I often hear from business service providers that it’s hard to get clients who will pay a decent amount (for services like website design, funnels, visual branding design, monitoring a website for crashes/viruses, and more) because so many people just hire cheap providers from Fiverr and the like.
And their potential clients are always looking for a deal, and get “sticker shock” because they expect to see a price of $25 or $100 or whatever – just like the Fiverr people.
If this is happening to you, here’s what I think is going on with that “sticker shock”:
You’re not speaking to the right people. You’re speaking to people who merely want the “thing” (the website or the page designed or whatever) – they don’t necessarily want a specific RESULT from the thing.
Buyers of high-ticket business services, in contrast, tend to want a thing because they want a specific result (some kind of money saved or earned for their business, usually – and they have a specific way that looks for them).
Case in point: a friend of mine recently started a local business in our community here in Chicagoland. She was trying to get a website designed and built for the business, and kept lamenting the fact that “everyone charges an arm and a leg.” She was trying to get it done as cheaply as possible.
When I asked her what specific results she wanted to come from the website (like how many customers, for what products, etc.), she looked stumped. She hadn’t thought about that. She just thought she needed a website to “look legit” (kind of a vague reason, of course).
In contrast, high-ticket buyers will have much more specific reasons like:
“We are getting about 1 client per month for our 5k program from our website right now and we would like to get at least 4 per month. We think that the SEO needs to be better to have more people landing on the site”
“We keep getting feedback that our site is difficult to navigate and the checkout page keeps displaying an error message. We’re losing sales – our numbers are down by 20% since last month”
So, website designers who want high-paying clients need to describe their services with these kinds of reasons in mind (so that the right people come forward).
Even more deeply, though, they need to DESIGN their services with those kinds of reasons in mind (ideally, with ONE reason in mind).
What I mean is: it would serve these website designers to become an expert in solving a particular type of problem, if they’re not a specific expert like that already.
After all, it doesn’t do any good to say you’re an expert in helping coaches attract more buyers from their websites for their high-ticket programs with a specific SEO method if that’s not… well… true. 😉
So there are two parts to this:
1) Actually BECOMING an expert in solving a specific business-related problem with your service, and
2) Learning to DESCRIBE your service/offer in terms of this specific problem.
I help with #2. I don’t help with #1.
(Although sometimes, when somebody tells me about their business and clients, I notice that they ARE already an expert in solving a certain “niched problem,” even if they don’t realize it themselves. That “niched problem” can usually be revealed when we look at their clients who got best results and compare them to the clients who got not-so-great results.)
I want to let you know, if you don’t know already, that I have a very specific “messaging blueprint” for two kinds of social media posts that I have people write to attract high-ticket clients. (And they can be used as website pages, emails, and blog posts, too.)
These blueprints incorporate the philosophies I’m sharing above, so you don’t have to figure out what wording goes where or how to make the whole thing flow.
(You can study the whole method – if you haven’t already – after you’re done reading this post. For a good primer, see here.)
But for a moment here, I’ll just share a couple of snippets of the messaging structure with you.
One of the two types of posts is a post that directly pitches your offer/service.
And the very first sentence of that post describes that specific result that you’re helping the high-ticket buyer to get.
For the website design example, it could sound like:
“I have a premium website design service for coaches who have already successfully sold a $5K offer at least 10 times to people who found them through their website, and would now like their website SEO-optimized so that they can get more clients for that offer.”
WOW!
Like, wow.
Do you see how that would IMMEDIATELY filter out all the people who just want the “thing” (the website) and want it as cheaply as possible? In ONE SENTENCE you’re calling out the exact person who’d see the most value in this.
There’s more to the pitch framework, but that’s the most powerful part.
And then, if we think about the other content you write (the value-giving stuff which I call belief-shifting posts), I have a blueprint for those as well, which will call forward the exact right person.
One snippet of this framework is that each post tends to focus on a specific micro-problem (or question) of the ideal client, that relates to that overall problem that has them wanting to purchase your service.
So, for the example above, one of your posts could talk about “one way in which your blog posts can be SEO-optimized to have more high-ticket coaching clients finding your site.”
Instead of the blah, vague content that so many people write, like “10 WAYS A PROFESSIONALLY-DESIGNED WEBSITE CAN BENEFIT YOUR BUSINESS.”
See the huge difference there?
I was going to list out a bunch more examples of offer post beginnings and value post topics for other business service providers – but this post is already getting long.
And, the truth is, if you work with me 1-on-1 in my 30-day intensive, I can really quickly help you to see what all of your messaging and content ought to sound like (and what your offer/package itself ought to look like) if you want to attract high-ticket buyers.
I’ve had so many different types of clients at this point, that I already have a rough idea of how each type of business should position itself (i.e. – I’m not reinventing the wheel each time I help someone with this stuff).
Annnnd… if you want to be certified to use my methods to help your own clients to attract more high-ticket buyers, part of my upcoming Strong Method Certification Program will include a list (an index, if you will) of what offer pitches and content topics should roughly look like for almost any type of service business or coaching business that you can imagine.
Cool, huh? 🙂
And if you want help with articulating JUST the problem that you’re solving for your high-ticket buyers (a.k.a. the beginning of your offer statement), you might love the group workshops I’m doing on the topic of “How to Articulate Your Niche and Outcome.”
To find out the date(s) when the next workshop(s) will take place, you can always check out this page for the latest info.
You can DM me on Facebook if you’re interested in any of these three offers.
More information on each is available on the Work With Me page of this site.
If you’re a business service provider, I would also welcome any thoughts you have on what I shared in this post! Feel free to comment here (on the Facebook version of this post). 🙂