One of the biggest complaints I hear over and over again from new clients is not being paid what they are worth. They say things to me like “You know, Sharon, it’s ________________(insert whatever city you want here) and people just won’t pay much here.’’ I have lived in a small holiday town on the Indian Ocean in South Africa and I now live in Dallas, Texas and I hear the same thing from BOTH locales.
Here are some tips to help you charge what you’re worth so you don’t feel depleted and discouraged by what you’re charging:
1. Your prices should correlate to the RESULTS your program or product delivers to your clients and customers. If clients enroll in a Private Platinum Program with me it is not cheap but I am very confident of the results that they will get by working with me one on one. You can do the same.
2. Raise your fees and/or prices 20% immediately for new clients. This comes directly from one of my mentors, Kendall SummerHawk. It is a sure, quick way to increase your prices and your bottom line immediately. IT WORKS. Try it.
3. Practice saying your new fees so it’s so easy and natural for you. This is also from Kendall. Practice until you can say your new fee and then in the very next breath say, “Please pass the salt.’’ You know, so it’s no big deal at all to you. Your clients will sense if you are hesitant at all when you are asking for a fee. Practice, Practice, Practice.
4. Be proud and confident of charging more than everyone else as long as you are delivering, no make that over delivering great service and results to your clients. So many people set their prices based on what everyone else is charging or they charge LOWER hoping to win business. When you charge in the middle or at the lower end of the spectrum you become a commodity and your clients will price shop you and you’ll actually lose business! Price yourself in a higher tier than your competition and deliver MORE, MUCH MORE than your competition and your clients will happily pay you for this. You don’t want to be known as the cheapest in your market do you? I know I don’t and neither should you.
5. Focus on the 20% of your clients who bring you 80% of your business. The Parato Principle applies to all businesses including yours. So many people constantly try to bring in new business while neglecting clients and customers who have already purchased from them. It’s a fact that once a customer or client has invested with you—no matter how big or small the amount—they are more likely to invest with you again. So be wise with your time and cultivate your existing clients and customers more deeply.
Be strong. Be confident. Know what you have to offer your clients and customers is excellent and worth every penny you are asking them to invest with you. You wouldn’t be in business if it wasn’t worth it, right?
One of the most important mindsets you can have in your life is the power of belief. What you believe is absolutely critical to the results you will achieve in your business. Do you believe in abundance or lack? Do you believe in prosperity or poverty? Do you believe you deserve to be successful? These are key questions you must ask yourself and HONESTLY answer in order to have the success you want in your business.
Through the ages successful, rich, and powerful individuals who have attained financial success have believed the following:
1. That we live in a Universe of unlimited abundance not lack.
2. That we each have the ability to focus on what we want to accomplish and if we put steady work towards what we want while at the same time believing we can achieve it we can. Sounds corny but it’s TRUE.
3. That what we believe about ourselves and what is possible is a direct result of our beliefs about our self-esteem, self-worth, self-respect and self confidence.
4. That we cannot rise above whatever we believe about ourselves. So if you believe you aren’t deserving of success (even if it’s deep down inside you) you will not achieve the success desire.
Dr. Maxwell Maltz, the author of Psycho-Cybernetics said 50 years ago that “No human can long outperform his self-image.” So you must be aware of exactly what your self image is and do work like daily affirmations to improve it if it’s not as strong as you want it to be.
5. That you must stay persistent in your beliefs and obsessive about believing you will attain the business success you want.
I know all of this sounds a bit “Woo Woo’’ and “Out There’’ but I tell you it’s all true. If you can master this ONE aspect in your mindset then you can achieve whatever you desire and want to manifest in your business. If you don’t believe you deserve to be successful in your business there is no way you’ll really ever be successful in your business. You can’t be because you’ve put limits on your success!
On the other hand if you knock out the negative and limiting beliefs of “I’m not good enough.’’ “I don’t deserve to be successful in my business.’’ Guess what?
You WILL be as amazingly successful as you want to be. I know this first hand. I am rebuilding my business in the USA after having a thriving business in South Africa and I knock out limiting beliefs in my brain EVERY SINGLE DAY.
You need to get rid of the tendency to talk negatively to yourself, especially when you are down. You need to sit down and make some goals which you commit to paper, writing them as if you have already achieved them. You really need to change your mindset about money and you can do this using a number of key steps:
1) There is plenty for everyone, including you. You need to know that you are not taking money out of someone else’s pocket.
2) Change your expectations about money. Brian Tracy says you mustn’t start your day in a negative fashion. Be excited about the day and have a high level of positive expectancy. Make positive affirmations about money instead of saying: “I don’t have money” or “Why can’t I make money?” Try saying “I always have enough money to pay for all the necessities and luxuries of life cash.’’
3) The one single thing that has changed my life is learning to tithe. For those who don’t attend church you can still tithe to wherever you are spiritually fed. I believe that I have been prosperous in this market because I have been given protection through my tithing. Release that 10% and let it go. I promise you will do more with the 90% you have left tithing than if you kept the whole 100%. It’s a spiritual principal I’ve always found to be true. Do the electronic transfer or write and send your check as soon as you receive your payment. Don’t wait until the end of the month, because then there will be no money left.
4) Write your goals down on paper and review your progress daily. Do your affirmations in the present tense, for example: “I earn x number of dollars a month”. You will then attract circumstances and coincidences that will help you do that. I personally sold my house in South Africa at the exact price I wanted it by a particular date doing this very thing. It works.
To find out more about the secrets to creating a magnetic money mindset and capturing a constant stream of ideal, high paying clients sign up for Sharon’s free offering at: http://bit.ly/fEffy3
Sharon Killion of Brilliant Success Marketing is passionate about mentoring high achieving entrepreneurs in smart marketing and soft selling so they experience clients, cash and abundance.
Money in general is not discussed much except in financial journals. Most of us don’t grow up learning about money. I want to help you become more comfortable with money. Interestingly, the Bible mentions money almost as many times as it refers to prayer. If treated properly money can be your friend; not your enemy.
I know what it’s like to live on overdraft, making monthly payments, credit card bills. Personal experience means I can share what I’ve learned about it with others.
If you are stressed about money, it’s very hard to work and to sell. Customers can sense your desperation. I suggest that you ‘Fake it till you make it’. This you can achieve by breathing slowly and relaxing.
There’s nothing more powerful than not needing a sale. You will be naturally more relaxed in your body language and clients pick up on this. Allyson Koekhoven, a creative copywriter on my team knows very well how this can negatively affect your business. “After losing my only two clients in a two-week period, I was in a very depressed state of mind. I desperately pursued prospective clients and, without fail, each time they slammed the door in my face.”
Allyson started goal setting, finding more creative ways to manage her finances and in her words, putting her faith in God’s master plan for her. The result? “Once I stopped beating myself up and portraying a more relaxed and confident exterior, the work started rolling in and I now have a number of ideal, high paying clients who I love working with.”
I have spent a lot of time studying how to attract money to me. Authors I have studied include Brian Tracy, Dan Kennedy, Michael Masterson, Joe Vitale, Napoleon Hill. Hill interviewed 100 of the world’s richest men and studied them for years under the direction of Andrew Carnagie and the result is his amazing book ‘Think & Grow Rich’.
Sharon Killion of Brilliant Success Marketing is passionate about mentoring high achieving entrepreneurs in smart marketing and soft selling so they experience clients, cash and abundance.
The great genius Albert Einstein said one of my favorite quotes ever when he said “Imagination is more important than knowledge.’’ To me it’s especially poignant coming from one of the world’s smartest men—ever. I’m grateful that God gave us this great gift of imagination. Can you imagine how dull and bland and backwards the world would be without it?
Imagination is critical for you to experience Brilliant Success in your life and business. Unfortunately we get really busy and stretch ourselves to where we have no down time to even think and imagine how we want our business and life to look. It’s important for us to have rest and downtime so we are relaxed and we can access the creative ideas that we already have in our mind.
Nothing has been brought into the world unless it was thought of beforehand by someone. If you’ve been given a burning desire to start a particular business I honestly believe that the means for your business to come to fruition exists or you wouldn’t have been given the idea from God. If there’s a product or program or business you’ve been wanting to create. Go for it. It’s there just waiting for you to create it.
Here are some simple tips to help you imagine your business & life to Brilliant Success:
1. Decide what you really, really WANT. You can’t imagine something in great detail unless you really, really WANT it so decide what you really want to manifest in your life. Be sure to decide on what YOU want—not what your spouse, children or parents tell you that you SHOULD want.
2. Write down what you really want in present tense as if it already exists. For instance if you really want to make $20,000 a month in your business, write down, “I easily earn $20,000 a month in my business.” Repeat this daily.
3. Imagine and Visualize what your life would be like if you had what you’ve written down. In our example imagine how great it’d feel to earn $20,000 a month in your business? What would your life look like? Go into great detail visualizing every aspect of every great thing you’ll experience by receiving $20,000 a month in your business. You can make your own mind movie that you can play over and over again so you’ll always be in touch with what you want to bring about in your life.
4. Feel all the fantastic emotions that go along with attaining or receiving what you want. Sit somewhere quite where you won’t be interrupted, close your eyes and allow all those great feelings come to the surface. Remember your sub-conscious mind doesn’t know the difference between what is real and what is imagined.
5. Relax. Let it all go. Know that you WILL receive what you are imagining as long as it is good and for your good and for other’s good. Don’t try to control anything after you’ve imagined you’ve attained your goal. Relax and it will happen!
Try these simple steps for 21 days on a goal that you want to bring about and see what happens!
Here are some simple tips to help rid yourself of Fear and Doubt. These are principles I’ve learned over the last couple of years from various mentors I’ve worked with and in my own studies and experience. I hope you find them as helpful as I have.
Realize fear is just your ego self trying to protect you. The next time you hear silly thoughts in your head like “I can’t do this’’ or “Why should I put out an e-zine? Who is going to listen to ME?’’ or something like “I’ll never make much money at what I’m doing. I’m just not as good as ____________( insert whomever you are comparing yourself to)’’ realize that these thoughts are just NOT TRUE.
Recognize doubt as just another false or limiting belief and ignore it. The next time you doubt yourself and your abilities work quickly to label it the false and limiting belief it is. Once more, it’s just your ego trying to protect you. It doesn’t want you to get hurt. Unfortunately when we listen to our ego selves and the false messages it tells us we get hurt even more.
Know that you are on this planet to make a difference in the world and to share the special gifts and talents you were born with, your Unique Brilliance, to the world. We were all born on this earth for a positive purpose and to love others and to help them heal. Embrace this fact and revel in knowing you DO have a special message, a special gift the world needs to hear and that the world WANTS to hear. I am convinced there is an audience for anyone of us who wants to get “out there’’ and help others no matter what business they are in and no matter how many people there are already seemingly doing the same thing. These other people aren’t YOU! : D
Realize that every time you “buy into fear and doubt’’ you are not living in your own power and you’re actually “hiding out.”I’d never heard of the term hiding out until a year and a half ago and only recognized I was hiding out a little over a year ago. I was hiding out because I thought I needed to learn more (even though I already KNEW PLENTY to help whom I needed to help). I thought I needed to buy more programs (when I had PLENTY of information products on my office shelves already) and so on. When you’re hiding out as I was you aren’t living in your power and delivering what you are called to give to the world.
When fears and doubts crop up in your head say “Thank-you, I appreciate your trying to protect me, but I know I can do this.’’ And then let it go. Don’t try to fight the silly thoughts (as I like to call them!). When they creep into your mind. just say “Thank-You for this” let it go and replace it with a positive thought. Seriously, it’s as simple as that. It takes practice but that’s all there is to it.
Decide you will only listen to thoughts in your head that are positive and uplifting. Once more this is a discipline. It’s a discipline you can master with time and practice. Luckily as you start to do this it becomes easier and easier. We’ll never be perfect at it BUT it’s so much better than listening to the negative, limiting thoughts that keep you stuck.
Write down in present tense every day a one sentence goal for your business you most want to achieve. Write your goal down once a day and believe you will achieve it. I write down 12-15 juicy goals a day and I promise you the process works. By having a goal or goals you want to achieve in your business you will be more aware of limiting and false beliefs such as fear and doubt crop up into your mind so you can ignore them and move onto your next level faster.
If I had a dollar (or a rand) for every time I had a client tell me, “But Sharon, this is _________________ (insert city and country here) and they won’t pay that much” I’d be quite wealthy! Well, maybe not independently wealthy but I’d definitely be richer.
Do you ever make the limiting assumption that your clients can’t or won’t pay you higher fees? I’ve lived on the South Coast of South Africa for the past six years and I’ve heard this over and over again living here– and it IS a holiday area and it isn’t exactly a big business hub, BUT there are plenty of people who will pay higher fees than you’d guess for either highly personalized, VIP service or guaranteed results of some kind. I’ve received higher fees for my services living here as have my clients.
When I branched north this year to work with ladies in Umhlanga and Ballito (both of these areas are VERY wealthy!) guess what I heard right from the start? “But Sharon, this is Ballito, the people here won’t pay much”, and so on and so on.
Then just 2 weeks ago after watching the Springboks barely lose to Australia in Rugby in Bloemfontein, I was talking to a man who owns an IT company in Cape Town and guess what? He told me, “Sharon, I’d love to only have a few top level clients and give them VIP 24/7 service, but this is Cape Town and they won’t pay higher prices in Cape Town!” And if you live in America and don’t know, Cape Town is a very wealthy area in South Africa. There is plenty of money there!
My point is no matter where you live most people will assume people won’t pay more for anything. I’m sure I’ll hear it when I move to Dallas in October. But this type of thinking is wrong. It’s a proven fact that 20% of any population will pay MORE, in many cases, MUCH MORE for VIP service, personalized service, quicker information, quicker results, a pampered experience, and so on.
Most entrepreneurs charge lower rates than they should be charging and many times they are LOSING business by not offering a VIP higher level more pampered program to their clients. Is this you? I hear this from many of my clients. Start accepting only “A” clients in your business and begin releasing the clients who cost you money and time and are hassles to work with. You will be amazed at how freeing this is. I only work with clients whom I absolutely LOVE and my work is anything but work…..it’s a blast. I recommend you do the same.
Work on believing that the service you offer to your clients IS very valuable, stand by it and of course, deliver it. If you honestly believe in your service and what you are offering to your clients and you know your clients will get amazing results by working with you then you will be doing yourself a favour to increase your fees by 20% right away–at least to new clients.
If you aren’t being paid enough for what you do then it’s because you don’t believe people will pay you enough. As soon as you make the simple mind-set shift and start thinking that your clients WILL pay you what you’re worth you will be able to price your services accordingly and start receiving it.
Here are a few top secrets to help you experience more clients and cash flow abundance in your business. They are simple yet powerful strategies to help you pull in more money and clients immediately.
START MARKETING! This sounds so obvious, I know. BUT, there are plenty of High-Achieving Entrepreneurs who don’t market their businesses, products or themselves at all. They wait for the phone to ring or for the customer to walk in the door. Passivity and inaction will not work in our new economic reality.
“Always keep your pipeline (or marketing funnel) FULL of potential prospects and customers.”This tip comes from my Dad, Sledge Killion, who is a Master Sales Genius.
He’s been in sales or sales management for 46 years now–by choice. I don’t think he’ll ever retire. He enjoys helping people too much. The best sales advice my dad ever gave me as a raw rookie in sales is to always keep my pipeline overflowing. No matter what. Period. You may love what you do, but your number one job now is to market yourself and your business.
Take time out of your business every day to market your products, services and even yourself to help you keep your pipeline full. This means blocking out time each day to promote your products, services or yourself. Don’t neglect marketing and promoting yourself in your efforts because, remember, clients and customers buy YOU first.
Spend time writing by hand — yes, by hand — notes to clients. Send clients and prospective clients relevant or interesting articles in the mail with a note you think this might be of interest to them.
Use this time to call at least 5 prospective clients a day. Send follow up emails to current clients and customers as well as potential clients. Use this time to plan your next email or snail mail campaign. Use it to write your newsletter. Use it to plan your marketing plan for the next 3, 6, or 12 months.
Make sure you do some type of activity to promote your products, services or yourself every day no matter what.
Systemize your marketing. Begin by systemizing your marketing time by scheduling marketing time in your diary or in Outlook every day–and stick to it!
Schedule follow up calls to clients and potential clients and keep the marketing appointments you make. Invest in an auto-responder system either through your shopping cart or on its own such as aweber or icontact. Auto-responders are a great way to stay in touch with your “list.”
INVEST in marketing your business. No one says it better than the brilliant Direct Marketer, DanKennedy:
“If you are spending on marketing; you’re doing it all wrong; you need to be investing in the acquisition, nurturing, retaining, upgrading and multiplying of customers as assets.”
Personally, I believe there is no better place for me to invest my money than in the marketing and growth of my own business. I hope you will too. In our new world economy investing in your business by growing it through Smart Marketing & Soft Selling™ is a smart decision.
We’re living in an age of rapid growth & development in the world. As a result of this speed and hecticness you need to implement mindset tools to help you excel to Brilliant Success. Here are a few tips that will empower you in your life and business if you will internalize them:
You and you alone are responsible for the results that manifest in both your business and your life. This is hard to recognize at first because we want to blame somebody or something else most of the time when we don’t manifest the results we want. For instance, it’s easy to blame “The Economy” when business dips. After all the entire world is in a depression, right? In fact, there are many entrepreneurs experiencing their best year ever (seriously!) because of smart planning and manoeuvring when others are languishing and complaining.
Learn from the past, plan for the future and live in the present. Many of us tend to wallow too long in our past mistakes or perceived failures. Make it a practice of quickly acknowledging where you made an error, correct your error and move right along forward. Our mind likes to play tricks on us and likes to keep us down for some bizarre reason. Ignore your mind when it sends you these false messages. Say, “Thank-You for that” and move on.
Look around you every day for opportunities. Opportunities are all around us each and every day. When you are clear, focused and have a vision in your mind and on your Vivid Vision Board of what you want and where you are going you will find yourself seeing opportunities that are just waiting for you. When you are hurried, negative and toxic you won’t see the opportunities all around you.
Be ready to learn the lessons given to you every day (or almost every day) in your life. Life throws us lessons almost every day. It’s up to us to accept the lesson brought before us so we can move on or we’ll keep receiving the same lesson over and over until we get it. If you live life knowing this and begin to look forward to the lessons that are given to you it will cause you to live more excitedly, joyfully and purposefully.
You have the answers inside of you. All the answers to life’s questions are inside of you. You KNOW what to do. If you will get quiet once a day and listen to that still, small voice inside you and follow your instinct you will do the right thing that you should do at the right moment. All you need to do is get still, quiet, listen and trust yourself that you KNOW the answer to whatever situation you are facing.
Practice these mindsets and see how they will keep you on the path to Brilliant Success.
I wish I could take credit for this line but I can’t. While listening to a CD course this week I heard Bob Bly—Copywriting Guru—reply to a question asked of him about “What if the field I’m in already has a guru, or tons of gurus in it already?’’ His reply was “The sandbox is bigger than you think.’’
This statement really hit home with me because many times I find myself comparing myself to other marketing gurus already out there and thinking, “Does the world REALLY need another marketing coach/mentor?’’ When in reality, yes there are tons of marketing coaches out there but there is only one me with my experience, education and results. Just like there is only one YOU with your experience, education and results.
Here are a few take aways for you that have helped me recently when I’ve found myself believing false or limiting beliefs about whether I should play in the sandbox or not:
Recognize there is plenty of room in the sandbox for all of us. The sandbox IS bigger than you think and there’s plenty of room for you to play in it. Even if there is a bigger competitor out there, Who cares? Not everyone can access the bigger coach or guru, but they can access YOU and YOU can help them.
Choose a corner of the sandbox for you to play in. Choose a niche to work in that is smaller and tighter than your competitors. Narrow your focus down more specifically than you are right now. Become known as the EXPERT in your niche. There is always room for people in business who want to be experts in their field.
Build your own unique sandcastle with your own unique distinguishing marks and touches on it. Make sure your business and marketing materials reflects YOU, your Unique Brilliance, your passion and your results. Remember not everyone out there is attracted to the same people all of the time! You build your business with your Unique Brilliance and you will attract your Ideal, High-Paying Clients every time.
There’s no competition in the sandbox. Your biggest competitor is ultimately yourself. Stop comparing yourself with all the others in your field and focus on what you are meant to do—helping your chosen audience with their particular challenges and problems. Work on making yourself the best at what you do (sales, coaching, web design, training, etc…….) and then your Ideal, High Paying Clients will find you. Seriously.
These are 4 simple and effective ways for you to shift your thinking the next time you find yourself questioning why you are in business or why should you even try to work in a field where there are plenty of others in it already and they are “bigger’’ than you.
me like “You know, Sharon, it’s ________________(insert whatever city you want here) and people just won’t pay much here.’’ I have lived in a small holiday town on the Indian Ocean in South Africa and I now live in Dallas, Texas and I hear the same thing from BOTH locales.
it’s especially poignant coming from one of the world’s smartest men—ever. I’m grateful that God gave us this great gift of imagination. Can you imagine how dull and bland and backwards the world would be without it?
Here are some simple tips to help rid yourself of Fear and Doubt. These are principles I’ve learned over the last couple of years from various mentors I’ve worked with and in my own studies and experience. I hope you find them as helpful as I have.
If I had a dollar (or a rand) for every time I had a client tell me, “But Sharon, this is _________________ (insert city and country here) and they won’t pay that much” I’d be quite wealthy! Well, maybe not independently wealthy but I’d definitely be richer.
Here are a few top secrets to help you experience more clients and cash flow abundance in your business. They are simple yet powerful strategies to help you pull in more money and clients immediately.
We’re living in an age of rapid growth & development in the world. As a result of this speed and hecticness you need to implement mindset tools to help you excel to Brilliant Success. Here are a few tips that will empower you in your life and business if you will internalize them:
I wish I could take credit for this line but I can’t. While listening to a CD course this week I heard Bob Bly—Copywriting Guru—reply to a question asked of him about “What if the field I’m in already has a guru, or tons of gurus in it already?’’ His reply was “The sandbox is bigger than you think.’’