have paid personallyand we're a very small company,relatively speaking, $2,000a month for somebody to manageour social media account.And they're taking careof Facebook, Instagramand Twitter, but they'rereally looking to usto drive the content.So they weren't as proactiveabout figuring out campaigns.They wanted to runcontests all the time,which I thought was stupid.It's like they read a playbookon how to get social mediafollowers andengagement, and they justwant us to give away stuff.So on top of the 2000.They wanted me to spend to boostposts and to give away junk.Now, back then, I was rathernaive about social media.I'm like, we'll try, but Idon't want to do those things.So we worked with themfor a period of months.And then ultimately, I'mlike, this is terrible.I'm going to do myown social media post,and then I learned so much more.So as you can see, I don'tboost my own social media posts.And we get reallyhigh engagement.I'm not giving away stuff forfree unless you count my time.I don't like that.That's like reallylow hanging fruit.That's not smart.That's not strategic.So hopefully you'renot doing that.OK all right.And you can see if Alex Andrewson this call he's handlingour social media ishandling it, and they'rehandling both the Instagramand the Twitter accountsfor the future, and they'redoing a fantastic job.they're gettingreally high on online.Yes, yeah, I agree.OK Yeah.OK, so this is perfect.So if we're paying2k, I think it'sreasonable to askfor to 5K a month.It's a little stretchfor a company like us.We would never pay for that.But I think if we're doingit for another company,I think that's fair.Now, before we dive intothis, a little bit deeper.Does anybody elsedo social mediamarketing or contentmarketing for anybody,for any of your clients?And what are you charging andwhat do you know about this?Let's all learn from this, andthen we'll do the role play.I'll be here, I do.Hey, how you doing?I do.I started doing a coupleof months ago social mediafor a couple ofcompanies, and I'm notcharging as much as Ishould be at this pointbecause I'm doing a lotof research and kindof learning as I do it.And I'm starting to feelreally, really comfortable.And I think it's an excellentfit for how my brain works.I like to be a verydetail oriented personand connect one human to anotherhuman, so it's a perfect fit.But right now you'regoing to kill me.I'm charging $200a month to do this.So way undervalued.OK first of all, Ido want to say this.Thank you forsharing that, and Ido want to tell you that Iknow my personality couldbe somewhat acerbic.But the whole point ofcreating the pro groupis we need to feelsafe to be able to talkabout this without fearof judgment, right?So this is fantastic.I'm glad you'resharing this with me.Perhaps after this role play,maybe you'll have some ideasand start to elevate your pricesbecause it's way more work.No matter whatyou do, I can onlyimagine it's way more workthan what you're getting paid.Exactly right now, I thinkyou're paying to play,and I think that's OK whenyou're in the learning phase.Anything above free isgood, and that's OK.But what we'vegot to do is we'vegot to elevate your gamereally fast so that weshorten this phase of theway that you're working.Ok?OK, thank you.Because, yeah, because a bunchof these guys who work for me,it's like they barelyknew what they were doing.Their designs weren't great,their writing wasn't great,but I agreed to try for 2K.So what I want you to dofor your next engagementis I just want you toask for $1,000 a month.Just ask for it.And nothing is right.That's very struggle is mindset.I think being a graphicdesigner for 20 yearsand growing up kindof like being kind of,you know, how inthe creative worldyou're kind of told thatunless you're in math, scienceor some kind of degreelike that, you're doing,you're paintingpictures and you'redoing fun stuff for a living.I think I kind ofgrew up with thatand it's really challenginguntil I met the pro groupto kind of jump over that.OK, I want to addressthis right nowbecause it's hot on my mind.So I'm sorry, Marwan, just hangin there for just a second.I think this is super important.We actually bumpedinto something.All my cousins are allaccountants, engineers,lawyers.Respectable people.Doctors, all of them.And I was also told this,but luckily, there'stwo things that havehappened in my lifeand hopefully thiswill help you.One is my parents kind of havea laissez Faire attitude about.How forceful they pushtheir opinions on us.My my brothers and I, sothey would say some things,but then they wouldn'tsit there and grind justlike this is what it has to be.So that voice wasn'tthat loud in my head.The second part to thisis I don't listen to good.So even if they'vesaid it really loud,I don't think I'm looking.What are you saying?No, I don't know.I might just do my thing.And here's the bananas partis I think of all the BLEEP.I want to say hundreds, but Idon't have literally hundredsof cousins, but I have a lot.I am the most successful ofthem by far, by magnitudes.Now they're coming to me, theseaccountants, these lawyers,these doctors, and saying,what are you doing now?Oh my God.How are you doing that?And they didn'tlearn to follow whatit is they're passionate aboutbecause they could have donereally well, they'velistened to their parents,so what we have to do is totune some of that stuff out.OK now I'm going to helpyou make some money.Because this group shouldnot be an expense to you.If I can't help you makewhatever it is or you'repaying to be part of thisgroup back every single month,then I'm not doinga very good job.So here's what I want you to do.I want you just askthe very next clientthat walks in the door.I do it.I do this for clients.It's $1,000 a month.Can you afford that?No thank you very much.Move on.I just want you to do that.You'll be surprised.I think I'm doingthat in other areas,so I've run the core program andI've had really good success.Fantastic just puttingthe price out thereand it being received.So since I'm in the learningphase for core, I charge 1,500.And it's been an amazingjourney to really realizethat I do have these skills.And hey, I can reallyhelp people out.You can and you'rea good listener.And you have some good, right?You have experience,you're a good listener.You're very valuable.If you can communicatethings and youcan be levelheaded andfair minded, which youseem like that kind of person.All right.So you're going to just climbup this ladder really fast, ok?You can do this.And I'm going totell you somethingtoday is Emmanuel's last day.He's an internfrom Italy, and hehad a really kind ofheartfelt conversation with meyesterday, the day oneday before he's leaving.And he tells me, Chris,I was coming in hereto ask you thousandsof questions,but I was so nervous.I was thinking, whatkind of questionsI'm going to ask youin your last day?And he says, I have nothingbut gratitude for everythingI've learned here andthe things that I've seenand I've grown so much.I don't want to burdenyou with a question,so I'm just going totell you a little story.I'm like, wow,this is fantastic.He said yesterday, I just closedmy highest paying job ever.He's a hand lettering artist.I'm like, how much you get paid?And he said, 10,000and I was like, whoa!Fantastic I said, how muchwere you charging before?He said probably $500 the most.So I said you have a 20x returnor increase in your price.And he goes, I know I've beenlistening, I've been learning,I've been applyingeverything that you said.And I realized something, Chris.Nothing is different about me.Same lettering skills.Same social media account.Same process.Same technique.The only thing that isdifferent is the wordsthat came out of my mouth.And the belief behind it.So here's the crazything about price, right?Here's the crazything about price.You don't have to do anythingdifferent on the websiteor in your portfolioor your case studies.You just have tostart asking for moreand you'll be surprisedmost of the timesyou're justunderpricing your work.That's it.All right.I'm going to moveon to more wine.Let's do this.Let's rock and roll.So just before we go, moveon, I want to share somethingrelated to this.So I'm in the sciences.But I was recentlytold by a clientthat I'm notqualified to do art,so he does are going to hate.You know, no matter whichside of the thing you are on,it's gone.I mean, you havestill not qualifiedto do what I'm doing right now.So, yeah, OK.You're like, no matterwhere you are in life,people are going to tellyou you're not qualified,so don't listen to anybody.That's perfect.I love that.So you're smarterthan most of usand you're stillnot qualified to dolike pushing pixels aroundand painting with colors.I love that.OK all right.Let's do it.Marwan, thank you for that.OK Marwan.So we're going to cell A3 monthengagement for 15 thousand,which essentiallyis $5,000 a month.OK and you want to do this andyou're putting this out there,but then the client'sgoing to push back, right?HMM, that.All right, let's do it.All right, so I just put aproposal in front of you,I think what you need isfor us to do x, y and z,and it's going to be 15,000and I broken that down to beabout $5,000 a month.Is that something that you guysare comfortable moving forwardwith?No so for that amount, wemight as well hire somebodythat we can bring in-house.You can manage it for usand they'll be 24, sevenor at least eight hours a day.How why is itbetter for us to gowith you versus bringingan employee in house,you know that we'll be ableto do the work at a muchcloser and regular interval?Do you think you can bring asocial media expert in and paythem $5,000 a monthand then you'regoing to fire them in 3 months?How is this going to work?We'd most likely trainthem up to stay with us.OK so do you want to spendyour time training people?Is this your core competency?Is social media marketing?Now, so here's the thing,I look at it like this,and I can understand,from your point of view,it does make a lot ofsense to bring somebody in.But where elsehave you done that,where it's not yourcore competencyand instead of hiring thebest, most qualified personto do who has a trackrecord of doing it well?Did you then decideto in-house that?Have you ever done that before?No, we haven't.So now's a goodtime to do it right?and I tell you what,I hear that youhave some concern over this,and I've looked at this a lotof different ways.And I love to work with you.But then if I wereto lower my price?I'd have to cut things out.I wouldn't be able todo strategy for you.I probably would onlyuse like stock imagery,and I'm not going to takeany original photography.And to be honest, Idon't think that's goingto achieve what you want.so I see.Yeah, go ahead.I've seen some of ourcompetitors use stockvery successfully,and they are not,you know, their businessis very successfuland they've been doingstock standard social mediamanagement.I mean, the peopleschedule thingsthey're not even on a dailybasis, like I imagine you are.And they seem tobe very successful.OK should we try and findout who they're working with?I mean, you couldwork with them.That's a good idea.Maybe we should.Maybe you should.So here's what we should do.I mean, I'm not in thebusiness of researchingthis, that kind of stuff.So I suggest you find outwho they're working withand you call them up and you ifthe price is palatable for you,for you to work with them.And most likely, youget the same resultsthat the other guys getthe same kind of postthe same kind of look.And then you mightwonder a couple of monthsfrom now, why do Iwant to be the same?You know, you'reright, you're right.And it was quite specific,it isn't, yeah, Yeah.I mean, I think we wantto do something different.I don't think we wantto do scheduled postsand not be engagedwith the community.I don't think we want tohave a relationship whereif somebody responds onTwitter and in six hours laterthat we kind offigure out what we'regoing to say becausenobody's paying attention.And I think especially inthe very beginning stages,especially in thefirst month, peopledon't want to payvery careful attentionto kind of find what is stickywith our audience, what'sgoing to get them to engageand to be conversational.I think too many people look atsocial media as an opportunityto spam, so they treatit like advertising.And for me, the greatestvalue is to build engagement.you set out arereally good at this.So you've sold me.I actually don't know what.I'm trying to be thereally tough client.I don't know whatelse to say from.The only thing I canimagine the client sayingis it's just too much.Let's go with somebody else.I got no doubt in mymind kind of going,why waste our time online?I'm going to get I'm goingto step out of the role play.OK, so.I feel like the clientswho do kind of say, OK,the budget doesn't fit,I feel like they are,they don't value it enough.And with clients that wedo work with the clients,we do end up working with.They do value it.So they see the valuein it and it's easierto negotiate with themor to work with them.But the people whoare approachingus who are looking for kindof a Band-Aid solution,they never they never convert.So I'm imagining inmy head I'm beingthe client that I'mlooking for qualityand I'm looking fora real solution.You've been theclient of yourself.So I want you to go back.Let's get backinto the role play.I want you to be a price buyer.I want you to be toughas nails, price buying,negotiating person, right,like that cheap unclethat we all haveso fricking cheapdoesn't want topay for anything.It's like off brand soap isgood enough for me, right?They want to buystakes in like 12 packsand not just likeone piece of meat.They just they're just superthrifty, cheap price buyer.Can you step into thatrole for a minute?OK, I can advocatefor yourself, right?I'll channel some ofthe clients we've made.Yeah, think about that.Just get into character.Think about it andbe that cheapo.I'll work with you.OK, right?You ready?So it's 15,000.Is that going to work for you?One no, we've gota budget of 1,500.So you're saying I'm off by 0.No, no, no.1,500 see you off by $3,500.Oh, OK.How did you come upwith that number?We think it will takeyou an hour every dayover the next 30 days orover the next three months.And we can't imaginespending any morethan that to hire somebodyfor an hour every day.We're spending what wemight as well hire somebody.OK, so I'm hearing a bunchof different things from you.I think you, as theexpert in social media,have already predeterminedhow much time it'sgoing to take to dosomething like this.And then you've also assignedan arbitrary hourly rateto that thing.Is that what I'm getting here?You could say so.I mean, do you say that right?Marijuana is justI'm just sayingwhat I just heard you say.Right I mean, all you dois get onto the platformand then type afew things right.That's all they do.You know, anybody could do that.Or we get an intern to do that.Why should we be paying thatmuch to your organization?100% So let's getan intern to do it,and let's just do an experiment.I'm not in favor of you spendingmore money than necessary.Let's get an intern that youcan pay $9 an hour or twoand let them do it.And then why don't youmonitor what's happening,the quality of the conversationthat you're generating,the number of leads thatmight be built from this?And let's talk in 30 days.OK, let's do that, and youget to manage this personand you get todirect them and youget to make sure that the lookand the tone and the voiceis consistent withwhat you're doingand helps to elevatethe dialogue.That sound likereally good to you.Yeah, that's how muchis your time worth.I'm just curious, what do youcharge your clients an hour?$500 OK, I knowthat sounds absurd.No, that's right.$125 That's it.Yes, no, you chargemore than that.You have to.$250 OK, so do you buildyour clients hourly?No, how do you charge it cost?That's just cost.So we do it on aper project basisor on whatever tasks we doing.I'm going to say we are a.What organization we are a?We build solar panels, so we dosolar panels for our clients,and normally the range is theyprobably spend about 300,000with us in a year.Each client?Right, right.So do you ever get yourclients saying, well, Ican just get my Cousin Vinny.He can go to the localHome Depot supply storeand he can install the panels.Why would you everpay this much?Do you ever get that?Because you makeit really difficultto be a difficult client?But right, so how doesthis sound in your mindthat this is OK for oneand to us, the website?So to ask what would you do?Very important.Yeah, we feel likeit's somethingwe need to do to tick the box.We don't think it's prettyclose to the functionof our business.I see.I see.OK, so you don't really havea business problem to solve.That's what I'm hearing.So you're getting all thebusiness that you want, right?You can't take on anymore business currently.It's like you're bussingapart in the seams.If you take one more new lead,you're going to commit suicide.Is that what you'resaying to me?We're happy with thebusiness we have,but we feel like themarket is changingand we need to be on socialmedia like everybody else.Why is that?No, we don't expect it tobring in any new business yet,but we do feel likewe need to be there.And we've been going toseminars and training,training things where peopleare telling us we need to do it.Yeah OK.Well, as an expertin the field, Ido want to say this is that thetraditional model of marketingis to take out ads inwhatever form that you wantand you're talking to people.And this becomes verydisruptive in their lives.The new model is to buildrelationships and communities,communicate yourmission who you areand what your beliefs areto them and with them.So you're having a dialogue.And I know thatmost of my clientsdon't understand this becauseit's so new and weird,but that's why you hirean expert to do thatfor you and with you.But you can operate onyourself if you wish.And you can try to hirethe intern and manage it,but just to realize thateven by your own admissionthat the $250 an hourthat you are building out.That's going against managingthis person, so the cost to youis not $9.It's $259 an hour and you'llbe pulling your hair out tryingto figure this thing out.So if you want to go thatroute, you have more timethan you do have money.If the results of what itis that you're trying to doaren't as important toyou as I think they are,then you should go that route.But I've done this before withother clients, and some of themdo go out and do this.And you know whathappens in 30 days?They call and thenmy prices go up.OK, so I'll give you sometime to think about it.Why don't I follow up withyou in a couple of days?Is outside ok?Sounds perfect.All right.Thanks very much.All right.Now let's breakout of this, and Iwant to includeeverybody else in this.Let's talk about this.I know you said, it's verydifficult to kind of justtry to negotiate against me.I want to ask you, why is it sohard to negotiate against me?Everything you say makes sense.Can you be a little bit morespecific that just like I know,I'm a sensible person, but.You know, in real life, ok?I know this is how aconversation could goin their life, but I feel like.How?you've got an open dialogue.I felt like somethingwas watching me.We meet with the client,they don't know us that well.We don't have suchan open dialogueand it might take sometime before we get there.And so with you, there'san open dialogue.I'm stuck becauseI'm telling youthe truth aboutevery single questionthat you are answering.If I was a penny pincher client,I might not tell you the truth.Every single thing that youask, OK, because I mightbe a hardheaded kind of client.Yeah, Yeah.Yeah, I get it.That's kind ofwhere I'd get stuck.But it's been very difficultto negotiate with youbecause you actually reallygood in understandingand where the value lies.So to be a hardclient, it was toughand I'm going togo back and watchthis video so I canactually write downexactly what he was saying.You can watch it in threeweeks when I finish editing it.I'm just kidding.I'll try to do itin a couple of days.All right.Let me just say acouple of things.All right now, let's tryand break this thing down.I'm not going to tell you guyswhat it is that I'm doing,and when every smartperson in this groupto just name onething that I'm doingand we're goingto learn together.And while we're doing that, I'mgoing to take some notes, ok?Let me do this.Duplicate this.OK and I'll take notes,so who wants to go first?You're you're showingthem the consequencesof their objections.OK, so I'm going to showthem the consequencesof their decision making, right?I'm painting anegative future state.We've been talking abouta positive future state.Now I'm going to paint thema negative future state.You know what I'mgoing to do, guys.Let me just delete this.I'm going to share whatI'm typing, so that maybefor you, visual learners,you can see and hear itat the same time.OK, so you're not goingto see my face anymore.There we go.All right, so consequences ofthe decision, their decisionmaking, this should belike a hyphen, I think.All right.Who else?Uh, aside from theobligatory, youknow, kill the dealkind of mentality,you've kind of given the optionto do what their alternativeand let them say byall means, go do this,but you don't backthem into a corner.You're get a gracefulway out through a thing.OK, so I'm doing I'mkilling the engagement, ok?And what I'm doingis I'm not selling.So I'm staying out ofthe results, right?I'm being objective andunbiased about the outcome.And I'll tell you lateron what all this stuff isdoing psychologically.Come on, guys, I knowyou're all very smart,so somebody just say one thing.Yeah, go ahead.Fire away.You're you're doubling down.You can't use those terms, Gary.You can't do that.You have to explainthat as a concept.What do I do?Yeah OK, you guys.OK, what am I saying here?Because Gary is part ofthe business boot camp.He knows all theseadvanced ninja techniques.All right.So let's not do that.Just say what it is.Yeah so when theygive you an objection,you're just you'reagreeing with themand you're going downthat road with them.OK so I agree.Inside, yeah, like they'llsay, I can get it cheaper.OK, yeah, yeah, you can.You can get it cheaper.Go ahead.Appreciate you.Right, right.I agree with a clientto well, basicallyI'm calling them on their bluff.Right OK.What else could you askopen ended questions?OK can you give me an exampleof an open ended question?Oh my, for example.Probably more similarto that or Garrison,like based on theconversation, you activelyask them a question where theythemselves validate and come upwith an answer to what you saylooks justified rather than youjustify it.You lead them to that answer.Mm-hmm Like $1,000you said you thinkyou can hire a local expert,or maybe you should go now.So you lead them to the part.OK I have something to add.OK please do so.So we have a human centereddesigner in our family,and I've been learninga little bit vicariouslythrough that person.And I just asked thisquestion yesterday,how do you ask openended questions?And her response was, younever ask a question thathas a Yes or no answer, right?There are three levelquestions that you can ask.I think this is in oneof the Academy classesthat I've taught.The first question thatyou can ask is Yes or no,is it going to rain today?Yes or are you waitingfor years old now?The next question that you canask is like a wet question.What does this looklike in your mind?The next level ofquestion is howquestion like, how would youfeel about something like this?And the last level of question?The hardest oneto answer is why?Why do you believethat to be a good idea?Because the why question?You know, for all thequestions are raised to themto think more clearly.Now many of us talkas we're thinkingand react out ofan emotional base,so we're not reallythinking things throughbefore we say them.If you ever have a conversationwith a partner about whereto eat, that's what'shappening there, like thinking,oh, maybe we'll have tacosor soup or Asian foodand they're justthinking out loud.And if you look at your clientlike that when they say,well, we can justbring somebody in,that's just anemotional reaction.Have they reallythought about, OK,let's just play alongwith this, for example.What's it going totake to hire somebody?Well, you have to go andget a recruitment person.We, as you don't know whatyou're even hiring for.You might have topost an ad you'regoing to have to interview.You can have to review resumes.You have to do apersonality check fit.So what's going tohappen and a salespersonused this exactargument with me.It was an argument, butthey even brought it up.So, Chris, we know howdifficult it is to hire people.You spent a lot of timeand a lot of money onlyto be disappointedby the results.We're going to hit thefloor running day one.And that's the key difference.Right you know how longit takes to hire somebody.And then they got to ramp up.They got to learn your system.They have to develop one foryou, so it could be months.Before they actuallyfigure out what to do.And months in.You may come tothe determination.That they don't knowwhat they're doing,so guess what, you have tofire them, give them severance.And file the paperworkand possibly don'tclaim unemployment from you.Is that really what you want?That like being savvy tothe real business climateallows me to speak to that.Now that is acquiredthrough experience in lifebecause I've hired people,I've had to fire people.I've talked to many salespeople.So I'm trying to distill as muchof this experience down to you.Even if you're juststarting your businessyesterday or today, you canuse that same knowledge.OK, somebody else giveme another observation.You don't take a lot of timeto think about your answers.well, how do we bullet point?Perfect I couldn't I didn'thear that, Alexander.What did you say?Practice makes perfect.Practice makes for.Yes uh-huh.Practice makes perfect, so ifyou guys were to practice morein a safe space like this oneor with your peak performancepartner, you in theory couldbe as experienced as I am.This is a phenomenon that's goneon in the poker world, right?So people who play Texas hold'emwould have to go play a gameand then they would learn andit would take years to master.And poker professionalswould say the kids nowthat are playing online,have played tens of thousandsof hands.So within a yearthey could acquireas much experience as somebodywould in almost in a lifetime.And the way they do thatis to have six or sevenscreens up at the same time, andthey're playing multiple handssimultaneously.So if we want to get better atanything we have to practice,we have to make sure the firsttime we're saying somethingisn't the first time we'resaying it in front of a client.Let's keep going.I think you are alsoidentifying with the clientas well as giving themthe opportunity to say no,and that lets themfeel that they're stillin power and in controlof the conversation.Mm-hmm So I'm going tohighlight something.Here I'm going to sayrealized there arethree possible outcomes, right?One is the higher usto hire someone else.And 3 is they do nothing.And all I'm trying to do isgive them enough informationto make a decision.I also like what youdid with my mute.OK I also like where you askedhim what is his hourly rate?And then you addedhis hourly rateto the guy who'sgoing to employ.And that is a valuethat he loses.But I don't know ifthat is the thing.It is a thing.But since you're a super smartlady, let's abstract that.But I kind of wonder whatyou're the one threw.Excuse me, I have a PhD.No, I'm just trying to makea point that I don't, and I'mmaking a point ofmaking a point, too.So if, well, we want to do iswe need to abstract what we justlearned.So if you say you, youadded his hourly rateto the rate of intern, youcan't always apply that.Because that's very specific,so we take one level back,what is it I'm doing?Radhika, you'retrying to educate himon what he's going to lose or.You know, putting a figureon what he's going to lose.OK all right.So what?I'm helping in some way.No, it's just a lotof I'm just whatI'm helping him to do is tofollow through with his logic,right?Because a lot of us know that's,you know what this is called,it's called anopportunity cost rightto make him aware ofthe opportunity cost.OK, now I'm going to explain.Opportunity to cost you guys.When you do something, youcan't do something else,that's all it is.So when he brings on the intern,he has to train the intern,somebody got totrain this person.So what's the opportunity cost?Well, he can't go out andbuild this hourly rate anymore,right?That's all it is.So you just need to make themaware of the opportunity.Cost everybody understandthat if I'm saying somethingyou don't understandor you need more of.Please just let me know.OK, what else?Hi oh, sorry, Ithought the idea waswere talking about the intern.You're also pointingout the lack of valuethat the intern isgoing to provide,and that you can provide theposition yourself as an expertand therefore you're addingmore value than the specific jobrequests.OK well, OK, soI'm asking, what'sthe I think alreadywe already didthis, the consequenceof the decision.So that's really thebiggest idea hereis the consequence of theirdecision making, right?So when you hire anintern, what is the interngoing to bring to the table?So I'm attackingthat from all angles.So I'm trying my best topaint a negative future stateof their decision.I just want to help them seetheir logic through us all.OK, that's great.You guys, you know what?I noticed that Dee and acouple of other people,they have earbuds, butfor whatever reason,when they hold their mic up likethis, the quality of the audiois fantastic.So everybody else hasgot a different setupor a super fancy.You just get thoseearbuds working for youbecause when she holdsit up, the mic soundslike a million bucks to me.We want to getreally clean audio.OK, so there's thenumber one answerI'm looking for if we'replaying Family Feud right now.No one answer in the board,nobody has said it yet.And a lot of the questionsyour questioning strategysounds very similar to howcounselors ask questionsto their patients.Can you expand on that becauseI don't know how councilorstalk to their patients?So one of the thingsthat they would dois help them build theframework in which they'rethinking without givingthem all the answers.So here's the framework thatI'm looking at your perceivedreality.Here's your arrivingat that reality.Let me give youthe context of whatis happening in thiswhole situation for themto arrive to the conclusion andthe direction that hopefullyis mutually beneficial.And that's where thebusiness kicks in.Whoa hold on.On a match that was supersmart what you just said.I was trying to figure out howto say that in a short way,but I don't think I can.So we're all going to needto rewatch this episodeto see what are you?What's your background?I'm an organizational behavioralpsychologist at Ci person.That's been all my life.Why are you sittingin the backgroundwaiting to speak up, dude?I didn't even understandwhat you said,but it sounded so smart.I'm like, Oh mygod, I'm so sorry,and I think I'm just goingto know you're super smart.I was like, OK, sohelp me out here.Let's say it again.Say it in baby language.I can write it down, ok?So a counselor wouldask you questions.And he would ask you, howdo you how do you see this?What's yourperspective about this?And you would go aboutfilling that realityand they would say, OK,here is this context.And here's this context.Do you still see thereality still fits in this?And that's where they kind of.Help you arrive withthe answers that youare hoping toarrive at with themas a business ownerrather than a consular.Talk Socratic.Yes, it does soundlike socratic,but I was going to write thattaking the Socratic approach,but there's more.He's giving us likea more bullet point,like breaking it down.Philip, are you goingto say something?Yeah, let them come tothe answer on their ownas opposed to just tellingthem outright by guiding themto the answer.And so then it's their own.They actuallyanswer the question,so they figure they'vegot the right answer, eventhough you've guided them there,rather than just giving themthe answer.Yeah, correct.That is truly theSocratic approach,but what animal has done ishe's given us more than that.We know that's the objectivebecause I know this.I could have told you guys atthe beginning of this call,use the Socratic approach.Guys get them to answertheir own questionand then he's on a fire backand he's like, yeah, genius.So now what was the step one?

RELATED VIDEOS

How to Close the Sale Pt.2
April 10, 2021
Value Based Pricing
February 23, 2019
Bidding and Estimating
February 4, 2016
How to Close The Deal
November 14, 2019
How to Deal w/ Conflict of Interest
February 24, 2020
thefutur.com
Upgrade your Membership

Join the digital community, find people to work with, jump in the live calls, and more! When you upgrade today, you will immediately get:

Everything you have now
Two monthly live group calls with Chris Do
Weekly Office Hours with experts
Access to the digital community
Exclusive job/project opportunities
Peer accountability partnerships
Everything you have now
$150
/month
Billed every three months
Upgrade For $449

Or get two months free by signing up for the year!