What To Do When You Have So Many Leads You Can’t Keep Up With Them / Ep. 254

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Transcript:

This is episode 254 of Bella in Your Business. Hi there, I’m Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting. You might know me from CBS, NBC, Fox, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, or maybe you’ve seen me speak on stage or read my book, The Four Dogs That Every Business Owner Needs. In any case, get ready because you’re about to get your hashtag Bella Butt Kickin’ in this next episode of Bella in Your Business.

So what do you say? Let’s get ready and jump. Welcome everybody to another episode of Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, and today I’ve got an interesting topic for you that’s been completely inspired by our clients. I have so many of you saying, “My gosh, I cannot keep up with all the leads.” There’s a lot of stuff that happens with that, and I want to talk about them today. It’s very stressful when you feel like you have so many leads coming in and all this potential business. I mean, let’s just say for the sake of this podcast that a new client could be worth maybe $2,500 for the year. So if you miss out on four new clients, that could be $10,000 because you don’t have the proper staffing or because you didn’t follow up with the lead. Now let’s take that even a next step and say maybe you have a goal to reach $100,000 this year, but you only came shy of it because every problem you think about is going to be under these two categories: client and staff.

What I’m doing and what I’ve prepared is teaching you how to get more clients and get more staff via marketing. What? Yeah, no, it’s seriously a problem that you’re always going to have unless you solve it systematically—and you’re not alone. Every single pet sitting and dog walking business goes through this exact same thing. I mean, shoot me with a problem and I’ll tell you it’s because you’re burnt out or running around because you don’t have enough staff. You want to grow and expand the business but don’t have enough money—it’s because you don’t have enough clients. Literally, the backbone of your entire company is marketing. It’s marketing to get that specific exact type of client you want, and it’s marketing to get that specific exact kind of employee you want. But unfortunately, most of you only market for one of those things. And I’ll give you a big guess on what it is.

When you do market for only clients, because that’s what I’m guessing, you market for the industry. You don’t even market for exactly who you want. You have no idea who you want, right? You’re like, “I’ll take anyone that has a pet.” No, guys, no. So listen, honestly, my team and I have been working on this for the past four months—four months because I’ve been doing a lot of traveling, as you know—but four months nonetheless. So do you want to know what it is? It’s huge. Like, it really is huge. It’s literally going to be the key that’s going to help unlock a lot of things. Once and for all, we’re going to solve this problem of how to get more clients and more staff because I’ve created a brand new workshop for you.

It’s a complete blueprint of how to market your pet business in 2021 to get the kind of clients and staff that you want. I’m going to teach you what you’re doing wrong to get staff and what’s actually working right now with my clients to get staff. I’m also going to show you how the influx in clients is an opportunity for you to attract exactly what kind of clients you want. Imagine having a dream staff and dream clients. That reality can come true. So, guys, this is it. We’ve been working on it, like I said, for the past four months so that we can solve this one problem for you.

Here’s the deal: it’s going to be held live on September 29th at 6 p.m. You’re going to receive lifetime access to this workshop so you can listen at any point that you want. You’re going to have a live Q&A with me, and you know that I get really excited and we get really deep and I answer all of your questions. Most of the time, I don’t even want to say goodbye to you. Consider this your chance to really work with me if we’ve never worked together. And the workbook—I’m going to have a beautifully designed workbook for you to work along with me. And the best part about this is it’s not going to be $250. It’s not going to be $99. It literally is going to be the cost to cover my staff, my podcast producer, my assistant, and the cost of creating this workbook and slides for you. It is seven dollars. Seven freaking dollars.

You guys, like—it’s a no-brainer. I know that everybody needs this. I feel like if you can unlock this one key, it can really, really help you. So I want you to go to jumpconsulting.net/signup. Jumpybot will pop up, grab your information, and take care of the registration. You may be asking yourself, “Should I attend this workshop?” Well, it’s quite simple. Do you want to grow your business? Because you can’t do it unless you have more clients and staff. Let’s fix this problem once and for all. Let’s stop hoping and wishing new clients and team members are just going to magically appear out of thin air. You have to take action if you want to grow.

Those are the two sides of your business that you always need to be growing. Growing is never easy, and you’ve got to get uncomfortable. Magic happens outside your comfort zone. I want to help you create this roadmap. I want to inspire hope and help you realize that you can have the staff of your dreams and the clients of your dreams. So, guys, don’t forget, I’m here to help you. Wednesday, September 29th at 6 p.m. Eastern—I really hope I see you there. Again, go to jumpconsulting.net/signup.

Now that’s the first thing: raise prices. The second thing that I want you to do when you have so many leads that you can’t keep up with them is start getting picky. We don’t need to take every Tom, Dick, and Harry. If you’re a dog walking company and you’re getting inundated, it is perfectly okay to say that we are not accepting any new clients unless they’re three or more times a week. Now is the time to create what you’ve always wanted. And it’s okay to say no—this is not a popularity contest. Your life is going to be so much better in the long run if you start building up with the kind of clients that you want and not the kind that are just coming to you.

I refuse to convince anybody that they need employees. I will not work with anyone who has independent contractors or hasn’t already made the decision that they want to switch over. It is not my job to convince you of that. And I respect you if that’s what you want, but I know my area of expertise—and what I believe through and through—is that employees are the way to go. You wouldn’t take dogs that are out on a chain or only want you to visit once a day, but a lot of you guys are taking clients that are jerking you around and asking for services at 7 p.m. the night before, and it’s adding to your stress. You don’t have to put up with that.

Now is the time to really shape and mold your influx of clients to figure out what kind you want to have and start attracting them. Start talking about them on your social media. When you post a picture of Rufus, talk about the kind of pet parent Rufus has, so that when other potential and existing clients see that, they actually think, “Wow, yes, I am Rufus’s parent—or those are the kind of clients she likes.” This will help you attract more of who you want.

The next thing I’m going to tell you when you have so many leads you can’t keep up with them is: you’ve got to learn how to hire better. I’ve had conversations with people willing to give up their business or cut off revenue streams because they didn’t have proper staff. If you had the perfect staff—everyone trained perfectly, clients loved them, they showed up, and communicated well—you’d have no problems today. So guess what? Go out there and find them.

The best way for me to understand if someone has a good hiring process or not is when they say, “I can’t hire anybody; nobody wants to work.” That’s a red flag—it tells me they haven’t tried and tested, haven’t used software, haven’t broken it into phases, and haven’t articulated exactly who they’re looking for. They haven’t quantified their yeses and nos. They’re being a victim. If that’s you, fix it. You are the problem—but you can change it.

When you fix the staffing problem, the lead problem disappears. Build your system so that hiring becomes easy, repeatable, and consistent. You can’t just hire—you have to onboard, train, and empower your people. Build a company culture that keeps great employees and attracts more.

Next, manage your leads better and follow up. I actually have a gift for you. If you go to jumpconsulting.net/episode254, you’ll find a downloadable chart for tracking leads: name, pet type, conversation date, service area, hot buttons, notes, and follow-up plan. How many of you have followed up with people who called you in June? Most people haven’t—because they’re overwhelmed and lack systems.

I also have resources for managing leads: Process Street, ClickUp, Slack, and Google Workspace. Personally, I use Slack for communication and Trello for project management. ClickUp is amazing—it handles to-do lists, docs, emails, events, reminders, time tracking, and more. You can even automate follow-ups using Zapier. But first, you have to decide to follow up, then figure out how, then systematize it—because you’ll never remember it all manually.

All right, you guys, I hope I haven’t been too harsh on you in this podcast. I’ve been talking to so many of you who listen religiously—thank you. I love being able to talk to you, find out what’s going on in your business, and help guide you toward what will work best for you. I do this because I love you. I really do.

I recently spoke at Social Media Week Lima in Ohio—it was amazing. Becky Lee from Paws Around Motown in Michigan actually came out, met all the speakers, and joined the VIP party. It was so much fun. I can’t stress enough how important it is to get out, network, and reignite your creativity. It will absolutely help your business.

Next week I’ll be heading to Milwaukee to do another eight-hour intensive with a client. We’ll be working on employee culture—from job ad to onboarding to training. Everything, including documentation, can be housed securely in software that connects to payroll and background systems. It’s so much easier when everything is streamlined.

If you need help, I am here. I’m running myself ragged helping everyone, and that’s part of why I’m tired! But I love what I do. If you’re scaling with employees or want to start, let’s talk. If you’re just starting out, I have a beginner’s guide on my website. Go to jumpconsulting.net and sign up for a free call.

I hope you’re having a wonderful summer wherever you are. There’s another wave of change coming as kids go back to school, and I hope your marketing reflects it. Always remember to keep jumping.

So what did you think? Did you love this episode? I sure hope you did because I put a lot of love into this for you. The best way you can show me that is by going to iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or wherever you listen to your podcast and leaving a review. I just might read it on the next episode. I also want to remind you that when life gets you down, remember to always keep jumping. Thanks for listening.