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Where Does It Hurt?

Thank you for taking a look at this questionnaire. It is designed to help us understand what is happening in your efforts to attract clients, question some of the explanations you may have reached and identify what we may need to explore if and when we speak. It should also give you a sense of how I work and whether we might be a good fit.

Allow around 20 minutes. Brief answers are fine; write more where something feels important. If you need to stop, your answers will be saved on this phone, provided you return using the same browser.

Where an example is requested, use a real and reasonably recent one. Specific details are more useful than a general impression.

The Difficulty

1. Where in your efforts to attract clients do things feel as though they are going wrong? (Up to 2 selections)

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I

2. What have you noticed that led you to your answer? Is there anything that suggests the difficulty begins earlier?

3. When did you first notice the difficulty you have described, and what had changed in your work or circumstances around that time?

4. How have you explained to yourself why this difficulty began? What leads you to that explanation, and is there anything that doesn’t quite fit it?

A Recent Example

5. Think of the most recent suitable prospective client who did not proceed. What happened, in order, from the first contact to the final exchange?

6. If the prospective client you described gave their account of what happened, where do you think their version might differ from yours?

Wider Effects

7. Which other aspects of your work or working life have been affected?

Select all that apply.
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J

Your Response

8. What have you started doing differently in response to these difficulties?

9. When you encounter this difficulty, which of these do you tend to do or experience?

10. Thinking about your answers to Questions 8 and 9, could any of these changes or reactions be making it harder to attract clients, or harder to change what is happening?

If this makes you reconsider anything you wrote earlier, leave your earlier answer as it is and explain here what you now see differently.

11. When dealing with suitable prospective clients, how often does this difficulty arise?

A
B
C
D
E
F

12. Think of a typical occasion when this difficulty occurs. What usually happens just before you first become aware of the difficulty, and what do you do next?

13. Think of two recent prospective client conversations: one that progressed and one that stalled. What was different about them?

You might think about how each person found you, the service involved, the setting, the questions each of you asked, how much you explained and when the fee was discussed.

14. Looking at the successful and stalled conversations you compared in Question 13, do any of the differences make you question your explanation for the difficulty?

If your explanation has changed, leave your earlier answer as it is and describe the change here.

15. Thinking about the client-attraction difficulty you identified in Question 1, what has it cost you over the past six months?

You might include practical or financial costs, such as lost opportunities, time or income, as well as any personal or emotional cost, such as its effect on your confidence, motivation, wellbeing or enjoyment of your work.

16. On a scale from 0 to 10, how important is it to address this now?

17. What led you to choose that number?

Your Details

I’ll use your contact details only to respond to your questionnaire and, if appropriate, arrange a conversation you have agreed to. They won’t be used for marketing or unsolicited sales calls.

First Name

Last Name

Business Name (if applicable)

Phone Number

Email Address