How To Win Consulting Clients With Your Personal Story

The ONLY 2 Lego Blocks You Need To Tell An Inspirational Story 

1. Something goes wrong that forces you to make a change
2. An impressive result

The bigger the gap between your old life and your new life. The more impressive the story.

When I say your old life. I mean before something went wrong and forced you to make a change.

Your new life is the better results you are now enjoying.

The bigger the gap between your old life and your new life. The more impressive the story.

Why?

Because stories are about overcoming challenges. The bigger the challenges the more your audience will want to know how and why you didn't give up.

For a consulting story the challenges to not need to have taken years to solve. But they may have cost you a fortune to learn a new skill. A new skill that you now use to get much better results for your clients.

Can you see 2 points like this in your consulting life?

If not, let me tell you a story that illustrates these points.

I was helping a client fill events with Facebook ads. There was a funnel in place that filled their discovery events on a consistent basis.

Then their Facebook account got banned!

The immediate solution was to set up another account. But Facebook is not stupid and within a few months they could see what we did and they banned the new account.

Rather than repeat this process I decided to test YouTube ads. I have known for the last 5 or 6 years that this is the new frontier for lead generation because there is such little competition.

The problem was I didn't know how to run YouTube ads.

So, I found an expert in the states. Paid him $15,000. That took me from clueless to having a clue. Then it was time to test my new knowledge in the real world...

The results took my breath away!

The cost per event registrant on Facebook was £120. This was too high so I put a 2-week funnel in place. To educate prospects on why they should trust the client and why they should attend the event. This cut the cost per registrant to £60 to £70. A cost that would creep up as we tried to scale and that's another story.

With YouTube ads, the cost per event registrant was £25 without a 2-week funnel!

This cut the cost per registrant by 80%

So my 2 lego bricks are...

1. Facebook ad account was banned
2. YouTube ads cut the cost per registrant by 80%

Can you see your own 2 lego bricks?

Now that you have the building blocks for an inspirational story. It's time to show you how to tell a story in a way that keeps your audience sat on the edge of their seat.

The system that I've created is a simplified version of The Hero's Journey. The Hero's Journey is the storytelling system that blockbuster Hollywood movies use. Movies as diverse as Star Wars, Rocky, Moana and Avatar.

I've simplified the Hero's Journey because you don't need to hold your audiences attention for 2 hours. You also don't need to plan out the challenges because you have lived through them.

So, let's dive into...

Roland's 3-Step System To Tell An Inspirational Story

1. Setup
2. Challenge
3. Resolution

Let's look at each other these in turn...

Storytelling Step #1 - Setup

The set up to your story needs to show 3 things...

1. What life looked like
2. What went wrong
3. What new road you were pushed down

The What Life Looked Like part of your story can be something like...

I was running Facebook ads for a training company to fill their discovery events.

This is the start of the story.

To set up the big result at the end. I've got to show what results I was getting with Facebook ads. 

Running Facebook traffic to an event registration page was costing £120 per registration.

The client wanted to reduce this cost so I set up a value first funnel that established the client as an expert. Then built the need for the discovery event.

The value first funnel cut the cost per registrant in half.

But...

That huge gain was short-lived. When we tried to scale. The cost per registrant kept creeping up.

Before I could try and solve this problem Facebook banned the client's account.

We had upcoming events to fill so the quickest and most obvious solution was to set up another account.

Within a day we had another account running similar ads to the same funnel.

This fix was short-lived. Within 2 months, Facebook had tracked us down. They could see that it was the same business. Even though our ads did not violate any of their policies. They banned the account. 

Rather than repeat this process. I wanted to find a more permanent solution. A solution that lay in a new advertising platform. A new frontier platform that I have seen as a huge opportunity for 5 or 6 years. 

YouTube Ads

I've known this is the new frontier for lead generation and filling events for years. But I haven't tested it because I didn't make the time. And I couldn't find an expert that could help me avoid the newbie costly mistakes.

Now I had no choice. I had to find a way to fill discovery events. I had to find a way to learn how to run YouTube ads fast.

That's the setup.

It shows you what life looked like. Then it shows you what went wrong and what forced me to change.

This takes us into...

Storytelling Step #2 - Challenge

A few hours of Google searching uncovered a YouTube Ads expert with an online course. An online course that I could start immediately.

There was just one problem...

The course cost $15,000

This was a raid the bank account and don't tell my wife moment. A moment filled with terror... and excitement.

Excitement because I've wanted to learn this for years. Terror because I didn't want to drop $15,000. And I knew it was only a matter of time before my wife noticed what I had done and gave me a hard time about it.

Spending that much money lit a fire under my ass.

So I made time for studying... no matter what. I'm taking 6 hours a day... every day... for a month.

Yes, there were plenty of days when I didn't want to study. Yes, there were plenty of days when doing other client work and studying was a real challenge. Yes, studying at the weekend was not easy. I still wanted to spend time with my wife and daughter. And I wanted to study and made time for it.

I had committed 100%. And I was giving it 100%

Then it was time to see if this works in the real world.

That's the challenge part of the story.

I haven't put as much fear into the story as I should. And I hope you get the point. This does not have to be a long story to still be emotional and memorable. And to overcome the client's objections.

Now let's move onto...

Storytelling Step #3 - Resolution

I had some academic study that I wanted to test in the real world.

Rather than create new assets. I wanted to test small with what we already had.

So I took a video ad that we had used with Facebook Ads. The call to action on the video was to go to the application page.

This also made the test easier because all it needed was a video and one web page.

I didn't need to create a complex funnel to start the test.

After all, money loves speed. So it was time to get some YouTube ads live as fast as possible and make changes with real-world feedback.

The results completely blew my mind!

We were getting event registrants for £25.

That's £95 less per registrant... than we were getting on Facebook!

That's an 80% saving!

But...

This was a test spending £100 a day. What happened when we tripled the budget?

The results stayed the same!

And...

I've been running the same ad... getting consistent results... for the last 4 months!

That's the story.

Using the setup, challenge, resolution structure. I've turned a chaotic and stressful time into an inspirational story.

By throwing in some emotion. I've made the story memorable.

Bottom line...

This story answers the 2 biggest objections a new client has.

Why should I believe anything that you have to say? How do I know that you can deliver on your promises?

Because I've told you a story that proves I'm getting amazing results. And these results have been consistent for the last 4 months.

So a big promise like I can cut the cost of filling your events by 80% is easy to dismiss as too-good-to-be-true.

When you tell a story that shows clients how you've been able to achieve that result... and that it's been consistent over time. Even when you've stressed the system.

Then they can see that you can deliver the same results for them.

Now It's Your Turn

You now know how to overcome a client's biggest objections to working with you by telling an inspirational story.

You now know how to tell an inspirational story in a way that makes you memorable.

You now know the ONLY 2 lego blocks you need to tell an inspirational story.

So...

Write down your 2 lego blocks right now!

Then make the time to write out your story before your next client meeting.

Why should you write out your story?

Because when you write it out you'll see ways to add in more emotion. You see, if you only tell your story as a series of events. It will not have as much power. It will not make you memorable in the same way.

When you put in some emotion and show your fears and frustrations in the Challenge part of your story. Then you make yourself memorable.

When you make yourself memorable. You have given your client a tool to defend their purchase decision from the doubters in their life.

This makes it much easier for the client to say Yes to working with you.

If you've found this useful then please leave a comment below.

If this can help a consultant you know. Then please share it with them.

Until next time...

Carpe diem

Roland Eva

P.S. If you would more about the simple process that I use to win consulting clients on demand. Then you need to download your free copy of my book Consulting Clients On Demand.

To download your free copy now click the link below.

http://rebrand.ly/ConsultingClientsOnDemand