Sales

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.

How To Pitch To Investors When Seeking Funding To Scale Your Startup Business

February 18, 2020 by Dan Lok

Looking to scale your startup business, but need funding in order to do it? Knowing how to pitch to investors will make the process smoother.

If you want to know how to pitch to investors, there is a harsh truth that you need to be aware of. Like everyone on this planet, they are tuned into the radio frequency WIIFM, which stands for What’s In It For Me? Investors are only interested in providing you with funding so that they can get a return on their investment.

Investors want to make money. They do not care about your passions or your dreams. To them, you are just a risk they are considering investing in, in order to make more money.

That means if you want to successfully convince an investor to give you funding to scale your startup business, you need to cater your presentation to that aspect. Your investors will have doubts, fears, and questions about whether or not they can trust you. If you can overcome all of these doubts and objections in their minds, they will be more than happy to give you what you are looking for.

Get Clear on Why You’re Pitching in the First Place

If you want to learn how to pitch to investors, you need to get clear on why you are presenting in the first place. What is the goal of the presentation? What outcome are you looking for?

When you plan ahead and know the ‘why’ behind your reason for presenting, you will be able to much more effectively communicate that to your audience. The investors you are pitching to could have seen hundreds of presentations before yours. If you can’t clearly and effectively communicate why they should provide you with funding, the chances that you’ll do business together are very slim.

Do you have a vision of where the company will be in a few years? What are your next steps once you acquire the funding? Communicating your plan to the investor is very important to influencing them to fund your startup business. Your investor does not trust you nor know who you are. By presenting a detailed plan to them, it shows that you have done your research, and you know what you are doing. You are giving them reasons to believe that you will become successful, and that their money will not go to waste.

When you have clarity on what you want, communicating it to others is very easy. All that’s left is to overcome their objections by presenting a well-organized plan of how you both can succeed. The most important factor when learning how to pitch to investors, is that when your audience has no reason to doubt you, they’ll be inclined to say yes.

Make them an offer they can’t refuse. - The Godfather Share on X

Who is Presenting is More Important Than What is Being Presented

Have you ever sat through a presentation that made you bored out of your mind? Chances are, the speaker spoke in a monotone voice, or exhibited low energy in their presentation. The speaker bored you to death.

If you want to know how to pitch to investors, you’ll need to make sure your presenter makes a good impression. If you are not a good presenter, get someone else to do the pitch, who is good at presenting.

Remember: It’s not about the offer, it’s about the person who’s presenting it. Someone who demonstrates charisma, passion and energy for what they believe in, will come off as someone who is trustworthy and entertaining. Your audience is not just judging the business, but also the people who will be running the company. And if they perceive the CEO or marketing team to be sloppy, they’ll think the same way about your offer.

That’s why making a good first impression is crucial to build rapport with an investor. For them, it’s not just about making a good ROI, it’s also about who they are working with. Successful business people know that there’s nothing worse than dealing with someone who is difficult to work with. And if they sense the two of you won’t be a good fit, you won’t get the funding you need.

If you want to successfully learn how to pitch to investors and scale your business, you need to come off as someone they can trust. That means the way you look, talk, act and move all needs to be aligned with that image. If you get nervous during presentations or freeze up and forget what you wanted to say, that means you haven’t practiced enough.

Practice Until You Are Sick Of It, Then Practice Some More

Having difficulty with presentations or have trouble getting your thoughts across clearly means you haven’t practiced enough.

When I first started doing public speaking, I was terrible at it. Like everyone else, I had stage fright and often got nervous when speaking to a large audience. But as time went on, I realized the reason why I got nervous was because I was not ready. I didn’t put in the work to prepare before the speech, and tried to wing it like everyone else. The problem was that I lacked the confidence to deliver an outstanding performance, because I did not rehearse enough.

So instead of making excuses, I practiced for hours each day, in front of a video camera, to perfect my presentation. My advice for you is to film yourself while presenting. It allows you to see how your presentation would come across to members of the audience. And if there’s certain parts of your presentation that you are not satisfied with, you can be sure your audience is going to feel the same way.

You may feel awkward watching yourself present, but it is the fastest way you can correct your flaws. After all, no one can spot your mistakes better than you can. Think about it as a way for you to see what is wrong, and correct it so you can continuously improve. I guarantee that if you practice and really focus on improving every part of your pitch, your first time presenting will be drastically different from your 20th time doing it. And when you’re finally giving your pitch to an investor, you’ll be more than ready to deliver your lines.

Practice makes perfect. If perfect means getting the funding to scale your startup business, would you be willing to practice?

Why The Best Candidate For Presentations Is Yourself

It may be tempting to simply delegate the task of presenting to another team member and skipping over all that practice, but when it comes to pitching to investors, the CEO and founder should be the ones presenting. As long as you are a good presenter, that is. And if you’re not good at it, perhaps you could learn.

Wondering why the best person to pitch is you, the founder? This is for two reasons:

First, your investors are going to have questions, and you’re the best person to answer those questions. Imagine the scenario where the investors ask if your team member is the CEO, and they reply with no. What do you think your audience is going to think?

“The CEO of this company can’t even show up to their own presentation? Do they even care about their own success?”

Second, is that your team members won’t have the same knowledge as you do. As the founder, you know where you want to take the company in 1, 2 or 5 years. You know exactly why you are seeking funding, why you’ve gone to them instead of everyone else, and why if you two decide to do business, that you can make it a win-win situation for everyone involved.

Your team members won’t have the same knowledge or passion that you do. Like your audience, they are also tuned into WIIFM, and only care about what they have to gain – which is most likely a paycheck. They lack the experience and vision that you as the founder possess. And unless the team member presenting has equity share in the company, they will most likely not demonstrate the best version of themselves during the presentation.

Some aspects – such as passion and vision, cannot be delegated. It’s one thing to have a veteran salesperson do the presentation – it’s another for the founder to take the initiative and do it themselves.

Use The Future as Negotiation Leverage

If your startup business isn’t currently at a point where it can be ‘shown off’, use its future potential as a bargaining tool. Correlating where your company will be a few years from now, is another strategy on how to pitch to investors.

For example, let’s say you sell teddy bears and your business revenue per year is $200K, with $30K as profits. To an investor, they may think your annual numbers are far too low for them to provide you with the funding. He’s impatient and wants to get his money back within a year of investing. But at the rate your company is growing, it’ll take more than 20 years before he gets his return on his investment.

If you currently lack results, you can paint a picture and make them imagine what it would be like if they did invest. For example, if they decide to provide you with more funding, it would allow you to use that funding to increase your production line and sell more bears. Now, that $30K in annual profits could rise to $100K, shortening the time it takes for the investor to make back his money.

Being able to form an image, a vision of where the company could be in the next couple of years is a powerful tool that many successful entrepreneurs use in their lives. This is called visualization, and it allows entrepreneurs to imagine a desired scenario. Once the entrepreneur has an image of what they want, they can then go after it. And if you’re familiar with the Law of Attraction, you’ll know that whatever you can conceive, you can achieve.

You can use this visualization trick to convince investors to provide you with funding. Convince them that the only thing holding your business back from becoming the giant success that it is, is finding an investor who is willing to provide the funding.

Be Willing To Take The Lower End Of The Bargain

One of the problems holding many entrepreneurs back from getting the funding to scale their business, is that they aren’t willing to settle. Besides knowing how to pitch to investors, the other part of your presentation is going to be about negotiation. Imagine that you have 100 balls in front of you. These balls are to be divided amongst you and the person you are doing business with – the optimal outcome being that you get half of the balls and they get half of the balls. It’s a fair 50-50 ratio.

However, in reality this rarely ever happens. The person with the most leverage – AKA the person who is less needy, usually walks away with more balls than the other person. In the situation where you are a startup business and are looking for funding, the investor has more leverage and can call the shots. The investor is aware that he has the upper hand in the negotiation, and will use it to collect more balls – a 40-60 or 30-70 ratio.

To some entrepreneurs, they may be happy with this deal if it means they get what they want. As long as they get the funding they need, they are willing to take the shorter end of the bargain. But for some entrepreneurs, they don’t like the fact that they are being taken advantage of. As a result, they’ll say no to every single deal and opportunity that comes their way, not realizing that if they would just accept taking the shorter end of the bargain for now, they could have much more to gain in the future.

Remember: Settling does not mean taking the lower end of a bargain forever. You are simply enduring the terms and conditions now, to give yourself an opportunity for re-negotiation later on in the future.

Opportunities multiply when they are seized. - Sun Tzu Share on X

How to Pitch to Investors Using Storytelling

Storytelling is a powerful way to get your point across without sounding like you’re lecturing your audience. Lectures are boring, but stories are compelling. Humans are wired to do things based on emotion, not logic. For example, why are so many people spending $10,000 on a diamond ring, when they are never going to use it again afterwards?

Storytelling allows you to convey your emotions to your audience in a very effective and entertaining way. Especially when it comes to giving a pitch to investors, you want to do everything you can to stand out from everyone else. If you incorporate your emotion and passion into a well spoken story, you will be able to captivate their attention like no one else.

For example, here is a story you could tell that provides your investor with information about who you are, the history of the business and why you need funding:

“2 years ago, when I was in college I realized there was an ever growing problem of men who did not shave. You could see men with stubble and 5 o’clock shadow sticking out in plain sight, as you walked down the hallways. Everyday, my professor would come to class with a thick, grotesque beard. And even I was a victim of this fashion frenzy during times of extreme stress.

One day, I realized I had enough of seeing other men and their unsightly beards. That’s when I decided to make two life-altering decisions:

I dropped out of college
And pursued my dream of creating men’s grooming products

With my friend, who also had problems keeping his beard under control, we founded the company Shave It Off, where we currently provide quality shaving products to men across 30 different countries worldwide.

Our company has been growing faster than we’ve ever imagined, and now we’ve run into a problem only you can help us with: we need funding. Our revenue and profits are currently bottlenecked by our lack of delivery trucks, and as a result we need more funding to buy more trucks. By doing so, we can deliver more products to men all over the world, to help them get a clean shave every single time.”

Now imagine if you didn’t put that into a story, how much less entertaining would that sound?

“2 years ago I dropped out of college. I hated beards, so me and a buddy found this company called Shave It Off. We sell shaving cream to guys around the world, because it makes a lot of money. We’re short on trucks at the moment, and need money to buy more trucks. Want to help us out?”

Captivate your audience by using storytelling in your pitch. You’ll be able to effectively communicate your side of the story, and inspire them to help you achieve your goals as well.

Facts tell, stories sell. Share on X

Get The Perfect Closing Script To Control Any Conversation

In any conversation you’ll ever have, there will always be some sort of push and pull. One person will always be trying to gain leverage over the other, through their words and actions. The person who ends up victorious, is the person who knows exactly what to say.

Those who lack business experience are often taken advantage of, and find themselves on the lower end of the bargain. The person you are speaking with can sense your inexperience, and oftentimes will use it against you to get the best deal for themselves.

However, when you know how to handle questions and objections thrown at you, you can shift the conversation so it flows in your favor. Having the intuition to tell where the conversation is heading and steer it in a direction that benefits you, is a crucial part in being able to influence others to do what you want and win negotiations.

If you want to succeed in business and learn how to influence people to do what you want, get the perfect closing script here.

7 Costly Mistakes In Your Sales Process

December 28, 2019 by Dan Lok

In a business, your sales process is one of the key structures that determines your revenue growth. It’s a proven series of repeatable steps from start to finish, outlining the closing of a deal.

Unfortunately, many business owners don’t have a proven sales process. In fact, ⅔ salespeople don’t follow a proven sales process when doing business. They use spur of the moment strategies to try to close deals, which never works well.

If you don’t plan for success, you’ll never achieve it. Companies that have a proven sales process outperform those that don’t, and having a proven sales process will help in closing more deals and securing more customers. If your sales aren’t doing so well and you’re looking to change things up, here are 7 Costly Mistakes to avoid in your sales process.

1. You Use Old Traditional Methods

The old methods of doing sales involve talking to a prospect, telling them the benefits of your product and then following up with them if they aren’t ready to buy. If you’ve ever tried this approach, you would soon discover it doesn’t work very well.

As time goes on everything evolves. Your old proven sales process may have worked before, but in today’s time it is now obsolete and replaced by newer strategies and methods. Customers can smell a salesman from a mile away, and if they feel they are being sold to, will quickly back off and go somewhere else.

Your prospects are getting smarter every year, as they encounter more and more salespeople every single day. They’ve been exposed to dozens of different marketing and sales techniques, and know them well. If you’re trying the same old tricks to get them to buy, they’ll know it immediately.

“The customer is not a moron. She’s your wife.” – David Ogilvy

The customer is not a moron. She's your wife. Share on X

2. You Have Salespeople, Not Closers

There are two kinds of people in sales: Salespeople and closers.

Salespeople are concerned only with getting the sale. To salespeople, they only succeed when the customer buys. And in order to make that happen, they’ll use every trick in the book.

However, your customer has been sold to so many times they know exactly what you are doing. If you try to use aggressive selling tactics or push them into buying something they aren’t ready to buy, you’ve just lost a potential customer.

Closers are like salespeople, except they don’t try to sell anything. Instead of doing what every other salesperson in the market does, the closer simply does two things: Ask questions and listens.

By asking deep questions and listening carefully, a closer is able to lead the conversation and the prospect to a close. Closers are in no rush to make a sale, and understand that if a prospect isn’t ready to buy now, they might do so in a few weeks. By not trying to push a sale, they leave an opportunity open for future business.

3. Unsure Of Your Desired Customer

Do you know what your optimal customer is like? Their needs, desires, objections, fears and worries?

Your desired customer is the type of customer you are targeting. In today’s world, people are bombarded 24/7 with advertisements, marketing tactics and commercials. Especially with the rise of technology and social media sites like Facebook, they see an ad every single day.

If your ad does not cater to their demographic specifically, it will be ignored. A banner targeting ‘pet owners’ will perform much worse than a banner that specifically targets ‘cat lovers’. Get very specific on who your customer is, and know them inside and out. That way, you’ll be able to handle any objections they have before they even open their mouth.

4. Your Leads Are Cold, Not Warm

Cold leads are every salesperson’s nightmare. Picking up the phone to dial a number to someone who’s never heard of you is going to frustrate both you and the person you are calling.

Warm leads on the other hand, are people who have already shown interest in your product or service. These people are much more likely to be more receptive towards your advances, as they are expecting it. Research shows that cold leads only have a 1-3% success rate. With warm leads, this number jumps up to 40%.

Instead of calling a stranger and interrupting their day, have them contact you instead. Remember that if you are calling them, you are a salesperson. But if they are calling you, you are the authority figure.

5. Neediness

If you are too eager to close a sale, your prospect can smell it. Neediness is one of the biggest turn offs to a prospect in business. It implies that you are desperate to make the sale, and will influence you to use pushy tactics in order to do so.

Neediness comes from not knowing your own value. During a prospect interaction, you want to be qualifying the prospect, not the other way around. You should be trying to find out if they can afford your services and if they’d be a good fit to work with. If all you think about is closing the sale, you might just get it – and end up with a difficult client.

When it comes to closing deals, have the mindset that it’s okay to walk away. You don’t have to close every single person you meet.

Have the mindset to walk away from a deal. It's okay to say no to a bad fit. Share on X

6. Spending Too Much Time On Trivial Tasks

You make money when you close. And to close a deal, you need to use that time to be selling. The problem is that most sales teams are spending too much time on tasks other than selling.

Things like data entry, sending emails and making phone calls (especially cold calls), take up valuable time. Instead of wasting time on these trivial tasks, delegate the task or better – automate it. Invest in software that automates these tasks, freeing up your time to sell and generate revenue. The amount of time saved that can be used to interact with prospects and build relationships far outweighs the investment required. Leverage time as your most important asset, as money can always be made back.

7. No Commitment And Poor Closing Ability

“I need some time to think about it.”

“Okay sure, when you’ve thought about it please get back to me.”

How many times has a prospect said this?

99% of the time when a prospect says they want to think about it they are saying no. They just don’t want to hurt your feelings, and instead say they need some time.

Think about it like this: If I offered you a million dollars right now, what would you say? Most likely you would respond with HELL YES! Could you imagine someone saying “I’ll think about your offer”? It makes no sense. If your prospect is truly interested in what you have to offer, there should be no hesitation. If they are hesitating, either you as a salesperson are not selling the product well enough or the prospect is not interested.

In fact, poor closing ability is one of the biggest reasons why sales are lost. 12% of salespeople are excellent, 23% are good, 38% are average, and 27% are poor. Every sale that is lost amounts to thousands in lost revenue a month, hundreds of thousands a year, and millions over a prolonged duration. Your proven sales process may bring results, but if your salespeople don’t know how to close, it is useless.

In the rare situation that a prospect truly needs time to discuss it with a business partner, you can ask them if it’s okay to follow up in a few days time. Set the date and time, to let them know you are expecting them to make their decision by then. By making your prospect give you a commitment, they are much more likely to follow through instead of wasting your time.

The One Thing Business Owners Lack In Their Sales Process

Business owners focus too much on their sales process. If they aren’t making enough revenue, they look to bring in more leads. If prospects aren’t willing to buy, they offer incentives like discounts and special deals. Some even go so far as to completely redo their entire sales process from start to end.

They focus all their time on these things, but forget the most important rule of sales. In sales it’s all about closing. Instead of trying to bring in more leads, increase your closing ratio. The more deals you close, the more revenue you bring in. The more revenue there is, the faster your business can grow. And the more your business grows, the more freedom you have to expand on things and try out new strategies.

Most business owners don’t realize it’s their sales teams ability to close that affects the sales process. They think the process needs to be changed, when in reality it’s all about the salesperson. Your sales team should be closing a majority of the deals they do – if they aren’t they need help.

Be a High Ticket Closer, Not A Salesperson

If you are unsatisfied with your sales team’s closing ratio, focus on being a closer instead of acting as a salesperson.

A closer does not sell. Instead, they lead the conversation in a way to get the prospect to close themselves. They do this by doing 4 things:

1) They find out your needs

They do this by asking questions and finding out what you’re looking for. This is known as pre-qualifying, to see if you and your prospect would be a good fit.

2 They find out your problems

The second thing closers do, is identify problems. For example, if you are selling B2B lead generation services, you want to find out how their leads are currently doing. Are they bringing in enough leads? Do they need warmer leads? Are they targeting the right people? Closers find out their problems so they know what to focus on.

3) They paint a picture

Once you find out their needs and problems, you paint a picture. “Could you see how X service could help you bring in more leads?” “How would warm leads help you with your closing ratio?” By painting a picture for them to imagine, you are allowing them to visualize the outcome of what would happen if they were to work with you, leading them closer to where you want them to be.

4) They close the deal

You know their needs. You’ve identified their problems. And you’ve shown them how your product or service can help.

If your prospect is truly interested, at this point they should already be ready to buy. There’s only one thing left to do: Close the deal. This is done by asking them one simple question.

And this question, is one that many inexperienced salespeople mess up – resulting in the entire conversation going nowhere. That’s why over the years, I’ve put together something called ‘The Perfect Closing Script’, that outlines the entire sales process and what to say from beginning to end. Forget old school sales techniques, hard selling and proving to the prospect why you are the best choice. The Perfect Closing Script turns the tables and makes the prospect do the talking – they give you the answers to their own questions. If you want to know more about the Perfect Closing Script, click here to learn more now.

How To Use The Process Of High Ticket Closing In Your Business

December 17, 2019 by Dan Lok Leave a Comment

High ticket closing is the one skill that an executive, entrepreneur or business owner unquestionably needs if they want to take the success of their business to the next level. The process of high ticket closing, once mastered, can dramatically increase your business revenue, while improving customer relationships and client retention.

Are you confident in what you have to offer? Do you believe that your business is built for success, and that you’re meant for greatness?

Greatness may be coursing through your veins, but it’s unlikely you’ll reach your full potential without mastering the process of high-ticket closing.

Greatness may be coursing through your veins, but it’s unlikely you’ll reach your full potential without mastering the process of high-ticket closing. Share on X

You can be the best in the business at what you do, but if you don’t know how to close, your career might come to a standstill. Regardless of your expertise or your capabilities, without proper training on closing high-ticket clients, you’ll be limited in how far you can go.

Billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk once said, “I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better.”

What could you be doing better? For many people, closing is a skill they could definitely benefit from getting better at. Truthfully, however, few people can become great at closing without proper training.

Acquire This Skill and Be Set For Life

Closing is an art, and unfortunately, many people still use old school sales techniques that no longer work. There’s a huge difference between selling and closing. What’s the difference between a salesperson and a closer? For starters, a closer can ‘wow’ their prospect and intrigue them, but a salesperson tends to push prospects away.

A closer leans back and exudes confidence, while a salesperson leans forward and exudes desperation. Once you master the process of high ticket closing, you will find that each sale comes more naturally, and the sales experience becomes more enjoyable for both you and the prospect.

Setting Your Business on a Growth Trajectory

Growth is likely one of the core values of your business. Your business’s future growth potential, however, relies on your ability to close. In fact, if you are running a growth-driven business, you should be motivated to develop advanced closing skills. Why? Because high ticket closing is more than just a beneficial skill. High-ticket closing is a powerful weapon that holds the potential to make your competition obsolete.

Part of your business strategy should be mastering the art of closing. Why? Because scaling your business requires the implementation of and mastery of certain processes. High ticket closing is one of those fundamental processes.

The value of each customer you acquire goes up when you start selling your offer at high-ticket prices. Share on X

What happens if you have competitors who offer a product or service that is just as good as yours, or better than yours, but they fall short when it comes to closing? They’ll likely lose the customer to you, especially if you know how to close.

The value of each customer you acquire goes up when you start selling your offer at high-ticket prices.

Many business owners also fall short by pricing their product or service too low, because they’re not confident they could close the offer at a premium price. There are clients out there, however, who are willing to pay double or triple what you’re currently charging – especially if your offer can solve their problem or meet their unique needs.

What Are You Looking For in a Client?

You probably spend a lot of time ensuring that you’re meeting the needs of your clients. You check off boxes that indicate that you’re what your prospective clients are looking for. But what about you? What are you looking for in a client?

Chances are, your ideal client is high-ticket client who is willing to pay top dollar for your services. High-ticket clients give you the gift of time. When you start closing upscale clients who pay premium prices without even blinking at the price tag, you end up making more money working less.

In addition to clients who have money, you also want clients who have a need for your product or service, and trust you to fulfill that need.

When you start thinking about what you’re looking for in a client, you’ll realize how important mastering the process of high ticket closing is. You see, the type of client you’re looking for, is the type of client everyone is looking for. So you’re not the only one trying to close them. You could, however, gain the competitive advantage required to be the one who succeeds in closing them.

Master the Process of High Ticket Closing

The world’s highest-paid, all-star athletes commit to peak performance and hire the highest-caliber coaches to maintain their elite status. Business all-stars must prepare the same way.

It won’t be easy to master the process of high ticket closing. If it was easy, everyone would be closing high-ticket offers instead of slumming it by cold-calling unqualified prospects or charging low prices to get the sale.

Statistically, it takes around 18 dials to connect with a buyer, and only 23.9% of sales emails are opened. As a trained closer, however, you can rise above statistics. You’ll be seen as an anomaly; an exception to the rule.

You should expect that learning the secrets of high ticket closing will be challenging, expensive, and will require resilience. Not everyone will have what it takes, but the ones that do will master the art of closing and gain an esoteric advantage over their competition.

How a High Closing Ratio Can Change Your Life

When you become a master at the process of high ticket closing, you can expect a high closing ratio to be one of your claims to fame. A high closing ratio doesn’t just mean you’ll make more money. It also means you’ll no longer be exhausted or drained. You’ll have more energy, more free time, and more confidence.

A high closing ratio will be transformative for you, because you’ll no longer feel overworked and underpaid. Share on X

A high closing ratio will be transformative for you, because you’ll no longer feel overworked and underpaid. You’ll finally be making a real income by working smarter, not harder. The hard work is in the preparation. Learning the process of high ticket closing is part of that preparation.

Are You Ready For a Personal and Professional Transformation?

If you understand that success requires training, hard work and preparation, you might be ready to join my exclusive mentorship program. Members of HTC Platinum will go through a personal and professional transformation. Applicants that are accepted will receive high-caliber business coaching, exclusive mentorship, a master’s closing script, and live roleplay practice sessions with expert feedback. What you’ll learn as a member of HTC Platinum could transform your professional life, and arm you with advanced business acumen that changes your career.

As far as your personal life goes, members of this elite community report coming out of it with dramatically increased self-confidence and self-motivation.

You won’t apply for my exclusive program unless you want success badly enough. If you want to gain the esoteric wisdom of high-ticket closing and set yourself up for success, reserve your spot in HTC Platinum today.

How To Successfully Conduct An Elevator Pitch

October 24, 2019 by Dan Lok

Do you know how to conduct an elevator pitch, if you unexpectedly find yourself face-to-face with a high-ticket client? Imagine that your dream client gets into the same elevator as you, just by chance. It’s your lucky day, because you are alone in an elevator with a powerful decision-maker. This is it. This is your golden opportunity.

You would never want an opportunity like this to go to waste, all because you froze up, didn’t know what to say to them, and didn’t know how to conduct an elevator pitch. When you actually visualize your dream client getting into the same elevator as you, by pure luck, it’s understandable why the concept of the elevator speech is so fundamental.

Remember that ‘luck’ happens when preparation meets opportunity. This expression is attributed to the Roman philosopher Seneca, and reminds us that we create our own luck.

By memorizing an irresistible elevator pitch, you’re ensuring that the opportunity won’t go to waste. You’re ensuring that bumping into an influential person in an elevator will be lucky, rather than a tragic, lost opportunity.

What Exactly is an Elevator Pitch?

An elevator pitch is a short description of an idea, product, service or company that explains the concept in a clear and concise way, so that the listener can understand it in a short period of time. A captivating elevator speech should entice the listener by overviewing a problem they have and do not want, or a result they want, but have not yet achieved.

Short and sweet, elevator pitches are nothing if not persuasive. In essence, an elevator pitch is a compelling summary or overview of your offer. Think of your elevator pitch as the most important bullet points of your sales pitch.

An elevator pitch is a short and compelling summary of your offer. Think of your elevator pitch as the most important bullet points of your sales pitch. Share on X

The original term stemmed from actual sales pitches taking place in elevators, back when catching a Hollywood executive in an elevator was a golden opportunity for the likes of a hopeful screenwriter. Today, the term is used for any sales pitch delivered quickly, concisely and effectively.

A common myth is that elevator pitches must be only 30 – 60 seconds long. An elevator pitch doesn’t actually have to be quite that short. However, it’s certainly not a bad idea to have a 60 second version memorized – just in case you just happen to ride the elevator with a top executive.

Is it possible to have an impact on someone in under 60 seconds? Absolutely. You can be remembered by someone based on a short and compelling elevator pitch.

Where Did the Term “Elevator Pitch” Come From?

It’s popular belief that the term “elevator pitch” comes from the studio days of Hollywood, when aspiring screenwriters knew they might catch an unsuspecting Hollywood executive on an elevator ride. There, with the decision-maker trapped within the confines of an elevator, the screenwriter would quickly pitch their idea during a 30 second elevator ride, hoping to make an impression in a very limited amount of time.

There are, however, other origin stories for the elevator pitch. One commonly-known origin story is that of Ilene Rosenzweig and Michael Caruso, two Vanity Fair journalists in the ’90s. Caruso was a senior editor at Vanity Fair and, according to Rosenzweig, he was always attempting to pitch story ideas to the Editor-In-Chief. However, he could never pin her down long enough to pitch her, because she was so busy. In order to pitch his story ideas, Caruso would join the Editor-In-Chief during her elevator rides. This was one of the few occasions where she would actually listen to him. Thus, the concept of an elevator pitch was created.

Essentially, the concept of an elevator pitch originated because high-level executives at companies (the decision-makers who you want to pitch yourself to) are notoriously tight on time. There may not be many opportunities to get their time or attention, but an elevator ride is a window of opportunity. Pitching a busy executive during an elevator ride is a wise way of finding the time to deliver your pitch.

It Might Not Happen in an Elevator

You need an elevator pitch ready at all times. You literally never know where you’re going to meet your next high-ticket client. It could be in an elevator, but of course elevator pitches don’t always take place in elevators. It could happen at a networking event, it could happen on a train, you might meet a prospect at an open-bar mixer before a conference, or you could even meet your next client in line at Starbucks.

Imagine for a moment that you’re in line at Starbucks. It’s the morning rush. Two businessmen are behind you in the line-up. You can’t help but overhear them discussing their need for an excellent SEO copywriter. You just happen to be an SEO copywriter. That just so happens to be your high income skill. You can turn around, tell those businessmen that you couldn’t help overhearing, and pitch them on why they should hire you. But if you’re going to pitch them, you’d better have a solid elevator pitch memorized.

The Modern Day Elevator Pitch

An elevator pitch is not a new concept, yet it’s still relevant and widely used. The reason the term “elevator pitch” is still used today, is because it’s important to have a very short version of your sales pitch memorized, in case you’re lucky enough to get even just one minute of an important executive’s time.

Because the short version of your sales pitch should not be much longer than the average elevator ride, the term “elevator pitch” has stuck around, and is used when referring to the quick version of your pitch.

This type of quick sales speech is not only used by modern business people and high-ticket closers, it’s also used in interviews. When you sell yourself in an interview, that is essentially an elevator pitch about yourself. An elevator pitch for an interview is a short sales pitch on why you’re the best candidate for the job.

Today’s elevator pitches are also used by students. If you are a student networking at a career fair, you might memorize a short “elevator pitch” that provides an overview of your skills, experience, passions and goals. That way, a company’s representative will be more likely to remember you, and put you in touch with HR.

Generally speaking, a modern elevator pitch is a condensed version of a sales pitch, used by entrepreneurs and people in business, with the object of obtaining a longer sales meeting.

An elevator pitch is a condensed version of one's sales pitch, with the object of obtaining a longer sales meeting. Share on X

In her book Small Message, Big Impact: The Elevator Speech Effect, Terri L. Sjodin explains how an elevator ride is a metaphor for an unexpected window of opportunity where one does not have much time to act. In her book, Sjodin explains,

An elevator ride is a metaphor for unexpected access to someone you want to sell on some idea, project or initiative.

An elevator ride is a metaphor for an unexpected window of opportunity. Share on X

The Difference Between an Elevator Pitch and a Sales Pitch

Yes, an elevator pitch is a form of sales pitch, but there are key differences between the two. A sales pitch typically occurs when a lead has expressed interest and agreed to a meeting to hear more about your offer. An elevator pitch is the short and compelling introduction of your offer that gets a prospect interested.

It is often because of an impressive elevator pitch, that a prospect agrees to a sales meeting where you will deliver a more in-depth sales pitch. While elevator pitches are more casual and conversational, a sales pitch is typically longer and more formal.

The Anatomy of a Great Elevator Pitch

A successful elevator pitch will be short, clear, direct, and uncomplicated. The message should be extremely clear, as should the value proposition. What makes you different or better than other options out there? Below is the anatomy of a great elevator pitch:

1. The Hook: The hook draws the listener in, and should happen right away, within the first sentence or two of your elevator pitch. The hook can be a question, such as “Have you ever wondered how certain businesses similar to yours have two, three, or four times as many social media followers as you, even though they haven’t been around as long as you?”

2. The Problem: The goal is to lay out a common problem that you have a solution for, hoping that the listener will resonate with this problem because it’s one they are currently experiencing.

3. The Value Proposition: Your value proposition, or your USP (unique selling point) is a clear explanation of how your product or service solves the problem in a unique or better way. You need to be certain of the specific value you offer. If you have a special skill, know how to explain why your unique skill is so valuable. What is your superpower? If you have a special, highly sought-after skill, then build your pitch around that.

4. The Benefits: In one or two sentences, briefly lay out the benefits that come with solving this problem. For example, you could briefly provide some statistics on how social media followers convert to customers.

5. The Foot in the Door: Don’t forget to ask for their contact information so that you can schedule a meeting to discuss your offer in more detail. Remember to end your elevator pitch with your foot in the door. You could say something like, “Since you’re interested, why don’t we schedule a meeting?” Another option is to ask them a question it’d be hard to say no to, such as, “I’d love to rewrite one of your ads for free, just to show you what I can do. How does that sound?” In general, the goal of every elevator pitch should be to set up a time to talk in more detail, and to get the contact information of the person you pitch.

Other Key Components of a Successful Elevator Pitch

What are some other qualities of a successful elevator pitch? For one thing, you need to know how to properly introduce yourself. You’ll start by introducing yourself, with your full name. Then, provide some brief background. Say something like, “I’ve been an SEO copywriter for 10 years.”

Ask questions. You don’t want to talk at someone. Elevator pitches should have a conversational, informal, and easy-going feel to them. Be sure to sound natural, not scripted.

Building rapport within a short pitch can be achieved various ways, for example through compliments. Compliment them with comments such as, “I am a huge fan of your brand” or even, “That’s a great suit you have on.”

Elevator pitches are best delivered in person. Most people want to hire someone they like and have met in person. Hiring a faceless candidate who submitted a resume online is less ideal.

Enunciate your words and speak slowly, because they are hearing your offer for the first time. That means you can’t talk too fast, as you have to give them a chance to process what you are saying.

It’s key that both your verbal and non-verbal communication skills are on point. Why does this matter? Because it’s not just what you say in an elevator pitch that matters. It also matters how you deliver the pitch. Your tone of voice should be strong, upbeat and confident during an elevator pitch. A stand-up comedian could deliver the exact same joke to two different audiences in two different ways, and only make one of those audiences laugh. It’s all in the delivery. If you have personality in your voice, people will pay more attention. If you speak in monotone and you don’t sound upbeat or excited, people will tone you out. Now, let’s discuss non-verbal communication.

Body Language: What You Need to Know About Non-Verbal Communication

Non-verbal communication such as your body language, can make a world of difference in how your elevator pitch is received.

Body language is a strong indicator of one’s confidence. If you stand up straight, stand tall, and stand with good posture, you’ll appear more confident during your elevator pitch. Why does this matter? Because if you don’t seem confident in yourself, your prospect won’t be inclined to feel confident about you, either.

Don’t forget about other non-verbal cues that improve your overall delivery, such as eye contact, hand gestures, and a nice big smile.

Your eye movements matter, too. Looking downwards or off to the side reflects low self-confidence. That’s why your best bet is to maintain eye contact during the delivery of your pitch.

Many people argue that non-verbal communication such as one’s body language, is even more important than verbal communication.

Albert Mehrabian, who was a Psychology professor at the University of California, was known for his extensive research on non-verbal communication and its importance. In his popular book Silent Messages, Mehrabian concluded that prospects base their assessments of credibility on factors other than the words spoken verbally by the salesperson.

Build Your Pitch Around a Niche Area of Focus

The more narrow or niche your area of focus is, the more unique your service is. This is a good thing. People are more likely to remember you and the service you provide, if it’s very niche, and narrow in focus.

Many people mistakenly think they will miss out on opportunities and lose clients by being too narrow. But it’s actually the opposite. Being narrow positions you as an expert. They will have that “ah hah!” moment feeling that you offer exactly what they’re looking for. And when that happens, price is not typically an issue.

Let’s imagine a relationship coach’s elevator pitch as an example. A relationship coach who says “I help people solve their relationship problems” won’t get very many clients. But if they say, “I help married couples on the brink of divorce save their marriage and rediscover their love for each other”, they will get more clients. Being an expert on one specific thing holds tremendous marketing power.

How to Memorize Your Elevator Speech

Practice, practice, practice. Rehearse your elevator pitch to friends, family, or by yourself in front of your mirror. Repetition is how you memorize a speech. Practicing it out loud helps you memorize it, too. While you practice your elevator speech, you can also change it, modify it, and continue to test it out. Just like a stand-up comedian tests his jokes in front of a live audience to see which jokes get the most laughs, you can test different versions of it with friends.

When you set out to memorize an elevator pitch, you’ll first need to write it out. How long should an elevator pitch be, on paper? It should definitely be less than one page long. Aim for about half a page, or a maximum of 250 words.

While you’re rehearsing your speech, get some feedback from friends and family about your non-verbal and verbal communication skills. Since elevator speeches are a form of public speaking, ask yourself if you are confident when it comes to public speaking. If not, continue to practice your elevator pitch on real people, so that you can get used to the idea of public speaking. Since your elevator pitch won’t always be delivered to just one person, and can sometimes be delivered to a group of people, it’s crucial that you develop some public speaking skills.

Elevator Pitch Mastery

A great elevator pitch is a key component of a first impression. Introducing yourself at a business event could lead into an opportunity to deliver an elevator speech to a powerful decision-maker. How can you become a master at conversation, so that when you conduct an elevator pitch, you’ll successfully make a great impression? My Perfect Closing Script is a great resource to use when crafting a compelling elevator pitch. By reading my exclusive Perfect Closing Script first, you’ll have an easier time when you write and memorize your perfect elevator pitch.

How To Negotiate A Retainer Fee With A New Client

August 29, 2019 by Dan Lok Leave a Comment

Are you a freelancer or independent contractor who is currently only closing clients on a per-project basis?

Do your clients only pay you once you complete a project, and are they often late paying your invoices?

If so, it’s time to learn how to negotiate a retainer agreement with your clients. I believe that closing clients on a monthly retainer fee is the best business model for freelancers, or anyone trying to succeed in the gig economy.

Closing clients on a monthly retainer fee is the best business model for freelancers, or anyone trying to succeed in the gig economy. Share on X

Retainer contracts are formal, written agreements made between a freelancer, consultant or independent contractor and their client.

A retainer agreement means that the client is agreeing to pay for your services in advance, thus retaining your services.

A retainer fee is a fixed fee that the client agrees to pay based on their anticipated need for your services, and the anticipated volume of work.

The fixed fee is either a single advance payment, a recurring monthly fee, or an annual fee.

The benefit of successfully negotiating a retainer agreement for the freelancer is obvious: Guaranteed, predictable, and consistent income that they can count on.

It’s not just the freelancer who prefers being paid via a retainer fee. Many clients prefer retainers, too. Why? Because it means they’ll secure your services.

Essentially, the client is securing your commitment with a retainer fee.

Your clients are promising advance payment in order to hold your services for a given period of time.

Why would a client want to pay in advance to guarantee your dedication to them? It’s usually because you have a highly sought-after, in-demand skill – or it’s because you’re great at what you do.

If the client perceives your services or your specific skills to be in high demand, they will be motivated to sign a retainer agreement to ensure they don’t lose you to a different client who was willing to sign one.

That’s why people with high income skills are successful at closing retainer contracts.

Should You Propose a Retainer Agreement to New Clients?

If you have a few clients who currently give you steady work each month, it’s completely appropriate to propose a monthly retainer fee. But what about new clients? You might feel nervous asking a new client to sign a retainer agreement.

Freelancers often feel more comfortable proposing retainer agreements to existing clients with whom they’ve already built a good rapport, and clients who already regularly request their services.

It’s these clients who are more likely to see the value of formalizing an agreement and developing a long-term partnership.

New clients, however, might be less likely to agree to retain your services, since they haven’t yet seen how skilled you are.

But is it still possible to convince a new client to sign a retainer agreement? Absolutely.

I’m going to give you a few tips for negotiating a retainer agreement with a new client, as well as some examples of retainer agreements and how they work. But first, let’s discuss some of the main benefits for clients who sign these types of agreements.

Benefits For Clients Who Agree On A Retainer Fee

If you’re going to close a client on signing a retainer agreement, you should be able to articulate the benefits to them. So, what are some of the benefits of retaining your services?

Think of the retainer contract as a down payment for future services. The retainer secures your services, and your loyalty. As I said earlier, this is beneficial if your skills are in high demand.

The retainer secures your services, and your loyalty. Share on X

The benefits for your clients who retain your services are obvious if you really think about it. I want you to imagine that you are a high income copywriter. Copywriting is your gift, and you have therefore decided to pursue a career as a freelance copywriter.

If a potential client knows they’ll be using your services a lot, because they often need sales newsletters written, brochures written, and press releases written, what should that client do?

The answer is obvious: Put you on retainer. This way, they won’t have to contact you to get a quote every time they need something written.

Instead, they can simply pick up the phone, call you, and get you going on writing it for them right away. You’re on retainer, so of course you’ll get going right away, as soon as they need something written up.

It’s easier for you, and it’s also easier for the client.

You can position your monthly retainer as a necessary recurring payment to ensure that the client gets your time, easy access to your services, your dedication and your ongoing loyalty.

For example, if one of their competitors wants to hire you, you’re less likely to be swayed if you’re already on retainer with your client.

You can position your monthly retainer as a necessary recurring payment to ensure that the client gets your time, easy access to your services, your dedication and your ongoing loyalty. Share on X

Preventing talent poaching is a real motivator for clients to sign a formal agreement.

If your client is automatically paying you a monthly retainer fee, you will be much less likely to be poached by one of their competitors.

You can offer your clients extra services that you reserve for your retainer clients, such as a few hours of consulting each month, monitoring services if they have active marketing campaigns that need tracking, media outreach on their behalf, and more.

Your clients will also get the most value from your services if they use them every month on an ongoing basis, and monthly retainer agreements encourage clients to do this.

Benefits For Freelancers Getting Paid Via Retainer

A monthly or annual retainer fee is the ideal way to get paid if you want to succeed in the freelance economy, for many reasons.

First of all, it’s guaranteed income, and it’s often set up as guaranteed steady income.

This reduces the uncertainty when it comes to cash flow, budgeting, and your monthly income.

Additionally, it’ll make your life easier when you no longer have to remember to invoice your clients, and it’s also nice to no longer have to chase clients for payment.

Using retainer agreements as your payment model will help you sleep better at night. It’s a very comfortable and safe position to be in as a freelancer.

Once you start using retainer agreements as your payment model, you’ll wonder how you ever survived without them. You’ll wonder why you didn’t think of this sooner. Share on X

If you used to have a traditional 9-5 job, you probably took for granted the predictability of automatically getting paid every two weeks.

The reality is that most freelancers don’t know when they’re going to get paid for their work. It’s simply not very predictable when you’re a freelancer. But retainer agreements change everything.

With retainer fees in place, predictable payment is a perk the freelancer reclaims.

With a retainer agreement and automated payments in place, you’ll become more motivated to dedicate your time to your clients. It encourages the client not to go dormant on you, and it also encourages you not to go dormant on them.

Financial freedom is the number one benefit of having clients on retainer agreements.

No longer will you have thousands of dollars in unpaid invoices, putting limits on the way you live your life while you wait to get paid.

No longer will you be scrambling to get invoices paid in time for your rent and other fixed monthly expenses to come out of your account.

If you need funds to book a vacation or make a big purchase, you’ll already have those funds available, and you won’t have to wait to get paid first.

Once you have that financial freedom gained from securing a few retainer clients, your life will get much easier, and your business will grow.

Let’s say you have three clients on retainer. All three of them pay you an agreed-upon lump sum on the 1st of each month.

One of them pays you $2,000 per month, one of them pays you $3,000 per month, and one of them pays you $5,000 per month.

You now have $10,000 per month of guaranteed income.

Receiving these lump sum payments each and every month in the form of retainer fees, exactly when you are expecting them, helps you budget and grow your business.

Financial freedom is the number one benefit of having clients on retainer agreements. No longer will you have thousands of dollars in unpaid invoices, putting limits on the way you live your life while you wait to get paid. Share on X

Which Clients are Good Candidates for Retainer Agreements?

If a client will indisputably have an ongoing need for your services, then they’re a great candidate for a retainer agreement.

Your client might have a blog that needs new content on a weekly basis, social media accounts that need daily post, monthly marketing initiatives that need to be written and monitored, or a bi-weekly newsletter that must be compelling and engaging.

Any client who is looking to grow their business, and needs monthly upkeep and monthly services in order to grow their business is a good candidate for a retainer agreement.

As long as the client is willing to set aside a certain budget – a fixed monthly fee – for the purpose of meeting their growth goals, they should be open to paying an ongoing retainer fee.

If a client will indisputably have an ongoing need for your services, then they’re a great candidate for a retainer agreement. Share on X

How To Negotiate a Retainer with New Clients: Why Should They Pre-Pay Before Seeing Results?

With new clients, you’ll have to be able to intelligibly communicate your value in order to convince them to pre-pay before seeing results. Perhaps you have client testimonial videos you can show your new clients, or reference letters from past clients.

It is possible to convince a new client to sign a retainer agreement, but first you’ll have to make your client feel comfortable and confident.

To make your client feel comfortable with this type of payment model, you’ll have to have established some rapport with them first, either via phone conversations or a couple of in-person meetings.

You’ll also have to exude confidence and clearly lay out what your value is. What will you be offering them each month? What will your monthly deliverables be?

A big reason why some clients are willing to pre-pay before seeing results is if your specific set of skills are not only in demand, but also exactly what they’re looking for.

You can explain to a potential client that your services are in high demand, and because of the limited space in your schedule, you’re currently only taking on retainer clients.

Before you try to close a new client on a retainer agreement, take some time to identify what some of their current pain points and challenges are.

From there, you should clearly communicate exactly how your services can help solve these problems, and why.

Types of Services That Would Be Most Efficient Under a Retainer

There are certain freelancers who have an easier time landing retainer clients than others because the service they offer is a type of service that would be most efficient under a retainer agreement. This is typical because it is a service that requires ongoing work or ongoing maintenance.

Social Media Managers, for example, offer a service that requires consistent monthly effort.

A monthly retainer would make sense because they need to post several times per week on their client’s social media pages, monitor social media marketing campaigns, and consistently engage with the community to attract followers.

Content Writers who write for company blogs on a freelance basis could easily get retainer agreements signed since most of their clients require a certain number of blog posts per month on an ongoing basis.

If the client knows their blog needs a set number of posts per month, they won’t mind retaining their writer’s services if that writer consistently produces great content.

Copywriting is another service that typically requires ongoing work each month, and is therefore well-suited for retainer agreements. High income copywriters offer various services that are required on an ongoing basis.

These services include writing advertising copy, press releases, newsletters, direct copy for marketing materials, copy for brochures, and website copy.

Website maintenance services are also required monthly, on an ongoing basis, which is why many clients wouldn’t argue that it would make sense to retain the services of their website specialist.

Web developers often are retained in case emergency website services are required to quickly get their client’s website back up and running, or to fix website issues quickly.

Those are just a few examples of services that work well on retainer.

How Much Should a Retainer Fee Be?

How much is a retainer, on average? It depends on what service you are offering.

Freelancers with a high income skill such as website development, Instagram marketing or SEO copywriting could charge their clients a monthly retainer fee of $10,000 per month.

If you’re not quite at an expert level in your industry yet, you might not be able to charge $10,000 per month yet.

How much should your retainer fee be if your skills are good, but not at the expert level yet?

A good rule of thumb is to charge at least $3,000 per month for your retained clients because this way you’ll only need 3 clients to sign retainer agreements in order to earn a six-figure income.

Your goal should be to develop high income skills so that each client is paying a $10,000 per month retainer fee.

Another option is to offer your clients different pricing tiers, where the retainer agreement starts at $3,000 per month, but can be as high as $10,000 per month depending on which tier your client chooses.

Pricing tiers give your client options to add on services that they find valuable.

Let’s take the Social Media Manager’s services as an example.

Tier 1 for $3,000 per month might include content creation, graphic design, daily scheduled posts, and strategic social media promotion.

2nd Tier for $5,000 per month would include everything tier 1 offered, as well as daily community engagement, strategic growth strategies, and marketing campaign monitoring.

Tier 3 for $10,000 per month would include everything tier 1 and 2 offered, as well as influencer outreach, strategic collaborations, partnership agreements, video creation and daily community management.

Your goal should be to develop high income skills so that each client is paying a $10,000 per month retainer fee. Share on X

Common Objections to Retainer Fees

What should you do if a potential client is interested in working with you but hesitant to start things off with a retainer agreement?

The first thing you want to do is find out what their objection is.

Is it about the money? Are they hesitant to fork over that much money in advance, or worried about the high price?

Or, is it about value? Are they unsure of the value, because they haven’t worked with you before? Or, is it about results, and they aren’t sure they’ll get the results they’re hoping for?

If it’s about the money, do not offer them a discount.

Some clients might mistakenly assume that signing a retainer agreement comes with a discount on your services.

As a skilled consultant or contractor, however, you should never offer a discount.

You can offer a special package of different services, but don’t use the word ‘discount’. Offering a discount will only cheapen the perceived value of what you are offering.

Add value to your offer instead of offering a discount. They will still see this as getting a good deal, but you’ve avoided using language that cheapens your offer.

There are many ways you can add value to your offer, for example by offering additional services.

A freelance content writer, for example, is suddenly more valuable if they offer SEO-friendly content and add their SEO strategies to their writing offer.

When the client starts thinking about the value they’ll be getting, the money they’re spending suddenly starts to matter less. Share on X

You can also say to the client, “Are you looking for a good price, or are you looking for results? My services are in demand, because very few people are as good as I am. So if you don’t want to sign an agreement with me, it’s perfectly ok, but I’m only taking on retainer clients at the moment.”

If the client says they are hesitant because they haven’t seen what kind of results you could produce, my advice is to offer them a trial period.

Not a free trial, because you should never give anything away for free. A trial can involve a one-time payment for the completion of a certain task or project. If the trial goes well, why wouldn’t the client want to continue?

In general, if a client has objections to this payment model, it’s your job to keep reminding them of the various benefits.

Focus on benefits to the client, such as the fact that you’ll now have a set number of hours per month that will be dedicated to them, and they’ll have guaranteed access to your services.

How To Close Clients on The Idea of a Retainer Agreement

How do you sell your client on the payment model of a retainer agreement? Should you propose the idea of a retainer fee via email, in person, or over the phone?

Closing clients in person isn’t always possible, especially if your client lives in a different city.

Don’t worry about that, though. The best way to close clients on paying you via retainer is to first introduce the idea over the phone. Then you will follow up with an email.

Below is a step-by-step guide for closing your client on a retainer agreement:

Step 1: Schedule a phone call with the decision maker. (There is no point even talking about the idea of a retainer agreement to anyone except for the decision maker.)

Step 2: Before you get on the phone with the decision maker, prepare an answer to the question… “How does a retainer agreement work?”

Step 3: Once you’re on the call with the decision maker… The first thing you’ll ask them is how much work they anticipate over the next 3-6 months. Ask what their goals are for the next 3-6 months. Help them estimate the volume of work that will be required in order to accomplish these goals.

Step 4: Suggest additional monthly services that could be of value to the client… In addition to what they’ve already mentioned they’ll need. Explain that you could offer these services as well.

Step 5: Tell the client that you’ll come up with a flat monthly fee that will cover all these services. Explain that the fee will cover the anticipated volume of work.

Step 6: Explain that what makes the most sense is a retainer agreement where the fee is paid each month. Wait for the client to ask, “How does a retainer agreement work?”

Step 7: Confidently explain how a retainer agreement works, making sure to include all of the benefits to the client. Explain that a monthly retainer agreement means the client is retaining your services. This guarantees access to your time, skills and expertise on an ongoing basis. Remind them of other benefits. They are saving time, getting more of your availability, loyalty and dedication. They are lessening the amount of paperwork, and speeding up the task turnaround time. Getting quotes or purchase orders will no longer be necessary,

Step 8: At this stage, the client will likely ask, “How much will the monthly retainer be?” This is when you explain that you will be sending them an email. They will receive three different monthly retainer fees. Each of which involves different options in terms of workload, monthly tasks, and add-on services.

Step 9: End the call and start working on your email proposal, with three different retainer agreement options for the client to choose from.

Here is an example email template:

“Hi John,

Further to our earlier phone conversation, I wanted to extend three different retainer agreement options to you. There are three different pricing tiers to choose from, each of which give you access to different services each month.

Based on the challenges you have laid out over the phone, and considering your growth goals for your business… I would suggest going with tier 3. I am confident that tier 3 offers you the most value and therefore the best possible results.

While on retainer, I will be sending you monthly reports. This way you can review the progress we make each month and feel confident that our partnership is valuable.

The retainer agreement will give you guaranteed access to my skills, expertise and dedicated time spent helping you reach your goals.

Please confirm which tier you have chosen, and I’ll send the agreement over.

Cheers!”

How To Keep Your Retained Clients Happy

Encourage your retainer client to clearly lay out their expectations.

What results do they need to see every month, to make their monthly retainer fee a worthwhile expense? Make sure you discuss what the monthly deliverables need to be, in order for the client to be happy.

For example, let’s say a client is retaining your services as a Social Media Manager.

Perhaps they’re happy to pay your monthly fee as long as they see specific results. This could include a certain number of new followers per month (growth). Or a certain number of post shares per month (engagement). And a certain number of conversions per month (leads from social media that convert to paid clients).

Your client might be too busy to track these results themselves.

However, that doesn’t mean they won’t notice if you fail to inform them that your monthly goals aren’t met. It is your job to keep track of your progress and results.

It is also your job to send your client monthly progress reports. If a client is too preoccupied to ask for reports, it’s still your responsibility to ensure you’re meeting goals.

It is still your job to ensure you’re sending reports. If you don’t, then you will burn bridges with your clients.

Don’t take advantage of clients who give you leniency. That is them trusting you to do what they are paying you to do. Never take a client’s trust for granted.

Summary

If your clients currently only pay you upon project completion, and they often make late payments… It’s time to change your payment model to a retainer agreement.

Negotiating a monthly retainer agreement is the best payment model for freelancers.

Retainer contracts are formal, written agreements made between a freelancer, consultant or independent contractor and their client.

A retainer agreement means that the client is agreeing to pay for your services in advance, thus retaining your services.

A retainer is typically a fixed monthly fee that the client agrees to pay based on an anticipated work volume.

Benefits for clients on retainer.

The retainer secures your services, and your loyalty. This is beneficial to the client if your skills are in high demand.

They might lose you to a different company who was willing to sign a retainer agreement, if they don’t sign one.

Your monthly retainer is necessary to ensure that the client gets your time, easy access to your services, dedication and your ongoing loyalty.

Which clients are good candidates for retainer agreements?

If a client will have an ongoing need for your services, then they’re a great candidate for a retainer agreement.

A client will be open to a retainer agreement if they want to achieve certain business goals. They are looking to grow their business, and are willing to set aside a certain fixed budget per month.

Yes, you can propose a retainer agreement to new clients.

With new clients, you’ll need to communicate your value in order to get them to pre-pay before seeing results.

You’ll have to make your client feel comfortable and confident with this payment model.

Confidently lay out what your value is. What will you be offering them each month? What will your monthly deliverables be?

Benefits of retainer payments?

Financial freedom is the number one benefit of having clients on retainer agreements. No longer will you have thousands of dollars in unpaid invoices. No more limits on how you live your life while waiting to get paid. It’s a very comfortable position to be in as a freelancer.

It is possible to close new clients on retainer agreements, which is the most ideal payment model for freelancers. Start getting paid on your terms, and you’ll get that much closer to financial freedom.

Learn How To Close More Deals On Your Terms

You deserve to be paid for your work on your terms. You deserve to be paid in advance and retained instead of chasing clients to pay their invoices.

It can be challenging to close deals on your terms sometimes, though. It’s not always easy to close a client on the idea of a retainer agreement.

Sales skills and expert closing skills are required to get retainer contracts signed.

With practice, you too can close more deals on your terms.

Sales

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

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Rule 2. Cultivate Consumer Trust Through Transparency and Authenticity

Rule 3. Commit to Consistency At All Times

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Get Clear on Why You’re Pitching in the First Place

Who is Presenting is More Important Than What is Being Presented

Practice Until You Are Sick Of It, Then Practice Some More

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Use The Future as Negotiation Leverage

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I dropped out of college

And pursued my dream of creating men’s grooming products

Get The Perfect Closing Script To Control Any Conversation

1. You Use Old Traditional Methods

2. You Have Salespeople, Not Closers

3. Unsure Of Your Desired Customer

4. Your Leads Are Cold, Not Warm

5. Neediness

6. Spending Too Much Time On Trivial Tasks

7. No Commitment And Poor Closing Ability

The One Thing Business Owners Lack In Their Sales Process

Be a High Ticket Closer, Not A Salesperson

1) They find out your needs

2 They find out your problems

3) They paint a picture

4) They close the deal

Acquire This Skill and Be Set For Life

Setting Your Business on a Growth Trajectory

What Are You Looking For in a Client?

Master the Process of High Ticket Closing

How a High Closing Ratio Can Change Your Life

Are You Ready For a Personal and Professional Transformation?

What Exactly is an Elevator Pitch?

Where Did the Term “Elevator Pitch” Come From?

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The Anatomy of a Great Elevator Pitch

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Body Language: What You Need to Know About Non-Verbal Communication

Build Your Pitch Around a Niche Area of Focus

How to Memorize Your Elevator Speech

Elevator Pitch Mastery

Should You Propose a Retainer Agreement to New Clients?

Benefits For Clients Who Agree On A Retainer Fee

Benefits For Freelancers Getting Paid Via Retainer

Which Clients are Good Candidates for Retainer Agreements?

How To Negotiate a Retainer with New Clients: Why Should They Pre-Pay Before Seeing Results?

Types of Services That Would Be Most Efficient Under a Retainer

How Much Should a Retainer Fee Be?

Common Objections to Retainer Fees

How To Close Clients on The Idea of a Retainer Agreement

Here is an example email template:

How To Keep Your Retained Clients Happy

Summary

Learn How To Close More Deals On Your Terms

I hope you enjoy reading this blog post.