3 Tips for Attracting New Clients Even During a Slow Economy

March 4th, 2009 · 3 Comments

If you’re a service professional then you obviously need paying clients in order for you to stay in business.  And even if you haven’t been keeping up with the new, there’s no getting around the fact that we are in the midst of a recession.

But that does NOT mean that you have to give in to that knee-jerk reaction to lower your prices and go into emergency mode.  Despite anything that is happening in the world today, your market still wants solutions to their problems, and maybe more now than ever.

So here are three things that you can do right now to start converting those prospects into paying clients.

1. Ask your market what their biggest obstacle is.

I did this just the other day and got great results and new ideas for my business.  If you have     an ezine or newsletter list, simply send out an email asking them to tell you what their biggest     obstacle is related to your business.  While you’re at it, ask them what their biggest desire is     too.  Stop assuming to know what it is that they want and just ask them.

2. Create a program that will remove the obstacle and create the desire.

Package a program with a beginning, middle, end and intended results. Take the most common response from #1 that you feel confident you can approach and you now have a solution that your market will pay for.

3. Take away the risk.

If you get results from your clients, then back it up.  Let them know that you will guarantee the results.  Don’t worry about people asking for their money back.  The additional clients and customers that you’ll get from offering some sort of guarantee will more than cover the small percentage of people who will ever ask for their money back.

All three steps can be done in a couple days.  Put the question out to your list, outline a program based on the results and remove the risk for people to get involved.

Start with step one today.  Don’t put it off and wait until tomorrow because odds are it won’t get done.

 

3 Tips for Attracting New Clients Even During a Slow Economy

March 4th, 2009 · No Comments

If you’re a service professional then you obviously need paying clients in order for you to stay in business.  And even if you haven’t been keeping up with the new, there’s no getting around the fact that we are in the midst of a recession.

But that does NOT mean that you have to give in to that knee-jerk reaction to lower your prices and go into emergency mode.  Despite anything that is happening in the world today, your market still wants solutions to their problems, and maybe more now than ever.

So here are three things that you can do right now to start converting those prospects into paying clients.

1. Ask your market what their biggest obstacle is.

I did this just the other day and got great results and new ideas for my business.  If you have     an ezine or newsletter list, simply send out an email asking them to tell you what their biggest     obstacle is related to your business.  While you’re at it, ask them what their biggest desire is     too.  Stop assuming to know what it is that they want and just ask them.

2. Create a program that will remove the obstacle and create the desire.

Package a program with a beginning, middle, end and intended results. Take the most common response from #1 that you feel confident you can approach and you now have a solution that your market will pay for.

3. Take away the risk.

If you get results from your clients, then back it up.  Let them know that you will guarantee the results.  Don’t worry about people asking for their money back.  The additional clients and customers that you’ll get from offering some sort of guarantee will more than cover the small percentage of people who will ever ask for their money back.

All three steps can be done in a couple days.  Put the question out to your list, outline a program based on the results and remove the risk for people to get involved.

Start with step one today.  Don’t put it off and wait until tomorrow because odds are it won’t get done.

 

5 steps to Creating a 6-7 Figure Business as a Solo-Preneur

February 19th, 2009 · No Comments

Most people don’t go through all the sweat and pain of creating a new business to earn minimum wage. So if you have a dream of earning a living from your own business, what’s preventing you from not only having a BIG dream, but of actually achieving that dream?

For most, it’s simply a lack of a game plan. I’m going to share 5 steps to creating a 6-7 figure business as a solo-preneur that have worked for me as well as MANY of my colleagues even in the current economy.

1) Identify your ideal income

It’s not enough to say, “I want to make a good living with my business.” There’s absolutely no conviction or power behind those words. While I know it can be scary at times, you need to write down exactly what you WANT to bring in to your business. Be as specific as possible and be sure to stretch yourself. If you feel uncomfortable writing the number down then you’re on the right track.

2) Identify your “million dollar niche”

Who are they and where do they hang out? Sit down with a piece of paper and describe, in detail, who your ideal client is. What does she read? Does he like coffee or tea? Is she a cat person or a dog person? The more specific that you can get the easier it is to reach and identify with your ideal market.

3) Become fluent in your niche’s language and identify “Hot Emotional Triggers”

Learn exactly what makes your market tick. What are their greatest wants, needs and desires? What are they talking about? Don’t know? Ask them. Send out surveys to your list or get involved in discussion groups. This is why it’s so important to first identify WHO your market is. Often times, your ideal client is “YOU” about a year or two ago. What have you learned that you wish you knew then? What would it be worth to have had this knowledge sooner rather than later? If you don’t know step number 2 then you’ll have a long, uphill battle trying to hit a solid 5 yet alone 6-7 figures with your business.

4) Become the “Go-To” person in your niche

This is actually much easier than you might expect. Remember those “Hot Emotional Triggers?” Learn to effectively satisfy your market’s greatest wants, needs and desires in your own unique and genuine way and you’ll soon position yourself as the “Go-To” person in your niche.

5) Create programs and products with a beginning, middle, end and intended results

Give your market something that they can sink their teeth into. What can a client expect after working with you or buying your products? Remember, your clients are paying for results; plain and simple, so tell them what they can expect. The solo-preneurs who become adept at describing the intended results of their products and services as they relate to the wants, needs and desires of their marketplace are going to reap the greatest rewards and improve their client and customer satisfaction. This is a great way to attach investment to results rather than time spent in fulfillment.

Homework:

Take 5 minutes and write down your ideal income. Write big and bold and keep it where you can see it.

Take the next couple of days to work on steps 2 and 3. Once you’ve completed these first 3 steps the rest will begin to fall into place. Keep your eyes and ears open and listen to what your market wants. Remember to create solutions for those wants and desires in a unique and genuine way. Do this and you’ll have a successful business for a very long time.

Cheers and Success

Tom Buford

 

3 Reasons Information Products can help you to Charge What You Deserve

February 5th, 2009 · 6 Comments

Information products are a great way to create passive revenue and generate interest with joint venture partners. But they can also be used as a great way to leverage your expertise to begin charging what you deserve. I am going to share 3 reasons why an information product can help you to charge much more for your higher-end programs and services.

But first of all, what IS an information product? Simply put, an info product is a print, audio or video (or combination of any of the three) product that shares information on a specific topic.

I’ve created several information products and aside from being a simple way to add a solid stream of income to your business, they’re also a great way to begin Charging What You Deserve for your higher ticket programs and services. Here are 3 reasons why.

1. Information products increase the “know, like and trust” factor.

Most people are going to have to get to know, like a trust you a bit before dropping hard-earned money on your higher-end programs. Info products are a great way of building this relationship with your market. Your prospects can get a taste of your message, approach and competency before taking the next step.

2. Information products get people to “raise their hands.”

Once people spend money with you once, they’re far more likely to invest in other programs than those who haven’t; provided, of course, that you share quality information. Keep in mind that it’s always easier to retain current customers and clients than pick up new ones as long as you use good follow-up techniques.

3. Information products help you to hone your message and create a “system” that you can share with your market.

This is critical to charging what you deserve. When you create programs with a beginning, middle, end and intended result you can charge much more and get it!

Often as service professionals we can get bounced in 100 different directions. A simple info product makes us take the time to sit and map out our message on a specific topic. But it doesn’t have to take very much time.

Here are 5 simple steps to creating an information product:

1. Survey your list and ask them what their biggest pain, fear or desire is
2. Take the hottest response and create a 5-step solution or process around it
3. Hold a free teleclass on the 5-steps and record the call
4. Get the audio transcribed and have a design made for the cover
5. Sell your information product

It really IS that simple and I’ve brought in thousands of dollars from information products and this is one of my favorite methods for creating them. It’s a simple and incredibly quick way to create products over and over.

Cheers
Tom

 

7 Simple Steps to 100 Facebook Group Invites in less than 3 minutes

January 16th, 2009 · No Comments

If you aren’t already aware, having your own Facebook Business Group is a simple and powerful tool for building credibility and presence on the worlds largest social media website. Facebook isn’t just for kids anymore!

I make all of my group invites on Friday every week. This keeps things streamlined and it gives me an opportunity to add lots of new friends during the week and do all of my group invites in one sitting. Well, this morning I decided to set my stopwatch and see just how long it would take to send out my invites. I sent over 100 invites in 2 minutes 57 seconds and decided to share EXACTLY what I do so that you can do the same.

So here it is: 7 Steps to sending 100+ Group Invites in less than 3 minutes

First, there are 3 simple steps to have in place so that you can “rinse and repeat” the 7 steps.

Do these 3 steps so that you can invite 100’s of people to join your Facebook Group without having to spend more than a few minutes a week.

1. Write script for invites in a text file.

Here is a sample: I’d love for you to come join my Charge What You Deserve Group. This is a fun, dynamic and effective group addressing all things “Fee-Setting.” I hope you will join along in the excitement.

http://tinyurl.com/65jlau

Cheers and Success Tom

2. Save the text file on your desktop or a folder that you will have
easy access to.

I have one folder for ALL text files on my desktop. The one with my script is simply named “Facebook Group Invites.”

3. Add new friends to a “Friend List” with a weekly date range to
keep track of when they were added.

Example: “Jan 4-10″

When you add or accept friends, click the “Add to a friend list” drop down and select the list.

Now let’s get to the good stuff; the invites…

100 Group Invites in less than 3 minutes:

1. Go to your desktop and open the folder with your “Group Invite” script.

2. Right click and “Copy” script.

3. Open your Facebook Group page.

4. Select “Invite People to Join” from the menu on the right under your photo.

5. Scroll all the way down and select people to join from your “Add to a Friend List.” Their names will be queued and ready to go when you are done. Invite up to 100 people.

6. Right click and paste your message in the “Personal Message” box under the names to be invited.

7. Click “Send Invitations” Viola Facebook will only allow 100 invitations at one time, but you can repeat steps 5-7 immediately as often as necessary. No worries about spam since you’re inviting people to join a group.

If you repeat this every week you will have a huge list of targeted prospects and business partners who look to you as an expert in your market before you know it.

I hope this helped.

Cheers and Success
Tom

 

3 Reasons to LOVE Facebook

January 9th, 2009 · No Comments

First of all, what is Facebook? Many of you are probably very familiar with Facebook and other social media sites such as Twitter and LinkedIn. But many of you might not be. Or maybe you thought Facebook was just for college students, which was how it started. Well, I have news for you…Facebook isn’t just for kids anymore! Nope, it’s also an amazing tool for business owners like you and me.

But I have to admit I was a non-believer when first introduced to Facebook. I only thought of it as a social site to kill a few hours every day. Hours that I didn’t have to spare, quite frankly. Nor did I want to.

However, after getting tired of hearing some colleagues fussing that I wasn’t “on board” I decided to give it a twirl. Well, I’m hooked. And guess what? I’m making great use of this social media site without having to waste hours every day.

I quickly saw the value in using a site like Facebook, but I didn’t want to get sucked into a time trap. So I created some systems to use my time, and the site, effectively.

If you’re currently on the fence about Facebook, let me share 3 reasons you should LOVE it:

1. You can build your ezine/newsletter list

If you approach Facebook the right way it can be an amazing platform for building a list of subscriber who are eager to work with you and purchase your products and services.

I routinely add 70+ NEW subscribers to my ezine list by using Facebook and I’ve outlined step-by-step exactly how I do it without having to spend countless hours…and I NEVER outsource. ALL of my Facebook activity is done by the “real me.”

However, I was making some pretty big mistakes early on. One of the BIGGEST mistakes that I made was randomly inviting friends of friends to join my network and expecting some sort of consistent, positive outcome from this. It doesn’t work that way. And if you’ve been doing that then you might be getting pretty frustrated with the poor return on investment of time spent.

If you’d like to learn more about how I’ve been building my Facebook friends list and converting many of them to happy ezine subscribers and clients then you’ll want to listen to my FREE teleclass on Wednesday, January 14th.

It’s called “Facebook Secrets: 5 Simple Steps to Building a List of Targeted Prospects Using Facebook.”

You can access the call-in details here:
http://tinyurl.com/8femmv


2. You can build a list of partners eager to share your message with their lists

I’ve had numerous joint venture partnerships blossom from relationships built on Facebook. In fact, I have had people contact me within minutes of becoming friends to see if there was a good joint venture possibility. Often times there is. Facebook makes it very simple to get business information on prospective business partners. You can take a quick glance at somebody’s profile and get a good feel whether or not they might be somebody that you’d like to work with.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, doing teleseminars with people who serve a similar market to yours is an amazing way to build your list and make money. Facebook makes this a BREEZE!


3. Making that “Human Connection”

Being a solopreneur has so many upsides to it. But social activity is certainly not one of them. Facebook is a great way to be able to connect with people from all over the world. Some may be friends, some may be business partners/prospects and some may be all of the above. But they’re all human beings with ideas and energy and they are great to connect with.

You don’t have to spend countless hours, like I know many people are, to get amazing value out of Facebook.

The first thing to do is go to facebook.com and sign up for a free account. Check it out and explore a little bit. Maybe it’s not your cup of tea. At first it wasn’t mine either, but I found 3 great reasons to love it and I’m going to stick around for awhile.

Again, if you’d like to learn more about how I’ve been building my Facebook friends list and converting many of them to happy ezine subscribers and clients then you’ll want to listen to my FREE teleclass on Wednesday, January 14th.

You can access the call-in details here:
http://tinyurl.com/8femmv

 

Two free resources to leverage your marketing messages! ‏

December 13th, 2008 · No Comments

I wanted to share a couple resources with you that will help you to
create more powerful and effective marketing messages.

Resource #1:

MSN.com

You might think I’m crazy about the first one, but this has been
incredibly effective for me.  My marketing mentor, Adam Urbanski of
TheMarketingMentors.com taught me this last year.

MSN.com is one of the best resources for creating compelling
headlines that you can use in your emails, ezines, online/offline
copywriting, etc.

MSN.com, as well as other similar web based news sites, pay for
some of the best copywriting that money can buy.  Their headline
titles are tried and true examples of what WORKS.

By simply reading headlines and borrowing the “style” and “verbiage”
you can create compelling and effective headlines for your
business…no matter what you do.

Here’s an example that I took from today’s MSN.com homepage:

“Can bad credit wreck your relationship?”

With a couple tweaks, I can turn this into a compelling headline
for a virtual assistant:

“Can being a ‘Jack of all trades’ wreck your relationship?”
5 ways that outsourcing can free up more time and add spice to
your relationship.

I literally came up with that on the spot…and I’m not a VA.  You
could have a fun and informative article or product about how
freeing up time for the things that count will add spice to your
love life.  This isn’t a stretch either.  Think of what you could
do with your time if you weren’t trying to wear every hat in your
business.

Resource #2:

AdAge.com

This in an incredible site dedicated to keeping advertisers up to
date on trends and patterns that can have a huge impact on your
business.  Browse around and start reading some of the articles.
You will get some amazing, and very timely, ideas from this site to
help give you a competitive advantage regardless of the business
you are in or the current economic climate.

I hope these help.  I LOVE marketing, but I realize that I’m a bit
of an odd egg on that subject so I like to find resources that I
have found to be effective and share them with you so that you
don’t have to spend your valuable time doing all of the legwork.

After all, you’d probably rank marketing research up there with a
dentist visit on the “fun scale” ;-)

Cheers and Success

Tom

 

Warning Coaches and Consultants: 3 Reasons You Should Love being Marketed to for Your Business’ Sake

November 19th, 2008 · 5 Comments

If you’re a business owner and put one ounce of stock into the law of attraction or other similar principles, then I have a very important question to ask you.  How can you continue to hate the very thing that is the lifeblood of a successful business?  Marketing. I have many colleagues and clients who absolutely hate to be marketed to.  They hate it so much that they resist and sometimes even refuse to market their own businesses.

If you can relate at all to this then I want to share 3 great reasons that you should LOVE being marketed to.

1. Learning to enjoy being marketed TO will make you better at marketing your own business. A sure sign that you don’t like to sell or promote your own business is when you hate being sold to yourself.  Before you randomly hit delete on that next sales page, ask yourself how you feel about promoting your business.

2. There’s actually some really good stuff out there. I know, there’s some real garbage too, but there is some fantastic information being sold on and off the internet that can improve the quality of both your life and your business.

3. You can learn from good marketing. Even if it has nothing to do with you or your business.  If a piece of marketing grabs your attention and sucks you in and you’re not even in the market for what it’s selling, PAY ATTENTION TO IT.  What was it that sucked you in?  What made it compelling or interesting?  Now, learn to duplicate that in YOUR business.

So what can you do now?

Ok…I do understand that we’re being overwhelmed with information.  I’m not encouraging you to sign up for more and more ezines/newsletters and Blog feeds.  But I am encouraging you to pay close attention to the ones that;

a: you can benefit from
b: are outstanding marketing examples
c: caught your attention
d: all of the above

If you’re getting hit over the head with junk, don’t complain, just unsubscribe.  It’s that simple.  But for those blogs, ezines and newsletters that can improve your business, pay close attention.

Buy something once in awhile.  Rememeber that education is one of the most important investments that you can make for yourself and your business and there is some solid information out there.

Create a folder in your email account named “marketing examples”.  Go in regularly and see how you can improve your marketing.  I attribute a tremendous amount of my marketing success to simply observing what others are doing and applying it to my business.

Hey, you can even make this FUN!  Next time you’re at a car dealership or other retail location, pay attention to all of the sales and marketing activity surrounding you.  Note some really BAD marketing and mentally poke a little fun at it.  Take note of the really good stuff and use it in your business.

Learn to LOVE marketing.  Even if you hate it, you have to love it at some level.  Without marketing, guess what?  You’re going out of business.  There’s no other way around it.  That doesn’t mean that you have to beat people over the head either.  But marketing needs to be present and prominent for your business to thrive.

 

What do Fee-Setting and Ice Cream Parlors have in Common?

November 19th, 2008 · 16 Comments

Business success relies on being creative and flexible.  Even comparing
coaching and consulting fees to an ice cream parlor can increase you
income if you know what to look for.  Business and marketing tips come
in all flavors so pull up a stool and let me show you what fee-setting
and ice cream parlors have in common.

Ever walk into an ice cream parlor and want a single scoop of your
favorite flavor?  Imagine you walk in and all they have to offer are
triple scoops?  They even have your favorite flavor, but the only way
that you can have it is to buy a triple scoop.

Maybe it’s hot outside and you want to walk around without having
ice cream pouring down your arm and onto the sidewalk.  Or maybe
you’re in a hurry and you only have time for a single scoop.  You
might be saving room for something else to eat a little later.

We could go on for quite awhile as to all of the reasons you may
prefer a single scoop of ice cream over a triple or even a double scoop.

This seems so elementary that we probably couldn’t even IMAGINE
an ice cream parlor that would be short sighted enough to offer
only triple scoops to their patrons.

But let me ask you another question.  Are you doing the same thing
to YOUR market?  Are you offering nothing but triple scoops when,
clearly, many prospects would just like a single scoop?

People want a chance to get to know, like and trust you.  Some just
won’t be prepared to jump in and snatch up a triple scoop.  Perhaps
their schedule doesn’t permit it.  Or they want to enter your program
gradually.  There’s a host of reasons that you should create multiple
offers for your market.

So what do you do with these people?  They might turn out to be your
ideal clients, but if you don’t have anything else to offer them
then you’ll never know.

Whether you are a coach, consultant, holistic service professional or
any other fee-based solo-preneur, you can always create multiple
offers for your prospects and clients.

Here are a few ideas ranging from free to full-fee:

* Newsletter and ezines
* Tele-classes
* Tele-seminars
* Information products
* Published books
* Group coaching programs
* Packaging your services into 2-3 tiers

For coaches, one of the quickest tweaks that you can make is creating
what I call a split fee.

The typical coaching model may look like:
4 calls at $400 per month

But how about this:
4 calls at $550 per month
2 calls at $300 per month

You just increased your hourly income with both offers and created a
new option for your clients that’s less of an investment of time
and money.

Frankly, you may find that most clients opt for the higher of the
two, but having options means that they feel in control of the
experience.

If you’re interested, I go into much more detail about creating
multiple solutions for your market over here:

http://chargewhatyoudeserve.com/products/audiocoach.php

Remember, not everyone who walks into your ice cream parlor is
looking for a triple scoop ;-)

 

Business Owners: Which news headline should you pay attention to?

October 29th, 2008 · No Comments

I used to be a news junkie but after years of hearing nothing but
bad news I became pretty jaded to it all.

However, it is pretty tough to ignore headlines about the economy
and the upcoming election. The problem is that business owners who
are doing fine are afraid to invest in their businesses and move
forward as they should.

I poked my nose into MSN.com a few days ago and it prompted me
to share my thoughts with you.

There were two headlines that stuck out and they were right next to
each other. You may have seen them.

The first said, “Another Massive Drops for Markets.” It seems the
Dow dropped another 7% and this certainly is something that you
need to pay attention to. But should you stop moving your business
forward?

You tell me. Here was the bordering headline:
“Historic pistol sells for $920,000 in Maine.”

Someone just spent almost $1 million on an old gun. No other way
to look at it. I know what you are probably thinking. The rich
get richer…

But here’s the deal. I bet the man who sold the gun is doing ok.
He has some disposable income to spend now that he unloaded a
family heirloom. He said he’s going to invest in property in his
home state. You think a couple realtors and land owners are happy
about that? You betcha!

How about the auctioneer? They made $120,000. I bet their
employees are doing just fine despite the rotten stock market.

The fact of the matter is this one single transaction will put some
extra spending money in quite a few pockets.

You can make a choice and decide which headline you want to give
most of your attention to. But remember that the sun is always
shining somewhere.

Again, you CAN’T ignore the fact that our economy is suffering a
major “correction” if you will. But that doesn’t mean that you sit
there paralyzed either. There always have been and always will be
people with money who are more than willing to spend it on services
and products that they value.

So, what can you start doing?

1. Be sure to always focus on the VALUE that you offer your
clients. The price should be an afterthought. If they truly value
what you have to offer and it serves them in a positive way then
they will pay you what you are worth.

2. Make sure that your market understands what they LOSE by not
engaging with you. What might their life be like 3 months from now
if they work with you? Now,
what will their life be like 3 months from now if they don’t work
with you?

Will they be sitting in the exact same spot they are now? If
you’re talking to them then they are interested in change. It’s
your obligation to remind them of the value that you bring and
where they will be if they DON’T work with you.

In summary:

**Set a price or fee that makes YOU happy.
**Make sure that you over deliver the value.
**Remind your prospects of the value that you provide and what they
**Lose by not working with you.

Now go out and take care of business!

Cheers and Success

Tom Buford
http://chargewhatyoudeserve.com
Providing fee-setting and marketing strategies so that business owners can begin charging what they deserve.