Why You Need to Give Your Clients Systems

When it comes to systems you don’t just need them to smoothly run your own business but to give great value to your clients. Let’s take the example of a coach who incorporates calls and occasionally content for her clients.

Your clients come to you to learn something they don’t know, to understand your process and get your insights and advice. And this is true whether you’re a fitness, nutrition, marketing, dating or writing coach. But if you depend on your clients to attend calls, take their own notes and then “go implement” between calls with little direction, then it can be frustrating for you both. 

Remember that we firmly believe that it’s not enough to know what to do (i.e. “go do marketing” or “exercise more”) – the real special sauce that your clients will pay you highly for is the process of how to do those things.

So instead of a 45 minute call where you discuss why your client bought ice cream instead of quinoa this week and isn’t following your nutrition advice, consider giving the intermediary steps.

This might look like a checklist sent by email or posted in Asana.
1. Add quinoa to grocery list – look for these brands, buy a small box/bag
2. Find a glass jar or container for quinoa so it looks great on your counter and is protected from bugs
3. Schedule 30 minutes this Saturday to cook the quinoa according to directions
4. Try these recipes to jazz it up

With this kind of direction, which may seem like hand holding, all of a sudden your client goes from thinking “quinoa, what the heck….” to “okay, I can see myself doing each of those steps.”

It’s also important to include visual clues, such as the recipe links, for your client. If you recommend certain brands then why not create a “Quinoa 101” PDF that you can email to clients with images of your favorite brands? Try putting yourself in the place of your client who will be standing in the aisle, confused, looking for a new food. If it’s not easy, of course she’s going to drift to the ice cream aisle! That’s familiar and comfortable.

This is even more important if you teach a virtual service like web design, graphics, HTML, or systems. Imagine how silly it would be to draw a picture of your client driving to the grocery store. But if you want your client to install a plugin on their website then a step by step tutorial with images is gold!

I know what you’re thinking: “this is too much work” and in some ways you’re right. If you had to do this every day for every client for every thing it would be overwhelming. BUT if you take the most common questions and suggestions and create a few each week, then you’re not only going to have a great database of systems for your clients to follow but you’ll be getting paid to do it!

Please, don’t take the next 6 months and stop working with clients to develop these systems! It’s best done while you’re working closely with a client. And these system guides can be used by many clients to add value to their programs.

Something that many entrepreneurs have trouble accepting is that you do not have to trade your time for money. If you teach a process, a system, a unique way of doing things, then you can effectively remove yourself from the conversation while still serving your client.

After all, if you had to describe, step by step, how to cook brown rice or edit a video file or do a lunge every day for years, it would not only be boring but an inefficient use of your time. Adding systems to your business for your clients adds value, leverages your time, and enables you to serve even more clients.