As a business owner, you know the feeling of being pulled in 100 directions at once. Sometimes, it’s helpful to simplify and pick just a few areas to focus on that will have the most powerful impact on your business. At the CEO Table (our signature coaching group) we call those things “needle movers” because they move the needle in your business.
In the following paragraphs, I’ll give my most impactful five strategies that you can implement immediately.. At the end, I’ll share my secret to making them all work together!
Strategy #1: Be Crystal Clear on Your Ideal Client
The first strategy, and you’ve probably heard this before, is that you must be crystal clear on your ideal client. This shows up in a lot of business training, and maybe you’ve done this exercise before, but I’m always inviting clients to do it again because your ideal client evolves over time. Just like you change over time, your business evolves and grows over time, and so does your ideal client.
One of the easiest ways to think about this is to think about your favorite client.. Who is your favorite client? Who do you love working with and why? Is it because they’re easy to work with? Is it because they see you as the expert? Is it because they’re very coachable? Even if you’re not in the world of coaching, are they very coachable in terms of how they receive your ideas and your expertise? Do they pay you on time? Do they refer other clients to you? As you dig in, you’ll see that you already have an ideal client profile when you pull from your favorite client. It’s one of my favorite exercises because it gives you crystal clarity on who that client is RIGHT NOW.
The next question that usually arises is, is it possible to only work with ideal clients? What if all of your clients were like your favorite client? What happens for most people when I say that is they say, “Well, that’s not possible. There’s not enough of my favorite clients out in the world.” And what I want you to know is that’s a lie. That’s not true. There are 8 billion people on the planet. There are enough favorite clients for you out there. The most important thing to do next is to make a decision. Make a decision that you are only going to work with ideal clients. And when you do that, it does mean you start to say no to more clients who aren’t a good fit. There’s something powerful about saying no that creates space for those ideal clients to show up.
One of our clients built packages that allowed her to be underpriced. This kept her company very small, and she was still working with clients who weren’t ideal. She was super smart, super talented, and very accomplished in the service that she delivered, so we knew she could be charging a lot more. It took some time to unravel this, and we said, “Look, just begin by creating new packages for your ideal clients.” And over time, these other clients will fall to the wayside.
Fear popped up, which it often does as this point when you are upleveling your prices. She asked, “What if they don’t? What if I lose them and I don’t have anyone?” This is the place where you must stay strong in your decision and step into this new level of pricing in spite of your fear, knowing what is on the other side of that.
Once she raised her prices and sold her package at the new price, she was blown away when someone paid her at the new price point (what her services were actually worth). Eventually, it became really easy to renegotiate with her current clients. Some of those current clients moved on, and some stayed and paid the new pricing, which they should have been paying all along. Which deep down they already knew.
That’s how powerful this first strategy is. When you’re clear on your ideal client, you know exactly who they are, and you start to say no to clients who aren’t a good fit. You increase your prices, and over time, you start to love your company again.
Strategy #2: Create a Next-Level Monthly Revenue Goal
The second strategy I want to share is creating your next-level monthly revenue goal with a model month template. What is that? We call it a model month template, but it’s a very simple Excel spreadsheet that shows exactly how much revenue you will bring in per month and what you have to sell to get there. For most of our clients, that’s a minimum of a 2X increase. For example, if you’ve been at $10,000 a month, you want to be at $20,000 monthly. The model month template breaks down how many packages, products, and other things you need to sell to get to $20,000 monthly and the most aligned way to get there.
The moment you create a model month template, you start to realize that things need to change in your business. You may need to change your packages, you may need to change your pricing or you may need to change both.. It illuminates and shines a light on what’s been keeping you stuck at your current income ceiling. When you create a new model month template, you clearly see what you need to do to change to get to the next level.
Strategy #3:UpLevel Your Pricing & Packages
The third strategy I want to share with you is to fine tune your pricing and your packages. Now, this can be tricky, and when I work with new clients, and they need to up-level their pricing, and I tell them that, I sense resistance pretty quickly. There’s this belief or this feeling that if I raise my prices, no one’s going to buy. Most of our clients need to double or triple their prices just to be in alignment with what they’re delivering, the quality, and the return on investment that they’re creating for their clients or customers. So if you feel stuck on pricing, I feel your pain because I’ve been there and so have our clients.
Now here’s a little tip within the strategy. The easiest way to come up with new pricing is to look at your package, and maybe you’re charging $1000 for it right now, but there’s a part of you that knows that you should be charging a lot more. Ask yourself, “What’s the least and the most I would charge for this?” The least is maybe $1000, which could be what you’re charging right now. There’s a part of you that thinks, “I know there are people who are doing this, and they’re charging $5,000 or $10,000“. The most YOU believe you can charge, for example, is $5,000. That higher price point is the price point that you know you would feel like a rockstar delivering. You’d show up ready, you’d be excited about delivering, and you’d be like, “Yeah, let’s go!” That’s the high-price point.
Most people can’t make the leap immediately. Some can, but not everybody. What you want to do then is find a number in between. Here’s the lowest I would charge, and here’s the most. What’s the number in between that still feels in alignment with you, but it’s believable at some level? It could be $3,500 right now. You can say, “I really could see myself charging that.” Go with that price, but keep that $5,000 in the back of your head, knowing that that’s where you’re headed next with your pricing. Your mission is to continue working toward that next level.
Strategy #4: Have Three Ways You Are Marketing Consistently Each Month
The fourth Strategy I want to share with you is to make sure that you have three ways you are marketing consistently every month. This strategy was brought to us by one of our Master Coaches, Rebekah Hall. Rebekah is constantly working with our clients to ensure they have three ways they are marketing consistently AND tracking their activity. The keyword is consistently. One of the mistakes I see business owners make is trying a marketing concept out for a little while, but if it’s not showing results, they don’t take the time to fine-tune it. They’re not tracking the data, so they’re not really sure why it’s not working. If you don’t know why it’s not working, you don’t know how to fix it. So whatever marketing methods you’re using, make sure you’re tracking, so you can see which ones are successful and which ones aren’t.
Again, this concept works when you have three ways that you’re marketing consistently. That could be networking. You go to the same groups every month, and business comes in. Another thing you could do is speaking; you stand on stages, give free presentations, or get paid to speak, and you do that consistently. You could also host webinars, and again, you do it consistently. The key here is to find the three ways to market consistently, track your results, fine-tune and repeat.. And, don’t stop.
Strategy #5: Have Sales Conversations that Convert
The fifth strategy for small business owners that is absolutely critical to your success is to have sales conversations that convert. If they’re not, I want you to dissect that conversation a little bit.
Years ago, I wrote a book called “Selling with Intention.” which is about serving your client or prospective client at the highest level so that they can make a decision regarding whether or not your product or service can solve their problem or meet their need. Sales is really that simple.
The easiest way to have sales conversations that convert into sales is to ask open-ended questions about their challenges and their goals. What are their struggles? What are their ongoing challenges?
Then you also want to understand where they want to go so you can find the gap in between so that your product or service becomes the bridge in between. The idea is to walk someone over the bridge by asking these open-ended questions, and that helps them figure out if you truly can solve their problem or meet their need. If you can, it makes it an easy yes for them or a clear no. If it’s a clear no, that’s okay, because you have served them at the highest level by helping them make a decision.
Now you have these five strategies for successful business owners. Be crystal clear with your ideal client, create your next-level monthly revenue goal with a model month template, clarify your pricing and your packages, make sure that you have three ways you are marketing each month consistently, and have sales conversations that convert into actual sales. Once you’re following these five strategies, it’s important to shift away from the limiting beliefs that might pop up.. A lot of times, we read things or get insights, and we have these thought distortions such as, “Oh my gosh, this isn’t working for me, but that works for other people.” or “I can’t have sales conversations, they never amount to anything.” So I want to invite you to really challenge those limiting beliefs, those negative stories that you’ve made up that tell you that this won’t work for you or that you can’t have a successful business. Because the truth is, you can.
If you haven’t yet, definitely download our FREE Quantum Expansion Masterclass. I promise that it will change the way you think of your clients, your pricing and your business!
