If you’d like to get more of the kinds of clients who expect to pay a premium fee, see great value in the type of support you offer, and will be empowered and not victim-y…
…here’s something to consider:
The vast majority of marketing/selling methods taught out there are actually designed (intentionally or not) to attract the exact opposite type of client. 😮
It really all comes from the same paradigm, which I’ve come to think of as the “condescension paradigm.”
This paradigm assumes that potential buyers don’t inherently see value in high-ticket coaching/expert services and need to be convinced to buy – and perhaps even dragged/pulled up to your level.
An important caveat before I dive into this:
If you’ve done any of the things I’m about to name, I’m not necessarily saying that YOU are condescending. You may not be intending these actions that way at all, and you may just be doing what you were taught. (I used to do some of this stuff too, for the same reason!)
But the PARADIGM comes across that way.
And it can turn off the folks who are already convinced of the value of high-ticket services and are ready to meet you at your level, pay the fee with no objections, and work with you – as long as they understand what your method and offer are all about.
Here are some of the elements of the “condescension paradigm” that I know you’ll be familiar with:
1) The so-often-repeated advice to “give away the what/why but not the how” in your free content.
This is rooted in the belief that people will run off and try to do it themselves if you share too much, or will suddenly think they don’t need to hire you.
While that might be true of the non-empowered, non-high-paying types – it’s just annoying to the clients you want.
The high-ticket types are looking for true mastery and advanced support, and they’ve accomplished enough already in their lives to know that they won’t get the same level of result trying to do it on their own.
(Nor do they have time to try it on their own, as they’re busy with whatever career or business has them able to easily afford high-ticket services.)
As a high-ticket buyer myself many times over, when I see the fluffy content that doesn’t share any “how,” all I feel is annoyed.
I want to know (quickly) what this person’s method is, how it’s different from what I’ve done before, what results it gets, and more – so I can decide if this person is worth reaching out to.
I’ve already decided that I want to invest – I am just trying to decide which provider is going to work at the level of sophistication that I need, and will fit the exact gap I’m trying to close.
The thousands of vague “not giving away the ‘how'” posts in my feed don’t convey sophistication or specialization. They don’t even convey what work a person does, at a basic level.
These kinds of posts send the subtle message that the provider feels I can’t be trusted to engage with detailed and complex information, understand what it’s saying, and make the decision to reach out to them for help.
These posts don’t treat me as the provider’s intellectual equal.
In short, they make my task of hiring an awesome person MORE difficult.
2) All the sales teaching that tells you (in so many words) to assume that your prospect doesn’t want to buy.
I was just reading over some sales advice from a very well-known five-figure client attraction program taught by some bro-marketers.
It said that you need to start off every sales call ASSUMING that your prospect is going to “fight like hell” to stay in their comfort zone and not buy from you.
Wow! I mean, when that’s your assumption, how are you going to run that sales call?
Certainly not in a way that would impress someone who definitely HAS already decided to buy a high-ticket service, and is just trying to figure out if you’re the one they want to buy from.
You’ll probably spend the whole call trying to get the person to admit how bad their problem is, so you can make sure they won’t “stay in their comfort zone” and not buy from you at the end of the call.
Except that, unbeknownst to you, the high-ticket types are very accustomed to getting out of their comfort zone and are already planning to buy. So they need you to instead spend that call time explaining what you’re actually going to do if they hire you, and finding out if it truly matches what they’re looking for.
3) All the sales teaching that focuses so hard on getting prospects to admit how bad their problem is.
This is totally misplaced for the high-ticket buyers, because they actually don’t necessarily have a super-awful problem.
This is a huge surprise to many people, but high-ticket buyers often tend to be doing really well already with whatever thing they’re hiring support for.
They’re just eager to get to that next stage of achievement, and they know that it’ll catapult their life and/or business to a whole new level of awesomeness.
I’ve heard so many people talk about how their sales calls are going “badly” because they ask 200 questions and still can’t get the prospect to admit any big pain/problem. So they assume they’re the wrong people and won’t say yes to an offer, and hang up!!
Hate to say it, but they’re likely hanging up with some of their best prospects. High-ticket buyers don’t have the patience for all that nonsense. They don’t necessarily have a huge problem, but they DO want to buy.
4) All the advice to “never share your price before a sales call because it’ll sound out-of-context.”
No, it won’t. 😉
People who are used to investing at a high level (or have stepped into the identity of someone who invests at a high level) are smart, and they’ve already done the value calculation in their heads.
(IF your marketing explains your results and how you get them, of course. Which it often doesn’t because you’ve been taught not to do that. See point #1.)
There have been several times recently when prospects said to me, “I know that I only need to make one sale to cover the cost of your program and then I’ll make so many more sales after that – it’s a no-brainer.”
They told ME that. I didn’t tell THEM that. 😉
And, similarly, when I invest in non-money-making services, I already know that dealing with stress or improving a relationship is priceless and will improve my life in all ways, including financially, if this person’s method really works.
(And if I’m asking them about working together, I believe that it does.)
So these types of folks are not scared off by whatever price you charge. They’ve likely invested that amount before. Or even if they haven’t, they can afford to and they see why it’s worth it.
So it’s just annoying when you don’t share it. Even though they can afford it, they usually plan their cashflow and investments carefully, and it would help them tremendously to be able to let the price sink in and plan for it before they reach out to you.
After all, especially if “what’s the price” is their main question, they don’t want to contact you or sign up for a call JUST to find that out. They respect your time, just as they want others to respect theirs.
I’ve definitely passed over people who looked interesting but didn’t share any pricing, in favor of hiring someone who did make everything clear upfront and didn’t make me contact them to get details.
5) The advice to create content to explain to your audience how much their problem is costing them.
This is just a backdoor way of (again) trying to convince people who don’t inherently see value that they should see value.
And how do you think high-ticket buyers like that?
Ding ding! They don’t! 🙂
I know that when I see people making posts about the costliness of the problem they solve, I automatically assume that they are not used to serving high-level clients like myself.
And that their services might not be for me.
I think it’s no coincidence that the folks who make these kinds of posts often DON’T make posts that actually explain what their method is and who exactly it works well for.
That’s what high-ticket buyers actually want to know, but the folks writing the content have the problem mis-diagnosed, and assume the problem is that their audience doesn’t see value in solving their problems.
Phew! Can you see how you’ve been set up to fail if you’re doing all this stuff and yet you want to attract high-ticket buyers?
Now, of course, the answer to how to attract them is simple – do the opposite of everything you’ve been taught. 😉
Now, if only there were a paradigm that had been built out with detailed protocols, designed to be the exact opposite of the “condescension paradigm.”
Oh wait! There is!
It’s the STRONG paradigm. 😉
Otherwise known as the Strong Method™.
It’s what I’ve been developing, teaching, and testing for the past 3.5 years or so (after 6+ years prior to that trying to use the condescension paradigm and hating it).
In the Strong Method™ we do give away the “how” in our free content, but only to a certain degree. It’s exactly as much as a high-ticket buyer tends to want to know – no more, no less.
In the Strong Method™ we assume people want to buy and that they don’t necessarily have a huge problem, and we don’t spend any time at all in the sales process trying to get them to admit that they do. We skip right to finding out if they’re a fit (and usually we don’t even need to do much explanation of what we’ll do with them in our services because our content did the job). And when the sales conversation is this simple, we don’t even necessarily need a call – lots of us enroll over DM/text. (yes, for high-ticket services!)
In the Strong Method™ we do share our price (or a close estimate) publicly – along with well-explained details of what our program/services involve.
In the Strong Method™ we focus our content only on how to solve problems, and not at all on how costly the problems are or how valuable it is to invest in solving them. We know that the right clients already understand that.
There’s even more detail to the method – but those are the high-level points.
For those who know right now that they want assistance to implement this model – I’ll tell you how you can work with me.
Then, for those who want to take a deeper look first, I’ll link to some explanatory videos and more content.
Okay, so first, how to work with me:
My main offer is an initial 30-day 1-on-1 engagement where I assist with writing up your offer details in the Strong way (in my 500-word pitch framework), fine-tune your description of the problem you solve and for whom you solve it, and write your content so that it gives away the right amount of “how.”
We also dip into topics like enrolling over DM and growing your organic audience if you need them – as the Strong paradigm has protocols for doing those things too!
I also have an extension offer where you can keep working with me for as long as you want, to get more feedback on your content or work on more offers.
I’m accepting a couple of new 1:1 clients right now, and you can DM me on Facebook if you’re interested.
More information on my 1-on-1 offering can be found here.
I also regularly offer group workshops that focus ONLY on helping you to articulate the outcome of your offer so that it’ll be attractive to high-ticket buyers.
You can always check this page to find out when the next workshops will be.
You can DM me on Facebook if you’re interested in attending a workshop (even if not on the listed dates – as there’ll be more).
More information on the workshops can be found here.
Now let’s talk about where to get more information on the Strong Method™.
I suggest actually beginning with this post.
It gives a great overview of the method AND links you out to videos that explain each component more and give examples.
And, if you click on different topics in the “tag cloud” on this page, you’ll also see tons of posts that explain different aspects of how the Strong Method™ handles pricing, positioning, outcome articulation, client-attracting content, sales conversations, and more.
These posts are actually all on Facebook also – but I duplicated them onto this website so they’re better organized and it’s easier to find stuff. 😉
And, if you want to discuss the Strong Method™ with others who are learning this way of doing things and love it, my free FB group Organic High Ticket Sales for Coaches & Experts is a great place to be.
You can always post questions there, or comment on any of my posts. 🙂
And, a last note – I will soon begin certifying folks who want to teach the Strong Method™ to their own clients. DM me on Facebook if you’re interested in this!