How to Handle the Question “What Are Your Results?”

When a prospective client asks “what are your results?” they are asking a reasonable question. They are about to make an investment in a service where the outcome depends on many variables, and they want to know what they can realistically expect.

Most practitioners handle this question poorly. There are two common failure modes.

The deflection: “Every client is different, and transformation is deeply personal, so results really depend on the individual.” This is technically true, but it fails the prospective client. They asked a reasonable question and received a non-answer. They leave the conversation knowing no more about what the work produces than before they asked.

The overclaim: Leading with the most exceptional client result as if it were typical. “One of my clients went from $30,000 to $300,000 in one year.” This answer may be factually true but it is not representative. The exceptional case is being used as evidence for what a typical client might expect, which is not honest.

Neither response serves the prospective client’s genuine need: a realistic picture of what the work typically produces.

The honest, specific answer

The question “what are your results?” is best answered with a description of what the work typically produces for clients who are similar to this prospective client.

The key word is “typically.” Not the exceptional case, not the worst case, but the realistic pattern across clients who arrived in a similar before state and completed the engagement.

A practitioner who has done the systematic outcome review has exactly this information. The answer sounds like: “Most clients who come to me dealing with [before state similar to this prospective client’s] move from [before state] to [after state] within [typical timeframe]. The change tends to show up as [specific behavioral evidence]. There are clients where the movement is faster and clients where it is slower — but that pattern holds for most.”

The systematic approach to results language: the outcome review process is what makes the “typically” answer possible. Without it, the practitioner is either working from general impression (which produces vague claims) or from memorable exceptional cases (which produces misleading claims).

What to do with the variability

After stating the typical pattern, it is honest and useful to acknowledge the genuine variability — not as a hedge against making any claim, but as accurate information about the factors that affect outcomes.

“The clients where movement is faster tend to be the ones who are genuinely ready to engage with the work rather than explore it — and who are in a stable enough situation to focus on the inner work without crisis management consuming most of the energy.” This is useful information. It helps the prospective client self-assess whether they are in a position where the typical results are realistic for them.

Outcome language for the results question: the results question is a direct invitation to use outcome language. The prospective client is asking for outcomes. Answer with outcomes: specific, behavioral, realistic.

The exceptional result question

Sometimes a prospective client specifically asks about the best result a practitioner has achieved. This is a different question from “what are your typical results?” and deserves a different answer.

The honest answer to “what is the best result a client has achieved?” is the exceptional case — stated clearly as exceptional. “The most significant outcome I’ve seen was [exceptional result]. That was an unusual case in some specific ways — [brief description of what made it exceptional]. For most clients, the typical movement is [typical result].”

This is honest. It does not pretend the exceptional case is typical. It does not deny that the exceptional case exists. It gives the prospective client accurate information about both the ceiling of what is possible and the realistic expectation of what is typical.

Answering results questions authentically: the authentic orientation to the results question is oriented toward the prospective client’s genuine understanding — helping them arrive at an accurate picture of what they might realistically expect, not moving them toward a decision.

The deflection is not honesty

It is worth addressing the deflection directly: “Results vary based on the individual” is not a commitment to honesty. It is often a way of avoiding the exposure that comes with making a specific claim.

Making a specific claim about typical results does require evidence. It also requires the practitioner to stand behind that claim. This is appropriate exposure — the same kind of exposure that any honest service provider takes on when they describe what their work produces.

A practitioner who cannot make any typical-results claim because the results are genuinely too variable to characterize has a niche and specificity problem, not just a value articulation problem.

How grounded confidence changes the results answer: a practitioner who has reviewed their client outcomes and has genuine evidence for the typical-results claim can answer the results question from a different inner position. Not performing certainty, not hedging into irrelevance, but saying clearly what they know from what the work has produced.

The Abundance GPS Skool community helps practitioners develop an honest, specific answer to results questions — one that serves the prospective client’s genuine understanding. Join us here.