Dan Lok

How To Sell Your Services At A Higher Price

April 20, 2020 by Dan Lok

One of the secrets to building a successful business is learning how to sell your services at a higher price. However, this can prove to be challenging in today’s saturated market. If you are like most entrepreneurs, you understand that it can sometimes be difficult to read and handle your prospects. While some relationships are smooth sailing, others are rockier and require a lot more finesse.

Every prospect you encounter will be unique. Some will understand your value proposition from the start, while others will be quite stubborn. Why do you think this is? The answer is simple. It’s very easy for your prospect to compare your services to that of your competitors. They think that if someone else is offering the same service for a cheaper price, why can’t you too?

For example, let’s say you are looking to purchase a cleaning service for your home. You reach out to five different businesses in your town, and they all tell you they can do it as soon as possible for a great price. How do you know which cleaning company will provide you with the best service? This question is the reason why businesses compete to win their clients. Whether you are selling to other companies or to consumers, selling services involves selling yourself and your team’s expertise.

Bob Hooey, accredited speaker and author said:

“If you are not taking care of your customer, your competitor will”.

Start by Looking at Your Prospects

Learning how to sell your services at a higher price is a difficult feat to overcome. If you do a quick Google search, you would see that many publications begin to answer this question by suggesting you work for as many clients as possible and build a good reputation.

We couldn’t disagree with this idea more. Imagine short-selling yourself just to earn more business. Do you really think this is the way to prosperity? Of course not.

So you might be asking yourself, how can I sell my services for a higher price? The answer is right in front of you. Take a look at your prospects – do you see something they all have in common?

That’s right, you got it – prospects are human too. This means that they also think in a rational way. In order to earn their business, you need to connect with them on an emotional level and make it clear why you are worth what you say you are.

If you want to charge more for your services and ask for what you are worth, you need to change your mindset of how you communicate with your prospects. In this article, we will cover three powerful tools you can use when learning how to sell your services for a higher price.

1. Perfect your pitch

The first step you can use when learning how to sell your services for a higher price is to perfect your pitch. This has to be the most important asset any sales professional can have.

The challenge is, many businesses sound the same as their competitors. More often than not, they only differ by offering their services at a lower price. We already learned that this is not the way to go.

Let me ask you a question. Do you think the market is oversaturated with businesses right now? A recent study by Statisca concluded that in March of 2019, there were 774,725 service businesses in the United States that were less than 1 year old.

This staggering statistic should not scare you. Instead, it should motivate you. Why? Because despite there being over 700,000 service businesses out there, it’s possible to be a leader in your niche.

You are Not Selling the Problem, Not the Solution

You see, we live in a world where our prospects are bombarded with cold calls and advertisements every single day. Is your game plan to treat your prospects the same way your competition treats them? Is your game plan to have your well thought out pitch be thrown away in the garbage? Don’t make this mistake.

When learning how to sell your services at a higher price, you need to find a way to bridge this communication gap. You need to convince your prospects that you are not like everyone else. So how can you do this? It all starts off by building a relationship with them.

You are selling the problem, not the solution. Click To Tweet

Prospects are not looking for a solution, they are looking for a way to buy themselves out of a specific problem. For example, let’s say you are a freelance copywriter. What problem are you trying to solve? You could say: My name is Susan, and I write research-driven content that is strictly focused on helping businesses get results.

This is how to sell your services at a higher price. Are you ready to craft your perfect pitch? Below we are going to show you how. Let’s get started.

How To Sell Your Services at a Higher Price

When learning how to sell your services for a higher price, your first impression should be your primary focus. Instead of lowering your price to match your competition, craft a stellar pitch to show your prospects why you are worth it. Here is the four-part formula to writing a stellar pitch:

Scarcity

When you hear the word scarcity, what’s the first thought that comes to your mind? We think about something that is highly in demand, but is limited in its availability. Prove to your prospects that there is no one like you in the market. And if they want to do business with you, they need to act now.

Exclusivity

How can you incorporate exclusivity into your marketing strategy? A simple way to do so is to include words that trigger a feeling of urgency or demand. You definitely aren’t the only service provider in the entire market, and probably not the best. But this doesn’t mean that you can’t advertise yourself to be if you believe you can deliver on the value.

Value

When learning how to sell your services at a higher price, you need to know your competition better than your prospects do. If you are charging your customers $500 an hour for your services, explain how you got to that number.

Results

Do you remember what we said earlier in this article? Your prospects are looking to solve a problem, not find a solution. What results can you promise to your prospects? If you have run successful campaigns in the past, don’t be scared to share those results.

Albert Einstein, German physicist and theorist once said:

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough”.

So you’ve perfected your pitch, the next step is to deliver it to the market. Are you ready?

2. Practice Asking for Higher Prices

The second step you can use when learning how to sell your services for a higher price is to practice asking for a higher price. In the previous section of this article, we broke down the components to crafting a stellar pitch. Now you need to prepare yourself to deliver that pitch to the market.

There are three kinds of prospects:

The few who know everything
The handful that know next to nothing
The majority who know just enough to be dangerous

Out of these three personas, which one do you think is your target audience? That’s right. Your target audience is the majority who know just enough to be dangerous. Why? Because they understand what they are looking for and know what they are talking about.

While this may seem a bit counterintuitive, you want to sell your services to these prospects because you can easily build a connection with them. It also allows you to leverage a very useful tool Dan teaches to all of my students. What is it? It’s called taking control of the conversation.

Take Control of The Conversation

Because you are asking for a higher price, there is a very good chance you will need to close some of your prospects over the phone. However, this should not change how you deliver your message.

The second you let the prospect take control of the conversation, you have lost out on that deal. This means you should take the time now to master your pitch, anticipate questions, and prepare answers for your sales call. Jim Rohn, American entrepreneur and author said:

“Either you run the day or the day runs you”.

Here’s the truth. When learning how to sell your services at a higher price, you need to prepare for everything. In the business world, preparation is king. In fact, if you have as many possible responses as you can think of memorized for when the prospect brings it up.

Does this mean you’re not open to negotiation? Of course not. This just means that you have the tools to be in control of the conversation and steer it in the direction you so choose to.

Three-Step Formula to Perfect Your Craft

When learning how to sell your services for a higher price, asking for more can sometimes be intimidating. Below we have outlined three exercises you can do to help you prepare for a successful sales call.

Practice in front of a mirror

To prepare for this moment, practice your pitch in front of a mirror. Take notes of your body language, your facial expressions, and the tone of your voice. Do these features exude confidence?

If you are closing a prospect in person, pay attention to what you do as you speak? What are you looking at, what are your hands doing, what emotions are you showing?

Record yourself

As you practice asking for a higher price, record yourself. When you listen back to the recording, ask yourself if you sound confident or not? State the price you want loud and proud, don’t show any signs of uncertainty.

If you are looking to ask for $500 for an hour of your services. Make sure you don’t sound nervous. Ask for the $500 as if you were asking what the weather is today. Show your prospect that you are confident in the value you bring to the table.

Practice until it becomes second nature

Once you’ve figured out exactly what you are going to say, and how you are going to present it, practice asking for a higher price until it has become second nature to you. A recent study by Very Well Minded concluded that practice accounts for about 80% of the differences between elite and amateur performance.

This is a strategy Dan Lok has used to help him retain the highest level of productivity each day. Once you’ve mastered your pitch, and are confident in asking for a higher price, what’s the final piece to the puzzle?

3. Build a Bullet-Proof Pricing Model

The third and final step you can use when learning how to sell your services for a higher price is to build a bullet-proof pricing model. If you have prepared and delivered an exceptional pitch, this is the final step you need to ensure you have a prosperous career in the service industry.

What do you think a bullet-proof pricing model is? Let’s look at an example. What if your goal was to make $100,000 this year. Here are three possible options for you to choose from:

Provide a service to 1,000 clients and charge them $100 each
Provide a service to 100 clients and charge them $1,000 each
Provide a service to 10 clients and charge them $10,000 each

Which one of these options looks best? We prefer to provide a high-quality service to fewer clients and in return charge more. Why? Because everyone in the market has a limited amount of one thing – time.

We each only have 24 hours in a day. Would you rather be frantically looking at trying to close 3-4 clients a day in order to meet your quota, or would you rather just have to close one client a month?

The answer here is simple. And in order to get to this level, you need to get high ticket clients. This is how to sell your services at a higher price – get clients that earn and pay a higher price. So you might be asking yourself – how can I do business with these high ticket clients?

The Art of High Ticket Closing

In order to close a high ticket client, you must learn the art of being a high ticket closer. These are not sleazy salespeople who want to make a buck, these are professionals who want to provide exceptional service.

As a high ticket closer, you don’t chase clients. Instead, clients come to you. Why? Because you are positioned to serve those who have high business standards and integrity. What would it mean to you if you could close significantly more deals with much less effort?

With these three powerful tools, you can become an unstoppable force in your niche. If you’re ready to make this year the most successful year of your life, now is the time to get started. The power is now in your hands.

Summary

One of the secrets to building a successful business is learning how to sell your services at a higher price. In this competitive market, some prospects will understand your value propositions while others will be quite stubborn. In order to bridge this gap, you need to earn their respect and prove your value to them. From there, it’s essential that you set up a pricing model that fits your business needs.

Here are three powerful tools you can use when learning how to sell your services at a higher price.

Perfect your pitch

Many businesses sound the same as their competitors. In order to be a leader in your niche, you need to bridge this communication gap and convince your prospects that you are not like everyone else.

Practice asking for higher prices

It’s much better to be over-prepared than underprepared. Take the time to practice your pitch over and over again until you have mastered it. Anticipate questions your prospects may ask and prepare professional answers.

Build a bullet-proof pricing model

If you want to provide high-quality services to fewer clients, this is the way to go. This simple model utilizes the art of high ticket closing so you can position yourself to work with the highest quality clients.

Dan has prepared a masterclass just going over how you can use a high-income skill to transform your life and your business. If you’re ready to learn how millions of Dan Lok’s students have mastered this lucrative skill, click here to start now.

How Come My Customers Don’t Trust Me

April 16, 2020 by Dan Lok Leave a Comment

“How come my customers don’t trust me?”

In any kind of relationship, trust means everything. It’s one of the most valuable currencies exchanged among humans. And the truth is, you should always assume your customers don’t trust you. In fact, they will not trust you until they have a good reason to trust you.

You can’t exactly blame them for their lack of trust in you or your brand. If you think about it, we can never be sure if we’re dealing with a good guy or a bad guy. There’s always a lingering shadow of doubt in every decision we make to trust.

Even as a child, we’re taught to stay away from strangers, which reinforces that doubt early on. And in the case we did meet a stranger, the rule was to always say, “No.”

But even under those circumstances, we also know trust is a powerful lubricant that enhances the right relationships with people. Everyone from top business leaders to academic researchers celebrate the power and virtue of trust. But if that’s the case, it still doesn’t answer the big question: “How come my customers don’t trust me?”

In this article, we’ll take a deeper look at why customers don’t trust you, how it affects businesses and brands, why it’s important, and what you can do to build trust. So let’s get started.

The REAL Reason Why Customers Don’t Trust You

Contrary to popular belief, the reason your customers don’t trust you actually has less to do with you and more to do with them. And here’s why. The human brain is not as reliable as we think it is. It’s really good at keeping us alive and maintaining our survival. But when it comes to making decisions, it doesn’t always act in our favor.

Like most people, we rely heavily on emotions when we make decisions. And unfortunately, we can make some terrible decisions based on our emotions and how we feel. According to a Harvard Professor, 95% of all our buying decisions are driven by the subconscious mind.

It doesn’t matter how much you compare different options in the marketplace and logically think through your buying decision. The reason you buy is largely influenced by your emotions. And you justify those decisions with logic.

For example, let’s say you once hired someone to help you invest in some stocks. They say they can 10x your ROI in a matter of a few weeks. The idea of making more money catches your attention so your brain serves up a bunch of reasons why it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try. But before all the justification, you actually already made your decision based on greed.

Now, after you paid this person to help you out, you later realized they didn’t do as they promised and refused to return your original investment. You go home frustrated and upset about the whole incident. And you tell yourself you’re not going to make this mistake again.

But is that really true?

Emotions Influence Your Decisions More Than You Realize

It turns out our emotions influence our decision making process more than we think. Even after you’ve thought through your mistake, relaxed and thought about it a little more, the same emotions will still influence your choices days, weeks, or even months down the road.

So let’s say you’re now shopping for some online courses on photography. But for some reason, you still feel the need to put your guard up and you’re not sure why.

The same feeling you felt after making that bad investment causes you to put your guard up again. It doesn’t matter that you’re buying something entirely unrelated. Your memory of those emotions is like a standard for future decisions.

So when you want to make another purchase, you can’t help but be wary because you know what it feels like to take on those risks. You know what it’s like to lose trust in a person. And those emotions are ingrained into your subconscious mind.

This happens all the time and sometimes they’re emotions you don’t remember. Well, your customers often experience the same thing. It is one of the main reasons why it’s hard for them to trust you. The next time you ask, “How come my customers don’t trust me?”, you’ll know why.

Consumer Trust Can Make Or Break Your Brand

Have you ever come across a brand or even a personal brand you were very loyal to? Maybe it’s a brand that you identify with. Or maybe you really resonated with a brand’s message.

This is not a coincidence. Great brands and businesses understand the power of customer trust. It is in a sense “the life force” of a brand because people buy people. They buy from those they like, know, and trust. And that’s what makes a brand so powerful.

A customer’s trust in a brand is more important today than ever. There is so much noise in the marketplace and people are bombarded with so many options, it’s impossible to count.

Before the rise of the internet, people often only had to choose among a handful of brands. But now, they’re forced to choose from a global mix of thousands upon thousands of different brands. As a consumer, they’re trying to figure out who they can trust. From a brand perspective, how can you differentiate yourself from the mix? What makes you stand out?

Tung Cheung / Shutterstock.com

Apple’s Secret Sauce To Brand Loyalty

Here’s a perfect example of a brand that knows how to stand out: Apple.

With every new iPhone or Macbook Apple introduces to the world, there are millions of shoppers who can’t wait to get their hands on these products. But while many of Apple’s devices come and go, there’s one thing that never changes and it’s Apple’s secret formula for great brand trust.

Apple’s super-power is their ability to build relationships with people. But we’re not just talking about their customers. We’re talking about “their people” – the people they work with. The way Apple trains their team to engage with their customers is their secret to building trust.

Here’s how they do it. They used The Ritz-Carlton way of effective communication and tweaked it to fit their brand. Their employees are trained to follow this five-step acronym called A-P-P-L-E from the moment a customer walks into the store and the moment they leave the store.

Approach customers with a personalized warm welcome

Probe politely to understand the customer’s needs

Present a solution for the customer to take home today

Listen for and resolve issues or concerns

End with a nice farewell and an invitation to return.

Carmine Gallo, a senior contributor at Forbes, has studied the Apple Store Brand and has spoken to many former Apple leaders. And he believes the APPLE acronym works well because it doesn’t label the customers as “consumers.” It presents them as people.

So when “people” walk into the Apple Store they’re buying from someone who makes them feel special. They’re buying from someone who takes the time to give them a unique and personalized experience. And that’s what drives people to come back for more.

3 Rules For Building Strong Trust With Customers

When you ask, “How come my customers don’t trust me?”, a lot of it has to do with learning about human psychology. Simon Sinek said it best, “if you don’t understand people, you don’t understand business.” And he’s right. Because on an emotional level, people do not want to buy stuff.

They’re not buying their way into something. They’re buying their way out of something. For example, people buy gym memberships because they want to lose weight. Or they decide to go on a cruise vacation to escape their stressful work environment.

But beyond that, they want to build relationships with people they can trust and can help them achieve their desires. This need for trust is actually deeply ingrained into human DNA.

According to the Harvard Business Review, “It all starts with the brain. Thanks to our large brains, humans are born physically premature and highly dependent on caretakers. Because of this need, we enter the world “hardwired” to make social connections…We’re social beings from the get-go: We’re born to be engaged and to engage others, which is what trust is largely about.”

Today, more and more business leaders are asking this question: What do my customers want? And they very well should. We live in a time where people expect more and demand more. But what they want is not more stuff. What they want is an experience rooted in building trust.

Here are three rules to help you build strong trust with your customers.

Rule 1. Focus on Developing Trust with the People That Matter The Most

According to the wise words of Simon Sinek, “The very survival of the human race depends on our ability to surround ourselves with people who believe what we believe. When we’re surrounded by people who believe what we believe, something remarkable happens: Trust emerges…

Trust is a feeling-a distinctly human experience. Simply doing everything that you promise you’re going to do does not mean people will trust you. It just means you’re reliable. Trust comes from a sense of common values and beliefs…

And the reason trust is important is because when we are surrounded by people who believe what we believe, we’re more confident to take risks. We’re more confident to experiment, which requires failure. We are more confident to go off and explore knowing that there is someone we trust and who trusts us, will watch our back.”

Most people would agree that your customers are the people that matter the most. You always hear people say your customers should be a priority and they should always come first. And it’s true. They are important but they’re not the most important.

The people that matter most are the people you work with – your team. They are the reason your business can function every day. Without them, you wouldn’t be able to run the business much less grow it. So in order to build trust with your customers, you have to build trust within your team and put their interests ahead of your own.

What Navy SEAL Team Strategies Can Teach Us About Trust

Let’s say you’re a member of the Navy SEAL. You and your team are on a mission to attack a target. Before you go attack, you send one of your teammates to go scout the area to see how many enemies are out there. They come back and tell you there are only five enemies in the area. You trust the information and plan to send out only three people. But when you and your three teammates get there, you realize there are actually ten enemies.

Even though you trusted the information wholeheartedly, you don’t have time to go get extra backup so you head in any way. But knowing you’re outnumbered, you tell your team, “Someone’s going to die. Not everyone is going to come back because someone will have to make a sacrifice.”

Now you have one of two choices. As the leader, you could sacrifice the life of one of your teammates and tell them to go get shot. If you do that, then the remaining two members will refuse to follow you and the mission will be over. Why? Because you chose to put your life ahead of the team and broke the trust. When you break the laws of trust, you no longer have the right to ask, “How come my teammates don’t trust me?”

The second option you have is to tell your team, “Hey guys, chances are some of us are not going to make it. I don’t know what’s going to happen but here’s what we’re going to do. This is the plan. So we have ten enemies. We have this much ammunition and we’re going to take these positions. But I’m going to be leading from the front and I’ll be the first person to step outside this door. We’re going to be in the middle of bullets and bombs but this is the best plan I can define. I want to get us home safely but I cannot guarantee it. So are you with me?”

If everyone comes back safely, then great. If there’s a casualty, then you did your best. But as a leader, your chances of survival are highest if you are the first one to lead the team out and everyone works together.

The same principle applies to any business. When you put your team’s interest ahead of your own, you’ll be able to build trust and loyalty among your team. And when you have the support of your team, you’ll have an easier time earning trust from your customers.

Rule 2. Cultivate Consumer Trust Through Transparency and Authenticity

People have greater expectations and demand more transparency from brands. Studies have shown that 94% of people say that a brand’s transparency is important to their purchasing decisions.

But if there’s one thing people have in excess supply, it’s choices. They have the option to buy on their own terms and timetable. They can buy whatever they want, wherever, and whenever.

The downside is that it leaves more room for people to make bad buying decisions which then leads to distrust. And the bright side is that you can establish yourself as an authority brand by being honest and transparent.

This simply means educating your customers with reliable information and helping them come to their own informed buying decision. This is how you stand out from the crowd and establish what you stand for.

Southwest Airlines sets a great example of being transparent about their values and beliefs. They’re one of the major U.S. airlines and pride themselves on being the world’s largest low-cost carrier.

They ran a marketing campaign back in 2015 called “Transfarency” to demonstrate their promise to their customers. The promise to treat their customers honestly and maintain their low-price fares.

But they don’t stop there. They also added storytelling to their “Transfarency” campaign. And storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to connect with people on an emotional level.

Southwest Airlines’ vice president and chief marketing officer, Ryan Green, said, “We’re focused on telling customer-centric stories. In addition to talking about our unique differentiators, we want to show customers why we do business the way we do.” The “Transfarency” was so successful it gathered nearly 5 million likes on Facebook alone.

As a brand, if you can communicate your message in a way that people can feel your honesty and transparency, you’re more likely to gain their trust. So before you jump the gun and ask yourself, “How come my customers don’t trust me?”, you should go back and look at how you’re communicating your message to your customers.

Rule 3. Commit to Consistency At All Times

How would you feel if you walked into a Starbucks and the barista got your iced, ristretto, 10 shot, venti, with breve, 5 pump vanilla, 7 pump caramel, and 4 Splenda wrong?

You might say to yourself, “My order is super complicated anyway.” And you’ll continue to go about your day as if nothing happened. Now, what if you went to a different location the next day and the barista got it wrong again? You’ll start to feel a little uneasy.

A big part of Starbucks’ promise to their customers is that you will receive a customized beverage that perfectly suits your taste and dietary preferences. It doesn’t matter how detailed or complex your orders are, you can rely on Starbucks promise. But how many times would you be willing to accept inconsistency in your order?

You see, most people are very unforgiving. With the wealth of choices you have at the touch of your fingertips, you can switch from one brand to the next in an instant. You may have been loyal to Starbucks for years, but if the brand is inconsistent in delivering their brand promise, your trust in Starbucks could change very fast.

Branding is the best way to separate yourself from the crowd. But if you don’t consistently live up to it, you will lose customer trust and your branding efforts will be pointless.

So if you want to put an end to your concerns and stop asking yourself, “Why don’t my customers trust me?”, you need to focus on consistently delivering your brand promise throughout your customer’s buyer journey.

It’s Not Too Late To Regain Trust With Your Customers

If you’ve read this far, you can probably see that the dynamics of trust are very delicate. It’s easily lost when we feel hurt or betrayed by another person’s actions. But in the same way, it can also be regained by understanding how you can rebuild trust.

Being reliable, transparent, and consistent are all essential to regaining trust with a customer. But without effective communication, it would still be challenging to accomplish. Establishing trust comes back to being able to listen and to ask the right questions so you can figure out why customers don’t trust you and how you can go about fixing it.

If you want to find out how you can leverage the power of effective communication so that you never have to wonder why customers don’t trust you, then click here to get the Perfect Closing Script.

10 Methods For Boosting Team Motivation During Times Of Crisis

April 14, 2020 by Dan Lok

Sara led team motivation meetings at work. And she knew exactly how to encourage, guide, and empower each one of her employees to thrive. Ben, her boss, trusted her enough not to sit in on any of them. But it also meant that he didn’t quite know how to communicate with his team during crises. For example, one day, he called Sara and said, “please pack your things, lock up, and go straight home.”

“What- wait, did I do something wrong?”

“I don’t have time to explain, Sara. Please listen carefully: lock up and go home.” And then, he hung up.

Sara was confused. Was she fired? Nothing else made sense. It wasn’t until she heard about the Boston Marathon bombings on the news that it clicked. Since her workplace was only 3 miles away from the tragedy, she understood that Ben had been looking out for her in his own way. Sara was grateful. But she also wished that Ben had provided more context. Without it, she felt lost, alone, and afraid.

Sara and Ben’s story shows us the management dichotomy that exists in the modern workplace. Maybe you empathize with Sara and feel left out of the loop. Or maybe you resonate more with Ben, struggling to connect with your team. Yet, in these times of uncertainty, leaders don’t have the luxury of time to engineer the perfect solution. So we’ve collected these ten strategies you can use to build your team during these trying times.

Should You Even be Focusing on Team Motivation During a Crisis?

In times of strife, leaders don’t have all the answers. It’s natural to be overwhelmed by all the urgent matters that are weighing in from every side. Maybe you have to contact banks and lending institutions to secure finance. Or maybe you need to put out fires with shareholders before they lose trust in you or your company. Or maybe you aren’t even sure whether your business will have a team to motivate in the long run.

But now more than ever, team motivation needs to be at the top of your list. Why? Because crises can make or break a team. When everything seems to be going wrong, your organization needs to see and hear from you more than ever. With the right words and attitude, you’ll be able to keep your team from falling victim to panic, disharmony, or rumors. And you’ll be able to guide, encourage, and reassure your team to persevere and deliver superior outcomes for the business. Teams can not only overcome times of crisis together but end up stronger than ever. So, build relationships, connect, and create a thriving work culture using team motivation.

It might be daunting to think that as a leader, you bear the lion’s share of the burden. But it doesn’t have to be that way. With the right people, an uplifting attitude, and sound advice, you’ll be able to handle any crisis that comes your way. So what can you do to be the kind of leader who boosts team motivation during challenging times?

1. Put Your Team’s Safety First

Ben did get Sara out of a potentially dangerous situation as quickly as he could. And that was the best first move he could have made. During a crisis, people need to feel safe. But if they don’t understand ‘why’ they might become their own worst enemy. Take the coronavirus crisis, for example. If everyone had taken preventative measures, it would not have spread this much.

When you share a short ‘why,’ you keep your employees from drawing their own conclusions. You will also stop any speculations and false rumors from spreading.

So as a leader, let your employees know that their safety and physical wellbeing comes before any other consideration. By doing so, you will:

Reduce their fears of having to choose between their (or their family’s) safety and work,
Reinforce that they are a relevant, important part of the team,
Ensure your team fights alongside you to resolve the crisis.

Use team motivation to communicate how and why their safety comes first.

2. Don’t Pretend That There’s No Fire When Everyone Can Smell the Smoke

Conventional wisdom says that you will spread negativity and fear if you share your worries, concerns, and anxieties. Being silent about a crisis as a leader, however, is no different than pretending that there is no fire even though everyone can smell the smoke.

So, even if you feel afraid, take time to communicate with them. Acknowledge that the situation is scary and that a lot of things can go wrong. It’s OK not to have all the answers. People want to know that you are working on them. So share your thoughts on potential solutions and opportunities for growth.

When you acknowledge your team’s fears, you are permitting them to be human. You are also giving your team motivation to keep going. These are a great way to set the tone for a high-performance team despite the crisis.

3. Be a Conduit For Your Team’s Concerns

The best leaders care about their teams. In crises, it’s particularly important to show them that you care. So, if possible, do whatever you can to be the person they can bring all their concerns to. For example, you could:

Call a company-wide meeting where anyone who has a question can ask it,
Set up an anonymous email that they can send their questions to,
Have a suggestions/concerns box placed in a central location of the office.

Encourage your team to ask you any questions or raise any concerns they might have. And then let them know that you will make an effort to answer every single issue – whether you have a team of 10 or 10,000. It might not sound reasonable or possible, but it has great rewards.

When you make yourself accessible to your team by showing up and addressing their fears, you are showing them that you are on their side. You will be the ‘people’s leader.’ They will trust in you, follow your direction, and defend you. And they will feel that they can rely on you to guide them because you are someone who cares.

Having access to all these questions also gives you an idea of what your employees need from you. That way, you’ll be able to plan future team motivation strategies.

Your team members also often know your business at a level of detail that can be missed when taking a high level view. By opening up a dialogue you can often get great suggestions from those in the trenches. In times of crisis a dozen small suggestions can add to make a huge impact.

4. Employee Engagement is Still Key

Many entrepreneurs and business owners mistakenly aim for employee happiness. So when times are good, they do everything they can to accommodate their team members. While this strategy works in the beginning, in the long run, it gives away your power as a leader. Why? Because employee happiness is a fleeting and short-lived measure of the strength of your organization.

That does not mean that you shouldn’t care about employee happiness. But rather than being a goal, it should be a byproduct of your other measurable measures. These measures include employee productivity, engagement, and contribution.

Employee engagement is particularly important for team motivation. Engaged employees tend to be more enthusiastic, passionate, and positive about their work. They tend to contribute by sharing ideas, encouragement, and solutions. They also tend to be the happiest.

If you don’t have a culture of engaged employees yet, it’s not too late to get started. To get started:

Set up problem-solving groups and give them specific, meaningful tasks,
Give your them access to relevant training,
Encourage open discussions and,
Train them to provide kind, constructive feedback and criticism.

Once you have a team of engaged employees, it will be much easier to weather the crisis together.

5. Be a Leader of Leaders

As an entrepreneur or business owner, you probably already have so much on your shoulders. You most likely have to make a lot of decisions each day. In uncertain times like these, there is probably so much more pressure on you.

If you’re struggling to be everywhere at once, develop your team to make decisions on the go. Here are some tips on how to make that happen:

Equip your employees with the tools and resources that they can refer back to,
Use team motivation to empower and train your team on ethical decision making,
Trust them to think through situations and come up with the right solutions.

And once they are ready, let them know that you will back their decisions. Stand by them. This way, you’ll have a team you know you can rely on in good times and bad.

6. Deal in Hope Rather Than Despair

Picture this: you are the captain of a ship. On good days, you can stand up on the sunny deck and give your crew directions. When everything goes smoothly, all you need is to steer clear of some rocks here and there. Your crew largely knows what they need to do, and you make good headway towards your destination.

Now, imagine a large whirlpool appearing off on one side. Your crew can’t see it from their positions above and below deck, but they can feel the ship swaying this way and that. How do you help your crew fight the whirlpool’s current when they don’t understand what’s happening?

In a crisis, your organization is very much like that ship at the edge of a whirlpool. When you know that your team doesn’t see what you see, you can change your approach. By being encouraging, clear, and concise, you could use team motivation to help them trust you. As we mentioned in an earlier strategy, don’t let fear take over. If you did, it would be no different than allowing the whirlpool to swallow your ship without a fight.

Instead, consider talking about long-term plans and projects. But do so without making any promises that you can’t keep. If you deal with hope, you’ll find yourself with a team that wants to reach new heights with you.

7. Check-In Often so They Don’t Check Out

Many businesses are still experiencing communication challenges as more people work from home. Checking-in with your employees often is more critical than ever. As you do, try to keep in mind that your employees have different priorities than they used to.

They might be worried about their family, their health, or how to get the services they need. They might have children running underfoot or elderly relatives to look after. With all these distractions, it might be easier for them to isolate and struggle alone. They may have feelings of guilt and not want to share what they are going through with work.

So do your best to check-in with your employees regularly. Ask them if they are OK and show them that you care if they are not. Make resources available to those who are struggling mentally, physically, or emotionally.

Checking in with your team often shows them that you are acting on your promise to put their safety first. It also allows you to address any other issues or concerns that might arise with the new work arrangements. No one will have to feel lost or confused for long. And when the crisis is over, the relationships you have built with your team will make all the difference.

8. Lead by Example

You may already have heard this strategy because it is a time-honored and proven one. There is no greater team motivation than having a leader you are inspired to follow.

The best approach to take is to lead from the front. Be someone who doesn’t ask anyone to do anything you wouldn’t do yourself. Be seen as someone who walks the walk. Who shows up, who shares, who cares, and who positively contributes no matter the situation. Be the first one in and the last one out.

This strategy works particularly well in combination with the previous ones. When people feel safe, taken care of, and valued, they will take note of your actions and understand that you haven’t given up on them or the business. They will then choose to work with you and alongside you with enthusiasm and pride.

9. Remember That Every Crisis Ends

As difficult as it might be to see now, every crisis does end. So set up systems and procedures that will see you through the dark times and into better times. Here are some tips that might help you prepare for the future:

Create a plan. Assess where you are right now and what you have to do to course-correct and get back on track for your goals.
Be seen. Expand your business’ reach and position yourself as an authority in your industry.
Develop your mindset. Practice gratitude and meditation to maintain a healthy mindset.

When you are centered in who you are as a business owner and entrepreneur, you can prove to your team that there is a future after the crisis. As you work towards that goal together, you’ll have a more reliable, self-motivated team.

10. Learn From Other Business Owners and Entrepreneurs

The most effective problem-solving technique is often also the most overlooked one. And that is to learn and implement best practices from business owners and entrepreneurs do to pivot. It’s easy, as a leader, to feel that you are alone. Maybe you also think that no one will understand your particular difficulties. Or that everything you experience is unique to your industry. We understand.

Dan Lok struggled alone during his early years as an entrepreneur as well. But his first mentor Alan Jacques showed him the power of collaborating with and learning from other business owners. His later success was, in large part, to the fact that he surrounded himself with other entrepreneurs.

And that was because many of them have gone through challenges and crises before. They made mistakes, but they also made winning choices. So Dan Lok was able to skip a lot of the errors and do what worked instead.

So a little known, but effective team motivation strategy is to experience it for yourself in a group like Dragon 100. High-level entrepreneurs that gather there learn and grow alongside you, no matter what.

The other benefit of belonging to a group of like-minded people is that you can finally talk freely. You can share your challenges, worries, and concerns without holding back. Why? Because they understand. They are either or have gone through the same things.

Team Motivation: Be a Leader They Can Follow

Even though the world is facing unprecedented times, with a growth-oriented mindset, a team you care about, and the right strategies, your business will be stronger than ever. So, in summary, here are the ten strategies we’ve discussed in this article:

Prioritize your team’s safety over anything else.
Assure your team that they are not alone in scary times.
Address your team’s concerns and encourage them to come to you.
Harness your team’s intrinsic desire to participate.
Train and empower your team to make the right decisions.
Show your team that you are thinking about the long-term and that it includes them.
Reach out to your team members often so that they don’t feel lost.
Be the kind of leader your team is proud to follow.
Put systems and processes in place so that you prepare for the future.
Join and grow with a group of high-level, successful business owners and entrepreneurs.

How To Evaluate Business Opportunities And Ideas

April 9, 2020 by Dan Lok

There are many different types of business opportunities that entrepreneurs are regularly faced with. The reason why so many people are interested in pursuing business opportunities and ideas, is because they want to achieve wealth, success, and significance.

Perhaps you are evaluating business opportunities because you want to figure out a way to make more money, or you just want to feel more important, or more significant. Or, maybe you are simply ready to have something to call your own, and you’re eager to be your own boss.

It’s possible that for you, the wealth you could achieve from pursuing certain business opportunities would simply be a bonus of something greater: A sense of accomplishment and that satisfying feeling of fulfillment and achievement.

Types of business opportunities you may find yourself evaluating include starting your own business, expanding your current business, or investing in someone else’s business. You may even be thinking about buying an existing business that is currently for sale, or inventing a new product or service that you think there would be a demand for.

No matter which type of business opportunity you are considering, you must always properly assess, evaluate, and analyze any business opportunities that come your way. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 20% of small businesses fail in their first year, and about 50% of small businesses fail in their fifth year. So, now you understand why it’s so crucial to analyze and assess business opportunities instead of jumping right in. But how do you evaluate business opportunities properly? Below are several important tips, so be sure to read this entire article.

Evaluate Business Opportunities By Asking The Right Questions

Properly evaluating business opportunities requires that you ask all of the right questions. Don’t look at business opportunities through rose-colored glasses and assume it’s a great idea. Instead, ask yourself the hard questions.

For example, ask yourself what could go wrong. What is the downside? Have you done a proper risk assessment, and if so, what are the risks? Do you have the funds to start this business? How much will it cost? How much money could you lose?

And, even more importantly, ask yourself, Could I live with losing that much money?

Then ask yourself, Is there a sufficient market demand for this product? As well as, How long will it take to see a return on my investment? If the answer is that you might not see a profit for 5 years, then you need to ask yourself if you’re okay with that.

It’s also important to evaluate business opportunities by looking at the opportunity from other perspectives, rather than having tunnel vision. Ask yourself, What don’t I know? And ask, What don’t I see?

Critical Thinking Skills are Necessary to Evaluate Business Opportunities

Business is an intellectual sport. Whenever you’re evaluating new business opportunities, you must put aside some time to think. Whether that thinking time is done in your quiet home office, or you’re in deep thought as you stare out the window at your corporate office, this thinking time is crucial.

However, evaluating business opportunities doesn’t just require thinking. It requires critical thinking. You don’t just want to only think about how awesome this business idea is. (Many of my bad business decisions started off with a “good” idea, and a bad assumption on my part that the business would do well.) Your thinking can’t all be positive thinking about how great this opportunity is. Instead, you must engage in critical thinking. Part of critical thinking is asking yourself some of the questions mentioned in the section above.

Critical thinking, however, is also your ability to analyze the information objectively and without bias. A critical thinker will think about all of their research findings, industry data, facts, and run the numbers to see if the idea makes sense financially.

Critical thinkers are good at evaluating business ideas from a logical and fact-based standpoint, rather than from an emotional or biased standpoint. Click To Tweet

Critical thinking is important, as it’s smart to analyze business opportunities from a logical, objective and fact-based standpoint, rather than from a biased or emotional standpoint.

Conduct Market Research

When evaluating a business opportunity, it’s crucial to spend the time doing proper market research. Why? Because you need to know if there’s a high enough demand in the marketplace for your product or service. How big or small is the market for your type of business?

You also need to be aware of how much competition there is. Perhaps the marketplace is already over-saturated with similar businesses, and tons of competition. Do you think you can compete? How will you stand out?

You can also research how other similar businesses in the marketplace are doing. Are they struggling, or thriving? And what are the buying patterns of consumers in this market?

Market research also involves understanding the market and its current trends, what consumers in the market are currently paying for similar services, and where there is a gap that needs to be filled.

You’ll definitely have to do a lot of other research while evaluating business opportunities as well, but market research is one of the most crucial types of research.

A Detailed Business Plan is Required

You probably shouldn’t consider any business opportunities that don’t have a well-thought out, complete business plan.

If you are considering starting your own business, your first order of business is to do your research and write out a detailed business plan.

If you think you’ll need investors to start your business, know that they’ll require a business plan from you.

If the business opportunity you’re considering involves investing in someone else’s business, you should of course take a look at the business plan, and have industry professionals you trust take a look at it as well. You want to know that the business idea is one that is likely to be sustainable and profitable, within a market where the demand is there.

Ask a Professional Business Consultant for Advice

It’s worth it to hire a business consultant with credentials. Get their input. Business consultants typically charge by the hour, and they can help you with many things. If you don’t have a business plan yet, the consultant can give you tips on how to write a compelling business plan, and what should be included in it.

If you do have a business plan that was given to you or written by you, some consultants are willing to take a look at it, and provide their expert opinion. This helps you properly evaluate the business opportunity.

Hired consultants or lawyers can also help you review any contracts that you’d have to sign in order to take on a business opportunity.

Get Opinions from Industry Experts

Whatever business idea you’re evaluating, it’s always a smart idea to get advice from industry experts or mentors. Perhaps your mentor will advise you to write down a pros and cons list, or conduct some other ‘thinking’ exercise that is helpful while evaluating the business opportunity. Or, maybe an industry expert you talk to will have valuable insight on the current needs of the marketplace.

The more advice and opinions you get from business experts and industry experts, the more insight you’ll have into the business opportunity in front of you.

Think Outside the Box

How you think about your business, and how you execute your ideas, that’s what increases the odds of success. Intel is very valuable, as is thinking outside the box.

In the tough work of business, there are winners and losers. Contrary to popular belief, those who work the hardest and hustle the most, don’t always make the most money or succeed the most.

Those who take the time to think outside the box, however, are more likely to succeed. An example of thinking outside the box is thinking about a gap in the marketplace, where there is a demand. This is often referred to as a ‘blue ocean’ market, where there aren’t any competitors, as it’s a current gap in the market, but the demand is there. If you pursue ‘blue ocean’ business opportunities with no competition but tons of demand, you have a higher chance of success.

Financial Assessment: Is There a Less Expensive Opportunity to Consider Instead?

I want you to imagine that you’re evaluating a business opportunity in the restaurant industry, because you’re interested in this industry. Let’s say you’re thinking of opening a restaurant. But you know it’ll be expensive. This is not a cheap business opportunity. You have to think of the cost of the real estate, the labor, the cost of the food, the wait staff, etc.

Think about how much it will cost to open and run a restaurant. Let’s say you figured out that it’ll cost at least $400,000, and you have an investor willing to put in $150,000. You’ve realized that because of how pricey the initial investment is, it will take you at least 5 years to make back your investment. You might not start making a profit for 6 or 7 years. And in this competitive industry, the likelihood of failing is quite high. If things don’t go well, you could lose over half a million dollars.

After evaluating this business opportunity, you’ve realized your restaurant would have to do very well, even to just break even and make back your investment.

Don’t jump into anything without running the numbers. Do your break even analysis. The restaurant industry is extremely competitive.

Is there a less expensive business opportunity in this industry? How can you start a business that would cost less, in this industry that you’re interested in? Why not sell a food-related product instead? If you were thinking of opening an Indian restaurant, you could sell a related product instead. Consider selling delicious Indian cooking sauces instead.

Do You Know How to Pitch to Investors?

There’s a high likelihood that your business opportunity will be too expensive for you to take on by yourself. That means you need investors. But do you know how to pitch to investors?

Knowing how to pitch to investors is one of the skills you need to have if you want to pursue a business opportunity.

The first thing you’ll need to do is prepare a sales pitch. This typically includes memorizing a speech and creating a compelling power-point presentation. However, before you prepare your pitch, understand that your pitch should focus on the benefits for the investors. What’s in it for them? Investors only want to provide you with funding and invest in your business idea, because they want a return on their investment. It’s your job to explain how and when they’ll get their return on investment.

Your pitch should preemptively answer the questions you know your investors will need answered before they’ll feel comfortable investing. After hearing your pitch, the investor should now have more trust in your and your business idea, less doubts about it, and feel more confident in their investment. doubts, fears, and questions about whether or not they can trust you.

Be sure to rehearse your pitch and practice it again and again, before your investor meeting.

Knowing and Understanding Your Niche Market

It’s always important to invest in what you know, so if you’re considering investing in a new business opportunity, do you know the market quite well? Do you understand the market needs for this particular niche, and do you understand the industry?

If you aren’t knowledgeable in this particular industry, or you aren’t passionate about it, the business opportunity might not be right for you.

What Skills Do You Need to Have in Order for the Business to be a Success?

In order for a business to succeed, you need certain skills. So, when evaluating a business opportunity or idea, you should also evaluate whether you possess these crucial skills, or whether you could acquire them. These skills include sales and closing skills, marketing skills, industry knowledge, and business acumen.

If you don’t possess some of these skills, can you take a course to learn them? Or, do you have a potential business partner who does possess these skills? These are important things to think about.

Evaluating whether or not you have the right skills needed for the business plan to work, is part of what’s called a “self-analysis”. Reviewing your skills (including sales skills, people skills, marketing skills and special skills that align with the business model) is an important step. Other things to consider while doing a self-analysis, is considering whether or not you’re willing to put in the amount of funds, time, and effort needed to increase the odds of success.

If You Lack the Required Knowledge or Skills, Invest in Yourself First

You might not be ready to pursue certain business opportunities if you lack the required knowledge or skills. Before you can safely pursue these business opportunities that seem over your head, you must invest in yourself by learning the things you need to know.

Investing in yourself could be deciding to learn the required skills by taking an online course, or reading a business-related book written by a business expert.

Gain Knowledge by Reading Books on Business to Set Yourself Up for Success

Great business people are always learning. Business-related books can help you gain more knowledge, and books can also help you learn the skills you need to reach your goals. After reading these books, you’ll feel more confident in your pursuit of business opportunities, and it’ll be much safer for you to pursue them.

The right books will help set you up for success. You should ensure that the book you buy was written by a successful business professional, who recently pursued business opportunities and succeeded.

Think of how much crucial business-related knowledge you can gain, simply from buying a book that costs $10 or $20?

I recently published a book called Unlock It: The Master Key to Wealth, Success, and Significance. You’ll learn a lot about business in this book. What you’ll learn includes how to grow your business to grow rich, how to think critically by focusing on what you don’t know, how to hire the right people for your business, and how to unlock your business’s highest potential in terms of success and wealth.

Order my book Unlock It: The Master Key to Wealth, Success, and Significance here. Start reading about business so that you can pursue only the best business opportunities that have the highest chance of success.

The Blueprint To Building A Sustainable 7 Figure Online Business

April 3, 2020 by Dan Lok

How can you build a sustainable 7 figure online business? How is it different from earning 4, 5 or 6 figures online? And how can you scale to success?

It’s very well possible to build a 7 figure online business. The online world offers lots of potential for making money – be it eCommerce stores, affiliate marketing or social media marketing. But if you want to build your online empire, you probably also want to do it fast and make it sustainable.

Dan Lok scaled his business from zero to 8 figures in one year, all by leveraging the power of online opportunities. How did he do that? His success is a mix of many factors such as online presence, using the right strategies to scale, and knowing how to close any kind of deal.

The power of the online world is immense if you know how to leverage it. If you don’t know how to use it yet, that’s no problem. You’ve come to the right place to learn. In this article, we will provide you the blueprint to building a sustainable 7 figure online business.

The Start of Your 7 Figure Online Business?

Your 7 figure online business starts with your mindset. When you want to make a million dollars your mind has to be ready for it. Most people aren’t raised rich, so having that much money is overwhelming to them.

Maybe you have seen people like this before? They have all these ideas about how to make it big but, in the end, they never follow through. They never get started. In fact, they only dream about success instead of pursuing it. Those people don’t have a millionaire mindset.

Instead, they are waiting until they are ready. The issue with that is, you will never feel 100% ready. So they never start. They are full of excuses. Don’t wait until everything is perfect. Start now and build the plane as you are flying it.

When you want to be wealthy, having an online business is one of the easiest ways to get there. But still, you have to be ready for pain and discomfort. Being successful means saying no to many things. It also means making sacrifices. Are you ready for that?

To build your 7 figure online business you want to be aware of all this. At the same time, make sure you’re doing something you enjoy. Don’t do what everybody else is doing because it’s trending on social media. Find something that resonates with you.

How Can It Be Sustainable?

An online business – or any business really – is sustainable if you can make a decent income without you working more. Or, in other words, you earn more money per hour without working more. How’s that possible? An online business has an advantage in this because many processes can be automated.

You put your product online and automate the selling process. You don’t need to be there and for some offers, you don’t need any sales staff at all. It’s basically selling itself after you’ve set everything up.

Sustainable business is also not dependent on your time. When you work in a 9-5 job, for example, you get paid for your time. When you run an online business, however, and want to scale to 7 figures, you need to make much more money in one hour as you did before. So, the sales cycle you will be building has to be repeatable many many times. So sustainable actually means scalable and repeatable.

Build Your Personal Media Platform

To build a 7 figure online business you’ll definitely need a strong online presence. The more social media platforms you are on the better. There’s nothing like “too much” presence online. People need to know who you are and what your message is. Only then can they build trust in you – And they will only buy from you if they trust you.

Every social media platform has a different audience. So, if you are active on many of them, you have the power to address several audiences. Dan Lok has big accounts on every major social media app and they are definitely a reason for his huge success. As of now, his youtube has 2.5 million subscribers. So, everything he does is seen by millions of viewers each day.

If you pick one platform to start, then it should definitely be youtube. Why? Because youtube has the second most powerful search engine on the whole web. So, it’s your best place to start. But to scale up and get to 7 figures, you want to be omnipresent – you want to be active on every big platform.

To build your 7 figure empire, be present everywhere and outperform your competition. Through the content you put out, people connect with you and become your fans. This is vital because people buy people. There needs to be a human element in everything you do.

Once they know you and understand your “why” and your message, selling to them is much easier. A brand that has a face is always more successful than a brand that has just a logo. Why? Because people don’t connect with logos. There is no emotional connection.

So, when you do your personal media platform right, it makes your clients chase you – instead of you chasing them.

What’s Your Message?

The next aspect that will make your 7 figure online business successful is your message and your personal brand. The most important point is, you have to stand for something. Most people make the mistake of trying to market to everyone. That doesn’t work because you become too generic. Generic doesn’t stand out.

To have a clear message you have to identify your target audience. And I repeat – your target audience isn’t everyone. Find out whom you want to serve. Men? Women? Students? Fitness junkies? After you’ve identified your audience you can model your message and brand accordingly. The right brand message is often polarizing. The right people will love you for it and the wrong people will be completely turned off – and you want it that way.

Your personal brand is extremely important for your online presence. It helps you to build a tribe of loyal fans who love you and want to buy from you. Having this kind of relationship with your fans is a form of social capital. According to Dan Lok himself, social capital is often more valuable than financial capital. If you know how to use your social capital wisely, you can turn it into financial capital anytime you need it – it’s almost like a byproduct.

Your personal brand is strongest if you base it on your talents and values. That’s when you are most authentic. When you boil it down, your personal brand is you. Of course, there are some things you won’t share online, but everything you share becomes part of your personal brand.

When you boil it down, your personal brand is you. Click To Tweet

Products For 7 Figure Online Business

The next thing you’ll need for your 7 figure online business is a product to sell. It can be anything from a product you developed, to online training, or already existing products that you sell via an affiliate link. All these options are valid.

When you come up with a completely new product and your own idea you want to keep some things in mind, however. Before you start investing time and money into its creation check the market. Is there any demand for your product?

Is this something people really care about? In other words: is there a starving crowd hungry for your product? The thing is, you can’t create new demand in the market. You have to find out which demands and desires are already there. Then you offer a product following that.

If inventing your own product isn’t for you, then you want to look into affiliate marketing. It allows you to leverage products that already exist and to earn a commission from selling those.

But the best product to sell is online training or courses. This works especially well if you have a certain expertise in any field. Maybe you are a fitness expert, a growth hacker or an eCommerce owner… All you need to do is record online seminars, turn them into a program, and sell them.

How To Create Your Own Course

Creating your own online course is the easiest way to start your online business. Keep in mind, it has to be valuable, however. The people taking the course need to be able to create actual results. You will then take those results and use them for further marketing. Their success helps to build your brand further.

Now, how do you create such a course? First, it has to be a topic you know a lot about. Preferably something where you are already successful. Then you get into the thinking. How did you get successful? How can you reverse engineer your success for others? Spend some time on this. This is one of the cornerstones of your business.

A course that doesn’t work kills your reputation. Don’t create it just to make quick money. It should be something you actually care about, a message you want to share with this world. If it’s important to you, you will automatically create a better experience for your students too.

The best courses are split into several training sessions. It could be 4 weeks long or maybe 7 or 8 weeks. Give the students assignments so they can track and further their growth. You also don’t want to leave them alone with a bunch of videos. Create a support system around your course. Maybe there is a Facebook group or other kind of community? Create something that allows them to stay connected.

Scale Your 7 Figure Online Business With Premium Offers

The next step to your sustainable 7 figure online business is your offer. Huh? Don’t you have your product already? That’s true but your offer isn’t your product. An offer is your product plus value. It’s so vital that your prospects see the value in your offer. Maybe you include bonuses or other benefits?

Either way, to get to 7 figures you want to have premium offers. Those are offers that cost a bit more and are marketed towards affluent people. If you rely on low ticket offers alone, it will be so much more difficult to reach 7 figures.

How To Drive Traffic

Now, a product, an offer, and a social media presence are nice, but won’t help you much if nobody notices you. That’s why traffic is a key element of building a 7 figure online business. You need to drive traffic to your social media channels and your product.

The best source to drive traffic to your personal media platform is through Facebook ads or Google ads. However, SEO for Google is a bit harder to understand and running Facebook ads also got more difficult. That’s why many influencers start out on YouTube where the search engine is way easier to understand.

Anyway, from the source of your choice, the users enter your funnel. What’s a funnel? Imagine it like this. You might publish a YouTube video. At the end of the video, you leave a link to your product. From the product page, you send visitors to the next page where you offer them upsells. They check-out and are now in your system. In the future, you can send them through new funnels – by sending them an email, for example

So, the funnel is the path the users go through until they buy from you. It’s also what you use to get them to buy again. It’s a repeatable pipeline. You set it up once and now it’s generating income for you by itself.

Traffic Superstar: Webinars

One of the best ways to sell your online course or training is through a webinar. Webinars are so successful because they do the selling for you. They provide your lead with all the information they need because, usually, you give them some free content.

If a prospect likes the webinar content they will likely buy your course. So, the webinar automates your sales process. Automation is the only way to build a 7 figure online business. You can’t scale your business that far if you do every sales conversation one on one.

A well-built funnel with a valuable webinar will do the selling for you. You set it up once and it generates money while you sleep, travel, or do whatever you enjoy. It ensures that you have time for bigger business questions and strategic planning instead of having to worry about the daily business operations.

So, with your funnel, you drive traffic to your webinar. However, after the webinar, the funnel doesn’t stop. You want to make sure your funnel is well developed and tells the prospect what to do next. Do they go to the next page? Should they wait for an email from you? Whatever it is, set the expectations right from the beginning.

Webinar Success Through Platform Closing

Before the webinar can do the selling for you, you have to create it. There is one crucial thing you want to pay attention to. In a webinar, you are basically holding a sales pitch (a very valuable one). Usually, you start with the content that you promised. At the end of the webinar, you pitch your paid program.

For this to be successful, you’ll need a skill called platform closing. It’s a special form of closing sales because you aren’t in a face to face conversation with the prospect. They are watching a recording of your selling. That means you can’t ask them any questions and you have to guess how ready they are to buy.

Platform closing is used when you sell something on stage – hence the name. A webinar is similar to a stage, as the communication is from one person (you) to many (any prospect that watches the webinar).

For platform closing to succeed you need to build up a universal pain that all your potential prospects share. You also have to handle common objections and answer pressing questions. Building that perfect webinar might take a while.

7 Figure Online Business Made Easy

Maybe you are thinking now “this all sounds like a lot of work”. It’s true, to follow this blueprint you need some endurance. And you also need to be willing to deep dive into the different aspects of your business. You need to become an expert on how to create online courses. Learn how to build a funnel. Think exactly about your target market and your branding message.

Or, you could hire people who do it all for you. But, there is one more thing you could do. If you are a serious influencer or entrepreneur and already earn $300,000 in revenue – then you might qualify for Dan Lok’s High Ticket Influencer program.

This program is for you if you want to scale your business to 7 figures beyond using social media, generate predictable ROI every month, and want your business to run even when you’re not there.

High Ticker Influencer encompasses everything from marketing, sales, branding, finances, production, and everything else you’ll need to scale your empire. Explore the 12 weeks intensive HTI here.

The Ultimate Social Media Guide For Influencers To Build A Global Empire

March 31, 2020 by Dan Lok

There’s no denying the power social media has when it comes to building your brand and growing your business. Strategizing a complete social media guide is therefore essential to the success of your brand and business.

Building a real following on social media is key to growing your business, and everybody knows it.

Every single day, millions of people, who happen to be your exact target customer, are scrolling through social media. What will catch their eye? How can your social media content grab their attention?

You might also be wondering, Which social media platforms are the best ones to focus my social media marketing efforts on? This is one of the many questions that makes influencers and business owners feel overwhelmed about developing a strategic and comprehensive social media guide.

That’s why I want you to think of this article as the influencer’s complete social media guide for building a global empire.

But why should you listen to my advice when it comes to social media? Well, I have built a personal brand from scratch and I’ve become a social media influencer with millions of followers. I have over 1.5 million followers on Instagram, and over 1.7 million followers on Facebook. I also have over 2.4 million subscribers on my YouTube channel. That’s why so many people want to learn my social media secrets.

My massive social media following is a big part of the reason why I’m so successful. You see, you could sell the best product or the most valuable service, but it means nothing if nobody knows your product or service exists.

Social media is the best way to make sure your brand and product are both highly visible and well-known among active consumers. Customers can’t consider purchasing your product or service without first knowing that it exists. Social media is one of the best ways to spread the word.

In this day and age, formulating a social media guide isn’t just about being “tech-savvy”. It’s about understanding your target audience and knowing which social media platforms will work best to engage them. You also need to know how to best maximize the potential of each of those social media platforms.

Social media marketing is also about consistency, brand image, and let’s not forget about conversion rates. One million Instagram followers, for example, doesn’t mean much if your followers are not converting into actual customers. However, if you post content that converts your social media followers into customers, you’re heading towards next-level success.

Why Should You Be Using as Many Social Media Platforms as Possible?

Some influencers focus too heavily on only one or two social media platforms. But why shouldn’t you engage as many as possible? It’s kind of like the basic principle of diversifying your assets. You never want all of your eggs in one basket when it comes to investments, so why wouldn’t the same principle apply to marketing?

Part of the reason why many social media influencers focus solely on one or two social media platforms is because they don’t really understand how to use or maximize the other ones. Nobody ever provided them with a comprehensive social media guide. Perhaps they know how to use Instagram and Facebook, but they don’t know how to use YouTube or LinkedIn.

Knowledge is power, and that’s why I’m offering this comprehensive social media guide to help you understand how to use other very powerful social media platforms that you are not currently maximizing or using. By not using them, you’re leaving money on the table, and I want to help you stop doing that.

In this social media guide, I’ll explain exactly what social media can do for your business and brand. With a well-established plan and commitment to long-term consistency, you’ll be building your own global empire in no time.

Creating a Personalized Social Media Guide

Before we get into specific social media strategies for different social media platforms, consider your brand’s specific goals. The best brands are authentic ones. Therefore, crafting a personalized social media guide that aligns with your brand is essential.

Recently, I revealed some of my insider secrets on creating a personal brand based on your own unique superpower. Your superpower is your special skill, gift, or area of expertise. Your brand story often involves the story of how you became an expert in your specific niche.

It goes without saying that your personalized social media guide will be based on your personal brand and your signature style. An influencer who’s personal brand revolves around outdoor adventure and sells survival kits, for example, would probably have a certain theme in mind for all their social media platforms. They’d post plenty of exciting videos and photos of beautiful scenery. They’d evoke excitement in their target audience with videos of stunning hikes, waterfalls, and cliffs.

Understand that while this article’s general social media guide is helpful, it still needs tweaking based on your personal brand in order to be effective. For example, Apple’s Instagram feed should look completely different from your own, because their brand is completely different from yours.

And, how you engage the consumer on Instagram will be completely different from how you engage them on YouTube. An effective social media guide requires research on the various social media platforms, and how they work.

Branding Strategies

While exposure is good, great press is even better. Crafting an effective brand strategy is vital to your success, but what exactly is a branding strategy?

The way I like to think about it is finding your target audience, and researching everything there is to know about them.

Unless your product is sliced bread, it’s unlikely that your business will appeal to everyone. Instead of trying to please the entire marketplace, narrow your focus to your target demographic. Choose your niche, and choose it wisely.

Target your marketing efforts on social media, with the eventual goal to find loyal brand advocates. Brand advocates are defined as anyone who would vouch for your business without being paid to do so. They recommend your brand simply because they love your brand. Finding brand advocates on social media is even better, since they are likely to have an audience of their own to promote your brand to.

Think of it this way: As a musician, would you rather have five ultra-dedicated fans, or twenty fans who are only somewhat invested in your brand? You’re likely to be better off with five dedicated fans since they’ll promote your music on their own, play your songs for their friends, and drag their friends to all of your concerts.

Brand advocates also help build your brand’s credibility, and improve your brand’s reputation. Positive marketing about your brand is better when coming from a secondary source other than your own self-promotion. I’m much more likely to trust a recommendation from my close friend, than the brand that is recommending itself. Makes sense, right?

One of the best ways to get brand advocates is to connect with your audience on a deeper, emotional level. This requires that you have a very strong and relatable brand image, and great personal branding.

First, Hone in On Your Personal Brand

If you haven’t done so already, the first thing you need to do is get crystal-clear on what your personal brand is all about, what your signature style is, and what you want to be known for.

You need to take the time to consider what your brand voice sounds like, how your brand comes across, and what your central themes are. Figure out how you stand out in the marketplace, and which pain points you solve for your audience. In turn, crafting a personalized social media guide will give you a clear image of your brand and where it fits in the marketplace.

It’s also crucial to gain clarity on who your target demographic is. Why? Because certain demographics use certain social media platforms more than others.

This will certainly require effort, but remember, in order to get somewhere you’ve never been, you have to do something you’ve never done.

Investing in social media in itself is useful since it forces you to establish your brand in entirely new ways. Once you start maximizing the potential of all the social media platforms that are available to promote your brand, the results might surprise you.

Perhaps the conversion rates from one social media platform will be much higher than you expected, and it could simply be that your target audience uses that platform more. TikTok, for example, is a video-sharing app that has a lot of Gen Z users. Gen Z users are under the age of 25. Perhaps that generation is your target consumer, and that’s why your social media marketing efforts on TikTok paid off.

In general, when it comes to a social media guide, I typically advise that people get crystal-clear about their personal brand and what it stands for, first. Now, let’s go over some of the most popular social media platforms that carry the highest potential for return:

Facebook Marketing

Facebook is still considered to be royalty in the social media world, with 2.3 billion active users. Since it’s one of the most popular social media platforms, it’s a no-brainer that you include Facebook marketing in your social media marketing strategy. Best of all, you can share photos, sales copy, videos, and blog posts on this platform. In that sense, think of Facebook as the swiss-army knife of social media.

According to a 2019 study conducted by Pew Research Center, 3/4ths of adult Facebook users visit the site on a daily basis.

One of the many benefits of marketing on Facebook is that you can post a wide variety of content so your consumer won’t feel unengaged. So, how do you create different types of content that still feel aligned with your brand?

The key is to alternate. If you’re marketing your brand on Facebook, don’t post two videos in a row. Maybe one day you’ll share a video, but the next day you’ll post an insightful blog post.

On Facebook, I’d also suggest sticking to a specific posting schedule in order to stay consistent. My loyal followers always have a new piece of content to look forward to, and they generally know when to expect a new post.

Instagram Marketing

While you should do your best to market yourself on as many social media platforms as possible, Instagram is a great place to begin. Why? Because Instagram has over 1 billion monthly active users, making it the perfect platform to start building your global brand.

According to Oberlo, Instagram users spend at least one hour daily on the platform, making it the second-most engaged social site underneath Facebook. Instagram uniquely utilizes solely videos and photos, which are likely to receive higher engagement than text alone.

Clearly, mastering Instagram marketing is vital to the success of your business. Instagram is also one of the easiest platforms to partner with influencers and brand ambassadors.

Building your following on Instagram is also in your best interest because marketing on the platform gets even easier once you have at least 10,000 followers. You’re able to share embedded links driving traffic to your website directly from your Instagram stories once you have 10,000 followers or more.

A picture is worth one thousand words, so make sure your Instagram images stand out from the crowd. For example, the popular American grocery store Trader Joe’s clearly spends a lot of time strategizing their Instagram content. Each photo Trader Joe’s posts is beautifully shot, and valuable, giving the consumer valuable information while still advertising their brand.

Growing your Instagram following will require dedication and patience. Remember that growing an impressive social media following takes time. That’s why you can’t get discouraged if the growth isn’t happening fast enough for your liking. Is your goal to be an influencer with over 100,000 followers? Be strategic and consistent, in order to achieve these loftier goals in due time.

Video Marketing

A whopping 87% of video marketers say that their brand videos have increased direct to traffic to their brand’s website. You may be wondering, What is it that makes videos so powerful?

Well, for one thing, videos have the ability to engage multiple senses at once. The consumer is able to both see and hear your brand’s message, making it that much more engaging. And, evoking that much more emotion.

Think of it this way: Is your phone harder to ignore when it both rings and vibrates when a call comes through, compared to when it rings with the vibration turned off? With more stimuli comes more capacity for grabbing your prospect’s attention.

I’ve learned from experience that creating videos across various social media platforms, maintaining a consistent brand voice, is an extremely effective branding strategy. Moreover, many social media platforms offer more ways than ever before to embed videos in posts. Instagram developed the ‘Instagram Story’ which allows influencers to market themselves to their Instagram following in video format, and other platforms like Facebook allow videos to be posted as well.

Some social media platforms are entirely about video content, such as YouTube and TikTok.

Video-focused platforms such as YouTube will be covered more in-depth below, but the first step is to understand the power of video marketing. When developing a social media guide to follow, make sure that video-focused platforms such as YouTube are part of your plan.

If your competitors utilize video marketing and you don’t, that’s where you could lose a lot of followers and customers.

YouTube Marketing

YouTube has a shockingly massive, dedicated user base. As of last year, this social platform reported having over 2 billion monthly active users. This is the number of people that are actively using YouTube on a regular basis, and actively watching YouTube videos in their spare time.

2 billion monthly active users is huge. Clearly, it’s imperative to produce video content on YouTube if you want to grow your business, build your brand, and build a global empire.

A wide variety of audiences, demographics and communities use YouTube. That’s why YouTube is the perfect place to target your audience. And, since videos are so engaging, your video content is likely to produce higher rates of return when crafted the right way.

In other words, if your YouTube content is good enough, it can generate loads of qualified leads, sales, and brand advocates. Your YouTube channel can also become a source of passive income on its own through YouTube’s partnership program.

Why else is using YouTube important for building your social media empire? Since YouTube is owned by Google, that means your YouTube videos will automatically have a high chance of getting ranked on Google.

All you have to do is come up with a plan to make sure your videos stand out, have value, and engage viewers.

You could hire a copywriter to create engaging video scripts, rather than winging it when you create your videos. Or, get some training from a YouTube master on how to succeed at video marketing.

Whatever you do, make sure that your video content remains true to your brand. Keep your brand image and brand voice consistent across all of your social media platforms.

What About TikTok?

TikTok is one of the newer social media platforms that features a never-ending feed of 15-second videos. Impressively, the app already has 800 million active users. However, how are you going to use just 15 seconds of video content to your advantage?

As it turns out, 15 seconds can be just enough for certain brands and influencers to promote themselves. Stars like Loren Gray and Spencer X have emerged from the TikTok app with fully-fledged businesses, just by showing off their unique personalities and talents via these short video clips.

You could use TikTok videos to incorporate your product or service into a funny skit, or to connect with your consumers. These short videos help you connect with your audience on a more personal, lighter, more humorous level. Moreover, there are a number of TikTok influencers you could collaborate with to improve your own exposure.

Though TikTok is a young platform, it’s important to get involved before the market becomes too saturated. In other words, since TikTok is newer, that means many of your competitors aren’t yet using TikTok. If you start using it now, that’s just another way that your brand can get ahead.

Social Media Copywriting

Though we are in the age of photos and videos, do not underestimate the power of copywriting. Learning the art of crafting persuasive sentences can make your business appear more elevated and professional. Advanced copy also helps you position yourself as an expert and helps you communicate your message to your target audience.

But what if you simply don’t have time or the interest to learn copywriting? Consider hiring a professional copywriter to help you write your social media copyl. Not only can copywriters save you time, but they can also optimize your content making it more search-engine friendly. Social media copywriters and SEO copywriters can help you maximize your social media marketing campaigns.

Copywriters can write video scripts for YouTube, copy for Instagram captions, persuasive Facebook ad copy for better Facebook advertising results, LinkedIn posts, and more.

Improving the quality of your content and copy on social media is one of the best strategies to include in your social media guide.

If other brands, influencers, and businesses are posting social media content that has not been well thought-out, and they don’t have copywriting skills, what does that mean for you? It means that if you develop copywriting skills or hire a professional social media copywriter, you’ll have a competitive advantage in the form of extra-persuasive copy on your social media platforms.

Remember, anything you can use to set yourself apart from other businesses is to your advantage.

LinkedIn Marketing

As said by Bill Gates, “Power comes not from knowledge kept, but from knowledge shared.” Apply this helpful piece of advice to your marketing strategy. By teaching your followers valuable information or sharing knowledge, you can drive traffic to your brand and build credibility.

One of the best social media platforms to do this on is LinkedIn. The platform features many blog-style articles usually regarding business or branding advice. If you can teach other like-minded professionals in your industry something they’ll find valuable, they’re more likely to purchase or recommend your product.

Moreover, LinkedIn is also a great way to network with those in similar industries who may be a bit further along than you are. Use this to your advantage by using LinkedIn to find mentors, or people to collaborate with. Offer to take someone you admire out for lunch, to hear about their journey.

A presence on LinkedIn is also a great way to get clients, since LinkedIn is full of professionals with money.

The Art of Persuasion

You should aim to build your social media following even when you’re offline. Your goal should be to wake up every morning to new followers – but how can you persuade people to follow you on social media? One popular technique is to incentivize loyal consumers to follow you online in exchange for a discounted good or service.

For example, perhaps your local coffee shop offers a free baked good to any patron who shares a photo of their coffee on their Instagram account, and tags the coffee shop.

Tagged posts are a great way to drive traffic to your business and build brand credibility.

Take some time to consider what powerful words or phrases you can use when persuading others to follow you on social media. Shift your perspective to that of a consumer. What words or phrases would lead you to buy a product after viewing it on your social media feed?

Social Proof and Influencers

What is social proof and why is it important? The term ‘social proof’ refers to the expectation that people tend to follow accounts that already have a large following, lots of positive reviews from the public, or follow accounts that have been endorsed by a celebrity or public figure.

You may be wondering how the concept of social proof relates to your branding strategy. Well, for starters, 97% of consumers report that online reviews affect their buying decisions. Therefore, building a sustainable brand requires testimonials from people not affiliated with your business. Simple enough, right?

One of the best ways to utilize the power of social proof, is to invest in brand endorsements from popular influencers. These social media influencers typically have a large, highly loyal following who listen to everything they say, do, and recommend.

Is it worth the money you might have to spend to get one of these public figures to promote you on their social media? Yes. Do your research, first, though. Ensure that their following is loyal, legitimate, and engaged. You should also ensure that their following is composed of the type of people you want to target.

You can always start by partnering with less expensive, micro-influencers, and work your way up to big-time social media influencers for brand endorsements.

Which Social Media Platforms are the Best for Building Your Empire?

You may be wondering which of the platforms are the best for your social media brand strategy. In short, all of them. However, you’ll want to make sure that you target a select few first to maximize your engagement.

In fact, I’ve learned that there’s essentially a holy trinity of social media platforms based on their engagement and content output. For these reasons, I recommend Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn as your focuses on social media branding.

For one thing, Instagram and YouTube have the most active monthly users which make driving up your engagement easier. They also allow notably longer videos than other sites like TikTok. While TikTok is still great for connecting with a certain audience, longer videos mean more time to explain your brand. Makes sense, right?

LinkedIn is set apart from most other social media sites in that it’s a huge community of professionals. Dedicating yourself to branding on LinkedIn will improve your copywriting skills making you a better business person overall.

These three media outlets also have another vital factor in common: They all work well to utilize social proof. All outlets have comment sections and ways to network with similar businesses and influencers in your community. The more credibility you build, the better.

Social Media Marketing Education

While you create your social media branding strategy, don’t stop learning. You may feel like seeking out information could distract from your marketing technique. However, don’t make this mistake.

Instead, use new information to your advantage. I’ve learned to adjust my strategy as I take in newfound social media marketing insights with great success. While it is tough to learn and act simultaneously, you’ll be a better business person for it.

The only reason successful businesses thrive is their underlying commitment to adaptation. As any branding expert, my success has largely fluctuated over the years. I keep at it, although because I trust my ability to adapt to a new normal. Evolution is only possible when you’re open to change.

So, is it worth the money to invest in some social media marketing training, coaching, or educational course on social media? If you want to be an influencer, then yes, it’s definitely a good idea. This is you investing in yourself, which is smart if you want to achieve your goals faster.

Learning to harness the power of social media takes time. Rome wasn’t built in a day, so neither will your global empire. Continue to educate yourself, follow through consistently with your branding strategy, and watch as your business begins to grow.

Are you ready to maximize your social media platforms for ultimate growth? If you’re ready to build the kind of social media following that grows your business and takes it to the next level, enroll in my High-Ticket Influencer Program here.

Have You Ever Wondered What The Most Popular Social Media Influencers Do That Works?

Many people ask me,

Dan, how did you do it? How did you get over 1.5 million followers on Instagram, and over 1.7 million followers on Facebook? How did you get over 2.4 million YouTube subscribers?

When I’m constantly asked these questions, I realize that people don’t just want a social media guide from me. They want my social media secrets.

So now, for a limited time, you can access my most closely-guarded social media secrets by ordering your personal copy of my Social Media Secrets Vault. Here, you will gain access to my Instagram secrets, my YouTube secrets, my copywriting secrets, and even some closely-guarded persuasion secrets.

These social media secrets are what you need to build a global empire, and build the kind of social media following that will take your business to the next level.

In my Social Media Secrets Vault, you’ll learn how to get your first 10,000 followers fast, along with an Instagram checklist, a coveted YouTube cheat sheet on how to create superior videos, and many other social media secrets. I tend to guard these secrets with my life, so consider this a limited-time offer. Order my Social Media Secrets Vault here.