In the Trailblazers Collaborative we talk a lot about pricing – pricing for new programs, revising pricing for established programs, raising your prices and the list goes on, pricing is a big deal.
When someone asks if their pricing of their $10k-$20k programs is right because they are having a hard time signing clients, 9 times out of 10 I have the same answer.
The problem isn’t your price.
Even if your prospects are saying that they can’t afford you, the problem is not your pricing.
If you are an experienced coach or professional practitioner and you’re having trouble signing clients into your high level packages the problem lies in your messaging, not your price-point.
This messaging mis-match will show up in three areas:
1. Straddling multiple avatars
2. Addressing the wrong problem/offering the wrong solution
3. The promise isn’t tangible and/or clear enough
All three of these are really common problems, even for online entrepreneurs who have “been around the block” and once they’re cleaned up, your $10k-$20k programs will sell with ease.
So let’s explore them a little deeper…
1. Straddling multiple avatars
This is most common when a coach or professional practitioner is upleveling their own business and want to work with a higher level audience, but they are afraid of alienating those that are already in their community. By being inclusive of who you used to work with, you’re going to continue to attract those prospects who aren’t a fit for your new offers and the people you DO want to attract aren’t going to trust that you understand their needs.
If this is you, you need to get super clear on who your ideal client is for your $10-$20k offers and make sure that you are speaking directly to them. Using examples of the problem you solve in the language that they use, and promising the exact outcomes that they are trying to achieve.
When you can nail down your messaging you’ll begin to attract more of these ideal clients and selling your programs for $10k-$20k will be easy.
2. You’re addressing the wrong problem/offering the wrong solution
If you’re having to educate your audience on why they need your solution, then chances are you fall into this category. Prospects aren’t going to invest in a $10k-$20k program unless it will solve a problem they are already painfully aware of. Sometimes what you see as a problem for your audience is not something they see themselves, and you need to put the problem into their language. Once you do that, you’ll be surprised at the attention your offers get.
On the other hand, you may have the problem right but your solution doesn’t match up for your audience. Sometimes with your level of experience you might be overcomplicating the explanation or even the offer itself because you know so much more than the prospect and they’re having a hard time wrapping their head around what you’re saying.
And as you know, a confused mind always says “no.”
3. Your promise isn’t tangible and/or clear enough
What you’re intending to say and how it’s being received are different. Usually this occurs because of a lack of clarity on your part of who you want to work with and/or what you’re really offering. This is very common when you’ve “outgrown” the business or audience you started with and want to begin incorporating new skills and offerings that are more in alignment with who you are now.
This can be a frustrating place because you may feel like a “beginner” again who is all over the place even though you have years of experience.
In all three of these cases, the solution is the same.
It’s time to get back to the basics and get clear on:
Who are the ideal clients for your $10k-$20k offer
What is the exact problem you are going to solve
What is the outcome you are going to help them get
…then make sure all of your marketing is in alignment.
This might mean updating copy on your sales pages, writing and speaking about new topics in your marketing, and making sure that you’re saying the right things during your sales conversations.
You can start here:
1. Revisit your offer and exactly who you want to work with
You may have known the answers to this question when you started, but as you began implementing fear has caused you to fall back into old habits so now you’re marketing is unclear. Go back and recommit to the ideal client you want to work with and what the best way to solve their problem.
2. Do some market research
The best way to make sure that you’re focusing on the right problem and offering the right solution is to talk to your audience. Interview people that you think would be a great fit and ask them what challenges they’re facing, and if they think your solution would work for them.
3. Audit your marketing
If you feel like you’ve gotten everything “right” as best you can, have someone who hasn’t worked with you and preferably isn’t even familiar with your work yet, review your sales pages or marketing materials and get their perspectives. Ask them questions like, “what questions came up for you as you were reading?”, “is this program something they would participate in?”, and “what do you think is missing?”
This information will help you create marketing that will attract people that are looking for someone just like you and help you communicate clearly why you’re the right choice.
The moral of the story is, your pricing isn’t what is blocking sales. It’s time to get your messaging on-track and in alignment with where you’re going with your business.
~Holly
P.S. Are you having trouble getting out of your $3k-$5k “sweet spot” even though you help your clients do amazing things?
If you’re committed to taking your business to the next level and want to start making $10k-$20k offers and sell them successfully, book a call and let’s talk.
I can help you:
– Get clear on where your marketing is going wrong and why
– Figure out if you’re targeting the right audience so you can do your best work
– Map out your $10k-$20k offer and the exact language to deliver to prospects
– Plan the exact content you will share in your marketing and website to build interest in your $10-$20k offer
– Create your sales process for moving your prospects from awareness to sale as easily as possible
We’ve all heard it before; analyze your competition.
But somewhere along the line, “competition” has kind of become a dirty word in business. It implies that we need to pit ourselves against one another, fighting for the same space, in order to get ahead.
But when you believe in abundance like I do, you know there is more than enough clients to go around, and there is going to be clients that are right for you and vice versa. There is no need to compare yourself, or your business, to others out there.
However, that’s not to say you shouldn’t check out your so-called “competition” anyway.
Because looking at your competition will give you good information on how to define your own services and describe the value of what you offer, without copying or taking away from anyone else.
Let me explain.
I define competition as anything your prospects could use to solve their problem, or attempt to solve their problem … other than hiring you.
If someone could decide that they’re going to figure it out on their own, the DIY route is your competition.
So let’s do a competition analysis and use it to come up with your own juicy language. Ready?
Step 1: Make a list of 5 competitors
Think of the different ways people could get the help they need. This could be hiring someone else in your industry, going with another type of business, using an app, reading a book, taking a course, using free resources on the Internet. Basically anything a prospect could seek information and help from, rather than working with you.
Step 2: Compare and contrast
Next, go through your list and compare how the competition does things versus you. For each person or thing in your list, look at these 3 things:
Their philosophy: Analyze how they describe the problem potential clients face and how they run their business.
Their methodology: Look at how they work, how they solve the problem. You can also look at what modalities they use or how their programs are structured.
Their promise: What is the end result offered if clients do things they way they recommend?
For each competitor, answer these questions but most importantly, think about how you compare.
What are advantages and disadvantages of looking at things their way?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of looking things your way?
What objections might there be?
Step 3: Develop your own language and value proposition
From your answers, you can start to see what really makes you stand out, the different angles of your own brand and use that information to create language around it.
The goal of this exercise is to help you develop your own philosophies and come up with the language you will use to describe your business. This language will be how the right clients know they resonate with you. It will help you connect with the right clients.
I know there are more than enough clients to go around. But looking at your competitors is still useful in helping you understand where you fit in. This exercise will show you how valuable you really are, how good you are at what you do and why clients should work with you.
There comes a point in your business where your focus isn’t just on getting clients, it’s about doing work that really excites you.
Many service professionals find at this point that while they get to be selective about who they choose to work with, they still end up with a lot of tire kickers, or non-ideal prospects.
This can waste a lot of unnecessary time, and is usually due to the fact that while the service professional has evolved, their language in their marketing has not.
If you can dial into the exact language that your ideal client is attracted to, as well as the language that will turn away those non-ideal clients you can market yourself in a way that actually filters your prospects so only the right people reach out to you.
In the Branding Game, participants are encouraged to interview their ideal client to get the right language from them versus trying to figure it out on your own.
This not only makes copywriting so much easier, it takes you and your old habits out of the equation, making it easier for you to upgrade your messaging.
So, how do you do it? Here is the process that I use to create and write the sales page for all of my offerings.
1. Find the person you’d like to interview
Once you decide what the offer is that you want to create, you find someone that you feel would be the perfect fit for the work you’d like to do. To find this person you could send an email to your list with a description of who you’re looking for, ask on social media, or even better–ask an existing client for a referral that they think would be a great fit.
The point here is not to have a sales conversation (and make that clear from the get-go), the interview is all about market research which usually makes people more open to helping, and giving most honest answers. The more you can get your interviewee to feel comfortable and open up to you the better language you will get.
2. Ask the right questions
The questions you ask are everything because with the wrong questions you’ll get generic answers or answers that aren’t necessarily helpful.
What you’re looking for is to help your interviewee open up and give you the real talk of their problem, how it’s affecting them, and what would be their perfect solution. When you can get the answers to these questions in conversational language, writing your sales page is a cinch because you can use a lot of your interview word for word.
Here are the questions that come straight from this exercise in the Branding Game:
What are the biggest challenges you’re facing right now when ______? Or What are the biggest challenges you’re having with _____? (word this so it’s related to what YOU do)For example: What are the biggest challenges you’re facing when it comes to eating gluten free? What are the biggest challenges you’re facing when marketing your business? What are the biggest challenges you’re having with trying to keep your books up to date?… you get the idea.
If there are multiple then ask: Which one of these affects you the most? OR Which one is the most important for you to solve? (For your sales page you’ll want to follow one train of thought, so narrowing your focus to one challenge is ideal. If they mentioned a challenge in the first question that you feel particularly passionate about you could ignore this question and choose to focus the rest of the questions on the challenge that stands out to you)
Tell me more about how this affects you/your business? Does it affect other things/areas or is it an isolated issue?
What have you tried before to solve this problem?
In your experience/opinion why didn’t these solutions work? Or if they worked initially, why didn’t the results stick?
What obstacles or disadvantages are you aware of that might be keeping you from getting better results?
Let’s change gears – What would happen if this problem was solved? How would you feel, what other areas of your life (or business) would be affected?
In your experience/opinion – what do you think needs to happen in order to get that result?
How would you accomplish that/what kind of help would you need?
Let’s say you were going to purchase a solution – what would the ideal package/solution look like?
What outcomes or deliverables would you expect?
What would it be worth to you to solve this problem? (not as in what would they pay, but what would the value be of solving the problem)
Let’s say I was going to offer this exact thing – what would you need to know before you would invest?
Is there anything else you think I should know?
3. Write your sales page
If you read any good sales page you’ll notice that they follow a similar formula. They talk about:
The problem
What the reader may have tried before and why that failed
What the best solution would be
Their offer and why it fits the bill
The result that will happen if you take them up on their offer
This is highly simplified, but if you look at any good sales page you’ll see that it’s true. Notice how the questions in the interview follow along with this formula? Bingo! Now not only are you following a tried and true arc for writing sales copy, you’re using the ideal client’s real words for describing all of these things which makes communicating the value very easy.
4. Create the offer
Most service professionals create their offer first, which isn’t necessarily wrong but can lead to some unnecessary frustration if that offer doesn’t entirely fit what they client is looking for.
I suggest interviewing your ideal client first and then comparing notes with what you already had in mind and building the offer for the ideal client, versus creating an offer and trying to find the people that want it.
All I mean by “creating the offer” is sitting down and looking at what the client said their problem is and how it’s affecting them, then looking at what the result is that they want. Your job then is to lay out your process for taking them from point A to point B and how you will deliver it.
You might find that how your ideal client wants the program delivered may not necessarily fit how you like to work. For example, many people think they need one on one attention but if delivered properly a group or home study option could be just as effective. In this case defer to how you want to work in your business model, but address the desire of your prospect either in an FAQ format or a short diddy in the bottom of the page about why you deliver the program the way you do and why they will find it just as effective (if not more) than working with you personally.
From here you’ll have a winning offer along with a winning sales page that will go a long way to attracting clients that are right for you.
