So far we’ve talked about how to get visitors to your website and how to nurture relationships with them online so that they build trust and confidence in your capabilities.
But how do we get them to actually buy? To become paying clients?
Well, to a certain degree, our nurturing activities will have built our relationship to the point where we’re the first person they think of when they have a need and they’re ready to buy.
But we can do more than that.
One of the barriers to clients hiring consultants, coaches and other professionals is that we often don’t have an easy, low cost, low risk, entry level service for them.
This applies both offline and on. but it’s particularly important online.
The truth is that despite all our efforts to build trust and demonstrate our capabilities, clients will always perceive an initial piece of work with us to be risky.
Yes, we’ve showcased our expertise in our articles, blog posts and newsletters. And they’ve perhaps got a sense of who we are from our emails and maybe even some videos.
But it’s still a big risk.
And the more costly and complex an initial engagement with us is, the more risky it seems.
And unfortunately, we often exacerbate this perceived risk by not having an easy, low cost way of doing business with us.
Often the only way to engage with us is to take our $1,000 per month coaching services. Or to hire us for a £20,000 consulting project.
Having such a high initial entry point turns a perceived risk into a huge one. Online especially so as the potential client will have had less direct contact with you.
But what if your potential client had a low cost way of hiring you or using your services? I’m not talking about heavy discounting to get an entry point. I’m talking about crafting a small, but highly valuable service that can be delivered at little cost to yourself but which will give the client more first hand experience of working with you.
This could range from short benchmarking exercises and assessment projects to creating online training courses, private membership sites or even the traditional online ebooks.
Look at it this way: who’s most likely to buy your high end coaching or consulting services: someone who you’ve never worked with before but you’ve put a lot of effort into selling to, or someone who joined your online training site, then upgraded to a group coaching programme and who then came to one of your weekend retreats?
Creating a “product ladder” – a series of ascending value products and services – like this does three wonderful things for you:
Firstly, it allows a broader range of people to experience working with you and hence qualify themselves for buying your more expensive services.
Secondly, it essentially turns your marketing into a paid activity. You’re marketing your higher level services primarily through your lower level services. All you have to focus on is getting people to make the easier step of getting on the first rung of the ladder and from then on they’re paying you as you entice them up to the next step. Contrast this with the difficulty of trying to persuade them to jump to the top step right from the bottom.
Finally, because you now have a steady flow of qualified prospects for your higher level services flowing through your “system”, you can create more costly (and more value-added) higher end programmes. You might struggle to sell (say) a $20,000 programme cold, but to clients who’ve already got tremendous value from your $10,000 coaching group it’s not such a big leap.
Now creating this ladder of products and services is not necessarily easy. There are some professions where the range of services you can offer is restricted (law springs to mind). But with a little creative thought you can construct a series of escalating value products in most professions.
It’s also worth thinking about how you can introduce services which overcome the traditional geographic and time restrictions which most professionals face.
Offering telephone coaching, for example, frees you up from having to be physically near to your clients. And electronic products – books, videos, private membership sites – free you up from a direct exchange of your time for money. With these services, you can begin to deliver 1 to many and get a much higher return on your time.
Once you’ve defined the steps in your product ladder, you then focus your online efforts on selling the service at the bottom rung. Since it’s low cost it rarely needs a huge sell. Then focus on delighting the customers of that service and market your higher level services to them.
It’s a whole lot easier and more effective than trying to sell that huge consulting project cold.
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Ian,
Great post! I totally agree that businesses need an entry level offer to let them get acquaintwed with you and your business.
I like your ladder analogy. I refer to having a menu of products or services for your clients just like a restaurant. You need to have a starter, something small and affordable so people can try out your offering.
You need your main course and you also need dessert and perhaps cheese and coffee and liquers so you keep them coming back.
I’ve just subscriber to your blog via Google Reader so look forward to reading more.
Thanks Dickie – yours is a great analogy too!
Ian
This is a really good article, thanks for sharing.
Here is my (rather long) 2 cents worth
This was a useful article, in my opinion it hit the nail on the head with the line :
“…will always perceive an initial piece of work with us to be risky”
Getting more clients is all about removing doubt and fear from potential client’s minds, it’s about making the process of interacting with you as smooth as possible. I mention who I think are the masters of this below.
We perceive risk and evaluate options so often that we often lose sight of the fact we are doing it and how central the idea of risk and danger is to every decision we make.
It’s very difficult to put yourself in the position of a potential client looking at your website for the first time but if you can do that you can make massive improvements to your inflow of new customers.
Offering a low cost initial service is one way to reduce financial risk but there are lots of other risks that can be ameliorated simply by providing information.
List every uncertainty a potential client might have and think about you could remove or reduce it.
How do I contact this person ? What happens next ? Do we meet in person ? What information do I need to provide ? Can they be trusted ? What if it doesn’t work out ? Do they have the expertise required ? Are they used to clients much bigger than I am ? Are they used to clients much smaller than I am ? Will I feel comfortable talking to them ? Do they still monitor this website ? etc etc
These questions and many more will flash through a potential client’s mind in seconds. Each one edging them closer to clicking the home/back button on their browser.
Obviously you don’t have to address each question with a written answer, but many a doubt in a potential client’s mind can be addressed if you are careful about your design and content.
I think the absolute masters of smoothing out the process of dealing with them and removing fear, doubt and risk are fast food restaurants.
They value consistency, not just in the food but also in the service, the interactions and the decor. You know exactly what you’re going to get! That removes a lot of the risk.
But what can other businesses that don’t have hundreds of outlets learn from this approach ? Adhere to a process, make the process public (your menu if you like), be consistent in how you interact with people.
In a strange way, initially, people often prefer an impersonal process, for example people might be more likely to fill out and submit a form rather than give you a call and discuss their needs. It removes some of the risk of embarrassment and failure.
Thanks for your writing Ian, I look forward to your future posts.
Thanks
Sam Howley
This is awesome. It’s so true how the barriers to entry, so to speak, are extremely high when looking to start working with others.
It’s the old industrial age thinking that business owners have to get over and started giving knowledge away before asking for something in return.
Great post Ian!
I missed this comment the first time Sam! I’d agree with everything you say really. There are many ways of decreasing perceived risk – I was just focusing on one of them here. Guarantees are great. As is sharing your ideas and giving “value in advance” to clients before they hire you. As indeed is clarity on who you are, what you do, who you work with, etc.