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How you describe what you do can either be totally inspiring for your potential clients in which case they will WANT to work with you and often excitedly say “this is exactly what I need right now” or it can leave them confused and in a way ‘turned off’. Let me share with you my three step formula for inspiring your potential clients into working with you.

Here’s the secret: Give them back their hope that their desires can be fulfilled. Move their dreams within reach.

Clients become clients because they have a problem that you can solve. Your task is to convince them that you can help them. Most people take that to mean talk about your solution. And that’s a big mistake. People aren’t ready to hear it yet. Instead, take them on a journey with an inspiring story. And here is how it goes:

1. Let them know you truly understand their problem
This is the first and THE most important step. If you miss this the rest won’t work. Tell them how you either have been in the situation they are in now or how you have observed the problem many times in people around you and how it really bothered you.

2. Tell them that you solved the problem and how it is now
Tap into your potential clients’ dreams. Inspire them by sharing with them your new reality which is everything your potential clients want. Knowing that you have just that now is much more inspiring to them than your ‘how to’ description.

3. Mention that you have a simple step by step solution
Only now do you allude to the fact that from your experience you have designed a step by step system that reliably creates the results your clients want. You don’t even have to tell them what they step are, if they truly are your ideal client, they will be hanging on every word you are saying by now and will ask “How?”. Voila, someone is getting ready to engage your services.

Very elegant, don’t you think? Incidentally, I happen to have a step by step system to create this kind of message that makes it really easy to inspire your clients, no matter what your business. Because as you can imagine, how exactly you tell your story in these three stages makes a big difference to your results. The beauty of it is, that doing this also helps you to clarify in your own mind what it is you do. Which is very inspiring for YOU.

I just took all my platinum clients through it last weekend. Watch their excitement as they get it really clear in their mind what they do and how to communicate that to their clients.

June Kitto from www.careerfit.com.au on her breakthroughs on niche, standards and masterminding

To see more videos with breakthroughs my clients are sharing go to http://www.clientprosperity.com/blog/?p=427

Have you settled on a niche yet? I know it’s not an easy decision to make for most service professionals and it’s the most important decision you will ever make in your business. It can mean the difference between a thriving business and a total lemon.

A lot of people are resisting making the decision for the fear of getting it wrong and losing their business. I used to be one of them. Apart from the fear of losing clients I was also extremely fond of all the different things I was doing and didn’t want to let go of any of them. I love stimulation and variety (probably smiliar to you).

On thing I have learned over the last few years is though: You MUST settle on a niche to be financially successful (beyond the $100,000 ceiling you can just reach without making this decision, but you’ll be working hard to maintain that for the rest of your life).

I have a step by step process that effectively leads you to make that decision. Many of my Market your Brilliance Workshop attendees made the decision on the workshop weekend, they had huge breakthroughs. I want to share with you the fundamental questions that start this process off so you can get yourself into the frame of mind that helps you make this all important decision.

So here it goes, you may want to do this with me as we go through:

Step1: Find out what you are passionate about

There is no point starting a business when your heart is not 100% in it. That’s why it makes sense to do this process from the inside out and start with what your heart tells you. When you do this, don’t think about how you will make it happen, will someone buy it etc. that just sabotages the process. That comes later. For now just focus on what you are really passionate about. Believe me without this passion you won’t have the commitment you need to make your business a success. This is especially true for us heart-centred entrepreneurs. Being an NLP Expert I use processes here that uncover your passion by engaging the unconscious mind.

Step 2: Your ideal client and their problem

Who is it that you want to work with and what problem do you solve for them? This is the time to get really specific in articulating these things. The clearer you are the better. And yes that means some people won’t fit into your profile anymore. That’s the point.
If you don’t set a clear boundary around who you work with, then nobody in particular will feel spoken to. And here is the crux of it: If you can find 5 people that want to work with you because you offer exactly what they need and you are confident your solution will solve their problem, then you have a good chance of building a viable business. Because if you can find 5 then you can find more. It’s then just a question of how do you find them and that can be solved.

Step 3: Does your ideal client have enough spending power?

So you know they have a problem you can solve. Do they want to solve it? Is it important enough for them to spend money on solving it? Do they have the spending power to buy your solution? This is critical and sometimes overlooked. Some of the biggest problems we have are not the ones we spend the most money on solving. Ever thought about it that way? Look at your own life and your spending patterns, what do you really need (be honest) and what do you spend the most money on?

How did you go? Has your view of your niche changed at all? still undecided? If you need a way to tighten this up and really nail it down, if you are having a couple of alternatives to choose from here is what I suggest:

1. Go out and test your ideas on an audience of your envisaged ideal clients

2. Get help from a mentor who is unbiased and can ask the questions that you may be avoiding to look at because of fears or emotional attachments to a particular niche.

This is one focus of our Platinum 2010 Program. All my Platinum Program Members will be guided to making sound decisions on their niche so they have a solid base to build their business on. It’s much easier to see your vision unfold once you have made these basic decisions. Could it be time for you to step up and become part of a Mentoring Program that holds you to your goals and helps you to realise them with sound advice, savvy coaching and a great sense of community?
Go to www.clientprosperity.com/platinum to get your Platinum Invitation letter and application form.

There are 4 major limiting belief patterns around charging what you are worth and getting it. Watch this video where I highlight one of them that is very common:

The pattern I am highlighting here is around your money boundaries. How good are yours?

Here is your assignment around this pattern:

Take note of how often you undercharge, customize and decide for someone else what they can afford. Notice your emotions around this. Then decide to let them go.

At the ‘How to charge what you’re worth and get it’ Webcast I will be discussing this pattern and others and what to do about them. You can still register for the webcast here www.clientprosperity.com/teleseminar.html. If you can’t make it on Thursday night but would like to listen to the webcast you can register anyway and we will send you the recording.

Apart from letting go of your limiting beliefs around money there are some very practical things you can put in place in order to charge higher fees more comfortably.

Generally speaking, your fees are too low if you focus on the effort it takes you to provide your service and the time it takes to do it rather than the value you provide. If that’s your mindset, then that will most likely impact the way you present your service in your Marketing, in your sales conversation, and of course it will impact the way you set your prices in the first place.

So ask yourself, what will my clients gain from working with me? What is the value I create for them and what problems do I solve for them?

Observe yourself during the sales conversation:
How focused are you during the conversation on the value versus the features of the service you provide? The more you focus on value the easier it is to sell what you have at the price point you want. To be precise, you don’t want to talk about the features of your service for more than 10% of the conversation.

Find out exactly what you need to do in your Marketing and Sales in order to charge what you’re truly worth and get it by joining our webcast this Thursday night 7pm, register here at www.clientprosperity.com/teleseminar.html

So you’ve made the commitment to take your business to the next level, good! Now what do you do? It can be a bit overwhelming to work out where to start, I know, I’ve experienced it myself and I want to make it really easy for you. The first steps are the most important ones by far because they determine the architecture for what you are building, and we want that to be rock solid.

I guarantee you if you just do these three things and nothing else you will see amazing changes, doing this draws clients to you because your clarity becomes irresistibly attractive.

Step 1: Align your business with your Unique Brilliance

Stop wanting to fit into a model that you think you need to follow to be successful and say ‘yes’ to your Unique Brilliance, that’s the thing you are most passionate about and that you find really easy to do. Let go of everything else and totally focus on your Brilliance and you will be amazed at the amount of energy, excitement and creativity that you are suddenly able to tap into. This is the best foundation for a strongly growing business.

Step 2. Communicate a clear Value Proposition

Ask yourself, what do I stand for, what is the value that my business delivers and to whom? Get really clear so you can say it in no more than 2 sentences of plain English that a smart fifth-grader would understand. This exercise will help you to really hone in on who you serve, what you do and how you do it. There is nothing more client attractive than clarity. Simply doing this and starting to communicate it at every opportunity will open up new doors for you, guaranteed!

Step 3. Develop a Business Model that allows you to leverage your time

Charging out your time by the hour will not take you to a solid six figure income. I know it’s probably what everyone else around you does, and, believe me, they are not making anywhere near the income you are aspiring to (unless they work very long hours, which is not the idea). Change your thinking to charging for the value you create. It doesn’t matter how much of your personal time and effort it takes to create the value, it’s all about how much your client appreciates the value. Often that actually means getting something in less time. So ask yourself,

What is the real value you create, and what is that worth to your client? How can you package what you do so you sell the Value, the solution you create, rather than your time. Chances are you are currently undercharging and can raise your prices (or cut back on your personal time) just doing that.

In further issues I will share with you different business models that allow you to leverage your time, raise your fees and provide MORE value to your clients. For now, start with the 3 steps I outlined above and I promise you they will make a huge difference.

Please give me some feedback on how this has worked for you and what you did as a result. You can leave comments here on my blog.