Do It! Marketing Blog: Marketing for Smart People™

5 Big Shifts You Need to Make for High-Fee Success

02.jpg

After working with over 500 consultants, speakers, coaches, authors, and service professionals, I found 5 big shifts for mindset and skillset improvement are vital to the success of folks who are ready to make the leap to a high-fee business model.

We’ll dig into the details behind all of this to get you ready to rock in the world of high-fee programs during this special masterclass but here are some gold nuggets and things for you to think about before then...

1. The first mindset shift is around money.

Here’s the sound bite: What’s expensive to YOU is not expensive to others.

YOU are not your client.

You need to understand that if you’re someone who drives a Toyota, there are people buying Ferraris.

If you live in a $500,000 house, you can have prospects who live in a $5 million house.

You have to get out of your own way when it comes to charging premium dollars for your premium programs.

"I could never charge that much" is a nonsensical statement. What you really mean when you say that is you would never pay that much – and that’s what’s killing your business right now and keeping you stuck in low-fee hell.

You need to charge what will attract the right kinds of prospects and will REPEL the wrong kinds of prospects.

2. The second mindset shift is that making a lot of money in your business is hard, complicated and overwhelming.

I’m here to tell you it can be easy, effortless, and enjoyable.

You don’t need dozens of moving parts and emails and websites and landing pages and technology and a hundred marketing jobs to do every day.

Making crazy money can be crazy simple.

I know this because I’ve done it both ways.

The hard way AND the easy way.

Many of my clients have done it both ways and guess what? The easy way is better.

High-fee simplicity ROCKS and the more you simplify, the more you will boost your focus, momentum, and results.

3. The third mindset shift is around the way you deal with distractions.

Let’s say you join the High Fee Mastery program that we’ll talk about later.

You start to build some momentum – you begin to see the light on how much leverage you can build into your business – and you even start to implement the first few steps of the program and you might even begin to see early results.

Then – BOOM – it happens.

You let yourself get distracted.

Shiny object syndrome.

A new opportunity.

A new offer from some internet guru takes you off track.

You feel you have to buy this new software or spend a lot of time engaged in this new social network that’s going to be the next Facebook.

But here’s the thing: every time you get distracted like that, it diminishes your chances of generating the high-fee success you deserve.

Success comes to those who focus relentlessly on one or two primary high-fee strategies and give them all they’ve got – day in, day out, rain or shine, happy or sad, feel like it or not.

You need to become a high-fee focus ninja and train yourself to immediately deflect and dismiss ALL distractions that keep you from making the kind of money you know you can make with some discipline and focus and depth.

Stop being a guppy skimming the surface and become the shark who swims in deep water and never takes his eye off the prize.

4. The fourth shift is mastering high-fee sales conversations.

Getting much better at them. And being way more comfortable qualifying (and disqualifying) so you focus like a laser beam on the exact prospects who you want to serve, who you can really help, and who will gladly pay for your high-fee programs. 

And learning to reframe a sales conversation as an enrollment conversation.

Not even enrolling people in your programs but enrolling people in the execution and realization of their desired outcomes and results.

And that is much, much easier.

Nobody wants your program – everybody wants their specific outcomes and results. More on that during the masterclass.

5. The fifth and last shift – knowing in your bones that the higher the fees you charge, the more commitment you’ll get from your clients.

This is true in your 1-on-1 programs like coaching and mentoring and it’s also true in your high-fee group coaching programs and it's true for your high-fee consulting services and also for your high-fee mastermind/elite access programs.

The higher the fee, the higher the commitment, the higher the commitment, the greater the level of client execution.

And the great the level of client execution, the better results your clients will experience.

So it actually SERVES your client better to charge premium fees because it leads to greater action and better results.

Unconditionally and across the board, I’ve seen this play out in dozens and dozens of different coaching, consulting, and professional service businesses.

Ready to get serious about your high-fee success?

Join me for this zero-cost advanced training and let's get your high-fee business model up and running and generating serious cash flow for you in the next 60-90 days.

Ka-BOOM!!! 

 

Tags: marketing for speakers, marketing for coaches, business coaching, sell more coaching, marketing for consultants, sales training for coaches, high-fee success, mastermind programs

How NOT to Create Your Private Coaching Program

Private Coaching Success free video training seriesI hate to embarrass people in public. Even if they deeply and richly deserve it. And I’m not about to start now, even though this story about an otherwise respected professional who wanted to start a private coaching program (for all the wrong reasons and with zero preparation) may send chills down your spine. All names have been removed to protect the goofy.

By the way, if you want to cut to the chase and find out how to do this right from the get-go, check out my new FREE video training series "Private Coaching Success" - grab some popcorn and go here

Back to our story... It all began with this exchange (via Facebook message) between me and a successful international keynote speaker with whom I am friendly (and who earns in excess of $20,000 per speech):

  • HIM: hey you do ongoing coaching type programs, right? 
    like you get clients that pay you X per month or year for telephone time or something else?
    im asking because i was approached recently by a CEO who wants me to do executive coaching/mentoring for him.  do you have some sort of outline i could follow please? i havent structured a deal like this before

  • David Newman
    I do marketing coaching, not “executive coaching” but many of my clients DO - usual structure is 2-3 phone meetings per month with email access to you in between and for CEOs I wouldn't charge less than $5k per month. 7500-10k per month if the meetings are in person. Normally you'd lock them in for a 6- or 12-month commitment.
    That's all you need to know to close the deal. Boom - you owe me a Pepsi.

  • HIM: lol thanks. but what do they get for their money ? in terms of time commitments etc and i dont have any formal program structured. or is it pretty informal? they call and you just shoot the shit?

  • David Newman
    If the content of the expertise you're trying to sell isn't in line with what the CEO needs or expects, you're toast - you can't just charge for something and "wing it" - don't mean to be harsh, bro - but are you playing to your strengths here??

  • HIM: he approached me, not the other way around
    he was in my audience recently and came over to me and said he wants to hire me to be his executive coach
    so i certainly havent promised him anything i cant deliver
    but i dont have a bunch of papers and programs and checklists or any formal program, because this is not something i normally do.

I’ll stop there simply to spare you the pain and embarrassment of more.

What’s wrong with this picture? I could go on and on but I promised myself this would be a short post.

PLUS I want to hear from YOU in the Comments section below about your reactions and advice in avoiding this type of train wreck.

Here’s my 6 cents on what is dangerous and crazy about this exchange:

  1. Someone who can deliver a killer keynote speech (regardless of fee level) does NOT automatically qualify as an executive coach. Totally different skill set. It’s like hiring a virtuoso pianist to build a custom stereo - yes, they both make music. But the similarity ends there.
     
  2. “Do you have some sort of outline I could follow?” Imagine this question coming from a jet fighter pilot, a brain surgeon, or a trial attorney. There is no outline -- it’s a skill set that is a combination of serious expertise plus deep experience. You don’t “follow an outline.”
     
  3. “I don’t have any formal program structured.” Here’s your first clue, Sherlock Holmes - if you don’t have a formal program for what you’re trying to sell, then you have no business selling it. Holy cow, do I really have to spell this out? Shouldn’t this just FEEL wrong? Apparently not...
     
  4. “They call and you just shoot the shit?” Umm, no. I just gave my friend some pricing guidance that a high-level executive coaching program is at least $5,000 per month. And he asks me if that money goes toward “shooting the shit”? Seriously? Meanwhile - there are serious, committed, high-value executive coaches that just read this and their foreheads are about to explode. And I don’t blame them.
     
  5. “But Dad - HE started it!” OK, that’s not exactly what he said. It was “he approached me, not the other way around” as if THIS makes it OK to charge money for a service that my friend is neither qualified nor prepared to offer. But wait. we’re not quite done - it gets worse...
     
  6. “I don’t have a bunch of papers and programs and checklists or any formal program, because this is not something I normally do.” Again, let’s transplant this statement to a different profession - forensic accounting, cancer research, or defusing bombs. You’d probably want each of these professionals to show up with more than “a bunch of papers and checklists” to fulfill their responsibilities, correct? And you might even be more nervous to learn that “this is not something they normally do.” The lesson? THEN DON’T DO IT!!!

Tell you what - if you'd rather do this faster, smarter and better - then check out my FREE video training series "Private Coaching Success" - you can grab it right here 

You'll be very glad you did. I guarantee it. 

Tags: marketing for speakers, marketing for coaches, consultant marketing, thought leadership marketing, coach marketing, sell more coaching, trusted advisor marketing, marketing for trainers, selling professional services, marketing coach, marketing for authors, marketing for consultants, small business marketing coach