The Power of Collaborative Thinking

Last night I went to my monthly Mastermind meeting.

Because the Mastermind concept is so powerful, and often misused, I thought I’d share our process and some of last night’s results with you.

You don’t mind, do you?

Great, I didn’t think so. Ok, lets get started then.

One of our members, Cesar, owns a brick and mortar business. He offers industry specific pre-certification training to Spanish speaking immigrants.

Until yesterday we only knew Cesar hoped to bring a portion of his business online. But we didn’t really have an understanding as to WHY he wanted to do this. We assumed, for the most part, that he was looking to leverage technology to teach more people simultaneously.

We thought that goal was his primary motivation… that is, until I started digging a little deeper.

It turns out getting his course online, and consequently growing his business, IS one of his goals. But, it wouldn’t solve the problem he suffers from today - the problem that is currently stifling the growth of his business and causing him a great deal of stress.

This is what we found out:

Cesar spends an exorbitant amount of time answering the phone and explaining his program to prospects. And, to make things worse, only 1 in 10 of the callers actually convert to clients. That’s right, about 90% of his time on the phone is spent talking to people who are not interested in his program.

Constantly dealing with uninformed prospects robs him of the time he needs to work with his clients. But, conversely, ignoring those prospects ultimately results in a lack of clients.

Not good.

It seems Cesar was stuck in a catch 22 and he couldn’t see a way around the problem.

Why?

Well, I think it’s because…

A) He was too close to the problem.

B) His exposure to certain technologies was limited.

That being said, let’s move on….

So, after Cesar told us how this problem was really affecting his business, Todd, another member of our group, stepped in with a suggestion.

Todd works in - and is currently launching a start-up in - the telecommunications industry. The solution was immediately obvious to him.

He suggested Cesar use a “recorded messaging” service to pre-qualify and screen his prospects.

Instead of incoming calls being routed directly to his office, Todd suggesteed Cesar direct calls to a recorded message.

The brief message would explain (sell) his service and address the questions he normally answers on almost every incoming call. The prospects who remain interested after listening to the message just leave their contact information and Cesar calls them back.

After that, any additional questions that continually creep up are added to the recorded message to increase its effectiveness.

This will lead to Cesar talking only to those who are actually interested in what he has to offer. The number of people he deals with daily will drop and his conversion rate will sky-rocket.

But, most importantly, he’ll have much more time to serve his existing clients… and all of the new ones.

A simple, efficient, and effective solution to a problem that’s been plaguing Cesar for some time.

Hell yeah.

That’s the power of bringing a small group of folks from different industries, and backgrounds, to the same table.

Because of our differences, experiences and focus, each of us views the same problem from a different perspective. As a result, we each come up with a different possible solutions. Working with those suggestions we can mix, match and blend them into a viable solution for just about any problem put on the table.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot…

There was an unexpected side effect of this meeting, too.

Because my brain and attention were already focused on Cesar’s business, I went home and started outlining a  follow-up system to further increase his conversion rate. With this system he’ll be able to capture some of the “ones that got away” and fence sitters.

And then, today, still inspired, I mapped out a split-testing plan for both the recorded messages and the print ads which bring in the calls. If implemented, this should also have a significant impact on the growth of Cesar’s business.

And to think, this all came together because of a little collaborative thinking.

Powerful stuff, don’t you think?

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