Did you know that virtually all successful service-based business owners have a strong, clear, niche focus?

When you go to their websites you are not confused. It is very clear what their message is and who it is directed to.There is no ambiguity.

Even if you’re not looking for what is being offered, the clarity of the message is powerful. You are able to see this person as an expert. There is no confusion.

This is how it needs to be if you are marketing a service. People need to feel like you are the specialist.

My very first website I wasn’t so clear. I attempted to market to more than one group. It’s like attempting to throw a dart at multiple targets. Even the dart will be confused.

When people are confused they go away. I know I do. I won’t pay money for something over $20 unless I am 100% convinced. 

You want your potential clients to:

• Feel you are speaking directly to them.
• Get the exact help they are looking for.
• Trust that you can help them with their problem.

It takes guts to name your niche and really go for it. It means you are saying YES and focusing your energy totally in that direction. Why wouldn’t you want to do that?  Sometimes fear and self-doubt get in the way.

Those people who are wildly successful have learned to get past the fear and jump in with both feet. When you do that it’s way easier to create programs that will truly help your clients. They’ll see you as the expert you are, and it’s a win-win.

If you are ready to jump in 100% but are not sure of who your niche is? Please join me in the Find Your Niche 3 week class. It will help get that clear focus you want.

Have a look at  your website through the eyes of a new visitor.  Is it crystal clear who you are speaking to?

All smart business owners offer freebies to give people a taste of what they are offering.

This is a marketing tactic that works, no matter what kind of business you have. However, for a service based enterprise this is essential.

Once you really know your niche client, then offering freebies is the next step.

If your service costs hundreds of dollars and requires time, energy, and commitment, people are not going to be in a hurry to sign on and throw money your way. They need to trust that you can help them and they need to see the value of getting your help.

Free webinars, videos, ebooks and audios do just that. You might feel like I do and are overwhelmed with the amount of stuff out there to watch, read and listen to. Maybe you wonder if anyone will even participate in your freebie.

However, it is still an essential part of your marketing plan. The important thing is to see it in the context of the whole plan and then it will make more sense.

Know your strategy and why you are offering this freebie. You might be thinking, “Duh, of course I want more sales!”  However, freebies don’t always link immediately to sales. Your freebies can give you:

•  A platform to build your expertise and show your specialty. Even if they don’t sign-up they are more likely to remember you as an expert in a particular area.

•  A wider reach. People might hear about your freebie via a Tweet, Pin or a Facebook post and then end up following you on Twitter, “liking” your Facebook page or repining your pinterest pin.

•  A larger list of the right people who you can build a relationship with. Ideally you want people to attend or read your freebie, but you also benefit when someone to signs-up to get it. If people sign-up you know they have self-selected and shown their interest. You can stay in touch with them and they may become a paying customer later.

• It will drive people to your website which is ultimately what you want. When there, they might look at your whole site, read blog posts or download other stuff.

One of my present clients has been attending my free tele-classes for over a year and finally a year later she signed up for a paid seminar. Marketing takes time but if done correctly it will help you to  bring in more clients and build your business.

What are your freebies?

Do they speak directly to your niche market?

Are they helping you to build your expertise ?

I would love to hear your comments.

This morning I did a Google search looking for someone who could help me with some specific help for a project I am doing.

Someone’s website came up and it looked like she had the exact skill I needed.

Like most people searching the net, I didn’t have hours to read her website so I just wanted to get the bottom line; her services and price.

She did talk about her services but more from a place of, “I can do this, I can do that.” She didn’t talk much about the benefits to me. However I  wanted to find out what she  charged for her services and she kept sending me to a new page.

After four new pages there was a web form asking me to fill it out so she could call me.

I was irritated and clicked off the site. She lost me as a potential customer at that moment. I didn’t want her to call me or to wait for her to call me. 

In thinking about this afterward I realized that I assume that the way people relate to me on their site is often a reflection of how I will be treated if I hired them.

I like collaboration and transparency.  On her site it felt like she wanted to be in charge and the communication was one-sided. In truth, I do make decisions based on value not price, however I always like to know the price right away.

If I am at a department store looking at clothing I always check the price tag. I guess it is a common habit that I have and I have discovered that the majority of people do this. Even if I am not going to decide based on price, knowing the price is important to me.

Some of my clients say they don’t want to put prices on their site because their services are not so black and white and they need to hear more about the project in order to give an accurate price. Although this may be true, you will also lose many people in that process.

There is a huge jump from searching the internet to being willing to talk with someone on the phone with the details of your project. Many people are not ready to make that jump so quickly. Not offering any price on your website will provide one more barrier to connecting with a potential client. I have also heard  people say that if they show their price and people think it is too high, they will go away. I suppose that might happen, but I doubt if those people are ideal clients.

Some Solutions:

1. Show a price range if you can’t give exact prices.
2. Mention that you can give a more accurate price once you know more about the project.
3. Let people know you have payment plans if you do.
4. Remind people that there are many ways they can work with you.
5. Talk to them about the benefits they want.
6. Focus on the value they will receive and how it will make a difference.

If you find this whole subject of pricing to be difficult and confusing here is a solution!

Do you have your prices on your site?
Does it make you feel uncomfortable?
Do you like seeing prices on other people’s sites?

I would love to hear your comments.

Read another recent post about pricing.

Charging by the hour is finally getting the reputation it deserves as you feel stretched to make a profit!

More and more small business owners are realizing how and why it doesn’t work in helping you to create a sustainable business.

Hourly charging still works for unskilled labor because you are paying for an hour of their work. If you hire someone to dig in your yard, there may not be a big difference in people- other than body size. 

The more of an expert you are, the more this hourly charge doesn’t make sense, because your work is not a commodity and it can be highly differentiated from people who do a similar line of work.

If you hire a landscape designer, she may not dig holes, but will use her expertise to figure out where holes need to be dug and will come up with a plan for your property. It could take her 5 hours or it might take two days but the price will be the same. You will never know how long she spent on the design. It is irrelevant because you are paying for the end result, not the the hours.

When you have an hourly rate, it assumes that you are a commodity and that an hour of your time is worth X amount of dollars. Maybe if you were Oprah this would be true. People might pay a gazillion dollars to just be in her presence, regardless of what she was doing or saying during that time span. Just sitting at her feet for 60 minutes would be life changing, sort of like the Dali Lama.

However, for most of us, that hour on the clock would not be about someone paying to be in the presence of our aura. Your niche clients want an actual outcome.

They are buying not just you, but they are buying the benefits they want to receive from the work you do. They are also paying for your level of expertise.

Let’s say people want an update of some kind on their website. They call their web master and inquires as to how much it will cost. The web master thinks, “Hmm, it might take me an hour and I charge $75 an hour.  If I can get it done faster it will be a little less.” But she happens to be fast  because she’s good and she knows what she’s doing.  In my book, she deserves to make more money, not less if she’s that good.

If she prices that job at $75 flat fee and she’s fast, she’ll make a bit more money. She deserves it for her expertise. In this case, speed might be a high asset, especially if the client is in a hurry to get the work done. I know a computer repair place that charges more for rush jobs. They keep your computer for less time and they charge a higher price.

In the example above, the client is not buying an hour of time from the web master. He is paying for the benefits of getting his website work completed. The price for doing that job needs to include more than the time it takes to do it.  The business owner needs to know what her break even point is and how many jobs she can do in one week or month and set prices accordingly so she can make a profit. She may have to pay employees, buy new equipment and do training and all that needs to be covered by money coming in. Suddenly $75 might seem too low for that job.

If you want to give your niche clients a good deal. Give them high value. Offer bonuses and extras. Give great customer service.  Be honest. Those traits are worth gold to your clients. If you want to learn more about adaptive pricing, how to keep your niche clients in your pipeline, how to raise your prices and and more, check out “How to Price Your Services Seminar.”

Do you feel you are under-charging for your services? Are you afraid to raise your prices? I would love to hear your comments.

“How do I know how to price my services? If I charge too much, people will go away and if I charge too little I will starve!” These are comments I hear from my clients regularly.

Nothing will cause you as much stress and confusion as the topic of money. It brings up huge issues.

In many ways a retail business is much easier because you buy products and mark them up a certain percentage and that’s it.

When you are marketing your own service, and it’s all about you offering yourself, your time, your tools, and your expertise, it’s easy to become too subjective. Here are some issues that often emerge:

• Poor self-worth. ” How much am I worth? Can I really help people? Am I good enough?”
• Fear of over-charging. What if people think my price is too high and they say no.
• Poverty mentality. I know I can’t afford it, so I assume my potential clients also can’t.

These issues can cloud your thinking and make it very challenging to come up with correct prices.

There are solutions!

1. Focus on value to your niche clients. Know what they want and why. If they have a true burning need, your first obligation is keep your attention of them and not your issues.

2. Even though it can look like people are buying You, in fact they are really buying the benefits they want for themselves. You are only a conduit in this regard.

3. Many people have their own money issues and they will surface when faced with spending anything over twenty bucks. Part of your job is to help them feel ok about getting the help they need. It will only be ok if they in fact have a strong need for the benefits and they trust that you will be able to help them.

4. In general, services are higher priced when they include more face-to-face time with you. For this reason, one-on-one programs will be the highest price and an e-course will be lower priced. Understanding this formula is important.

5.  A trained specialist can usually charge more for a job than a less skilled person. This isn’t meant to under-value anyone’s contribution, but the engineer has had years of training, licensing,  and skills beyond the average person and when someone needs their help, it is something they cannot do themselves. Most people can clean houses; they just don’t have the time or want to do it themselves. However, house cleaners can still have prosperous businesses based on hiring employees, selling products, etc.

6. The phrase, “I can’t afford it,” often means, “This isn’t a priority.”  Most people say they can’t afford many of the services they pay for but they do it anyway because they have decided the benefits are worth it.

7. Likewise, if  you hang around with people who are all struggling and poverty-minded, it will influence you seeing yourself the same way. You can begin by changing your own language and it might actually influence your friends in a positive way as well as yourself.

8. You need to have a clear vision and money map for your business. You need to know what your financial goal is, what all your expenses are and how many programs or jobs you need to sell in order to  meet your goal.

Which of these points resonated with you?  How do you feel stuck? I would love to hear your comments below.

I  know this is a huge topic so I will share more on this topic in my Free-teleclass April 18th.