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Review and Assess: Sherry's First 100 Days

Let's, dive in and talk a little bit today about reviewing and assessing our first hundred days. So our current first hundred days later today we're going to map the future right now we're looking at where the first hundred days are. When you started the class yesterday morning, I know from some of the online comments, some of the e mails I received some of the conversations I've had with the studio audience people are already taking action to change their experience, and I love that there is nothing that fills me up more as a presenter than knowing that the ideas that were putting out here in the way and it's not that I'm necessarily gonna come to you and say, this is what you should do with your business. My goal is to spark you to think differently. You have the answers inside you, you don't need me. I'm just holding a mirror up to you. You've got everything right inside you right now to create amazing customer experiences because you've had amazing customer experiences. If I were t...

o ask each of you what's the most amazing blow your mind customer experience you've ever had, I guarantee, and I can tell by the nodding their heads immediately, an example comes to mind. If we worked a little longer, maybe we get two or three more the ironic thing is at about that point we'd stop and if I give you days, you'd struggle to come up with any more it's lying on the ground, customer experiences on the ground that's why you only remember two or three now if I were to ask you to tell me about a horrible customer experience you've had, oh my gosh, it be a therapy session we'd have to lay down on the couch is, you know what I mean? And it be, you know, soothing and we'd talk about your parents and we'd go on and on about what a miserable childhood you had, and then we talk about all the bad customer experiences you've had since then, right? And you have dozens, if not hundreds of them, but you're probably still pissed off about it, and they happened more than a decade ago. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, so there's such an opportunity here to create amazing customer experiences before we get to that and start to get let our creativity out and do that, we need to see where we're at right now we need to baseline the experience and make sure we understand that so yesterday in our work sheets, you saw our audience touch point mapping parentheses current and this is what the work sheet looks like so those of you joining us today you can download it I know we've got some worksheets here in the studio audience you guys can follow along on this is our work sheet that we went through and I'm gonna ask sherry to come up because she was kind enough to be our audience participant role model for doing this process so we'll come up here thank you and I'm gonna grab you a microphone no, you're good. I'll grab one in case we have any questions so we're very briefly just is a recap gonna walk through an experience that cherry had nowt to be very clear this is not a specific client okay, I want you to try to do these maps using personas and is a recap of yesterday a persona is a description of a certain segment of your audience a certain segment of your customer population so that you can group a couple people together now some of you may be saying, well, joey, I only have five customers I'm just starting my business out or I haven't no customers I haven't even started great draw a picture of your ideal customer I actually use that phrase specifically draw a picture because that's the level of detail I want I don't want to or three bullet points I want the full picture that age old phrase of pictures worth a thousand words I'm not saying you need a thousand words written out, but I want that kind of feeling and the more you can do that, the more you can embody who that person is, the more you'll be able to relate with their experience. So in this example, right at the top of the page we have here the name in the situation for sherry. We were the project was a website design for a fitness trainer in his thirties. Male jack meathead ro love tire marks, but wanted the website to be intuitive. Okay, now and by the way again, the reason you are and I do this stuff, he embody it feel the persona, the more you do that, the more you can step into your shoes not only the easier this process, but the more accurate this process will be ok, so forgive me for the morning antics. I know where to start. Alright, so and we actually call this guy. Do you remember ma ke money? Marky mark? Ok, way want to give them a name? And this is poor mark walberg starry mark, you know it's like the seriously we're not saying he's. Actually I've seen it, I've never met the guy, but I've seen the interviews he's a very intelligent guy very very intelligent guy we picked him because of this new movie that's out pain and gain I think it's called pain and gain that's all about like these guys jacked up on steroids and all the craziness so we picked him because we want to identify our persona with a pop culture reference it's right want to give it a name and the reason we want to give a name is twofold. All right, there's the internal reason in the external reason the internal reason is it really helps us anchor when I say marky mark you immediately get a picture and when it's a row you get a bigger picture the second reason is you can actually use this a shorthand within your team whether it's in front of customers or not somebody could come in and you could say, oh, make sure you help mark out and they'll know even if it's not a person's name isn't marc they'll look at it go oh right jock meathead in secure needs to have his handheld have to walk him through the process oh, it becomes a shorthand for communication so let's talk about this a little bit we want sherry through the experience and what I'll do is I'll recap if I miss anything, you jump in and let me know so on day one share he signs the contract and gets the money to build a website and this all happens online. The people buy online, give her credit card, give the money, we start the project and she said that emotionally it would rank the person did about a seven, so they're feeling pretty good about it. They've made the decision to buy their stated goal is to have something better than their current website, with the goal of attracting a better customer with better design. The unstated goal is more money, more time, more celebrity that the person is actually feeling insecure and wants to kind of pumped himself up with a better brand and they want more credibility. So this is the customer on day one, the day they buy some of people online emailed me last night we're sharing their like I never even thought about what their state was on day one if we stop right here and didn't none of the rest of this your business will improve by knowing this and look how much more we have oh it's, exciting! All right day ten we did a question inform the cherry would send to them asking like what they want in their website, things that are important to them, etcetera, what's fascinating is it says day ten here, sheri really would like this to come a lot earlier than day ten, right, three day three okay, but the reality is it doesn't come till day ten what's interesting about this phase is this is the affirmation face. So we're first in the activation phase where they take action they buy. And as we talked about yesterday buyer's remorse, the cognitive dissonance starts right away and they begin to doubt their purchase has nothing to do with you has to do with the fact that there are human being and they have a brain, right? Mark sprain, maybe smaller, but they have a brain nonetheless. Okay, we get to affirmation and this is where we had the opportunity to counter the buyer's remorse there feeling what's interesting is sherry wants to happen haven't happened on day two or three so that the timeframe for buyer's remorse on the time frame, that somebody needs to be reaffirmed, that they made a good decision is short in reality and in practise it takes ten days. You know what they hear in that ten days from you as a general rule. Two things from sherry is she shared yesterday they hear emails saying, hey still haven't gotten your form. Can you please send that and we'd love to get started? Hey, by the way, three days later still haven't gotten that form, if you could send that in that'd be fantastic. So the only communication there hearing from sharing a cherry is lovely and delightful this is not a criticism of her this is happening in almost every business around the world. What they're hearing is nag nag nag I have a homework assignment I haven't done I mean a boatload of you didn't do the homework assignment last night that's fine I knew that most teachers know that right? This isn't school where I can say oh, guess what you all get f's for not doing the homework assignment right? You're like what's he going to dio you know, make me twerk onstage I just might I'm just saying we had a conversation about this earlier that might be apprised later for someone know the point we're trying to make here is where you jump in and look at the asking them to do the homework there's all kinds of story going on in their head. The other thing is they're doubting the decision they've already paid for it they put the money out there maybe share he let them know in the process and on her website that there would be a form that they would have to fill out once they started maybe even she showed the form in advance and made it is a download that they could see before they even signed up and said by the way let me show you what our process is going to be first you're going to pay, then you're going to do this homework on, by the way, here it is so you can have an idea of what you're going to do for the homework now the typical company would say to me, well, joey that's our proprietary information, those are our questions we don't want to give those questions away. Web designers, graphic designers let me break the news to you your questions aren't that unique or special? I've had the pleasure of working with dozens of web design firms, and I have seen the forms of these I haven't seen cherries, I'm not being critical, maybe hers are really special and unique, but typically it's the same questions. What kind of customer you trying to attract? Do you have any preconceived notions about what the web site should look like? Her shouldn't look like please show list five girls of websites you like and tell me why you like them. Please list five girls of websites you don't like and tell me why you don't like them and to the basic questions we ask and some of the people in the studio audience and I imagine some of the people online as well are going yeah, I've been through a web design process that's what it is or some of you that are web designers are going cheese to joey see my form so why not put it out there and set the expectation from day one why not say hey guess what the first thing we're going to ask you to do his homework if that doesn't drive for you do not buy our package you are not the right customer for us yeah that's a really important conversation that small business owners often forget to have is that initial conversation of studying expectations deliver bowls and really getting to know and do a quick needs assessment then sometimes you can be so excited that someone picked me I got the sale that's it and so it just wanted to reiterate that point I think that's very important absolutely absolutely and let me in the interest of true confessions or full you know, honesty and transparency I struggle with this I have a client that will remain unnamed cause we're in the middle of the project right now who I sent a proposal to that outlined in very explicit language those who may not know I used to be an attorney so I'm actually kind of this interesting balance between somebody who works in the creative world that someone who is familiar with legalese my contracts my agreements don't read like the elise at all in fact I call them letters of agreement they're not contracts it's very common language it's very easily and I walk them through and then we will do this and this is called round one and then we will do this, and this is called round two, and I get them a very clear process. I was working with a client recently who we met for the round one, where I'm thinking this is going to be really straightforward and they're like, well, why aren't isn't this the final logo? I said, because this is round one, the final logo comes in round three or maybe even four it was in the contract, why didn't they read it? Why didn't they know it? Well, it's really simple because they're human. Their goal was to get a logo they looked and said, oh, the logo is going to cost this much it's going to be ready by this date, we want the logo sign they didn't get caught up in the process, they've never made a logo before I have to hold their hand, I could have done a better job of explaining what the process would be. So thankfully we've recalibrated now and I've kind of explained no, not at this meeting, nor at the next meeting and maybe not even if the next meeting will you have ah, final logo, but after that you will and you're going to love it, okay, so maybe we want to share some of these so we go here we are day one we're two seven we go to date ten while they're in the affirmation stage the buyer's remorse oh I mentioned the two things they're hearing number one they're hearing nag nag nag the other thing they're hearing is dead silence and down their own mind because when you're not nagging when you're not communicating with them, all they're hearing is why did I make this choice? Why did I do this? What am I thinking? Tree I don't know if this is appropriate for now where if you answer it later but there are times when you know need to nag the clients because you cannot move forward absolutely so then do you mix in other different do you send them a present while you're nagging? I don't think it's a great question that's a great question so let me ask let me ask this we've all been in a situation where we have a client who's gone quiet on us or gone dark on us so we're like seriously before this project to move forward. I need information from you what's going on strike for my own personal experience, right? I was designing this project for someone and I just I didn't hear from him and I sent an e mail hey, by the way, I'm sure you've been busy caught up with other stuff trying to acknowledge where they're at it's really important if we want to stay on schedule that you told me was important to you when we were doing the initial pre meeting that I get some feedback from you. Nothing weak later sent another email nothing the next week, I'm like that, you know, I'm not the brightest crayon in the box, but I am quick enough to know that doing the same thing again and again expecting a different result is the true definition of insanity, so I thought, what would I respond to? And how could I shift this from nagging too playful calling this person out? So I called them up and I called at night when I knew they weren't in their office because I wanted to leave a voice mail I didn't want to get too, but we've all done this at some point, right? I actually do this for a very calculated reason because I wanted them to have the experience of checking their voicemail, and the typical voicemail is, hey, bob, this is steve I was calling about this project, my phone number's, blah, blah, blah blah, blah and then we go on this guy walked into his office that day and listen to his voice mail the next morning, and the voicemail said, you don't bring me flowers, you don't write me love songs, I'm kind of curious why you haven't filled out your logo design form within an hour, the guy called me back. He's laughing hysterically is like, oh, my god, yes, sorry it's not you, it's me, I've been busy. You'll have it before lunch. Can I also share a personal story? I have something similar I haven't sung, but you might have to twist my arm for me to sing on voice mail. But if I've sent to emails, I don't hear back from them. Usually the third one, I tried to make it more funny and I say I assume you haven't called me back for for one of three reasons. One you're really busy. You got a lot of things going on, too. You've won the lottery and are never talking to any vendors ever again. Or three you've been, you know, by wolves and so sorry I'll send flowers to your wife or something along those lines and usually within, like, the next day they say something like, oh, I'm so sorry things are going on probable, exactly, exactly. So just acknowledge people as business owners, we have a tendency to presume that silence is the worst. Oh my gosh, they don't like me anymore. They hate me. They want to cancel the project, it's probably, that they're busy. But there does come a point and we see it played out here where if somebody is not doing what they need to dio you need to grab him and pull them in and the caveat that goes on top of this is there times where you may be part way through the project where you have to just I guess what you're fired what you can't find no actually I can I went into business for myself to have this kind of power and authority you are fired it is such a liberating feeling I encouraged you to fire a minimum of one client a year minimum and some of you are saying but showy that doesn't know because clients that aren't a good fit customers that aren't a good fit will work their way into your business even if you're trying to keep them out. Even if you're really clear on, I need this specific segment and I'm only going after them they will sneak in and they will eat your business like a cancer because you will have to be spending all sorts of time on them. They will take you out of your process, they will take you out of your flow that will make you doubt who you are, they will make you doubt why you're in business that will make you fight with your spouse that will make you beat your kids it'll be bad news fire some people just fyrom get him out of there. Granny, I run a prototyping service on the side, and one thing I do is actually refer some customers that I can't work with. Two other prototyping services as away is a wayto show them another route. Nice, let me ask you, is that a proactive referral where you're like, oh, I don't have time for this, so I'm going to send you over there? Or is it more? I anticipate you're going to be a pain in the key star to work with? I'm sending you to one of my competitors it's, more of a reactive when I meet with him the first time I love it, I love it. I mean, people talk about how do I beat the competition? Send your shitty clients to them that's one way some of you are like, oh my god show that is so evil I would never do that. Ok, that's fine. Just tell him you're too busy and you can't take the project, but if somebody is nagging bugging and they just won't get it say, hey, I'm really too busy but, you know, there's two other companies that you should definitely check out, go work over there, I'd be willing to bet some of your competitors were doing that to you when you meet someone and they're like, yeah, I've met with a couple other design firms and wanted to evaluate you to we hear they like me, I'm in the running, I might be the one that wins. What you should hear is, is somebody trying to six someone on me? I'm a big believer in working with clients that have come to me that aren't considering for other competitors that have done their homework and have heard joey coleman gets it done, you want to go with him? Ninety nine percent of my businesses referrals people there like joe, you're in marketing until very recently liked my website isn't that great right now? But until very recently it was horrific I mean horrific, it was built in I web the first year I webb came out in an afternoon, it had the address from three physical locations ago on the website hadn't been updated, the address destroyed live and some people are like, oh that's a polling showing what do you do it? I don't get my business through the internet that's not one of the channels that my competitors work in our that my customers playing okay, yes, my customers are on the internet, my typical audience kuzma is a ceo who's, not cruise and five logo design websites to decide which one they're going to use my customers, the ceo who's sitting in his eo forum or in his mastermind group saying, we're going to do a re brand who do you guys know? Like I trust you who've you worked with who do here is awesome, you know, like joey coleman go that's the guy you want to talk to you it's going to cost you an arm and leg okay it's gonna be a five figure engagement for a logo instead of a ninety nine designs type logo? No, no criticism of ninety nine designs it's a good solution it's not the solution I offer it's not the audience member I'm seeking so makes it real simple be really clear on who your audience member is focus in on it, all right? So we're coming back to sherry, so we get to day ten the affirmation now we're getting today fourteen the admission right and raise a reminder we're going to spend a lot of time talking about these phases during one of our segments today, the final segment but the admission stage think of it like college or, you know, graduate school, you're admitted into the school and now you're in now we're making you feel part of it now you're actually experiencing it, you showed up on campus for the first day, this is where we're going to show the home pages what's great is this is a high point in this experience because they first see the designs and they're excited oh I see my work I see what I've paid for I score this and nine oh by the way we've added now flames to the design you know we kind of want to add flames to the tire marks um but now that I actually see what I told you I wanted that is actually stronger because I realize that I'm not the designer you're the designer and you've created exactly what I asked for if I'm really honest but I never want to admit that you've created exactly what I've asked for and it looks ridiculous this is not going to build credibility this does not make me feel better about myself this reinforces that I'm a meathead that's not a brand I'm trying to build and we start the decline we get to the sub pages the acclamation stage show now when we're altitude when we're supposed to be acclimating and we're in the flow and the dance is going on and the tangos moving and we're giving and we're taking and everybody's into it and we're actually down to a five because they're going oh, this isn't working this isn't this isn't what I wanted and we actually get to a stated goal of an entirely new project you know what scrap everything I told you before we need to start over so what sherry to dio sherry is unbelievably sweet polite I'm a big fan what sherry does issue says okay, well we'll redo the project on which she usually doesn't do but she's going to start doing after this class is say it's real simple that project didn't work so we'll give you a fifty percent credit for the amount you paid you need to pay another fifty percent of the fee to start over a new project because we've used fifty percent of it thus far just to get here this is something you want to explain to your clients especially those of you that work in the creative arts the work for you guys happens here the first round of logo concepts the first designs that's where the magic happens your clients don't understand that your clients look at oh you're going to do three rounds oh surround one is a third of the fee no round one is like ninety percent of the fee round two and round three are tweaks and revisions were fine tuning we're twisting dials that's not their perception you gotta explain that right out of the blocks and say if we're in round one you need to know it's ninety percent of the fee is showing up now now the problem with that expectation is if they have some beliefs about the feed let's say the fee for very, very simple math is ten thousand dollars if round one is ninety percent of it, that means round one is nine thousand dollars when you show them this home page it's gotta feel like nine thousand dollars if you're the kind of designer, whether it's graphic designer, web design or whatever you're doing in the creative arts and you're kind of half our senate in the beginning and you're like, well, we'll pick it up around two and around three that doesn't align with what you've told them that it's ninety percent of the investment is right here, so be careful what expectations you said, but I think for most designers out there, if we set that expectation, we'd feel a lot better because then when we got here, we'd say, yeah, we spent ninety percent of the money what other changes? Oh, you want to you want to go to an entirely new project real simple? I'm not just need another ninety percent because it's, like we're starting from scratch, the ten percent we hadn't spent, you've still got credit on your account for that, but the juice has been running, we're done, we'll change the conversation, we move into the sub pages now we get to the assimilation where we're supposed to be really kind of a similar, they're part of it, they're feeling our brand on, we're actually down to it too. Because at this point it's full of doubt were even more insecure and more doubtful it's gone from three times the level that we started to ten times were in an entirely new project a new site the client is saying this is the site you should have made instead of acknowledging that they give you horrible direction and we're off now because sherry is amazing she pulls it out of the fire and gets the new site launched on day forty nine what was your ideal the project timeline fifteen days fifteen days three x and then some to get today forty nine right the goal was to be done in terms of the calendar for just looking of this top part the calendar the goal is to be done about right there and we're over here now she's pulled it out of the fire the new site has launched the client's feeling good about it that client ever hiring her again for another project no is that client ever referring her toe any of their friends know if they did would we even want that referral with this client know exactly we don't want referrals we want the right referrals if you're asking every one of your clients for a referral you're a fool let me just call it how it is you're a full on ly ask your best clients for referrals because birds of a feather flock together you want to get the great ones you don't want to ask marky mark for a referral. He's. Going to send you three more jock meatheads who don't know what they want, where ridiculously insecure, who were going to ride the roller coaster, throw up at the end and not do anything for you in the future. Big round of applause for share