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Highest paying clients EXPECT diagnosis before prescription

by Peter Lessard
13 replies
If you want the highest paying clients stop building marketing that eliminates the conversation (diagnosis).

What do I mean by this?

Most marketing I am seeing land in my inbox and that of my clients are prescriptions to problems and the marketer is just hoping they actually suffer from what the prescription is for or that they even care on an emotional level about that particular symptom.

A few reasons that fails miserably at attracting high paying clients:

1. It's a huge red flag to experienced business people. Claiming on first contact that you know more about their business than they do and that you have answers to problems that frankly you do not even know they have makes you look foolish.

2. For the most part the "prescriptions" being offered by marketers address only small parts of the overall issue and are not enough to get the business owner excited. Ranks... who cares, seo... who cares, social media... who cares... what the business owner wants is deeper than that and you will NEVER know what that is until you take the time to diagnose. Even when clients tell me what is wrong I ask the deeper questions of why they REALLY care to solve it. If you want your solutions to be worth more then it needs to resonate on an emotional level with the buyer.

A SHOCKING FACT

My highest paying clients did NOT expect me to have solved the exact problem they currently have because they believe their problem is unique and they are correct! Ewen has a great post on it here

If marketers realized this they would stop crafting marketing messages that try to make them look like they have all the answers and would craft messages that spark conversations.

KNOW THYSELF :-)

I have tried to figure out why so many marketers (including myself in the past) fall in to the trap of having our marketing funnel pre-diagnose and spout solutions about problems before even speaking to a client.

The answer I came up with is fear and rejection.
We are simply afraid to actually talk to humans, ask questions and solve problems with them so we try to circumvent all the conversation and get them to magically buy.

We try to make our marketing messages do everything!
Initial contact, problem definition, deal with objections, define the solution and give a price. We are so worried about having conversations and asking questions that it kills our chances of getting those dream clients.

What do I feel has helped me personally with this problem?

Over the past 16 years along with providing marketing solutions I have often consulted on custom software solutions for SME's as their growth required they streamline their business.

When you engage in this process what always comes first is a discovery phase.

You don't walk in and say "I know your problem here is the solution." You walk in and say "With your help we will define the issues you have and together we will build a system that minimizes or eliminates those issues".

When I sell marketing systems the discovery phase is just a natural thing for me to do.

Have you noticed how many people come on here and say what should I sell?
Is that not absurd given what we have discussed?
Here is a thought.
Call 25 business and ask them what problem they would pay to have solved and what they would pay for that solution.
#clients #diagnosis #expect #highest #paying #prescription
  • Profile picture of the author ewenmack
    A client who came from a referral is paying me
    $1,000 for exactly that, diagnose the problem.

    It's like I will be a mystery shopper to his
    teams follow up emails.

    That in itself came from diagnosing where
    he could best grow his company.

    And the answer didn't come from new marketing.

    In the end it was him who suggested I go through the
    emails I get from his team after we discovered
    the sequence of events that already happen.

    Consultants get paid to diagnose.

    I find it laughable around this community who
    call themselves consultants when they aren't
    getting paid for diagnosis in of itself.

    Best,
    Doctor E. Vile
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  • Profile picture of the author benbro
    That is great point, Peter. Funny thing is when you're new to the offline arena you'll try anything - especially dishing out free advice.

    I tried this - even after working for a fairly prominent legal marketing agency that charged 1000's for an in depth audit.

    What I learned is that at best prospects ignore those types of pitches and at worse they treat it as spam or get offended by your suggestions. Of course, that's not to say that everyone will respond that way...but I tell you what - I never saw any offline clients that way.

    On the flip side after coming to my senses and seeing why a former employer charged for things like seo penalty analysis or conversion analysis, I caught on. And lo and behold have actually had several clients come on board and pay me just for my insights.

    And let me tell any offliner who is struggling to bring new prospects on board..it's a good feeling to find yourself in the position of being paid for your advice.

    That being said all the best for 2015!
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
    Your marketing can screen for typical problems you solve, prior to you ever speaking with the prospect. This will save you a lot of time and energy.

    One of the most frustrating things about Offline can be the time investment required to get to know a prospect before they become a client. If you don't charge for the diagnosis, and you had better, you'll become jaded. A way to do this is the Monkey's Paw approach. This is where you charge a relatively small fee for the diagnosis, and they get the report or whatever output you agree upon. They own it. You're happy because whatever they do--move forward, ignore it, put it on the shelf, have someone else carry it out or throw it away--you've covered your costs. Then, if they want to move ahead and have you implement the recommendations, you deduct the Monkey's Paw fee from the total investment.

    Typically I look for SYMPTOMS of problems I fix. I screen for those in my marketing collateral and prospects shouldn't be able to talk to me unless they've gone through that material. When I short circuit this process, I regret it. Talking to people for hours on end to prove your 'credibility' is not necessary and in fact is upsetting and a waste of time. No Unpaid Consulting!!
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    • Profile picture of the author Peter Lessard
      Another angle on this that we have discussed before is that it is REALLY REALLY hard to not talk about stuff you love.

      Us "problem solver" marketers love the puzzle so much we often jump in and ramble on before anyone has even cut a check lol all for the love of the puzzle and the solution.

      Originally Posted by Jason Kanigan View Post

      Your marketing can screen for typical problems you solve, prior to you ever speaking with the prospect. This will save you a lot of time and energy.

      One of the most frustrating things about Offline can be the time investment required to get to know a prospect before they become a client. If you don't charge for the diagnosis, and you had better, you'll become jaded. A way to do this is the Monkey's Paw approach. This is where you charge a relatively small fee for the diagnosis, and they get the report or whatever output you agree upon. They own it. You're happy because whatever they do--move forward, ignore it, put it on the shelf, have someone else carry it out or throw it away--you've covered your costs. Then, if they want to move ahead and have you implement the recommendations, you deduct the Monkey's Paw fee from the total investment.

      Typically I look for SYMPTOMS of problems I fix. I screen for those in my marketing collateral and prospects shouldn't be able to talk to me unless they've gone through that material. When I short circuit this process, I regret it. Talking to people for hours on end to prove your 'credibility' is not necessary and in fact is upsetting and a waste of time. No Unpaid Consulting!!
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    • Profile picture of the author benbro
      Originally Posted by Jason Kanigan View Post

      If you don't charge for the diagnosis, and you had better, you'll become jaded. A way to do this is the Monkey's Paw approach. This is where you charge a relatively small fee for the diagnosis, and they get the report or whatever output you agree upon. They own it.

      You're happy because whatever they do--move forward, ignore it, put it on the shelf, have someone else carry it out or throw it away--you've covered your costs. Then, if they want to move ahead and have you implement the recommendations, you deduct the Monkey's Paw fee from the total investment.
      Nice!!! Love it, that's beautiful. Here's what I like about what you just said, Jason...Let's face it, I don't care what folks say people just don't appreciate free stuff.

      So even on the off chance that you get the occassional head nod from a business owner that you shared free advice with; once you're gone...It's out of sight, out of mind - Buddy. Because the typical business owner WILL NOT implement free advice.

      On the other hand, even if you require just a small fee - that gets deducted from the cost of implementation - the owner will value your advice; as evidenced by them hiring you to implement it.
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    • Profile picture of the author Andrea Rillo
      Originally Posted by Jason Kanigan View Post

      Your marketing can screen for typical problems you solve, prior to you ever speaking with the prospect. This will save you a lot of time and energy.

      One of the most frustrating things about Offline can be the time investment required to get to know a prospect before they become a client. If you don't charge for the diagnosis, and you had better, you'll become jaded. A way to do this is the Monkey's Paw approach. This is where you charge a relatively small fee for the diagnosis, and they get the report or whatever output you agree upon. They own it. You're happy because whatever they do--move forward, ignore it, put it on the shelf, have someone else carry it out or throw it away--you've covered your costs. Then, if they want to move ahead and have you implement the recommendations, you deduct the Monkey's Paw fee from the total investment.

      Typically I look for SYMPTOMS of problems I fix. I screen for those in my marketing collateral and prospects shouldn't be able to talk to me unless they've gone through that material. When I short circuit this process, I regret it. Talking to people for hours on end to prove your 'credibility' is not necessary and in fact is upsetting and a waste of time. No Unpaid Consulting!!
      Thank you really much for that great post.
      I felt in this kind of mistake too during the last month.
      I'm now not doing any free consulting to anyone anymore.
      I wasted like 30 hours on free consulting just to try to get "relationship" with some prospects which never paid me.
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      • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
        Originally Posted by Andrea Rillo View Post

        Thank you really much for that great post.
        I felt in this kind of mistake too during the last month.
        I'm now not doing any free consulting to anyone anymore.
        I wasted like 30 hours on free consulting just to try to get "relationship" with some prospects which never paid me.
        Yeah I made this mistake late last year with a potential copywriting client who had presented himself as someone who could afford my services. I spoke with him three times over as many hours, giving him the outline of how to proceed with his project.

        The next day he told me he was going with a much lower budget writer. So I gave him the plan for free, which is far more than what a writer can do, and now that he knew what to do he didn't need me any more. 100% my fault. I should have done the Monkey's Paw.
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  • Profile picture of the author MichaelWinicki
    I don't think high-end clients expect the diagnosis up front... or if they do, it's because the service provider hasn't connected with the client.

    I think rapport and giving the client some sense of confidence that you can do what you say will do the job will win the day.

    Quite honestly when you simply ask them questions about their business and their marketing, they have some idea of what the problems are, but they quite often know they are "powerless" to fix those problems without your help.
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  • Profile picture of the author ewenmack
    [QUOTE=Peter Lessard;9783920

    1. It's a huge red flag to experienced business people. Claiming on first contact that you know more about their business than they do and that you have answers to problems that frankly you do not even know they have makes you look foolish.

    [/QUOTE]

    Re-read your post again and the above point stuck out to me.

    I posted this recently..."If you don't understand your prospects situation better than anybody else,
    why would they take notice to what you say?"

    Here...http://www.warriorforum.com/offline-...hooled-up.html

    You've added the consequence of going in with a solution first.

    Best,
    Doctor E. Vile
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  • Profile picture of the author Oziboomer
    All good stuff going on in this thread.

    Years ago I used a good company here in Oz that was based around Jay Abraham's principles. One of their employees at the time then went on to good stuff on his own. A guy called Justin Roff-Marsh.

    If you look at how he does the analysis and positions his analysis -plus gives away plenty of good content for those that want to try implementing stuff on their own. Worth checking out.

    When you dig a bit into his methodology you find clients usually working on the discovery phase actually figure out a lot of the things they can do themselves. The ones who want to pay for implementation pay really well

    Check out some of Justin's stuff here Ballistix | Sales Process Engineering

    I think it would add to what's going on here.
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    • Profile picture of the author kirbymarketingconcierge
      good work Peter!

      * I wish I had the source, but this was in the 90's - a business journal I believe :

      A fortune 2000 company ( appx.), 1 of 3 major players in their market, but losing market share.

      The CEO came in to the Sales Dept. and gave the order Not to sell anything this month!

      But, call Every client and ask a series of "survey type" questions,

      to understand why the were losing business (diagnosis), what they wanted, what they faced, problems they had....and just listen and document their responses. No Selling!!!


      The next Quarter, they had the best Sales increase ever.
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    • Profile picture of the author ewenmack
      Originally Posted by Oziboomer View Post

      All good stuff going on in this thread.

      Years ago I used a good company here in Oz that was based around Jay Abraham's principles. One of their employees at the time then went on to good stuff on his own. A guy called Justin Roff-Marsh.
      Man, that's dating me!

      I came across Justin pre- internet days.

      He had completely slipped off my radar.

      Thanks to re-connecting me with him again.

      Best,
      Doctor E. Vile
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  • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
    Originally Posted by Peter Lessard View Post

    If you want the highest paying clients stop building marketing that eliminates the conversation (diagnosis).

    What do I mean by this?
    .
    I saw the title of the thread, and instantly knew it was from one of 5 or 6 guys here. Yup, you revealed a major truth in the "Marketing to businesses" business.

    Your approach is the more professional approach. The better approach.

    My approach is that I have a "thing" that I sell, and I look for people that are highly likely to fit that service. Your way is better, and smarter.

    My "Hit them once, hit them hard" approach is from habit, and suits my personality.
    And..to be honest, Your approach requires that I engage with the client a little more...not selling, but thinking about them. And that approach is more profitable (I've done it for stretches of time), but it's uncomfortable to me.

    You're the Doctor, prescribing what's best for the patient.
    I'm the Snake Oil Salesman, hawking my elixer from the back of a wagon. It's good elixer, and actually works...but that's what I am.

    Your way is better.
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