#SalesStrategy

Take These 5 Solid Steps When You Feel Unappreciated for Providing Valuable Content

Take These 5 Solid Steps When You Feel Unappreciated for Providing Valuable Content

I see you. I see your disappointed, exhausted face after cranking out content after content. For free.

You consider yourself a hardworking and good student of marketing, and you know that getting your business off the ground by just relying on word-of-mouth isn’t sustainable.

So, you tune into podcasts, read up on articles and follow experts on social media to see what they suggest and what they are doing. It won’t take long before you learn it’s all about “giving away the best stuff” and “engage, engage, and engage” long before making an offer.

You roll up your sleeves and start creating content even though the process is scary and uncomfortable. You press on by navigating through fear of judgment, imposter syndrome, the dreaded feeling of how you look on camera…(or how much you hate your own voice). You are a trooper.

But…the problem is…it’s not working. You aren’t getting any traction, let alone inquiries for hiring your business. You wonder, “What am I doing wrong?! I’m grinding myself into the ground by creating content!”

You find yourself feeling resentful. Your brain is fried to the point where it’s crispy. You are on the edge of giving it all up.

The good news - You are here. The bad news - I’m going to tell you that you have been somewhat misinformed. But I won’t just leave you there. I am going to tell you what to do. So, I think that’s still good news.

Just to be clear, the advice of “giving away the best stuff,” and “engage & don’t sell” isn’t wrong. What’s wrong is your understanding of doing that at which stage of your business and for whom. This, in my strong opinion, is not explained well enough by those experts. We’ll get into that in a minute.

Now take a deep breath & stop whining. We have work to do.

Abundant Selling: How to Fill Up Your Pipeline Without Selling Like the Rest Pt. 1

Abundant Selling: How to Fill Up Your Pipeline Without Selling Like the Rest Pt. 1

Did you like math when you were in school? If you did, you are my hero.

I hated math as a kid. I loved reading & drawing. The place I wanted to live in forever was a fantasy land where fairies existed & I could use magic.

Naturally, daydreaming was my jam and daydream I did. But it all had to change when I was at a halfway into junior high.

I was sick of the public school I was attending because of the many meaningless rules & restrictions that came with it. Stupid rules made me feel worthless as if I didn't know any better on how to conduct myself. I hated it. With a passion.

Then I learned about how getting into a prestigious high school would grant me more autonomy because all teachers cared about was how many students would get into…prestigious universities & nothing else mattered--like how I modified my school uniform, how I did my hair, how I wore non-white socks, or whether or not I wore makeup.

My mom may have lied about this. But I bought it. I bought it HARD.

One problem - I had to nail both math & science exams in order to get into the one I had chosen...the best in the region. My teacher begged me (and my parents) to reconsider. He said I had lost my mind & it was virtually impossible with my grades even if I aced all 5 subjects with perfect scores.

You probably know how this story ends. So, I will fast forward it for you. I learned to LOVE what I hated by gamifying everything. I aced. I got in. People cheered witnessing the impossible becoming possible. End of story.

“Selling” is kinda like math in business. Many despise it. But business needs to sell. No getting around that.

So, what do we do?

My friend, Lisa, coats meds with peanut butter before giving them to her dogs. Clever, I thought. 

Can sales be like that? Can we put peanut butter on it? Then we close our eyes & swallow our pride?

7 Signs Why Going Hyper Local & Offering Super High-Touch Interactions Are the Ultimate Future-Proof Strategy: The Hidden Business Gold Mine You May Be Overlooking

7 Signs Why Going Hyper Local & Offering Super High-Touch Interactions Are the Ultimate Future-Proof Strategy: The Hidden Business Gold Mine You May Be Overlooking

As a kid growing up in Japan, I used to daydream about what might be out there waiting for me beyond the ocean lines. 

Because I lived in an island nation, my excitement for the unknown and the future was that much more intense. Unlike living in Austria or Bolivia, islanders are truly isolated by oceans. We simply have no concept of “just crossing the border.”  In other words, living abroad is very foreign to us.

I had all sorts of romantic & wild notions about the idea of living abroad & how different and special my life could be.

Fast forwarding 10 years to when I found myself in the US as an exchange student, I realized it wasn’t all that I imagined as a kid. Right then & there, I realized I took so many things for granted when I lived in Japan, especially things my parents had provided for me. 

This was a priceless lesson in my teenage years:  Appreciate everything; do not take things for granted, however small they may be. How ungrateful I must have looked in their eyes, dying & rushing to get out of where I was, all just to be let down by reality later on?  Like a deserter tumbling down the sand dunes, I ran towards a flowing spring of water, only to discover it was a mirage.

Wanting to rely on getting easy leads online is a lot like this story.  Many of us often romanticize what it would be like to get online prospects into our sales funnel semi-automatically by offering free, downloadable cheat sheets, check lists, webinars, video trainings, etc.  Heck, we can even invest a little in paid ads.  How wonderful it would be!

Now your brain will go haywire with all kinds of expectations.

“No more networking.  No more cold calling.  No more selling.  No more RFP’s.  I don’t even need to leave my house.  Better yet, I can sit by the beach with my laptop & WIFI… I’ll hire help remotely.  People will just buy my stuff online… One-to-one is so yesterday.  One-to-many is the future!”

Still Trading Time for Money? Overcome These 5 Key Hurdles and Finally Stop Charging by the Hour

Still Trading Time for Money? Overcome These 5 Key Hurdles and Finally Stop Charging by the Hour

Are you sick of tracking time for your own work? Are you sick of constantly reminding your team to track time with an app like Harvest for pricing purposes?

You probably recognize that tracking time itself is a stand-alone task that eats away valuable work hours. You are also aware that trading time for money isn't a sustainable business model, and you want to stop this vicious cycle.

But... (I know there's always a *but*) you aren't sure how to go about making the change?

I also started out by selling my services on an hourly rate basis. It’s OK. We all need to start from somewhere.  Although it was nerve-wracking in the beginning, I made the switch, even with existing clients, from charging hourly to value-based (a.k.a. expertise-based) pricing. If you are wondering how I did it, wonder no more. 

In this post, I'm going to share the top 5 hurdles that keep you from making the switch to value-based pricing & what actions you can take right now to overcome each hurdle.

If you are a solopreneur reading this, you'll get a ton out of this post.  Guaranteed.  By the end of this post, you will see clear steps towards value-based pricing that will allow you to gradually make the shift. 

But this is not just for solopreneurs.  Many established, full-on service businesses with physical locations and FT employees are still trading time for money by billing based on hourly rates.  In most cases, there are legitimate reasons as to why they continue to do so. 

Even then, I always encourage them to switch to value-based pricing, as the benefit of doing so is immense.  We’ll go over that in detail later.

Here’s the good news.  Unlike 15 or 20 years ago, when there were fewer options to charge for services, we now have plenty of options we can explore.  Thanks to the evolution of internet-based services, especially SaaS/MaaS, it’s much easier for customers to accept new pricing models.

In other words, they are more open-minded.

This allows even traditional service businesses to change their pricing & billing with less resistance. 

No Budget? No Problem: The Magic Blueprint to Overcome "No Budget" Objections with Confidence

No Budget? No Problem: The Magic Blueprint to Overcome "No Budget" Objections with Confidence

This topic popped up when I was leading a strategy session with a video production duo the other day. 

They were feeling puzzled and slightly defeated.  I empathized as I knew these guys have been gun-ho about going after new leads to create more opportunities for their business.

Good news is, this is something you can fix. Here, I'm going to show you how to tackle “no budget” objections.  In a way, THIS IS THE GREATEST INDICATOR that you need to revisit your outreach strategy. You are lucky to face this problem (that you can totally fix.) So, read on.