STEP 1, WE'VE ALREADY touched on – it’s carefully identifying a big, high value problem to fix.

Step 2 is to charge realistic money for your help.

At a $50 price point, it’s no big deal to clients whether they do anything with the information they just bought or not.

At $10,000, $25,000 or $100,000, the position is fundamentally different: clients have ‘skin in the game,’ and a virtuous circle is created.

Investment begets action, action-takers naturally get results, and results enhance the trainer’s reputation, which in due course supports higher price points.

But merely slapping a high price tag on information is unethical, because no matter how good the information, information alone is almost never enough for clients to achieve high value results.

Because we recognise this truth, it brings us to Step 3.

Step 3 is to deliver value through a repeatable, scalable program based on a new model that goes beyond information to create the change required: the ACTS Model.

The ACTS Model

I created the ACTS Model to identify the four ‘bases’ that Future Proof trainers like Mike are now providing in their programs to help their clients get high value results:

A: Action Architecture

The big problem with training since time immemorial is that – of itself - it’s usually very poor at creating results ‘back in the real world’ after the classroom closes. 

This is hardly surprising.

After all, we know that even when the choice is literally change or die, it’s hard to change human behaviour.

Future Proof trainers don’t duck this challenge, but take it on through innovation.

They take the trouble to design not one-off training events but innovative programs focused on creating high-value outcomes. 

These programs typically combine elements of automation, behavioural economics, group dynamics, and even done-for-you services to create accountability and pro-actively push the application of learning forward.

The result is that the required action is taken at the right time.

C: Counsel

‘Counsel’ refers to expert input applied as necessary to the unique circumstances of each client. This may be delivered one to one or in a small group setting.

Importantly, Counsel only comes in for hard problems. It isn’t there for information delivery (which is the Teacherless Education element).

To provide great Counsel requires deep subject matter expertise, so the Future Proof avoid being generalists.

In fact, they make a conscious decision to identify and work in what I term the ZOO – the Zone of Optimal Opportunity.

The Zone of Optimal Opportunity is unique to each trainer or training business. It’s the place where their unique skills and knowledge intersect with the greatest opportunity in the marketplace.

Specialisation matters because thanks to the internet, clients can increasingly cherry pick - and be served by - only the best trainers from a global market, regardless of location.

The result, says Deep Work author Cal Newport, is that ‘the superstars win the bulk of the market. There’s a premium to being the best.’

Because specialists cover less ground, they can become world class in their narrow field much faster.

T: Teacherless Education

As Thomas Frey puts it, "teaching requires experts. Teacherless education uses experts to create the material, but doesn’t require the expert to be present each time it is presented."

Thus essential information is conveyed through recorded video, audio or text rather than ‘live’ teaching, which is actually highly inefficient.

But without the live aspect more or less guaranteeing a base level of attention, it’s more important than ever that the content is good.

There is therefore a premium on those who can create meaning, convey powerful big ideas, and tell compelling stories. The best at this don’t create anonymised content but infuse it with personality.

S: Strategic Network

Peer interaction. Collaboration opportunities. Community.

Building these kinds of 'Strategic Network' elements into programs can provide support, insights, and resources that accelerate progress and add enormous value to the overall experience.

***

SO HOW WOULD MIKE sell the product he’d now created?

In his mind's eye, he saw two distinct markets for his leadership program: the corporate, and the individual.

‘I was full of naivety and when I first developed the product, I tried selling to the individual.

‘I like working with large companies but I’ve always believed that what I have to share can help the individual in a big way too.

‘I was like, “I'm going to go out and I'm going to sell thousands - people are going to buy this overnight!”’

‘Man… was that a rude awakening!

‘I paid to get my web guy round to my home office. We spent a good couple of weeks, on and off, just in planning sessions to market this thing to the individual.

'We wrote it all up on my whiteboard, set up sales pages, mapped out a whole series of emails, the lot.

'I was really excited.

‘A couple of weeks after that I remember I’m sat there at my computer, and the campaign had just gone live.

‘I’m rubbing my hands together, watching my inbox for sales alerts, wondering how many orders we’re going to get.

‘Waited 20 minutes.

'Called my web guy.

'I’m sat there going, “nothing's happening. Nick, Nick, did you send the emails out?”  

‘Waited an hour.

'Waited all afternoon.

'You could have heard a frog piss on cotton.

‘Nothing.

‘It was demoralising... after about a week we got one or two but it just didn’t work, it was a washout.

‘At that point I’d spent a month creating the product, and a month on this failed campaign.

'I felt miles away from my goal at that point.

‘And it felt like a long time to be wondering if this was actually going to work or not.

‘What I discovered from that, the best strategy for me was at least for now to focus on the corporate sales.

‘I already had an existing corporate database that trusted me and knew me personally.

‘In that sense I didn't have the “cold” sell. But I realised I would have to re-educate.  

‘Because those people were used to getting Mike on a plane to fly out to Berlin and be three days in the classroom.

'The re-education process was going to those contacts and saying, “you get me in a different format now.”’

But would the ‘re-education’ process work?

‘I had some good conversations, but actually pinning people down seemed to be taking a while.

‘Then I stumbled across two things on a trip to Paris, that have actually created pretty much all the big corporate sales.

'Which seems ridiculous because they only take a couple of hours of my time from home in Cornwall.’

Click here for the two specific things Mike did to secure most of his big corporate sales.