Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to the solopreneur Sisterhood Podcast. A podcast designed to help heart centered service providers like you build a purposeful, profitable and sustainable business that supports what matters most to you. I'm your host, Becky McCleary and I.
[00:00:20] Speaker B: Am so grateful that you are here. Hello and welcome back to the solopreneur Sisterhood Podcast. Today I am sharing my favorite way to sign new clients with ease. So for those of you who are considering a pivot or a new offer, this is also a really great way to test out some new ideas without having to take a lot of time and energy to put new offers and sales pages together. So before we dive into that, I just had to share that I have been experimenting a bit with AI to help me speed through tasks that tend to slow me down. So if you know me at all, you know that I am an overthinker and I will tend to take way too much time sometimes in planning things out and creating drafts. And so I have been using AI to help me get through those first steps. So now I will say that I am the first to admit that when I started hearing people talk about chat, GPT and people using AI, I was completely against it. I was sure that it could not write as well as humans can. And I will also say as a former teacher, I immediately began to see potential problems with this technology.
So I personally still don't believe in using AI to write your content for you.
I've taken different trainings and I have done some experimentation, but I haven't found anything that I think works on its own.
However, I have found it useful to help speed up some of the process. So for example, when I am writing any new piece of content, the hardest part for me, I don't think it's just me, is that first draft. I will have a lot of ideas and trying to organize them and write them out. It just tends to take me a long time, probably because I'm overthinking everything. And so what I've been trying lately is taking pieces that I have written that are related to a topic and asking AI. And now I use Claude, not ChatGPT. I have found I tend to feel like Claude gives me a more solid foundation than ChatGPT.
So I've been using that to write a specific piece of content using my original content and the tone of my original text. So for example, for this episode I knew that I had written a couple of emails about it earlier, earlier this year and so I took the text of that e those emails and I asked Claude to take that content and write a podcast script using that content and my tone. And so what I have found previously is that it gives me a solid first draft most of the time. So once I have that rough draft, it's easier for me to go through and see what I need to add, remove or adapt, make it really work. So my final draft is really, most of the time, not much like what the AI actually gave me. But having that foundational piece speeds up that process so I can get things done more quickly.
So when it came to this episode, episode, I was excited to kind of see what it came up with. And I have no idea what was going on with AI, but it was doing some crazy things. So when I first started to review this rough draft, I had to do a lot of work because it seemed to simply make stuff up. So it changed the name of the podcast, it changed my name. I'm not sure who Sarah is, but.
And then it made up complete, like completely made up stories about some of my business experience. I have no idea where came up with those ideas, but it was completely off base. So all of that is to remind you two key ideas to support you in your success in business. So number one, keep an open mind. I am still not all in on AI, but I can see where it might be useful in some circumstances. So this is an area of growth for me, where I started off being completely against it, but then I kept listening to people and then I started to look for maybe there were some areas where it could be used. So today I ask you, where might this be true for you? I think sometimes we make things harder on ourselves because we don't allow ourselves to see possibilities. So number one, keep an open mind. Number two is to trust yourself.
My gut still says that AI can't replicate my voice or how I communicate. So even though I keep seeing and hearing people raving about it, it's just not something that I'm going to pursue right now. Where I see most business owners holding themselves back from successful is when they get caught up in doing what others tell them to do instead of listening to themselves. So while there is so much to learn from others, in the end, I believe that you are the expert on yourself and your business and what works for you. So I encourage you to trust yourself and give yourself permission to honor what resonates with you. So keep an open mind and also trust yourself with that. Let's dive into our focus for today where I am sharing my favorite way to test out a new offer or to sign new clients with ease. Just a few months ago, I had some new ideas for my business and I was feeling a bit stuck. And when I get stuck, I realize, okay, it's time for me to get out of my own head and actually learn from other people. So I put together a market research survey, just trying to get feedback from people.
And I didn't learn what I thought I was going to learn, which is why market research is so important. What I found in that, it kind of changed my direction and that I was really shocked to find out how many people were not seeing the financial success in their business. And it was not just people who were just starting their businesses. A lot of people had been at this for over a year, two years, three years, even beyond that. And we're not yet seeing sustainable income in their business. And so that made me write about this topic and put together an offer to help people be able to bring in more income and support themselves at a faster speed. So I can't guarantee that if you do this, it will definitely work for you, but I will say it has worked for me, it has worked for clients. And if the first time you try it, it doesn't work, it doesn't necessarily mean it will never work for you. It just means you might need to adapt it a little bit.
So what I like to call this is a starter offer approach. What I think is that a lot of us struggle as service providers because we're asking clients to go and take kind of a giant leap with us. You know, when I was a VA or an obm, you would be trying to sign clients for a long term commitment. And when you think about it, they might have, you know, heard about you through a friend, they might have seen you online, they might have even met you in, you know, a coffee chat or a networking call. But you don't really know each other a lot. And you're asking someone to make a huge commitment right away, which can be scary for a buyer, especially when they're not completely sure what they're going to get. The other thing I will say for a lot of service providers, kind of a disadvantage that we have is I think unfortunately there are a lot of people out there who are offering services, but they aren't necessarily fulfilling those services. I know I have personally worked with a number of people who say that they are virtual assistants, but then they're really not reliable at all or they don't do their job carefully or thoroughly. And so a lot of business owners, you know, when I was Working as a VA or an obm, I was encountering a lot of people who were scared to hire because they've had negative experiences before. So I think we automatically have a couple of disadvantages. We have people who are not sure about making a long term investment with us and we have people who might have had a negative experience beforehand. And so even if you are outstanding at the work you do, you have a couple of obstacles to kind of work through. So what I love about the starter offer is I think that it helps us to work through both of those obstacles.
So for a starter offer, what I like to do is think through something that your ideal clients need that is specific and valuable, that gives them a quick win and experience working with you. So for example, if you are a copywriter and you normally write like a full website, maybe your starter offer is helping them to write or even revise one key page on their site. So maybe you want to do just offer like the about page. I know the about page is a page a lot of business owners struggle with. So maybe you want to have a special offer just to help them with writing their about page. Or if you are a virtual assistant, instead of having someone sign on for hiring you for a certain number of hours or a package, maybe you're helping them with a specific project. So perhaps they want to set up a new nurture sequence and you're helping them to set that up. Or maybe they are creating a course and you're going to help to actually set up the tech technical pieces for their course. If you are a coach, maybe instead of offering a six month package, maybe you're offering a smaller like one month package where people could work with you. If you are a graphic designer, instead of doing maybe a whole package for them, maybe you do like a small set of social media templates. So the idea is that you are doing something that is aligned with what you normally offer. You don't want to do something completely different. Side note here is if you are listening and you're thinking, okay, but I want to pivot or maybe change direction in my business, then that is a case where you could offer something different from what you normally offer. But for most of us, if you're trying to just get clients in the door to what you normally do, you want your offer to be tied to the work you normally do. It's just going to be a smaller container where you and the clients know exactly what they are getting. And what I love about this is that it removes that barrier of that big initial commitment because they know exactly what they're getting from this. So when someone hires a va, I just use that as an example because that's my experience.
They don't necessarily know what they're getting, but if they hire a VA to help them set up an automation or set up the content in their course, they know exactly what they're getting for that.
The other thing is that you can give them a flat rate for this offer, which I also like, because one of the other barriers is that a lot of business owners are concerned, especially when it comes to virtual assistants or online business managers or anything where you're charging hourly. They worry about how much time is this actually going to take. And the downside for you, What I found is that as you get better at the work you do, it takes you less time to do to do better work. And so you end up making less money. If you're paid hourly. This could be a whole nother episode. You're better at your work, you're more efficient, but you're making less money if you're paid hourly. So the nice part with this is you're giving them a package so it has a flat rate. You know exactly what you're making, they know exactly what they are paying, and you both know what you are delivering to them.
The other part that I love about this is that it gives you both the experience of working with one another, so it helps you to build that trust so that they know that you agreed to do this and you did deliver and you met their expectations and maybe exceeded their expectations and you follow through with what you agree to do. So it helps to build that trust. And then for you as a service provider, I think it's really nice for you to be able to experience working with a client or a short term project rather than making a long term commitment. That way you can see what it's like to work with this person. And if you even want to offer a longer term package, you might work with someone and realize you know what, they're kind of difficult to work with. And I don't think we're, we're aligned and that's okay. You have this short commitment, you see that through and then you can move on.
Okay, so with this starter offer for it to work, there are a few key principles to also keep in mind here. So yes, we already talked about it should be connected with the work that you do, but you need to make sure that it is something that your ideal clients actually want. So I know this sounds obvious, but I can't tell you how many times I have seen service providers create offers based off of what they think clients should want, rather than what clients actually need right now. So if you're not sure on ideas for this, you could check in with previous clients and try to recall kind of when they came to you, what did they need. If you haven't worked with enough clients for that, you could do a little bit of market research. Maybe you have a few ideas of what you could offer and you can ask people for their feedback on that.
My one note that with that is if you're asking people, make sure they are your ideal clients, not just friends and family or random people on the Internet. You want to make sure that these are people who ideally you would want to work with. Otherwise, their feedback isn't especially helpful. So the second key principle here is that you need to keep it simple and focused. So your starter offer should be something you can deliver relatively quickly. You want to give your client a quick win while keeping your time investment manageable. So you want something that, ideally, depending on what you're working on, a month or less, it's delivered, it's complete, some of this will be much shorter than that. But I'm thinking that if you're doing something like copywriting, there might be some back and forth there, graphic design, there might be a little bit of back and forth there. So it might take several weeks. But you want it to be a pretty quick win. So that way your client gets that kind of quick, quick win from working with you and they have some actual results. So third, and I feel like this part is crucial, is you want to price this offer at a rate that it is a quick, easy yes for clients. You don't want the price to be a barrier for this because one of the main goals with this is to get new clients in the door. And so again, if you can price this, ideally around $200 or less, that's what I recommend.
So if you are listening to that and you're thinking that's way too low, I want to just gently remind you this offer isn't about making money. This offer is about opening the door to new clients coming in. So if they make an investment, ideally you're giving them something that you feel confident about.
And for them it's going to feel like, oh, this was worth way more than what I paid for it. Because on both sides that helps to build a strong relationship. And so the idea is they have a positive experience with you in this smaller project. And then if you feel this is something you want to someone you want to work with, then you can let them know how you can support them beyond this offer. And ideally, they are in a position where they've had a really positive experience, they've built a bit of trust with you, and they are ready to move into your longer term offer. So once you have your starter offer planned out, let's talk a little bit about how to actually get this offer in front of potential clients. Because it's one thing to have an offer, it's an another thing for people to know about your offer, and we can talk about that in another episode, is how many people don't realize that they're not actually sharing their offer. And one of the biggest barriers you're having to people not hiring you is they just simply don't even know what you have available. But for this particular offer, here are my recommendations. And I just went through this with my beta test is when I realized, okay, I want to help more people be able to make money at a faster rate in their business and build more of a sustainable business. And I put together this offer, I went through these steps and it filled the program. It surpassed my goals. I wanted to have five participants in the program. I have 15 people in the program. So it can work.
So even if it feels counterintuitive, because I know a lot of what we see online is about getting in front of of a lot of people and my approach is slightly different. So my first recommendation is to start with your existing network. So this could be former clients, people you've had discovery calls with who didn't buy from you. It could be connections you've made from networking events or coffee chats. These are all great places to start. So what I recommend is reaching out to them saying, hey, I have this new offer. Here's what it is, here's who it's for.
If you know of anyone who would be interested in it, I'd really appreciate your support in sharing it. Or if you think they might be interested in it, you could say something like, if this is something you're interested in, I would love to work with you. And just make sure that in your write up for this offer, you let people know how to take that next step. So do they book a call with you? Is there a button they click to pay and sign up? Make sure that that next step is in your information about the offer. So that way there isn't any extra work on their part to be able to take that next step with you. You want to remove those barriers as much as possible. Okay, my second recommendation here is to share it. If you have an email list, share this offer with your email list. So I would recommend you could send some solo emails just about this offer to people, or you could just include it in your PS but get it out in front of more people. What I also recommend with this approach, and you could do this with anyone you're reaching out to, is limiting the number of spaces you have for this. Because realistically this is an individual offer. This isn't something like a pre existing course that people could just opt into and sign up for and go. You're going to have to be doing work with them. So realistically you are limited in how many people can sign up for this offer. So if you think that you can handle five people, I would let people know you have five spots available. Or if you think you can handle 10 people, 10 spots available. But let people know your limitations. And I would recommend a lower number rather than a higher number because one, you haven't offered this before so you're not totally sure how long this will take and you want people to have a really good experience. So again, this is not about making a lot of money. This is about bringing clients in and being able to book yourself out into longer packages through this initial offer. So ideally you want to have fewer people so you can give them a really positive experience.
Also having a lower number will make it so that when people see it, if they're interested, they're going to be more likely to sign up faster rather than waiting because they know that it might sell out. Okay, so finally, if you want to use social media, you can definitely share it on social media.
But what I would recommend is I have not personally found a lot of success just posting about an offer and having people sign up for it. It has happened on occasion, but what I've actually found is if you're using your DMs, if you've been having conversations with people in DMs, let them know about your new offer. And again, I recommend this kind of gentle approach where you're just letting them know, hey, I have this new offer, I have X number of spots available. If this is something you would be interested in, here's how you take that next step. I'd love to work with you, something like that. So it's not pushy at all. I would make sure that when you're reaching out to people, you've had some sort of connection. I don't recommend just blasting this out to people as Kind of a cold pitch. I have found that this works better when you have connections with people. Okay. So my biggest recommendation here is that you don't just blast this out as a cold pitch to anyone. I have found that it works really well when you have a relationship with people. So that's why I'll talk about this on another episode. Relationship building is so key, is that when you have that solid network of people who either have worked with you, might want to work with you, or who just support you, that makes it so much easier when you have a new idea, when you have a new offer to build that momentum and get it out there to the people who need it. So what I have found works really well is if you have DMs with people. Again, not talking about people that you've never had any conversation with, but people who you've already been in conversation with, sending them a message and letting them know, here's what I have. Here's a new offer, here's who it's for, here's how it helps. I have this number of spots available. Here's how to take the next step. If you would be interested in this, I'd love to work with you. If it's not a good fit for you, if you happen to know anyone who might be interested, I'd really appreciate your support in sharing it. And what I have found is that people are normally really happy to help spread the word. When I did this for the beta test, I was pleasantly surprised by how many people passed it on to other people. And we had several women who I had never connected with. But because I shared it with someone and that person was friends with them and they referred them to the program, they signed up right away. And this was without knowing me at all. But it was because of the relationships I had built and they trusted the person who referred them to me. I also had people I shared it with that I did not think they would sign up for the program. But I was asking if they could share it with other people. And they reached out to me saying, hey, this sounds like what I need. Is it okay if I sign up? And I was like, of course you can come. I wasn't trying to be pushy or salesy. I was just trying to share it. And that is how I want to close today is. I think one of the biggest barriers a lot of us have when it comes to sales is that we don't want to come across as pushy or salesy. We want to help people, and it's really Hard for us to share our work because we feel like it's coming across the wrong way. And I will say that I even wrote that to some people when I was sharing my message about my beta test. I was saying, you know, I want to help more people. I want to get this out there. I don't want to come across as like pushy or salesy, but I know that I need to share this in order to get out there. So I'm hoping this comes across the right way. But what I want us all to remember is the truth is that no matter how much you want to help people, if no one knows what you do or how you can help them, if they don't know about your offer, they can't help anyone. And so when you have created something like a starter offer here that you know can help someone solve a problem is not being salesy or pushy to share it, if you're sharing it with the intention of being of service. And so just remind yourself that there are people out there who need you, who need your work, who need this offer that you are creating. And if you are holding it back out of fear because you don't want to come across the wrong way, then it can't help them out. And so the only way to be of service is to get out there and let people know what you have to offer.
So in closing here, if you are listening and you are thinking that you would really love extra support in figuring out your starter offer, in getting feedback on your offer, in helping to share your offer with other people, and you want some extra support in building a sustainable business that makes a difference and helps you to live the life you want to live. And you have not already joined us in the free community, I invite you to come over and join us in the Solopreneur Sisterhood community. This is a free online space where you can ask questions, receive support and encouragement and start building genuine connections with other heart centered service providers. When you join us, you're going to receive access to the online community where you can ask questions, where you can get feedback. You will also receive access to the member dashboard where you can find other service providers and they can find you. And you will also receive access to a library of mini trainings to help you build your business with ease. And you'll receive invitations to join our monthly intentional networking calls as well as other workshops and events. And you also will have opportunities in there to share your starter offer. And there might just be people in there who need exactly what you have to offer. So I invite you to learn more and join us by visiting thesolopreneursisterhood.com community and we will also have a link to that in our show Notes for this episode. Until next time, keep showing up and serving with heart.
[00:25:23] Speaker A: Thank you so much for joining us and listening to the solopreneur Sisterhood podcast. I hope this episode has offered you some encouragement, some insight, and some new ideas to support you in building a business that works for you. Remember that our world needs you, your gifts, your vision and your work.
[00:25:39] Speaker B: And I'm cheering you on as you.
[00:25:41] Speaker A: Bring your vision to life and build a purposeful, profitable and sustainable business that supports what matters most to.
