Do you find it hard to get clients to sign up for your higher level programs? Perhaps you’re working hard at marketing but getting little results. Or you may be talking to lots of potential clients, but they end up balking at the higher investment level or signing up for your budget offers instead of your 6 month program.
You may be asking yourself, “Why is it so hard to sell high-level programs?” If you think it’s the higher investment level, you’re only partly right. Sure, it’s easier for someone to come up with $300 than $3,000. But that’s not the real reason you’re struggling to get high-paying clients.
In this article, I’ll share with you one of my top secrets on how to easily get clients to say “Yes!” to high-level programs. It happens when you focus your marketing on your client’s #1 problem and the transformation they want most.
But to do that, you first need to figure out what they want MOST. The difference between getting $300 for a program or $3000 for a program usually hinges on this one issue: their top concern and what they want most. It’s that important to your ideal client and that important to charging more and getting what you’re worth.
Here’s a 4-step exercise that will help you create high-level programs that practically sell themselves.
Step 1 – Know Your Ideal Client
Your ideal client is the person you’d most like to work with. They are also the person likely to get the BEST results when working with you. To make this exercise effective and easy, write down a description of who your ideal client is.
For example: if you’re a relationship coach, your ideal client may be defined as a woman between 30 and 50 years old, who finds it impossible to deal with her adolescent children, whether they be her natural children, adopted, or step-children. She’s at the end of her wits on how to deal with them. She may or may not be married. And she typically works full-time in a professional career or owns her own business.
Step 2 – List Everything Your Ideal Client Wants
When you work with a specific group of people in a specific niche, you know them better than they do themselves. You know:
- what obstacles they are facing
- their struggles and frustrations
- where they are sabotaging themselves
- the solutions they are looking for and why they want it
So start by making a list of everything your ideal client wants, and next to each item, list the problem, concern, or challenge. And here’s a tip: feel free to write down the same problem using different words or phrases. The words and phrases you use will have a tremendous impact in your marketing.
For example: if you’re a business coach who works with service professionals just getting started with their own businesses, your list might look like this:
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- Problem: They don’t know how to market.
Want: To know effective marketing techniques. - Problem: They don’t have clients.
Want: To easily attract clients and get hired. - Problem: They have no where to professionally meet clients.
Want: To move their office out of their home and into professional office space in a great location. - Problem: They don’t know how to price their services so that they can easily make sales and still make a profit.
Want: To learn how to value and price their services so they can charge what they’re worth and get it. - Problem: How to transition their mindset from working for someone else to running their own company.
Want: To learn effective business building skills. To know what to focus on each day to grow their business. Time management. - Problem: How to balance family and personal life while starting a business
.
Want: Time management and prioritizing. How to find time for relationship building and personal relaxation while starting their business.
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Keep writing until you have at least twenty items. Make some items general and others very specific so you get a good mix.
Step 3 – Narrow Down the List
You now want to narrow down the list to ten items or less. Here’s how to do this easily…
First, look them over and ask yourself which items on the list are MOST important to your ideal client. That will often help you cut the list in half.
Second, pick any 2 items on the list to compare. Ask yourself, “If my client could get A and not B, would they be satisfied or happy?” Then ask, “If my client got B, but could not achieve A, would they be satisfied or happy?” If the answer is yes, then one of the choices is a top concern. Put a star next to it. If the answer is that your client would need both A and B to be satisfied or happy, then put stars next to both.
For example: let’s compare the following two items for someone whose ideal client wants to lose weight:
- Problem: She no longer looks good in a swimsuit.
Want: To look good in a two-piece swimsuit again. - Problem: Diets and diet pills don’t work.
Want: To find a solution that actually works for her and that she can easily implement into her life.
Now ask yourself, “If the client could look fantastic in a two piece swimsuit, but she couldn’t find a weight loss solution that actually worked permanently for her, would she be satisfied or happy?” The answer is no. Whatever she had to do to look great in that swimsuit was really hard for her to do and the weight loss is only temporary. She can’t keep doing it so the weight will come back.
Now ask, “If the client found the perfect weight loss solution that was easy to implement and gave her lasting weight loss but she didn’t look great in a 2-piece swimsuit, could she be happy or satisfied?” The answer is yes. If a client finds a solution to losing weight that lasts and works for her, she’s happy. She knows that eventually, she will lose enough weight to look better in a swimsuit. And even if she never looks great in one, she’ll at least look a lot better than she does now.
Continue to choose pairs of items on the list ask this question to compare them until you have the list down to only four or five items.
Step 4 – Confirm Your Choices
Find five people who could potentially be your ideal client and ask them which of the five transformations you ended up with is most important to them. If they could only have one transformation, which one would it be and why?
It’s not going to be an easy choice for them. If they really are your ideal client, they will probably tell you they want all five! But let them think about it, and get their answers. Then you’ll be able to see what your ideal client wants most. Often, you will have a top three. Try to organize those into first, second, and third priorities.
Summary
Once you know what your ideal clients REALLY want, you can create irresistible offers and programs specifically targeting this one issue. And when you do, you will be amazed at how easy it is to attract potential clients and get them to say “Yes! I’m in. When can we start?”
I’ve shared this secret with my clients when helping them create their own irresistible programs and the results have been fantastic. Some of the comments I’ve received are “I’ve just had my best month ever, in number of clients and income!” or “I just have my first 5-figure month, earning over $10,000. Thank you, Karen!” or “I’m getting a lot more interest when I talk to potential client now than I ever did before.”
And this can happen for you, too!
Help your clients solve their greatest challenges and achieve the transformation they desperately want, and you’ll be able to create irresistible programs, charge what you’re worth, and get it. And that means more clients, and more sales more often.
