LESSON THREE: MAKEOVER YOUR MESSAGING AND UPGRADE YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY

It’s so important to speak to your 6- and 7-figure clients where they’re at in their business. There’s no “one size fits all” coaching solution and if you’re offering newbie advice to someone who’s run a business for 15 years, they will lose confidence in you very quickly.

Your high-end clients are not experiencing the same issues as someone still struggling to make $100k a year or the total newbie who’s having issues booking clients. High-end clients who already make 6-7 figure incomes have already gone through the growing pains of building a business, so their needs and pain points will be very different from others not yet at this point in their business journey.

You need to sell the dream of what their life will be like working with you. What can you offer each of these high-end clients? The freedom to hire competent employees or contractors to whom they can delegate? Financial advice so they are investing their income wisely? Creative ways to market their business to a new audience? Finesses these results so it suits your ideal clients but focus on the end result. That will be your key motivator for these prospects to take the next steps.

Take your USP and your Ideal Client Avatar and keep those front and center when you map out new marketing and advertising plans. You already know what makes your business unique and awesome and you know who needs your help the most. Now it’s time to find those people and tempt them with your marketing message.

Also take your current marketing strategies and analyze what’s working and what’s not. Scratch anything that isn’t yielding great results, as in prospect calls, email subscribers, or actual clients onboarding. Now analyze your current client base; do all these people fall into your ICA?

Think about your positioning in the market. Your years of experience (or lack thereof) will play a part in how much you can charge and how many media interviews you can book. Think of how you can ramp up your marketing so that YOU are the face of your company and portrayed as the industry expert.

You need to be recognized as the expert in your niche, which means being more visible on social media and sharing content for free on your blog, YouTube, and on podcast interviews. Even if you feel confidence inside, the outside world needs to hear about you and learn your name. You need to market yourself as the leading expert – position yourself above others in your field – to attract those high-end clients.

To grow your reach, you need to expand your marketing efforts. Explore how you currently marketing your business and then up level that effort ten times. How much content do you create each week? Do you have a podcast or YouTube channel? How do people remember you and come back to your website when they need your services?

If you’re new to serving high-end clients, you’ll likely need to shift your mindset and stretch your comfort zone. To attract these clients, you’ll need to be more in the spotlight. You need to become the face of your business because high-end clients won’t want to work with an associate; they want YOU. Share your expertise with others and start building high-end relationships. Your expertise will attract the right people to you as you

Take a look at Marie Forleo as an example. She didn’t jump online and immediately land interviews with Oprah Winfrey and Richard Branson. She spent years working odd jobs while building her coaching business. She is heart-centered and truly wants to help others live up their own potential. She also learned how to follow her instincts and how to listen to what her clients needed.

As her client base grew and she proved her expertise, she created her signature B-School program and wrote two internationally bestselling books. She also stays in regular contact with her audience through her emails and Marie.tv videos.

Now, let’s dive into creating and selling the dream. What will your clients receive when they hire you as a coach? While we’re going to identify your ideal clients’ pain points, we’re NOT going to dwell on the negatives of owning a business. There’s an abundance of great things about being a business owner and working with you will speak to their desires and the pleasurable things they’ll receive as a result of hiring you.

A large part of selling the dream is choosing the right wording in your marketing and advertising copy. You’ll want to create a list of “power” words which are strong and will pique your prospects’ interest. Power words often spark an emotion, such as greed, urgency, helplessness, happiness, or safety (just to name a few) and the exact emotion you want will vary based on what your Ideal Client Avatar needs.

On the Power Words Generator, fill in words that reflect the business level, lifestyle, and class of your ideal client. Then add in the words that reflect the emotions you want to use most frequently. This cheat sheet is meant to change and be modified so keep it handy and spend some adding to it regularly.

Of course, you can outsource this task to a VA or do some searching online but I highly recommend you do your own brainstorming first since you know your ICA the best. You might be surprised at how easily you fill the list. Then you can enlist help for any categories that aren’t as easy.

Affording your services is a moot point at this level; these prospects need assurances that you’re qualified for the job and that you aren’t a cookie cutter coach who spouts all the same advice you can find online. 

Exercise:  Selling the Dream

Paint a vivid picture of what your marketing should look like so you are selling the ‘dream’ aka: what the experience of working with you is like.