Your Last Three Clients Show Where You Are

Imagine a private chef named Odile Marchetti who cooks dinner parties and weeknight meals for families in their homes. Over the winter, she reads the course from the first lesson to the last. Ask her what to say when a client asks why a dinner costs what it does, and she can tell you. The answer is one fact about the work, she says, and then quiet. Ask her how to raise a price, and she can tell you about the two dates. New clients pay it from the first, and current clients from the second.

In March, Odile decides that what she needs now is more clients. She has a new website built, and she spends April choosing the photos for it.

On April 20, Mrs. Fairweather writes to ask about a dinner for 12, and Odile quotes $2,400 for the evening. Mrs. Fairweather writes back that afternoon. “Can I ask why it’s $2,400?” Odile answers between two grocery runs. “I know that’s more than some chefs charge, but I shop at the farmers market that morning, and I’ve cooked privately for 11 years. I hope that works for you!” Mrs. Fairweather thanks her and books the chef her neighbor uses.

Suppose instead that Odile spends one evening in March with her sent emails and her calendar, before she does anything else. She looks at what she did with her last three clients. Then she checks it against the course, one part of her work at a time. Most of it holds up. Her website already says who she cooks for. She kept every date she gave. Her emails say “fee,” not “package.”

Then she finds her answers to the last three clients who asked why a dinner costs what it does. Each answer is a paragraph of reasons about Odile herself, and two of them end with “I hope that works for you!” Odile could explain to anyone why that loses clients. She did it all three times.

So Odile leaves the website alone and starts with what she says about her price. On April 20, when Mrs. Fairweather asks why the dinner is $2,400, Odile writes one sentence. “It covers the menu we plan together, the shopping, the cooking, and a kitchen left as I found it.” Then she stops. Mrs. Fairweather writes back to ask whether the menu can leave out shellfish. She books the dinner for May.

Odile knew the same lessons both times. What changed was what she checked. In the first version, she judged where she was by what she could explain. So she spent April on a website that already worked. In the second, she judged by what she had done. Her sent emails showed her the place where her knowing and her doing were furthest apart.

So start your own plan with the same check. Here is why what you did counts for more than what you know. Here, too, is how to measure the difference, and the six parts of your work to check.

A client sees only what you do

Mrs. Fairweather had no way to know what Odile knew. She had one email to go on. Here is the course’s view of why that matters. Everything a client judges you by is something you did. It might be the reply you sent, the date you kept, or the sentence after your price. What you could explain to a colleague reaches a client only when it shows up in one of those.

So the check asks what you did, not what you know. It covers six parts of your work, with three questions in each. It also asks you to answer from a record wherever one exists. Your memory of a meeting is built from how it felt from the inside. That is why a recording shows habits you could not hear at the time.

A sent email, a quote, your calendar, and your notes on each client hold what the client saw. Where there is no record, answer from memory, in the words you used. If you cannot remember the words, the course counts the answer as not done, because memory leans toward how a meeting felt.

The course suggests your last three clients, and here is its reason. Three clients are few enough to check in one evening. They are also enough that one unusual client does not decide an answer. A few questions ask about the last time something happened, such as a price increase. For those, use the last time, and leave out any question about something that has not happened yet.

Start where you could explain the most and did the least

Each question in the check gets two answers. The first is what you did, taken from the record, and every question is written so that yes means you did it. The second is whether you could tell a colleague, in one sentence, why the course says to do it.

When the answer is no and you could explain the reason, the question gets a mark. That is the kind of answer this check is looking for. You already have the reason, and what is missing is the habit.

When the answer is no and you could not explain the reason, it gets no mark yet. It needs the lesson again before it needs practice, so each question in the check links to the lesson that teaches it. A yes gets no mark either way.

Then count the marks in each part of your work. The part with the most marks is where your knowing and your doing are furthest apart, so start there. The course suggests adding a second part when it has as many marks, or one fewer. A difference of one mark is one question, which is too small to choose between. When more than two parts fit that rule, keep the two that come up with every new client, such as your price. You will use those every week.

Stop at two parts. Each part you choose asks you to do something differently with every client. So the course suggests no more than two at once.

Who is your work for, and what do you sell?

The first part is what you say your work is, and what a client buys from you. A client meets both before the first call, in your first sentence, your offer, and your website. Ask yourself these three questions:

When someone last asked what you do, what was your first sentence? Did it name the kind of client who hires you, before any hours or prices?
Did your last three new clients pay for one whole result, such as a project or a month, not an hour?
Have you read your website and your main social account as a stranger would? Have you rewritten the sentence or photo that placed you lowest?

What did you charge, and how did you change it?

The second part is your price, and what happened when you moved it. Here are its questions:

When you last raised your price, did your offer, your words, or your client list change with it?
Did new clients pay your new price from one date, and current clients from a later date you announced months ahead?
In the last three months, did every client pay your full price, with no discount, launch rate, or seasonal sale?

How did you come across in your last meetings?

The third part is how you sound and act in front of a client, apart from what you say about the work. It is the hardest part to remember accurately, so lean on records here most of all. These are its questions:

Have you recorded a real client call, or a role-play with a colleague, and counted the habits on it?
Look at your last three emails that made a recommendation. Did each one stand on its own, with no softening in front and no “does that make sense?” after it?
When a new client last asked you a question in a meeting, where did you stop? Did you stop once they could act on your answer, without adding an alternative, a caveat, or a story?

What did your last emails and answers say?

The fourth part is the words you write and say to clients, from your first reply to your last follow-up. Check these three:

In your last reply to an inquiry, did you write fee, retain, and agreement, with no package, book, contract, or deal?
The last time a client asked why it costs that, did you answer with one fact about the work, and then stop?
Did each follow-up on your last unanswered proposal carry something new for the client? That means an answer they lacked, a change on your side, or the next step with its date.

Could your last three clients count on you?

The fifth part is what your clients have learned about you since they hired you. These questions check it:

Did you keep every date you gave your last three clients, or tell them before it passed?
Before your last three quotes, did you check whether a smaller job would do, and say so when it would?
When someone last asked about a client’s home, family, or comings and goings, did you say nothing about the client?

What did you do with your nerves?

The sixth part is what your nerves made you do, before a meeting with a wealthy client and during it. These are its questions:

The last time you met a new client in their home, did you leave out the extras the job did not need? Those are extra preparation, extra formality, and a sorry when nothing had gone wrong.
Before your last high-stakes meeting, did you say your price aloud three times, and then stop preparing?
Since you set your current price, have you quoted it to every new client who asked, small jobs included?

Why answering from memory goes wrong

Imagine a specialist realtor named Corwin Pell who sells old houses in one town. He does the check on a Sunday in May, at his kitchen table, without opening his email. In the part about how he comes across, he answers yes to the question about softening. He remembers deciding in the spring to stop asking “Does that make sense?”

His marks land under his price, so he spends the next month on his price. Meanwhile, his last three emails to sellers each end with “Does that make sense?” In June, he writes to Mrs. Haldane with his advice on her asking price, and that email ends the same way. She forwards it to her husband, who writes back, “He doesn’t sound sure.” The Haldanes list the house with another agent.

Corwin’s mistake was answering from memory. He remembered the day he decided to stop, and not the emails he sent after it.

The version that works opens the sent folder first. Corwin finds the question at the end of all three emails, and he gives it a mark. Now how he comes across has as many marks as his price, so he starts with both. In June, his email to Mrs. Haldane gives his advice on her asking price and his reason, and then it stops. The Haldanes list the house with Corwin.

How to find where you are today

Choose an evening, and open every record you have. That means your sent emails, your quotes, your calendar, your notes on each client, and any recording of a call. Write the names of your last three clients at the top of a page.
Go through the questions one part at a time. Under each one, write what you did and the record that shows it. For example, a wedding photographer might write, “No. My reply to the Ashgroves on March 3 says ‘packages’ twice.”
Where there is no record, write what you remember saying, in the words you used. If you cannot remember the words, write “not sure,” and count it as not done.
Beside each answer, write whether you could tell a colleague in one sentence why the course says to do it. If you could not, open the lesson linked to that question and read it before you go on. For example, a tutor who cannot say why a follow-up has to carry something new reads that lesson the same evening.
Mark every question where you could explain it and did not do it. Count the marks in each of the six parts. For example, a home organizer might count three marks under her price, one under her words, and none anywhere else.
Choose the part with the most marks. Add a second part if it has as many marks, or one fewer. If more than two parts fit that rule, keep the two that come up with every new client. Write each part down with the records behind its marks. For example, a dog walker might write “my price,” because he gave the Ridleys and the Abbotts 10% off their first month.

Next: You will turn the one or two parts you chose into the three behaviors you will change first.