The Three Circles of Client Enrollment
Channel: George Kao
Date: 25/07/2016

Remember that you don't need to enroll the world.  Truly, there is a limited # of clients you can serve *well* at any given time.  Clarify how many that is for you.  Memorize that number.  See how valuable, therefore, each of those client spots are.

Most service providers are assuming that they need to be afraid of people not saying Yes to them.

I recommend that you turn that around.  Do you realize that you have to say *Yes* to a new client before they are allowed into your energetic space, before they are allowed to use your services.

The launch / enrollment period is when you open the doors and allow just the right people to be able to say Yes to you.

I think about 3 circles of enrollment to allow in, starting with the inner circle, those closest to you.

INNER
MIDDLE
OUTER

Your INNER Circle:

Current Clients: Those who are getting good results, or are likely to get good results if they keep working with you.  During the launch, it would make sense to give them first dibs on keeping the spots they already have with you, i.e. to renew your joint commitment to working with each other.  You can also invite them to let a few of their right contacts know, who could really benefit from your service.

Previous Clients: Those who got good results with you, and might want to continue working with you.

Prospective Clients: Those who expressed interest in working with you (e.g. people who have had an exploratory call with you, or an email thread with you about your services) but timing wasn't right back then, for them or for you.  Reach out now, as timing may be better.  Give them the chance to say Yes before you move onto the “Middle” circle.

Closest Friend & Colleagues: who have expressed interest in your services, or have recently been supportive of you.  Let them know that you are now enrolling new clients, and that if they have a friend or colleague who could benefit from your services (briefly describe how) that you will be honored to take great care of them.  

Important -- Give these groups of people a gentle deadline of 1-2 weeks to respond, letting them know that you want to save a spot for them (or their recommended referrals), before you reach out to your wider network.  Ask them to let you know by [Exact Date.]  Then, 1-2 days before the date, send them a reminder about this opportunity. 

You can either reach out to these people one-to-one… or, you can BCC them all with the explicit purpose of “not giving them pressure” but wanting to make sure they know.  Also, let them know that you will be reminding them with another email in 1 week (or whatever timing makes sense.)  The benefit, however, of individually emailing is that you can then customize the message to the specific person.

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Your MIDDLE Circle:

Any other fans (supportive friends & colleagues) of yours who aren’t already in your INNER circle.  Ideally, individually reach out to them to give the opportunity.  You’ll find a sample letter here: http://j.mp/warmletter 

Promotional Partners: if you’ve had people promote/share your content or services in the past, consider reaching out to them now about this launch.  It would be a good idea to have your own list of promo partners: http://bit.ly/partnerlist2016 

Again, for the above two groups, individually contacting them is best.

Your public social media channels — FB, Tw, Li, G+ 

Email all your email subscribers

Your Blog or Podcast, if any

If you have a Facebook Fan Page, consider “boosting” a post about your launch.  Even just $5 can make a difference.

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Your OUTER Circle:

Promotional Partners you don’t already know.  
Why reach out: http://bit.ly/whypromopartners
How to reach out: http://bit.ly/howtooutreach2016 

Paid ads on Google or more Facebook ads, if you have a budget to experiment with.

Cold individual outreach on LinkedIn to prospective clients.

For each of your launches (focused times in your business when you are filling client spots), keep circling back to these circles :)

Remember that you are simply giving each circle a chance (perhaps 1-2 weeks) to enroll or refer, before you move onto the next circle.

If your enrollment isn’t working at all, however, you need to revisit your Offer, and optimize it further.

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