Client Magnets Official Blog

Archive for June, 2009

If you’re not already using direct mail in your business, you’re almost certainly missing out on sales and profits.

For example, if your only method of contacting customer and prospects is via email, adding direct mail to your online marketing could increase your results by up to 400%.

The trouble is if you you’re new to direct mail, the learning curve can be steep and expensive. The good news is, that there ARE ways to minimise your risk and guarantee your return on investment.

One way to do that is to use direct mail to follow up with past customers and prospects, so in this article I want to share with you an easy technique which could be re-applied to practically any business, resulting in a big surge of sales and cash! (Yep, even in this economic climate!)

So to explain, let me share with you a little story. I’ve been with my current optician for about 5 years, and I wear both glasses and contact lenses. I last changed my glasses 2 years ago at a cost of 250 euros and I spend about 30 euros a month on contact lenses, so overall I’m worth about 485 euros a year to my optician. I’m due for another sight test in about a month.

The smart optician would send me a reminder that my test is due, with a voucher for a free or discounted sight test. Why would he do this? Because once he gets me back, it’s pretty likely that I’m going to fork out another 200-300 euros for my next set of specs, plus he’s more likely to get all my contact lens business for the next two years. Think about it, is it worth the price of a stamp and envelope to lock in the next two years of business from a past customer? I suggest it IS.

This optician is part of a chain which advertises on national television, in glossy magazines and newspapers, yet would not have to invest so much in getting new clients and customers if they ensured more repeat business from the ones that they did have. The trouble is, the voucher I just described is nowhere near as glamorous or exciting as those fashionable ads, so get’s sidelined.

Here’s my point: are you investing your resources of time and money chasing after new business when there is business right under your nose? Past customers who could be reactivated? Former clients that you haven’t contacted for some time?

This is one of the easiest ways to use direct mail and almost certainly gives a great return on investment every time.

How to re-apply this to YOUR business:

Pull together a list of your past clients and customers and commit to get back in touch with them. They trusted you enough to hand over their hard earned cash before – there is a relationship there which should not be squandered. Think about what offer you might make to get them back. Be creative.

For example, an aerobics teacher could send a note saying ‘Haven’t seen you for a while at our classes, I’ve got a gift for you, just bring this letter with you to your next class’. A coach could send a letter saying – ‘its 6 months since we worked together and this is a good time to schedule a review to make sure that you’re still on track with the changes that you made’ A business trainer could offer a ‘refresher’ session for the staff that received training last time.

If you’ve been in business for any length of time, there are many opportunities like this right under your nose. Sometimes we don’t see those opportunities because we are too busy chasing the ‘next big thing’, so this week commit to finding one thing you can do – and do it!

A few years ago, I met one of the best known ’sales experts’ in the UK. He had authored several books, and provided motivational training for blue-chip companies in a career spanning decades. If you’ve worked in the sales world for any time, you have almost certainly heard of him. Now in the ‘golden years’ of his career, he could sit back and let the opportunities come to him, couldn’t he? Actually no. “We never kept a database, Bernadette” he privately confessed to me.

So at great expense he had to hire and manage a sales team to set appointments for him. If he had cultivated a list over the years, he would have had prospective clients knocking on his door.

“But my business is different!” Ok, so you’re a consultant – and you only work with 3-4 large clients each year. Surely you don’t need a list of 1,000 do you? Maybe not, but any list will give you huge leverage. If you run a training course, you could offer ‘tips’ to attendees, which you mail, or email after the training. Make sure you keep in touch because even though they may not have buying authority right now, some of those attendees will get promoted, some will move to other departments, some of them will move to different companies, or even different industries. Several business opportunities have come to me this way over the years.

Or you’re a massage therapist – and you can only see 12 clients a week, so you think you don’t need to have a huge list either. No therapist who has been in business for more than 2 years should ever have an empty appointment book. Just this week I heard the sad tale of an experienced complementary therapist who had worked with over 1,000 clients. Business had mainly come her way via word of mouth and referral. But then, for a variety of reasons, she had to stop working with clients for a couple of months and had lost momentum.

Now she was struggling to re-establish her client base to its previous levels. “Well, why not send a mailshot to your past clients,” was the advice. “Ah”, she replied, “I didn’t actually keep a list of addresses of my clients”. So she was basically starting from scratch all over again.

This sounds so obvious, but you would be surprised just how many people I have seen make this fundamental marketing mistake.

Keep a list of all your past clients, and if you come up to a lean period, you can simply send a mailshot to them. It doesn’t have to be a hard sell, just a simple reminder that you’re available, and perhaps a special offer. I guarantee you will get a response from people who have been meaning to call you for weeks or months, but never got around to it – until you contacted them.

Action Steps

1. Commit to collecting names and contact details of every single person who expresses an interest in your business. Look at every current activity you do to market your business and make sure that there is a way of capturing details of people – even if they’re not ready to buy right away.

2. Follow up and stay in touch. Yes, I know you’re really busy and don’t have time to follow up with everyone, but there are ways of following up with people that don’t have to be a huge drain on your time or money. An email newsletter is a cost effective way to stay in touch with thousands of people. Even monthly or quarterly mailshots or postcards would be better than nothing at all.

3. Stop trying to be perfect. Some sort of name capture and follow up is better than nothing at all, and you can always tweak and adjust your follow up messages as you go along (that’s what I do).

4. Start measuring success differently. Most people measure their business results in terms of sales and profits. I recommend that you also add ’size of the list’ to your success measurement – as it can help you plan for future sales and profits too.

5. Commit to building and cultivating a prospect list. Put ‘growing your list’ to the top of your priorities and you’ll be surprised at the results you can achieve.

Then save this date – June 30.

June 30 is the day I start my TWO-PART Teleseminar Series ‘7 Secrets to Attracting All the Clients You Want’

In a hurry? Click here to register.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve noticed more and more conflicting advice about what it REALLY takes to attract new clients and grow a successful business. And it’s all getting so confusing!

I see many talented people – with valuable gifts and skills to offer potential clients – working harder than ever, yet still struggling to get all the clients they need.

Has this been happening to you?

Perhaps you are experiencing these yourself…

• you’re ‘doing all the right things’ – but still not getting the consistent, paying business you want
• finding it harder to get commitment from clients
• losing former clients, yet struggling to replace them
• more and more people telling you ‘I can’t afford it’
• you get great feedback, but STILL don’t have enough clients

Sound familiar?

You’re not alone. And I know you are wondering… What still works? What doesn’t work? What should I do now? What should I stop doing? What do I need to KNOW right now to change all this?

I’m here to help.

Starting June 30, I’m offering this two-part teleseminar series on what it REALLY takes to GET NEW CLIENTS NOW (yes, I’ve got so much to share with you on this topic I can’t fit it into one call!)

And this is YOUR invitation to join me. I want you to be one of the first to hear my ground breaking insights on what’s REALLY working RIGHT NOW to get new clients.

=> Click here for details and to register

Whether you are an established business owner or just starting out, you are going to discover what is working right now for me, my clients and my 7-figure colleagues.

You can get all the details and reserve YOUR spot by clicking the link below.

=> Click here to register now

I want to help YOU attract all the clients you want, so make sure to join me on this special complimentary teleseminar series. I look forward to ‘seeing’ you on the calls!

Do you ever feel that there just aren’t enough hours in the day? Are you frustrated because you are full of great ideas to grow your business that you just don’t have time to implement? Do you feel that you’re putting in long hours, yet still not getting the money or quality of life that you hoped your business would bring you?

You’re not alone. You’re simply caught in a position that most business owners find themselves in before too long. I call it the ‘time-trap’.

You simply have too many hats to wear. Not only are you responsible for marketing and selling, you’re the person who has to provide the service to the clients too. The trouble with being caught in the ‘time-trap’ is that on the face of it, it seems like there is no way out. You’ve got to do what it takes to bring in business, and unless you deliver the service to the customer, you don’t get paid. So you find yourself on the hamster wheel, just running faster and faster to simply keep up.

I’ve got some good news for you.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

There is a way to break free of the time-trap. I’m telling you this as someone who not too long ago was caught up in the same time-trap and found a way to break free. Today I want to share with you two key concepts that can help you break free of the time trap.

1. Productise Your Service Business

If your primary means of generating revenue for your business is based upon you selling your time, then you’re in trouble. Most readers of this newsletter are consultants, trainers, coaches and therapists and for most of you, the revenue model goes something like this: you provide a service for an hour or for a day or for a week or whatever and you get paid in exchange. So basically you’re selling your time to make income.

The trouble with this revenue model is that it makes you highly vulnerable. You’re essentially manual labour. Even if you’re commanding fees of thousands a day, if you get sick, or take time off, the revenue disappears.

So you need to find a way to ‘leverage’ your time so that instead of ‘do the work, get paid.’ You ‘do the work, get paid, paid, paid, paid, paid, paid, paid.’

How could you help your clients WITHOUT always having to sell your time on a one to one basis? This is the question you need to ask yourself – and KEEP asking. Don’t give up if you don’t have an immediate answer to this. The first time I was asked this question, I didn’t have an immediate answer either. But that wasn’t because the answer wasn’t there.

It was because I was so locked into my old way of thinking that the answer was not readily apparent. Since then I’ve implemented solutions that enable me to work with groups rather than just one-to-one, and package the processes I ‘thought’ I could only share in person into stand alone products. I’m convinced that you can do the same, as long as you open your mind to the possibilities.

2. Fire Yourself From Your Sales Team

What’s the process for a prospect becoming a paying client in your business? How much of your personal time goes into landing the sale? The greater the dependency on YOU, the weaker your business is, because there are only so many hours in the day, and before too long you’ll become the bottleneck. This is exactly the reason why so many service professionals complain about ‘feast or famine’ peaks and troughs – when you’re working with existing clients, there isn’t the time for marketing and selling to new ones.

The answer to this is to automate as much as your marketing and selling process as possible – and that’s probably a lot more than you think. The first time I was introduced to this idea, my immediate reaction was ‘that’s not possible in my business. People are buying me, so they will want to speak with me before they can make their buying decision.’ I was wrong.

It didn’t happen overnight, but I HAVE successfully implemented systems that enable me to market and sell WITHOUT ongoing input of my personal time, and in the rare instances where I DO need to speak to a prospective client, they are already pre-qualified and pre-disposed to work with me. You can do this too, and the first step is for you to open your mind to the possibilities, and let go of the belief that you have to be personally involved in every single sale. That belief is keeping you caught in the time-trap.

While there are no miracle cures or quick and easy fixes for breaking free of the ‘time-trap’, you CAN do it when you find a way to apply these two concepts to your business. In the space available in this article, I hope I have planted the seeds.

I’ve always liked the film the Wizard of Oz. I particularly like the scene where Toto, Dorothy’s little dog, jumps out of her arms to pull back the curtain and reveal that the intimidating, omniscient wizard is simply a little old guy pulling levers.

The truth is, I see myself as a Toto. I like demystifying things. I especially like taking things that are intimidating, awe inspiring, and pulling back the curtain to reveal the simplicity that lies behind. I love saying ‘See! Anyone can do this. It’s really not that complicated!’ If you don’t know how to do it, attracting a consistent stream of paying clients can seem overwhelming, intimidating, confusing and complicated. When you ARE doing it, it’s as straightforward as a little old guy pulling levers.

Right now, what’s complicating things for many people, in my view, is the technology that surrounds marketing, especially online marketing. Ezines, search engine optimisation, Google Adwords, e-books, e-courses, autoresponders, shopping carts, merchant accounts. Just how do all these pieces fit into your marketing plans?

Faced with a list like this people either go into the ‘headless chicken dance’ and rush around frantically trying to keep up or are paralysed by confusion like a rabbit caught in the headlights, they just freeze and do nothing. (Dogs? Chickens? Rabbits? This article is starting to feel like Noah’s ark!)

Now, I don’t recommend that you do the headless chicken routine, as it is very detrimental to your energy levels. And if you’ve been feeling like the proverbial rabbit in the headlights, then I’ve got good news for you too. First, breathe. (Breathing is good!) Now get yourself comfortable, I’m about to pull back the curtain.

Doing business online is no different from doing business offline. And in both arenas, marketing is nothing more than matching up your product or service with the people who need it.

Now, if you don’t understand how to do this at its core, then no amount of technology will help you. If you have grasped at an elemental level, how to match up with your target market, then the technology can turbo-charge your progress.

In a nutshell, this is what you need to do. First you need to generate leads, get people who are in the market for what you have to offer to ‘raise their hands’ and make themselves known to you. Next you need to make an explicit offer to those people who raise their hands. Tell them clearly what they need to do to become a customer or client of yours. Now some people will buy immediately, other people may need more time, or more convincing.

If you have a low cost system for staying in touch with those people who don’t buy immediately AND you consistently add value to those people, and remind them of what you have to offer, then over time a good proportion of those clients will convert into paying clients too.

Now, some of this may look like I’m ’stating the obvious’ but if it’s so obvious, why are so few people actually applying it? Where I see most people fall down is on step two, making a clear offer to those people who have ‘raised their hands’, but that’s a subject for another time.

The key to bear in mind is that marketing is simply about getting into a relationship with people. All of the technology I rattled off earlier are simply ways to facilitate these three steps.

If you and I were to sit down today and have a conversation about your business, could you tell me the following?

· This is how I get my target market to ‘raise their hands’.
· This is what I invite them to buy after they have ‘raised their hands’.
· This is how I present my offer in a way which compels them to take action.
· This is how I follow up and stay in touch with people over time.

When you can clearly articulate the answers to these four questions, then marketing your business will be as simple as clicking your heels three times, and just like Dorothy, you will discover that the power has been within you all along.

I recently received the following question from a reader:

“I’m not getting massive success with the marketing I’ve done so far. In fact, not one person has called me because they’ve seen my flyers. I’m starting to think people may be turned off by them. Any suggestions on how I can judge if they’re a turn-off?”

First of all, if the telephone isn’t ringing, you know you need to do SOMETHING differently, but this question highlights exactly why I DON’T recommend just printing up a bunch of flyers and randomly distributing them. The flyer itself may be perfect but it may not be getting seen by the right people. Or the flyer may be reaching the right people but not doing a good enough job of motivating them to take action. The problem with this method of marketing is that it’s hard to get feedback on what specifically you need to change.

So first of all, you need to ask yourself, have you got the right brochure reaching the wrong people, the wrong brochure reaching the right people, or worst of all, the wrong brochure reaching the wrong people!

The one thing I know for sure is that when you have the right brochure reaching the right people, you are well on your way to becoming a ‘Client Magnet.’

So this week, I am going to focus on two areas: first of all making sure that you have the ‘right’ marketing materials, and secondly making sure that it reaches the right people.

Getting Your Marketing Materials Right

1. What action do you want the reader to take, as a result of reading your brochure/flyer/web-page/email/sales letter?

The job of your marketing material is to motivate the reader to take action, so first of all, you need to be really clear on what you want to accomplish. Try to accomplish too many things simultaneously, and you will fail.

2. Does your marketing material inform or persuade?

Many people think all they need to do is print up some information about themselves and the services they offer and then wait for the telephone to start ringing.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that!

I think of marketing literature as a ’sales person in print’. In other words, it needs to do all the things a real live sales person would do: get rapport with the reader, engage in a dialogue about their needs, understand their problems, recommend a solution, overcome objections and close.

Take a long hard look at your marketing material, does it do all of these things? If not, then you need to change it. Even if the action you want the reader to take is ‘phone for a consultation’, you need to include all of the above steps.

When you have done the above, then you need to make sure that your marketing material gets read by the right people.

Getting Your Marketing Material Read By The Right People

As I said above, I don’t recommend randomly distributing flyers, because you have no way of measuring their effectiveness. You can’t tell who saw your brochure and who didn’t. You have no idea who was tempted and who was put off.

So for this reason, I favour a ‘multi-step’ approach which focuses on getting your target audience to ‘raise their hands’ first, THEN you send your brochure and now at least you have some way of measuring the effectiveness of your brochure. The number of sales divided by the number of brochures you sent out equals your conversion rate!

So this is where you need to get creative. Start to brainstorm lists of places where your target audience is likely to congregate. Will you find them online, offline or both? Are they members of clubs or associations?

After you have identified a few places, you need to give them a reason to ‘raise their hands’. I like to offer an ‘Ethical Bribe’ such as a free report, e-course or teleseminar.

When people raise their hands, then you can send them your material (by post or email) and gauge the response.

The point I want to make for now is that YOU need to take steps to make sure your marketing and sales materials are being seen by the right people.

It doesn’t stop there…

So, now can you sit back and wait for the phone to ring? If you have followed the above advice, you can certainly expect SOME response, but the thing you now need to do is measure the effectiveness and see what you can do to increase conversion rates. This is the fun part of marketing, as you can start to see what small changes can bring huge results, just like the flap of a butterfly’s wing in Honolulu causing a tornado in Texas!

But my overriding message for you is this: just changing your sales literature – whether it is a brochure or a web page – without paying attention to WHO is looking at it, is just a stab in the dark.

Helen asks, ‘I have a great idea for a course, but how do I build a list attracting people interested in the topic, without giving all the course content away in the newsletter?‘

This is a common question, and it seems that one big fear people have about using their existing knowledge as a marketing tool through newsletters, articles or even talks or free teleseminars is that when they give their goodies away, there will be no need for people to hire them.

The sooner you get over this fear, the faster your business will grow. Useful content, packaged in the right way can be a major draw attracting prospective clients to you, and convincing them that you’re the person they want to hire.

1. You’re offering a sample, not giving away the store!

Make a clear distinction between giving a sample and giving everything away. My local delicatessen regularly offers bite-sized portions of a new cheese, meats, bread or cake for customers to sample. Notice there’s a difference between offering a little taste like this and standing back, opening the cash register and saying, ‘Help yourself to whatever’s here, and I don’t mind what you pay for it, or even if you pay for it at all!’

2. How to offer ‘taster’ samples.

What you want to avoid is being cryptic, hinting that you have some miracle solution, but failing to give even a whiff of it away. That’s just plain annoying. So give the big picture, for example tell people WHAT to do, but if they want specifics on HOW to do it, then they’ll have to pay. Or give a complete tip, that someone can use right away, even if they DON’T buy from you, but make it clear that this is just one tip of several more that you have to provide. E.g. ‘This is just one of the 7 rapport building techniques you’ll discover at this training.’

3. You couldn’t possibly give away everything that you have to offer.

The next thing to recognise is that you are more than the content you provide. Your value to a client is more than just what you know. I’ll bet you didn’t hire your accountant because of the certificate on their wall, but also because you felt some connection with them too. Your knowledge is an important component of the overall value you provide, but just as important as your knowledge is how you do it.

If you think that you are just selling information, then you’re in trouble, because information is a commodity and freely available. You could give away all your content, but you can’t give away ‘YOU’. For example, even if I were to give away ALL the material I sell in manuals, masterclasses and recordings, I know that that there would still be people who asked me to help them with implementing certain parts of it.

4. There is value in the packaging as well as the content.

Flowers grow everywhere, but that hasn’t put florists out of business. Think about it. Flowers grow freely in parks, gardens, forests, fields even by the side of the road. So why on earth does anyone buy from a florist? The answer is: lots of reasons. Speed, convenience, pretty packaging, or extra services such as delivery are just some of the reasons I’ll order from a florist rather than head into the woods for flowers on a friends’ birthday.

It’s the same for your prospective clients too. Some clients will buy from you for the convenience of having one expert who has already seen all the mistakes and knows how to avoid them. Once again it’s WHO you are, not just WHAT you know that makes you valuable to a client.

5. It’s not what you say, it’s the way that you say it…

This is especially important if you’re in the ‘change’ business e.g. a coach, consultant, trainer or healer. Two questions prospects will always have about you is ‘Can I relate to this person? Will they understand MY specific situation?’ A newsletter is more than a chance to show off your content, it’s an opportunity to connect with and build a relationship with a prospective client.

Sometimes the value will not necessarily be in the tips you provide, but in getting people to think differently. So put your own spin on it. Let your readers hear your authentic voice. The idea is not to please everybody, but to connect with the right people.

6. The more you give, the more you get.

This is as much as spiritual principle as it is a marketing principle, yet I can still hear people ask, ‘But I’ve been giving and giving. so why don’t I have the clients I want?’ The truth is people are sensitive, and they respond to your energy and intention as much as your content. None of us like to receive a gift with strings attached. So whatever information you provide, do so with an open heart and a true desire to serve, and you will be rewarded in spades.

Most self-employed service providers struggle at some point with the issue of setting their fees. Set your fees too high, and you could price yourself out of the market. Set your fees too low, and you’ll put yourself under pressure as profit margins get squeezed. This is a story of how I helped a complementary therapist to establish her fees at a level which worked for her AND her client.

Recently I’ve been receiving regular reflexology treatment. At my last session the reflexologist told me she’d been invited to submit a proposal to provide training at a dance school. ‘I have no idea how to structure the proposal, or even what to charge’ she told me. ‘They’ve asked me to run 12 two hour sessions’

‘How many people will be receiving the training?’ I asked. ‘10′ she replied. ‘And overall they’ll be getting 24 hours of training. What would it cost if they individually went and bought 24 hours of reflexology training on the open market?’ ‘At least 600 euros per person’, she replied.

‘Great. Well 10 times 600 euros is 6,000. So immediately we’ve established the value of this training at 6,000 euros’.

Her eyes widened, ‘That’s 3 times what I was thinking of charging, ‘

‘Well I’m not saying you should charge that, but I would definitely include that piece of information somewhere in your proposal. You see, perception of value is a very subjective thing. If the decision makers have an idea that your time is worth 40 euros an hour, and they see you providing 24 hours of training, then the figure they may have in THEIR heads is 960. On that basis, it will be difficult to persuade them to part with 2,000. You’re going to encounter price resistance and have a lot of objections to overcome.

Even if you can convince them to pay 2,000, they’re going to have a feeling that they were overcharged. Even though their expectations were unrealistic and didn’t take into account your preparation time. It will be an uphill struggle.

In contrast, if you take the time to establish that this training would cost them 6,000 if they were to source it elsewhere, you could charge 3,000 and they will still feel like they’re getting value.’

It’s your responsibility to establish the value of the service you provide. Before this conversation, my reflexologist was going to set her prices by calculating how many hours were involved, and then multiplying that by her hourly rate.

Yet her hourly rate as a reflexology practitioner is IRRELEVANT to the proposal she had been asked to submit. She is providing training to 10 people NOT a reflexology treatment to one. It’s a completely different service.

If a customer has a certain figure in their head, even if that figure is unrealistic, it’s YOUR job to educate them.

You don’t want customers agreeing to your fees, but feeling that they were overcharged. And they will if there is a big gap between their expectation and your fee.

So well before you reveal your fee, make sure you have reset their expectations and demonstrated convincingly what your solution would cost were they to source it elsewhere. Please note, you need to do this BEFORE you reveal your fee. If you wait until afterwards you will simply come across as defensive and trying to justify your fees. It’s not a pretty picture.

Making the effort to establish value and educate your clients up front can pay off in many ways.

You can eliminate price objections before they come up, and notice that in this case the reflexologist could submit a proposal that was 50% higher than she had planned AND it was able to present her price in such a way that the client knew they were getting good value. That’s a real win-win. Had she NOT taken the time to establish the value up front, she could have had a real struggle convincing the client to part with her original figure of 2,000.

The net result? When I followed up with her to see how she got on, she had successfully submitted a proposal where she charged 3,000 euros – 50% more than the fee she had originally planned. She was happy and the client was happy. A true win-win.

Last week I got two emails from subscribers about the same topic.

“I need to increase my prices but I’m nervous about telling clients.” The other said, “I’m really struggling with charging my new fee having increased it for the first time in 3 years. Logically I know it’s quite OK and well within the band of what others charge, but I feel so uncomfortable…I know I’m putting people off when they phone because I cringe internally when they ask how much I charge.”

The problem here is not an economic one, but a psychological one, so here’s my rapid fire advice if you can relate to this situation.

The first person you have to sell on price is YOU. As these examples show, if you’re not 100% convinced that you’re providing great value and worth every penny that you charge, then you will convey this to your customers. And if you don’t believe that what you are offering is valuable and unique, then how on earth can you expect your clients and customers to? You must find a way to differentiate yourself and convince yourself of your own unique value first and foremost.

Stop comparing yourself to others. If you’re selling a commodity, offering something that is freely available on the open market, then I agree that the final influencing factor before a buyer says yes may be price. But that’s actually a very good reason for not offering a ‘commodity’. My first advice to would be client magnets is to take yourself out of buyers’ markets like these, and position yourself in such a way that price comparisons are difficult, if not impossible.

Please don’t email me saying, ‘But there are other corporate trainers/ hypnotherapists/shiatsu practitioners/coaches/consultants in my town, and they charge a lot less.’ That’s really only a problem if you believe they’re offering exactly the same thing that you do. I personally believe that what you’re offering is a lot more unique than that. The question is, do you?

Buyers pay a lot less attention to price than you think they do. It’s a proven fact that less than 10% of buyers buy ONLY on price. Think about it. Is price the only factor that you consider when making buying decisions? Are the clothes you are wearing the cheapest you could find? I doubt it. So why do you believe that your potential customers shop around for the cheapest professional services? The fact is, most buyers are more than willing to pay premium prices when you have taken the time to educate them about the value they will receive in return.

The trick to raising prices is to do it. If you believe that a certain amount is ‘too much’, then the only way you’ll bust through that limiting belief is when someone cheerfully pays full asking price without quibble. It only takes one sale for you to realise that other people think that you are worth this, and then you’ll wonder why you waited so long to raise your fees. But no one will pay you more than you’re already asking, so you need to RAISE YOUR FEES.

What’s the worst that can happen? Let’s say you raise your prices by 20% and 20% of your clients go elsewhere. You’re still better off, because now you’re earning the same amount but working 20% less. What are you afraid of? That they will be outraged by your audacity? That they will get angry at you? Let’s face it, even if clients do have an emotional reaction to what you charge, that is THEIR issue, not yours.

They have a choice – to take their business elsewhere. Just like you have a choice, as the seller, to charge whatever you choose. What you will find actually happens is that when you set fees that reflect your true value, then you’ll attract a better caliber of client, people who respect and value what you do and appreciate you.

There is so much I could say on this topic, I could write a book about it – oh, yes, I already did! It’s called ‘How to Charge What You’re Worth and Get The Fees You Deserve’, and it really is a magic bullet for helping people to truly transform their pricing from the inside out. Some people have raised their prices as much as 50% with the help of this programme. You can get it FREE with ‘How to Get Clients for Your Complementary Practice’ and ‘How to Attract Corporate Clients’. www.clientmagnets.com

I received this email from Hector:

‘Hi Bernadette, I work with clients to help them use Information Technology to improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, and eliminate waste. I manage their IT projects for implementation of information systems, software development, and business process improvement.

I am great in developing a rapport with a client but do not have the skill set to find new clients. Can you help?’

Yes, I certainly can.

Sooner or later most solo service providers find themselves in the frustrating catch-22 that Hector describes. Here is my four-part plan to help you make your ‘great escape’!

1. Replace ‘manual labor’ prospecting with automated and low maintenance prospecting techniques

If your main way of generating new enquiries are time-consuming techniques like cold-calling and networking, then it’s time to replace them with prospecting and lead capture which can be automated. For example, targeted advertising or direct mail which drive interested prospects to a web page where you make an attractive offer in exchange for their contact details and permission to contact them. Imagine having 20, 30 or even 100 people give you their names without you making a single cold-call or going to any networking meeting.

2. Automate your follow-up processes

Surely one of the greatest inventions of the late 20th century was the ‘auto-responder’, the technology that enables you to automate your follow up and send a sequence of ongoing messages and offers to prospects. Before I started using an auto-responder, my follow up was a calendar reminder of phone calls or ‘keep in touch’ notes. It took hours to maintain, and just like Hector, when I was working with a client, my follow up suffered. The beauty of an auto-responder is that it will follow up on your behalf whether you are working with a client, on holiday, or even sleeping! This is an essential tool for every solo-preneur.

3. Create ‘off-the shelf’ solutions that can be sold without you having to write laborious proposals every time

If winning a new client means a detailed written proposal every time, then you are doing something wrong. While there will almost certainly be situations where a customized proposal is required, the 80/20 rule dictates that 80% of what you do for clients is duplicated. So why not save yourself some stress and effort by creating fixed price ‘packages’ to offer prospects? You’ll be stunned at the difference this can make to your business, as not only does it cut down selling time, it makes your offer more tangible to the buyer, and that can increase sales too.

4. Automate ‘closing the sale’

For people like Hector, there’s a good chance that to close the sale requires several phone calls, face-to-face meetings and tailored proposals. All that time adds considerably to your cost of sale and eats into your profit margins. (Which is why sometimes even when you’re winning business you can still feel like your not earning enough compared to the effort you put in). The advantage of creating ‘off-the shelf solutions’ is that you can often sell these solutions with a really strong sales letter or webpage and eventually fire yourself from your sales team!

As someone who had been trained in face-to-face selling techniques, I initially resisted this advice and argued that it wasn’t workable in my business. But when I finally tried it and saw those orders coming in without me speaking to a customer, I was hooked. You will be too if you give this a try, and you’ll wonder why you struggled doing it the old way for so long.