It seems to be popular for business experts to proclaim, “I don’t do cookie-cutter strategies! If you work with me, we’ll find a marketing/sales/social media/email strategy that works for YOU!”
And I always wonder what exactly they mean by “I don’t do cookie-cutter strategies.”
Do they truly mean to say that they are experts in (or can help you implement) tons of different strategies for growing a business/getting sales/clients?
By definition, a person cannot be expert in tons and tons of things.
(Check out some of the science on how expertise is formed. The book Talent is Overrated by Geoffrey Colvin goes through a lot of it. In a nutshell, it takes a long time to develop expertise, and that time of development must be spent in a very particular way. And the average human lifespan is not long enough to spend that amount of time on many different things.)
So I think a lot of people would be surprised to hear this, but in my opinion, saying things like “we will develop whatever strategy works for you” is not really a great selling point.
Not for most high-end buyers, anyway.
So this point is very relevant if you’re at all interested in getting those types of buyers as a foundation for your business and income. (I’ve found them indispensable as a near-guaranteed way of keeping my business afloat financially.)
By “high-end buyers” I mean people who can easily afford to spend multi-thousands (or even multi-tens-of-thousands) on coaching or expert services and highly value having expert support in their lives and businesses.
(All of which is to say: they do not have to be “coached” into getting a loan or putting the fee on a credit card in order to get the sale from them. They either earn a high salary or are wealthy.)
These types of folks are also often advanced already in whatever subject they’re thinking of hiring a coach or expert for. It’s not their first rodeo. They’re often trying to optimize what they’re already doing, or traverse a very specific gap in their journey.
So, they’re going to be looking for someone who specializes in their unique situation – not someone who says “I can do so many different things! And after you sign up and pay me, we’ll figure out which one is right for you!”
Now, I do have to admit that “I don’t do cookie-cutter strategies” could also mean something else. (Gosh, is it ever hard to comprehend people who don’t define their terms.)
The cookie-cutter bit could refer to the details of their strategy.
As in, maybe they teach a particular syntax for a sales conversation, but they’re not going to insist that you follow an exact script for objection handling – they’ll just teach you some general principles to follow.
Or maybe they teach a particular way of writing content, but they’re not going to insist that you use certain turns of phrase or put your sentences in a rigid order.
This actually makes sense, and would not necessarily be a turn-off to a high-ticket buyer.
In fact, as a high-ticket buyer myself, this is actually the most attractive kind of offer for me – where the person is clearly an expert in a specific way of achieving a result, yet their way also has a little bit of flexibility for individual difference or preference (yet not so much flexibility that the method transforms into something that is no longer the method).
So there are some really valuable takeaways here for folks who are looking to enroll more high-end buyers:
Think about all the stuff you help people with. Of all those things, what are you really an expert in?
Alternatively, what do you feel the most drawn to and want to devote the time to become an expert in? The answers to these questions will inform your offer and your ideal client (and, in turn, your messaging).
Think about your top-performing clients (the ones who feel most ideal). Did you really do something wildly different with each one? Or was the path to results somewhat, ahem… cookie-cutter? 😉
Meaning… were the main shifts the same? Did you end up using a similar framework or pointing similar things out?
99 times out of 100, for most experienced coaches and experts, the answer is YES.
When they work with me, part of my (cookie-cutter 😉 ) process is to have them analyze their top few clients, and we invariably find that as we look at how they work with their top clients, there emerges a common pattern – something that they can claim as their signature process, the method they specialize in.
With less-than-ideal clients, they often had to pretzel themselves a lot more into doing stuff that they didn’t enjoy or weren’t good at – and that’s what made them think they didn’t have a standard process and led them to say things like “I don’t do cookie-cutter strategies, I’ll figure out whatever works for you!”
Huge aha moment, right?
I’m happy to say that my own work fits the “cookie cutter with room for individual differences” model.
There is a certain way that I help coaches and experts to define their outcome message, create and pitch high-ticket offers, write lead-generating content, and have sales conversations over DM. And grow their FB audience.
All of these things include the same components every time, and I go through a very similar process each time to discern what the components should be.
Since I’ve helped hundreds of people now, I’ve seen a wide variety of businesses and have even discerned that there are patterns to how each type of business should create its message and offer and content.
Yet, even though the things I end up recommending are very predictable to me at this point, no one has ever told me that what we came up with felt “cookie-cutter.” Almost every client has told me that the message and content we came up with absolutely nailed what their work was about and felt very personalized.
(Maybe there’s another lesson here – that we all think our work is so unique, but if a third party can predict what our message should be, and we predictably love the message and find it unique, maybe we’re not so unique after all 😉 )
But seriously, in my method, there do need to be certain elements to the message, and they do tend to go in a certain order – but I don’t insist that people use certain words or phrases. I always check to make sure that they feel the words properly represent what they do, and fit with their writing “voice.”
And maybe that’s why clients don’t see my work as cookie-cutter, even though to me it very much is. 🙂
If you want my help to see how to word what it is you actually do (so you don’t have to say things like “I’m not cookie-cutter; I’ll come up with whatever works for you” 😉 and can attract the high-ticket buyers who are looking for exactly what you offer), you might be interested in joining my (cookie-cutter) program.
I take you through my battle-tested process – known as the Strong Method™ – for defining your outcome message, creating (or refining) high-ticket offers, pitching offers in my 500-word framework, writing lead-generating content in my 4-part framework, and qualifying clients over DM so you can enroll them without a call. (and growing your FB audience if you want help with that)
(Say, that’s another cool thing about having a “cookie-cutter” process – you get to say things like “my battle-tested process” because by definition, a method cannot be described as “tested” or “proven” unless it’s been repeated the same way, many times, in many circumstances.)
I do this work in a 30-day 1:1 intensive (with the option to extend the time if you want more feedback on your content).
DM me on FB if you’re interested in this program.
For long-time fans of the Strong Method™, I am also offering a certification program so you can learn how to use my method with your own clients. You can DM me on FB if you’re interested in that.
(Say, that’s another cool thing about “cookie-cutter” processes – they can be turned into something that can be re-taught to others, spreading your work further and giving you an additional income stream from certification students!)
If you want a lot more details about the blueprints I use for all aspects of my process – they’re all available on this website. (Start with the section labeled “Strong Method summaries.”)
I’m also interested to know what you think people mean when they say “I don’t do cookie-cutter strategies” – and any other thoughts you may have on this topic. 🙂