The More Clients Blog

Launching a High-End Service

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

What if I told you that *THE KEY* to growing your business and multiplying your income was creating, developing, launching, and selling high-end services and programs?

Well, it is.

In my Mastery Marketing Program this is all we focus on. In the past few months, my group members have successfully developed and sold many high-end services by following the plan below.

Two of our members got clients worth over $1 Million each. Many others are gearing up to market and sell high-end programs in the next few months. Others are having the best months ever in their businesses.

But it doesn't happen by itself. It takes a plan and very consistent follow-through. Let me share the basics of this plan.

High-End Service/Program Launch Plan

1. Create and Develop a New High-End Service or Program

This may be the hardest part. This is the equivalent of product development. You need to know your ideal clients, their needs, the results you can deliver and the structure of your service or program. It can't be another "me too" program.

Ideally you want to develop what I call an "HEOB" - High End, Outcome-Based Program. These programs offer much more value and tend to require a larger commitment from the client. They are also more expensive, but they pay for themselves many times over. Could you offer such a service or program?

2. Write a "Marketing Letter" for Your Service.

You can't just let people know, "Here's my new service, are you interested?" You need to build a solid case for it by writing an in-depth letter for it. This includes the purpose and benefits of this service, with a detailed outline of the deliverables and structure.

Usually this letter will be online on a web page. Don't think people will read a long letter? They will, if it communicates true value, not hype. You need to tell a complete story to convey the value.

3. Pre-launch Your Service/Program

Utilize email announcements, social media, teleclasses, intro workshops, and talks. You want to generate interest in what you're offering before you actually launch the service or program.

For instance, let those on your current list and your existing clients know about this new service. Direct them to a web page where they can sign up to join a list to learn more. Give them value just for checking out this service, such as a complimentary teleclass or intro workshop.

4. Launch the Service/Program on a Pre-announced Day

Let people know that there is limited space in your service or program (because there is). And if you offer a high-end program, have people apply for it, not sign up for it.

If you have dozens, or perhaps hundreds of people anticipating the launch of your program, you'll create both excitement and urgency. Many more people will want to learn about the details of this program they've been hearing so much about.

5. Conduct Strategy Sessions

If your program is $2,500 or more, have prospective participants apply and offer them a "Strategy Session" to explore whether or not the program is for them. In this session you'll discuss their goals, challenges, and opportunities, and explain exactly how your service/program works to produce results.

This is the exact opposite of high-pressure selling (which you hate to do anyway). Instead, you put a high value on your services and have low-key conversations with those who have self-selected.

Of course all of these steps need to be customized for your particular audience. But the basic approach can be used to offer high-end services to everyone from solo-preneurs to multi-milllion dollar enterprises.

I don't want to pretend that putting these five steps into action is easy; it's not. But if you really want to take your business to a whole new level, you can't keep marketing your services as you have in the past.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: Marketing and selling high-end services or programs takes more than jacking up your prices, it's positioning your services to not only appear more valuable, but actually delivering more value. In hard economic times, one strategy is to lower value and prices. But this is not a long-term sustainable practice for your business.

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What's your plan to launch high-end services this coming year? Please share on the More Clients Blog. Just click on the Comments link below.

Pricing in Tough Economic Times

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

Today I met with one of my Marketing Mastery Program participants, Dave D., for his monthly coaching session. Dave is having a banner year with the fourth quarter numbers looking very, very good.

Dave shared how he had just implemented an idea he had learned in the program.

Dave just pitched a $25,000 project to a client, but he got a little pushback. With the recession, and budgets being tight, they wanted to know if they could get a better deal.

These days, many of us would find a way to knock off a few thousand, go the extra mile and hope this would translate into more work down the line.

But this would be a mistake.

This is something I learned from Alan Weiss years ago. If you are asked to reduce your price, you need to make a corresponding reduction in the value you provide.

And that's exactly what Dave did.

He went down the list of the twenty or so things included in the proposal and suggested they cut back on a few of them. These were things they could for themselves quite easily.

So this cut back Dave's workload with his client and he was able to cut $5,000 off the project. The client readily agreed and signed a $20,000 contract without delay.

Another variation of this, which fits well during tough economic times, is to offer three options for every proposal you submit: Deluxe, Standard and Basic.

Again, Alan Weiss emphasizes that it's better to have a choice of yeses instead of a choice between yes and no. This way your clients are still able to take advantage of your services while maintaining some control over their budgets.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: In recessionary times it's more important than ever to offer you clients some choice. But if they can't afford the full fee for your services, you must cut back the scope of the projects. If you don't do this, it's an automatic invitation to keep pushing the price down while your workload remains the same.

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How are you pricing your services these days? Please share on the More Clients Blog by clicking on the Comments link below:

Action Plan Marketing Survey (And Club Membership Drive)

I got lots of very useful information from the survey I posted last week. I'll be reporting on this in more depth later, but let me give you a few highlights.

Most Important Area of Marketing - The area that got higher scores than any other were challenges with marketing messages and branding, Each got about 44% of you saying these were important to you.

Biggest Marketing Challenges - The areas that got the highest scores were things like time management, procrastination, lack of focus and perfectionism. Dislike of marketing had a very low score, proving that just getting it done was the bigger issue.

Programs and Services - The kind of programs people said they wanted most were hands-on, how-to type information programs such as teleclasses with transcripts, e-books and other tutorials, including actual marketing samples.

The Marketing Club Addresses all of these.

I'm going to do a second round of this survey soon to zero in more on some of these areas. However, the survey was a validation of what I'm currently offering in the Action Plan Marketing Club.

1. The Club has a big focus on marketing messages and branding, with several expert interviews and other material to help with this important area that is at the heart of marketing.

2. We also put a lot of focus on getting things done, including coaching calls and mastermind groups to support members in moving forward on their marketing activities and projects.

3. The primary materials in the Club are audio and written tutorials on specific marketing strategies with lots of hands-on and how-to information and examples.

So I know I'm going in the right direction with the Club and will continue to support and enhance these areas.

Marketing Club Membership Drive - If you haven't yet checked out the Club, you can do so for one month for just $1.00. Then the fee is only $29 per month, for which you get over $250 worth of tutorials, coaching calls, expert interviews, mastermind groups and more, each and every month. Go to the link below and note the "Membership Drive" link at the top of the page.

http://www.ftmprogram.com/amember/signup.php

The Arrogance Trap

By Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing

I have to admit it. I'm arrogant.

I think I know everything, how to do anything and of course, what my clients and customers want.

I also have to admit I've been kind of lucky.

I've developed a lot of services, programs and products that have been very well received. Because I fit my "ideal client profile," I just think about what I would personally like and I create that.

But even that has its limits.

After all, there are infinite possibilities. When I was creating my Client Survey this weekend, I was amazed to see that I came up with a list of 28 different areas of marketing Independent Professionals could use.

In addition, I came up with 17 different kinds of programs, services and products. Right now I'm only offering three.

Last I checked I wasn't psychic, and although I think I know my subscribers, customers and clients pretty well, the truth is that I have no real idea what people are most interested in.

So I'm asking you to take a minute and fill out this survey and let me know. APM Survey

Ever overhear a conversation that went something like this:

"I can't believe they (added/removed) those features of that (service/product). Why didn't they just ask me? I've been using that (service/product) for years and I really know exactly what would make it better! Don't they care??!!"

But in our businesses, do we ask? Do we care? Or are you arrogant like me, putting together your service packages and programs, just trusting your "gut instincts" that they'll be right?

I actually did a survey last month for my Marketing Club.

I asked what people were using in the Club and what they'd like to see more of. I had no idea. People wanted more step-by-step how-tos. People wanted more support. A blinding flash of the obvious.

So I created detailed step-by-step checklists and added mastermind groups. We now have over 100 people in the Club who've joined a mastermind group. And it took very little effort on my part to set them up.

I still have a long list to work on...

It's funny how we know about something, have heard about it for years, and yet for some reason (must be that arrogance again), we don't check it out and give it a try.

The great little tool I knew about but never used was Survey Monkey. It's easy to use, free or very cheap, works flawlessly and makes it effortless to set up a survey. I did it from bed on my laptop on Saturday morning!

The theme of my eZines for awhile is "Marketing Strategies" and getting feedback is most definitely a marketing strategy. It's one I've personally avoided for years, but now I'm a convert.

And like all true believers, I want to convert you as well!

Ask yourself what useful data you could get from your subscribers, customers and clients if you did a survey. After all, if you can provide more of what they're looking for, isn't your business going to be better off?

Of course!

What could be more important in a down economy? Find out what people want and turn yourself inside out to provide it as quickly as possible. Developing most services takes some time but not a lot of money, so it's a low risk project.

Next year I think my main programs are still going to be the Marketing Club and the Marketing Mastery Program but when I get the results of the survey, I know I'll be creating a few more things to help you attract more clients.

Don't forget that survey: APM Survey

I'll share the results with you next week.

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The More Clients Bottom Line: Find out what your subscribers, customers, and clients want by doing a survey. With a handy tool like SurveyMonkey.com you can develop a survey in a very short time and get some brilliant ideas that will help take your business to the next level. Do it!

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What kind of changes have you made in your business as a result of doing a survey? Please share on the More Clients Blog. Just click on the Comments link below.