3 Things You Need To Know to Make Money as a High-End Service (pt3)
3 Things You Need To Know to Make Money as a High-End Service - Part 3
- High-End Sales Expert for Unconventional Photographers and Creative Entrepreneurs.
This is the third part of a three-part series all about the 3 things you need to know to make money as a High-end service. So if you haven't checked out parts one and two, go ahead and do that first!
Step 3 is all about selling your unique solution and the three mistakes to avoid because, and this might sound crazy but you can't make money if you aren't selling things. These are literally the only three steps to do in your business to make money and to have a business that you actually love to be in. You can't make money if you are not selling your services. You can't sell your services if you are not attracting the right people that are there to buy them. And you can't attract the right people who want to buy them if you don't know your brand. So, this literally is the only way to make money.
Remember, the money is in your magic!! Always has been, always will be!
When you make more money in your business by becoming a high-end price service with clients who absolutely love you and are aligned with your unique solution, let me tell you, it feels SO GOOD!
If you're not in this space yet, where the people booking you are just spot on, let me tell you, It really does feel that good!
You just love it. You enjoy doing what you're doing and you’re making great money doing it. Isn’t that really what it's all about?
It feels amazing. It keeps me going and I love helping other people do it!
If you're not in that space, let's just go back to what the three-step process is and why it matters. If you remember, step one is to create a brand from your unique magic, ‘brand alchemy’. This step is all about honing in on your magic and incorporating all of your superpowers into your brand, so you can be yourself, because once you're actually yourself, then you can really call in the people that you're meant to be working with.
Step two is all about ‘being seen’ by your aligned clients and step 3, is ‘selling your unique solution’ to them!’
These are the things that you absolutely must master and really pay attention to and put thought into if you want to have a successful photography or creative business.
When I say a successful photography or creative business, I mean one that is unique in the market and can offer a high-end price experience to ‘your’ people, who you love working with, and who love working with you.
Three common mistakes I see here that creatives get really caught up in when trying to make money as a high-end service and then wonder why:
1 - They are getting ghosted by their ‘Leads’.
2 - Why they can't seem to raise their prices effectively.
3- Why their leads tend to hire somebody else after the consult. That's a biggie, right? You know when you talked to the people, you were feeling great, you were vibing and you're like, ‘hell Yeah, I totally nailed that!’
And then all of a sudden, two days later, three days later, five days later, a week later, they're like, we're going in another direction. And you're like what the hell just happened? Well, it's because you are not a sorcerer at selling yet! That’s all!
If you're getting one of these three results, it’s because you have too many thought errors already.
Mistake #1. Thought errors!
Too many thought errors. They're happening all the time. They're sneaking in at every stage of your sales process. And if you have been around me long enough, or if you've been coached by me or whatever it is, you'll know that I consider your sales process starting before you even know your clients exist yet.
So there's a lot of space between somebody being a lurker to somebody being a booked client, where thought errors can come in and try to wreck the show.
I think it’s the Brits who use the phrase ‘a spanner in the works’ and I love that phrase! It basically tries to throw a stick in your spokes. Thought errors!
So when people come to me wanting to make money as a high-end service and need help with their sales process because they can’t figure out why their leads are all ghosting them. Or they want to book more clients, OR want to book higher paying clients and learn all things related to selling, they typically think we will jump right in and plant a magical system into their business, and then poof!
All these sales will happen, allowing them to just sit back and count up their coins on autopilot.
They think to make more money they can just implement this specific super-magical-secret funnel system, and this will result in getting all the sales in the world, allowing them to escape to some heavenly Island to live out their dream life. Not the case!
I'm sorry to tell you, that's not how it works!
Typically the root cause of the problem is not because you don't have this one ‘super-secret-sales system’ yet. It's because your thoughts are filled with gunk and shame and fear and feelings of being a fraud! So your sales actions are not confident!
They're not empowering and they're not creating trust in your aligned clients!
Some common thought errors my clients typically have are:
‘I have no idea what I'm doing!’
‘Selling is hard!’
‘I'm awkward at sales!’
‘I don't want to be pushy!’
‘They probably can't afford me!’
‘They want someone cheaper!’
‘There's a recession looming and no one will buy, the world is going to shit!’'
‘I'm not doing enough.’
For anyone who Instagram stalks their leads before getting them on the phone or having a conversation with them to see if they are a good fit, there are so many reasons here not to do that! And the main one is that it sets your brain up to have a lot of unconscious biases when you do talk to them. You're creating this story about them in your head before you've even talked to them. So anything that they say will be through that lens and anything you say to them will be through that lens.
Do you see how that is maybe problematic and maybe hurting your sales and affecting your business growth?
I also see that my clients have assumptions about what people are thinking, like what they think their leads can and can't afford.
Or they might be thinking more about themselves during the consult instead of really listening to their new leads and what they’re actually saying.
You know, those things you say to yourself during the consult, like oh my god, what should I say next?
Oh, fuck. I royally fucked that up!
Oh my God, I sound like an idiot!
Oh my God, they will never say yes to me! How do I get them to say yes?
How do I get the sale?
Oh, I hope they book me. Oh, I really need money, please book me.
Oh I'm so sick of hearing ‘No’ so please book me so I can then show myself proof that I don't suck and I shouldn't quit.
Is any of this resonating?
The thoughts and beliefs you have about yourself, your service, and your customers are the most important part of the sales process and they affect how you make decisions, react to objections, react to the information you receive, and how you perceive your client.
Why? Because your thoughts are what paint your perception of the information you're taking in, what your clients are saying, the actions that you're making, and the actions that you're taking in your photography or creative business, literally everything.
“Thoughts create emotions, which then dictate how you react and perceive the circumstance.”
Mistake #2. Trying to rely on tactics instead of leading into your magic and guiding your aligned clients through a process, they have full control over.
You're probably like what? I can't give them control because then they won't book me!
That probably feels like the exact opposite of almost every sales piece of advice you've ever heard, where you have to control the whole situation and you have to get the sale. Where it's all about you controlling the thing. Just don't control the thing!
Let’s talk sales tactics here for a minute. What exactly are sales tactics?
Tactics are small steps you take within the larger strategy. Tactics are not skills and understanding your clients, they're just little steps you take to try to win the sale or win the client. I personally do not like using those terms because I do sales from an empowering and ethical point of view. The phrase winning another human just makes me feel a little bit icky because it's their choice to hire you or not. You aren't winning anything. You're investing in a new relationship.
I see so many creative business owners trying all these disjointed tactics to get the sale, instead of focusing on crafting a sales process that seamlessly works for them, leaving their clients feeling empowered, excited, and trusting in them!
A lot of those tactics I see come from a place of lack within the person selling their services and trying to control the sale by holding on too tight. They come from a load of low-cost thoughts. Those thoughts you have, you can think of like a little bank in your head! You can have thoughts that are worth a penny, or maybe even less or you can have thoughts that are literally worth millions of dollars!
A lot of sales tactics come from a place of low-cost thoughts, such as thinking for example that you need to do XYZ so as not to lose the sale or you simply must book them because you need to make money. If anything about the sales process has thoughts that center around you and not your client, that my friend is your first sign that it’s a low-cost thought!
Some might be asking for the close on the call and possibly pushing for the contract and payment to be signed right then and there. Others might be offering incentives for booking right off the bat or trying to rush their leads through the sales process. I'll tell you here, the higher in pricing you go, the more you can not rush your leads You cannot push leads to go faster than they are willing to go.
Your sales process has already been ignited the moment your aligned client contacted you. when you respond back to those leads who felt comfortable enough in the first place to give you their information, permitting you to get back to them and have a sales conversation about your photography or creative high-end services, it is part of your sales process to ensure they continue to feel comfortable and not rushed!
If you're doing things right off the bat, when your first actual response back to them ( not an automated messaging system ) makes them feel uncomfortable in any way, that is obviously not a very good tactic! An example of this that comes to mind is texting back a video of yourself. In my honest opinion, while this could work for some people, it doesn't work for everyone. I do not like offering this as advice because personally, I am not the type of buyer that appreciates that kind of thing. I would go as far as saying that I’d feel like I've been slightly pushed over my boundaries by a vendor if they did that.
Because most of us reach each other via text, messaging, and calls, we can never know what the receiver is doing at any given time. Whether we’re at work or on a lunch break, at the checkout, or just relaxing with family or friends at the weekend, imagine in your free time, getting bombarded with video messages of people. I personally, as an introvert, would do a hard pass on you because that is just not okay with me! And then also doubling it by bombarding me with tons of emails on top of the texts! Nope, not for me! That just feels far too desperate.
A quote from a favorite movie of mine, ‘Super Troopers’ is also one of my favorite quotes, when it comes to sales.
“Desperation is a stinky cologne.”
This brings me to my next tactic, which is, trying to sell the same way to everyone and not understanding there are many archetypes of buyers out there and many types of sellers also out there.
If you're aligned clients are not the archetype that wants to be texted back on their personal phone by a bunch of vendors that they're reaching out to, to fulfill the thing that they're trying to buy for, maybe you shouldn't do it!
There are many archetypes. They don't all like to be sold to in the same way. There are also many architects for selling. Not everybody likes to sell the same way.
Trying to sell to anyone and everyone just to make money is not doing your client justice. If you are not a good fit for them, in my eyes that's unethical selling.
Mistake #3. Competing on pricing and then wondering why your leads only care about your pricing.
Photographers and Creative Entrepreneurs, if you’re getting leads by competing on pricing for your high-end service and then feeling shocked when the people who come to you only talk about your pricing, asking for discounts or asking you to price match with somebody who costs less, I'm sorry to burst your bubble on this, but it's because of you.
If you really want to make money as a high-end creative service and book higher paying clients you need to believe that your self-concept is what will attract the kind of lead you’re really looking for.
With the utmost confidence and high-cost thoughts, I've had clients who go from literally avoiding almost everything in the sales process, because they thought they sucked at sales to being complete sales sorcerors and booking almost every aligned lead that comes their way. People who want to go from barely booking clients at 25,000 to easily booking over 6,400 and being so in love with their clients and their service. So I'll leave you with the question as I often do.
