Creating a Client Growth Engine

Christine Campbell [00:00:00]:
I want to shift you to say don’t focus on the volume. Focus on creating value. This is the 1st piece to creating the engine. And I will tell you that in the next 90 days, 2 things and 2 things primarily will predict your revenue, your new client growth and the momentum building in your business. 

Jeffro [00:00:25]:
Welcome back to Digital Dominance. The online world can be downright overwhelming. With so many tools and all of human knowledge essentially at your fingertips, It’s hard to know where to place our time and attention. What often happens is that we end up in 1 of 2 extremes. Either we freeze up because there’s too much and we can’t decide, so we do nothing, Or we’re constantly jumping to the latest shiny object, and we move on rather than getting the current thing dialed in. So how can we be smart about this? How do we know which activities will predict revenue in the next 60 to 90 days? Because once we know that, we can be confident spending our time on those activities knowing they are the ones that will move the needle. My guest today is Christine Campbell Rappin, and she is the person you want to talk to if you need help figuring this out. Christine helps creatives and professionals build 6 and 7 figure businesses by creating a client growth engine that attracts buyers who are eager to invest in your services.

Jeffro [00:01:18]:
I’m excited for this topic, Christine. Thanks for joining me today.

Christine Campbell [00:01:21]:
I’m excited to be here. Thank you.

Jeffro [00:01:24]:
Yeah. And I’m pretty sure everyone’s ears perked up when I mentioned creating a client growth engine. Everyone is feeling the crunch on all sides. Inflation is making it hard to stay profitable. Ads are getting more expensive. It’s getting harder to crack the social algorithms, And it can feel like we’re just spinning our wheels desperately trying to get some traction. We need your help, Christine. How do we know what activities are worth spending our time and money on?

Christine Campbell [00:01:47]:
Yeah, when it starts, I really believe that business is simple. And I think sometimes the world of marketing and the world of, the big gurus, if that’s who you’re following, can lead you astray because they’re talking about things are complicated. They’re talking about some big numbers. They’re talking about volume. And yet I want to shift you to say, don’t focus on the volume. Focus on creating value. This is the 1st piece to creating the engine. And I will tell you that in the next 90 days, 2 things and 2 things primarily will predict your revenue, your new client growth, in the momentum building in your business.

Christine Campbell [00:02:25]:
The first is that you have to. This isn’t optional. You can choose your strategy, but doing this is not optional. You have to get in front of more ways, more people, more ways, more often. And the key when you’re building visibility is that you have to be in the right rooms, and that’s the mystery I know for most. Where the hell are they? Those clients that will pay for my services. But the key is, first off, just get visible and then fine tune your ability to know who is the buyer. Buyers or a really small subset of the overall audience, only 3%.

Christine Campbell [00:03:03]:
But you must track you getting in front of new places because it will highly influence the 2nd piece of the puzzle, which is if you don’t make any offers, you do not have any yeses. And so the 2nd piece that will predict your revenue in the next 90 days is the amount of offers you’re making. And to be clear, this is another piece that’s really in important. Posting your stuff on social media or on a website isn’t an offer if there’s no engagement and if there’s no conversation around it, and conversations are the fastest path to cash. So an offer is a really intentional dialogue where someone’s inquiring, asking specific questions, and I always say these specific words. Would you like me to make you an offer so that everybody’s really clear that’s what’s happening, and either they can say yes or no. But don’t just blast stuff and think you made a lot of offers because I will tell you, if you don’t have the clients you want right now, it is because you either are not in front of enough people and you are not making enough offers. So at minimum, track that because where you sit right now in your business is because of what you did 90 days ago.

Christine Campbell [00:04:18]:
If you’re not happy with that outcome, I hope this lights your fire to fire up your engine.

Jeffro [00:04:23]:
Definitely. That was great. And kind of following up on that, do you have a case study from a client that you worked with to help us wrap our heads around this from a practical tangible perspective and kinda walk us through that process.

Christine Campbell [00:04:35]:
100%. So a lot of my clients are creative. So they might run video companies or marketing agencies or they’re in the creative marketing sphere because a lot of creatives struggle with foundation, so they come to me to help them with that because I really understand the creative process. And I have a client who spends a lot of time building programs and services. Anybody relate to that? Like, if I just build it, they will come. And I said, you are living the Kevin Costner field of dreams business strategy, my friend. How’s that going? They’re like, I have crickets. I’m like, I’m exhausted.

Christine Campbell [00:05:08]:
I think I just need to tweak the offer, and we’re constantly in the tweak the offer. And I said, stop. It’s probably not the offer. It’s probably the fact that we don’t have anybody watching. And then the answer can be, well, can I just pay for ads? And I will tell you, I I’m not adverse to paying for traffic. But until you know who you are, what you serve, the value you create, and why you should be hired, it’s very, very expensive as a learning curve. So I would say use that as an accelerator after you have the foundations in place. So I said to my client, I said, you know, stop with the tweaking of the offer.

Christine Campbell [00:05:46]:
Let’s pull out your calendar, and let’s audit what you did in the last 30 days. First thing we ask because it’s a simpler smaller number. How many offers did you actually make? And the chances are, I think I made a lot. And I’m like, awesome. Tell me who they were. Some of what the offer was. And then we realized there was 1 offer in 30 days, and I said, and what was the next step of the offer once you made it? I didn’t have 1. So, well, 1 and not enough, and 2, we need to have a plan to go and ensure we have a yes or a no.

Christine Campbell [00:06:16]:
Close the door, don’t leave cupboard doors hanging open. 2nd component to that is where were you spending your time? Tell me in your calendar over the last 30 days, what did you do? So while I joined a new networking group, great, how many meetings did you go to? Three. Okay. Great. Of those meetings, how many one to ones did you meet? 2 people. So did you went to 3 meetings and took 2 meetings? It’s probably not the best use of your time. What did you do with those 2 meetings? Nothing. What’s the follow-up step for that? Nothing.

Christine Campbell [00:06:47]:
And I said, were they buyers for your services. Did you identify that? Pregnant pause. This point, my clients are starting to feel a little uncomfortable, and maybe you are too as the audience. This is the simple questions to ask because I said, I want you to get in front of more people, but I want you to know why did you choose that space, that room, that network, that market, what did you do in that time? Did you have an intentional goal to go into it? Yes. I wanted to meet 2 people. Did you identify in the room who you thought could be a potential buyer? Because that’s the most valued use of your time. Yes, relationships are important. Yes.

Christine Campbell [00:07:21]:
Networking in general as getting to know people is important. People do business with people. But I said, I want you to build a system that’s very simple. You can do it old school with notes and papers, calendar on your desk, or I can build a basic spreadsheet or you can have a CRM. All of those are optional. I want you to be tracking how many hours you’re spending, where you’re spending them, how many meetings you booked, and what did you do with them. And if you’ve made an offer, the first thing we wanna talk about every day is let’s talk about moving cash. Where are we with the offers? That’s the most important point because, truthfully, here is how you distill all that.

Christine Campbell [00:08:02]:
Once you go, okay, I have a system. Now how do I make a decision on what to do? I tell my clients, if you don’t have consistent client growth and you’re not trying to solve capacity because you’re at the peak of it, 70% of the hours you’re working need to be doing the 1st piece, meet more people, more ways, more often, 70% of your hours. Because that is the thing that will get you off the cash roller coaster. It is the thing that will keep interest in your business, and it will show the top of mind to the people who are out there who might not yet be be your buyer. And I went into this conversation with this client. And when we’ve had huge peaks and valleys today, I said, first thing we’re gonna do is go back and audit this. She’s like, all I’ve done is record content. All I’ve done is focus on a show event I’m gonna launch in March, and what’s happening now? I don’t have enough cash in my business.

Christine Campbell [00:08:59]:
I said, well, today, clear your calendar. The first thing we’re gonna do is go talk to people. Current clients, past clients, talk about capacity, and let’s get some money in your business so that we go back to the thing that builds the engine in the 1st place. And every time we do that, we usually overestimate what we’ve done because we’re so distracted. And I said, stop being distracted. Two things, predict your revenue. Are you doing them?

Jeffro [00:09:25]:
That’s awesome. Yeah. I mean, that that breaks it down very simply, and It’s also a great, example of why we need an adviser or someone kinda looking over our shoulder sometimes to keep us accountable because it’s easy to say, oh, yeah. I did I’ve been busy all month. Of course, I’d probably put out a bunch of offers. Right? But the months can blunt blend together. You’re just busy caught up new and administrative stuff. You don’t realize, oh, I didn’t have as many meetings this month, especially when you are working on something like an event or whatever.

Jeffro [00:09:52]:
So the calendar doesn’t lie, and looking back at it gives you that insight to make sure that you’re putting the fuel in the engine in the 1st place to keep it running.

Christine Campbell [00:10:00]:
Yeah. And I’ll just be candid because it’s easy to say, you know, I I mentor this. So, yes, I do. But I mentor myself just as equally. Just outside my camera is the board that tracks this in my business. Current clients, current committed revenue, current number of new clients bringing in, current open offers, all of that is right within my view line. So that as I get to my desk in my working space, I go, first thing I focus on is revenue in the door and high probability conversations with people I’ve identified that might the buyers, everything else is secondary. It helps me build a business in fewer hours.

Jeffro [00:10:42]:
Right. Well, the the keyword there is, build a business. Right? A a lot of people as freelancers, you know, became business owners or they just do it because they wanna work for themselves, maybe they’re really good at a particular skill, and they wanna do it all the time. And that’s great. But if you wanna keep doing it, you have to learn some business building skills. Otherwise, the business won’t survive. So this is great, and so thank you for focusing on that. Let’s let’s go to another example.

Jeffro [00:11:08]:
So if I have a lemonade stand And I want to create a client growth engine. I’m starting from scratch. I’ve got the stand. I’ve got the lemonade. What are the steps I need to get to take to get there?

Christine Campbell [00:11:18]:
Well, the first thing you need to do is to to recognize don’t spend all the time just getting this down and getting the lemonade because, honestly, you don’t need that to start having the conversations. The thing that you need to do is tell people, 1st and foremost, you are in business, which seems like a really obvious one, but I will tell you you don’t. And how you can audit whether you actually do this enough is here’s your takeaway. Go homework. I want you to put onto your favorite social platform that you think you’re the most active on and ask this question. Tell me what it is you think I do. You’re gonna get a lot of answers. Very few of them are gonna be your own business to do x.

Christine Campbell [00:11:56]:
I know because I asked this question. My mother thinks I’m in marketing. I’m like, okay. Well, marketing’s a component to that. What I really want people to do is have sales. And she’s like, yeah. But you’re marketing. So ask that question.

Christine Campbell [00:12:08]:
Do you need to state, I am in business. 2nd component to that is what’s the result you stand for? So this is a really simple question, and a lot of us have a quick answer and the quick answer, we don’t own it, and it’s not deep enough. I stand for, in my business, a client growth engine. I help clients and leaders make good decisions so that they can constantly bring new business into their business. That’s what I do. That’s to what I do. And every vehicle that we have, whether it’s the lemonade stand or the door to door person’s gonna go offer lemonade to strangers is the same. The result is the same.

Christine Campbell [00:12:46]:
2nd component is what result are you looking for? What will people value? Not what you value, what will they value? Because you wanna think what will they pay for. The third thing you need to recognize is your business will be built on strangers. Even if you come into business and you think I have a really good reputation for a skill or a deliverable or a result, that easy yes might not be as easy as you think, and eventually, it dries up. So your business will be built on strangers. So the thing you wanna challenge yourself is, what am I prepared to do to get in front of strangers. And you don’t have to do

Jeffro [00:13:25]:
mom taught you.

Christine Campbell [00:13:26]:
Yes.

Jeffro [00:13:27]:
And you have to talk to strangers. Yes.

Christine Campbell [00:13:28]:
You do have to talk to strangers. And this is a good question to ask, what am I prepared to do to get in front of strangers? And because there’s a 1000000 tactics in marketing, I would say pick 1 or 2 that you feel like I could do that every day or at least 3 days a week for 3 hours a day, whatever it is that you’re doing for capacity, and say, I’m going to master doing that. They can be really low tech, like speaking or networking. It can be high-tech, which means SEO and technical support like you in the web world. But you have to recognize I’m committed to getting in front of strangers because it it directly fuels the first thing I said you measure. How many people are you meeting? Those 3 things are where you start.

Jeffro [00:14:12]:
Yeah. And you can make decisions about those things based on your preferences, what you’re good at, what you know and understand. You know, if you like going and talking to strangers, then that’s an easy thing for you to go do. Right? But if you’re more, you know, shy, I want people to come to me. Okay. Then you gotta decide if I wanna have a lemonade stand, Am I fishing or or hunting? So if you’re more shy, you can go fishing, but don’t put your lemonade stand in the residential neighborhood. Go set it up outside the mall where there’s constantly people walking by. And then if you’re gonna hunt, okay.

Jeffro [00:14:40]:
Great. Think of what neighborhoods you’re gonna knock on or, you know, who you’re gonna connect with, how you’re gonna sell it, but that that can inform That approach and strategy.

Christine Campbell [00:14:49]:
100%. Because the leadership of of deciding I will get in front of strangers has to happen whether you’re an extrovert or you’re an introvert. You can build a lot of great strategies that are really simple to be the magnet. I work with my clients. My clients work with high value clients. They sell a high ticket offer typically. So I said, you know, you’re not looking for a 8,000,000,000 people on the planet to buy your thing or for the result that you stand for. You’re looking for a very small group, but what’s clear is you need to know what will get them moving towards you, why you’re the must hire, and you have to have the credibility around that.

Christine Campbell [00:15:25]:
There’s lots of ways you can do that without doing it initially face to face. And you don’t always have to be face to face to get the yes, but you do need to have the leadership of saying getting in front of strangers is going to be nonnegotiable. And that means eat the frog first thing in the morning to me. It’s like, this is you can’t get here any other way. There’s no shortcut. Honestly, please, if you think there is, it’s not. Helping people create $1,000,000,000 in every single one of them. The client, at one point, was a stranger.

Christine Campbell [00:15:58]:
So you have to decide that.

Jeffro [00:15:59]:
If you don’t know what eating the frog means, you gotta do the hard thing first. Right? Because then everything after that becomes easy. The thing you don’t wanna do, make yourself do it right up front. Otherwise, you’re gonna keep procrastinating, kicking the can down the road, and you’re not gonna make progress.

Christine Campbell [00:16:12]:
And create the habit. You know? Like, the routines are really important. When you are looking to create an engine, I said an engine is cyclical. It fires really predictably. And so if you know 2 things predict your revenue, strangers and offers, and you know that you have to get nonnegotably in front of people and choose how you’ll do that, then, at least I said, 70% of your day has to be that engine, those basic stacked habits and rewards that we’re gonna keep you doing it because you are compelled to reach the outcome, which is I want to see my business grow, and I hope equally strong in your emotions as I want to help them get the result.

Jeffro [00:16:53]:
Yeah. And one other thing I wanted to mention Is the, the time horizon changes too depending on the type of business and what you’re selling. Right? So if you’re putting in the work of talking to people, You know, that might if you got a high ticket offer, maybe that means 90 days out, you’re looking at that business coming in. If it’s lemonade, it’s probably that day or tomorrow when they have cash. Right? It’s So you gotta understand what you’re selling and how long the sales cycle is and what it takes to get someone from, you know, just learning about you to ready to buy.

Christine Campbell [00:17:22]:
It’s the risk rewards of the value exchange. So people will only pay for something if they value it more than the cost to pay for it. So if you’re on a hot day and I I’m really thirsty because I’ve been running a mile and I see your lemonade stand, I am going to value that liquid more than the money I pay you. And so you need to always be asking yourself, is the value big enough in exchange for what the result is? Because if I’m just talking about a low risk decision, it might you’re right. Exactly. Happened really quickly. It’s a spontaneous purchase. If there are longer term commitments, bigger risk from a monetary, an ego, a time commitment, the decision is typically slow er, it doesn’t mean it’s slow.

Christine Campbell [00:18:09]:
It is just more methodical, and there’s a lot more questioning you wanna build into the answers so that people feel the yes is a given. It doesn’t matter. The principles are the same. And I always tell people there’s 3 lanes of buyers. There’s a slow lane, which is I’m gonna be a someday client. Be careful don’t to get caught there. The middle lane is I already know I have a problem. If you were proximity wise near me when I’m having it, I might say yes.

Christine Campbell [00:18:37]:
If not, I know you’re in the game, and the next time I have this problem and you’re in proximity, I’m also gonna start to think that’s an easier yes. There’s a fast lane too, which is I’m already searching. I’ve already vetted. I’m already committed. Make me the offer, and I move. You wanna always be assessing when you’re meeting people and thinking about where they are in the buying cycle. I like the analogy, and I tell people document it in the way you tracks conversations, there are slow lane, middle lane, or fast lane because that should guide your time. I don’t wanna work a 100 hours a week.

Christine Campbell [00:19:08]:
I’m betting you don’t either, so don’t. Spend your time wisely on the right things.

Jeffro [00:19:13]:
Yeah. If you figure out right away, oh, this is gonna be a lot a slow lane. Like, just refer them to your newsletter or something and move on to the next person who is in fast lane. Don’t spend too much time trying to get them to change lanes. Right? That’s not gonna work. So and that kind of brings me to my next question also is, if we’re looking at a 90 day time horizon, how do you get more rapid feedback on your efficacy? Right? On how, convincing you are, persuasive you are, because you don’t wanna wait 90 days and say, oh, none of that worked. Gotta start over. You gotta figure out as you’re going, like, okay.

Jeffro [00:19:46]:
How are people responding to this? Do I need to change how I’m phrasing this? How are they responding to the offer? How do I get feedback along the way?

Christine Campbell [00:19:53]:
Yeah, market research can’t be made up. Here’s the thing. This is about you you need to you need to test market things, and you need to know what are you hoping for is the result. So first thing, that’s strategy. And then do you see the behaviors? I always tell people, I think, we get 2 in the weeds with the tactics of marketing, so I don’t really care what tactic you choose. That’s a personal choice. What I want you to know is the goal of marketing is movement, in movement and separation from a general audience and a buyer because that’s gonna be helping you with efficiency. It’s gonna help you get to the yes faster.

Christine Campbell [00:20:26]:
And so I want to be first asking, what is my goal with any piece of content? I’m gonna use that word broadly. Content I’m putting out there is to spark movement. Where do I want them to move to? Are they moving? Are the right people moving? And you wanna be observing that. You can do it from a analytics point of view, from a tech point of view, potentially, if you’re looking at, you know, web traffic or things like that. Or you’re simply knowing, are they leading the question, or am I pulling the question? Because your buyer goes from curiosity to paid client. The first and every at every step is curiosity. But when they start to Digital, they might be a buyer is when they’re asking detailed questions, when they are doing research. So you need to be clear.

Christine Campbell [00:21:13]:
How do you have tools in place that are safe, far away where they can explore without eyeball to eyeball contact. That could be a podcast. It could be, your website. It could be your social media content. It could be all kinds of things. But in that place, your goal is intentional movement. And what’s really important is you talk about, 1, I’m in business. We said that before.

Christine Campbell [00:21:36]:
It’s really important. I’m gonna say it again. Say you’re in business, delivering or guiding a certain result, and the 2nd piece to this is saying to them, my programs and services are called x. Because when someone comes into your space and says, tell me about the business scale accelerator mentorship program, Christine, because I’m curious if it’s the right thing for me, I’m really clear they’re in the fast lane. If they come in and say, are you this? And they don’t know. I’m going to say, you you go back here. Spend some time researching, and I build my business accordingly, and I guide my clients to build their business accordingly. Because I said, in your 70% of the hours you choose to work, 70% of that time, anyway, I want you to be in front of the right people having the conversations, which might be 10 conversations a month.

Christine Campbell [00:22:25]:
It’s not 10 conversations a day back to back and you’re burning yourself like a lunatic. It’s the right conversations with somebody who’s already qualified you. And then in that space, your job is actually to qualify them. That’s the magnet, which I love being. Because it’s like, at that point, I’m saying, you’ve decided I have something of value, which is awesome. You’ve you’ve really helped your you deliver what you should in the marketing piece, but then you’re deciding, are you the right client I want to her help? Can I help with what you have? And so the first question I would ask, it’s a curiosity driven question. Why do you see my services as valued to you right now, and what are you considering? These are curiosity driven questions. The more detailed the question, the more you know that there’s engagement.

Christine Campbell [00:23:13]:
The place is right then to say, if there’s a match and only if there’s a match, would you like me to make an offer?

Jeffro [00:23:21]:
And and you gotta get to this place where You get out of the scarcity mentality where you’re okay saying no to certain clients right now. Like, because otherwise, if you’re like, I I need the revenue. I need the cash flow. You’re gonna say yes these people that you shouldn’t be allowing into your business because you know in the back of your mind, they are gonna be such a pain. It’s gonna be so much work. I’m it’s not gonna be worth it. But being comfortable recognizing that, setting them aside, like, wishing them well, but I’m gonna focus over here now.

Christine Campbell [00:23:47]:
Yeah. And be honest if you don’t think they’re ready for what you need to deliver the result because you as the business owner, when you say I’m in business, you hold the standard of integrity of the services you put out into the marketplace, nobody else. So if you don’t think you can help them get the result, don’t make the offer. Or if you’re not sure yet, you wanna adjust maybe your programs and services. If you think that they’re a good compatible client for you because you need to deliver the result, because the spillover in the market and the social proof that’s generated is always worth making sure the fit is there and then, again, delivering. And you do not have to say yes to every client because you have to always manage your capacity. If you say yes to somebody who’s not the right fit, you don’t have capacity to say to the next unless you flex somehow your capacity. So you have to know.

Christine Campbell [00:24:36]:
If I say no, you do it for good reasons, but that means you have to make tour, you keep your engine firing so that next week or tomorrow or at 3 o’clock today, you’re gonna have another conversation. So you’re not leaving this gap of I keep my fingers and toes crossed thinking this person’s gonna say yes, and all my business is funny this month is banking on it because it’s bad energy and you don’t lead really well in that space, but you also have the faith. You know what? My engine is firing. I focus on the right things. I’m really disciplined, and there’s gonna be another conversation tomorrow because I’m doing the right things.

Jeffro [00:25:14]:
Yeah. Well and and I thank you for breaking this down for us, and thank you for Diving in so deep with us and giving us these cleared definitions of this approach to build a client growth engine. And, hopefully, this has sparked some big ideas for the listeners. Guys, we just got a masterclass in just that central growth engine for your business, So I hope you’re taking notes. If you guys actually implement this stuff, look at your calendar, start making those changes to focus on the things that matter, You’re gonna see huge results, before long, probably even before the 90 days. So, thanks again, Christine. And, Guys, all of Christine’s links are in the episode description, so go connect with her. She will offer you a business scale accelerator session if you mention Frobro, the sponsor of this podcast.

Jeffro [00:26:00]:
That’s f r o b r Jeffro. And if any of you had a light bulb moment while listening to today’s this episode, I wanna hear about it, so send me a quick message on LinkedIn. Let me know what it was. Just to wrap us up, Christine, do you have any closing thoughts?

Christine Campbell [00:26:14]:
I will tell you that everything you want is on the other side of fear. So decide. Decide to go in. Business can be elegantly Dimple, don’t let anybody else tell you otherwise. Go back and relisten if you need to. Look forward to connecting.

Jeffro [00:26:28]:
Thanks again for being here, Christine, and thanks to everyone listening. Now get out there, start dominating, and I’ll see you in the next episode.