Tough Client To Help

Can I assume there was a slip up on the language and that you are saying she feels that THEY are out of her league? That she provides a top shelf service but is afraid to go after the ones that can afford it?

All that you can do with someone like this is tough love.
Do NOT support the insanity.

Break it down to its simplest pieces and present her with that analysis and tell her when she has made up her mind to follow your analysis you will take her on as a client again.

Barbara you are the best! Your skills and service delivery are the BMW of your industry.
Unfortunately your ambition and confidence have not caught up.
You will either keep giving away your BMW service for a fraction of what it is worth to those who will never get it or make a decision to change.
When you do call me, but for now I am out.

The world is filled with people that are only comfortable over delivering for peanuts to those that do not appreciate what they have because at the end of the day this makes them feel good about themselves. It's their story to walk around saying how unappreciated they are and look what they deliver compared to others at the same price etc...

Good luck. Hopefully I understood what you were trying to say. If not please clarify and I am sure you can get some guidance here but I am sure internally you already know what you need to do.

This makes no sense. Is that a mistype on your end? It just sounds like she needs a come to Jesus talk if that's the case.

Perhaps it's my Midwestern upbringing.
Yes, she feels that she is beneath their level.

I also spell dilemma - dilemna.

You may be trying to fix something that in her mind is not broken. If she feels she is not good enough to market to those that can afford her there is not much you can do until she changes her mind.

She is comfortable doing what she is doing. The pain she is experiencing in the current situation is not bigger than the pain she will face in situations that will cause her to not feel good enough.
This is very common. We all want to be thinner but its painful. We all want to be better but its painful. I no longer mistake people complaining about their current situation with a true motivation to change it.

If you can just keep pushing and point out the obvious.

Have her watch the tv reality series called "the pitch". Where ad agencies get to compete and pitch large companies with a campaign. Ordinary people comin up with ideas sold to big companies.

I think that Plessard hit the nail on the head. People don't change without motivation, and she sounds comfortable. Is she in dire straights financially, or is she just not maximizing her earning potential? Sometimes people make a conscious choice to work for less in order to work with a certain type of clientele that they enjoy working with, and as long as they're happy with that, there's nothing wrong. Why did she come to you in the first place? That speaks to her motivation. Then again, she may have been shown exactly what she needs to see by you, but maybe the action needed is harder than the comfort level she's already established and she's not at a place to overcome it yet. She may never be, or may just need more time.

Why isn't she tapping her own network from thirty years of experience in various parts of the branding/image industry? She must know gobs of people. I'll bet if she just sent a monthly newsletter to her own contacts she'll get more than enough business within 90 days. Read Craig Garber's book about the power of a good newsletter.

Beyond that, there is some kind of disconnect in her cerebellum. She wants to market high end products but doesn't think she is good enough to do so? Hmmm.

Well, you could set up a marketing funnel that does all the client interaction remotely until the client is really ready to move forward. That way she doesn't have to face her fears in the beginning of the cycle. So maybe a direct mail campaign driving high end prospects to a free recorded message which leads to a webinar and offer. The marketing machine is really her sales staff, removing her from the picture until the end. Not ideal, but it's an idea.

I think plessard hit the nail on the head. Mostly.

Why isn't she using all the tags from years of work? Threat of being sued. She just went thru that with a customer she had before joining a company, when she left the customer left with her. The company sued. In the end she won, but lost because of lost time and money. I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to go thru that again.

But yeah, there are a couple disconnects that I'm having trouble wrapping my head around so it's hard to help.

She originally came to me because she had no training getting a business up an running. Came to me late. Now there are financial concerns. She needs business now or she folds sometime in the next 12 months.

Sounds like she could use some mindset training. I just had an a-ha moment when I heard Sean Mize say that the first dollar amount of business you offer a client is the dollar value you are worth to them for a very long while. Why not challenger her to double her last price for the very next client. She may find she becomes busier faster because people will find her more valuable than she is holding herself out to be right now.

As far as cash infusions, she can offer retainers at discounts and/or host trainings for her lower end clients who need to do it themselves and need her help to learn how.

Thanks Brenda. Really good point.

With the help of your guys I could do it myself.Many many thanks.If I come across the problems in the furture I will come back again!

Perhaps she has a fear problem. As in fear that she thinks she is not actually good enough
for the clients she should have. Other than her pushing through the fears and doing it anyway, I don't know how you can help her. It will involve her talking to someone about those fears and having them logically proven false or broken down into chunks she can mentally manage and not be overwhelmed.

Maybe she can go after a small project for what should be her ideal client and prove to herself that she can get, manage, and complete a project for such a client.

Now that I write about it and the ideas flow a little bit, if I'm right, then maybe she's used to big projects carried out by a lot of different people and this is the source of the fear and being overwhelmed. So, she needs to get used to selling and closing deals, doing the work she can do and managing the other folks needed.

Get a step by step plan going so she CAN see the forest for the trees? Line up the other freelancers she might need...

Talking openly about fear can be a moving thing.

Dan