The ‘secret’ to feeling like clients are magically showing up and knowing you always have paying clients on the way is a concept I refer to as ‘clients now and clients later.’
So often I see people get wrapped around booking clients now when they’re in their sales process that they miss out on the long-term opportunities of clients later...or get so focused on being in the long-game that they avoid taking the kind of direct sales actions that lead to booking clients who are ready to invest now.
But here’s the truth: you can play the long game, for the long term, and that doesn’t mean results have to take a long time.
Playing the long game for the long term is a mindset and commitment not a timeframe for results.
It’s all about being all-in and willing to work with something until it works. And, you can be all-in and committed long term and still get results NOW. Both can be true, and you can be available for both.
The problems pop up when the pendulum swings in either direction.
When you’re only focused on clients now, aka who’s buying NOW, anyone who isn’t a ‘yes’ in the moment is discarded...and, if there aren’t enough clients NOW, this can lead to pulling the strategy plug and switching things up (when the strategy often is actually working).
And, when you’re only thinking about clients LATER, it’s easy to let fear and perfectionism run the show pushing the uncomfortable actions you need to take off for, well, later.
After being booked out for years and seeing behind-the-scenes of so many successful businesses, what I’ve seen to be true OVER and over again is the power of clients now AND clients later.
What are clients later? Turns out, when you’re playing full out, some of those clients who weren’t a ‘yes’ NOW will come back around LATER and be a full-bodied ‘hell yes’. Those no’s in the moment also turn into referral sources and word-of-mouth advocates who send you clients, you guessed it, later.
When you allow for clients now and later, this is when staying fully booked (whether you’re selling 1:1, groups, courses, or masterminds) starts to feel pinch-me easy, because you not only master the art of booking clients now, but those ‘client laters’ start to add up and compound over time.
Clients now and clients later is how you bring the pendulum back to middle and allow yourself to play the long game for the long term AND also being fully available for results now (and later)
Wishing you your version of success.
