1-to-1-only Client Communication Practice

Who it’s for:

The CEO or a board member prepping to talk to customers or investors internationally.

The result:

That person is better able to represent the company to international clients/investors.

Details:

  1. 8 hours of client communication practice per month.
  2. Focus on the Four Things (storytelling for business, filler word reduction, mirror neurons / speech practice, and vocabulary upgrade — in other words, public speaking) and the Taxi Test.
  3. Flexible scheduling to accomodate your calendar.

See the FAQ for more.

1-to-1 + Internal Group Client Communication Practice

Who it’s for:

3-4 people your company is prepping to talk to customers or investors internationally.
Half of each person’s class time is 1-to-1, half is in your company’s internal group.

The result:

More people in your company are able to represent the company to international clients/investors.

Details:

  1. Each person in your group gets 8 hours of client communication practice per month: four (4) one-hour one-to-one practice sessions per person per month, plus four (4) one-hour group sessions per month (8 sessions per person per month).
  2. Focus on the Four Things (storytelling for business, filler word reduction, mirror neurons / speech practice, and vocabulary upgrade — in other words, public speaking) and the Taxi Test.
  3. For groups of up to 4 people.

See the FAQ for more.

Pro tip: Put 4 people in your group, so you spread the cost out across as many people as possible.

Comprehensive Communications

The overview:

The most comprehensive preparation for your customer- and investor-facing activities.

The result:

Your clients/investors understand your pitch better and can better connect it to how it solves a problem they are having.

Your employees are equipped to not only pitch your product/service, but to comfortably respond to the customer’s/investor’s questions.

Details:

Includes the 1-to-1 + Internal Group Client Communication Practice, but it also includes…

  1. Unlimited classes for your group of 3-4 client communication students (not an unlimited group size, just an unlimited number of classes for those three-four people).
  2. Professionally rewritten transcripts your people can use to deliver more effective sales and investment presentations. Your presentations will have:
    • Smoother, more effective transitions and more precise vocabulary.
    • Comparisons to other products/services/methods, so your customer understands your product better.
    • A tighter problem/solution cycle, a key cycle that determines the link between the problem the customer is facing and your product’s ability to solve it.
  3. Professionally-written responses to the FAQs your clients often ask.
  4. Mp3 recordings of a native English-speaker reading the FAQ responses.
  5. Mp3 recordings of a native English-speaker reading the presentation.
  6. Ancillary followup materials (PDFs, pitch decks, etc) you’ll need to persuade the stakeholders you DON’T meet with.

See the FAQ for more.

Custom-built concierge service

The overview:

Service varies according to customer need.

 

Details:

Designed according to the customer’s needs (of course, since it’s custom), but often includes:

  1. Custom-designed, professionally-made pitch deck laid out to achieve your specific target.
  2. In-person delivery of your pitches.
  3. Direct communication with customers/investors (think Fractional Communications Director).

See the FAQ for more.

Interested? Some FAQs and good things to know:

Why are you focused on the "Why are we here" so much?

There are a lot of cheaper options out there, so it’s very important for us to stay focused on what problem you’re trying to solve, how to solve it, and how solving it will make your life better.

Since a large part of our initial conversations will be to figure out what it is that you’re trying to do and how we can help with that, it’s important in the early days for you to keep in mind why you’re here and why you’re talking to us.

In other words, we’ll often be asking you what problem are you here to solve, and why are you trying to do it with us, and not someone else?

Does the supervisor need to be involved?
Yes. Whoever is paying the bills, whoever has in mind the business benefit they want to get out of the engagement, needs to be indirectly involved. This does not mean the supervisor needs to attend classes. It means that about once a month, the supervisor and Matt will need to talk for about 30 minutes to review how things are going and which problem we need to focus on solving in the coming month. This “directional tweaking” involvement, indirect as it may be, approximately doubles the business benefit to the client.
How long does the program take?
The bulk of the work gets done in 4-6 months, with the main improvement typically coming in months 3 and 4. We’ll do a little project so you get some improvement right away in the first couple weeks, but plan on the total program taking 4-6 months.

The program is month to month, and there is no contract, so if you want to leave after one month, there is nothing stopping you.

Some clients stay for a couple months, others for 10 years. Most are somewhere inbetween. The main improvement comes in months 3 and 4, so we highly recommend sticking with it at least that long.

What makes a successful client?
Based on over 10 years of doing this, I’ve seen three traits that successful clients all have. They are:

  1. A history of serial problem solving.
  2. A frustration coming from one of life’s slaps in the face.
  3. The fear of god (an external force that makes them want to solve the problem that #2 brought to the forefront).

Look inside yourself and get in touch with these three traits in you. You’ll get a lot more out of it if you keep them close at hand!

 

If you want to hear more on that subject, listen to this podcast episode:

What's this I hear about extra sessions being free?
It’s true. If you are preparing for a particular project (a particular investor pitch, or a meeting with a client), remember, our job is to prepare you for that meeting, not to count sessions.

That means that if you need some extra practice, you just say so. We’re here for you. We get the job done, we don’t count sessions.

Does the price change if I want more or fewer classes?

No. Remember, we are selling a solution to a problem, not time. If you want fewer classes, the price won’t change. If you want more classes, the price won’t change.

If you’re currently at 2 classes per week and you want to do three, just say so. We’ll do three, and there will be no extra charge. Likewise, if you are currently at 2 classes per week and you want to do one, just say so. We’ll do one, and your monthly price will stay the same. If you are currently at 2 classes per week and you want to do one hundred classes per week, just say so, and we’ll do a hundred. That has never happened, but we’ll figure it out. 😉

Think of it like an all-you-can-eat buffet. You pay to enter the buffet. From there, you can eat 1 steak or you can eat 100 steaks. It’s up to you.

Is there a cancellation fee or refund?

No. If you want to cancel a class, just don’t show up. There’s no fee. There’s also no refund. If you want to reschedule, let’s reschedule. If not, don’t. 

Can we do evenings or weekends?

Technically, yes. But keep in mind that everyone seems to like evenings and weekends, so those tend to be full. There is a waiting list for evenings and weekends, but the waiting list is usually about 3 months. We’ll have a better chance of working together if you can find an hour or two of weekday times.

Is it month to month, or is there a contract?
Prices are month-to-month, and there is no contract. So technically, you could just go for a month. But I’ve been doing this for 15 years, and I’ve never seen anyone make significant progress in a month. I would suggest a minimum of two months, and preferably three. Three gets you to the point where you can say later, “I made significant progress against my goal.” We have clients who have been with us for two years, or 5 years or even 10 years, where together we grow from project to project, but if you are a short-term kind of person and those kinds of long-term engagements aren’t your cup of tea, plan on making the biggest progress in months 3 and 4.
When will you bill me?

We will bill you at the beginning of our work, for the following month, and then each month after that. So basically, you are pre-paying for each month.

Don’t forget, there is no long-term commitment and no contract, so if you want to stop, just don’t pay for the next period.

Are you available outside scheduled times, too?
Yes, absolutely. No matter what package you get, they all come with one thing: Whenever you need help between sessions, just email, text, or call us. Any time. There’s no extra charge for it. Maybe you want an extra session to prepare for a particular presentation or interview, or you’re trying to read an email and you’re not sure what it means, or you are writing one and you want someone to make sure everything is correct before you hit send, or you’re getting ready for a phone call and you want to practice, or something else. Just reach out. We’re your coaches all the time, not just during our sessions.