Latest / Stronger Business Together / E39 Charge for your Advice with Andi Spragg
Transcript
- Granger Forson: So this is the Stronger Business Together podcast where business earners learn from each other. No theory, no gurus, just real journeys and overcoming hurdles. Today, I'm joined by Andie Sprague of the Holistic Wellness Center. And like any owner, she's in that middle of building things, fixing things and growing something that really matters to her. So Andie, welcome. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Thank you Granger, hello, it's such a pleasure to be here. Granger Forson: Fantastic. Right, let's do act one now. Your business. So in plain English, what does your business do? Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Sure. So I founded Holistic Wellness Centre to help people get to the root cause of their health conditions. Often we are, we go to the doctor, we're given some medication, we're told there's nothing that can be done and it's just not true. There's so much that can be done. People don't need to suffer unnecessarily. There is so many different aspects to our health that we don't fully understand. And that's why I've been put here, is to help people get to the root cause of their health condition. without the need for medication, which can be quite toxic, to understand what's happening in their body, why it's happening. And when we understand that, we can come up with a solution and a protocol to help them get better. And I absolutely love making people's lives better. Granger Forson: Wow, that's fantastic. Yes, Andie - Wholistic Wellness: you Granger Forson: I love getting to root causes of things anyway, but actually root causes of people's health and what's going on when they're struggling to understand. Okay, so there's a lot of aspects of health, et cetera. So who do you love helping and what are they typically dealing with? Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Sure, so I often have clients who sort of come to the end of the road with the Western medical systems, so they're not really getting help from their doctor or the doctor's not listening or understanding, or they just keep giving them prescriptions, medication, trying different ones, and it's just not working. So often people come to me quite late in that process when they've gone down quite a long journey of ill health, of different symptoms. There are also a group of people who don't want to go to the doctor in the first place. They'd rather see someone like me because they understand that there's a reason why their body's not working. It's not rocket science. It's just good logic, nutrition, lifestyle, toxicity. So they come to me because they know that that's my specialty is what I like to work with. Granger Forson: Excellent. Yes. Yeah, I can see that and understand how that would work. Helping people to diagnose what's going on with their bodies, because actually that's what's not working correctly. And often there are lots of factors that allow that to happen rather than using chemicals to try and get those balances sorted out. Let's sort out what's going wrong with it and do that. OK, fantastic. I like that. And I can see how that is a real benefit. So. The business, when did it start? What was that original spark, that idea? Andie - Wholistic Wellness: In my head, Granger, it started a really long time ago. Right when I was a child, I would often go to the doctor, back when we had a family doctor, I don't know if you remember that, but we used to know our doctor and we used to see the same one. Rarely could you tell me what was going on with my body. I usually got the response, it's just a virus. And later on I went to study human biology at medical school alongside the doctors. I just didn't study medicine. Similar training. I sat in the same lectures often, had the same lecturers. I even got the privilege of dissecting a human body. And I know not everybody would find that an absolute privilege, but I certainly did. That's why I chose Granger Forson: Yeah. Yeah. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: to go to King's instead of UCL. because they could promise me that. And I went on my own health journey, which is often where a of health practitioners start from, isn't it? That they've got their own health problems and they're not getting answers. And I was having gastric issues, which is really common. mean, lots of people don't even realize they've got gastric problems. They just think it's normal. So I went to my GP and she couldn't help me. So she sent me for a test that I really shouldn't have had at that age. It didn't seem quite right, Granger, when she said to have this test. It was called a barium enema. But the doctor knew best and I went to book the appointment with the receptionist and she took one look at me and said, Andie, how old are you? And I was clearly young. I was 19. And so I said that to her and she said, but you shouldn't have a barium enema until you'll be on 60 years old. And that was quite, yeah, was quite an important period of my awakening with it because she said to me, radiation in that area of your body, the pelvic area of your body, as a woman at 19 could make you infertile. And this is an organization that I was told I should trust. And by then I'd completely lost faith and I went through a journey of being pushed from pillar to post, GP to consultant. I saw some of the best consultants there were for gastric health and they couldn't help me. So I turned back to my degree, Grainger, and I just thought, you know, I'm studying all this stuff. I'm sat in with the doctors. I'm going to fix myself. So I did. And there's a lot I learned so much on the way. It took quite a long time to fix me completely because there's lots of elements of gastric health that come into play and the science just hadn't caught up because often the scientific studies that are done, the only ones that are done are the ones that make the pharmaceutical companies money. It's not the one, I mean someone's got to fund them right, so it's not the ones about Granger Forson: Yes. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: how we should be eating because food you can't patent. So, or perhaps how the gastric system actually works and that science took a really long time to come out. It's fairly new but now I've pieced it all together and I am... I am so healthy and on that journey people would come to me and ask for health advice because you don't just learn about the gut as part of the health, you learn about the whole body and as Hippocrates said two and a half thousand years ago, incredible man, he said all disease starts in the gut. Now I tell you Granger, you didn't know about modern dentistry and we can talk about that if you like, but all other disease does start in the gut. It's incredible Granger Forson: Mmm. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: and it's funny because the doctors They take the Hippocratic oath, don't they? Hippocratic being of Hippocrates, he was the father of modern medicine. He was a really intelligent man. Yeah, Granger Forson: Okay, didn't know that. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: I'm so glad that you're learning something. I love to help people learn. So hopefully our listeners have learned that. So we really must be paying attention to our guts, not just the health as in the microbiome, but the gut function as well. And that's not something that's really addressed and it's something I love to do with my clients. So I fixed my gut and people kept coming to me and asking me for health advice. And I said, just do this or, you know, try that. And they come back to me and say, Andie, I feel so much better. And it was just... such a wonderful experience to be able to change people's lives Granger Forson: Brilliant. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: like that, you know, and make getting out of bed a little easier the next day. And yeah, just love what I do. So I had to found Holistic Wellness Centre. I founded officially in April 21, which is a very interesting time in terms of health to, to Granger Forson: Yes. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: found a wellness business. I didn't really agree with everything that was going on. And I realized that we really needed to get to a root cause approach to help people strengthen their immune systems. Interestingly, the vast majority of which as much as 70 to 80 % of our immune system is in our guts. So if our guts are damaged, if they're not functioning right, our immune systems are gonna be really weak, right? So this is... what the driver was is all the knowledge and experience I had and just the joy of helping people and help them truly understand how the body works, why it does what it does, it's extremely logical and what we can do to help it without the need of chemical intervention which causes toxicity and it causes nasty side effects. We just need Granger Forson: Yeah. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: to get to the root cause, help the body heal naturally at the root cause and then it's just amazing what we can achieve. Granger Forson: Fantastic. Well, what a journey. What a journey Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Hmm. Granger Forson: and an understanding that you've created all of that research that you've learned to understand. And now you help your clients fix some of those problems that may be not being fixed by doctors at times. okay. So why do customers come and knock on your door? You why do they pick you? How do you delight them? Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Sure, Ranger. Well, hopefully you've seen some of my passion. I'm absolutely obsessed with health and helping people. And it goes so much further than beyond just helping people. I think we all want to do that, don't we? I mean, look at you and what you do with your business coaching and support. But it's helping people to understand the myths that are out there. And unfortunately, we are in an environment where there's a lot of bad information out there. And it's navigating that. It's teaching them what is being said and why it's being said and why that's only half the story. And I can use the science to explain to them the full story and what's the actual way to help, or the truth, and help them get better doing that. So that's what I love to do. I hope that's answered your question. Granger Forson: Hmm. Yeah, no, And if you can, you know, could you give us a customer success story that you're really proud of? Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Sure. I've just posted a YouTube video yet to be edited of actually a lady who I've been friends with for 15 years and she was trying and trying to lose weight for such a long time and she couldn't do it and she went to so many elite sports nutritionists, she was paying really good money to see them, you know, they're telling all these things and she could not make traction with it that was lasting. So she came to me and she said, Andie, I've seen your flyers, you know, I've known you a long time. You're slim. You're obviously doing something right. Could you teach me how to lose weight in a sustainable way that I can make it part of my lifestyle without... not having any fun, you know, I want to go out and have fun, I want to go out for dinner and you know have the odd cocktail but I want it to be sustainable and to be fun if you like to lose weight and it was just such a beautiful journey with her Granger. We started out, because she didn't know why she couldn't lose weight, she tried lots of different things, we started out with my gold Granger Forson: Mm-hmm. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: standard approach which is to use a really extensive questionnaire. When people see it, they say to me, Andie, I have no idea how much is involved with my health because there's so many questions in it. It's 700 questions long and it can be laborious. A lot of it's yes, no's. So, you know, that can be quick, but the realization, the light bulb moment for them when they realize, my goodness, me doing that impacts my health. And it is just wonderful for people to realize how nuanced health is. So she did my full questionnaire and we did some testing because sometimes I don't like to do testing with people because it can be unnecessarily expensive. You know I've been through that route and people have taken a lot of money from me and they didn't need to do those tests. So what I do is I use my questionnaire to assess with my clients whether I need to do testing or not and what I can do Granger Forson: Okay. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: to keep the cost down. but I can see a lot from the questionnaire, so I try to avoid it. We did test her thyroid because the thyroid is the metabolism organ in the body and that can cause weight problems. So we needed to make sure that was functioning correctly. So we did that. I looked at her questionnaire. She included a three day diet log. So I knew exactly what the kinds of things she was eating and what sort of nutrition profile she was getting. So no need for testing in that. And we, We went through the options. we worked on detoxification from her because she had suffered some exposure to mercury in her life and toxicity is retained in our fat. So sometimes the body doesn't want to lose the fat because it's storing away and protecting the toxicity from our bodies. So in order Granger Forson: Okay. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: to lose the weight, we need to help get rid of the toxins as well. So we did a bit that with her. because of the answers in her questionnaire. We also tested a thyroid to make sure there wasn't anything serious going on there. And we used the answers in her questionnaire to work out a protocol for her. So I set up a protocol and I taught her how food signals the body, what chemicals we might be exposed to that might be changing our biological... signalling and what might be disrupting our natural body responses and what we should be doing. And I talked her through how what we eat can really affect our things like how hungry we are and how long we're able to go without eating and what foods we should be eating for certain nutrients. We also talked about supplementation that could help her support her weight loss. There's certain supplements that we might use, for example, for blood sugar control and we don't don't need something like metformin, which some of our listeners will know is a drug often used in diabetes, actually there's perfectly Granger Forson: Right. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: healthy natural alternatives that are as effective. So having someone like me to work with that I could explain all of that to her in a totally holistic approach, as in a whole approach, and that's why I call my wellness centre Holistic Wellness Centre with a W, we could take a whole approach to it. And we came up with a protocol. And we checked in every six weeks. Some people would prefer more, some people would prefer less. It depends how they best work. And we just watched the weight drop off her and she said, Andie, I was so excited to get on the scales every day. I try not to get people to do it every day, but she wanted to do that. Granger Forson: Yeah. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: and she just loved watching the weight drop off and we plotted a graph and it was just wonderful to see. She lost more than 20 kilos in 18 months so she did it quite a lot slower than I could have done it with her but she did it in her own way. She brought all of our changes into her lifestyle and once she knew how to eat in the right way to signal her body to lose the weight she was away and she said Andie it's a mindset thing isn't it and she's a business coach as well so once that light bulb came on for her she was able to get on board with it and go with it so she was absolutely Granger Forson: Well, then. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: delighted and I'd encourage anyone to go and listen to that on YouTube. Granger Forson: Yes, look forward to seeing that. So, you know, we're talking about business here. So, you know, what are you aiming for your business in the next 12 months and why? Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Sure, just growth granger to get out there in front of more people and to have them hear that there's another way. know, we don't have to struggle to get an appointment with our GP, which isn't very easy now. We don't get enough time with them and often the answer that they have in their toolkit, it's not their fault, but their toolkit is quite limited and it is generally a green piece of paper with the drug attached to it. So reaching to more people who want to get to the root cause of their house condition because if they're not doing it now, they are storing up disease. So all medication does at best is suppress a symptom and it's going to pop up somewhere else in something far worse next time and as we age... it's going to get worse. It's going to develop into something like cancer or dementia or one of these nasty diseases or even autoimmune diseases and these are really common now. So what I love to do is get people at the root cause, getting them better so that they don't develop disease later in life. So getting in front of people in the next 12 months, I'm doing loads of podcasts, I'm doing loads of talks. So just really getting the exposure and being heard. Granger Forson: Brilliant, yes, really important aspect of business development is being heard, letting people understand who you are, what you do. So fantastic, being on this podcast is part of that, so awesome. So let's move on to Act Two, your journey. running a business, there are highs and lows, there are those difficult moments. What have been some highs and lows for you over the past few years? Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Sure. Well, it's the client interactions and just seeing how well they can become and feel. This lady that lost 20 kilos remarked on the amount of energy she's got and she never really, I don't think she remembered what it felt like to have that much energy because we get so used to just feeling tired, don't we? It's that scenario of boiling a frog. Do you know what I mean? Where if you put Granger Forson: Yeah. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: a frog into cold water and you slowly heat it up, It won't necessarily notice that it's getting quite hot until quite late. But if you try and pop a frog into extremely hot water, it will notice quickly and jump out and do something about it. And this is the same with health. Health problems come on us gradually and they slowly develop. And we don't realize how bad we're feeling, often until it's very, very late or until, you know, often never. So what I love to do is help people stop that happening and get them right to a point where they feel incredible. very quickly and it is entirely possible. Honestly, I can't tell you how happy I am when I come off calls with clients and they've said how much they've enjoyed working with me, the progress they've made and how well they feel. It really makes me get out of bed in the day. And I love explaining to people what's happening in their body and why, because that's not something they're getting from their doctor. The doctor doesn't have time and they don't tend to have that training. So the real highs for me are the successes like someone losing 20 kg or bringing a baby into this world when a woman's been told that she can't have children. like that really matter to me. Granger Forson: Put it in. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Lows, yeah, I mean of course there's been lows. There've been certain clients that I haven't been able to help, they've been too far down the line before they've come to me. I had a cancer client last year that she came to me very, very, very late and it was too late really to help turn her around and try to manage that cancer. And that can be very hard because I know I have the capacity to help people if they're willing and if they're open minded and they're willing to put in the work. it's when you put in the effort and explain to them what's happening in their body and why, and they've either come to you way too late or they don't follow your protocol and then something recurs or something else happens. Those can be really, really tough for me. Granger Forson: Right, yeah, yeah. Yeah, thank you for that share, definitely. I can see, know, helping people, as you say. I get those real highs when my clients get things and their businesses are successful and Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Hmm. Granger Forson: they achieve what they set out to achieve, you know, and we get the lows when people don't get it and don't want to do the work. You know, it's hard to convince people sometimes to be able to do that, but often that's a case of, you know, practice what you preach. I don't advise anything to my clients that I'm not prepared to do myself. And I know that's almost within Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Absolutely. Granger Forson: you and the way that you've talked about how you've healed yourself first. So that Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Mm. Granger Forson: helps us through those difficult times, et cetera. OK, offer. You have an offer of services. What's changed over time? Why did you change your mind? Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Sure Granger, so initially I started off doing a more of a one and done approach. So I'll see my clients, I'll have a follow up with them. I'll give them all the information they need and let them go away and do it because I don't like them to spend an awful lot of money when they don't need to, right? And that's how I like to be dealt with and I'm a sort of person where I give me all the information, I'll just go and do it, yeah? But I'm learning. interestingly that some people want their hands to be held and of course they do, you know we're all different. So I've started to do more of the coaching and more of the hand holding and I'm really enjoying that. Having these regular touch points with my clients, holding them to account because some of them do fall off the wagon. We're all human aren't we and we're all exposed to temptations and sometimes life gets in the way and it does take work as you said, it really does. I I think this is partly why the pop appeal approach can be quite attractive to people because they think well I'm not willing to make any changes I'll just pop a pill and carry on and that's going to come back and bite them in the bum quite hard you know in time. It might be a good short-term approach for them if they see improvement but it comes with a lot of costs including toxicity to the body to the liver to try and detoxify the pharmaceuticals and also you know, you're not getting to the root cause of why your body's not working. So handholding, coaching, regular touch points with clients. I'm really enjoying that side of things. Some people need more than others, but what I love is that I can mould my offering to exactly how they want to work and how they need me. So some people just want the information to go and do it by themselves, and some people will want handholding. Granger Forson: Yes, yeah, I can see how that change happened while you want to bring that in and yeah, helping people is in your nature. helping them Andie - Wholistic Wellness: you Granger Forson: actually achieve what you set out to ask them to do is a natural evolution of that. Yeah, I can really see how that works and what that purpose is for. know, when things get busy, when there's lots of things to do, when we're under pressure, things can go wrong in our business. You know, what typically can go wrong in your business when you're under pressure and how have you learned to fix that? Andie - Wholistic Wellness: My goodness, Granger, that's a good question. I suppose just having a lot to manage because I'm by myself doing all of this and it's not my only job. And really, I'm learning lately to try and bake in firefighting time. Do you know what I mean? Because I often book my diary out so much and then there's no room for anything to fall out or to come in that's more important. So I'm really learning that I'm able to focus better and to work more effectively when I've booked out breathing time or fire fighting time. So that's been a really wonderful revelation. And when I listen back to this podcast, I'm hoping that it will embed this in my brain that I need to make more time for just catching up because there's countless emails coming in and there's a client that just wants a touch point and there's a new client call to do as I'm sure Granger Forson: Yeah. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: you're aware, it's building the pipeline as well. as well as Granger Forson: Yeah. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: encouraging and supporting the people I already have on my books. So it's a challenge. Granger Forson: And absolutely, yes, I totally agree and understand this. of the things, one of the bits of advice I give to some of my very busy clients when they are not being able to get things done is just put a slot in your diary, as you call it firefighting, I call it emergency time. And it doesn't matter if Andie - Wholistic Wellness: you Granger Forson: you don't need to use it that day, then do something more valuable for the business that needs to happen. But at least the space Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Yeah. Granger Forson: is there that allows you to make that happen. So when you're planning the week, when you're planning the day, You don't fully book it. You actually give your Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Hmm. Granger Forson: space to breathe and understand. So yeah, brilliant, fantastic. Things zap energy from our businesses, things we don't like doing, we may be outsourced. What have you done in your business that brings energy back for you? Andie - Wholistic Wellness: My goodness, that's a good question. It's always seeing the clients, Granger. I love people. You know, you look at a person and you have no idea who they are, what makes them tick, what they've achieved in their life, you know, and people, when you get chatting to them and they're open, can be incredible. Some of them have done the most incredible things. And I just love supporting them in that because someone might want to go and climb a mountain, but at the moment they're experiencing sepsis. And this is a very real situation where the client mind. He wants to know that he can go and climb a mountain and not develop sepsis in the middle of his hike, right, because there's not a hospital around and he needs he needs help. So I just love being able to to give them that, you know. So, so yeah. Granger Forson: Yeah, but yes, yeah, focusing on the on the customer and delighting them. It's such an important part of any any business. You know, we can get hung up in our day to day activities and the things that we have to do and their marketing messages. But actually the most important thing is the customer success because that's what. purpose of the business was created for in the first place. Fantastic. Right, let's move on to Act 3 now, the hurdle. So what have you brought us our challenge for our discussion today? Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Thank you, Granger. I'm really excited about talking to you about this because I know you've got some beautiful insight and you will no doubt coach me to bring the answer out to myself probably as well. It's a really interesting one because a lot of companies will be marketing a product, right? But a bit like your business, I'm marketing a feeling or an achievement at the end of something that people can't necessarily see or envisage at the moment and they don't know how it feels to feel well. We talked about... the analogy of boiling a frog. So people don't realize how sick they've Granger Forson: Yeah. Yeah. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: become and how unwell they feel. So they Granger Forson: Mm-hmm. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: don't know what it feels like to feel energized and to feel well or for this problem to go away. So it's Granger Forson: Yeah. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: really selling something that can't be felt or seen at this stage. And how do I do that? How do I bring that alive for my clients? Granger Forson: Mmm. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: And how do I really instill that in someone as to what they could really achieve and what is totally within reach? Because often they've been down a journey with the current medical system and they're not feeling better. They're potentially feeling a lot worse. They've not seen results. Knowing that I'm their answer, I can give them the help they need and knowing what that will feel like before they've bought in. Does that make sense? Granger Forson: It does, it does. It's an interesting one. We were discussing this before we came on the air. How do you sell a feeling knowing that also that people got to spend money to do this. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Hmm. Granger Forson: It's not free and we're used to that. Freedness of the NHS aren't we so okay, so so that's that's the problem How do how do we get people through our I'm going to be you know focus on here on our sales process. Okay. Yeah, you know Sales is the art of delivering a success to the person that needs it Yeah for you. It's health and well-being for me It's there that businesses being the success that they want them to be at that moment in time so And so it's selling isn't a sleazy thing. It's actually helping somebody make a decision that will take them forward to achieve their outgoal, their goals that they want to achieve. And that's the real beautiful thing about selling that activity. So the first one we have to maybe get in our heads that we're about helping someone to achieve success rather than that we're just taking money off them. That's the product that we have to do. So, all right. So let's talk through the activity of selling that you do today. Someone comes knocking on the door and says, hi, Andie, I'd like to explore working with you. Where do you start? What's the sort of elements that you go through on that journey to the point of where you agree and they hand over money and you start working with them? Andie - Wholistic Wellness: So I usually have an initial discovery call. Granger Forson: Mm-hmm. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: I try not to leave it to be too long now because I've made that mistake before where it can be Granger Forson: Yep. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: too long and it doesn't always bring you business anyway. And it's costly of my time and my Granger Forson: Yep. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: energy. Understandably, people look to that discovery call as a way to obtain free information. And I've made that mistake before now, but... Granger Forson: Yep. Yes. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: because I'm just so desperate to help people and give them information and because information, well we live in a world where information is free now, largely with the internet and AI. Granger Forson: Yep, yeah, and Andie - Wholistic Wellness: It's not necessarily Granger Forson: yes. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: quality information. It's not personalised. It's not relevant to your situation. But people think that they can help themselves for free on the internet or they can go down the free NHS route. And the challenge for me is explaining to them, don't do what the NHS does. So it's not free. I do something very different. And I can explain to them in ways they can't be explained to by the doctor. So I do that discovery call to try and understand why my client has come to me, what they're experiencing, and just let them offload because we need to be heard. And that is not something that doctors have time for. It's not their fault. They don't have the time. There's too much demand. So, and Granger Forson: Yes. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: that's really wonderful feedback that I do get from my clients is that they feel seen and heard by me and they understand that I'm very empathetic with them. And now I've been through my own health journey. Granger Forson: And that's, but it's also, let's also understand that's your clients. When, when the clients join you, they're going to be heard, Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Mm-hmm. Granger Forson: they're going to be understood. You're going to be spending that time, et cetera, doing that. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: you Granger Forson: What we're talking about is the sales process of taking somebody through some steps to the point of where we want them to make a decision. And a decision can Andie - Wholistic Wellness: you Granger Forson: be no as much as yes. Okay. And, you know, we're often Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Absolutely. Granger Forson: get more no's or of that. We just need them to make a choice. So we've Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Yeah. Granger Forson: got that initial conversation. How long does that typically take? Andie - Wholistic Wellness: I try to allow 15 minutes but invariably it can go up to half an hour to have a really good in-depth discussion and talk Granger Forson: Okay. Yeah. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: to them about how I work. So then we'll Granger Forson: OK. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: go on to how I work and what the most appropriate route for them is because I work in different ways. Granger Forson: what happens next? So you've had this conversation, you've talked about, you've done a bit of diagnostic with them, you've done a little bit of talking about how you work. What happens next in the process of selling with them? Andie - Wholistic Wellness: But then we come on to cost and we try to... Granger Forson: Okay and is that all in this initial meeting? Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Yes, yeah, usually. Yeah. Granger Forson: Okay, okay, yeah. So you've in that sort of you're trying to do it you said about 15 minutes sometimes goes to half an hour you're trying to do a bit of a diagnosis you're trying to do an understanding of how you work and then you're trying to then make a proposal of what that cost is going to be. Yeah, okay. Alright, so when you do that typically do you track any numbers? Do you know how many people arrive and how many people say yes and how many people say no? Do you track that at all? Andie - Wholistic Wellness: I do have a very basic CRM system on my spreadsheet. Yeah, some of them are Granger Forson: Okay, perfect, perfect. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: really weak, weak leads, if you like, and some of them are much stronger. And Granger Forson: Okay? Yeah. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: you can usually tell that on the call and how the call ends. And quite often people do say, great, know, let's go ahead, I can see that you really know your stuff and I'm keen to get going. But often, Granger Forson: Yep. Yep. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: like this morning, I had a discovery call and there was a chap just doing research at that stage. So we were talking about helping him with his weight loss and optimizing energy. And he said, great, Andie, now I understand how you work and know what the costs are involved. I know how we're going to work together. That suits me because he asked for three weekly check ins. doing research at the moment, so I'm speaking to other providers. I really like what you've got to say because you understand the science and you're explaining to me what's happening and why, but I'm just going to go and check out the other people and then I'll make a decision. So I've said brilliant, I followed up with an email explaining what we'll do and what he'll get out of working with me. And then I've diarized to check in with him next week. Granger Forson: Okay, perfect. And in the sales conversation, we should always have what we call a bamfam, book a meeting from a meeting. If somebody is looking like there's a good prospect, we've got to that point of they're close to saying no, make sure we get another meeting in the diary, okay? It's a vital Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Okay. Granger Forson: important activity of a sales thing. But I just wanna go back to the of the structure of that conversation that you have with them. So. One of the things that you might like to consider is the fact of what you're doing is you're following a natural activity that you would do post-sale. Okay, so you're doing a diagnostic, you're building some understanding, you're explaining then how you would work together and then you're then presenting an amount of money that that would then deliver for them. So is there any way that we could move that around in the conversation? The reason being is, you know, what we want to do is we want to build up through the conversation key elements and steps where people are either saying no thank you earlier rather than waiting to the end when you've done all that activity and understanding. So you might open with the purpose of the meeting is for you to make a decision Of to use my services or go to the next step Maybe we want to break it down and say the next step is we'll have a longer diagnostic This is an initial consultation little initial conversation and understanding then we'll do a diagnostic and then i'll present to you An outcome and breaking it into smaller steps might make it easier to move people through But also give them the chance to opt out quicker. So you don't spend time doing that So thinking about maybe that structure is like at the beginning you say, okay Let me talk about how I work. This is how I work and these are the typical costs. Now you understand that. Would you like to go to the next stage, which is having a small diagnostic conversation about what's going on with you? So instantly what you're now doing is you're wheeling out those people that don't want to spend any time, don't want to spend any money. That call can be done in 10 minutes or 15 minutes and therefore you can move on your day and find more positive people. Those people then say, OK, I understand that. Yes, I'd like to explore more working with you. They haven't made a decision yet, but that's great. And now you're then doing the diagnostic So rather than doing it the money at the end, be upfront. Make people understand Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Mmm. Granger Forson: why you do that and what you're doing. So people are self-selecting then at those points. Bring those points up sooner within your conversation. How does that feel? Andie - Wholistic Wellness: That's really interesting. Very interesting, Granger. I love new perspectives. And I appreciate your thoughts because some people, yes, they're not wanting to spend any really amount of money and they're expecting it to be inexpensive. And I spend a lot of time working with my clients and it's taken many, many years of training. So that's... Granger Forson: absolutely. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: an interesting way of doing it. I wonder how, I mean, you obviously a business coach, you see this more than I do, but if I was a client, I would want to be heard and seen at the first part of the call because I'm there, you know, checking out the person, wondering if they can help me. So go Granger Forson: Absolutely, yes. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: ahead. Granger Forson: So yeah, absolutely. At beginning call, you're going to do some little bits of diagnosis, a little bit of understanding, but getting to this is what I sell, this is how we do it sooner, gives you that thing. So you don't spend a lot of time doing the diagnosis and then a lot of time building the next structure of it. It's just trying to move it up faster in the conversation. Now there are techniques that you can do pre them turning up. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Mm-hmm. Granger Forson: So in the sales world, use things called video sales letters. So we actually have a pre-scripted video that explains things to people about the process, what we're doing, what the outcomes are. It shows case studies, it shows things, know, so it can be two to three minutes long, it could be five minutes long, but it's a really descriptive understanding what it's doing. Now people are coming to you from different routes and for different reasons. Those could be sent to them. You could build different ones for different types of conditions as in overall conditions etc that helps people understand a little bit more so before they even turn up to you they've had this little video and even if they do turn up and you say have you watched the video yet and they say no i've not done that you say perfect let's just watch it now yeah and then we'll carry on with the conversation so again you're starting to see are they here just fishing around are they serious are they actually wanting to go to the next step in terms of building that relationship. And because they've watched a video beforehand, those ones that are, are people that want to move through this. They're more likely to come through it. If they haven't watched it, then actually, you know, maybe they're not really serious about what they're trying to do. So building those sort of pre-activities helps to seed it because at the end of the day, we need them to make a decision. Do they want to work with me or do they not? Yeah, and the sooner we can get through our process of discussing that, we can then move through further helping them through that diagnostic bit that you do next. And then you then think about what the actual program will be and then you make the final offer for them. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: That's really interesting. Thank you. It's all about validating your client, isn't it? Yeah, and Granger Forson: Absolutely. Yeah. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: that makes a lot of sense. That's a great idea. Thank you. Granger Forson: Yeah, yeah, it's called the pre-qualifying pre-qualifying step, you know, why are you turning up? Can you afford to turn up? I've I've recently looked at being on a piece of software that we're looking at. We were considering it. Yeah. And we got two emails and it even said in the calendar invite. Yeah. If you don't have X amount of dollars to spend per month on this, please don't turn up. Yeah. They were brutal on it. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Right, wow. Granger Forson: I was thinking, wow, that's really brutal. You know, maybe we don't. that doesn't fit well with me, it doesn't fit well with you. But it's these types of things that we're doing because we're trying to have good quality conversations with people that Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Mm. Granger Forson: we could really help to help them make a decision. Do they wish to buy or not? Yeah, so that's what we're trying to do through the process of selling of this of what we're the activity of selling that we're trying to do. Okay. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: That's fascinating. And would you put the price in the video as well? Or is that something that should come in? Yeah. Okay. That's interesting. Granger Forson: You could do, absolutely. Yeah, why not? Why not? Why not be truthful and honest, you know, right from the beginning? Because it helps people turn up that are more interested rather than just people that are turning up because they want to know more. Yeah, give Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Yeah. Granger Forson: that good, as much upfront and honest about it, you know, and be honest in your video, why it costs, yeah? And the understanding of it, your history and your knowledge. You've done some great stuff for understanding that. Use that to help. sow the seed, make people see that yes it's going to cost money and then build through your conversation from there. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Great advice, thank you Granger. Granger Forson: And there's some other little tip bits which on previous podcasts I talked about, which is at key stages through the conversation, ask the question, where are you? Are we at a 10? So we're gonna move on to the next step, which is a diagnostic, or are we a five and you're unsure, so you need more help understanding, or you're less than a five, actually let's not carry on. Challenge people. ask them what they want next in the conversation. They're all adults, they're all capable of doing that. You're being honest about the process. We're not hiding the sales process, we're making it very clear that we're aiming and helping them to make a decision. And then you can understand where they are and then move on to the next section of the conversation. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: fascinating, thank you. Granger Forson: pleasure. So what's your thoughts? What's an experiment you're going to do next to try something? Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Well, Granger, I'm going to take more control of this discovery call because I love what you say. It's it's wasting everyone's it's not wasting everyone's time in the same way as potentially I have been. I've always been encouraged to get the person to go through the pain almost when they're telling you about their story to help them buy into you. But this is quite interesting is to take a completely different approach, say. know this is how I work and like it or don't like it you know that's fine if you I'm not for you then there's another practitioner for you so I really like Granger Forson: Absolutely. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: that. Granger Forson: Yeah. you know, don't, don't, you know, throw away your good stuff to bring in some new stuff. Blend it together. Find what works for you. Experiment. Use your style, et cetera. But understand the steps of the journey of the sales. I had to go through that myself with selling business coaching. You know, we all go through this activity, but it's finding these elements and learning how to build them into your system that makes it successful. Because ultimately, as I said, A sale is a success for your client. That's where you want to get to. If people don't want it, then goodbye. Fantastic. So we're not trying to take money. We're not robbing people. We're not sort of doing things. We have, just like you, have huge amounts of experience. You know how you're going to help these people and take them forwards. What you need is to make them to make a choice. We have to build our process that helps them make a choice, whether that's yes or no, or can I get back to you tomorrow? If they do that. Book a call for tomorrow, bam fam. So, brilliant. Excellent. So Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Great. Granger Forson: let's do our wrap up and close now. What did you hear yourself say today that maybe surprised you? Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Wow, I'm not sure, Granger. I'm not sure I did hear anything that surprised me. Did anything surprise you? Granger Forson: I think what surprises me all the time is when we, you I often talk about selling on this podcast. I'm not a salesperson. There's some fantastic sales coaches out there that I've. But it's that realization that always surprises me when people think that sales is just something they do. It's a beautiful art. It is Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Hmm. Granger Forson: a process, a method that actually happens. It's not sleazy. It's actually something that's really important because we only help our clients when we make a sale. So let's actually help them make a choice. And it always Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Mm. Granger Forson: surprises me when people start to get that understanding, that realization. So yeah, there we go. Fantastic. So Andie - Wholistic Wellness: No, I think that, yeah. Granger Forson: Andie, finally. How can people get hold of you if they want to follow more of your journey? Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Thank you Granger. So the best place to go is my website, which is Holistic Wellness Centre with a W in front of the word Holistic, because my strap line is wellness for the whole, for the whole body. I'm also somewhat on social media, but there's only little of me. So most of my best stuff is on the website. There's a few YouTube videos. They can be found through my website, a few podcasts. I'm often doing speaking events. Just email me, get in touch, andy at holisticwarnerscentre.com. Granger Forson: Fantastic. Eddie, thank you so much for being so open and honest. I know our listeners will get an awful lot from today's conversation. It's been fantastic. Thank you. Andie - Wholistic Wellness: Thank you, Granger, it's been a pleasure. Granger Forson: Thanks for spending your time with us today. We're on a mission to make business owners stronger together. If this conversation has helped you, please like, comment and follow on whatever platform you're using. About 60 % of our audience hasn't done this yet and these small actions will help us reach more business owners just like you. if you want to join in the conversation as a guest or if you have a hurdle question for us to talk about at a future episode, reach out to us at info at strongerbusinesstogether.com. Now, Go make this week really successful and we'll see you next time. Cheers!