I am currently taking some well-deserved time off and thought I’d share a few photos of the experience. I hope this inspires you to remember to take time off for yourselves!
A water view from Juneau.
I bet you send dozens of emails a day, and the majority of them are unimportant. Not unnecessary, just not earth-shatteringly important.
Getting business done. Asking questions. Answering questions.
Communicating, but not connecting.
And you may wonder, “Is it even possible to truly connect in a meaningful way via email?”
There is. And I’m going to give you the one simple question that makes it possible.
Now understand, this question helps you connect in a more meaningful way so that a separate, deeper conversation can be had, usually on the phone or in person. But this question gets the ball rolling in the right direction of true connection, rather than just being one more email in someone’s inbox.
The question is, “Is there anything I can do to support you?”
I regularly ask this to close out email conversations. And in the responses to that question, I find the tone has shifted dramatically.
As if they are so accustomed to having everyone want to take from them, that being asked if there is anything you can give them is a profoundly astonishing concept.
The responses of gratitude just warm my heart, and true connections are born.
And beyond just responses of heartfelt gratitude, I’ve also gotten the opportunity to lend support to someone in need, and (surprisingly) this question has also lead to business opportunities.
Have fun with this. Ask the question and share what happens!
This is a question I get asked a lot, and the simple answer is to raise them whenever you want (it’s your business, after all!).
You don’t need a new certification. You don’t need 2 more years of experience. You don’t need to build a new website.
And you certainly don’t need approval from anyone.
As Nike says, “Just do it.”
But in case you’re like 100% of my clients 😉 … know that it’s completely normal to feel resistance to raising your prices.
Let’s go through some guidelines and strategies together to help you get clear about when, why and how to raise your prices. (Be sure to read to the end for a tip to make the whole process easier!)
• You are at or close to capacity with client appointments in your calendar.
• Prospects tell you they would have paid more.
• You’re starting to resent the time you’re spending with clients.
• You realize your pricing model won’t allow you to make the income you want.
Before I go into the why and how of changing your pricing, I want to be clear about something. Adjusting your pricing doesn’t mean charging a sky-high price for your services. One great way to get more income out of your time is to look at different delivery models, like creating knowledge products or group programs to supplement or replace one-on-one work.
With that being said, don’t be afraid to charge a premium for your time.
Why raise your prices?
• Reduce your stress level around money so you can take care of yourself and continue making a difference through your work
• To model a healthy relationship with money for your clients and customers (everyone has money issues!)
• Your clients will engage more fully and see better results when they are more invested financially
That last one always struck me as strange, but I’ve seen it prove out time and time again. Think about it. If you paid $5 for a personal trainer to meet you at the gym twice a week, how motivated would you be to show up? Now what if you paid $2400 for 3 months for the same personal trainer? At which price point are you more likely to show up and, consequently, get better results?
Same goes for your clients.
How do you raise your prices?
1. Adopt a philosophy of generosity. Instead of approaching pricing from the mindset of “how much can I get from people,” I highly recommend a different question: “What pricing will make me feel 100% free to generously give to my clients without resentment or feeling like I have to charge extra if I invest a little extra time with them?”
2. Ignore what people think. Or rather, what you THINK other people think. The truth is, people do not wonder about how you came up with your pricing. They don’t. Really. I mean it.
Just as you don’t quiz the clerk at Starbuck’s about their exorbitant latte prices, prospects are wrapped up in their own lives and trust you know how to run your business and set your prices.
3. Create a communication plan for existing and new clients. This is both the most difficult and most important step. But once you have the timeline for rollout and the words to express your value, then everything else flows.
How do you make raising your prices MUCH easier?
Have a clear marketing plan, compelling messaging and a simple sales process. What people will pay for your services depends significantly on the value you establish up front. With a clear marketing plan to establish credibility with prospects, compelling messaging to make them say “I need YOU” and an sales process that consistently closes the sale, by the time you’re discussing pricing with a prospect, the investment isn’t much of an issue. This happens for my clients and me all the time.
One last thought… give yourself raises on a consistent basis. In the corporate world, we could depend on cost-of-living increases and promotions. It was structured and determined by the corporate machine.
When you run your own business, you only have yourself to depend on for increasing your income. Don’t be afraid to get paid well for your gifts and talents. You’re worth it!
Thanks for reading! If you’d like individual mentorship on how to raise your prices and communicate your value, please get on the calendar for a time to talk! http://marycravets.com/breakthroughwithmary
On a recent visit to my family in San Diego, we went to a restaurant for breakfast together. In the bathroom, the sink was emblazoned with a quote that literally made me LOL: “There are two rules for success: 1. Never tell everything you know.”
This sentiment immediately brought to mind the business owners I work with to develop speaking as a strategy to generate new clients. There are a lot of areas we work on together, such as how to get speaking engagements, create titles that draw in your ideal clients, make a sales offer without freaking out, and more. But the one of the biggest obstacles we tackle right away is exactly what that quote referenced.
They want to tell audiences everything they know.
It’s vitally important to structure your talk so that you do not share everything you know.
To be clear, this is not about withholding value! This is not that tacky, bait-and-switch approach to speaking. You’ve probably experienced this unpleasant technique: a speaker gives you 2 great tips, but those tips are totally useless unless you buy their program. Yuck. That’s not what we’re talking about here.
It is critically important that you learn how to provide extreme value without burying an audience in content. When you do bury them, it can lead to a “false close,” which roughly means that someone who hears your talk thinks that they’ve gotten everything they need and that what they heard is all you have to offer.
They feel 100% satisfied. They think they don’t need to hire you.
The problem is, no matter how long the talk, there is always more information, coaching, or guidance that can be given on your topic. If you aren’t clear about that fact, it’s damaging on many levels. Namely, to your reputation.
Let’s say you just delivered a talk overstuffed with content to a receptive audience of your ideal clients. At the end of the talk, your audience applauds and a dozen people tell you how much they loved it and love you. They leave the talk, go out into the world and say, “Wow, Mary really knows her stuff. I’m going to start doing what she taught us.” They start implementing and quickly run into a road block, because remember, no matter how long you spoke for, there is always more they need to know. They get frustrated and say, “Mary’s an idiot,” and your reputation suffers.
How do you fully show up and deliver solid value, but not “tell them everything you know”?
The results of this approach are twofold.
First, it puts your content in context so your audience members are better equipped to utilize your content and understand the potential challenges ahead.
Second, it clearly and respectfully shows you have more to offer, which elegantly lays the groundwork for them to become your client.
Now a disclaimer… please understand that this is a sharp but narrow focus on just one aspect of creating a talk that consistently generates clients. There are many other elements to consider.
My hope is that this perspective will help significantly improve the issue of content so you can start concentrating on the other important aspects of your talk: the credibility elements, planting marketing seeds, and the sales offer.
If you are a speaker and are not getting clients from your speaking engagements, take a look at your content. Use the tips in this article.
And if you’re very serious about building your business without working nights and weekends, and speaking is a part of how you want to build it, get in touch and let’s work together to make it happen!
The #1 way that coaches and most other service professionals get client is… drum roll please… referrals!!!
Admittedly, referrals have an image problem.
Referral generation sounds downright dull compared to “ultimate digital content planner” and “master Facebook ads in 5 days” or “the underground playbook for building your company online”.
It’s easy to get distracted by shiny new promises, but consider this: to generate referrals, there is almost no cost to you (awesome!), the technology is limited to email and phone so there’s no learning curve (yay!), referrals are warm prospects so the sales process is easier (yes!), and those referred prospects generally invest in higher level packages (cha-ching!).
Did referrals get just a tad more attractive?
Sweet!
But there’s another problem…
Most people don’t know how to generate referrals intentionally. It seems like it’s a random thing, with no stability or consistency. So even though you KNOW referrals are great, knowing isn’t enough.
Luckily, it’s easier than you think to get referrals rolling in. Let me show you what I mean:
To generate referrals consistently, there are really only 3 steps:
The key to making this step work: Only invest time nurturing referral relationships with people who are in a position to, and are willing to, refer you
The keys to making this step work: First… before you say, “But I don’t want to be pushy,” let me assure you that people LOVE to help. They LOVE to contribute and be a part of your success. And second, make sure your “ask” is crystal clear: know who your ideal client is and describe them simply in your request for referrals.
The key to making this step work: Make this a priority every single month by scheduling an appointment in your calendar to connect with your list.
Now for confession time: as amazing as referrals are for a business, I still struggled to do the actions necessary to generate them. So if you find this challenging, please don’t beat yourself up.
Here are a few things that help to melt resistance and get results:
And remember to ask for help. Adam (the expert on my team who grew my referrals exponentially) has a variety of ways to help you succeed with referral generation. Contact Adam here to explore how he can help you build your business through referrals.
Written by guest contributor Heather Moreno
More than 20 years ago I heard what is still my favorite definition of commitment: the ability to carry through with a worthy decision once the emotion of making the decision has passed. Emotion is what we tend to think of as motivation. We think we should “feel” like doing something in order to do it. But is that how you experience it?
For most of us, the answer is no. For instance, I never feel like doing the dishes, but I do them. I’m committed to a clean, cockroach-free kitchen.
Psychology Today defines motivation as “literally the desire to do things.” The desire to do something does not mean you will feel like it. Our human tendency is the path of least resistance (you know, burn as few calories as necessary) and our feelings keep us stuck there. We have to want the outcome enough to overcome our lack of “feeling” motivated.
I saw a recent interview with Admiral William H. McRaven, author of the new book Make Your Bed, in which he shares successful life principles learned during Navy Seal training. The title comes from the habit of making one’s bed first thing in the morning. And when we accomplish one thing, it sets us up to do the next. And the next. We can’t wait to feel like making the bed, we just have to make it.
Considering your health goals, what is one small thing you could do in the morning that would make a difference the rest of the day? For many, I suspect that thing is eating a balanced breakfast. If you regularly skip breakfast, and lunch is the first time food makes it past your lips, then waiting to feel like eating will not work. Your body’s metabolism has adapted by slowing down and you will not feel hungry in the morning.
Maybe for you it’s drinking 8oz of water first thing, meditation, prayer, or 10 minutes of stretching. Decide and do it. Then notice how the next step becomes easier. In essence, your initial step helps provide the “feeling” of motivation, the feeling that being successful at one thing can lead to the next.
Our lives are the sum total of mostly small decisions like this. Sure from time to time we make big decisions, but day-in and day-out we are formed by the millions of small choices we make each moment.
This is good news! Instead of thinking we have to take quantum-leap actions, we can focus on small daily habits that produce significant results.
So, what small step would (ultimately) make a huge impact in your life? Share your decision with me on Facebook!
Heather Moreno specializes in helping working professionals who struggle to squeeze health and weight loss into their busy schedules. With a diverse background in exercise physiology, coaching and theology, she helps people to understand the root of what’s keeping them stuck so that they can stop spinning their wheels and know exactly what to do to experience success. For more information, go to www.HeatherMoreno.com.
