Online Coaching

In this episode, we talked about how to build your online reputation. I share the 2 key elements and decisions to take and the smart way to build your audience

We talked about…

>> Where to start

>> SEO

>> Repurposing

>> Automation

Episode Links and Mentions:

The Facebook Group

>> https://www.facebook.com/groups/BlogTrafficAndSEO

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This week’s guest is Matthew Kimberley, Matthew is the Head of Book Yourself Solid Worldwide. He's also the author of Get A F*cking Grip, creator of Delightful Emails and the School for Selling, and host of the Marketing For Coaches podcast. He lives in Malta with two boys, one wife, and one dog and pre-Covid traveled the world speaking on stages from Singapore to San Diego. He mostly likes good Scotch and better conversation.

We talked about…

>> niching

>> getting your first client as a new coach

>> how to prepare for marketing

Episode Links and Mentions:

>> singlemaltmastermind.com

>> https://www.marketingforcoaches.com

>> https://www.bookyourselfsolid.com/

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This week’s guest is Terra Bohlmann. Terra is a business strategist and breakthrough coach who helps fast-track women business owners with priceless Business Maps™. As the creator of "The Business Map Method™, she has crafted over 160 custom business models for clients who have gone on to build six and seven-figure businesses. 

We talked about…

>> how far do you niche down?

>> how to price your coaching offers

>> how many coaching offers should you have?

>> how do you raise your prices?

Episode Links and Mentions:

>> https://www.terrabohlmann.com/workbook - Terra's 5-Year Business Plan Workbook

>> https://www.terrabohlmann.com/

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In this episode, we talked about how to attract clients that are willing and able to pay your prices. I share 4 tips that will help you attract well-matched clients

We talked about…

>> how to identify your best clients

>> your website and funnel

>> mapping calls and your clients' words

>> create content they want and sprinkle with what tey need to know too be ready to work with you

Episode Links and Mentions:

The Profitable Content Coaching Programme (enrolment is open)

>> https://my.stephaniefiteni.com/profitable-content-2021

The Facebook Group

>> https://www.facebook.com/groups/BlogTrafficAndSEO

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In this episode, we talked about how to get your first coaching clients. We delve into the 3 reasons why a lot of coaches find it so hard to get their business off the ground snd what they should do to succeed.

We talked about…

>> Overwhelm

>> Clarity from taking action

>> Being everywhere on social

>> A simple marketing system that revolves around one great piece of content

Episode Links and Mentions:

Free Training: Create Your Client Attraction Content Plan

>> my.stephaniefiteni.com/freetraining

The Group where the free training community gathers

>> https://www.facebook.com/groups/BlogTrafficAndSEO

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This week’s guest is Bob Gentle. Bob has worked in the field of digital marketing for nearly twenty years, for most of that time running his own consultancy. Latterly he built and ran one of Scotland's largest dedicated digital agencies.

Currently, alongside working with a handful of corporate clients, he focuses on helping digital entrepreneurs, microbusiness and small businesses fine-tune their product or business model, then find and build an audience online and compete against larger businesses with deeper pockets.

He does this through his speaking, consulting and workshops as well as group-based or one-on-one programs of hybrid coaching, consulting and training.

Bob lives in the North East of Scotland with his wife, is a keen surfer and snowboarder, former search and rescue officer and army reservist.

We talked about…

>> how to find your place in the vast worldwide web

>> how to model others to get similar success

>> family support and its impact on your success

>> content creation

Episode Links and Mentions:

>> https://amplifyme.agency/traffic-conversion-idea-prompt-list/

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In this episode, we talk about how to get more leads from your coaching website using blogging, social media, funnels and SEO.

We talked about…

>> Blogging to generate traffic

>> How to harvest leads

>> All the things your site needs

>> Call-to-Actions

Episode Links and Mentions:

>> FREE GUIDE: 10 Steps to Generate More Leads from Your Website

>> Blogging Tips on my website

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Prefer to Read?

Welcome. Today. We talk about one of my favourite topics. Getting more leads from your website is one of the things I really love to focus on. It's one of the things that are really important for my clients, and I love to help them with this because it's one of those things that give you results right away. So let's dive right in and start from the first thing you need to have.

A lot of people think that blogging might be a thing of the past, but unless you have a blog on your website, it's going to be really hard for you to actually generate the traffic that you need, the volume that you need so that you get leads directly from your site, no matter what your lead looks like. So whether it's someone jumping on our email list, or somebody booking a discovery call with you, or maybe a free consultancy call, no matter where this lead looks like to you, you need to make sure that you have the tools on your site.

And also the marketing strategy to turn this lead into a contact and your contact into a client. So the first thing I mentioned in a blog and the main reason why you need the blogs because you need to have consistent signals. This is part of SEO search engine optimisation, and you need to have optimised content that is giving Google and other search engines, consistent signals that you have new content on your website. Now, most search engines understand text better than any other format for now.

However, you can have any format and then turn it into text, if writing blogs is not your thing. So you could start for our podcast and have show notes. You can start from a YouTube video and then transcribe it, or maybe use the script and turn that into an article. Or you can start from the blog post.

Now, of course, if you start from a blog post, your blog post is going to be stronger and is going to convert better. Just to give you an idea. Every time I post a blog post on social media, I get at least, my first two to three leads from that particular post and by leads. I mean, in my case, I measure that through discovery calls booked, once you actually start ranking those posts.

So once the post salts ranking on Google, you will see that certain posts on your site are generating leads regularly. There was a time when I actually had an SEO mini-course on my website and my goal at the time was different. My goal at the time was to get people to jump on my email list and about one out of every three people who visited my site used to actually download this training and jump on my email list.

At the time I had an email sequence because of course, you cannot just help people jump on your list. You also have to nurture them into becoming a client. If you're giving just something away for free, like a freebie a mini-course, an e-book or something of the sort. So apart from, of course, having the content to generate the traffic and that little funnel that turns them into a contact that you can get in touch with.

You also need to sort of build sort of, you have to zoom out a little bit and have a bit of a good look at the bigger picture. So the first thing you want to see is what is the most perf persuasive content you create? Are you more persuasive when you write? I mean, I can definitely say that for myself, that my blogs actually convert better than my videos.

My webinars have a pretty good conversion rate too. But I do not consider those my evergreen content because I only run those live at this particular stage. And perhaps that is the reason why they convert well, I would actually consider blogging my core content. So I would start with that. And of course, repurposing is extremely important because the content doesn't just go on your website, it's also feeding your social media.

It feeds your marketing in terms of, , if you're running Google ads, if you're running Facebook ads, it's going to feed all your marketing, , promoting a blog post having then maybe a pop up on that blog post to get people on your email list. So there are a lot of different funnels you can create, but before you go into creating funnels, the first thing you need to do is have a goal.

And one thing I always recommend to my clients, which works really well, especially with SEO. So generating traffic through search engines so that you can grow your list or get discovery calls literally while you're asleep. That's what I love most about it. It's kind of the lazy way of doing it. , you don't have to spend a lot of time in Facebook groups and you don't have to network and all that.

You can just write, write about stuff that you really love, , and, and still generate traffic and get those discovery calls booked. It's really quite something quite wonderful, I think. But the first thing then you need to think about is to really set your goal. It's really hard. I think for most marketers, especially when it's your own business. So when you're a coach or a consultant, or it's a small business, it becomes really hard because we think my goodness, there are so many people out there and we want to catch every single person that we can work with, but this tends to backfire.

So I always try to get my clients to stick to one goal. So I would like your website to have just one goal. If the most important thing for your business right now is to grow your email list, put a really strong freebie on your homepage, put a really strong freebie as the call to action to most of your blog posts.

If right now you're at the beginning of your business. And the most important thing is to have consistent cash flow you want to stay in touch with your clients. You want to learn from your clients so you can grow your business. The goal should be for everyone that comes to your site to actually book a call with you. So your blog, your pages your home, Paige, everything, even your top slider, everything has to be geared towards getting people on that call with you.

And of course, maybe it doesn't have to be so direct. You can have different types. So for instance, if you're good on video, you could have a video and then sort of direct people to booking book a call with you. And, if you're generating traffic through search engine optimisation, or maybe you're writing blogs and then sharing them on social media, you can also have videos.

If you feel you're strong on video and embed these videos on the same blog with the same topic, and then make sure that, you also have the call to action in the actual video so that you push people to do the action that you want them to do on your website. So in reality, it's all about getting everything you've got, especially the things, your strongest stat, and making sure that they're all pushing towards this one most important goal.

I know it's going to be really hard because, sometimes we want to grow our email list, but we also want the discovery call. And we also want people to join our group program because we're doing so much, but it becomes really difficult to kind of focus on your website in this case. And what happens is that when you have too many calls to actions, none of the calls-to-action is going to work, but there are ways of sort of working out different funnels on the same site so that maybe they don't get in each other's way.

So one way would be for instance to make sure that, Oh, you have certain blog posts say in a particular category where the call to action for those, that people who read, who come across that kind of article in Google because they have put in the keyword to find it, that people that find this category are going to be really ready to buy from you.

Then you want to make sure that they jump on a call. The call to action is to jump on a call. You may have maybe another section of your blog where, people who find that kind of content may be are still dipping their toe in, in your topic, and they're not really ready to buy. And you could then maybe have a different call to action to get them to jump on your email list. Alternatively, you could do it the way I do it.

Whenever I can, I will put my call to actions for people to actually book a goal. And the main reason is I really liked doing discovery calls. I love getting to know people. I think that really feeds into my marketing. I don't just do one to one. I also run a group program a couple of times a year.

And what I find is that the more people I talk to, first of all, the more people I work with and the more people I talk to, the more I get to know my audience, the more I get to know what they want and what they're looking for. And it has a really, a really nice effect on the copy of my program. When I launch it, it really has, it feeds into my business and it really helps my marketing.

So for me, that is a very important part to actually get, to get face time with my audience. So that's an important side of things. So for me, that's, that's key then, , if, if it's not such a big priority for you or maybe it is, let's say, let's say you do want people to, to actually talk to and jump on a discovery call or a consultancy call, or maybe you have free laser sessions.

You can also have paid ones, by the way, people do buy, one hour sessions, especially if they're not terribly expensive. , if you're just going for $200 or $300 people will buy it off your site. But what I like to do then maybe if you also want to grow your list, and maybe you can have a very discreet pop-up, when people are kind of leaving the site, you can have these pop-ups that just work they can detect when the person is moving the mouse away from your site to go to the back button or to go to the top of the bar.

And at that stage, they pop up this message and you can put a registration from your freebie there. So you could actually have a form where people can fill in and get your freebie.

You allow them to focus on the call to action, the main call to action that you have chosen across your site, but then maybe you have a different one in the pop-up once they have decided to leave. And I know some of you might think, Oh my goodness, I find pop-ups so annoying. I do too. I really do. But the statistics are clear.

That's a popup actually does work. And of course, if you have great content on our website and you don't tell them that you're going to send them more of that, if they jump on your email list, they're going to be more than happy to join. You want to also make it clear, of course, that you do sell stuff, so you will promote it to them. And this is something that I do in the first few emails where, , once they jump on the email list, I send them the freebie.

And then, after a few emails, they get to know me, get to know what I do. And then I would add an email that asked them to jump on a call. And then, I make it clear, as I mentioned, that I kind of sell programs because I don't want people on my list to say, yeah, this is where I get free content. And they don't sell anything because there are people who still think that way.

It's untenable, in the sense that every company or every individual, almost every individual that creates content is doing it because they are selling something. Of course, it doesn't mean that we don't enjoy doing it. It's another way of helping people who cannot afford to work with me. So I do like to post quite a lot of value in, what I write and that doesn't stop people from working with me.

So, you can really see content as something that helps you reach more people if helping people and helping them move their business forward is something you're passionate about. Okay. So one other very important point that I wanted to mention that is really important for you to get more leads from your website is to make sure that you have your website set up in a way that you can show search engines, the priority and the topics you talk about.

And okay, this might sound like something really vague because it's something that's sort of, it's a little bit deep to explain, but one of the things you would need to do is you would need to ideally work with someone professionally, get your keywords researched in your industry, and then pick those keywords. Those that are the best ones for your particular audience and make sure that your website is structured in a way and uses these keywords and categories and pages in a way that Google has absolutely no doubt.

You and Google are on the same page, Google wants to serve your audience, your content. They want them to find you because they are looking for you.

So you need to make sure that, the whole structure and the way you organise your content is helping. It's helping search engines, not confusing them. So this is something quite a lot of people don't realise that it's not just about optimising the blog post. It's not just about embedding that video and making sure that there is enough text for search engines to understand what it's about, but it's also the way you structure a new organise content.

That is also very important. Social media is also important. One thing that's a lot of search engine optimisation people, SEO, people fail to mention is that social media actually does have an impact on SEO.

, social media is going to give you a reputation or reputation that search engines can detect. They can also detect the engagement on your social media platforms, the frequency, they also detect the kind of companies and the kind of people that share your content.

And also the, of people, the kind of content you're posting and how it links back to your site. So these are all things that can actually help you generate more traffic, which in turn is going to generate more leads. Of course, it's really important to repurpose every piece of content that you put on your website.

You don't want to put it only on social media. You don't want to put it only on your website. You want to make sure that you reach as many places as possible because you're going to get organic marketing and organic leads also from your social media, also from the different platforms.

And this combined with the traffic that you get on your sites is going to convert. You could have fresh leads that come from social media specifically because they were interested in that topic that you posted. And then they go to your site and they join your email list or they both at discovery call.

So the more you spread your content, you can also use ads if you want to if you really want to speed things up, once you have proven organically that the content is actually generating discovery calls and, which of the blog posts they are. And trust me, you will know because when people jump on a discovery call with you because they were reading a blog post, that is the first thing they will tell you about. I was reading this blog post, and you said this, this and this.

And then I thought I have to book a call with this person because I need to find out if they can help me with this problem. That is something I hear practically every day when I have discovery calls. And it's one of those things people will tell you. So you will actually know really easily, which blog posts are giving you the leads and working hard at lead generation.

And then of course, what you can do is once you have even just a small budget, of, I don't know, $20 a week, you can actually just get a blog post and share it as a post on say, Facebook or on Instagram. And then you can put a budget to reach more people with that article. And what you will see is that you will get more discovery calls right away. Of course, you need to have sort of all your ducks in order, as they say, everything in its right place and everything, connected and, and clear and optimised, but it is absolutely possible.

(17:08):

And it's not that hard. I mean, it might science sound like it's a science, but it's one of those things that are as easy to replicate. Okay. So those were most of the tips that I had. There are some technical tips that I could go into, but I don't want to make this an hour-long episode. So what I have done is I have prepared a PDF. I have a freebie for you which is actually called how to get more leads from your website and blog. And in it, I go through the tips of all the tools you need to have on your website and also the optimisation from the technical side. Again, it's, you don't have to be a techie to do these.

They're just little observations, simple things that you can do on your website to make it much easier for Google and other search engines to actually find your content and serve it to the right people so that you can, of course, get more leads from your website and blogs.

So go to the show notes, go to,

This week's guest is Helen Maffini. Helen is a Canadian/British international educational consultant. She is the author of two books and the Fly It Quiet travel and educational packs. She is also a successful online course creator and a seasoned summit organiser and host. She is the woman behind the Global Mindfulness Summit which reaches thousands of people in 23 countries every year

We talked about…

>> how Helen runs her online courses business

>> how she created her successful online summits reaching more than 23 different countries

>> the art of upselling

Episode Links and Mentions:

>> Online Summit Kit - superchargeyoursummitroadmap.com

>> https://helenmaffini.com/

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In this episode, we talk about the tweaks and changes you need to make to successfully pivot from your face-to-face service-based business to selling and servicing clients online.

We talked about…

>> Pricing your services (and packages)

>> Common pitfalls to watch out for

>> Pivoting from offline business to online business

Episode Links and Mentions:

>> Mini-Course about online business tools (with discount)

>> Episode with Phil Jones

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Prefer to Read? Here’s the Transcript:

(00:23): Move your business online

The first thing you need to do, if you want to move your business completely online is definitely have a good look at the business you have offline and what is working really well for you there now? Not all the things you're doing offline are going to work online, and some things are going to need quite a few changes, but it's all in hand. And I'm going to walk you through the process of looking at your business.

So the first thing you need to do is look at your audience, your audience, being your clients, people who are already buying from you, people who are interested, perhaps people who follow you online. These are all people that can help you kickstart your online business, especially if it's closely connected to the business you have offline. Now I know that's a lot of consultants and coaches come across problems when moving their business offline to online.

(01:18): How to price your coaching program or service packages

The first problem I hear a lot about is usually pricing. Local pricing may be lower due to perceptions. So a lot of people feel like they cannot really put their prices up to international levels or, you know, sort of average online levels because the people that are already in their orbits that are already their audience that are already their clients are going to have a problem with this. And this is perfectly understandable.

This is something I went through. I think a lot of people who come from countries where perhaps the standard of living and the wages are not as high as they are in the U S or in the UK, or, you know larger countries. Then we, of course, we have a little bit of a disconnect and we may not be very sure about how to price and how to do this transition.

(02:05):

The way I did it was very simple. I started off by putting up my prices to what I thought was, you know, the bare minimum to be taken seriously. This is something we really need to keep in mind. So you need to have a look at what people are charging online and make sure that you are at least charging average prices. Because when people see that you are charging too little, they're going to find it hard to take you seriously.

And also to believe that you can deliver what you say you're offering, and this is going to make it harder for you to kickstart your business. So the first thing you need to do is make sure that when you speak to somebody online, you make sure that your prices are in line with your competitors. Now this might, you know, maybe jeopardize your current relationships.

(02:56):

And this is a worry I hear a lot about. Now, what you can do is in the transition phase, there's always going to be a pivot a place where you still have your offline clients and you still have people coming to your business offline. You also have people coming to your business online. And in this case, what you do is very simple. Keep your prices off your website, make sure that local people get local prices.

People who are already your client, and then slowly put your prices up to be in line with your international and the prices. It probably took me about two years, maybe a little less, maybe about 18 months to bring my local prices up in line with my international prices. So the first thing you need to do is make sure that when you speak to somebody online, you make sure that your prices are in line with your competitors, but then again, picking your pricing begs for more questions.

(03:56): Pricing vs Ideal Target Audience

So like we said, the first thing is going to be to analyze your audience. You do need to be competitive with your prices and you do need to make sure that you're not cheap, that people think what's the catch here, but you also need to make sure that you are servicing a part of your audience online that is profitable.

So a way to do this could be to look at your offline clients and see which ones are more profitable. And of course, which ones you're giving more value to. Let me give you an example, for instance, if I help, okay. I help people get more leads from their blog. Of course. If I'm dealing with, let's say coaches that are just starting out and maybe just have one hour or two hour packages, and they're just beginning to literally train up. Of course, you know, 10 leads might be worth 2000 euros to them or $2,000.

(04:53):

However, if I I'm working with coaches who are already established and have, you know, they're three, four, five K packages, then you know, there's 10 leads hours, potentially even $50,000. So obviously there's a very big difference to what it's worth to your clients. When you're pivoting. It's important to think like this, because you want to pivot to the most profitable part of your business, because this will allow you to make it more sustainable, more enjoyable.

And of course in the beginning, meaning when you're going to need more leads, because you're still learning how to close that business and how to, you know, land these clients, you still kind of can make ends meet because when you do land a project, it's going to be a high value project. So after we've analyzed your audience to actually understand which ones are giving more value to them, so which ones would be very happy to pay, you know, your new prices.

(05:49):

You also have to look at the potential niches that are within this kind of pool people. So you're going to find that maybe is a pattern here. Maybe the people that are more profitable to you or a particular type of clients, maybe they come from a specific industry, maybe they're of a particular age. You know, maybe if you're a coach and you deal with women in general, you might find that people who are 45 plus, they tend to buy your longterm packages. And, you know, they're, they're willing to pay more because it's worth more to them.

So have a bit of a think. This also counts for people who sell services like design or VA's, you know, think of those clients where they have money, but they don't really have the time. So you need to design a package that is really valuable for them because of course their time is priceless.

(06:41):

So you need to make sure that you're designing a service, you're designing a package that really allows you to, you know, maybe get set up quickly to prove your worth to start allowing them to actually see the benefits really quickly, and then maybe, you know, go also for long-term packages. You know, this is one thing. When I moved online, I was still doing agency work. I still do a little bit of that.

So, you know, for the VIP clients these days, I don't do one, two or three month packages. It's only six or 12 months and actually mostly 12 month packages, because what this does is it puts me in a position to really prove myself. I can give so much value in 12 months and it makes it worth a good five figure package. So, you know, thing this way, and you'll also need fewer clients to actually grow your business and we in a position to shift it and be flexible.

(07:36):

The next thing you need to do after you have picked your niche based on, you know, all these little things you found out about your clients, the next thing is to research online. You want to research online, and this is something that maybe a bit counter intuitive, but what you're going to come across is that you're going to find competitors. And the first thing that's going to bring up is a feeling of dread, Oh my goodness, there are so many people doing with this. And there are already people out there that have, you know, really nicely set up websites and packages. And you know, they're really doing a good job of it already, but don't worry. The fact that he find people and competitors in the niche means that there is actually money in it and it's really worth pursuing. So don't let it put you off.

(08:23):

So it's one thing. If you have a hundred competitors now picking an industry with a hundred competitors that are really strong in your niche is not going to be a good idea, but I've never seen this happen. So if there are one or two strong competitors in a niche, that's perfectly fine. That's healthy competition. There are other people trying the niche and it's perfectly fine. Another another interesting idea which I believe came from the ask method, that's right from Ryan Laveck he says, go to YouTube and Google your niche and make sure that you find a lot of content and a lot of results about it. Because if a lot of people are creating content for it, then the risk at the month for it. So, you know, that's another way of checking. Once you really know what the next best step is, or maybe you have a list of what the next best steps might be.

(09:17):

Maybe you want to try different packages. That's perfectly fine. You know, experimenting and testing is going to be a very important part of online business. So once you have all these options in front of you and you know, more or less how you want to niche, you need to have a good look at your site and you need to realign your website or create another one. And so what I mean is you need to kind of focus it in. So if you've picked a niche, let's say you are a designer, and now you are specifically going to focus only on doing logo identities for online entrepreneurs or female entrepreneurs. So now you have to go to your website and you have to remove anything that is not connected with that one thing. Now, of course, you might come across the problem that you still have flying clients, and we're doing a lot of other stuff for them.

(10:10): Pivoting your business

In that case, you may want to just create another website and slowly transition from taking traffic to one, to focusing on the other. Now, of course, if you want to build an online business, what I suggest is that you leave the old one static and start putting effort and creating content for the new one. The next thing is to think of your promotions. So what you want to do is you want to start promoting only your online services in order to start pivoting, you have to kind of abandon the old business and start working on the new. And when it comes to market, especially online, you can really confuse your audience. So you got to make sure that you have one message and this one message is going to promote your new online service. The great thing is that it's actually quite difficult to kill an offline business is working so people will keep referring.

(11:02):

You, you will keep getting offline business, and maybe there are other ways like networking events and you know, other things you can attend as your old business to keep business coming in while you transition it in the online. But also you want to make sure that there is only one message on your social media platforms that you take them to your new website. So your new online services, everything is going to be directed to them. And that you also have one call to action, which is probably going to be to book calls with you. 

If you sell a service, it's always better in the beginning to get people, to book a call with you because you want to listen, listen to them. You want to hear what their objections might be to buy your service. You want to kind of understand how they're evaluating your service and going from offline to online means going from people whose around you really know because you know, you, you live in that are meant to actually get people, but from all over the world.

(12:02): Tools you need to sell services and coaching online

So getting people from lots of different, you know, cultures and time zones, so you really need to start understanding what the commonalities are and what are the things that they expect from you, how they are perceiving the website, how they're perceiving your offering. And these are all things that are going to help you really improve step by step. 

The next thing you're going to need is then to have everything in hand for these calls, you need to have your priceless. You need to have a way of getting paid, which is going to be your payment links, whether you use PayPal or Stripe, or maybe something a little bit fancier, don't have to be super clear about the on-boarding process. Just sort of know the main steps, because then of course, once you get your first online clients, you can explain to them what's going to happen.

(12:51):

And then you go and sort of go into the nitty-gritty details. Once it actually happens. You'll also need to sort of work out the logistics of what happens when they don't buy. What follow-up emails do you send? How do you follow up? Do you connect with them on WhatsApp? Do you just send an email to connect with them on Facebook, perhaps? 

You know, so have a listen, think about these things and make sure you're all set up to deal with them. And then of course, if you want to build your online business, it's important that you start focusing on social media, but also on search engine traffic. These two types of traffic are very important. So the first thing you need to do is once you have your website, you start creating valuable content, whether it's video first and then blog or blog first.

(13:37): Online lead generation

And then, you know, you want to just do a video later on. It's perfectly fine. As long as you have the written word so far, it's the best thing to get organic traffic from search engines. And what's going to happen is you're going to start getting leads from search engines, by keeping a low blog, going, putting content there consistently. And this is how people start actually finding you online. This is how you start getting your first leads. You also start getting your first leads by then sharing these blog posts on social media, maybe breaking them down into, you know, breaking one blog post into different social media posts and getting attention and getting people to DMU. You know, so they're going to be the first waves so long run. What you will see is that search engine traffic will increase social media traffic will increase.

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This week's guest, Phil M Jones has written 8 best-selling books, produced two original programmes for Audible and delivered over 2,500 presentations in 57 countries across five continents.

Phil entered the world of business at the tender age of 14. With nothing more than a bucket and sponge, he went from singlehandedly washing cars at weekends to hiring a fleet of friends working on his behalf, resulting in him earning more than his teachers by the time he was 15.

Since then, Phil has made it his life’s work to completely demystify the sales process and bring both simplicity and integrity to a world that is often full of big egos and even bigger lies.

Phil’s unique philosophy of using specific word choices to teach people “Exactly What To Say” in order to influence, persuade and drive outcomes, has made Phil one of the most practical and in-demand business experts in the world.

We talked about…

>> How to sell coaching online

>> Closing sales and confidence

>> Questions to ask on a discovery call

>> Selling High-ticket

>> Great pieces of content that grow your personal brand

Episode Links and Mentions:

Phil's website: https://www.philmjones.com/

Instagram & Twitter Handle: @philmjonesuk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philmjones/

Phil's Books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Phil-M-Jones/e/B0097DKWP4?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1613472429&sr=8-1

Exactly what to say on Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/Exactly-What-to-Say-Audiobook/B077Z8S58Y

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Prefer to Read? Here’s the Transcript:

Phil M Jones (0:00):

A pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me on the show.

Stephanie Fiteni (01:07):

Well, I am very intrigued and I was, I was reading information about you and your website. I've heard you talk about this before, and I just really wanted to know how you started at 14.

Phil M Jones (01:22):

How did I start at 14 years of age in business - I guess it probably started a little bit before that is it. My parents did a wonderful job getting me into a great school and the school that I got into meant the lots of the kids had different things than what I had in terms of trainers, sneakers, the bag that they would carry, you know, the sports equipment that they have on the sports field, et cetera. And I'd always go to my parents and be like, Hey, can I have, can I have, can I have one? I got the recurring answer of no. So I started to get this idea of, of how do I go about being able to make money for myself and have this sort of entrepreneurial gene that when everything from me selling the homemade sandwiches that my mum had made for me in my pack lunch through to then me starting a little car cleaning business at the age of 14, and that had me just knocking on the doors of my neighbours, asking them if they'd like their cars washed. And by the age of 15, that little carpooling business was making me more money than most of my school teachers, as what I'd done is I'd built out quite a comprehensive round of customers have kids in the year below that were helping to service those customers. And we had a legitimate business that I didn't even realize was as such until much later in life, but that's where it all started.

Stephanie Fiteni (02:37):

That's so amazing because you know, so many of us just, you know, we kind of take a while to realize the power of actually asking for the sale and, you know, making things happen. So it's just so amazing.

Phil M Jones (02:52):

Being helpful as well as a mistake that many people make is that they think that they ask is one-sided. So if you think back, even to that early business of mine is, is the reason that we had success in that car cleaning business is that there were literally hundreds of local people had a car sat on their driveway. They needed cleaning, but they couldn't be bothered to clean themselves or to take it somewhere that required cleaning. So somebody interrupted their day for long enough and said, Hey, let me take care of that for you for a reasonable fee. Then there was a truckload of people that wanted to say yes, and the same is true with every other profession. People aren't sitting at home thinking what's wishing was missing from my life today is X, but there are people sat at home today with the problem that your business solves, that if you just show up and say, Hey, I'm prepared to help support a difference in progressive you getting better in that given area, then you'll find enough people say yes if you've, the right thing,

Stephanie Fiteni (03:46):

Indeed, absolutely. That this is something I, I talk about with my clients a lot, because you know, obviously content is very closely tied to SEO. So we're always talking about, you know, what problems are people typing into Google, right? And of course, a lot of the people that I work with tend to be people who think that Google is going to do the selling for them. So then we always come to the problem that, of course, if come to the site, you've done everything right. You've done your blog post, right? They've clicked on the call to action button. I never booked a call with you and now you have to close the sale. So, I mean, sometimes that comes a bit of a wake-up call in the sense that, you know, you're, you still have to help your clients decide whether you're the best option.

Phil M Jones (04:35):

There's a lot of fear around that, that language of closing the sale like that, that, that amps the pressure on the person that's needing to make the phone call or make the outreach towards the other person is like, Oh, dang, like this is all on me right now is my job to be able to close this sale. And if I mess it up, I waste the opportunity, et cetera. And that in my head is just a wrong mindset to have towards that kind of lead generation. Instead, we should stop trying to close the conversation and by alternative close, the sale, instead of step continue the conversation. That's what we're looking to do is to continue the conversation with some exploration around, is there a fit? That's what we're looking for. Is there a fit here? And I think if you give yourself permission to explore the possibilities and find out if there's a fit, then what naturally happens is you agree with the terms if there is a fit and also if there isn't a fit, you can move away with no loss of momentum. You can continue on with your day without thinking, darn I lost that sale. There wasn't a sale to be made. You're the wrong fit. And that's okay to be able to then move on.

Stephanie Fiteni (05:41):

That's right. I think it's, it's more the emotional charge that we give it's then, you know, probably the fact that we don't actually close it,

Phil M Jones (05:51):

It's both, it's both. It is having trained over 2 million sales professionals around the world is we think the whole, the common thought process between most people looking to be able to sell is they think it's about them. And it's never about you and your ability to be able to sell it's your ability to be able to understand the other person's circumstances. And if you take your content marketing strategies and you say, well, actually, I'm looking to get inside the head of people. When I'm looking to be able to understand what problems they might need solving, and I'm going to produce content towards that. Well, all your sales conversations are that follow on behind that are a natural progression in conversation to explore more detail about their current circumstances, because they've shown an indication that they have an interest. If you can then understand their circumstances, right. And care about their problem, more than what they'll do is trust you with a solution. But you have to take the time to be able to help explore their reality before they're going to grant you that permission. Because otherwise, you sound like you care about your solution, where instead you should care about their problem.

Stephanie Fiteni (06:56):

Absolutely. I couldn't have it better. So, so what you're suggesting is that there is no mindset change here.

Phil M Jones (07::06):

There's a big mindset change where you're just going to move to help that's, it is fueled with curiosity, explore a conversation further and find out if there is a fit for you to be able to help them move from where they are right now, to where they want to be. And it is that simple, but you have to interrupt their day. See more often than not particularly with online leads because they were flirting. It's the equivalent of them making eyes at somebody across the room. They weren't necessarily saying let's go on a date. But they were saying, if you asked me on a date, I'd probably say yes. So you still have to make that, that next step. They made as a, you, you got to walk towards them and say, can I buy you a drink in some way? Which means that you've got to pick up the phone and you've got to reach out with an email. You got to respond on a messenger. But what you want to respond with is a question and a single question, because questions create conversations, conversations, lead to relationships, relationships, create opportunities and any opportunities to become sales. So every response should be a question. Not here's the barrage of ways in which I can help you, which is the mistake that the majority of people make inquiry comes in, download of information, follows in the other direction, they overwhelmed or confused the other person into inaction. And people think that no is the enemy of the essence sales. It's not, maybe it's the enemy. Indecision is the enemy. People stuck in maybe is what's preventing the progress from the majority of people, not 'no'. We can learn from those. We can move on from those we can adjust from, but, but indecision is the real end.

Stephanie Fiteni (08:44):

So how can we help them make decisions more?

Phil M Jones (08:56):

I think to stop presenting packages for starters and start exploring other people's situations. And, you know, yes, you might need packages on a web page to help somebody understand where they're at. With most coaches and consultants is what people want is they want a custom solution from them, not a cookie-cutter package. Now you might need a series of coo-ie cutter packages for you to be able to align the right package for the right person at the right time. But the person on the other end thinks that their situation is truly unique. Therefore it needs a truly unique set of circumstances on the other side. So give me some real context. Let's play something out at a granular level. If somebody creates a lead, how for what purpose and what do they want to provide, let's, let's set up a set of circumstances and we'll talk through a conversation that would work.

Phil M Jones (09:45):

Okay. So somebody has received a booking from the website and then to they need to jump on a booking for a discovery call, which is, which of course a lot of people will do it different ways discovery call and you know, they want to basically see if they're a good fit. Now, most people do not collect enough information between you know, from the, from the form of the discovery calls. So I think sometimes the main problem is that you go into the call with maybe too little information. So how, how do you go into the cooler with too little information and provide it? And you understand that the purpose of the call is to collect the information, right? So there's not necessarily a right and a wrong way of doing it. There was just an order of events that you need to work through before you get to be able to make recommendations. And that the simple way to think about this is that prescription before diagnosis is malpractice. So the medical term, but it relates usually towards the world of salesmanship as well, is that you shouldn't ever suggest to somebody that this is what they need. Unless you can say these words in the word, you should look to say first to the words. So they booked this and they've scheduled it at a time, right? So it was happening at 10:30 AM on Tuesday. Should we just use this? So there you are on zoom on the call, wherever it might be at 10:30 AM on Tuesday, the first thing I'm going to lean into is I'm going to go back in time.

Phil M Jones (11:36):

So I'm going to go back in time and say something along the lines of is what is it about me and my work that makes you think that there might be an opportunity for us to be able to work together? Because I want them to tell me how they found out about me, but I don't want to say, how did you find out about me? And they say Google search, Facebook ads, et cetera, boom, the conversation is over, what is it about me and my work that makes you think that might be a good fit? They say, well, you work with three of my friends and they were delighted by the results. That's a different conversation than somebody saying, well, I saw a Facebook ad that interrupted my day and I completed the form. And now here we are right. Completely different setup. So what is it about me and my work that makes you think I'm a good fit?

Phil M Jones (12:12):

Cool. Then the second preface is so helped me understand where you're at. So help me understand your current situation. Then the next frame would be something along the lines of, so how long has this been going on for right. People think that there's a problem. And then they jump straight to the solution. I want a problem at scale. So tell me about where you're currently at. They tell me where they're currently at and how long has this been going on. So how long has this been going on, and then I need to know what are the consequences of that? Nope. You know, what, what is the actual real outcome of this current set of circumstances? What's this costing you is what I'm really looking to get. Okay. So I then might even ask on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being it's like essential and one being 'meh'. How important is it that you make progress towards fixing this? Right? They might say, well, it's like a 9.6. I say, great. Well, I only work with people who aren't going above.

Stephanie Fiteni (13:14):

Okay. Excellent. That, that was going to be

Phil M Jones (13:18):

Qualified themselves in.

Stephanie Fiteni (13:20):

Okay. So the level of urgency you're gauging the level of urgency as well.

Phil M Jones (13:25):

No urgency importance, importance. Okay.

Stephanie Fiteni (13:30):

Very interesting. You know, is, is there, do you feel that the conversation needs to be different? This is something I get a lot of questions about sometimes. Is, does the company for the sensation need to be different if you have a high ticket coaching package or you have a regular coaching package?

Phil M Jones (13:48):

Okay. Where's the, where's the line between regular and high ticket. I'd love it. If somebody could explain that to me.

Stephanie Fiteni (13:54):

Well, it usually actually depends on the person because for someone, you know, 2 grand is high-ticket and for somebody else, you know, 200 grand is high-ticket. You know, it's all about perception

Phil M Jones (14:05):

Using the language high ticket. I think it's an internet marketing internal term that has no relevance or bearing on any given customer at any period of time because I've seen people struggle to spend $20. And I've seen people write checks out effortlessly for 20,000. So like high-ticket is your perception, not theirs. Yeah. What we should be looking to be able to do is to explore the conversation, to say, is it worth it for them? See, people think that they have to add value to their package to make it worth a high ticket price. They don't. What makes something high ticket is your ability to solve a high ticket problem. That's what it comes down to.

Stephanie Fiteni (14:49):

That's right.

Phil M Jones (14:53):

Tens of thousands of dollars for 60 minutes of my time in a consultation or et cetera. If I'm going to help a company make millions like that's a no brainer, but I could take, like people would say to me like my speech is worth X, right. And do a lot of work in professional speaking. No, your speech is worth nothing. Your speech to a given audience to achieve a particular outcome is what's worth the money. So my ability to entertain 1500 people for 90 minutes from the stage at a conference that allows them to be able to have increased productivity and efficiency in the sales process to the tune of around a thousand conversations a year that's worth big money, same speech to 1500 people, in Kansas, when they're there for a Sunday, barbecue, it's not worth it.

Stephanie Fiteni (15:42):

That's right. Different context.

Phil M Jones (15:45):

Yeah. Correct. So, so the process doesn't change. The exploration of the questions may well change. You know, if what you're looking to be able to do is to help somebody to make a decision over purchasing a $300 course, then you might go to get to the conclusion that it's worth it. Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah. If you're looking to get somebody to invest in a 12-month long-term one-on-one coaching relationship to this tens of thousands of dollars, the exploration might be more detailed. Why? Because on both sides of the thing, you want to have certainty that it's worth it, both sides and your ability to coach or consult does not provide you certainty your ability to coach or consult that individual is what provides you certainty, which means you have to understand their current circumstances, their ability to bring their side of the work, your relationship in terms of ability to collaborate over that period of time. And without certainty on that, you are selling a package and your package won't get results. Your relationship with the individual will drive the results. And if you focus your efforts on results for your client, you help a client fix a hundred thousand dollars problem. You can charge 10 grand for that. And that's how I often help people work out their pricing. Your pricing should be circa 10% of the value of the problem that you sell.

Stephanie Fiteni (17:08):

Interesting. Why just 10%?

Phil M Jones (17:11):

Well, because there has to be enough skin in the game, right. In terms of the fact, it might not work at a hundred per cent. Yeah. Of course. Like 50% in it. Okay, great. Not only that, is there other factors that then talk towards this problem? So you're probably not the only solution that somebody is working on. So be able to help make progress in that given area. I could be working on other things too. The, that they need to invest in to be able to help them get the outcome. You're only one of the solutions. You're not the solution quite often. That's important to be able to consider. The other part of, of what, like they have to be the hero of the journey. If you're the hero you missed the point. So if you take 55% of the value of the problem that you solve, where you come out, the hero of the journey, it benefited you more than it benefited them. Well, it's unsustainable is what it is. And you know, I've, I've had 20 years in the, in the personal brand business and I've seen a lot of people come quickly, make...