adding value

• What’s holding you back?
• What’s slowing your progress down?
• What’s stopping you from moving forward?

These questions relate to you attracting all the clients you need to have a full business. Having worked with many clients over the years, I’ve seen it all. Other than “no knowledge of marketing,” one thing seems to come up over and over again, and it happened again recently, with a brand new client.

The client answered this: “Sometimes, the ‘Little Voice’ inside me asks, ‘Who needs my services and programs anyway?” This is basic information that I offer. People already know this stuff!” This statement is so common, but in almost every case, this is absolutely not true!

I have to confess, in the past, I too have taken for granted what I already know and teach everyday and started questioning my value in the marketplace. For example, when I was teaching about niche branding, I sometimes wondered why people were paying me (or WOULD pay me) to teach them the difference between what is a brand versus just having a logo. To me, it was a no-brainer that branding throughout your whole business was more crucial than just having an appealing logo. But to a person who knew nothing about branding, it was crucial that I explain it to them in detail, and then the shortcuts on how to change their business into a recognizable brand and how to do it fast.

I would question the value of the ‘how-to’s of marketing I gave clients in every meeting. As I was stepping out the campaign relating every step back to their objectives and target market, I couldn’t help but think ‘Are these simple steps REALLY of value to them?’ (I’d been through marketing degrees, did large corporate marketing and serious small business marketing boot camps, so niche marketing came naturally to me.) But clients keep asking questions and referring other clients. Go figure!

Even in the early years of my marketing consultancy and coaching, I sometimes wondered about my value. Clients asked me daily about the secrets of getting clients to call THEM and making money with smart marketing techniques and even smarter systems. For me, it was now ingrained and like second nature. I took for granted that I knew it, and because I’d been doing it for so long and knew that it worked, I thought everyone knew it too and that it was common sense.

However, what’s common knowledge for you is a secret to someone else. Because we are “immersed” in our information all day long, and for years, we start taking for granted what we know. We forget what we know is actually a secret many others would do anything and everything to discover. It becomes the answer to their most pressing problem. It becomes the solution others have been praying for. And that’s when they call us.

If you’re in this position, you are probably OVER-estimating what everybody else knows. The more you think what you teach is common to YOU, plus the longer you do what it is you do, the more you tend to undervalue what you know.

The funny thing, as I’ve discovered, is that the more we teach things to our clients in SIMPLE terms, the happier they are, the more referrals we get and the more we make. It’s not the elaborate teachings that people are looking for. It’s the practical and simple solutions.

The disappointing thing about the whole undervaluing what you know is that as a result, you may be undercharging for what you offer. This is actually one of the major reasons why most people don’t have enough clients. Because they don’t see value in what they offer, they don’t charge enough, and therefore there is a low perception of value from the prospective client’s point of view. They then go somewhere else for the exact same information. Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy!

Some entrepreneurs even go so far as discounting their services, or offering a sliding scale, because of their lack of confidence and low perception of value in what they offer. In my book, discounting is a BIG no-no. Again, it portrays a devalued product or service and it’s NOT Client Attractive.

Look at your business today and ask yourself these questions:

• Did you clients come to YOU for the information you take for granted?

Sometimes, they may even have known some of what you know, but didn’t have the discipline, accountability, resources or structure to do it on their own. Many of my clients KNOW how to attract other clients, they’re already somewhat successful, but they don’t have the discipline or accountability to do it consistently on their own. So we do it together. This is actually my favorite type of scenario, because these clients are very driven and since we’re not starting from scratch in the learning process, we move at warp speed.

• Are you super confident in what you offer?

Read your testimonials over and over until your confidence comes back. If you don’t have any testimonials then ask your current happy clients for some.

• Do you see yourself as their problem solver?

Your clients do see you as their problem solver. So charge accordingly and never ever discount your services, better still put them up!

 If you’re not sure how much to charge or how to position your value in the marketplace, then it’s time to take action and invest in a step-by-step marketing system that will feel easy and authentic to you. The Easy Marketing to Get Clients Home Study System™ avoids all the unnecessary stuff and instead gives you the most important things to do to get out there in a big way, set up simple, solid systems, so you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It’s all step-by-step, and easy to understand. So, you do step one of the system, and when you’re done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. So simple and all the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. You can get it at easymarketing.com.au.