Module One: Start with The Business Essentials

You’re in business to make a profit, but maybe that’s not happening yet to the level you want. You might already have a database of subscribers and a good reputation for providing valuable content to your followers. But are you making the sales you need to reach your income goals?  The chances are that you haven’t yet found the key to turning those engaged prospects into paying clients.

In this module, we’ll start at square one and identify the obstacles that are blocking you. You’ll build up incrementally through the course to a place where you are making consistent sales to loyal, satisfied clients who sing your praises and recommend you to others.

 

Your Current Business

Before we dive into the details, let’s look at where you are with your business right now.

This is a good place to take a step back and reflect on the rewards coming to you from your business as of today.

Where would you place yourself on a scale of 1-10 (where 10 is off the scale of happiness) on the following?

1. Satisfaction
2. Revenue
3. Meeting Long-Term Goals

 

Satisfaction

 

Revenue

 

Meeting Long-Term Goals

 

 

How Do You Turn Prospects into Clients Now?

We’re starting off assuming that you have at least a few paying clients already, but if you don’t yet, that’s fine. You’ll be getting them soon enough if you follow the modules in this course. It doesn’t matter where you’re starting out; you can start bringing in income as soon as you’re ready.

If you are already making some sales, they may be ad hoc and at the expense of sheer hard work, persistence, and often stress.  For example, you spend weeks planning the launch of an online program and virtually drive yourself into the ground, and you end up with one or two sales (or none). Sound familiar? It happens all the time, and it’s happened to many business owners before you.

 

Start by answering these 3 questions:

1. Who are your prospects?
2. Are they your ideal clients?
3. Do any of the business basics need tweaking before you move on?

 

Marketing Has Changed

In recent years, the Internet has revolutionized the world of marketing. Marketers can no longer use the same techniques today that worked ten years ago. The attitudes and behavior patterns of your clients have changed drastically, and in order to be successful you have to change with them.

You also have to know them, so if you haven’t yet identified your ideal client profile, then this is the time to do it before you go any further.  Once you know who your ideal clients are, you can figure out what their needs are and which of these needs remain unsatisfied. Then, you can offer them something they really want to meet these needs.

 

Get Focused on the Right Thing

To have a successful, profitable business, you need to focus on bringing money through the door. Whenever you do something, ask yourself, “Does this activity bring money into my account?”

Or, as is often the case, is the activity an example of “creative avoidance”? In other words, are you avoiding making sales?

Before you throw up your hands in horror, take a moment to reflect on how you spend your time, and be honest with yourself.

Setting up websites, planning courses, upgrading your branding, talking to prospects on Facebook, tweeting, and so on are all examples of creative avoidance. They may bear fruit later on, but they are not activities that will put money in the bank right now.

Follow what we’re doing in this course and you can attract income straight away, even without a website or an online ecommerce system.

3 Key Things You Must Do to Have a Profitable Business:

1. Generate leads
2. Have a process to turn prospects into paying clients
3. Once that process is honed, systematize it so you can ‘rinse and repeat’

 

We’ll focus on the second two steps. For the purposes of this course, we’re going to assume you have your initial lead generation set up. You can always go back and add or adjust it after you’ve learned more.

 

Blocks to Successful Selling

At this point, you may have some successful methods to generate leads, and that’s great.

But getting people to raise their hands and say, “Yes, I want more information” is different from making a sale to that person and turning them into a paying client.

 

Think ‘Serving’, not ‘Selling’

We’ll look at the mindset issues that often get in the way of successful selling in a later module. For now, change your thinking about the word ‘selling.’ Try to see selling as serving, because that’s what it is: matching what you have to people’s needs so you help them overcome a challenge.

When your offer matches their need, you don’t have to persuade. There’s no convincing required. You can be your authentic self and you can get results.

 

Accept Your Competition and Move On

Yes, there are other people doing what you do, (but not in the way that you do it, because you are unique). Conduct some due diligence and research your nearest competitors.

Here’s an exercise to help with this:

• Who and where are they? What is their pricing structure? What pricing strategy are they currently using?
• Find out exactly what they provide.
• Prepare a spreadsheet with the information so you can add to it or update as time goes on – this is a valuable database.
• Map out the difference between your product/service and theirs, especially that of your ‘nearest’ competitor. Small changes, especially in client service, can make all the difference between competitors offering roughly the same product/service, so you need to know this information.

Then STOP comparing your service/product to others. Remember that your clients and prospects will probably never even see what it is you’re comparing yourself to anyway. Stop scouring the competition and focus on your own business.

Learn to over-deliver and you will never lose sleep over what other people are selling.

 

Don’t Be Scared about the Numbers

Another obstacle that gets in the way of having a successful business is that many business owners aren’t very interested in the numbers of their business.

But numbers are nothing to be afraid of. All successful business owners agree that you have to know and understand the numbers of your business to make a success of it.

 

Conversion Rates

The number you need to work out first is your conversion rate, which means how much it costs you to acquire a new paying client.

If you’re not sure how to calculate this, here’s an easy way to do it:

 

Conversion Rate = Total Number of Sales ÷ Number of Leads x 100

(A ‘lead’ is any person who is potentially interested in purchasing your product or service – for example, the people on your list.)

Example: Let’s say you made 20 sales last year and you had 100 leads. Your conversion rate would be 20%.   (20÷100×100)

If you haven’t made any sales yet, then obviously your conversion rate is 0%.

In the next module, we’ll look at your financial goals and work out how many sales conversations you need to have to meet your revenue targets.

 

Key Takeaways:

1. When you change your perspective from ‘selling’ to ‘serving,’ you’ll find that converting a prospect to a paying client becomes a natural progression.
2. Getting comfortable with the numbers in your business will keep you on top of what’s important.

 

 

Action Steps:

1. Quick Win: Calculate your conversion rate using the formula:

Conversion Rate = Total Number of Sales ÷ Number of Leads x 100

2. How do you turn prospects into clients now?
3. Competitors exercise. Answer the questions in the Action Guide.