A messaging problem is often an offer design problem in disguise.
I’ve now had the same conversation hundreds of times (if not thousands by now) with people who are not making as many sales of their offer as they would like (whether they’re trying to get to 6 figures or to 7 figures or anything in between):
Them: “Can you help me with messaging? I’m getting some sales but not as many as I would like, and I think messaging is the culprit.”
Me: “Sure. Can you tell me more about the offer? What outcome is it aimed at? And what’s the ideal starting point you’d like your clients to be at before they join?”
Them: “Well, it’s actually a pretty wide range. I accept clients who are all over the map in terms of a starting point, and results are all over the place too.”
Me: “That’s your problem – not messaging. Of course it’s hard to come up with compelling messaging when your offer hasn’t been designed to get a particular outcome for a particular type of person. Outcomes are really the only thing that’s compelling to clients in your messaging. If outcomes are all over the map then you’ll be forced to be vague in how you talk/message about them, almost by necessity.”
Them: “I hear you. But I want to serve everyone…”
Me: bows out of conversation because I’m done trying to convince people that they need to stop trying to serve everyone
…
You can’t have it both ways – a compelling message paired with a vague offer. That’s not how this works.
What makes a message compelling is precisely its specificity.
You might know that I teach a 500-word framework for pitching your offer in a social media post.
The reason why my clients and I get DMs from these posts – from people gushing “OMG this looks like exactly what I need” – is that we say things like:
“I have a great offer for experienced coaches who are making multiple six figures per year from a webinar-to-sales-call funnel and are so done with that model and want to get the same financial results from just writing FB posts and enrolling people over DM, no sales calls.”
“I have a great offer for 6-figure entrepreneurs who want to grow their net worth to 7 figures in 3 years via smart saving and investing.”
“I have an amazing offer for service-based business owners who’ve had a handful of clients so far and are looking to quit their full time-job and make their first six figures via custom pricing and packaging.”
“I have a great program for women who have about 20 pounds to lose, and want to do so in 90 days or less, while still eating all the foods they enjoy and without complicated diets.”
Those statements are compelling not because of some messaging “trick,” but because the actual offers/programs behind the messaging were designed in a smart way – with a particular person in mind, a particular starting point and a particular ending point.
So, when that particular person sees it, they naturally recognize immediately that it’s for them.
Which is why I always look at offer design with my clients before we ever talk about messaging.
Those compelling offer posts – and the belief-shifting content that I teach alongside them – follow very easily when the offer has been thoughtfully designed (or tightened up from its original design).
I ask a handful of very simple questions to tighten up an offer:
“Which segment of your current client base values your work the most?”
“Which segment gets the greatest benefit or the most impressive results?”
“Which segment do you think will pay the most for it? Which segment has given you the least price resistance?”
“Which segment gives you the most enjoyment and satisfaction to work with?”
99% of the time, there is one segment that clearly emerges as the answer to all four of these questions. It’s very easy for most people to come up with. They just haven’t faced the question head-on before because they think they’ll lose income if they make the decision to focus only on that segment.
But, the truth is that you likely won’t lose income because that “best segment” by definition will pay more.
Multiple-six-figure entrepreneurs, for example, usually don’t blink at paying $5K or $7K or $10K for something that can help them grow their bottom line by six figures or more.
But if you’re including newbies who haven’t made a dime yet, you might feel obligated to set your price at $1K or $2K (for EVERYONE, of course) in order to accommodate this group – not only because they haven’t made much money yet, but also because they’re not really at the best starting point to be able to take advantage of your work.
I see this thought process all the time with those who have B2B offers that are really better-suited for more advanced businesses.
(Obviously, if your work really IS better suited for newbies, then this wouldn’t apply.)
Logic would suggest that if you start focusing only on those who will pay $10K without blinking, they will more than make up for 9 others who would’ve scrimped to come up with $1K.
That’s essentially what has happened for me over the past three years (though not with those exact prices) as I’ve stopped including brand-new coaches in my client base.
I’ve been able to raise my prices a lot higher with zero resistance because I’m focusing on the client segment that will actually see a faster return-on-investment from what I do with them.
Anyway, I didn’t really mean for this to turn into an argument for niching. 😉 But I do think it’s important to remember that if you’re trying to solve the problem of “not enough sales,” you have to accurately diagnose that problem.
It’s usually offer design (and, falling underneath that umbrella, ideal client targeting) – not messaging.
If you’re someone who absolutely does not want to focus your offer on the segment who gets best results, and prefer to leave it vague and wide-open, yet you still want more sales, then I’m not sure what advice to give other than maybe learn how to build more scarcity and hype into your marketing since you can’t really make your messaging better.
But, truth be told, that way of marketing leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
So, I’ll leave us with this: Consider changing your mind about focusing your offer. Life is better when you’re not trying to sell something to people who won’t get much benefit from it. 😉
If you want my help to go through my proven process for honing in on your exact ideal client AND the outcome message that goes at the beginning of your 500-word offer post…
…that’s what I do in my group workshops (click that link to see when the next one is).
You can DM me on Facebook if you’re interested in the next workshop, and we’ll have a very brief chat to see if it will meet your needs. If yes, I’ll send you the link to sign up.
I also do this very same “best-niche-articulation” process in my 30-day 1-on-1 program – plus we do a lot more, too, including program design, the writing of the full 500-word offer post (not just the outcome part), and the writing of lead-generating content according to my signature Strong Method essay-style format.
It’s all aimed at getting you at least a few clients per month for your high(er) ticket offer from organic posting.
You can also DM me on Facebook if you’re interested in the 1-on-1 intensive and we’ll have a brief chat to see if it’s a good match.