Every now and again you come across an individual who is just knocking it out of the park with awesome stuff.

Recently for me, it’s Chris Lema an author, speaker, coach, VP and WordPress blogger. If you don’t already subscribe to his blog or follow him on Twitter — you should make a point to do so.

Chris joins us today to talk about becoming great at our craft and offers actionable advice for those of us looking to stop trading dollars for hours.

Even if you’re a long time follower of Mr. Lema, he never ceases to amaze us. Carry on to the show!

Interview with Chris Lema of ChrisLema.com

Watch on YouTube

Listen to the audio version

Start talking business and stop talking technology

How do we deal with the $500 client?

You know, the mechanic that just wants to get his coupons online. No social media, no inbound marketing and certainly not publishing a YouTube series.

Just get the coupons online.

If we’re stuck talking about all this technology and marketing lingo then the chances are we’re not talking about their business. The value of getting these coupons online and driving real customers into the mechanic’s shop.

Let’s break down that conversation:

“Hey can you get me a site with coupons that my customer’s can download?”

“Sure can!” you respond.

Upselling from the $500

What’s the value of this to the client?

If 50 coupons were downloaded a month, what’s the overall gross? Let’s say 50 x 24.95 for an oil change? So we’re already roughly $1,200 in gross sales.

So Mr. Customer are you willing to invest $500 to make $1,200? Sure that’s easy.

But what if that’s 50 coupons a month for 12 months? Now we’re talking nearly $15k in yearly revenue.

Now their initial budget of $500 is something like a 3% investment with that kind of annual intake. Well sure that sounds great for the business owner — but what about you?

Sweeten the pot.

Mr Customer, I think we can generate you $15k a year with these coupons but it’s going to take at least a 10% investment to make that kind of money. Now the wheels are turning.

But what about supporting and scaling this, how can we add even more value?

Mr Customer, if we add lead capturing to these coupons we can do some direct marketing and sell packages like maintenance and other higher price tag items. If we landed ten $1,000 maintenance jobs per year through this list, that’s another $10k in potential revenue.

Now we’re at $25k in potential income — do you think this is all possible on a $500 budget?

You see where I’m going with this. Sell on value, not the technology. It also dosen’t have to be monetarily based — the value could be your process, your knowledge or support.

Capitalize on the value proposition of your engagement.

What Chris taught me

Chris and I are alike.

We both talk about the business end of WordPress and we’re both trying to leave an impact on the community and this world.

I’m sure I have a lot more to learn from Chris, but the first lesson he’s taught me is the importance of connecting others.

It’s always been on the back of my mind with Matt Report — to find people doing awesome things with WordPress and expose them to an audience that otherwise might not have found them anywhere else.