Written by: Vickie Sullivan  |  June 06, 2013

What Drilling Down Really Does

I get calls all the time from folks who really want to work with me — until they find out how much Turbo Charge Me Now costs.  First there is stunned silence…then the back pedaling begins.  (One poor man promised to call Vicky L back and fell off the face of the earth.  Wouldn’t respond to our follow ups.  I now know why he’s been struggling for nine years.)

When they finally come up for air, I explain:  “Look, what you are paying for here is the analysis.  Thee’s a lot to be done before I can find that hole in the market that only you can fill.”  What a recent client showed me is that’s not really true.

Betty Sue (not her real name) is a leader in her field 00 and she wants to move to a bigger playground.  She wants folks to know that she is much more than the CEO of a technical firm.  She hired me to figure out the best path forward and how to position her book accordingly.

When I gave her the strategy over the phone, I got…silence.  A long silence.  I went to the dark side, thinking that I had missed something.  I waited.  Then she explained, “you get me.  You really understand what I am about and what I want to do.”  She was shocked at the depth of my understanding.

First off, it’s a sad day when flying at 30,000 feet has become the standard.  That the people we pay plug us into their system instead of drilling down and analyzing what we have and what we can do with it.

Second, this is an opportunity.  Ask yourself:  what could I give if I just stopped and focused on my client.  If I threw away all that I thought I knew and approached them with fresh eyes.  The results could surprise you.