How to Sell Advice

Here's a great question from Michelle on how to help her client get into the membership model. 

Michelle asked:

Here's what was covered in my reply:

1. Audience, credibility, niche is key

2. Figure out the transformation you're selling

3. Deliver ongoing value in the form of content, community, coaching, or hybrid of multiple

4. Add static resources to the membership for additional value

5. Think of the best way to sell out, whether as a front-end offer or back-end offer (both can work)

Tomorrow I'll discuss a few of the membership platforms that are available out there, so stay tuned for that!

Yours,

—k

UPDATED KPI SHEET: I put a link to the wrong sheet in the original post. The new one is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NYqN_QdbU7PPQ_v1LR9KycEdGNtm7a4LTugo09IADLk/edit

Most new clients I speak to have never worked with someone who could prove an ROI.

Which is crazy, because it's not that complicated.

By tracking in a spreadsheet month over month the following metrics, you should be able to quickly see whether your marketing is performing well or not.

1. Revenue

2. Marketing expenses

3. New leads/subscribers

4. New customers/closed deals

5. Cost per lead (marketing expenses / number of leads)

6. Cost per new customer acquisition (marketing expenses / number of new customers)

7. Marketing costs as a percent of revenue (marketing expenses / revenue)

The result of this gives you a floating average that tells you whether your efforts are resulting in a profitable flow of new leads or customers.

Assuming you know your approximate lifetime value of each new customer, it will be immediately apparent whether you're moving the needle or becoming an expense. 

Got questions? Let me know!

Yours,

—k

When your clients decide to move forward with you, it's critical you make them feel like they made the right choice. 

After all, they are dropping some meaningful $$ on you (or should be), so first steps and impressions will mean a lot.

Here's how I do my initial onboarding process, why it's so important to get right, and my template for the initial email once they decide to move forward with me (copied below).

I've also linked my onboarding questionnaire in the content below, so feel free to make a copy of it and use it in your own practice (just change the header and footer, of course!).

Here's my initial email:

Hi [Name],

Glad to hear you've decided to move forward with [Name of Program! I'm excited to get started.

Agreement (if unsigned)

Attached is an agreement for you to sign and return. I've dated it for Monday, which is the soonest I can get you in (and fits in nicely before my next project starts). Does that timeline work for you?

Invoice

I'll send an invoice which can be paid using most credit cards. I suggest setting up auto-pay on those to securely handle the payments each month. They're due by the 1st of each month, so if you need time to manually process/pay the invoice, just let me know so I can send them earlier.

Kick-off Call

Our next step is to set up an initial kick-off call to go through these items and begin exploring a roadmap for the next few weeks. Are you available any time Tuesday afternoon or Monday at 11am for a 90-minute call? If not, could you suggest a few times later in the week?

We'll set up our recurring calls during this first meeting.

Questionnaire

To save time and make sure I download any known information from you, please fill out this questionnaire to the extent you can before our kick-off call.

Access

I'll need access to any/all of the following if you have it set up. The most important right now is Google Analytics and the rest may be required later on.

• Google Analytics (please send to [my email])
• Google Search Console (please send to [my email])
• Google Ads (please send to [my email])
• Google Tag Manager (please send to [my email])
• Google My Business (please send to [my email])
• Website CMS Admin (please send to [my email])

That should do it for now, there's more to cover but we'll take it a step at a time.

Thanks again and I look forward to working with you!

Kevin

Have questions about this process or something to do with your work? Let me know in the comments.

Yours,

—k

In the last episode, I answered a member question about how I created a membership program for my consultancy (Everspaces). 

There were two follow-up questions:

2. How are you driving engagement on the Slack channel? For example, do you prompt questions every X days or weeks?

Listen in to the episode to hear the responses!

Yours,

—k

Someone asked me how I started a membership for my coworking consultancy.

I had to give it some thought—it's been an evolution and there are some distinct learnings I have found along the way. I'm far from finished on this journey and have plenty of things to learn still.

Here are my notes I took from the recording for your reference:

• Have a niche focus
• Build a "Success Path"
• Started at $100/mo, but went to $9/month and built up again from there 
• Book recommendation: Trade-Off by Kevin Maney
• Why I do it
  • Credibility for my consulting work
  • Learning from target market
  • Forces me to create content
  • Use content in my consulting 
  • A place for clients to congregate
• Plans to switch up how I package and sell my memberships/IP

Thinking of starting a membership program for your business? I'd love to learn more. Hit reply and let me know!

Yours,

—k

Are you thinking about getting into an industry or niche but aren't sure if there's enough money in it to sustain your business?

This episode is based on a question that came in regarding the home care industry. Some research showed people don't spend much money on marketing relative to their revenue.

Does that mean it's a dead end?

Not so fast, I say. 

Yours,

—k

Do you ever wonder if your prices are too high or low? 

Feel like you're shooting in the dark?

Is $2,000 expensive or cheap?

The question comes down to the value of your work and your ability to articulate it.

In this session, I break down a question from a writer in this group about how I would go about the process of pricing and explaining the value to a client.

You'll also hear an idea for how to increase your price by 150% if you had a few extra skills. 

Give it a listen and let me know what you think in the comments!

Yours,

—k

Testimonials are a powerful way to convey quality to your prospective clients. 

There's nothing like your clients' words when it comes to articulating the value and experience of your services.

And while there are lots of ways to do this, the main job of testimonials are to:

1. Articulate the transformation (before/after)

2. Help overcome objections your prospects may have

The best testimonials are raw and unedited. Use the language your clients gave you. It's fine to tweak or edit it, but don't change words. Keep them as they are, typos and all.

I'll cover more on this at a later date, but for now, I challenge you to find any opportunities you can to gather testimonials from people you work with. 

If nothing else, it will boost your confidence in those down days. 

Win win right? :)

Yours,

—k

Do your clients want quick results? 

Here's the truth... it's a myth.

Marketing is the slow road. Sure, you can get some numbers quickly. But like all things, if you want lasting, sustainable growth, it takes time.

Think of it like your health. You can lose 10 lbs by starving yourself for a few days and taking extreme measures. Fighters do it all the time.

But if you want to be healthy and have and maintain a healthy bodyweight over time, you need to build habits, systems, strategies, and contingencies. 

And the only way that works is by slow change.

So, the next time your clients hold you to quick results, remind them that change takes time. It's slow in the beginning but then compounds like interest.

It requires building one layer on top of the other. Many parts need to work together. 

Manage expectations early and throughout. Put in the ground work to make the rest of your marketing more effective. Then buckle in for the long, boring road of consistency and iteration.

Yours,

—k

This idea won't make sense for all situations. But it will for many.

The general idea is this: take your clients' best customer (or multiple) and analyze a typical day in their life. 

Actually interview them and ask them to walk you through what happens from the moment they wake up to the moment they go to sleep, including how and when their products or services are consumed.

What you're looking for is context around how their products and services fit into their daily lives. It tells you far more than you think at first glance.

It tells you a lot about the motivating factors surrounding the purchase and consumption of your products and services. 

You see things like:

• How does price play into this purchase decision?
• Why do they buy from you vs. any other option?
• What are the logical and emotional reasons they buy?
• What are the pains or frictions associated with the experience?
• What identity factors are at play (i.e. people like me do things like this)

This exercise may sound like it won't produce fruit relative to the effort, but it does. 

You can then create a target market profile around the lives of real people. When you do that, you create each piece of marketing with your best customers in mind. 

Real people, not averages. 

The better you know your customers (or your clients' customers) the better your marketing will be. 

Yours,

—k