Last week, I stopped working with Ed, a financial advisor in Michigan. Ed wanted me to give him the “magic formula” that would double his income. He wanted to get results he hadn’t been getting by merely learning some “new tricks”. Most importantly, he wanted me to motivate him. Ed didn’t want to do the…
Marianne is a therapist in northern California who works with families with troubled teens. She has, over the past fifteen years, created a somewhat successful practice. But she recently consulted me because she was worried that the economy had made it difficult to keep her practice full; she felt that she was no longer making
As I was preparing to present a workshop in Indiana for a room full of financial professionals, I overheard a small group of them discussing fishing. “Chris,” I called out to one of them at the beginning of the workshop, “When you go fishing, are you looking for just anything that will take your bait,
Two weeks ago, I wrote about the problem that occurs when a prospective client runs “hot and cold”—approaching you as if he’s interested and then blowing you off as if he’s not. I called this phenomenon the Approach-Avoidance Tango, because it has the air of a dance. After reading my advice, Mitch, one of my
It can happen to anyone who sells a service: We speak to someone who is thinking about hiring us. She calls again with a question and leaves a message to call her back. We’re enthusiastic about the prospect of working with her—but when we return her call, she’s suddenly unavailable—forever. This is the “Approach-Avoidance Tango”,
A few years ago, I asked one of my clients, Carrie, if she had started thinking about saving for college for her one-year-old daughter, Megan. “It’s funny that you’re asking me this now,” Carrie replied, “Because I just recently sat down with a specialist in college planning.” When Carrie told me the name of the
