Author: b2bsaleskey

One key to unlocking unparalleled growth and success in your B2B service business resides in maximizing your Lifetime Value of a Customer

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Imagine a future where your business thrives beyond your wildest dreams. Can you picture your profits soaring, clients smiling, and competitors looking on in envy? 

All of this is within reach when you unlock the secrets of skyrocketing your lifetime value of a customer, otherwise referred to as “Customer Lifetime Value” (CLV or CLTV) or LTV (Lifetime Value).

These are all just different abbreviations that refer to the same concept.

So, what is customer lifetime value and why should you care about this absolutely vital metric, for your B2B service business?

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV, CLTV, or LTV) is a metric used to estimate the total monetary value a business can expect to receive from a single customer over the entire duration of their relationship.

CLV helps B2B businesses understand how much revenue they can anticipate from a customer and guides them in making informed decisions on customer acquisition, retention, and marketing strategies.

It emphasizes the importance of nurturing long-term relationships with customers, as opposed to focusing solely on one-time transactions.

This is the “land & expand” approach, rather than the high churn “pump & dump” approach.

In this post, we’ll dive into a simple customer lifetime value formula for LTV calculation, and actionable techniques & tips you can start implementing or improving that will immediately boost your average lifetime customer value and optimize your B2B marketing and sales strategies.

There’s a limited number of levers you can pull to grow your business:

• You can acquire new clients (this opens the door to the next two opportunities)
• You can retain your existing clients for longer (increase lifetime value of a customer through strategic renewal offers, as one example)
• You can solve more problems for your existing customers through additional services and products you offer (increase the amount of money each customer spends with you)

It’s wise to focus on all three of these simultaneously and view each customer relationship through the frame of those 3 factors.

When you combine all three at the same time, and focus on improving each of those three areas, even with marginal improvement in each, you’ll experience faster growth than you previously thought possible.

In fact, when you’re in the process of acquiring new customers (e.g. your sales process), it’s a smart move to begin laying down the growth roadmap for your clients, to pave the way to increase your lifetime value of a customer, even before they become actual clients.

You can actually begin planting the seeds for longer retention, upsells, and cross-sells BEFORE they become a customer, during onboarding, and throughout their entire journey as your customer.

Yes, there are ways to do this elegantly, without being pushy or sounding like a used car salesperson.

…but that’s a topic for another post, or another video, another time…so stay tuned.

First, here’s how to calculate customer lifetime value for your B2B service business (simple LTV calculation method):

Step 1: Calculate the average revenue per customer (ARPC) for each pricing model.

To determine the ARPC, you need to evaluate your different pricing models (such as monthly subscriptions or one-time fees). 

For each model, divide the total revenue generated by the total number of customers. This will give you the ARPC for each pricing model.

For example, if your business offers a monthly subscription service and a one-time fee service, calculate the ARPC for both:

• Monthly subscription: Divide the total revenue generated from subscriptions by the total number of subscription customers.
• One-time fee: Divide the total revenue generated from one-time fees by the total number of one-time fee customers.

Step 2: Determine the average customer lifespan (ACL) for each category.

The ACL is the average length of time a customer continues to use your services.

To calculate the ACL for each pricing model, divide the sum of all customer lifespans by the total number of customers in that category.

For example, in your monthly subscription category, add up the number of months each customer has been subscribed, and then divide by the total number of subscription customers. Repeat this process for the one-time fee category.

Step 3: Multiply the ARPC by the ACL for each category to obtain the customer lifetime value (CLV).

Once you have the ARPC and ACL for each pricing model, multiply them together to calculate the CLV for each category.

• Monthly subscription CLV: (ARPC for monthly subscriptions) x (ACL for monthly subscriptions)
• One-time fee CLV: (ARPC for one-time fees) x (ACL for one-time fees)

Step 4: Calculate the weighted average of the CLVs from each category.

To determine the overall average CLV for your B2B service business, calculate the weighted average of the CLVs from each pricing model. 

To do this, multiply the CLV of each category by the proportion of customers in that category, and then sum up the results.

For example, if 60% of your customers are on a monthly subscription and 40% pay a one-time fee:

• Weighted CLV = (0.60 x Monthly subscription CLV) + (0.40 x One-time fee CLV)

Now that you know how to calculate customer lifetime value/LTV calculation, let’s delve into some of the often overlooked, sometimes counterintuitive techniques to grow your B2B service business by increasing your average lifetime customer value:

Tip 1: Leverage B2B partnerships for mutual success

Imagine how collaborating with other B2B service providers could unlock new growth opportunities. 

By establishing strategic partnerships, you can offer complementary services, co-market, or share referrals, expanding your client base and boosting your CLV in the process.

To execute this strategy:

• Identify potential partners that share your target market but don’t directly compete with you.
• Develop a clear value proposition that demonstrates the mutual benefits of the partnership.
• Approach potential partners with your proposal, emphasizing the value you bring to the table and the potential growth both businesses can achieve.
• Forge a written agreement that outlines the terms of the partnership, responsibilities, and goals.
• Collaboratively create marketing materials, content, or events that showcase both businesses, reinforcing the partnership and driving results.
• Regularly review the partnership’s performance, adjust strategies as needed, and maintain open communication to ensure continued success.

Tip 2: Create irresistible upsell and cross-sell offers

Picture your clients enjoying valuable additional services that not only increase their satisfaction but also your CLV. 

Analyze your client’s needs and craft tailored upsell and cross-sell offers that address their pain points, positioning your business as their go-to solution provider.

This is what the whole “one-stop shop” value prop is based on.

Step into the consumer’s shoes for a moment.  

Would you rather have to deal with 3 different companies to solve 3 different problems or would you prefer to deal with a single company that solves those 3 problems for you?

This is really key to increasing your CLV because the more problems you solve for your customer, the longer they will tend to remain your customer.

By solving more problems for them, you’ve become a more integral part of their business and created a more “sticky” customer relationship. 

It’s harder for them to leave because they now have to either find 3 new providers or they have to find another company that solves all 3 problems.

This means more sales calls with new vendors, vendor offer analysis, etc.

I have a great relationship with the CPA firm I work with now.  They solve multiple problems for SalesKey and me personally (bookkeeping, tax prep – both business and personal, tax planning, outsourced CFO services, they even connected me with a great wealth management group which solved another problem, among others, and have become a trusted advisor for all things related to business & personal finance, accounting, and taxes).

Needless to say, those are some critical functions for my businesses and personal life.

They do a great job (I worked with 2 CPAs before this group and I’m infinitely happier with my current CPA than the ones before, part of the reason is:  They solve more problems for me than my previous CPAs.  One of them I was practically begging them to take more of my money for outsourced CFO services, I didn’t know what it was called at the time but what I did know was that as we scaled there were things I didn’t know and needed a competent professional to advise me), so the last thing I want to do right now is to evaluate new CPA firms.  

They will have my business forever unless something significant changes.

They do a great job – that’s the necessary ingredient.  As long as you do an excellent job serving your clients WHILE solving multiple problems, they’ll stay with you indefinitely or until something out of your control happens like a key decision maker at your client company changes, etc.

Remember:  Your customers prefer to get as many of their problems solved in one place as possible, so why not be that one-stop shop?  

Even if you don’t offer the service directly, be a resource for your clients by referring them to vetted, high-quality providers that can solve other problems for them as a value add.

Be customer-centric, rather than product-centric.  Also another topic for another post, another time 🙂

To implement this tip:

• Analyze your clients’ profiles and usage patterns to identify their needs and pain points.
• Develop a suite of complementary products or services that can be offered as upsells and cross-sells.
• Determine the best timing for presenting these offers, such as during contract renewals, onboarding, or after a successful project completion (e.g. when they are in a positive emotional state)
• Train your sales and customer success teams on the benefits of these new offerings and how to present them effectively.
• Monitor the success of your upsell and cross-sell campaigns, adjusting your approach as necessary to maximize results.

Tip 3: Invest in client success management

You might be surprised to learn that client success management takes customer service a step further. 

By assigning a dedicated client success manager, you proactively ensure your clients achieve their desired outcomes with your services, resulting in higher satisfaction, retention, and CLV.

The key word there is “proactively”.  As of the writing of this post, we’ve served over 400 clients in over 65 different industries.  (and well over 150 niches within those industries).

When we dive into their sales process, which I repeat NEVER ENDS, we find a common pattern among struggling companies and strangely, even companies that are doing quite well (mid-8 figures and up).

They are not proactive in creating a growth roadmap, or a client ascension plan for systematically upselling and cross-selling their existing customers.

The smaller companies we serve are leaving a few hundred thousand dollars per year on the table in wasted opportunities, while the larger ones are leaving millions.

(Wanna see something weirdly interesting?  Check out this Video “5600+ Interviews Later…The Most Common & Costly Sales & Marketing Mistakes B2B Companies Make (and How To Avoid Them)”

It blows my mind frankly because it’s far easier to sell more to someone who’s already bought from you than it is to make the first sale with a new prospect.  

So, why neglect this key part of your process?

Some or all of the following:  Complacence, laziness, they just don’t think about it, they can’t see the forest through the trees, and so forth.

To put this tip into practice:

• Establish a client success management team, responsible for guiding clients toward their desired outcomes.
• Assign a dedicated client success manager to each account, ensuring personalized attention and support.  In many cases, having the salesperson who closed the deal initially, also manage the account, and act as a liaison between different departments in your company, gives them ample up and cross-sell opportunities
• Develop a structured onboarding process that sets expectations, establishes goals, and identifies opportunities for upselling and cross-selling.
• Implement regular check-ins and progress reports to keep clients engaged and informed, addressing any concerns or challenges promptly.
• Collect client feedback and use it to improve your services, demonstrating your commitment to their success.

Tip 4: Nurture long-term relationships with key stakeholders

Are you actively nurturing those relationships now?  If not, can you see yourself developing strong relationships with key stakeholders at your client’s company and the impact that would have on the bond between you and your clients?  

This approach leads to long-term loyalty and increased CLV. Engage with them on a personal level, understand their needs, and demonstrate your commitment to their success, solidifying your position as a trusted partner.

To build these relationships:

• Identify key decision-makers and influencers within your clients’ organizations.
• Engage with them through personalized outreach, such as emails, phone calls, or in-person meetings.
• Tailor how you communicate the value of your services and the questions you ask to the priorities, pain points, lingo, and vision of the key stakeholders.
• Understand their individual and organizational goals, priorities, and challenges.
• Offer tailored solutions and support that demonstrate your commitment to their success.
• Stay in touch with regular updates, share relevant industry insights, and celebrate milestones together.

Tip 5: Offer flexible contract terms and payment options

In the B2B service world, one size doesn’t fit all. By offering flexible contract terms and payment options, you accommodate your client’s unique needs and budget constraints, making it more likely they’ll stick around and increase their CLV.

Let me be clear, I’m not talking about allowing your clients to beat you up on price and you lower your price out of fear of losing the business.

I’m strongly against that practice, I think it sets the wrong precedent upfront, devalues your service, and can lead to all sorts of problems down the line.

For my entire career, I’ve always worked with companies that charge premium prices for premium services and sell based on value rather than low cost.

When you are a premium provider, you establish a fair price for what you offer and you stand firm to that.  

When you have strong lead flow and a strong sales process, you have that freedom, to turn down clients who you can’t help see the value of your services or that are simply disqualified due to budget.

When you have weak lead flow and a non-existent, systematic sales process or a sales process with gaping holes in it, you’re in a weak negotiating position because you need the business too much and are much more prone to getting into those race to the bottom pricing conversations, which at SalesKey, we simply don’t entertain.

(For help with increasing qualified lead flow, boosting your sales pipeline, and materially improving your sales process, click here to book a Free B2B Business Growth Strategy Session with one of our Growth Advisors, who will provide you with a clear-cut roadmap for reaching your new client and revenue goals)

We know our numbers, and what it costs to provide a premium service, we ensure that the value of our services far outweighs the investment made by our customers and if we can’t help them see that, or the prospect is simply looking for the lowest cost provider, we encourage them to look elsewhere (kindly of course).

What you can do is create unique offers that are customized to fit your client’s unique situation.  

For example, you can offer discounts to customers who commit to longer-term contracts for your services or that purchase a bundle of your services that are tailored to your client’s specific needs.

You can make renewal offers that are very enticing to existing customers who have completed their initial contract with you because you should have enough margin left to allow for an enticing discount if your client renews for a longer term after the initial contract.

When you average out the net profit from the initial contract and the discounted, longer-term renewal contract, it should still be a win/win.

To implement this flexibility:

• Review your current contract terms and identify areas where customization can be offered, such as contract length, service levels, or additional features.
• Create a range of payment options, including installment plans, discounts for early payment, or customized billing schedules.
• Offer discounts based on contract length in tiers, the longer the client commits, the lower their price.
• Train your sales team to negotiate and customize contracts based on client’s needs, ensuring they have the authority and flexibility to close deals effectively.
• Monitor client satisfaction with contract terms and payment options, using feedback to inform future adjustments and improvements.

By embracing these five unique, actionable tips and techniques, you can immediately start increasing your average lifetime customer value and revolutionize your B2B marketing, sales, and business growth strategies.

In conclusion, one key to unlocking unparalleled growth and success in your B2B service business resides in maximizing your Lifetime Value of a Customer. 

By employing these powerful, proven strategies, you’ll not only strengthen client relationships but also differentiate yourself from the competition, paving the way for long-term success. 

The time to act is now – seize this opportunity to optimize your B2B marketing, sales, and business development strategies by embracing these proven techniques. 

As you watch your average customer lifetime value soar, you’ll experience the profound impact it has on your business, propelling you to new heights and securing your place as a leader in your industry. 

So, you can either not take action on what you’ve just learned and keep doing the same thing and getting the same result or you can embrace these tactics and elevate your B2B service business to its full potential starting right now.

It really did. When I started using LinkedIn in 2009 to generate leads, it changed everything. It’s truly a B2B business person’s dream come true.

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To have a platform which currently has over 500 million users, most with detailed information about job title, industry, experience, etc…nothing like that had ever existed before.

…and when handled professionally, the people you’re reaching out to like it more too because they are receiving relevant offers and connections.

Fast forward to today…

LinkedIn is red hot right now.

As a B2B company, if you’re not correctly using LinkedIn to generate leads and clients for your company, you are leaving actual piles of hot, soft cash on the proverbial table. (cold hard cash is so 1996…)

How would you like 2019 to be the best year you’ve had yet in business?

Well, the best time to get started would be now. Yes, during the holiday season.

While most of your competitors are loosening their belts and dozing off into a holiday food coma, you can be quietly setting the stage for a Rockstar year.

Just think of it. Serve more clients…earn more revenue.

Develop your business and expand your vision.

How would your life be different if you doubled your business next year?

If your business went from $500k to $1M or $10M to $20M/yr? Or $50M to $100M+?

The fact is, it is entirely possible to double or even triple your income in relatively short order.

But, the key is, you need to have more sales conversations with decision makers, in your target market.

And the fastest, most effective and reliable way to do that, for B2B businesses is 100% hands down:

LinkedIn

Imagine having your calendar filling up on auto-pilot each week with the exact people you need to be talking with to grow your business…

People who already know what you do and are ready to speak with you now…

At any given time, 3% of your target market is ready to buy what you offer, right now.

Another 7% will buy from you now if shown the right things.

The hard part has always been identifying these “high probability prospects”.

It’s always been very time-consuming and one of the least enjoyable tasks for any business or salesperson: Prospecting.

What if you had a literal prospecting machine that did all the work for you?

Literally did all the boring, tedious, time and energy-draining work and cherry-picked the best prospects for you?

Do the math.

How many new appointments do you need to close 1 new client?

For many industries, the average is 5, a 20% close rate.

If you had 20 new solid appointments per month, that’s 4 new clients per month!

For many businesses, that would be an absolute game-changer.

And it’s much more attainable than you think.

Here’s how we can help:

Done-For-You LinkedIn Lead Generation

We will do all the work for you and hand-deliver an avg of 22-36+ exclusive, highly targeted leads to you each month.

Here’s who this is for:

B2B businesses that have a consultative sales process and a proven offer with case studies.

You need to be able to solve real problems for other businesses and need proof in the form of testimonials, case studies, and/or statistics.

Your average lifetime customer value (LTV) needs to be at least $5k, ideally much more than that.

What if this won’t work for my industry?

This is a legitimate concern. It’s not going to be a fit for every industry, that’s for sure.

If you’re interested in this we can schedule a call and discuss further to see if it would be a good match for you or not.

First, your prospects need to be on LinkedIn, that’s a given.

Next, your offer has to be something that your target market actually cares about and is willing to pay for.  A proven offer.

In other words, if you just have a great idea for a new service or product, but your market has never actually paid you for it, then it may work it may not.

One of our clients is targeting healing center owners, coaches, and alternative medicine practitioners in South Florida.

In only 3 weeks, we’ve generated 51 leads for this client and 32 of those are ready to book a call now or in the coming weeks.

Another client campaign, which targets software executives on the west coast produced 4 leads ready to book a call, in the first 7 days.

Two very different industries, geographies, and target audiences, both producing strong results out of the gate.

Neither of their campaigns is fully ramped up yet either.

Is your done-for-you service expensive?

It costs a fraction of the potential ROI.

It’s also one of the safest and fastest ways to get new clients for your business.

Let’s look at some of the popular options available to generate new leads:

Paid Ads:

We’re really talking about Facebook and Google AdWords here.

They absolutely work really well for the right industries BUT, you REALLY need to know what you’re doing.

There’s a steep learning curve with these.

Most businesses thousands and months of time before getting this right.

Also, since these are inbound leads, they are not always well targeted.

One of my clients is running PPC ads now and he flat out told me that more than 75% of the leads they get each month are absolute garbage.

It’s costing them $1200 to acquire a new customer currently.

…and the cost of getting clicks and impressions from Google and FB are only increasing all the time.

That trend is not going to stop either.

Content Marketing:

This is a great long-term strategy that every business needs to have in place.

But it’s exactly that: long-term.

It’s highly unlikely that a new blog post is going to result in a consistent flow of quality leads each month. Especially not right away.

If your goal is to boost your SEO and generate leads organically from your blog posts or content, don’t hold your breath…

It generally takes 6 months or more, of doing the right things, before you’ll start to see any results.

And even if you generate the traffic, that doesn’t mean that you’ll generate actual leads…let alone targeted leads.

Content marketing is a slow build that can result in a trickle of leads that can build over time…if done well and with uber patience.

Traditional lead generation services:

The main problem here is exclusivity. Traditional lead generation services generate leads and then sell them to multiple companies.

This means they feed you and your competitors the same leads.

I don’t think I need to go into detail on why this is bad for you.

With our LinkedIn lead generation service, we are generating exclusive leads who want to talk with you specifically about the services or products you provide.

What is the quality of the leads you generate through LinkedIn?

Well, when we talk about lead quality, it all comes down to “qualification”.

How qualified the leads are before you invest your time with them.

A well-qualified lead might be an appointment with a decision-maker, in your target market who is ready to buy what you offer right now and has the means to do so.

Since we are targeting who we contact to start the conversation, we can create hyper-targeted lists which cut out 98% of the noise right from the beginning.

Company size, industry, geography, the title of the person you want the meetings with, and other qualifiers, this is all handled upfront.

The other 2% of unqualified leads, we remove on the back end, so you never have to think about it.

The result is phone calls or meetings with highly targeted decision-makers in your target market.

That’s a really good start.

The rest of the qualifying to more fully determine their needs and so forth needs to happen on a call or in person.

In conclusion, in the world of lead generation these are:

Rolls Royce Leads. Glengarry leads. (who got that last reference?)

So, in the words of Jerry Maguire “Who’s coming with me??”

Loving the movie references tonight.

Anyways, if you’d like to learn more and determine if this would be a fit to help you achieve your specific business goals, feel free to grab a spot on our calendar here.

A lot of people think that selling is all about being super persuasive or having great people skills.
What if I told you that the very best salespeople essentially sift through and cherry pick the best prospects

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In other words, they preach to the converted. They find the potential customers who are already ready to buy now.

There was a book I read years ago that introduced me to this idea. It’s called “High Probability Selling” by Jacques Werth.

Not the most popular book, yet one of the most contrarian and profound books I’ve ever read on selling.

I only found out about it because I worked with a sales training company that had all the cool sales books.

The ones I’d never heard of before. My jaw was literally on the floor when I first read this. I couldn’t believe it.

Rather than spoil some of the surprises with a full summary, I’ll give some tidbits. I will say that this approach takes all the pressure out of sales prospecting.

Using his system, you’ll go from dreading making sales calls or outbound cold emailing to a relaxed, simple approach that really works.

One of the secrets is: you don’t try to persuade while prospecting.

In fact, with his system, you don’t try to persuade at any point in the sales conversation which is extremely radical.

An underlying premise of the book is that at any given time, there is a percentage of “high probability prospects” who are ready to buy what you’re selling now.

Instead of wasting time with people who will never buy, Jacques lays out a system designed to identify those “HPPs”.

This is like the difference between swimming with the current rather than upstream.

He claims he learned from watching some of the best salespeople in the world.

Truthfully, the approach is so radical that I’ve never fully implemented the system as it’s laid out, but, the core concept of the book changed the way I prospect for new business.

Personally, I think that there is a place for ethical persuasion in the sales process ONCE you’re talking with a qualified, high probability prospect.

Either way, it’s an awesome book that will challenge the way you look at business and selling for sure.

You can check it out here (no affiliate link) or find it elsewhere on Google.

I’m thinking of reaching out to the guy and seeing if he’ll let me interview him. He’s semi-retired now, so, we’ll see!

One of the toughest parts of selling is dealing with rejection.
It’s strange how much it can affect you. Whether someone emails you about a proposal you sent over or they tell you NO right to your face.

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Rejection is obviously a part of life, but it’s a more constant companion to those of us in sales or who own businesses where we are the ones who actively reach out and prospect for new clients.

It can hurt…and the reason it’s worth talking about is that a single rejection can cost you hours (and I’ve even heard of days) of productivity.

Sometimes it can sting a little too much and suddenly you don’t want to make that next call or create that next video or whatever else you had planned for that day.

So, in this post, I want to show you how you can stack the odds in your favor, so that rejection rolls off you, like water off a duck’s back…

When you apply what I’m about to teach you, you’ll go from letting a single rejection ruin your whole day to moving on quickly and getting focused on the next opportunity.

Instead of crossing your fingers that a deal will go through, you’ll have an indifferent attitude. Emotional Teflon.

Sound good?

Well, let’s start with the #1 reason we take rejection too hard.

Solve this problem and it’s game over. It won’t even occur to you to be emotionally damaged by not getting a new client that you were after or missing a close you think you should have had.

The biggest reason people struggle with rejection is that:

They don’t have enough opportunities in the pipeline. Period.

They don’t have enough prospective new clients they are in discussion with.

And so what happens is they apply disproportionate emotional weight to each opportunity.

Think it of it like this, the more opportunities you have the less each of them matter to you emotionally.

…but, the flip side of that is that the fewer opportunities you have, the more each of them matters to you and the more they will sting if they don’t work out…

When you have a lot of potential new clients you’re still engaged in discussions with, if one says no, it’s not a big deal.

It’s as simple as that.

Beyond positive thinking or a shift in mindset, the very best thing you can do for your business is become better at prospecting for new business.

You’ll develop that emotional Teflon we talked about and when you really master the skill of prospecting, you’ll make more money than you know what to do with….at least at first 😉

(In time you’ll discover new and more interesting ways to spend your money haha)

When most people think of improving their sales results, they often think this way:

• “I need to become a better closer”
• “I need beco tome more persuasive”

Or they think “I’m already spending so much time working, I don’t know how to improve my results without putting in more hours”.

The truth is if you want to increase your income – the surest and most reliable way to do that is to improve your prospecting strategy and skills.

It’s also the easiest way to improve your sales results, regardless of skill level.

I know this is true.

From first-hand experience and coaching and managing salespeople from various levels on the totem pole…

I’ve made a lot of cold calls over the years…I’ve sent a ton of cold emails. Early in my career, getting rejected was devastating. And I probably took it harder than most.

At first, I tried focusing on mindset shifts and positive thinking..and this worked to a certain degree but I never fully got rid of that awful feeling in the pit of my stomach when a deal wouldn’t close or someone was rude to me…Then I learned a new way.

I don’t remember where I first heard it, probably one of my early mentors but they simply explained that I needed to focus on getting more opportunities…get more things going.

I started putting more time into prospecting. I learned how to become a better and more productive prospector…This changed everything.

I made more money, the rejections stung less….and my whole attitude shifted. I finally had that golden mindset that you read about in books….that thick skin I wanted.

Also, when I made my calls, I closed more sales and got more appointments because my clients could tell that I wasn’t a hungry salesperson.

The whole power dynamic shifted and clients started to close easier because they could tell I didn’t need their business…and this is really the place you want to get to when selling.

This is truly the difference that makes the ALL the difference.

So the choice is yours.

You can avoid getting good at the all-important skill of developing new business and just take whatever the cat drags in…whatever opportunities come your way and be walking on eggshells with your prospects, hoping they won’t say no…

Or you can fill your pipeline…fill your calendar with opportunities and be so busy that you don’t care if you get rejected…you’ll be back in the driver’s seat where you truly belong.

It’s up to you.

If you want me to show you how to fill your calendar with qualified appointments and double your sales in the next 90 days, book a free 15-minute chat with me here to learn more about the “2X in 90 Sales Sprint” program.

In it, I’ll show you how to improve each phase of your current sales process (or develop one if you don’t have one) so that you make more sales with less effort and in less time.

This program is for business owners who sell their products or services, their sales teams or individuals who work for other companies that want to improve their results…and income.

Click here to book a free 15-minute chat to see if you qualify…

Recently, I asked some members of our community: “What’s the #1 thing holding you back from moving forward in business?”
One of the comments that came back was: “I’m afraid or anxious asking for higher fees”.

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One of the comments that came back was:

“I’m afraid or anxious asking for higher fees”.

This actually comes up a lot. Whether it was salespeople I managed in the past or coaching clients that are selling their own products and services.

It’s one of those fundamental stumbling blocks that will undermine all your efforts to sell your product and/or grow your business.

So, in this post, I’m going to show you how to overcome this insidious fear and help you go from feeling uncertain, anxious or afraid to ask for larger sums of money to feeling completely confident..

..provided you’re willing to follow some simple suggestions.

Because trying to run a business or sell with this type of fear is like trying to run a race with one foot tied behind your back…

…not going to work out well.

This needs to be addressed, and, you need to feel 100% confident asking for a fair price for what you offer…even if you think it’s expensive.

The first thing to realize, to overcome this fear is that your client’s wallet is not your own.

I started selling higher priced services to businesses when I was 20 years old.
(damaging admission: back then I would deepen my voice when speaking with clients on the phone to sound older..)

I worked for a staffing company, made about $45,000 a year and I would sometimes need to ask my clients for a $25,000-$30,000 or more fee to hire one of my construction management candidates.

That was on top of the candidate’s salary…

It seemed like so much money to me back then…and I felt a little awkward at first asking for that much money.

That is until my manager explained that I needed to stop viewing the fee from the perspective of my own finances.

Just because it seemed like a lot of money to me, didn’t mean that they thought it was.

The fact is they expected to pay that much for a quality candidate. And they needed to find that person…badly!

And that leads me to the next realization to overcoming this fear which is:

Focus on the problems you’re solving and the fee becomes smaller….

Business is an exchange of value. That’s all it is.

Assuming you’re selling something that works – it produces a positive result(s) for your client.
..it solves problems or enhances your customer’s life in some way.

They exchange their money for that result. Period.

So, if you want to feel confident asking for higher fees, take your mind off of the amount you’re asking for and place all your attention on the results you’re creating for your customer..on what’s in it for them.

On top of that, when you start thinking of the implications of the problems you solve…the price shrinks even more.

Using the staffing example from earlier, often times my clients needed to hire those construction managers for multi-million dollar commercial jobs they had contracted.

If they didn’t hire them, the project might be delayed. Weeks of delay means thousands of wasted dollars. Months means millions.

…and those quality candidates didn’t grow on trees. They were in demand. They were rare.

A $150k was nothing compared to what they stood to lose if they DIDN’T fill that position.

And the same is true for your clients. What are the consequences of them not solving the problem that your product addresses?

Look, the fear of asking for higher fees often stems from not valuing what you offer enough.

And this is rooted in a simple misunderstanding…it’s not realizing how positively it impacts your customer’s lives…

Finally, let me leave you with another technique I’ve learned that you can benefit from.

It’s served me well over the years. Especially when I started asking businesses for commitments that meant millions of dollars and hundreds of hours of their company’s resources.

And that is when you ask for your fee – say it nonchalantly, with a neutral tone of voice.

It’s not good, it’s not bad. It’s not high or low, it just is what it is.

Whether it’s $10 or $100 million, when you say your price, say it the same way.

Say it the same way you would tell someone their shoe is untied if you were standing next to them in a grocery store line.

So, there you have it. Follow this sage advice and advance to Jedi level in your salespersonship…

…well, maybe not but at least become more confident asking for money from your clients when it’s time to discuss price.

The alternative is to let this fear or anxiety hold you back. You get to feel awkward when you ask for your money and your prospects pick up on that. It has and will cost you sales.

Your call.

If you’d like me to be your personal sales coach and show you how to double your sales in the next 90 days, book a free 15-minute chat with me here to see if you qualify for the “2X in 90 Sales Sprint” program.

In it, we’ll break down your current selling system (from prospecting, lead generation to closing and follow up) and I’ll show you how to improve each phase so that you make more sales with less effort and in less time.

…we’ll also work on overcoming any internal obstacles that may be holding you back from reaching your sales goals as well.

This program is for business owners who sell their products or services, their sales teams or individuals who work for other companies that want to improve their sales results…and income.

Click here to book a free 15-minute chat to learn more…

Do you do cold prospecting? In other words, send cold emails or make cold calls?
If so…you’re in luck because, in this post, I’m going to show you how to sell more in less time with less effort than almost all your peers and competitors.

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You’re also going to avoid one the biggest mistakes that people make when prospecting..and how to go from making tons of calls or sending a bunch of cold emails, and basically grinding it out to getting a much better ROI for your prospecting efforts…

When you follow the 3 steps I’m about to share with you, it’s like the difference between trying to dig a hole with a small dull spoon vs a large sharp shovel…so let’s dig in 🙂

First, the biggest mistake you want to avoid when prospecting is the “spray and pray approach”.

Essentially that’s where you drag one tired approach out among a broad group of prospects and use that same approach over and over again.

You then pray that you run across a “lay down” which is someone who is so ready to buy that your approach doesn’t even matter.

Nothing will waste your time and energy and annoy your prospects more than this.

In fact, when surveyed, one of the top complaints among people who receive cold calls and emails is that the salesperson didn’t take the time to understand who they were and why they might be the right fit for the offer.

Most salespeople just use one generic pitch, over and over again.

Instead, let me help you avoid that and ascend to the land where sales rain from the sky…

Step #1 Find a Hot Market

I don’t care how persuasive or smooth you think you are if you’re prospecting in the wrong market, it’s going to be an uphill battle.

In fact, I’ll take the worst, most inexperienced salesperson and have them prospect in a hot market vs a top salesperson in a terrible market, 10 times out of 10.

A hot market is one where there is a strong existing demand.

When I first started in sales, I would try to sell everyone. I thought I could use my magical sales and persuasion skills that I was learning to convert everyone into buyers.

Later in my career, I became lazier…or smart. I’m not really sure which…
…but I realized that the best way to get better results is to target groups of prospects that have a strong existing demand.

Step #2 Create a Targeted List

Once you’ve identified a hot market, next you need to create a targeted list of prospects.

This will be a niche within the overall market. So if the market is attorneys, it might be “personal injury attorneys”.

Create specific lists like this. The funny thing is, no one ever told me about this in all my years of selling. None of my managers told me this. Perhaps they didn’t know. For some reason, I had to figure this out myself.

Instead, they would hand me or have me create lists of prospects within broad vertical markets and just hammer the phones…big mistake.

What you want to do is pick a specific niche, within the vertical market you’ve identified.

Step #3 Tailor Your Pitch

Now that you have your targeted list, the next step is to create a specific pitch, tailored for that group of
prospects.

So, when you call or email them, you’re addressing the specific pain points, using the specific lingo that matches that niche group.

Why? Because nothing will stop your prospecting message dead in its tracks like a bland, generic cold email or cold call script.

You don’t have much time to grab your prospect’s attention..you have seconds.

Seconds for them to internally say “yeah that’s for me or no it’s not a fit”.

It’s so much more powerful to call on a specific group of people than a broad group.

Optimizing your process

All that’s left is for you to spend time talking with prospects in that niche.

In short order, you’ll learn the lingo, the common problems, beliefs, habits, and objections of that niche which will help you become an even better prospector in that space.

After a little while, maybe 50 calls or 100 emails, you’ll see if that niche has a pulse or if you need to try another niche or market altogether.

If you take this approach, you’ll soon come across niches that are on fire and your results will soar…it will fast track your sales results more than any NLP or persuasion technique ever could.

You’ll feel like you’ve just become the sales superman or superwomen…
…in reality, you’ve just uncovered a niche with a stronger demand for what you offer…Sorry ego 🙁

But you’ll make more money with less effort!

So your choice is to roll out a generic pitch, over and over to a broad group of cold prospects…to struggle and grind and deal with enormous amounts of rejection…

Or to have a targeted message for a specific group of people within a hot market. Faster results, less efforts.

Use the 3 steps I shared with you. They work.

It’s how I used to outsell my peers 2:1 (sometimes even 10:1) while working less hours and making less calls.

If you’d like me to be your personal sales coach and show you how to double your sales in the next 90 days, book a free 15-minute chat with me here to see if you qualify for the “2X in 90 Sales Sprint” program.

In it, we’ll break down your current selling system and I’ll show you how to optimize each phase so that you make more sales with effort and in less time.

…we’ll also work on overcoming any internal obstacles that may be holding you back from reaching your sales goals as well.

This program is for business owners who sell their products or services, their sales teams or individuals who work for other companies that want to improve their results…and income.

Click here to book a free 15-minute chat to learn more…

You know the feeling.
You sit down to start working and you see a flood of emails…

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Your to-do list seems like one of those out of control, wild boars from Lord of the Flies.

…and it all feels so overwhelming that you don’t even want to start.

I’ve been there so. many. times. Oh God have I been there. Especially being self-employed.

It can EASILY get out of control fast because there’s nobody telling you what to focus on.

Also, I tend to want to start 50 projects at the same time and bite off more than I can chew.

If I told you that I found a simple way that doubles my productivity using 4 simple productivity hacks, would you believe it?

…or more importantly, if I promised that you could do the same…you could go from feeling overwhelmed, sometimes crippled with procrastination to feeling clear, confident and in control…

…would you be willing to try these yourself?

What you’re about to learn is how I run multiple businesses working 20 hours or less per week, travel, spend time learning a foreign language, get to the gym 4 days, have time for myself: meditation, take courses, read books and develop my skills, play basketball, have time for a social life and for services like (chiropractic, massage, acupuncture, etc.) each week…

…and still, have time to veg out and binge-watch movies and my favorite shows on Netflix…

This is something that I would suggest to anyone to get a handle on immediately, no matter what stage of their business or life they’re in..

It just makes your life feel so much more rich and full when you’re productive…in the right way.

When you get these down, it will feel like you just slipped the master key into the lock of life, opening everything up for you…

Enough build up? Let’s get to it:

Productivity Hack #1 Simplify

If you want to get more done without the overwhelm, think in terms of simplicity and clarity.

In other words, reduce complexity and clutter EVERYWHERE.

Here are some specific action steps to help you do this:

• Notifications –
• I’m allergic to notifications. I turn off the ringer on my phone while I work. I make sure that notifications for emails, social media and text do not reach the lock screen of my phone.
• I have turned all pop-up notifications for my desktop off.
• There is nothing that will zap your productivity like constantly being interrupted by everyone else’s agenda. I spend specific amounts of time answering emails and texts.

• Inbox –
• This next one was huge for me. Basically, it works like this: I archive all emails that I’m not going to read or take action on right now.
• I delete and unsubscribe from anything no longer relevant or useful.
• Since I archive rather than delete most emails, I can always use the search function in Gmail to find them later. The end result is that my inbox always looks clean, organized and most of the time I’m at “inbox zero”.

• Reduce Visual Clutter –
• According to Dr. Sherrie Bourg Carter in an article, she wrote for Psychology Today, “Clutter can play a significant role in how we feel about our homes, our workplaces, and ourselves. Messy homes and workspaces leave us feeling anxious and overwhelmed.
• Yet, rarely is clutter recognized as a significant source of stress in our lives.” Clutter bombards our minds with excessive stimuli causing our senses to work overtime on stimuli that isn’t necessary or important,” Dr. Sherrie explains.
• This means: close all unnecessary tabs on your browser, clear unnecessary objections from your workstation and visual field in your office, close programs you aren’t using, etc.

Productivity Hack #2 Say “No”

Realize that everything always comes with an opportunity cost.

When you sit down for an hour to watch TV, that’s an hour that could be spent on something more productive.

Time spent aimlessly scrolling through your Facebook newsfeed could be spent learning a new skill or building your business.

Look, I haven’t found any special secrets that suddenly converted me into a productivity powerhouse…and I’ve looked.

I’ve really really looked…

What I have found is that being ultra-productive essentially comes down to an acute awareness of this fact:

We have limited time and energy.

When you fully realize this, then suddenly learning to say no to everything that is wasteful or not aligned with your values and goals becomes absolutely essential.

This also means valuing your time above all else, especially money.

It means remembering that the good is often the enemy of the great and learning to say no to opportunities, projects, and obligations that rob you of your most valuable asset.

Productivity Hack #3 Plan Before You Start

One of the habits that have really helped me is spending time in executive planning mode, each day before I start.

Let me walk you through what this looks likes.

When I wake up, I spend a little time meditating and just sitting before I rush into my schedule.

When I sit down to work, the first thing I do is spend time reviewing the main projects I’m working on before I dive into my task list.

All projects have an outcome focus. This is equivalent to saying “start with the end in mind”, so for example: “complete sales course” or “finish blog post” :-).

There is a clear outcome. An absolute way to measure if the project is finished or not.

All my tasks are simply the steps that lead to my outcomes.

I review where I am at in relation to those outcomes and I spend some time really thinking about each project/outcome.

Does this really lead to my larger goals? Is there a real purpose? Is this important to me? Am I trying to do too much?

I ruthlessly chop away anything that doesn’t belong, constantly comparing my available time with the projects I’ve chosen.

I do all this in Plutio which is a project management tool I discussed in this post.

Productivity Hack #4 Plot on Calendar

After I’ve reviewed my existing projects/outcomes, I now plot the individual steps of each outcome on an editable calendar like this:

I also assign a time estimate for most longer tasks so that I can gauge how much I am committing to each day.

One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned is to set realistic amounts of work for myself each day, and having everything plotted visually on a calendar allows me to do exactly that.

If I don’t complete everything from a specific day then I might add it to the next or another day where I have available time.

Every few days I’ll pull everything off the calendar and review to make sure I’m still committed to each course of action before filling out the calendar again.

I simply cut everything that’s on the calendar and paste onto a google doc and then rearrange on the calendar again.

The key here is that I don’t do a second of work until I have a clear and realistic plan in place. Every single
day.

Structure Gives You Freedom

I used to abhor structure. My younger rebellious self would buck against discipline…I hated having a schedule.

One of the reasons I chose to work for myself was because I no longer wanted to have to wake up and go into an office every day or maintain a schedule.

While I still highly value having time freedom, I discovered that structure and discipline actually give me freedom while allowing me to achieve my goals.

It’s actually the easier way.

The harder way is to procrastinate and be trapped by poor productivity habits that widdle away your precious life force and time…

It’s Your Turn…

So, here’s my challenge to you:

See if you can double or massively increase your productivity over the next 30 days.

Print these productivity hacks out and apply hack #1 for 7 days. Then #2 for 7 days and so on.

My promise is that you will see an immediate and significant improvement.

Not only that but if you commit to this for 28 days you will have built some new, lasting habits.