The GET CLIENTS NOW! program uses a cookbook metaphor. The following brief glossary will help you understand what each of the terms used in the program represent.

Success Ingredients — The projects you choose to work on to help you address your identified “stuck” area in the Universal Marketing Cycle: Filling the Pipeline, Following Up, Getting Presentations, or Closing the Sale. Once you identify which part of the Cycle you are stuck in (or wish to focus on) during your 28-day marketing campaign, you choose your Success Ingredient projects.

Most people choose 2 or 3 projects; some choose only 1 and others identify 4. If you identify more than 3, you only work on 3 at a time. You identify the top 3 by asking yourself, “What do I have to do to first to move forward with the rest of my action plan?” Once you finish one of the first 3 Success Ingredient projects you can begin another one.

You might think of Success Ingredients as what you work on behind the scenes so that you can more successfully implement your chosen Main Course items (see below).

Daily Actions –- Unless you have significant time constraints, you’ll identify 10 action items that you will implement consistently over the course of the 28 days of the program. Daily Actions (or action items) are broken down into 3 categories, which follow. Your Daily Actions should correspond with both your identified stuck or focus area in the Universal Marketing Cycle and the marketing strategies you’ve chosen to use (from the Effective Marketing Strategies diagram). Not all Daily Actions will be scheduled for every working day. Some may be weekly, or 2-3 times per week.

Appetizers: Of the 10 total Daily Actions, you choose 1 or 2 Appetizers that will help you work on your Success Ingredient projects. Your Appetizers are not meant to be extra action items, but a time management element of the program to help you plan when you’ll work on those “behind the scenes” projects. If you are not certain what to choose as an appetizer, I recommend selecting the first one on the Action Plan Menu, which is to set aside a certain amount of time each day or week to work on your Success Ingredient project.

Main Course: Of the 10 total Daily Actions, you choose 7-8 Main Course action items that you will take to get in front of your prospects and/or referral partners. Like C.J. says, these are the actions to get you business. I like to think of the Main Course actions as those that put you on stage as opposed to projects you’re working on behind the scenes.

Caution: Sometimes participants will choose too many non-interactive Main Course items such as “spend 2 hours per week researching my market” because they don’t feel ready to talk to people. Unfortunately, when you do this, and don’t also include enough outreach-oriented action items such as “place warm calls to 3 prospects per day” (which is a way to do something with what you are reading) you reduce the likelihood you’ll reach your program goal. Make sure most of your Main Course items connect you in some way with other people.

Dessert: Yum, who doesn’t like dessert? Of the 10 total Daily Actions, you choose one Dessert item that will help you be more effective with marketing. You can think of your Dessert item as an action you’ll take on a regular basis that will help keep you balanced, centered, and focused during this concentrated marketing time.

Sometimes people will ask me if they can have more than one dessert. I will sometimes say yes if I look at the rest of their plan and see that they have chosen Main Course items that are strongly connected to their program goal, and they’re not missing a critical Main Course action.

Special Permission — Your Special Permission is a short phrase that helps address any fears, concerns or barriers you have about your plan or about marketing. It is somewhat like an affirmation directed toward your being successful in implementing your plan.

The most common error I see people make with their Special Permission is writing it out as they would a Dessert action item. Your Special Permission is not something to do; it’s an attitude or way of being. An inappropriate Special Permission would be: “I have permission to run 3 times a week.” An appropriate Special Permission would be: “I have permission to take care of myself, even when I’m marketing.”