We finished on a bit of a cliffhanger last week :)

I talked about how allowing clients to sample what you do in advance can reduce their risk – and so increase their chances of buying.

It also works to identify the highest potential clients too. Someone who makes the commitment to test you out in advance is much more likely to become a client that someone who doesn't.

So you can focus your follow-up marketing on them.

Value in Advance

There are lots of ways of doing this “Value in Advance” strategy.

The traditional approach for many consultants and coaches is the good old “free initial consultation”.

Unfortunately, because this is 1-1, it doesn't leverage your time well.

Yes, it goes “deep” and can do a lot to demonstrate your credibility and build a relationship.

But if you offer this to people “cold” as your first interaction with them, you run the risk of doing a lot of free sessions with people who aren't ideal clients or simply can't afford your services.

And in fact, many potential clients don't see this free initial consultation as the high-value session that you do. If they don't know much about you they're just as likely to worry it'll be a waste of their time or worse: you'll try to hard sell them for an hour.

My advice is to reserve your free sessions for more qualified prospects who you already know are ideally suited to be clients and have been pre-qualified in some way.

A better method is to run seminars or do presentations to small to medium sized groups. This gives you more leverage while still being able to make a strong impression on multiple people.

But, of course, it still relies on your time and physical presence.

Lead Magnets

Personally, my favourite strategy is the use of a “lead magnet”.

A lead magnet is a short report, audio CD, video, ready-reckoner, anything that helps your clients with an initial problem in an area they may later hire you in.

It's something that demonstrates your expertise and begins to build your relationship with them.

And it doesn't require you to invest your time every time a potential cllient requests one.

They can download reports, or you can get CDs easily copied and distributed for a few dollars or pounds.

Although you're not giving as much “Value in Advance” as you would be with a 1-1 session, in some ways it's a better first step for many potential clients – not quite so scary as a meeting.

And, of course, it's much more scaleable. You can reach hundreds or thousands of people without buring up all your time.

You can use lead magnets in all sorts of situations.

The obvious method is on your website as an inducement to sign up to your regular communications.

But you can also use them at networking events, for example. Instead of talking about what you do – let people sample it by giving them an audio CD of you being interviewed on a topic that would be useful to them.

All it requires is a little creative thought and any marketing method – from cold calling to doing presentations to advertising – can be enhanced by using a lead magnet.

What Do You Use?

Now, I bet this isn't the first time you've heard the lead magnet concept or something similar.

Yet few consultants and coaches use it to anywhere near it's potential.

if you're not already using a lead magnet, think about what you could produce quickly to use as one. You probably already have loads of materials you use as part of your client work that you could tweak and turn into a lead magnet.

If you already have a lead magnet – think about how you could use it more. Maybe different formats (turn a report into a video, for example). Maybe use it more ways.

But make sure you're using one.