The DOO Download: Your Ops Questions Answered (#5)

Do you want your burning DOO (Director of Operations) questions answered?

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Today I am joined by my Director of Coaching, Amy Lockrin, for round five of The DOO Download, where you get the wisdom of two DOOs who have “been there, done that.”

The DOO Download

In this series we address common questions that pop up in our community. If you have questions that you would like answered, make sure to submit them!

What comes first, an upleveled avatar or a new offer?

[Natalie] In most cases you need to define, attract, and talk to a new avatar because those conversations and knowledge you will gain will help you with your new offer
I started out serving my peers and, over time, as I got positive feedback and tightened up my methods, I started to believe I could share it with the next level
[Amy] Most of the time it is going to be the avatar
- Sometimes in talking to someone you work with, you unlock something that you are good at and can add it in (and charge more for it)
Think about who you are working with right now… what do you like about it, and what slight change could make it a little bit better?
- Hone in on this and connect it to what you have learned in the DOO certification

“If you are open to what the needs are… you naturally end up upleveling your offers and avatars.” – Amy Lockrin
“When we start to believe the next best version [of ourselves] is coming up we start to believe that we can serve that next best level of audience” – Natalie Gingrich

Should I charge for Discovery Calls?

[Amy] A discovery call is a getting-to-know-you process to see if their needs and your services are a match
- They should never last longer than 30 minutes because we don’t want to give anything away for free
- It has an intention: Do we have a commonality where we should work together? If so we should move on to the proposal stage
[Natalie] It is different than a coffee chat which is directionless, and simply a connection
The intent of a discovery call is a qualifying conversation to determine if you want to move on to the next level of opportunity together
A discovery call has a format where you are gathering info to see if you are a good fit for each other
I would not feel right charging for info that I am gathering from them
- In a discovery call I like to give one nugget of strategy, but it is not the goal of the call
[Amy] If the reason you want them to pay is to qualify them as a potential buyer of your services, you can create a good lead capture form instead of putting a up monetary barrier

Should I learn a new tool for a client?

[Amy] As a DOO, you should be using their tool
- You are coming in to lead a team, and when you are onboarding yourself the team is functioning and that is too much change at once
- You may want to put it in your 90 day plan to switch everyone to a more efficient system
- The only time you might want to do this is if you are coming in as a consultant or working on a short term project in which you won’t be dealing with the team
You don’t know where information lives and you don’t want to rub the team wrong. We are already cutting off a lot of communication from the CEO to the team which causes friction if a correct communication plan isn’t set up correctly
[Natalie] You don’t know how the relationship is going to go, so to come in and make a change with large team doesn’t make any sense
It should become part of your qualifying process. If you are really passionate about a tool, then you might only want to work with people who would agree to work in that tool or switch to that tool
If a business has a team already functioning in a system, don’t walk in and change it. But if they have a tool that is not being utilized, you may be able to determine what they are going to use
As an operator, I want to own the project management tool and use it to understand the full breadth of the company
- In my own business, I’ve learned that you have to develop a system for the way you input projects into these tools
- Whoever “owns” the tool should establish a process and create some standardization

“The only project management tool is the one that is used.” – Natalie Gingrich

If you have questions you would like answered, send them over!

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