High-End Clients Marketing - Part III

If a client hires you as a coach, consultant or trainer and the client doesn't get the results they expected, who's to blame?

You are!

After all, they hired you to produce results. But all the time, I hear excuses like the following.

- "Well, they were responsible for doing the actual work - and they didn't follow through." 

- "It's hard to measure something like this - there are so many variables."  

- "Given the scope of the job, it wasn't realistic that they'd get the kind of results they expected." 

- "Well, my clients just don't have the budget to pay for the more in-depth programs I'd like to offer." 

All of this absolves you of responsibility. And in my humble opinion this is no more than professional negligence and ignorance of how business actually works. 

Let me answer each of these and explain the role of "high-end programs and services" in all of this. 

1. "Well, they were responsible for doing the actual work - and  they didn't follow through."

Yes, they were responsible for doing the actual work but you didn't set things up to make sure the work actually happened. You didn't provide the support and follow-up necessary to get the results they wanted and needed. 

Look, clients will resist change. That's a given. So you need to package your services to take that into account. 

One client I worked with wouldn't do any assignments I gave him. Instead of blaming him, I talked to him three times a week and outlined very specific actions he could take. Ultimately he got his work done.

2. "It's hard to measure something like this - there are so many  variables."

It's hard to measure because you didn't try or require it from the client. Are you in business to help clients improve their situation or are you in business to go through a process?

If clients are paying you to perform a process to check off a box, they're idiots. Don't work for them. Find clients who are committed to producing results - and charge them a premium. 

Great clients are open to measurement and accountability. Make this a keystone of your all services and programs. And then take the initiative to make things happen and measure success. 

3. "Given the scope of the job, it wasn't realistic that they'd get  the kind of results they expected."

Then why did you agree to the scope if it couldn't produce results? Can you imagine that a doctor would say to you, "Well, OK, I know this operation is not in your budget, so we'll just do half an operation. You can sew yourself up and save quite a bit."

Insanity, right? But that's exactly what we do when we agree to do a project or service that simply won't produce the results you want. "You want three days of training to transform your leadership. Err… ok we can do that!"

NO, YOU CAN'T!!!!!!!

4. "Well, my clients just don't have the budget to pay for the more in-depth programs I'd like to offer." 

Sounds reasonable, right? The thing is, you forget that you are not selling coaching, consulting or training. Those are just processes, remember. No, you are selling results. 

So in your sales process you need to spend a lot of time exploring with the prospect what they REALLY want. Nobody goes into enough depth here. It's all superficial. "We want to increase sales." OK, next question. 

Why do they want to increase sales? What will it mean to them if they do? What will it mean to them if they don't? And why are they having such a hard time increasing sales? What's underneath that? Do they want to change that as well?

When you have listened and understood the deepest yearnings of a potential client and demonstrated that you can help them fulfill those lodgings, you have a prospect that will pay you to help them produce those results. 

What you need to do. 

Now I'm not saying you won't bump into idiot prospects who want miracles from you without doing their part or suggesting a project that has virtually no chances of success.

But you don't have to work for them! 

If you want to grow your business, you need successes that are measurable, that make a real difference to your clients. If you don't, what foundation are you building your business on? 

This is why I feel it's so important to focus ALL your marketing efforts on attracting high-end clients. 

A high-end client is a great client that understands what it takes to produce a result and is willing to invest in that result. They are also willing to take the time necessary to produce a result. They know big change doesn't come instantly. Finally, they are willing to pay fees considerably higher than ordinary clients. 

If you attract clients like this, you'll not only produce results you're proud of, you'll get more word-of-mouth business, attracting the attention of even more high-end clients. And one high-end client is usually worth 4 or 5 ordinary clients. 

Oh, yeah and your income will increase pretty dramatically as well. Would that be OK with you? I hope so!

So how do you attract more high-end clients? 

I'd like to invite you to attend my 2-month, 4-session Coaching Call Series on "Attracting High-End Clients." This program is priced at $197 but you can actually attend for free if you're willing to do the work and participate fully. 

See the details here: http://actionplan.com/highend-biz

The More Clients Bottom Line: You don't produce the results you could in your business because you are not working on projects that have the remotest possibility of producing those results. So you blame the clients. Instead, take responsibility for attracting high-end clients who will gladly pay you to work with them to produce results at a whole new level.