Your prospects may not know their deepest motivation! Some find their values eroded by business pressures or other life events. Their dreams are easily forgotten, especially if they were never fully articulated. Others may have never thought through their deepest motivation.
Not all business-owners simply want to make profit. Get rich quick does not appeal to everyone. The reason people are in business varies.
Let me suggest three basic motivations for business owners. Most people major on one or two but all are motivations people value. They are: profit, values and time. If their aim is work-life balance, your prospects need to work out how important each of these three are for them.
Let’s probe each motivation in turn to help you find the combination most likely to inspire your clients. So, a business-person who is solely profit motivated would most likely prefer coaches who have detailed knowledge and understand of how financial systems work. A values motivated prospect may find financial systems difficult, even if they need them. A time motivated prospect may see some value in the profit-orientated coach.
Profit
The profit centred prospect puts profit first and excludes everything else. Often this is a sensible starting point. A business that generates profit is viable. To put any other motivation first is to invite failure. Most households need income and so it is not surprising many people put profit first.
The problem with this approach lies in the lack of any other motivation. Sometimes lack of other motivation leads to loss of the incentive to get up in the morning. Most people are not inspired by profit alone and want to contribute to wider society. They get bored simply generating income, they believe there is more to life.
Another possibility is the business-owner loses sight of why they are there. Business becomes solely an exploitative venture. It is not so much the business owner starts illegal or misleading trading because they cease to care. It is the ceasing to care that matters. A pure profit motive atomises society and destroys community. Perhaps if you are really good at making profit, you don’t need community. The question is where that approach leads.
Values
The values motivated business person sets out with a mission to change the world. Sometimes they have a skill or a trade of real value and enjoy sharing it. Their mission or values take precedence.
Their problem is they can find they are not making money. Every service offered for free or at a discount, reduces their income. They own a business that has a purpose (clarity of purpose may be lacking) but not the means to make their purpose real. In the voluntary sector, this leads to grant dependency and in the private sector to bankruptcy.
To be solely values led is to invite failure. And business failure means the business-owner will have no means to pursue their dream. They may need to seek paid employment and that will mean they have less time to do what they enjoy doing.
Nevertheless, we need more values centred business owners because the world needs people with vision to help turn around failing local economies. Values based business becomes viable when it recognises profit is necessary for success and worth pursuing to make their vision viable.
This is an important intersection. Values offer the profit orientated business a sense of purpose and profit offers the values business success. Viable businesses must place their business in the intersection between profit and values.
Time
As more people find employment takes up too much time (working hours, overtime, travel) or find they are running between several zero-hours contracts, they begin to value the freedom to choose to take time out.
Often this is to spend time with a young family but it is true for all people. I value the freedom to walk every afternoon. I have no family but still value having time to use as I choose.
Of course, this motivation can backfire when self-employment results in even more hours of work. Sometimes overwhelm arrives in fits and starts. Perhaps a few hectic days or weeks followed by quieter periods but sometimes overwhelm sets in and never lets up.
Profit can relieve this problem as a time motivated business owner will seek systems that allow them to make a profit and have time for themselves. If they have a strong values orientation, they may use their free time for voluntary activity.
The ideal for most people is where all three major motivations intersect; where they can generate profit to support their time out of the business and their values.
Conclusion
The key for you as a business owner is to find which of these motivates your prospects. You can fine tune their motivation but the chances are whatever it is, it will fall in one or more of these three categories.
This will help you work out what their problem is. Most business owners experience problems because they are blind to the consequences of decisions taken. These decisions may have been unconscious or are perhaps forgotten.
Your offer may help them see the value of your support.
If your prospects are not business owners, their motivation may be different. Can you work out the likely motivation of personal prospects? If you found this post helpful and would like me to expand on some issue, please use the comments.