Once you’ve figured out your niche (or you’ve at least narrowed it down significantly), it’s time to figure out what problems they are struggling with, and what they want by way of solutions. Remember, if you will only ask your market, it wants to help you create the products it wants to buy!
How do you find out what your target market wants? There are several ways to get this information and use it to help you create an offering that will solve your niche’s problems and make a profit for you at the same time.
The best way is to do your research. The most critical research to do is to join the conversations that your market is having:
Here are two ways to do this:
1. Simple: Ask them!
Ask your prospects a simple, open-ended question, like “What’s your biggest challenge with building your business online?” or “What’s the one thing you’d like to learn more about that relates to balancing your work and family life?” Tailor the question to your niche and use the information you receive to help spark ideas for new products and services.
2. Almost as Simple: Do a simple survey…
…that asks 1-10 questions using a survey tool like Zoomerang or Survey Monkey. This allows you to ask more specific questions to elicit more specific responses. Doing a survey like this really helps you to NOT waste your time creating offerings your target market simply doesn’t want.
Once you’ve figure out what your niche’s problems are, you can create or find the solutions to solve those problems. Your solution can be packaged in a variety of ways: an ecourse, a PDF manual, an ebook, an audio download and/or CD, group programs, teleseminars, e-manuals, etc.
Here’s a very simple process to follow to create a product to add to you funnel quickly:
1. Do a free or paid live class on your product
Once you’ve done your research and you’ve chosen a topic your target market is interested in knowing more about, offer a 1-hour teleclass on that topic. Cover three points and offer your solutions. Most important is to make sure you record the teleseminar, as this is what leads to a product for you.
As you’re designing your outline for the class, do so in a way that creates notes for your participant. (If you’re a member of my Coaching Cafe, you know that I give very detailed class notes, so you know what I mean by this).
As the end of your live teleclass, you’ll have the recording and notes to then…
2. Package it virtually.
Now you have the audio recording and notes to offer as a bundled product and…
3. Package it into a tangible product.
You can then take it up a notch and turn it into a physical product and offer it that way as another income stream for you.
And here are some of my other favorite tips for simple product creation:
– If you don’t have a list or access to a list, you can offer a free class on a topic and then charge people for the product down the road, or afterwards.
– Another option is to have someone interview you on your topic to create your product. You can offer the questions along with the interviewee’s questions. This is a good strategy if you don’t think you can get enough people on a call.
– You can record any live classes or workshops you’re holding as well, and re-package those presentations virtually or tangibly.
– Try to record everything so you always have the option to offer it at some level down the road.
– Promote your teleclass to your list, via colleagues who are willing to spread the word (especially if it’s free) and at teleclass listing services.
– Promote on the discussion lists and groups that you’re a part of, promote it there with permission and on the appropriate day.
– Pricing: If this is a new process for you, if you’re offering your topic for the first time and sort of feeling out your market, go with the lower end. If you’re putting together a 90-minute class with lots of comprehensive step-by-step information, charge more.
– When it comes to creating your big-ticket item, they can be created from all these little products along the way. So, if you were creating a product a month or every other month, that gives you 6-12 products at the end of the year that can be packaged together into your big ticket item.
Did you know there is a super-simple way to leverage your gifts, talent and know-how into lucrative, highly leveraged income streams?
It’s your Signature System, and it’s your step-by-step formula for multiple streams success.
So, what exactly is a Signature System? It’s the work you are ALREADY doing with clients, packaged into a highly marketable, step-by-step system they will want to buy.
If you are thinking you can’t create a system because every client is different, think again. EVERY service can be transformed into a simple, repeatable system clients will happily say YES to – yes, even yours!
Once I figured this out and finally moved away from solely working one-on-one with clients and started adding other revenue streams, I knew I had found the right system that was going to help me create the kind of income I desired.
Specifically, here are the top 10 reasons why having a Signature System is a MUST to quickly transition out of 1-on-1 work fast…
1. Your clients LOVE systems.
They’re so overloaded, they can’t even stop to think. Your system tells them “I’ve done the work so you don’t have to.”
2. Your clients can practically predict their success.
When they see the results others have achieved, clients feel very reassured… and start to picture the results for themselves.
3. Your Signature System sets you apart.
It’s as unique as your signature, after all – nobody else has it!
4. Instant credibility.
Without a system, your services can appear all over the place. A system instantly elevates you to expert status.
5. Quicker, easier sales.
Your clients will “get” what you offer much quicker and are ready to buy much sooner.
6. Your clients will get better results…
…when they follow given steps in a given order, instead of blundering around trying to find their way.
7. Your clients will get results faster…
… because they are not wasting time on needless “stuff.”
8. Your clients will come back again and again…
…because they have had such success with you the first time!
9. You will help more people…
…because your Signature System (or key elements of it) can be “bottled and sold” at different investment and commitment points.
And best of all…
10. You will see just how easy it is to create 3, 4 or even more lucrative income streams
…that will deliver a steady and predictable flow of cash into your business. And you know what that means? Peace of mind. Priceless.
About the author: Alicia M Forest, MBA, 6-Figure Business Breakthrough Mentor, teaches self-employed professionals how to attract more clients, create profit-making products and services, make more sales, and ultimately live the life they desire and deserve. For FREE tips on how to create wild abundance in your business, visit http://www.ClientAbundance.com
One of the many things I discovered when on my recent private retreat with my mentor coach Kendall Summerhawk was that I sometimes still have a tendency to bend in situations where I shouldn’t. Not actually bend-over backwards, but enough that I end up not feeling good about the situation. I’ve actually strengthened this boundary quite a bit in recent years, but as always, I’ve been tested on that a few times lately, so I wanted to share some of the ways I’ve strengthened this boundary within the way I run my business so you can do the same.
Here are 4 ways that you can gracefully set boundaries in your business:
1. Have a policy page
For every product, program or service you offer, someone is going to ask you to do something different for them. It could be to offer it in a different format, at a different time or day, with a payment plan option, or dozens of other scenarios than I can’t possibly cover here. As a general rule of thumb, don’t accommodate. Yes, there will be times when you make a different decision, but most of the time, stick to the parameters you created in the first place. You can’t please everyone, and every time you accommodate someone, you a) typically un-accommodate someone else who was just fine with the way your offer stood in the first place, and b) attract more people who will ask you to bend things for them in the future.
What do you do with the requests you get? Create a policy page from each and every decision you’ve made on how you will or will not run your business. Then when the next person makes a similar request, you simply send them to that page that explains clearly what your policy is, and that the policy applies to everyone. It takes the edge of it feeling like saying ‘no’ was a personal decision as much as it makes it super-simple for your team to handle these requests.
2. Be fair to ALL your clients
Being fair to all my clients is one value that I hold that makes it easy for me to be clear about the boundaries I have in place in my business. If you remember that it’s NOT that you aren’t willing or don’t want to be accommodating, but that it simply wouldn’t be fair to the rest of your clients and customers by doing so, it makes it much easier to say no graciously, and it keeps your integrity intact.
3. Have a buffer
Having someone on my team who manages these requests is imperative. First, as the business owner and leader of my company, it’s not the best use of my unique brilliance to be dealing with these requests personally. Second, my team is quite capable of knowing when a request may require my attention, and I trust them to let me know. And third, it makes saying ‘no’ less personal and much more graceful and respectful to the person making the request when they get an answer from my team instead of from me.
4. Be willing to let go
Ok, this is the one that’s popped up more than once the last month or so and got me thinking about writing this article. I still struggle with a tendency to over-explain. I like to craft just the right words to make sure someone understands my decision about something. I’ve realized that in doing so I’ve wasted a lot of time, energy and emotion. So I stopped doing that for the most part. Recently, I found myself back in that loop again, and when I realized how much of my team’s time I was wasting, it bopped me over the head. I instantly went back to my short-but-sweet way of responding.
Here’s the thing: there’s always going to be a tiny percentage of people who want you to customize and accommodate them. But let them go play somewhere else. Because what happens when you stick to your guns is that you honor your value, your time, and your self-respect. You attract more clients and customers who are ideal and who are respectful of you and your team as well, and your business runs more smoothly and more joyfully.
As I’m wrapping up a slew of private retreats with my clients this month, it’s become clear that it’s time for me to get focused on practicing what I’ve been preaching – or more specifically, to put myself through the same intense process and plan that I take my clients through.
This thought popped into my head several times during the retreats, but really came to the forefront of my thinking over the past week or so, as I have been making some very big decisions in my business that’s going to majorly shift things going forward.
So, here is what I’ve noticed that’s going on with me in my business that I’m hoping will shed some light for you as well:
Problem: Not taking action on a particular task.
If you’re finding yourself low on energy around moving forward on a certain project or idea, it pays to take a look inside for the reason why.
As I learned from Andrea Lee, my private coach for nearly three years, everything is energy. And when I’m stuck – *especially* when I know what to do next – there’s something wrong inside that’s blocking forward movement. Because, after all, I am all about taking action.
Solution: Ask yourself…
1. What is one thing I coach my own clients on that I can apply to myself?
2. What is one way I show others how to operate their business that I can apply to my own?
3. What is one method I teach that I can implement more fully in my own business.
In other words, how can I practice what I preach more thoroughly?
The answers to these simple questions are the key to getting unstuck and moving forward.
Take it to the next level…
Exercise:
Complete the following sentence 30 times:
“The results my clients get from working with me are_______________.
And don’t skimp – come up with 30 answers. If you have trouble getting more specific, ask your current and past clients to help you fill in the blank.
What are the benefits to doing this exercise?
Many, but for the purposes of this conversation, the value is in bringing forth the things that are the most beneficial for you to make sure you’re focusing on in moving your business forward – both for yourself and for your clients.
So take your answers and turn them around to apply them to your own business!
Reading Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh’s “Delivering Happiness” book was like reading a novel and a business book at the same time. It was so engaging that I read the entire 250+ page paperback in one sitting.
Here are my favorite snippets from the book – enjoy!
- Build a brand from the inside out.
- Without conscious and deliberate effort, inertia always wins.
- Envision, create, and believe in your own universe, and the universe will form around you.
- Never outsource your core competency.
- Great companies have a greater purpose and bigger vision beyond just making money or being number one in a market.
- Celebrate your past and current successes while carefully navigating for the future.
- Be as transparent as possible.
- A word is a word, a picture is worth a thousand… but a brand is worth a million.
- Lifetime value of a client/customer can increase via positive emotional association with your brand.
- Build trust and engagement, not buzz.
- Problems are just mile markers. Each one passed means you’ve gotten better.
- The best leaders are servant-leaders.
- Make a plan, work it through to completion.
This is definitely a book you want to have as part of your business-building library. Get your copy here:
http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com
OR
http://www.amazon.com/deliveringhappiness
If you're reading this ezine, it's likely that you've participated in a teleseminar, whether it be mine or one of my colleagues. You've probably been on some that have been very good, where you got tons of really valuable information. And you may have found yourself on a few that were nothing but pitch-fests for the host's lastest product.
But I want to share something with you. Hosting content-rich teleseminars for my target market is some of the quickest and easiest money I've generated in my business.
Holding f.r.e.e. introductory teleseminars are a great way to promote your business, increase your email subscriber list, make more sales on your products, and enable your potential clients another way to connect with you. By being on the phone with you, they get to know you through your voice, adding the human touch that can be so hard to cultivate online.
In the past, I've offered a free monthly teleseminar that gave people an introduction to what I teach. From each of those calls, I got more ezine subscribers, more members for my group coaching membership, and more sales of my products.
Which is why I'll be adding them back into my marketing mix again this year.
Holding PAID teleseminars helps to promote your business and generate revenues as well. Just doing one paid teleseminar at least every two months on a different marketing topic would gross me a minimum of $2500.
Not bad for an hour's worth of work, huh?
Another way to offer teleseminars is to do "intensive" or "bootcamp" series of multi-week teleseminars. I've offered 10- and 4-week '"workgroups" on the topics of listbuilding, creating a successful business online from scratch, and search engine marketing that have been extremely profitable, upwards of $10k.
As you can see, adding teleseminars to your business model benefits both your market and your bottom line.
Here's what you need to get started:
1. The Right Target Market and the Right Topic
Here's the secret for producing and profiting from a teleseminar: It must be designed for a target market AND it must solve a problem that that target market is struggling with. If you have those two keys in place, you'll be sure to attract enough sign-ups and make money from your topic.
2. A Bridge Line
There are several good no-cost bridge lines available for you to use, but the one I'm currently recommending is FreeConferenceCall.com because you can record the teleseminar for free as well. This is a nice benefit to offer your participants and to anyone who had to miss your teleseminar for any reason. I use it as a back-up recording for all my calls. You can have up to 100 people on the line with you.
3. Recording Service
You'll need a way to record your teleseminars so you can provide the audio for people to listen to later and for you to make CDs from if you decide to package your teleseminar into a physical product after the fact. I use AudioAcrobat to record all my teleseminars, with FreeConferenceCall.com as a back-up.
4. Automatic Registration
You'll want to be able to have people sign up for your teleseminar without you having to do a lot of work. I use Aweber for all my teleseminar registrations, but you can also use your shopping cart's autoresponder service if you have one.
I'd like to invite you to start offering free teleseminars to promote your business, and once you get more comfortable with both the format and the technology, start offering paid teleseminars. Even if you only have a handful of people on your first call, it's great practice. And I guarantee your numbers will increase as you continue to build your email list, and you'll be profiting from teleseminars in no time.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on hosting teleseminars. Please feel free to leave your comments below!
© 2010 Alicia M Forest and ClientAbundance.com
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