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Attracting Ideal, Successful Clients
Most coaches, trainers and other service professionals
feel that if they raise their fees they will lose clients.
This is usually just not the case. In fact, many of my
clients have found that by raising their fees they began
attracting even more clients who were ready to really
make changes in their businesses and lives.
This creates a wonderful ripple effect that will benefit
both you and your clients.
Find out how you can double your fees and attract more
ideal, ready, and successful clients.
Cheers
Tom
3 Steps to Increase your Fees with Confidence
As a service provider it’s critical to remember that your market is investing in YOU, not in your actual service. Yes, they want results from the service you are providing, but ultimately they are investing in you because of the relationship and trust you have developed.
There is an awful lot of pressure if you feel the need to sell everyone you meet the first time you meet them. This is an unnecessary and often fatal mistake that many business owners make.
Here are some steps to take when building your business and selling your services so that you can have the highest profits and best client relationships.
1. Always build a relationship FIRST.
Most people will need to have contact with you between 5-7 times before they actually make a purchase. That means that a chance encounter at the grocery store or meeting potential prospects at networking events will not always lead to a sale on the spot. But this is easy to remedy with a good follow-up system. One of the easiest ways to keep in touch and build that relationship is through an email delivered newsletter – also known as an ezine.
Whenever you meet a potential client you should ask for their contact information and offer to send them some free tips related to your business. These tips are easy to deliver in a bi-weekly or monthly newsletter. This way you are providing valuable information, staying in touch and building a relationship at all times.
2. Create multiple offers
Let your market get to know you before they invest at the highest level. There are many ways for you to allow people to engage with you without having to invest thousands of dollars for your private work. You can start a blog or newsletter, create a simple information product, start group coaching and training events, write and self-publish a short, but informative book, etc. The idea is to create just a couple offers that will funnel your market down to working with you at increasingly higher levels.
An example would be: prospect signs up for your newsletter, they purchase a digital information product, you follow up with a phone call and offer your private consulting or coaching services. Because you’re allowing your prospects to get to know you one step at a time, it makes the sales process much easier.
3. Ask for the sale
When it comes down to brass tacks, you won’t ever make a dime in your business if you don’t ask for the sale. One of the biggest mistakes that I see service professionals make is always delivering free information and never asking for the sale. They expect their prospects to ask THEM to work with them, but this rarely happens in the real world. This doesn’t mean that you have to be pushy. By building the relationship like I described above you can have a natural, low-pressure way of attracting new clients. Keep in mind that if somebody is reading your ezine, blog posts, articles, etc that means that they WANT your help. It’s your responsibility to offer it to them.
Pricing Strategies – 3 Tips to Increase your Perceived Value Part 1
Improving your perceived value is a quick way to be able to charge more for your products and services. In fact, once you improve your perceived value it’s crucial to increase what you charge or you will have a difficult time convincing your customers and clients that you are indeed offering great value. Remember, people are typically taught to believe that you get what you pay for. This is a GOOD thing for you and your business.
Here are three ways for you to improve your perceived value without investing time and money.
1. Offer a strong guarantee
Consider adding performance or satisfaction guarantees. This shows that you’re confident about your product or service and are willing to stand behind it. A word of caution: be careful about performance guarantees. You MUST be realistic and avoid any possibility of deception.
2. Use testimonials
Social proof is a simple way to add value to your offers. Let your prospects see that others have already benefited from what you are selling. If you don’t have testimonials, begin today. Go back to past customers and clients and ask for authentic feedback on their experience with you and your business.
3. Improve your visibility
The more people see you and hear about you, the more they will trust in what you have to offer; provided, of course, that what they see and hear is positive. There are many ways that you can improve your visibility including submitting press releases, being interviewed, speaking at associations, writing articles, etc.
Take a look at what you are offering your market right now. Where are some areas that you can improve upon your perceived value?
Write down at least three ways that you can begin improving your perceived value and start doing so right away. Before you know it, your market will expect you to be charging more that you currently are.
T’was The Month After Christmas
Some random, non-business humor. Enjoy!
Twas The Month After Christmas
Twas the month after Christmas and all through the house
Nothing would fit me, not even a blouse.
The cookies I’d nibbled, the eggnog I’d taste.
All the holiday parties had gone to my waist.
When I got on the scales there arose such a number!
When I walked to the store (less a walk than a lumber).
I’d remember the marvelous meals I’d prepared;
The gravies and sauces and beef nicely rared,
The wine and the rum balls, the bread and the cheese
And the way I’d never said, “No thank you, please.”
As I dressed myself in my husband’s old shirt
And prepared once again to do battle with dirt—
I said to myself, as I only can
“You can’t spend a winter disguised as a man!”
So–away with the last of the sour cream dip,
Get rid of the fruit cake, every cracker and chip
Every last bit of food that I like must be banished
Till all the additional ounces have vanished.
I won’t have a cookie–not even a lick.
I’ll want only to chew on a long celery stick.
I won’t have hot biscuits, or corn bread, or pie,
I’ll munch on a carrot and quietly cry.
I’m hungry, I’m lonesome, and life is a bore—
But isn’t that what January is for?
Unable to giggle, no longer a riot.
Happy New Year to all and to all a good diet!
Author Unknown
Tips for Starting a Small Business: 3 Tips to Identifying a Viable Market – Part 1
It’s very easy to get caught up in the excitement of new ideas when starting a business. But once that excitement wears off it is critical to be sure whether or not you have a viable market for your product or service. Barking up the wrong tree, so to speak, can cost you a lot of time, money and energy. Here are three quick and easy ways to determine if you have a market hungry enough for your business to make a go at it.
1. Google Adwords
Google offers a great, free tool to do research and see what people are searching for on the internet. You can go to Adwords.google.com and do a bit of testing out before you go hog wild and spend your last dollar making widgets for a market that doesn’t exist.
Be sure to consider what the person on the other end of the computer is thinking when they enter a specific term. “Weight loss” is much different than “How to lose 15 pounds”. The motivation behind the latter is much clearer.
2. Send a Survey
If you already have an ezine or newsletter list, be sure to survey that list before launching your next product or service. Ask them what it is that they want or need. You can use the free survey tool at SurveyMonkey.com.
If you’re just getting started, then dip into the social media world. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn in are just three of many great ways to connect with the rest of the world. As you build your list of followers and friends be sure to start asking what they want and need as it relates to your business.
3. Find Associations
If there’s a popular association related to your product or service there is about a 99.9% chance that you are on the right track. You can find a list of associations at ASAECenter.org.
Peace
Tom
What Do Skydiving And Setting Your Fees Have In Common?
Did I just compare an extreme sport with your business? I sure
did, and here’s why.
A little background first. A few years ago some friends and I
decided that it would be a good idea to go and jump from a
plane…so, we did! And it was a total blast! (No pun intended) I
had so much fun that I began lessons to become a certified skydiver
a couple weeks later. Although I haven’t made any recent jumps, I
have logged 47 in total.
So, here is where I draw the comparison between skydiving and
raising (or establishing) prices in your business and charging what
you deserve. Just like in skydiving, the fear surrounding what you
charge is all in the build-up. It’s not what happens after the
leap that’s scary; it’s everything in your mind that leads up to
the leap.
I will never remember my very first drive out to the drop zone
(DZ). I was PETRIFIED! Frankly, I didn’t know if I would go
through with it, but with two of your best friends out there with
me did I really have a choice? GUYS! LOL.
Well, looking back on the experience I was clearly more scared on
the drive out and the plane ride up than I was during the jump.
After I was in the open air free falling at 150+ miles per hour
there was nothing to it but to have some fun. And have fun I did!
It’s also my experience that the same mental process occurs when
you set your fees; especially when you set them where they SHOULD
be and that’s a bit (or WAY) outside of your comfort zone.
You begin having all of these negative thoughts like, “nobody will
pay that” or “am I really worth that much?” And let me just answer
those two questions FOR you: Yes, they will and yes, you ARE!
Stop fretting about the build-up and go for the jump. You just
might have the ride of your life!
Cheers
Tom
3 Things You DON’T Need to Begin Attracting New Clients
The other day I was giving a presentation here in Atlanta for a business networking group called Women Intelligently Networking. There were some real go-getters in the room and everyone seemed to be involved in amazing businesses.
This was a great opportunity for me to find out why so many service professionals are refusing to charge what they deserve. One of the points that kept coming up was, “I don’t have the experience” or “I don’t have thus and such certification”…
…you get my point. I stopped one person right in her tracks with four simple words when she began to explain that she had a difficult time convincing clients to pay her what she was worth since she is just getting her business started…regardless of the fact that she has an incredible array of relevant skills to offer.
What were those four words?
“How do they know?”
How do your clients know that you are starting a new business or don’t have umpteen years of experience? Probably because you told them… NOT because they asked.
Charging what you deserve and attracting great clients does NOT require the following three things:
1) More experience
2) More certification
3) More time
Charging what you deserve DOES require the following:
1) Finding a market that has a clear need or desire for a service that you offer (or can offer)
2) Clearly expressing that you have a solution for this need or desire
Your path to a profitable business will be much shorter if you focus on these two areas rather than equating your income with your experience. The value that you offer your marketplace has very little to do with the next certification that you obtain.
Listen, we are always learning. We will never know it all. Understand that you have something incredible to offer your market right now!
Start focusing on the value that you deliver (and realize that you can deliver that value today) and you will start building that successful business you’ve been dreaming of sooner rather than later!
Expert Interview with Lisa Manyon
Lisa Manyon, founder of www.WriteOnCreative.com, shares tips and techniques for business owners to turbo-charge their visibility using the power of short, simple press releases.
Click below to listen in:
Build Your List with Interviews
How To Build Your List With Interviews
Not only can you build a list by interviewing other people,
you can also create new content for your own programs, get
thousands of dollars worth of information for free, pop out
an info product in a matter of a few days and have multiple
streams of revenue coming into your business.
You see, there are actually a lot of very knowledgeable experts
who are lined up waiting to be interviewed so that they can
increase their own exposure. Taking part in an interview series
is both compelling and rewarding for them and most will be
happy to help you spread the word which, of course, will radically
increase the size of your list.
I created an interview series last year and getting the interviews
was actually pretty simple. Yes, it took a little bit of legwork,
but nothing worth having comes without effort.
Here are the 5 basic steps to creating an interview series and
turning into a profitable project that you can repeat over and
over again:
Step 1: Pick your topic
Create a topic that excites you and that you know will excite other
people and this will make it simple to sell and promote.
One tip to finding if others are interested in the topic is to put
out a quick survey using SurveyMonkey.com. This way you can get
direct feedback and know that there’s water in the pool before you
take the plunge.
Step 2: Interview your experts
Create your wish list of experts and start getting in touch. One
of the easiest ways is to simple ask people you already know who
they might be able to recommend. Some of those people you already
know might make great interviews also, so don’t rule that option out.
Step 3: Build your list
Ask each expert to share the recording with their list and
circle of influence. You simply host the playback of the recording
on your website and have an opt-in box for people who would like the
MP3 downnload. This is just ONE of many ways to begin building your
list with interviews.
Step 4: Create your info product
After you have between 5-8 interviews, go ahead and package them
into an information product. You can include transcriptions of the
calls, worksheets to guide people along, helpful resources, etc to
really add value to the project.
Step 5: Start the cash flow
Remember all of those people who opted in to get the free download
of one of the interviews? If they were interested in that, I bet
they’d love to have the whole enchilada. You’ve already demonstrated
the value that the interviews offer. Many of those people will be
more than happy to purchase the entire program. You can deliver this
as a digital download (MP3 recordings and Ebook) or as a physical
product (CDs and binder). The best is to offer both and let clients
choose. If you sell a physical product, I recommend including the
digital download as well. The immediate access to the information
will help with sales and the physical product will increase the
perceived value.
If you want to learn more about how you can create a very profitable
interview series and have a whole lot of fun doing it then sign up
for the FREE teleseminar that I’m having on Monday, June 29th at
6pm EST. Even if you can’t make the call live, I will send you a
recording, but you have to sign up to get access.
Just go here to register: Interview Series Profits
Cheers
Tom
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