Whether you’re a coach like the students and many of the clients I work with, or if you have a service-based or a product-based business, there is one thing that will often keep you from making all the income you could, and having to put a lot more time and energy into your marketing, resulting in burn-out and frustration.
What is it?
Generalization.
Huh?
The “I can help anyone with their problem” mindset.
Let’s say you’re an auto mechanic. You CAN most likely help everyone with car problems, right? But so does every other car repair shop in the city, so why should they choose you?
Many people compete on price, making them struggle to make enough money. Not a great solution.
Some people will shout “I’m the best!” from the rooftops. People don’t really believe you.
So what can you do to stand out from the crowd? It’s so simple, but so many businesses resist doing this…
SPECIALIZE.
Yes, you heard me.
Look at the difference between these two examples (both from my real life as a health coach):
1. Hi, I’m a holistic health coach. I use nutrition to help people with migraines, digestive issues, chronic pain or other discomforts in the body. If you want to feel better, come see me.
2. I help busy, stressed-out professional women with 5+ days of chronic migraine pain per month get control, reduce or eliminate the pain for good, and get their life back. Who do you know with chronic migraines?
Which one is most direct and compelling? The second one, right? Now, I had people come up to me and say:
“I don’t have chronic migraines, but I have chronic digestive issues – do you work with that?” – YES
“I don’t have migraines but I do get almost daily stress headaches – can you help?” – YES
“I have chronic food allergies – do you work with those?” – YES
So while my message had one single point of focus, others would come to me with different issues and I could decide if I could help on a case-by-case basis.
Nice, right?
Being specific is the key to getting clients coming to YOU.
So, going back to that auto mechanic I mentioned earlier, I’d find out where their strengths are. Maybe they hold a unique certification for All-Wheel-Drive vehicles, or maybe they can boost engine performance or gas mileage in ways others don’t. So, do they stop serving all customers? That’s a great question.
The answer is yes or no.
Yes: If you want to be known as a generalist who has a side specialty of boosting Japanese engine performance, then you can still market generally, as well as in that niche.
No: If you want to be seen as THE true expert in your field, and have all the generalists sending clients to you, then you would ONLY work on those jobs. Of course, until you have enough of them, you’d do both, but then cut back on the general as the specialty work comes in. Then you can also charge more money for what you do, because you’re the best in the area. They will happily pay more money to work with you, as long as your work is really top-notch and your customer service is excellent.
See how that works? You get to choose.
The next step is bringing them into a conversation where you can decide if you are the one to help them, and I’ve developed a system for that which I’ll be sharing on Social Buzz Club, called More Sales, No Selling. If you’d like to get clients asking how they can work with you before you offer them anything, be on that free call! Sign up here: http://goo.gl/bb5T8l
There are a few steps to having a really powerful conversation with a prospect that draws them in, and gets them to ask “How can I work with you?” before you even offer them a program or service.
I’ll be sharing a lot of info on the call, but let me share one key to spending LESS time on conversations and getting more sales:
Don’t talk to everyone.
See how this kind of goes back to what I mentioned before about specializing? It’s the same here. In order to thin out the prospects to those who need and want what you offer and are ready to take action to work with you, you use a qualification process by using a questionnaire.
You can either send them a list of questions by email, or you can send them to a questionnaire on a service like Survey Monkey (www.surveymonkey.com), and find out a bit about what problem they are trying to solve and what they want instead. Be sure to get their contact information too. You can ask what you need to in about 7 – 8 short questions, with contact info being the first 3 – 4. You can also ask a qualifying question like: “On a scale of 1 – 10 with 1 being ‘I don’t really care’ and 10 being ‘I HAVE to find a solution now’, how important is it to you to solve your issue?” (or ask about reaching their vision).
Now you can choose to spend your conversation time with people who really need and want a solution. Now, this doesn’t always work with every business, but I would bet you can find a way to make it work with yours. If you have trouble, email me and I’ll help you find a path to success.
Again, join me Thursday 5/12 for my live webinar where I’ll be sharing the details on how to have a powerful conversation. You can sign up here: http://goo.gl/bb5T8l.
I hope to talk to you on the call!
Warmly,
Jana
