Panning for Gold: Renegotiating With Your Current Clients ⚜️

Hey guys. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning, Good morning. Who is happy they did not have to wake up at 6am for yoga this morning? Me. This is the first time in a while we have not done yoga in the mornings. But I am going to make you guys get up and move around this morning. But first I wanted to say good morning. Hello. For those of you who don't know me, I am the general counsel for Seven Figure msp. I've known good old Chris Weiser for almost six years now, if you can believe it. And I still like him and he still likes me, I think. But we, I love working with you guys. I love working with Seven Figure. It's been just amazing. I've been on board for almost two years now as general counsel. So I'm really happy to be here. We also have the MSP law firm which Chris and I started to specifically tailor legal help and advice and contracts for you all. Okay. And you all online. If you don't know about MSP Law firm, find me, email me, I'll hook you up. Okay. So let's talk about painting for gold. I'm actually really glad that Alan gave you guys the historical background about painting for gold and what that looked like because I'm kind of talking about that a little bit today. But what we're really talking about if we're getting into the nitty gritty, is renegotiating with your current clients. What is one of the main pillars that Seven Figure teaches you, especially when you first sign on, is that you've got gold sitting there on your books already that you need to mine. Right. Chris talked about that yesterday. What are some takeaways you have from Chris's talk yesterday? Any words that, that, that pop out after Chris talked to you guys yesterday afternoon in his keynote? I hear, I remember discomfort. Like you're going to be uncomfortable talking to people don't want to talk to. When you have to sell, when you have to market, you have to get out of your comfort zone. I remember emotions, right? Appeal to the emotions. So we're going to talk a little bit about that when we're talking about renegotiating with your current clients. Today we want to test your ability. We're going to do a workshop again. I'm going to make you guys get up and move to increase your value based pricing, not just cost based pricing. Okay, who hates negotiating? I want you guys to look at these slides on Mentimeter. I'm trying Mentimeter, please, please, please hook it up. Go to mentimeter. Tell me who hates negotiating? Okay. Who of you? If you say bring it on, that's a, bring it on. I love negotiating. B, I would rather swallow a rattlesnake. Right? We're in Texas. We're talking rattlesnakes. That's Liam. Or C, you know, I'll suffer through it. So. So answer A, B or C, who hates it? If you're like, I love negotiating. I love getting down dirty and getting to know people and becoming vulnerable and saying no to people. I love hearing no. Not a lot of people. Not a lot of us feel that way. Right? Wow. Okay. I love this. Some people all suffer through it. One person, I'd rather swallow a rattlesnake. Give me your answers. We're going to practice today because everything seven figure teaches you is worthless unless you actually do it right. Chris talked about someone the other day who he saw on Facebook who was like, oh, but it's really hard to actually make money. It's really hard to increase my mrr. Well, yeah, it takes work, right. And you have to put it into action. And you can do it. You can do it. We're going to practice today, so we got a lot of I'll sever through it answers. Okay, but what if you knew I'm trying to go to the next slide here. We got enough answers. Oh, some people are like, bring it on. I like it. I want to see that attitude today in our workshop. What if you knew, though, 100%, that you would achieve your goals in negotiating? If you knew, going into negotiation, I'm going to come out winning. I'm going to come out with exactly what I want. I'm going to make this happen. I know exactly what my goals are, and I'm going to achieve those goals. Would you feel a little bit better about it? Would you feel a lot more confident? Would you do it more? Yeah. Would you call up your current clients and say, hey, you know what? We haven't met in person in a few months. Let's sit down. Let's have lunch. Let me bring you some thoughts on how you can improve. If you knew that you were going to achieve your goals, you're going to be a lot more likely to do it. Okay. Panning for gold. I want to tell you all a little story. Yes, that's me. How many of you guys knew that there's a place in Arkansas where you can mine for diamonds? It's not gold. It's diamonds. But it's close. Yeah. Have you ever been there? It's a little outside Hot Springs. Murfreesboro is the name of the town, but it's Crater of Diamond State Park. And yes, I went there in May to look for diamonds. Now I would have been a lot more excited and would have spent a lot more hours digging in dirt if I was guaranteed to find a diamond. Right. If they were like, you are, you are leaving today with a diamond. I would have been there five days in a row. Right. That's not the promise. But on their website they do tell you that there have been some notable diamonds found there. Look at that, a 40.23 carat diamond. You guys, in the dirt in Arkansas. I mean, these are the stats that people are like, okay, I want to go dig for diamonds. I'm going to see what I can get. Of course, like a month after I was there, someone found like a 10 carat diamond. I was like, of course. Of course I didn't find it. Right. It was fun. Didn't find any diamonds, but it was a great, great time. So. So when we go in for negotiations, this is kind of what I think of as my mantra. I don't know if you guys have something that you think of when you're like, I'm going to go into a difficult situation. I have goals and I'm just hoping for the best. Right? You hope for the best, prepare for the worst and be unsurprised by anything in between. That's Maya Angelou, one of my favorite poets said that. But I want you to focus on this word prepare, okay? You don't just wing it. And that's a great thing about seven figure is that we help you be prepared. We give you all the tools you need to be prepared, especially when you're talking to your current clients. Here are some examples of negotiation tools.

Okay?

I want you to look at these and think what applies to me, what do I use when I'm negotiating? Maybe when you're negotiating with your spouse. Maybe when you're negotiating with a business partner. Maybe when you're negotiating on Facebook Marketplace. Maybe when you're negotiating with your six year old. Six year olds are really tough negotiators, y'.

All.

I have two daughters who are six and man, they remember everything. Remember everything. So be careful what you promise. So we have active listening, anchoring. Some of you may have learned about these negotiation tools. Persuasion. These are all just some examples. Not one is better than the other. Walking away. I'm going to come back to that one. Zopa. I'd never heard of this acronym, but the Zone of Possible Agreement. Know what that is before you go into the negotiation. Right. Know what your zone of possible agreement is. You should know that for your current clients. You should know them well enough to know what they need, what they're likely to agree to, mirroring, reflecting back what they tell you, what you see, letting them know that you see them. Letting them know that you hear them. Right? And there's others, too. So look at these that you might think of that might come to mind for those of you who read all the negotiation books, one of my favorite is the ability to walk away. That's a little harsh. We're not going to practice that today. But I have a theory, and you can disagree with me all you want, but especially as a lawyer, it might apply more to me than to MSPs, but I strongly believe that I am in the best position if I know what my walk away point is. And I'm willing to walk away. Okay? When I'm negotiating with people, I'm a trial lawyer by trade, okay? I'm not afraid of trial. You don't want to settle this case, fine. Juries love me. Let's go. If you have that attitude, you go in there with confidence and trust me, you're going to get things done a lot better, a lot more effectively than if you're like, I really just want to make this work. I don't want to have to go to trial. I don't want to have to keep coming back to them. I don't want to have to go find a new client. If you were like, you know what? I have a walkway number. I have my standards. I'm not going to go below that. And I'm willing to walk away. That's my theory. Some people, you know, it's a personality thing. You might have a different mentality, different personality that. That doesn't fit. So we want to work today on finding what works for you. So what negotiation tools do you use? We're going to do another little meantimeter here. What is the best. What negotiation tools do you use when you're negotiating? Give me some answers. Fill in the blanks. Do you mirror? Are you a great listener? Do you persuade? Do you bargain? Are you a bargainer? Yeah. Christian's like, yeah. What are your negotiation tools? I want to see the answers. Do I click on the next button? Button? People aren't getting me anything here. There we go. Oh, pressure. Fear. Okay, tell me, who said fear? Anybody in this room. What do you think they mean by fear? Walk away. I like it. Fear. Like, what are you going to do if you don't have cybersecurity? This data breach just happened to one of my other, you know, my clients. Who then became my client after the data breach. Hopefully. But another story of a data breach to scare them, right? Sometimes that's work. Sometimes that works. Sometimes that's what you gotta do. You gotta use fear. Listening. Very important to listen. A good business person can tell when they're not being listened to and they will walk away from you. Okay. Know the compromise point. Good. Maybe that's like the Zopa, the zone of the possible agreement. Don't take no for an answer. What do we learn about nos here at seven Figure getting your nos, that might just be the start of a new conversation. It means the conversation is still going. Right. Use those nos to your advantage. Awesome. So what do you think the best tool. I'm gonna go to the next one. Maria, what do you think the best tool or advantage is to have when you walk in to a negotiation? I already said what I think mine is the willingness to walk away. You guys know this movie? Oh, wait, we're going to fill in the blanks here. What are some best tools that you like to use? Tools. So do you come in with a spreadsheet? Do you come in with a PowerPoint? Do you come in with your whole team to negotiation? Do you come in and just sit down at a table and have a face to face? Do you take someone to lunch? What do you like to use in your negotiations? Knowing your worth. Good information. Be prepared. Right? Silence. What do we mean by silence? Did anyone in here say silence? Because I want to hear what you. What you mean by silence. Hold on. We need a microphone. I'm sorry. Tanner's right there.

I have to stand up too.

I wasn't going to. That was Tanner. I was not going to make you stand up.

So sometimes you ask the question and then you just shut up. Because you can talk yourself out of a sale and a negotiation really fast.

You can talk yourself out of a sale. Shut up. Listen. Say what you need to say, right? Be prepared. Let them know that you know them. They're your client already. You guys, if you don't know them, you're already starting with a loose. Like you're losing. You're starting way behind. Okay, so know them and then listen to them. They maybe have, they might have new plans for their business that you don't know about. And when you hear those new plans, you're going to go, oh my gosh, this is what we can do. For you. I'm so glad you told me that because I have so many great ideas about that. Right. Determination. Know your audience. Again, that comes back to being prepared. Know your audience. And you should know your audience. Another thing Chris talked about yesterday, and you might not have caught it because it was a pretty quick comment, but he talked about meeting your clients and knowing them and not being like, oh, hey, I haven't seen you in two years. Do you want to meet up? They're gonna be like, why is this person who I've never heard from except when I have an IT problem reaching out to me? You guys, you can start right now. Send an email, send a text to your client. Hey, man, I'm at this conference and I thought I'd reach out because I have some really good ideas. I know we haven't talked in a while, but I want to talk to you. Be honest with them. Start reaching out to them. You don't have to have an agenda to talk to your current clients. So you can start right now by reaching out to your current clients so that you can get to know them again. If there's been a little bit of a lag, right? So do that now. You have no excuse not to do that. Ok, going to the next one. Maria. Anybody know this movie? The Godfather? I can't. I can't do the voice. What is he saying in this scene? Do you guys remember? What is he saying? Say it louder. Yes, I'm going to give him an offer he can't refuse. A little aggressive, right? But what is, what is so cool about that quote? I love the Godfather. I'm a total nerd when it comes to that. But what's so cool about that quote? It's like when you give someone an offer, some people think you're at the disadvantage, right? You're offering them something. You want them to accept it. I'm asking you to accept this. But in this scene, he's like, no, no, I'm going to give you an offer you can't refuse. Completely different mindset, right? He's going to know his audience. Obviously we're not killing anybody in this scenario, but you're going to know your audience, you're going to be confident and you're going to know what your walk away number is. Okay, so what is the advantage you have with existing clients? What's the advantage you have with existing clients? Give me some answers. Type them in there. Relationship. Type them in there. If you're on your mentimeter, what is the advantage you already have? Relationship Trust. I hope they trust you. And you know what? If you get the feeling that your client does not trust you, I'm going to go back to what I was saying earlier about discomfort. Lean into that and say, man, I want to gain your trust again. What can I do? What have I done that's wrong? What can I do to gain your trust again? Have that uncomfortable conversation. Because that might save a relationship. Because if they don't trust you, or if you think they don't trust you, you need to rectify that. Okay? You know their goals, history, the stories they tell themselves. What are the maybe lies? Is that what I'm getting at? Like, they, oh, I don't need that service. You know the excuses they've already given, right? You know that already. So rapport. Yes. When they're an existing client, you should know their history. You should know their old excuses. You should know maybe their budget. Right. You should know where their weaknesses are. You should know where they should improve. You have so much advantage when talking to existing clients. So we're going to workshop. Next one. Maria's got to send me to the next slide. We're going to. We're going to workshop. Okay, so half of you, we're going to split into groups. We're splitting into groups of six to eight per group. So you're going to have to get up. Everyone stand up. Stand up. We're not going to do yoga if you all are not participating. I will make you do yoga. Stand up. Okay, count off sixes and eights by six. Like groups of six or so maybe like tables of three combined. There we go. There's plenty of chairs. There's plenty of space. Find groups. Come on, y'.

All.

Six to eight, wake up. There we go. Thank you, Melanie. If this is uncomfortable for you, this is why we're doing it. I want you guys to put it into practice, what we're learning. There you go. We got a group over there. And that's three sixes. Everyone online. I promise we'll talk to you guys, too. Okay? But just be thinking about what you would do in this situation if you're online. Okay? Six to eight. If you're ten, that's fine, too. Okay, so half of you decide right now. You guys decide right now which half of you are the msp, which half is the client? So get in your group. So clients get together. MSPs get together, like in your group and remember your existing clients. I don't know why I'm shouting. I'm mic'd up. They can hear me. Okay, so do we know who the MSP is? Do we know who the client is? Okay, those of you who are in your clients, get in your little group. You're the client. MSPs over here in the MSP group, okay? And I'm giving you four options of what type of client you are. Okay? You're either a pool equipment or landscaping sales company. You're either a private boarding school, a dentist office. Because I hear so many horror stories of dentists who are clients and law firms, same thing. I hear horror stories of law firms through our clients. So I wanted to give you those. So choose. Okay, clients. Clients, right now, choose what type of client you are. Choose. I'm not going to ask you, but you guys need to decide right now. Are you pool equipment, landscaping, sales? Are you a private boarding school? Are you a dentist office, or are you a law firm? Okay, Thumbs up at a table. If you've got your client and you've got what kind of client you are. Thumbs up. Thumbs up. Are y'. All. Do you guys know what you are? Yes. I'm making you guys participate. Are y'.

All.

You guys know what you are? Okay, let's do this. Okay, now, clients are gonna break away from your msp. You don't want your MSP to hear what your goal is. Are right now. Like, you want to. You want to decide as a client what your goals are. Okay? So current clients, step aside from your msps. You guys are the decision makers, because I don't. So I don't want anyone being like, oh, let me take that back to my board. Now, you guys are the decision makers. Okay? Everyone, listen. Thank you. Okay, clients, this is what I want you to discuss. It's up on the screen. Clients, what do you think has worked so far with your msp? Okay, we're only spending about five minutes on this. What do you think has not worked so far? What are your top two complaints? Two complaints. I want to hear them. Not right now, but write them down. Agree on them as a client. And what is your walk away issue? Like, what is maybe a number? Is your walk away okay, clients? Think about that. The msp. Set your goals and agree on what your walkway number is. Okay, msps, what are your goals? Are you trying to increase the rate by 30%? Are you trying to take them from a good, better best to the best place plan and agree on what your walkway number is? Okay, we have five minutes. So now we're negotiating. Okay, we're going to negotiate. I'm giving you guys, a lot of leeway. I want to hear what you guys do, how you do it, why you do it. So MSPs and clients sit down at the same table, and we're going to negotiate. You know what your goals are, you know where the problem areas are, you know what's working, what's not working, and let's negotiate. I'm going to give you guys about 18 minutes. Start negotiating. Go. I want to debrief with you guys, so let's wrap it up, and I want to ask you questions, all right? I want to hear from each table. So. But I'll say their answers because it's going to be real quick answers. I don't need them necessarily for this, you guys, but I want to talk about what worked. I want to talk about what you guys feel worked in your negotiations. Okay, everyone, listen up. Thank you. I need Lindsey, the teacher up here to get everyone to be quiet. Okay? Who started the negotiations? Who started. Did the client or the MSP start? Which is msp. MSP started. MSP started. MSP started. Did anyone have the client start the negotiation over here? Okay, client start. Do you feel like. Okay, I think you're the only one who had the client start. You guys had the client start. Okay, I'm gonna ask both of you this question. Do you think that that was helpful? Hurtful. That. Was that into, like, do you think that helped accomplish the goals to have the client start the negotiation? Not help? No, it did not help. Why? Tell me why it did not help to have the client start dp?

I think it didn't help because we were looking for cost cutting measures.

Okay.

And they were not receptive to that.

Okay. And you started right off with. Okay. Do you feel like when you talk to your clients that they often start. Start that way? Like that's their first priority, like, primary thing they want to talk about sometimes. Okay, what about you guys? Do you feel like it helped or hurt to have the client start? It hurt. Liam's. Give me a thumbs down. Liam, I want to hear why you feel like it hurt.

Yo. They pretty much started straight on price.

Started straight on price.

It would. It felt like we were literally boxed into that conversation right from the beginning, and it was hard to get out and around.

Okay, so let me guys ask. Let me ask you guys this. Were you expecting that from your client? Were you expecting them to want to cut the price?

Yeah, I would say. I mean, they're a dentist, so, yes.

I should have asked that. Which. What kind of. What kind of client Were they, you guys? Of course. They want to cut cost costs. Right. If given the opportunity, any business wants to cut costs. So if you're not ready to have that conversation, you're not ready. Okay. And I'm not critiquing you. I'm just saying, like, you got to be prepared for that, and you got to be prepared to try to get out of that box if you feel like you're getting boxed in. So that's a good. That's a really good point. Like, if you. If your client starts. If you let your client start the negotiation, you got to be ready for that. Right off the bat. You're lying to yourself if you're not ready for that. Okay, did you have. Was for the msp? Let me ask you this. For the MSP groups, did you have one person do primary talking, most of the talking, or did you all kind of contribute? All of you did? Okay. Yeah. I'm so surprised. Do you feel like that was helpful, though? Like. And if so, or if not, why wait? Sorry. We need a mic. Not working. The mic's not.

Oh, I had to stand up for it to work. Oh, I didn't know that. It's like a really sophisticated microphone. So I think having. So we went towards service delivery first.

Okay.

So we jumped into, this is our value. These are the things that we done.

Value driven, right?

We gave opportunity to ask some questions about, hey, what's going well? What's not going well?

Awesome.

So we had one of those crazy law firms with a crazy hat who was coming after us. I love it with service delivery. We didn't talk to her in two minutes. And so, you know, whatever. But I think having one person who's taking care of service delivery and going at that, like, value, value, value is. Is what makes that more successful.

Do you feel like, overall, your negotiation went well?

I don't know.

Clients. Did it go well? Well, you guys just threw a bomb of, like, oh, we're adding 26 new people in a new office.

Like, but you gotta be ready.

But we. But we set an appointment for the.

Next steps, because if your current client drops a bomb on you like that, you've got to be ready to pivot and say, oh, I'm so excited for you.

This is.

So this is a huge deal for you guys, and lucky for you, we're prepared for that. We just got to go back to the drawing board a little bit. Right? Positivity. Positively. Did any of you get personal and start talking about kind of like talking about, like, family stuff or Talking about struggles that you're having personally as a client, Maybe. Anybody get there? We didn't have a lot of time. Right. Do you guys feel like sometimes you do have to open up personally when you're negotiating with clients, especially current clients? Do you talk about your recent vacation, travel plans, books you're reading? Family? Do you have kids? Trying to find some equal ground. The reason why I ask is that sometimes when you're really struggling to connect with a client, sometimes you've really got to start doing, digging and kind of be like, oh, man, you know, like, school, start of school is right around the corner. I know it's been a hectic time. Thank you so much for meeting with us. I know this is a busy season for you. I know you have kids. Right. And so I really appreciate that. Making that personal connection can really soften up someone who's a tough negotiator. Okay. Don't fake it. Don't try too hard. But if you feel like you need to go there, I would go there. So what do you think the client responded to positively? Value. Did you guys respond well to when he was talking about service delivery and value driven results?

John was able to turn it around when we had issues and, you know, just talk about why. Like, I brought up issues with like, response time. And we like to buy our own computers. Why should we pay a margin to you to order them? And then he explained the process of why and the benefits of ordering, ordering through us and getting the right warranties. And, you know, just. I think he did a good job with his responses.

Do you feel like you were heard? Do you feel like he listened to you guys?

I do.

Be honest. If you did it. No. Okay. You did good. I think that clients respond really well when they can. They can make contact complaints to you. Right. They can complain and you don't shut down and get defensive. Same thing in personal lives. Right? How. How well does it go with your spouse when you get immediately defensive when they criticize you? Not too great. Not real great. Right. So listen, accept the criticism. Doesn't mean you have to agree with it. Accept the criticism and ask, how can we do better? I hear you. Thank you for telling me that. How can I do better? Okay. What failed? What did the client. What as? Okay, people who are clients, what really turned you off? Be honest, you guys. What was really like, this is not going anywhere. Yes.

So we were doing the. The school.

Okay. You were a school.

And we talked about students versus faculty pricing, and he stuck to the guns on the 150 per seat. And of course, as a school with 2,000 students, that's completely astronomical. So anybody in this room who's dealt with schools knows that they are bottom budget, they don't want to pay anything. And so we kind of stuck to the guns on that side. That was probably the one thing that I would give in on, especially if students are using Chromebooks and they're not having to have quite as much management as PCs. But that was one of the things that I've dealt with, I'm sure these guys have dealt with. We played the client, and so that was easy for us to throw at them.

Yeah. And that again, goes back to knowing your clients, right. If you're dealing with a school and you know that there's going to be differentiation between faculty and students as far as cost per seat, you got to be ready to have that conversation. Don't go in and be like, oh, no, we have one price across the board. No matter what. Doesn't matter unless you're ready to walk away, not get anything. Okay, so know your clients. We already talked about what language felt persuasive. This is what I'm going to say. Know thyself. Know what strict strengths you bring to the table. Know what tactics, what negotiation tools work for you. Don't pretend to be somebody you're not. Okay? So it takes practice. That's why we did this today, is to practice what feels good for you. Get comfortable sitting down with your clients and negotiating, because the more you understand what tactics work for you and your personality, you're going to be much more successful. Same thing with stage mastery, right? The more techniques that on stage that you feel natural to you, the better you are on stage. Right? Very, very similar. Here's my hot take. If you have not put yourself in your client's shoes, you're not prepared and you will not achieve the highest value. Know thyself. As Socrates said, know your clients. If you have not put yourself in your client's shoes and you are not prepared and you will not, not achieve the highest value. Thank you guys very much. I will be at my booth all day today. Come meet me. Thank you.