If you’re a business expert who helps clients with a lot of different aspects of business…
…and you want to un-confuse yourself and your potential clients about what exactly is THE “thing” you do (because there are so many “things,” aren’t there?)…
…because you know that you could probably narrow down to 1 or 2 clear, compelling high-ticket offers that would sell more consistently than you’re selling your current stuff, IF they were each positioned around one “thing”…
…then I hope this post today will be really helpful to you.
I’ve helped tons of business experts (and non-business experts too, actually) with this, and my philosophy on how to un-confuse this kind of situation is so simple, and works every time.
Or at least it’s worked with everyone I’ve tried it with so far. 😉
Here it is, in a nutshell:
All the “things” you offer are usually methods for getting an outcome.
The confusion comes from the fact that the outcome itself is actually missing.
And the outcome is the “thing” – that elusive concept that’s going to tie together everything that you do for clients.
(It’s sort of like having a book with a bunch of chapters already written, but the book doesn’t have a title. The title is what we’re looking for – and in this case it’s the outcome.)
And in my world, for business offers, the outcome should describe how the business’s bottom line (net income) is likely to change after investing in the offer.
Very few business offers will talk about this kind of outcome (we call it a “Strong-style outcome” 😉 ) in their marketing.
But once people see what I mean by this kind of outcome, and how they typically haven’t articulated one before in their marketing, that’s when everything tends to fall into place in their heads as to how to actually explain what they do in a way that makes sense.
I think the easiest way to have you see what I mean here is to walk through a little case study… so let’s do that.
Let’s say that you’re really good at helping businesses with copy.
And sometimes with niching down.
And with messaging (different from copy, right?).
And with content (different still from both copy and messaging…).
Oh, and different types of content too (whitepapers, sometimes Facebook content, sometimes blogs or funnels…).
And maybe with deciding what to charge.
And with various strategic things like what method they’re going to use to get their name in front of more people.
And maybe with mindset too – and various aspects of that, like impostor syndrome, money blocks, worthiness, and more.
With me so far?
Okay, so now, since you’re a brilliant and gifted person in all of the above areas, you’ve certainly thought about what problems all of the above things solve.
(After all – that’s the kind of thinking you do with and for your clients all the time, right?)
You know that niching down often allows people to charge more.
You know that getting the right marketing method into place helps with getting greater sales volume.
And that writing copy in a certain way can lead to being perceived as more of an expert, which can lead to solving all sorts of problems – like getting more pre-sold leads, getting more invitations to show up on big platforms which leads to more visibility and more clients… and more.
So now what we need to do is figure out what is the overarching problem/outcome to which all of the above outcomes/solutions would contribute.
Because “greater sales volume” and “charge more” aren’t Strong-style outcomes that truly show how the business’s bottom line would change.
Strong-style outcomes are things like:
“Helping solopreneurs currently earning around $100k/year to scale to $250k+ by upping prices to the $10k level.”
“Helping multiple-six-figure business owners to sell their current high-ticket offer more consistently so they can reach seven figures.”
“Helping coaches with 10+ years of experience to go from charging per hour to creating and selling packages of $3k or more so that they can reach their first six-figure year.”
“Helping service providers to increase their profitability to 50% so that they can make the same amount of money in half the time.”
See how with each of those outcomes, you get a sense of how that bottom-line net income would change, as well as what the starting point is?
Then, from there, I have an (approximately) 500-word framework for articulating your offer where we slot in all of the “things” that you do (the methods) as well as those smaller problems/outcomes, showing how they add up to the “umbrella” problem/outcome like those listed above.
And the cool thing here is that you don’t have to niche down to just pricing, or just marketing strategy, or just Facebook content creation in order for people to understand what you do.
That umbrella outcome is what anchors “what you do” into their mind.
That goes first in the Strong style offer statement.
After that, you say something like, “here’s what we do to get you there”… and you list the different methods/topics you’ll work on that will contribute to that overall outcome.
In most cases, you will also list the more micro-problems/outcomes in this “here’s what we do” section – because they usually link up somehow with the methods/topics.
Like:
“We’ll work on tweaking your Facebook content [METHOD] so it’s better targeted to your ideal client, so that you can increase the number of good-fit leads that you’re getting [MICRO-OUTCOME].”
Now, how do you actually come up with the big umbrella problem/outcome?
And know how to link the different topics and micro-outcomes to it, and tie it all together into an explanation that makes sense?
I’ll tell you how I do it when I work with clients in my 1-on-1 program. 🙂
It’s a 3-part process:
1) I have you write up client case study examples from a handful of your most-favorite and best-result-getting clients, irrespective of which offer they went through or what type of help you offered.
In other words, you’re pulling the examples from your client base as a whole – not pulling some examples from this offer and some from that offer.
We’re just taking a 30,000 foot view of your entire business and history with clients and allowing the cream to rise to the top.
(I have a certain way that I ask for the client case studies, so that I get the information and details I need.)
2) I analyze these great examples and determine whether I see one outcome or multiple – and roughly what the outcome(s) is/are.
(For experienced business experts who have many happy clients in their past, it’s very likely that there will be multiple outcomes, because you’ve probably worked with a variety of clients as you explored your interests and expertise.)
Of course, as I look for the outcome, I’m specifically looking for that Strong style “how does the bottom line change” type outcome – not the more micro-outcomes like “they raised prices” or “they grew their audience.”
3) We then set out to create the Strong style 500-word offer statements for each outcome.
Each offer statement is based on a client or clients (from your examples) who fall into a specific scenario, which often means a certain stage of business/net income.
And what you include in each offer (i.e., what “stuff” you do with them or what topics you cover) is simply based on what you actually did with a particular client or clients from your past – in order to help them to increase their net income in the way that your umbrella outcome states.
So if a certain segment of your favorite clients were solopreneurs who were able to go from approximately $100K/year to $250K/year – then you would include in that offer the methods, topics, and micro-outcomes that you included in your work with those past clients.
There’s another important piece to all of this, too: that maybe some of the stuff you did for/with that client segment in the past, you no longer want to do.
Or it’s just not your favorite.
Or the best clients didn’t actually seem to need certain things that you did.
That’s okay!
In the Strong style 500-word offer statement framework, there’s a place where we also specify what you’re NOT going to do with them, even though it may still be needed to achieve that umbrella outcome.
I call that the “qualifications” section.
For example, maybe your favorite client segment was able to scale to $250K revenue by working with you on pricing, audience growth, and mindset – but you didn’t necessarily care for helping them with audience growth, and would rather not do that anymore.
Then your qualifications section would include a statement that they would need a way of growing their audience, or have someone else to help them with that, or already have an audience of X size.
(If you want to see a training on how exactly to create these 500-word offer statements, I have one here.)
…And that, in a nutshell, is how you get dialed into “THE THING” that makes your work understandable and helps you to sell it more easily and frequently…
…and also know how (and where) to articulate all the other stuff that’s a part of your explanation of what you do.
I know I spoke to business experts in this post, but I’ve actually used the exact same thought process with non-business experts too… like people who say, “I help with mindset, and beliefs, and healing trauma, and more, but I’m not sure which one is THE THING…”
In this case also, just as with the business experts, none of the above is actually THE THING.
The “umbrella problem” which all of those things (either together or separately) solve, is THE THING.
And once you identify it, everything else makes sense.
The thought process that I described above is a large part of what I do with many of the clients who sign up for my 30-day 1-on-1 intensive.
I also help with creating content that is tailored to the exact outcome and ideal client that we identify, and with weaving in that “umbrella outcome” as well as your offer/s into each piece of content in a way that allows you to get more leads because readers not only enjoy the content, but actually understand what you offer.
Some of my clients in this program want more emphasis on the content, and some want more emphasis on identifying the outcome and writing up the offer(s) in the way I described above.
Some want an equal emphasis on both.
And that’s okay because the program is flexible, and I can tailor the contents to each person.
No matter the emphasis, the goal is to help established well-earning coaches (typically earning anywhere from about $60k/year all the way through multiple-six figures and beyond) to scale up to six, multiple-six, or seven figures by selling their high-ticket offers ($5k-$100k+) more consistently.
I’ve had a variety of past clients who achieved all of the above income milestones as well as many micro-results along the way – like easier/faster sales, eliminating sales calls and therefore dramatically decreasing work hours and increasing productivity, raising prices once they’re able to articulate who an offer is actually for… and more.
Given the incredible results for the right person, this program is a $9k investment (and could easily be more – and probably will be soon 😉 ).
If you think you may be interested, DM me on Facebook. I’m taking on a couple of new clients right now.
I also have an option to continue working with me after the initial 30-day program – on more content, more offers, or other additional specific questions and topics.
If you’re not sure whether my program is right for you, I encourage you to still DM me on Facebook.
We can discuss it further, and if it’s not right for you, I may be able to point you in a better direction (like to a colleague of mine who’s a better fit) or even design a new offer for you, which I’ve done several times in the past few weeks.
I am also offering the opportunity to become certified in all of my methods (known collectively as the Strong Method™) so that you have permission to use them with your own clients (and detailed training on how to do so!).
That certification process will be a year-long program, and given what your clients’ financial results can be from using the Strong Method™ (and therefore what you can earn per client and what your total earnings can be over the lifetime of your business), the investment will be $30k (and will almost certainly be going up soon, too!).
DM me on Facebook if you’re interested in certification.
If you have any questions about what I shared in this email, feel free to reply or send a Facebook DM! 🙂