Help Clients Make The Decision To Buy

February 25th, 2010

You may be fully aware of the tremendous difference that your services make to an organization or an individual, but you have to find a way to link that difference to end results.

One of the really important things you need to do in your business is identify the results you achieve.

One way that you can ascertain the results you’ve helped a client achieve is to go back and ask them. If your contact has told you that since they used your services or product, they got X number of results, find out the implications of those results – in terms of time or money.

I did some negotiation skills training for a client, who told me, “it really made a difference.” That’s all fine and good, but I asked them to quantify what difference it made.  In their case, they were able to measure what their goodwill budget had been the year before compared to the current year, and I was able to get a statistic from that.

If you’re a coach, and you’ve been able to save a particular client 2 hours every week in their work week, that’s valuable time over the course of a month or two. But, if you factor those hours at the rate that client gets paid, it could work out to your helping the client make additional thousands of dollars a year.

You have to look at what you’re doing in terms of increasing sales, or reducing cost, or saving time, and then work through it that way. Calculate what the net benefit is for the client. Always remember, clients make the decision to buy something based on the benefits.  You may need to do a bit of research to make those connections.

Think of yourself as a salesperson who is putting together a presentation that quantifies all the benefits. Or, as a bit of a lawyer, arguing in court and putting together a case. You have to bring together different pieces of information and statistics to make your argument.

It’s not that you’re stating you are definitely going to help a client save this amount of time or money, but you’re getting people to think in terms of end results for their business.

To get your potential clients those results, you must first prompt your existing and satisfied clients for a specific answer about how your service benefits them. Be willing to go back to your contacts and talk to them about the difference you’ve been making. Ask them to quantify it.

They won’t think about it until you ask them. But, by asking the question, you’re also raising your value in their eyes too.

Bernadette Doyle is a marketing specialist who helps entrepreneurs become client magnets and attract a steady stream of their ideal clients. She publishes a free, weekly newsletter for trainers, speakers, coaches, consultants, complementary therapists and solo professionals. If you’d like to receive invaluable tips and advice on how to attract clients with ease, register at http://www.clientmagnets.com

Help Clients Make The Decision To Buy

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Posted in Cash Flow, Closing The Sale, Marketing, Sales Motivation | 1 Comment »

Make More Sales By Gaining Trust and Confidence

February 22nd, 2010

You know that you’re the best, but your customers need to believe that too. There are several ways for you to gain their confidence and trust so you can earn their business.

Sway potential clients in your favor by taking away the risk of doing business with you and making your offer irresistible.

•  Offer a  guarantee. Personally, I have a guarantee when I’m offering my products or workshops. There is some grey area here, however. Some of my higher-value coaching services are more time intensive for me and don’t include a guarantee. The reason I don’t offer one is that I don’t want to give people an opt-out clause. When these high-caliber people step up in a big way and want to get the results that a high level coaching from me can deliver, I want to know that they’re fully in the game.

It’s a big challenge to make a massive transformation or a big leap in business. You don’t want clients like these to be running for the door or the emergency exit the moment the going gets tough. So, in some cases, guarantees are counter-productive and could actually end up helping clients resist what you’re offering.

So, you have to decide whether or not a guarantee is right for your market.

•  Alleviate their fears. Sometimes people won’t sign on or purchase something because they’re skeptical that what worked for other people won’t work for them. You need to show them how, even if they may have failed in the past, this time they will succeed. Include additional follow-ups or features that your competition doesn’t provide to show that you can help them accomplish their goal or fulfill their need. Be creative and really give some thought as to how you can remove the risk for your potential clients.

•  Make your offer irresistible. Pile on so much value that there is just no way they can lose. Include all the things your targeted clients could possibly want so that they just can’t pass your offer by.

There are few different ways to do this. Quantify the benefits of your services. For example, if you’ve got a program where for a $1,000 investment, your client will be able to make or save $10,000 in the next three months, you need to tell them that. Don’t assume that they will figure that out. Quantify the benefits specifically.

If there isn’t an easy financial comparison in your business, you do need to dig a little because this can really help you and help your clients. They will be able to wrap their heads around what you’re offering and make an informed decision because you’re giving them all the information they need.

The more you quantify, make your offer irresistible, and remove risk, the more successful you’re going to be.

Bernadette Doyle is a marketing specialist who helps entrepreneurs become client magnets and attract a steady stream of their ideal clients. If you’d like to receive invaluable tips and advice on how to attract clients with ease, register at http://www.clientmagnets.com

Make More Sales By Gaining Trust and Confidence

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Posted in Business Success, Cash Flow, Closing The Sale, Customer Loyalty, Customer Retention, Marketing, Money Making Ideas, Strategies To Keep Good Customers, Success Secrets | 2 Comments »

The Key To Setting and Getting The Right Price

February 20th, 2010

If you want to have a successful business that serves clients, sooner or later money has to change hands. And that means sooner or later you’re going to have to say, “This is what I’m offering you and this is the price.”

If you have a problem with that, you’re not alone. I see a lot of people missing this step when they map out their business plan. You shouldn’t misstep here though, because it is an obvious and necessary detail. Without it, you are not going to be putting any money in your bank account.

The only thing that will put money into your bank account is you showing up and saying to that customer, “Here it is. Here is what it costs. Here is how to pay.”

This can be a difficult thing for people to do sometimes. But, really, there is no reason that you should be afraid to ask for the money. Maybe you’re frightened of the possible rejection. Maybe you’re frightened of negotiation and the possibility that you’ll have to say no. Maybe you’re afraid to actually set the price in stone.

If you set up your price before you even begin taking on clients, there isn’t anything to be concerned about.

Approach this detail from its end point. Design your total client-getting system so that it takes you all the way through to collecting the money. In fact, what I really want you to do is start with collecting the money and then work backward – detailing all of the steps that need to happen in order to get to that point.

You simply cannot deliver outstanding results for your clients if you’re worried about money.

So, it’s important that you begin with the end in mind. Be focused on your end point.  What type of clients do you ultimately want to attract? From there you can begin to develop lead generation systems that will attract the right type of people. People who will be raising their hands, wanting in on your offerings. They won’t be haggling with you about price because you’ve done your research. You know that your services are valuable to them.

This pricing determination has to start before you generate a single lead. By the time you begin your lead generating, you should know how you are going to convert clients and how much you are going to charge them.

So, in essence, you are making decisions from your destination, not from your starting point. This is something that I’ve learned in my own business. When I’m evaluating anything now, I make my decision based on where I want to be 12 months from now.

Something might look like a huge investment to me today. But I know that I’m growing and stepping into something bigger and that I’m going to be in a completely different place 12 months from now.

I know this because I’ve doubled or tripled my income every year for the past three years. When I view something from that destination, something that might look like a huge investment now is actually quite miniscule.

So, make decisions from your destination. Know how much you will charge for your services. Know how you will bill your clients. Get good at asking for money. It is in your best interest and theirs. You can’t treat your clients as well if you’re constantly worried about money.

Start with the details of collecting the money and you will no longer wonder, “How can I ask for this much money from a client?”

The Key To Setting and Getting The Right Price

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Posted in Business & Money, Business Plans, Business Success, Cash Flow, Marketing, Money Making Ideas, Success Secrets | 2 Comments »

How To Win Big Business

February 19th, 2010

You can compete with the big name players in your market. You can attract corporate clients to buy your services, whether they involve negotiation skills, presentation skills, sales skills, or dealing with difficult clients and colleagues.

Sometimes, the idea that you’re at a disadvantage to the big companies is more in your own head than it is in your potential buyer’s eyes.

Here’s a simple formula to follow when competing for big business:

Be confident in your ability to deliver your product or service  +
Distinguish yourself from the competition =
Clients will jump on your offering rather than you having to compete for their business.

Don’t be intimidated by the larger businesses who offer services similar to yours. Don’t let the heavy hitters in your area give you an inferiority complex.

Your business actually has a massive advantage over these bigger players…

•    Many of these larger structures tend to offer fixed programs and fixed courses. There’s usually not a lot a room for customized, pick-and-choose type training. You’re not restricted in a way that a larger company would be. That actually means you can have a lot more flexibility for your client. You’re much more able to be responsive to their needs.

•    Big companies tend to send in a very charming and persuasive sales person to close the sale. They go in with all the glitz, pretty brochures, maybe they even take the client out to lunch. Then they outsource to the most inexpensive person they can find to deliver the service, still charging the client a premium rate. Clients soon discover that the person who is actually put in front of them to deliver the training, do the consulting, or whatever the service is, doesn’t have that experience, that credibility or that authority.

Make it obvious, in your marketing material and also in your sales meetings, that the person the client meets going in, is going to be the same person that their end users meet. Without actually saying anything negative about the bigger company vying for their business, you’re planting a seed of doubt. You’re not badmouthing the competition, but you are giving the client something to think about that they may not have before. Where possible, you always want to sell yourself on your strengths as opposed to just going in and knocking the competition.

•    When your business card is basically your name, you can sometimes feel, “I haven’t got the weight. I haven’t got this huge impressive organization behind me.” But, you have to start seeing that as a real advantage. Don’t underestimate a client’s ability to appreciate the fact that your business success hinges on your delivering the very best. You’re not just following some automated process. You’re really engaging with them and really getting to understand their business, so you can make recommendations based on your expertise and what you’ve uncovered as their real need. You’re literally staking your reputation on your service.

So, just because you’re not as big or as famous as some of the others, doesn’t mean you’re at a disadvantage. You’ve got to start to think about, “What do I have that these guys don’t have?”

Bernadette Doyle is a small business marketing expert. Get more tips and advice at http://www.clientmagnets.com

How To Win Big Business

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Posted in Advertising, Business & Money, Business Plans, Business Success, Cash Flow, Marketing, Money Making Ideas, Presenting, Sales Leads, Sales Motivation | No Comments »

Building A Sustainable Business

February 17th, 2010

Have you ever watched the television series, The Apprentice? In one episode, each team was asked to create a business from scratch.

The interesting thing is that neither of the businesses created were really sustainable. Why? Because each team set themselves up in a business that revolved around them selling time.

One team did face painting; the other set up a gardening business. After each team had done the task for a couple of days, they counted how much money they had made. The actual figures aren’t important, because the money didn’t really count for anything. Both teams had to use the bulk of their income to pay employees for the time they spent performing tasks. So, neither of those businesses turned out to be profitable.

When Sir Alan Sugar, the host of the show, didn’t haul them over the coals more for it, I realized how strong this whole concept of selling time is in society.

As a business owner, you don’t want to follow this type of thinking. Doing this will not help you to build a profitable, sustainable business.

The solution is to build an information empire. The whole point of an information empire is that you don’t want to be selling your time. You do want to repackage your know-how and your expertise into products and programs that don’t require all of your attention all of the time. You may have to spend some time delivering programs, but not the bulk of your time.

This is the way to build a sustainable business. Because the paradox of selling your time is that the more successful you are, the less time you have. And, while you can always find more clients, you cannot create more time, no matter how hard you try.

But, with an information empire, time is no longer an issue. It will become possible for you to create more money, regardless of how much time you have. You simply need to stop linking the money you make to the time and effort you put in to your business. Once you truly understand this, creating more money will become easier to do.

It can be difficult to accept this concept. You might be thinking, “I don’t know that you can always get money. Making money has not been that easy for me.”

But the truth is, there is always money flowing. Even in this current economy, with the credit crunch and the recession, money is still flowing. It’s just flowing in different places from where it was flowing previously. It is up to you to find the source of that stream and collect it.

The key is to carefully examine your business to find ways of serving many clients at one time, rather than serving each client individually. Once you develop the products and services that allow you to do this, your business will be fully sustainable, without you having to wish for more hours in the day.

Bernadette Doyle is a small business marketing expert. Get more tips and advice at http://www.clientmagnets.com

Building A Sustainable Business

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Posted in Business & Money, Business Plans, Business Success, Cash Flow, Direct Marketing, Email Marketing, Marketing, Motivation, Small Business Ideas, Success Secrets, Systems | 1 Comment »

Leverage Yourself to Keep Clients Satisfied

February 14th, 2010

Take a look at your calendar of appointments right now. If you’ve been applying the Client Magnets approach, you shouldn’t have much available space in that diary. Hopefully, you have a pipeline of prospective business that keeps your book filled.

So, getting clients isn’t a problem for you. That’s a nice situation to be in, isn’t it?

From the outside, it looks fine to be that busy. You may even be getting a decent daily rate for your time. The problem is, though, that while your client list continues to grow, the amount of time that you have to serve those clients does not.

Once you’ve gotten new clients to sign on, you’ve got to deliver results for them. And as your calendar fills up, it’s not uncommon to feel as if there isn’t enough of you to go around. You may find yourself thinking that there aren’t enough hours in the day to meet all of your clients’ needs. You may think the only solution is to do more work, to spend more time at it.

When you get to this point, you’re so busy trying to keep the wheels turning that the idea of having one more thing to do is unbearable. To prevent your business from reaching this unmanageable stage, act now to start building your information empire.

As more people approach you about your services and want to know more about what you can offer, the more important it becomes to figure out how to duplicate and leverage yourself in order to meet their needs.

I’ve heard too many people say, “I just want to focus on getting the clients in. When I’ve got enough clients, then I’ll start focusing on the products, or on automating the sales, or on setting up the ecommerce site.” But you don’t want to let your business get to that point. You want to act now.

You need to design a workable, customized roadmap, one that will get you from that situation to an information empire that will have you earning money in your sleep. A business in which you produce revenue without having to physically get up and see clients every day.

Think very carefully about your business offerings. Look closely at your products or services, and determine which ones can be repackaged to reach more clients simultaneously. Perhaps you’re planning a live event that can be recorded and sold as a CD on your website. Hire a virtual assistant to handle admin tasks so you can concentrate on the creative aspects of your work. Find the thing that you do best, and focus on that.

You have complete control over this. Your awareness, your decisions, and your creativity are the resources that will help you to deliver results that are not dependent on your time and how much you work.

Your willingness and ability to look at the situation differently will allow you to meet the needs and expectations of all of the clients who are anxiously awaiting your help.

Bernadette Doyle is a small business marketing expert. Get more tips and advice at http://www.clientmagnets.com

Leverage Yourself to Keep Clients Satisfied

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Posted in Business & Money, Business Plans, Business Success, Cash Flow, Customer Retention, Marketing, Personal Productivity, Sales Motivation, Success Secrets, outsourcing | No Comments »

The Value of Your Inventory

February 12th, 2010

You know the saying “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure?” You see this philosophy proven time and again, especially at flea markets, garage sales or “scratch and dent” sales.

The items are hardly “trash;” they are just no longer esteemed by the seller.
They are, however, of great value to the buyer.

In unloading unwanted, outdated or overstocked items, the seller creates space and generates some extra income. In finding something that fits their needs and their budget, the buyer feels like he got a great deal. Everybody wins.

Whether you are in a product-oriented or service-oriented business, you can create this same winning combination.

If, for example, your business is introducing a new product, your existing inventory may end up including too many choices. When there are too many products to choose from, customers can become confused and overwhelmed by the number of options. There’s a saying in marketing: “A confused mind never buys.”

You simply don’t want to confuse people when it comes to them purchasing a product from you. To avoid that happening, streamline the products you offer.

Here’s something I did that you can easily emulate. A couple of years ago, while I was restructuring my web site, there were products I no longer wanted to sell. They weren’t actually inventory because they were digital products. But I didn’t want them cluttering my website anymore. I implemented a “last chance” sale and offered the products at a 50% discount for one week only.

Amazingly, over the course of seven days, that sale generated £11,000 worth of business. Can you imagine discovering £11,000 worth of hidden money in your business? That money was there all along but I didn’t tap into it until I got creative and put it together as an offer. I gave people a reason to buy.

You can do this. You see it done all the time with clearance sales. If your business ends up with a whole lot of excess stock – stock that has been returned or stock that you’ve taken to events and didn’t sell out of – your inventory just builds up. Instead of storing it indefinitely, where it just costs you and doesn’t benefit you at all, offer it at a special discount. Chances are you’ll make some extra money and create some space in the office.

If you’re in a service-oriented business, your “stock” can be your time or your expertise. You don’t really have it laying around, taking up excess space. It’s difficult to have a clearance sale on your time. The variation is to offer a pre-sell of a program.

Though you’re not selling an actual product, you can pre-sell a program. Put together a coaching program or a teleseminar series where clients pay up front for the program you’re offering. It might be a six-week series, but you’re getting the cash flow up front.

Obviously, then, the onus is on you to deliver. But you don’t have to actually have that program created before you sell it.  Offering the program as a pre-sell will force you to stay on track while simultaneously putting money in your pocket.

So, take a look at your inventory. Out with the old, in with the new, as they say. Do some spring cleaning or fall clearance of your old products.  Have a pre-sale of your newest program or offering.  Your clients will appreciate the value of the savings and your business will benefit from the value of the earnings. Everybody wins.

——

Bernadette Doyle is a marketing specialist who helps entrepreneurs become client magnets and attract a steady stream of their ideal clients. She publishes a free, weekly newsletter for trainers, speakers, coaches, consultants, complementary therapists and solo professionals. If you’d like to receive invaluable tips and advice on how to attract clients with ease, register at http://www.clientmagnets.com

The Value of Your Inventory

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Posted in Advertising, Business & Money, Business Plans, Business Success, Cash Flow, Marketing, Money Making Ideas, Sales Motivation, Small Business Ideas, Small Business Marketing, Success Secrets | 1 Comment »

Turn Your Passions and Talents Into Money

February 2nd, 2010

Do you wonder just what it is you’re supposed to do with your unique combination of skills and interests? Are you overlooking the commercial value of your passions and talents?

You would be surprised at the backgrounds and interests of some of the people I know who are running information empires.

Have you ever heard of Feng Shui? It’s the Chinese art which believes that how you set up your environment, and where you place certain things in your home, affects the energy around you.

A lot of people use Feng Shui to enhance their luck and even their relationships. So, now that you’re more familiar with the art, have you ever heard of a Feng Shui expert? You’ll be intrigued to learn that someone who started out using Feng Shui for herself has actually managed to build an information empire around it. She has created products and programs to support her clients in using Feng Shui.

Another woman I’ve met has built an information empire around her ability to do handwriting analysis.

If these two women can have information empires based on their individual talents, you can too. Both of them are turning over about £250,000 a year in their businesses. And both of them are working part time – fewer than 30 hours a week.

If they can do that, what’s possible for you?

Another example is a man I met who used to sell men’s clothing. Then he started teaching. He had been very successful using direct mail to promote his clothing store, so he combined his skills and started teaching other men’s wear retailers how to build their business in the same way.

Your expertise was given to you for a reason. What you know matches up with the corresponding need of someone else, somewhere else in the world.

And if that need exists, then what you know has commercial value. That’s for sure. Someone, somewhere, is willing to pay for what you know.

You may not be quite sure yet about where you want to place your focus. You may find that you have a number of choices, that there is almost too much opportunity for you!

But look at your skills and your interests from the point of view of someone who doesn’t have them. How can you turn them into information and products that give you the greatest return for your efforts? The answer to that question will be the first step in laying the foundation of your information empire.

Bernadette Doyle is a small business marketing expert. Get more tips and advice at http://www.clientmagnets.com

Turn Your Passions and Talents Into Money

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Posted in Business & Money, Business Plans, Business Success, Cash Flow, Make Money At Home, Make Money Online, Marketing, Money Making Ideas, Motivation, Personal Productivity | 4 Comments »

Get Paid For The Value Of What You Deliver

January 20th, 2010

If you took one year off from your business, would it be in the same shape – or better – when you came back? If the answer is no, according to Robert Kiyosaki, the author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, you don’t really have a business, you’ve got a job.

There’s no reason your business shouldn’t grow just because you’re not around to tend to it. You simply need to think differently to make that happen.

The lower paid people in the world think they get paid for each hour that they work. That’s how they measure income. That’s how they measure value – by the hour. They think about an hour’s worth of work and what they’re earning for that hour. Those people are always focused on raising their hourly income.

Now, higher paid people believe that they get paid for the value they bring to the hour. They’re typically very comfortable receiving a higher hourly rate. They recognize that what they’re earning in the hour is not just based solely on the time. It’s also based on their expertise – think of a lawyer or an accountant, for example.

But, take notice that the connection between time and money is still there. Most service businesses are based on this model. So if you’re a coach or a consultant, a healer or a therapist, there’s a very good chance that this is your model, too.

That’s why people in consulting are often obsessed with billable hours. That link between time and money is really strong. The main problem with a business that’s based on selling time is that you’re basically selling a finite resource.

For example, when I started my training business, my whole business model was based on me selling time. I wanted to sell a certain number of days at a certain daily rate.

It seemed like a good way to begin, because typically I earned more per hour than any employer would ever have paid me.

The trouble is that sooner or later, you run out of time.

So I replaced the idea that I got paid for my time with the belief that I got paid for my time and my talents. That was progress. But the limitation was that if I wanted to take a month off, the price that I would pay was lost income.

As long as my business was based on me selling my time, I didn’t really have a business. I had a job. A well paying job, but still just a job.

As long as you are selling your time, even at commanding top fees, you are always going to be manual labor. And, as long as you’re manual labor, it really doesn’t matter whether you’re getting £10 a day or £10,000 a day.

The highest paid people in the world understand that. They understand that the hour is irrelevant. The only thing they concern themselves with is the value that they deliver according to the marketplace. They don’t even think in terms of hours.

This is the level of thought you want to achieve. Begin by associating with people who are already at that level. That was a big influence for me, and it helped to really shift and shape my own beliefs. Get exposure to these people and just observe, up close and personal, how they approach things.

They think and act differently from the rest!

Get Paid For The Value Of What You Deliver

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Posted in Business & Money, Business Plans, Business Success, Cash Flow, Marketing, Personal Productivity, Success Secrets | 5 Comments »

Three Tips for Dramatically Improving Your Business

January 18th, 2010

Would you like to be able to jump from earning between £50,000 and £100,000 a year to averaging well over £30,000 per month? Is one of your goals to reach the million dollar mark in online sales?

You don’t necessarily have to work longer or harder to accomplish that. In fact, I did that during the same period of my life when I had my two children.

And, as any parent knows, when you have two youngsters around, there isn’t exactly an abundance of time to work with. Quite the opposite.

So, achieving this kind of dramatic increase in your earning is not about putting in longer hours. It’s about creating a structure, both externally and internally, that will make it possible for you to receive money 24/7.

There are three basic things you need to do in order to create that structure.

1. Stop undervaluing what you have to offer. Trying to squeeze your expertise into low-priced solutions doesn’t work and won’t really give your clients what they need.

Part of your journey to financial success has to include your offering higher value products and programs that really deliver great solutions to your clients. This will also enable you to charge more.

2. Productize your service business. Instead of getting paid by the hour, package your expertise into products and programs that can be sold off the shelf and aren’t dependent upon your time to deliver.

If your business model involves going out and working with a client for a day, and then getting paid for that day, can you develop a product that does the work for you? With this type of business model, instead of doing the work and getting paid, you do the work once and get paid over and over and over again.

3. Remove yourself from the manual labor of your sales and marketing – or at least, as much as possible.

You don’t need to be personally involved in every single sale. You don’t need to pick up the phone to prospect and find new customers. You don’t need to write individual proposals or have meetings and phone conversations to make the sale.

All of that time-consuming sales and marketing activity can be replaced with automated sales processes. Use things like direct mail, the Internet and email marketing instead.

Rather than selling one-to-one, develop one-to-many techniques that will help you reach more people in less time.

When you stop undervaluing your services, and begin to productize them and automate your sales process, your earnings will skyrocket. Doing any one of these three things alone will make a noticeable improvement in your business. But, implementing all three of them -  together -  will have a dramatic and profound effect. That’s when the magic happens.

Three Tips for Dramatically Improving Your Business

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Posted in Business & Money, Business Plans, Business Success, Cash Flow, Marketing, Motivation, Personal Productivity, Success Secrets, Systems, outsourcing | 1 Comment »

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