How To Uncover The Results That Make Your Clients Want To Buy From You

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times: “Don’t talk about what you do, talk about the benefits and results your clients get.” And if you’re like many heart-based business owners and transformation professionals I know, hearing this time-tested marketing truth probably makes you roll your eyes a little.

After all, when you’re working on such a deep level, transformation can be hard to put into words.  Even on the surface, some of what we do is, well, flat-out fuzzy and hard to describe.  Besides, we can’t promise results anyway, right?

You can come up with a zillion reasons why you can’t “bottom line” what you do for your clients, but you can’t change the fundamental human truth behind the whole benefits-not-features thing: your clients don’t buy “stuff,” they buy what that stuff will do for them – specifically, the emotions they will experience as a result of getting what they want.

“You can’t fight City Hall,” as the saying goes.  And if there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that you can’t fight human psychology and win.  Bottom line: if you can’t clearly articulate the results of using your services, you won’t sell very many of them.

So what’s a heart-centered business owner to do? Here are 3 tips on how to uncover the results of your services so that your clients clearly see what they’re really going to get when they work with you.

1. Make it physical. If your service feels “fuzzy” or feel-good, or if you struggle to describe the deep transformation you facilitate in your clients, it’s time to get physical.  All transformation has a physical manifestation, somewhere and somehow.  How does your work “show up” for your clients in the physical world?

Let’s say you’re a healer who helps her clients dissolve the inner blocks that keep them stuck.  Once those blocks are gone, what happens then?  How will the removal of those blocks show up here on the physical plane?  They might be able to finally find a relationship, or get a higher-paying job, or more and better clients.  (Note that this is a general, unfocused example.  If you do this kind of work, you’ll want to get really specific on what areas of life and specific problems you focus on.)

2. Don’t do all the work! When it comes to results and outcomes, your clients know a thing or two – namely, they know what they WANT.  Most heart-centered “change agents” can create all kinds of transformation.  What outcomes are your clients really looking for?  It’s for them to say, and for you to find out – through connection, surveys, and especially in your potential client conversations.

3. What’s the impact? When clients work with you, what’s the real impact of your work?  How does it ripple out to every aspect of their lives?  Start with just one outcome they could get.  How does getting that outcome impact their relationships, home life, spiritual life, and finances?  (And yes, your work impacts their finances, even if you can’t see it directly right now.)

“But Elizabeth, I can’t promise results!” If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard this from spirited entrepreneurs, I’d, well… I’d have a heck of a lot of nickels.  So if the thought of “promising results” stops you cold, you’re not alone.  But guess what?

There isn’t a single transformation professional on the planet who can “promise results.” Why?  Because your clients have to show up and do their work!   It’s not about promises you can’t keep, it’s about possibility. And no matter what, the client has to do their part. (Yep, this applies to healers, such as acupuncturists and energy workers, who are extra concerned about this issue because of liability.)

When you say things like “I can’t promise results,” you’re really taking on a responsibility which lies with your clients… which isn’t cool, or healthy boundaries, or even possible.  Be them positive or negative, your clients own their outcomes.  Instead, focus on holding the space of possibility of the results your clients can step into when they make new choices.

(Did you catch the energy difference between “I can’t do that” and “holding the space of possibility”?  My coach’s request to you: check out how each of those feels in your body.  Which would you rather experience?  Whichever it is, you can bet your clients are feeling it too!)

© 2009 Elizabeth Genco Purvis.  All Rights Reserved.

Want to use this article on your website, blog or in your own ezine? No problem! But here’s what you MUST include:

Elizabeth Genco Purvis, “The Marketing Goddess” teaches spirited solo business owners and conscious entrepreneurs how to attract an abundance of clients, income, freedom and satisfaction in their business while staying true to their values.  Visit MarketingGoddess.com to claim your copy of “Grow Your Business With Spirit And Soul,” a 7-part audio workshop with everything you need to begin attracting more clients right away.

How To Earn More In 1 Day Than You Used To Earn In A Month

In last week’s article, I shared another common pitfall that plagues many soul-based business owners when designing their programs and packages: giving too much away. This week, I’d like to share a format for your streamlining your service that’s simple, fun and oh-so-gratifying to deliver: The VIP consulting day.

(Or a VIP coaching day, if you’re a coach. Or a VIP [insert-what-you-do-here] day. My work is a combination of coaching AND consulting, so I flip-flop in what I call them.)

I first heard of the VIP day format from my colleague and friend, Helen Graves of Crackerjack Online Marketing. Helen specializes in helping heart-centered entrepreneurs sell more of their products and services with grace and authenticity. (You’ll be hearing more about Helen very soon – she graciously agreed to do a special call for you on her signature program, “What To Say If You Hate To Sell^TM“.)

When I heard that Helen was offering an all-day VIP coaching experience to teach her clients how to master sales conversations with clients-to-be, I thought, “Brilliant!” I knew I had to try it.

In a VIP day, you come together with your client in a very focused fashion to support them with a particular challenge or problem. Instead of spreading out your coaching or consulting time over a matter of weeks or months, you “go deep” over a period of a single day.

Your clients get your focused, personalized attention for a generous amount of time. At the end of the day, they walk away with a breakthrough in the area of the problem (thanks to your coaching) and a system or strategy for getting the results that they want (thanks to your information).

The VIP day is a tremendous opportunity to serve your clients at a higher level. They are also a great way to deliver a great deal of VALUE without a lot of your time. That means you can charge a healthy fee while staying firmly in your integrity.

Best of all, clients love VIP days. Because you’re focusing on a single problem in a single day, you can go really deep with your clients. And if you design your VIP day in the right way, your clients can get results very quickly, leaving them thrilled with you and likely to return for more of your help.

Here are 4 tips for designing your VIP days:

1. Select one topic, outcome and/or result. Remember, simplicity and focused attention will create a better experience for your clients and support them in getting the result that they want. You’re also not “giving away the farm” by overloading your packages with extras you should be charging for. (Remember, overstuffing your packages is a form of discounting – you have to value your services before your clients will.)

2. Select a topic that your clients can take action NOW. Call it stalling, procrastination, “sitting on the fence,” resistance – one of the biggest problems clients face is inaction. Similarly, as a coach, consultant and accountability partner, one of the things clients are investing in when they work with you is the future action they will take. You want to help make that first step an easy one. Help them experience what it’s like to finally get moving and get some results – they will love you for it (and come back for more).

3. Don’t undercharge your VIP offering. Because you’re handling the problem in “only” one day, you may be tempted to discount your VIP package. Resist that urge! Remember to set your price based on results, not time. (Think about it: should you really penalize yourself because you got the job done quicker? Ridiculous.)

A deeper, richer experience (with more of your focused, personalized attention, and quicker results) is actually more valuable to your clients, not less. When you design your package correctly, your investment should be several times more than the monthly fee you’re probably charging your clients now (hence the title of this article).

4. Give your clients everything they need to repeat their results. Your VIP day offering will likely include some form of teaching and instruction as well as coaching and mentoring. Make sure to give your clients this system in a way that they can refer back to – and repeat! – again and again. You can do this by including materials such as an ebook, audios, worksheets, etc.

© 2009 Elizabeth Genco Purvis. All Rights Reserved.

Want to use this article on your website, blog or in your own ezine? No problem! But here’s what you MUST include:

Elizabeth Genco Purvis, “The Marketing Goddess” teaches spirited solo business owners and conscious entrepreneurs how to attract an abundance of clients, income, freedom and satisfaction in their business while staying true to their values. Visit MarketingGoddess.com to claim your copy of “Grow Your Business With Spirit And Soul,” a 7-part audio workshop with everything you need to begin attracting more clients right away.

Are You Making This Mistake When Creating Your Packages?

As a marketing coach who serves spirit-rich entrepreneurs, most of whom are working in the mind/body/spirit realm or are aligned with Spirit in and out of their businesses, I regularly check out what people are offering: their packages, programs, and opportunities for their clients to work with them.

Of course, I start with my clients, but I don’t stop there!  In particular, I pay close attention to those who have really high visibility – book deals, are in the conversation in our industry, etc.  And over and over again, I see one mistake being made when it comes to pricing and packaging.

This mistake costs people BIG time – not just in lost income, but in lost opportunities to create deep and lasting transformation.  It also sucks the energy right out of you, takes up waaaaay too much time AND kills your cash flow.  Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of the coaches, healers, consultants and metaphysical practitioners I know are making this mistake.

What’s the mistake? Let’s look at an example of a typical package to find out.

Let’s take a coach, for example.  What do most coaching packages look like?  Most are some variation on this: meeting X times per month for Y months at Z dollars per month.  For example, 3 sessions a month for 6 months at $300 per month.

The question that comes to mind is, what is a client paying for in this scenario?  “Coaching,” you might answer.  Trouble is,  your clients are never paying you for “the thing” that you do.  They are paying you to solve a very specific problem that matters to them.

So what’s the mistake? Not creating packages or programs that solve a specific problem.

Here’s why these kinds of packages suck the energy out of you, take up waaay too much time and kill your cash flow, too…

When you’re focused on a specific problem, you can design the program to address that ONE problem, which means there are boundaries on that program – they don’t go on and on and on.  (And you don’t give too much away – another huge problem for many spirited entrepreneurs who love to give and give and give.)  Focusing on one problem means that you’ll streamline your solution to that problem, which takes less time AND energy.

Most importantly, programs that are not focused on a specific problem (and provide a specific result) are a LOT harder for them to say yes to.  Your clients want to know, “What’s in it for me?” Without results, you’ll be on the phone for hours with your potential clients, only to hear them say, “I have to think about it.”  Yuck!  It’s a time drain, an energy drain, and a cash-flow killer.

You might be thinking, “Well, if a client is paying X dollars per month for 6 months, isn’t that great for my cash flow?” Monthly payments are great for your cash flow… when you’re selling your packages regularly AND for the investment that matches the value.  Trouble is, without focusing on problems and solutions, you’ll struggle with enrolling your programs at a great investment.

Here’s another important tip for you: When you focus on one specific problem in your packages, the investment will be based on value, not time.  And the value of your package will always be more than the time you spend!  (Remember, your clients are paying for a solution, NOT your time.)

Design your packages and programs around results and value to your clients, not your time. When you do, you’ll have more clients eagerly signing up at a higher investment point… it’s a win for you with your cash flow, and a win for them because they’ll finally get to experience the transformation they so desperately want and need.

Ready to learn how to create irresistible programs that your clients can’t wait to sign up for?  You’ll want to reserve your spot in my upcoming “Clients And Cash Flow Secrets” teleseminar series!  Register before tonight at 11:59 pm to take advantage of the generous 3-pay option and to nab some valuable bonuses.  Sign up here: http://www.ClientsAndCashFlowSecrets.com.

© 2009 Elizabeth Genco Purvis.  All Rights Reserved.

Want to use this article on your website, blog or in your own ezine? No problem! But here’s what you MUST include:

Elizabeth Genco Purvis, “The Marketing Goddess” teaches spirited solo business owners and conscious entrepreneurs how to attract an abundance of clients, income, freedom and satisfaction in their business while staying true to their values.  Visit MarketingGoddess.com to claim your copy of “Grow Your Business With Spirit And Soul,” a 7-part audio workshop with everything you need to begin attracting more clients right away.

How To Create Packages That Sell Themselves

One of the first things my new coaching clients always ask is for feedback on their website… especially the page where they describe their service packages.  In almost every case, their offerings include some variation of the following:

• A single session, for X price
• A “medium” package, consisting of a few sessions or months (usually 3 months), for Y price
• A “large” package, usually consisting of twice the amount of time or sessions as the medium package, for Z price

Almost always, nobody is buying. To shed some light on why, I like to ask, “If you were a client, which one would you choose, and why?” (The actual service doesn’t really matter here.)

If your packages aren’t being snapped up from your website (or you’re not being flooded with inquiries), I invite you to think of your own packages and ask yourself the same question.  Chances are, your packages contain nothing that communicates what sets you or your services apart. So your client has no idea what to choose, or why. (Even worse, the only thing that’s really different in each case is time, which will always lead your clients to undervalue what you do.)

The fix for this common problem is simple: Create packages based on outcomes.

Here’s a real-life example from a spirit-rich entrepreneur I connected with recently.  Like so many of us, she is amazing at what she does – in this case, she helps small business owners create time and money in their business by creating streamlined systems and teams that actually LOVE what they’re doing (as opposed to just “phoning in” hours for dollars).

Sounds pretty valuable, right?  Yet she had been working herself to the bone… with not enough clients or income to show for it.  (Indeed, one of her longest clients was actually haggling with her to lower her rate – yuck!)

A quick look at her packages showed that she had placed all her focus on TIME: her rate was hourly, with the only difference in packages being the number of hours – no wonder her clients were so focused on time!  Her new packages look like this:

• “Diagnostic” solution to quickly uncover the bottlenecks and broken systems that are costing them time and money (1day)
• “Designed for you” solution specifically tailored for the client (3 months)
• “Done for you” solution, designed and implemented for the client (6 months)

You can clearly see the difference between each package here.  Each one is VERY client-attractive. And because each is based on results and provides a solution her clients want, she can charge a LOT more for them. (To arrive at her new price, she simply added a zero to the old prices… and believe me, at that investment, they’re a steal.)

Going back to our original question, if you were a stressed out, overworked business owner, which one would YOU want?  Hello, done-for-you, hello!  The most expensive package is also the most valuable… and it practically sells itself.

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that one of my favorite refrains is “Results, results, results!” Your clients want to know what’s in it for them, and in order for them to say YES to your services, they must know what transformation will occur as a result.  The transformation you provide must be CLEARLY reflected in your packages.

My coach’s request to you is to take a look at your packages. Are they based on time, or results?  If it’s the former, it’s time (pardon the pun) to shift your focus to results.  Yes, even if you’re a healer, coach, or transformation professional, you CAN do this!  Chances are, you don’t have to completely change what you’re already doing, you just have to get clear on the results.  Make sure each package or program has a clear outcome, and update your website copy to reflect that outcome.  Be sure to clearly communicate those outcomes in your next client conversation, too.

Want more support designing packages based on outcomes?  The Abundant Business Homestudy System contains a step-by-step formula for designing results-driven programs and packages your clients can’t resist, even if your service is “fuzzy”. Get yours here.

Next Free Training: Breakthrough Money & Mindset Interview With Kendall SummerHawk

If you’ve never heard of Kendall, she’s known as “The Million Dollar Marketing Coach” because she created a million-plus coaching practice in just under 3 years. Kendall is a master at teaching heart-centered women business owners how to “marry money with meaning” so that they can make a great income while making a difference and helping others.

Her proven systems for breaking through money stuck points, plus her step-by-step formula for “charging what you’re worth and getting it” have transformed the lives and incomes of – no exaggeration – thousands of spirited women. (Kendall’s success stories are legendary and include some of the biggest names in Internet marketing, coaching, and social media, just to name a few.)

Over the past 3 years that I’ve been on this path, I’ve learned from a LOT of incredible teachers. Amazing people, who are really, really good at what they do. Kendall truly stands out and is among my most treasured mentors.

That’s why I couldn’t be more thrilled to bring you a very special FREE training call with Kendall happening WEDNESDAY, August 19 at 8PM EST…

“Breakthrough Money & Mindset Secrets Of An Authentic Million Dollar Marketing Coach”

http://www.marketinggoddess.com/kendall.html

The call will be focused on VERY important topic… how to break through your hidden money barriers so you can make more, KEEP more, and (most importantly) serve your clients at a much higher level.

What I love about Kendall is how grounded, real and authentic she is. And GENEROUS. Kendall’s calls are always packed to the gills with aha’s and useful, practical information. Our call will be no different!

And, if I may get personal for a moment…

Many of you have told me things like, “Wow, Elizabeth, you are on FIRE!” and “You are everywhere” and “Hoo boy, woman, have you changed!”

It’s true. I have grown tremendously, both personally and professionally, in the past year. I have gotten VERY clear on my purpose (you’ll see this unfold). And my income has skyrocketed. Kendall and her wisdom have played a very big part in that transformation.

As a longtime practitioner of metaphysical and inner work, I can tell honestly you that I have never held myself back from getting what I need to make a breakthrough. In that spirit, my coach’s request to you is to please join me on this call.

Kendall will most likely challenge your beliefs about money. She’s known for a “loving kick-in-the-pants” coaching style and her absolute commitment to your breakthrough. That’s why you need to be there.

Here’s the link again…

http://www.marketinggoddess.com/kendall.html

The call happens on WEDNESDAY, August 19 at 8pm EST.

Hope to “see” you on the line with Kendall, and, as always… bright blessings & massive success to you!

PS: Please re-tweet, re-post and forward this to your fellow spirit-rich entrepreneurs! Space on the line is LIMITED so be sure to reserve your spot first, OK? (You can also listen in via webcast.)

http://www.marketinggoddess.com/kendall.html