Make Your Initial Offer Irresistible and You'll Have To Start Fighting Off New Clients

Pulling clients in is not only more fun than pushing hard to "get" clients, it's MUCH easier. Who wouldn't rather have clients call them instead of pounding the pavement? The concept is a no-brainer to grasp, but very few solo-entrepreneurs actually do anything about it. Most are wandering aimlessly, just waiting for clients to come to them, but with little strategy involved. That's when creating PULL marketing systems comes into play.

There are 3 powerful "PULLING-them-in" marketing techniques I recommend in my programs and use myself, still today. In this article, I want to share one of them with you. I call it the 'Irresistible F.R.E.E. offer'.

Irresistible F.R.E.E. Offers (IFOs) literally make people sit up and take notice and PULL them into your pipeline. There are many forms of IFOs. It could be an audio CD that you give away on your website and advertise on the web, a special report, an intro teleclass, a workbook, an e-course, a checklist or downloadable audio.

The list of possible IFOs is endless, but this strategy works best when the topic refers to what your prospect would do-anything and pay-anything to achieve or acquire. (As a side note, I do not typically recommend offering a fr.ee consultation. It is not only too time consuming, but it attracts too many tire kickers who waste your time.)

Even though you're not charging for the Irresistible Offer, it should absolutely be of high content and high value. Like me, you've probably attended a no-fee teleclass or received an ebook that left you severely under-whelmed. And like me, you've probably forgotten that person very quickly. The bottom line is, if your initial offer is not high-content, you've wasted the prospect's time and therefore, you've lost them for good.

When these F.R.E.E. offers have great value, you build your credibility instantly, people talk about you to colleagues, refer others to you, you get interviewed by joint ventures and strategic alliances, and the media begins paying attention, which all creates increased exposure and visibility, without any extra effort on your part. And best of all, your first impression (one of high-content, high-value) keeps them thinking of you, over and over, until they're ready to buy.

Now, before you start thinking, "Well, Fabienne, they WON'T buy from me if I give it ALL away at no-charge", that's not what we're doing here. I'm not suggesting you give away the whole farm. That wouldn't make good financial sense. Instead, I'm suggesting you give them the 'what', not the entire 'how' on these no-charge offers. That way, most prospects become intrigued with the high-content they received at no charge, and will look to you for the specific, pragmatic steps to implement them. That's key.

The mistake I see solopreneurs making in a first offer is pitching their high-priced services from the get-go. I personally think this is a waste of marketing real-estate, because very few people will purchase your higher priced programs or services without knowing a little more about you. Remember the Know-Like-Trust Factor? People don't buy from someone they don't know, they don't like, and they don't trust.

You can immediately start the K-L-T Factor using the Irresistible offer. Provided it's of high-content, high value, it starts people off slowly, establishes credibility, while positioning you as their problem solver. Priceless! Once prospects receive great benefit from your initial offer, they'll naturally move THEMSELVES up your Services Pyramid pipeline, without any work or hard selling on your part.

That's the beauty of this concept. You simply invite prospects into your funnel and they will naturally move up the funnel on their own, without effort on your end. The best part of this is this process feels AUTHENTIC to you AND to them. Your content does the work, and they don't feel the sales pressure. Remember: people like to buy; but they don't like to be sold.

All your F.R.E.E. irresistible offers are created to lead people to your ezine or other stay-in-touch marketing vehicles, where you continue to add high-content, high value over time. This builds the trust and the credibility, positioning you as their problem solver.

The goal is to consistently fill the pipeline, getting it bigger and bigger over time, continually stocking the pond with ideal clients who self-select and move themselves up the ladder of the services you provide. THAT is what I call 'pulling' clients in and you're going to love how easy it is.

Your Assignment This Week:

Begin thinking about what your prospects would do-anything and pay-anything to learn or experience from you. Then, create an Irresistible Offer around that, giving them high content but not the entire 'how' and put it in your marketing materials. Set up systems for getting that F.R.E.E. offer to your prospects with no effort on your part and watch the leads come in, day after day. You won't believe how easy it is to fill your pipeline effortlessly and authentically!

Here's my formula for filling a pipeline effortlessly:

Compelling and authentic marketing message
+
Effective marketing techniques
+
Irresistible F.R.E.E. offers
=
A FULL pipeline of prospects who call YOU

If you're not sure how to create a compelling marketing message or set up effective marketing techniques in the first place, then it's time to take action and invest in a step-by-step marketing system that will feel easy and authentic to you. The Client Attraction Home Study System™ avoids all the unnecessary stuff and instead gives you the most important things to do to find your niche, get out there in a big way, set up simple, solid systems, so you consistently fill your pipeline and continually get new clients. It's all step-by-step, not a big mishmash of things. So, you do step one of the system, and when you're done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. So easy. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter. You can get it at TheClientAttractionSystem.com.

© 2008 Client Attraction LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System™ and http://www.clientattraction.com/, the proven step-by-step program to attract more clients, make more m’oney being self-employed, while having more time off to enjoy it all. To receive your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and get weekly how-to articles on attracting more clients, visit http://www.clientattraction.com/.

It Ain't Over Til It's Over (Especially When You're Closing The Sale)

The quote, "The opera ain't over until the fat lady sings" originated with San Antonio sports broadcaster Dan Cook during a television newscast in April 1978. He coined the famous phrase after the first basketball game between the San Antonio Spurs and the Washington Bullets during the 1977-78 National Basketball Association playoffs, to illustrate that while the Spurs had won once, the series was not over yet.

And it's not just for basketball. In Client Attraction, it's just as applicable, especially when you're closing the sale. You see, many self-employed professionals believe that once they've gotten an "OK", they're home free. And ideally that's the case, but not in every situation.

Many times, you're confident that this new working relationship is "good to go." Your prospective client signs on the dotted line, gives you their credit card information, you send them your welcome letter or package, and everything seems honkey dory. But that's not always the case.

Sometimes, brand new clients get cold feet. They may think about their decision and start to wonder if they really need your services. Did they make a mistake? Were they being foolish?

But most often, they rethink their decision because they're confronted with a possibility of change, even GOOD change, ESPECIALLY when you're promising radically different results. There's a part of them that wonders whether they're ready for this change, whether they can handle all that you promise in your marketing materials.

But that's where your job becomes important. Once you've closed the sale, it's time to Double Close. To secure the sale and make sure the new client doesn't back out, I used to use a Double Close technique that I learned from my financial advisor years ago. It's called the "Here's what we talked about e-mail."

You basically recap everything you talked about on the "get-acquainted" call and put it all in an e-mail that you send right away. When someone receives this after signing up to work with you, they feel even more confident about their decision and rarely if ever back out of the agreement.

It's all about reassurance, a confirmation (even from you) that they made the right decision. But you can also use this for someone who, after the get-acquainted call, still hasn't signed up. Just seeing all the things they need to work on and the goals they need to achieve in black and white often motivates someone to take action, especially if you don't pressure them.

Your Assignment:

As a Double Close method or with someone who's having a difficult time signing up, send an e-mail recapping everything you both talked about in your "get-acquainted" call. This creates fantastic results, even weeks down the road.

I've re-closed many a client this way and you too will be surprised by how well this works. Don't be surprised to hear from someone you thought wasn't ever going to sign up. With this Double Close or Recap method, they'll most likely be back.

If you're not attracting enough ideal prospects in the first place, I'd recommend you create compelling marketing and systems for that starting today. The tool that will take you from 0 to 60 clients the quickest is The Client Attraction Home Study System™. It's everything you'll ever need to know to fill your practice quickly; no matter how long you've been in business. All the tools, scripts, templates, and examples are handed to you on a silver platter (including how to close the sale 97% of the time). So, you do step one of the system, and when you're done with that, you move on to step two, and so on. So easy. That's why my customers have gotten such great results from it. You can get yours at www.TheClientAttractionSystem.com.

© 2008 Client Attraction LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System™ and www.ClientAttraction.com, the proven step-by-step program to attract more clients, make more m’oney being self-employed, while having more time off to enjoy it all. To receive your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and get weekly how-to articles on attracting more clients, visit www.ClientAttraction.com.