Category Archives for "Analysis"

Who Should Not Take Advantage of Your Offer?

One way to reduce conversations with people you do not need to talk to is to be clear about who your offer is for.  How do you work out who should not take advantage of your offer?

You can list (1) those people who should take advantage and (2) those who should not.

I don’t mean by name of course.  If you can say “If you are like this, contact me” and then “If you are like this don’t bother”, you are doing both prospects and non-prospects a service.  They can be self-selecting, saving both of you time.

For example, I work with people who are new to marketing and need help developing their first marketing plan.  So, I might say if you have a plan, maybe you don’t need to see me.  Now I need to refine that further:

Contact me for a conversation if you are

We may have common interests but it is unlikely I can help you if you are

Generally I’m happy to talk to anyone interested in talking to me and certainly I would not raise these with someone I met through networking.  OK sometimes we don’t have a great deal in common but any meeting might bear fruit.  Some networks, eg 4N, provide opportunities for 10 minute one-to-ones and these are excellent opportunities to assess whether a longer conversation would be worthwhile.

Lists like these might work on a website as a quick way to reassure people it is worth getting in touch.  As you get to know your target market better you can refine these lists.

Using these Lists

You may have spotted in the lists I have not said whether people should contact me if they meet some or all the bullets on the lists.  Certainly someone who does meet all the criteria, is very likely to be interested in my offer, so I could say contact me if you meet all these criteria.

On the other hand, there may be some benefit to talk if someone meets some of the criteria.  Ultimately, these are only rules of thumb.  Where you set the entry criteria to your business is up to you and can become more accurate as your experience develops.  Your aim is to encourage the right people to make contact.

You’ll find out if it works from the quality of your contacts.  Remember people who meet all your criteria are your primary market and you should aim to find as many as you can.  People who meet some of your criteria are your secondary market.  Returns on conversations will be less likely but not impossible.

If this has been helpful, let me know.  What else would you like to know about this topic?

Who Must Take Advantage of Your Offer?

In one sense, the answer to this question is: no-one.  It implies force or obligation and most coaches do not want this.  Who must take advantage of your offer?  No-one

However, this question implies a sense of urgency.  If you know about the people who are really enthusiastic about your offer, you can keep an eye out for them, address them directly and offer  exactly what they want.  You will repel those who do not want your offer but that’s OK because they are some other businesses’ prospects.

So, the question implies narrowing your niche.  If you can find those who really must accept your offer, you will convert more of your prospects.  There may not be many such prospects but if your offer really appeals to them, you may have a viable business.  If not, find another group of prospects and design a new offer for them.  This does not necessarily imply a different product or service, a new to present it may appeal to a different groups of people.

So, ask yourself: who really needs your offer?  Can you define their need?  Can you narrow this market even further?  Who are the less than 1% who really want your offer?

How can you speak to them so they hear what you say and respond because you are saying it to them?

Do not fear putting off others who don’t need your offer so much.  If you can find those who really must accept your offer, you will have customers who will be great advocates for you.

If this has been helpful, let me know.  What else would you like to know about this topic?

How to Avoid Unproductive Conversations

The problem is we often discover people we don’t want to talk to once we start the conversation!  So, it’s worth knowing the warning signs and how to avoid unproductive conversations.

During a one-to-one, I know fairly quickly when a prospect is not going to be a good customer for me.  I need clients who are going to do their work; because they commit to making their business work.  If they are time-wasting or convinced I am conning them or unable to sustain a conversation, then they are not good prospects for me.

However, someone who is not suitable for me may still be a genuine prospect for another provider.  Sometimes they need something I don’t offer.  So, I try to help people find the right person if they are not right for me.

False Positives and Negatives

We all make mistakes.  We reject someone who would make a good client or accept someone who turns out much less than ideal.

This is why it helps to know about the people we don’t want to talk to as well as those we do.

It is rare for a conversation to be a total waste of time.  With experience you can identify several possible outcomes to pursue as the conversation proceeds.  Someone who is not suitable as a client may put you in touch with other prospects, or sign up to your email list … You never know how someone may help you.

Some network groups organise 10 minute one-to-ones.  Ten minutes are ample time to assess someone and bow out of the conversation if it is likely to go nowhere.

Some networking systems use even shorter time periods – speed networking can allow just 1 minute.  I find one minute is a little too short.  Whilst I can decline people who are not prospects, I find I tend to seek further one-to-ones with too many others simply because I need longer to assess them.

Overall, don’t worry about false negatives – they are missed opportunities. There are plenty of people out there and the likelihood is you will encounter the same people again.  Fear the false positive – they can be far more destructive.

What to Look For

Some people are obviously not interested.  And some are honest about that.  Maybe check out whether you have any common interests and otherwise part company.

Some are not interested in you as a provider but have some other reason to meet you.  They may have something to sell you or have an hour to kill.  They may be interested in you for other reasons.  Once you work out what they want, decide whether you want to continue the conversation.

The most hazardous contacts are those who may seem to be likely clients but are actually bad news.  Their real nature may take time to emerge.

Some Examples

For example, I’ve had a couple of clients who believed they knew more than I did.  Why they took me on is something of a mystery.  One of them was insecure and forever checking with other providers.  I found she was doing the job she had employed me to do.  The other simply wanted my role and had presumably been overruled by the organisation’s committee.

They were both during my early days in business and I am much more thorough checking my clients understand my offer and know exactly what to expect.

Another species of time waster is the person who takes you on and then disappears.  These days I make it clear they are entering a contract.  We shake on the deal.  This is theatre but it makes it clear they are making a serious commitment.  They can still pull out but I’m wise enough these days to do nothing for them until their money is in the bank.  I send them some preliminary exercises but they pay for my response to their work.  The issue is not giving away my secrets – I don’t really have any – but it is important they don’t waste my time.

Explain the Rules

I have read about coaches who take on board someone who at some stage tries to make trouble.  You need to be clear about the ground rules.  Explain exactly when you will meet and how you can be contacted between times.  Promise results, not hours and be careful what results you promise.  When coaching, we expect clients to do their work.  I find it easy to respond positively to work produced by clients.

If a client wants you to do something for them, by all means consider it but charge more if you agree!

We can all live without the client from hell.  If they become impossible, refund them and tell them to piss off (in the friendliest of language!)

If this has been helpful, let me know.  What else would you like to know about this topic?

People Who Are Going to Buy From You

The people who are going to buy from you are not the same as your market.  Your market is the people who identify with your offer and support it.  The people who are going to buy from you are a smaller group of people within your overall market.

This leads to two questions.  First, what distinguishes those who buy from you from those who don’t buy even though they are supportive of your marketing message?  The second question: how do you increase the number of customers from your market?

Who are the People who are Going to Buy?

Everyone makes decisions from the perspective of multiple pressures.  Those predisposed to your offer may still consider other factors.

Remember these factors are not necessarily determinative.  One prospect may be swayed by one factor whilst another listens to a different argument.  Their reasons for saying yes or no are not set in stone.  If you genuinely believe your offer would benefit a prospect; probe and challenge the reasons given for not making a purchase.

How to find more customers from your market

The objections people make to your offer are not absolute.  They are a test for you and your offer and so it is helpful to rehearse responses to common objections.  If you sell mainly through one-to-one meetings (as opposed to website or shopfront), structure arguments that anticipate objections.  The awareness ladder provides a framework for structuring your arguments.

Here are some ideas to help prospects who voice the objections listed above.

Listen for Their Problems

The real issue for many people is they need to see the value of your offer for themselves.  So, your aim is to get them talking and thinking about their objectives and how you can help them.  Many new businesses provide too much information.  If you can listen to your prospects, they will tell you their problems.  You can then make an offer based on their problems.  “This is how my offer can help you.”

By listening carefully to your prospects you can identify weaknesses in your marketing and sales approach and make adjustments as your experience increases.

Has this post been helpful?  Please share any insights you have into this topic by leaving a comment.

Your Prospect’s Main Concern

What is your prospect’s main concern?  I’ve written about how the Value Triangle works and how to explain the Value Triangle  to prospects.  You will remember, or follow the links for a reminder, your customers can have two out of three values – high quality, fast speed and low-cost.

Most customers can say which of these they prefer, although perhaps most will not have given much thought to these until you ask.  But are they really their main concern?

Towards Your Market’s Problem

The real problem you have is to uncover your prospect’s concerns.  It is common to find the prospect knows they have a problem but does not know what it is!  One of the most useful services you  provide is to listen carefully and help them define their concern.

You will often be approached with a presenting problem.  This is a real problem but conceals a deeper issue that really needs to be addressed.  For example, many years ago I knew an advice worker  whose client slammed a parcel in front of her and asked: “What am I supposed to do with this?”

The parcel contained a whole fish!

The advice worker was not expert in gutting and preparing fish but dug a bit deeper.  She found the man’s wife had recently died and he was having difficulty coping.

I’m not sure the Value Triangle would be much use here.  The man had a problem and needed help to resolve it.  He may have some views about cost and time and quality but they are hardly the point!

Everyone is different and the real challenge is generalising from specific problems many people experience.  There are many bereaved people around and some need to learn to cook.  It may be possible to find a market for teaching cooking and support for the bereaved.  Usually you need research to generalise solutions from individual presenting problems.

Mistaken Markets

This is all very well but let’s imagine a business owner approaches you and says they need a new website.  You’re a web developer and so they are in the right place if they do indeed need a new website.

The first issue is to decide whether a new website is in fact what they need.  It is clearly what they want but your challenge is probe further.

When you ask questions like this, you may find the problem is not their website so much as their organisation.  They need help with marketing or business coaching or personal coaching.

Most web developers are not equipped to dig into these issues and indeed would see little point in doing so.  After all, their prospect presents with the website as their main concern.

Let’s say you are a business coach.  You would be interested in asking these questions but lack the opportunity to do so because someone presenting with a broken website will go to a web developer.  You don’t want to stop people who need a web developer going there but how do you find those who actually need business coaching?

Marketing is Essential

This is where marketing is essential.  You can educate your market to recognise the problems you solve before they approach the wrong business-owner.  The chances are many prospects approach the wrong people at first.  This is where collaboration and networking is important.  If a prospect comes to me with a concern I cannot address, then I can signpost them to a more appropriate provider.

Perhaps small groups of complementary businesses can be more effective than a business with a specific offer working in isolation.  After all, if their main concern requires business coaching it does not mean they will not need a website at some stage.

Has this post been helpful?  If so, let me know.  Comment to raise issues and ask for more information.  Sign up for my ebook below to receive a weekly round-up of my blog posts.

Your Prospect’s Worldview

Your prospect’s worldview is how they perceive and understand the world around them.  They are more likely to buy from you if your offer supports their worldview.  So, the question becomes how does your offer support their worldview.  This is essentially what marketing is about!

There are three ways to approach your prospects’ worldview.  They are not equally helpful and so how you set about this task is worth serious consideration.

Change Your Prospect’s Worldview

Generally, this is not possible.  Peoples’ worldviews are deeply entrenched and any attempt to change minds is likely to be viewed negatively.

What is a worldview?  Let’s imagine you have a herbal remedy for a medical condition.  Assume the remedy is effective and follows health and safety guidelines.  Your website outlines the treatment and offers evidence of its effectiveness.

You have two prospects.  One is a firm believer in conventional medicine.  The other believes in alternative therapies.  Neither worldview has anything to do with the effectiveness of the treatment.  The treatment would be equally effective with both prospects.

The former is more likely to be swayed by hard evidence or testimonials from established conventional practitioners.  The latter may be more interested in how the treatment works.  You are perhaps more likely to sell to the latter.

I’m not saying it is impossible to sell to the former but in doing so you will not change their worldview.  Indeed, any attempt to do so is likely to lose you the sale.  Desperation or recommendation will get them to your website or doorstep.   You may still have a job on to persuade them.

The latter may want to see the treatment as an alternative to conventional therapies.  They may have concerns about big pharmaceutical companies and so be sceptical about hard evidence that emphasises the treatment is acceptable to established medical practice.

In effect you have two markets for the same product.  To address one market may deter the other.  The former might prefer a professional looking surgery and lots of white coats.  The latter a more informal atmosphere.

Does this matter?  So long as you have enough customers, it does not.

Change Your Own Worldview

I suspect this is almost as difficult as changing your prospects’ worldview!  The issue here is your integrity.    How convincing are you likely to be if you do not really believe in your offer?  Someone committed to alternative therapies is unlikely to come across as genuine if they attempt the white-coated clinical image.  And vice-versa.

If you are introducing something to the market, the chances are you will appeal to a small market of early innovators.  There are likely to be similar offers on the market and so the issue is how to stand out from the others.  So, target people who are most likely interested in your offer and speak to their worldview.

Once you have satisfied customers you will have evidence your approach works and so you can address a wider market.  As your reputation improves your market will expand.

So, perhaps it is better to see marketing as several initiatives that start extreme and slowly develop to support a larger market.

I suspect this will not work for everyone and indeed, if you have a sizeable market and an extreme approach, you may lose customers if you try to move your image to the mainstream.

 Find Your Tribe

So, the third strategy is to find your tribe.  The idea here is, assuming it is a large enough market, you can seek out the people drawn to your worldview.  So long as you can make enough money, you may find a small market of people who like what you are saying is all you need!

This may be good advice for most business start-ups.  You need to get established and show how your approach delivers.  You can then choose to focus on your tribe, because they like what you offer and can pay for it.  Or else attempt to develop a wider market.

This can be done by attempting sell the same thing to a different market, with a different worldview.  Or else you could use your reputation to design and market a related offer to a new market.  This new market may have its own worldview and so form effectively a new business.

You can therefore, attempt to enter the mass market or select smaller markets and design offers that resonate with them.  Some businesses offer a range of products or services that speak to different markets.  Some may be markets designed to generate income and others may be opportunities to use business skills in non-business contexts, eg voluntary work or pro bono offers.

This means you must structure your business with care so that your portfolio of offers clearly addresses distinct markets.

If this post has been helpful, please let me know, especially if you would like to expand on any point.

Your Prospects’ Deepest Motivation

Your prospects may not know their deepest motivation!  Some find their values eroded by business pressures or other life events.  Their dreams are easily forgotten, especially if they were never fully articulated.   Others may have never thought through their deepest motivation.

Not all business-owners simply want to make profit.  Get rich quick does not appeal to everyone.  The reason people are in business varies.

Let me suggest three basic motivations for business owners.  Most people major on one or two but all are motivations people value.  They are: profit, values and time.  If their aim is work-life balance, your prospects need to work out how important each of these three are for them.

Let’s probe each motivation in turn to help you find the combination most likely to inspire your clients.  So, a business-person who is solely profit motivated would most likely prefer coaches who have detailed knowledge and understand of how financial systems work.  A values motivated prospect may find financial systems difficult, even if they need them.  A time motivated prospect may see some value in the profit-orientated coach.

Profit

The profit centred prospect puts profit first and excludes everything else.  Often this is a sensible starting point.  A business that generates profit is viable.  To put any other motivation first is to invite failure.  Most households need income and so it is not surprising many people put profit first.

The problem with this approach lies in the lack of any other motivation.  Sometimes lack of other motivation leads to loss of the incentive to get up in the morning.  Most people are not inspired by profit alone and want to contribute to wider society.  They get bored simply generating income, they believe there is more to life.

Another possibility is the business-owner loses sight of why they are there.  Business becomes solely an exploitative venture.  It is not so much the business owner starts illegal or misleading trading because they cease to care.  It is the ceasing to care that matters.  A pure profit motive atomises society and destroys community.  Perhaps if you are really good at making profit, you don’t need community.  The question is where that approach leads.

Values

The values motivated business person sets out with a mission to change the world.  Sometimes they have a skill or a trade of real value and enjoy sharing it.  Their mission or values take precedence.

Their problem is they can find they are not making money.  Every service offered for free or at a discount, reduces their income.  They own a business that has a purpose (clarity of purpose may be lacking) but not the means to make their purpose real.  In the voluntary sector, this leads to grant dependency and in the private sector to bankruptcy.

To be solely values led is to invite failure.  And business failure means the business-owner will have no means to pursue their dream.  They may need to seek paid employment and that will mean they have less time to do what they enjoy doing.

Nevertheless, we need more values centred business owners because the world needs people with vision to help turn around failing local economies.  Values based business becomes viable when it recognises profit is necessary for success and worth pursuing to make their vision viable.

This is an important intersection.  Values offer the profit orientated business a sense of purpose and profit offers the values business success.  Viable businesses must place their business in the intersection between profit and values.

Time

As more people find employment takes up too much time (working hours, overtime, travel) or find they are running between several zero-hours contracts, they begin to value the freedom to choose to take time out.

Often this is to spend time with a young family but it is true for all people.  I value the freedom to walk every afternoon.  I have no family but still value having time to use as I choose.

Of course, this motivation can backfire when self-employment results in even more hours of work.  Sometimes overwhelm arrives in fits and starts.  Perhaps a few hectic days or weeks followed by quieter periods but sometimes overwhelm sets in and never lets up.

Profit can relieve this problem as a time motivated business owner will seek systems that allow them to make a profit and have time for themselves.  If they have a strong values orientation, they may use their free time for voluntary activity.

The ideal for most people is where all three major motivations intersect; where they can generate profit to support their time out of the business and their values.

Conclusion

The key for you as a business owner is to find which of these motivates your prospects.   You can fine tune their motivation but the chances are whatever it is, it will fall in one or more of these three categories.

This will help you work out what their problem is.  Most business owners experience problems because they are blind to the consequences of decisions taken.  These decisions may have been unconscious or are perhaps forgotten.

Your offer may help them see the value of your support.

If your prospects are not business owners, their motivation may be different.  Can you work out the likely motivation of personal prospects?  If you found this post helpful and would like me to expand on some issue, please use the comments.

Prospects’ Objections to Your Proposition

Most prospects are suspicious of any offer and so will naturally think of objections, if only to give themselves time to think.

There is nothing wrong with time to think, so long as it results in a positive decision for mutual benefit.  Your objective in anticipating likely objections is you may be able to help the prospect’s  thinking.  This is an excellent way to show your competence as a coach.

It can be helpful to deal with as many objections as possible before you close.  At the point where you make an offer, simply ask if they have any questions.  This is where they can raise their concerns.  They may ask about your fees, which is usually a positive sign!

If your prices are realistic, the prospect may hesitate and raise objections like “I can’t afford it.”

I can’t afford it!

This is the most common and perhaps the hardest objection you will encounter.  My purpose here is to help you list likely objections.  So, remember many people, especially the British, don’t like to discuss money.  They may not always come straight out and say they simply can’t afford it.

Also, bear in mind, objections to money may be a means to buy time.  Your goal is to close at this meeting.  If you need to give people time, the chances are you won’t see them again.  If they need to consult their partner or an employer, give them a time limit and perhaps offer a small reduction if they respond before the deadline.

So, let’s assume you have received clear buying signals from your prospect and so need to close the deal.  They ask how much you charge and then they hesitate.

You are at step 5 on the awareness ladder and, if you have completed the other steps, the person is clearly interested in your offer.  Some people may have difficulty paying the full amount.  There may be various reasons for this but whatever they are, check out whether paying in instalments helps.

If someone really wants to invest in your coaching, the chances are they can find the money.  How they do this is their problem but they may need time to find it.  Again, instalments may help them marshal their funds.

Otherwise remind them of the benefits of investing in your offer and show why the benefits are worth more than their financial outlay.

Other Objections

Whilst price is often an objection, there are others you may wish to tackle.  This os the purpose of  step 4 of the awareness ladder.  You have someone with you, interested in your offer and possibly comparing it with others.  They may have questions and if you anticipate and answer to them in advance, you will have ready responses to hand.  You will also be used to thinking of responses to unexpected objections.

Here is a list I prepared from my experience with prospects, a couple of years ago.  These relate to my offer at that time, so use them to help plan the objections you list for your offer.

At the time I wrote this list, website design was my main offer.  These days I still offer to work on websites and spend a lot of time commenting on sites for my clients.  My current offer is a local marketing package.

Look for Patterns

Read your list and look for patterns.  Patterns might inform how you structure your marketing in the future.  For example, if you look at my list, some of the objections boil down to lack of time, whilst others are about values.

For the former I might talk about accountability and time management.  Many businesses fail because the owners don’t take time out to reflect on their business.  The time pressures they experience may in part be awareness they are not developing their business.

Values-centred businesses need help to understand the role money plays in their business.  It’s OK to make money because money keeps you going as a business.

Your aim is to rehearse a response for each objection in your list; building on what is already present in your marketing strategy.

If this post has been helpful, please tell me why and if there are any issues where you would welcome further information.

Places Where Prospects Congregate

Locating the places where prospects congregate is key to making contact with them.  These places may be online, offline or both.  It is worth creating new places for your prospects too.

Online or Offline?

Look for prospects online and offline, especially if your offer is B2B. If your offer is mainly Internet-related or to a global market, explore online media first.  Sections of the population who do not use online resources may be solely offline, eg elderly groups, although this is  less true year by year.

Social Media

Suggestions about how to contact Facebook and Linked-In prospects are in the circuit questionnaire.  If you find a group likely to interest your prospects, join it.  The next step is to take part in group discussions and start your own.  Try not to sell to these groups.  Once group members recognise and trust you, invite them to visit your website.

Publish lead magnets on your timelines.  Encourage people to share them or pass them to others who may be interested.  Twitter is another candidate and there are new media worth exploring, eg Instagram or Pinterest.

Don’t forget blogs!  If you find blogs published by competitors, read them to find out what they write about.  Can you improve on their posts?  They may inform your own blog posts or your website content. Avoid copying directly; respect copyright and remember anyone interested may read your rival’s blogs as well as yours.

Take their topic and prepare a better post.  You could write your post as a response to your rival’s.  Say their post inspired you and then write something that builds on and transforms it.

Your rival may aim for different prospects to yours and so if you comment constructively on their blog, there may in time be an opportunity to write a guest post for them.  Some blogs actively seek guest writers and so long as your prospects read their blog, an article by you may be fruitful.

Network Groups and Events

In real life seek groups your prospects are likely to attend.  There may be many networks and events in any town or city.

Network groups usually meet regularly, often fortnightly, and they are opportunities to share your elevator pitch, make contacts and occasionally speak at length.  Usually these groups meet over a meal and charge a small fee (about £10-15) for the food and other costs.  Some have membership fees and associated privileges, eg only members may deliver longer talks.  Others are specialist groups, eg WordPress users or social enterprise that attract people with specific interests.  Such groups may actively seek speakers.

Events are one-off activities, usually around a theme.  You can find them online through sites such as Eventbrite and Meetup.  These are almost always network opportunities and may be organised by people with offers complementary to yours.

Publications

Are there publications your prospects read?  If so, can you write for them?  Published articles can be powerful ways to raise your profile.  Bear in mind though, they are likely to be current for only a short time, so you may need to think carefully about how you build on a one-off article.

Reading a publication you know your prospects read may help you find topics of interest to them as well as events they are likely to attend.

Organising Your Own Events

Online or offline, if you organise your own events, this will raise your profile.

Online publish your ideas through a blog or webinars.  Video and audio recordings are popular too.  If you have online products, a product launch is a great way to promote your business.

Offline, organise your own events, workshops or network groups.  You may find the market crowded and so you need to find an angle that does not duplicate what is already happening.

The biggest problem you have, both online and offline, is marketing new activities.  Most people put a lot of time into designing events and relatively little time promoting them.  Try writing marketing copy first, promote it and see if you get a response.  Put in the time to design the event in detail if you do get a response.  If you get very few people, offer them a downsized alternative and close down the main event.

If you are interested in more detail about the possibilities listed here, let me know.  What related topics would you like me to cover?

What is Your Prospect’s Ability to Pay?

Your prospects’ ability to pay is a vexed question.  You need to make a living and so set your prices at a realistic level.  Your prospects may not be able to afford them.

Here are two perspectives to consider.  Yours as a business owner and your prospects who may also be business owners.

Generally Coaches Charge Too Little

Many coaches and consultants charge too little.  Sometimes this is because coaches structure their business on sessions and there is a limit to the amount you can charge for an hour’s coaching.

The alternative is to sell the benefits of your coaching.  This means you charge according to the value of your offer to your prospects.  Success depends on how you market your offer.

Most websites take up a lot of space describing features and relatively little demonstrating their benefits.

So, how much should I charge?

First, do not associate your prices with the time you spend working for the client.  Your client has no way of knowing how much time you put into your business. The idea contact time is what they pay for is absurd.  Think about the time you spend preparing for meetings and following them up.  In addition, there is the time you spend building your skills and your business.

Benefits transform the way you think about your business.  I know people who have increased their prices, decreased the time they work for their clients and as a result increased their sales.  Why? Because overall they improved their offer.

If you can decrease the time per client and increase the quality of your service, you can increase the number of clients you serve.  But maybe you don’t need to if a few clients on higher prices is all you need to break even.  A lot depends on marketing an irresistible, well-targeted offer.

When should you increase your prices?

As often as you like.  Some people increase their prices once a month or quarter.  Usually by a small percentage.  This means they are confident their offer is similar to the previous month’s but over time income per client grows significantly.

You can increase your prices if you are getting a lot of prospects.  Your focus is on those who can afford your prices.  Others who can’t, will look elsewhere.  Fewer clients at higher prices means you have time for other activities.

Another possibility is increase both the quality of your offer and your prices.  One possible objection to high prices is false modesty.  You undervalue your own business when your prices are artificially low.  You’ve worked hard to develop a valuable offer and yet fear to ask a realistic price that represents the work you’ve put into it.

What Kind of Investment Will This Represent?

Higher prices increase the numbers of prospects who cannot afford your offer.  Or so you think!  More prospects have ability to pay than you think. There are three possibilities:

1. Affluent prospects can afford your prices. They may think they have a bargain.  Don’t even think about telling them they haven’t.  You are offering them a benefit they want and they are willing to pay for it.
2. Some prospects walk away because they genuinely cannot afford your offer. You may make a referral to someone cheaper, a simple and helpful move.  Or perhaps you can develop a low-end offer that does not deliver the same benefits but satisfies those who cannot afford the full service.  Low-end packages are opportunities for wealthier people to try your services too.  Once people have purchased from you, they are likely to do so again.
3. There are people who think they cannot afford your offer but really can! They may not be used to paying consultants’ fees and baulk when they first hear it.  Your task is to help these people decide this is right for them.  You need to be confident in your own mind they will find genuine benefit from your offer.  Your fees may be a significant investment in their business or their lives and so you need to honour the sacrifice they make for their business.

Sometimes prospects need time to decide.  Put a time limit to this period.  You need to know when an offer you have made has expired.   This allows you to move on.

Sometimes people say “No for now” and may approach you again at a later date when they have explored other options.

The Thing to Remember

The key is your marketing and the attractiveness of your offer.  When someone turns down your offer, it is not always they can’t afford it.  It could be the problem is in your presentation of your offer.  Prospects have been known to claim the price is too high and then go with a coach with even higher charges.  The key is how well you sell and not so much your charges!

Let me know if the topic of this post has been helpful.  If you would like me to expand on this topic in any way, I’ll be happy to have a go!