Business and entrepreneurship is a lot like shepherding. A good shepherd stands guard over his sheep, protects his flock, feeds them and does things in their best interest.

In business we also feed, educate, train, or provide for our sheep through our products and services. It’s a great position to be in because we get to serve and truly make a difference through our businesses. However, time and time again entrepreneurs and business professionals find themselves struggling to fulfill their role as a “business shepherd” because they lack the knowledge of one critical thing…

How to attract a flock in the first place!

Without having a flock to tend to, you’re neither a shepherd nor in business. Sadly, it’s just a dream or a hobby. Even people that have been in business for years experience it so don’t beat yourself up about it (I did for a long time).

Knowing this is a challenge, it’s time to solve it so you have the chance to deliver your amazing products and services and make people’s lives better.

In the next few days we’ll be going over the steps any business should take to attract more clients and how to create a flock of your own.

Today, we’ll cover the first step of my C.A.L.F. Formula® for mastering client attraction in your christian business.

Step 1 – Capturing The Interest Of Your Flock

If you’re looking to attract more clients, let’s continue learning from the shepherd. After all, his purpose is tied to the work he does.

Before any sheep become part of your flock, there’s some ground work to be done. You must deliver something of value up front in order to get the interest of the sheep. Without having something of value to exchange, it’s extremely difficult to get the quality sheep you want and need.

Shepherds would get their sheep in several ways. They could buy the sheep, trade for sheep or find sheep that are wandering around and lost.

Despite how they would acquire the sheep, the shepherd had to have something to give in exchange for the sheep whether it was money, time, or gifts and talents. In your business, think about how you can create something valuable as an “exchange tool” to help you acquire your flock. 

You can pay for advertising to get in front of your potential clients. In this case, you’ll exchange money for an audience. You can partner with someone by offering them commission, support, knowledge or any other form of compensation in exchange for access to their flock. You can even invest hours of your time to go out and find your flock with little money on your part.

The main thing here is you must be willing to trade something to reach the people that need and want what you have, therefore becoming part of your flock.

Do you see the value of the tradeoff?

Now that you have a good idea about how to get in front of potential prospects, it’s now all about getting interest from them. In other words, why would they want to become part of your flock as opposed to someone else’s.

This often seems like a hard task to address but there are some things that your business has and/or does that others don’t and it’s your job to share what those things are. It comes down to reaching the sheep who are the right fit for your flock and communicating with them the value of your flock specific to their needs and desires.

To give you an example, let me share the story of someone who was part of my Christian business group here in Chicago. Her name is Ruth and she provided Mary Kay products. Ruth was very proud of the products she sold and was confident in their quality. The challenge Ruth had was when meeting new people at networking events.

At these events Ruth enthusiastically shared who she was and what she does but she shared with me that whenever she mentioned she was a Mary Kay consultant, people would become disinterested and carry on the conversation with others (how rude!).

Does that mean Ruth was destined to not have a flock simply because of what she does? Absolutely not.

Ruth didn’t quite know how to communicate her value as a shepherd and was speaking to the wrong flock. In fact, she was looking for sheep in the midst of cows and was using chicken as her bait.

In our conversation, I helped Ruth define what she really does. There are thousands of Mary Kay consultants out there and a lot of people have run into at least 2-3 in their lifetime, especially if you’re a woman.  What we needed to do is make Ruth more attractive to her flock to get their interest and have them desiring to know more.

How did we do this?

We transformed her “I’m a Mary Kay consultant” introduction to “I’m a beauty and confidence coach to women who have experienced cancer”. Can you tell the difference? One is being used by nearly everyone in the business so there’s no differentiation between your flock and theirs. However, the latter statement resonates with the flock that Ruth wanted to have which is women experiencing cancer. She now has a way to stand out and become the obvious choice for the people she truly wants to serve.

When she networks now, she has a more focused approach of where she networks. She now has a message that other people want to be a part of. Her sheep invite other similar sheep to be a part of what Ruth is doing.

But what about her products? She still provides them, but they are the way she delivers her “beauty and confidence coaching”, not the face of her business.

Wrapping it all up

In this first step of the C.A.L.F. Formula®, we just went through Capturing The Interest Of Your Flock. You now know how to stand out from the crowd and be desired by your sheep. We talked about how to position yourself better and offer something of value to get the interest. In Ruth’s case, now that she has a more specific focus, she can offer a Complimentary Beauty and Confidence Booster Session which is of value to her prospects.

What can you do in your business?

• Offer a free session?
• Offer a discount/coupon?
• Create a compelling offer?
• Offer free video tutorials?

There’s tons of things you can do but the main thing is to do something.

Remember, our flock is waiting and depending on us to step up and serve them. If we don’t do out part, we leave them out on their own in the wilderness to fight for themselves.

Luke 15:4-5 – “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

IT’S ACTION TIME

Take 1 minute and comment below. Share what was most valuable to you about this or the one thing that you’ll do to attract your flock this week?