How to convert more clients at the first consultation? The magic staircase

Convert more clients

Build a brilliant product staircase for your business

 

Does it ever happen to you that you had a nice consultation with a client, you spent some time with them but they didn’t sign up for your services or products? There could have been several reasons why they didn’t sign up. They might have not been ready to buy your full service or product yet. They might have not been aware of the problem that you’re solving. They might have not been at the same stage as you are. At this point, a product staircase could come into the picture. 

In this blog post, I’ll show you the product staircase. What it is and how to build one for your business. (See my video about the topic below the article).

Basically what you do in business or in marketing is that you take the prospective client by the hand, at the bottom of the staircase and you walk them up, step by step to the top which is the point you are making the profit, making them a happy customer. There is not just one grade in the stairs but there are several. You have to take every single one of them seriously. 

So we are starting from the bottom of the stairs;

Awareness 

This is the stage where you have to make them aware of the fact that you are actually. If you tell them to buy something at this stage, the response will probably be “No thanks.” You usually need a cheaper entry-level product or even better, something for free. This is the stage that those products will be webinars, PDFs, events on one niche area. A service which will give them a taste of what you do. But be careful, this is not a simplified or poorer version of what you do. This should give them a high value. They should see this: Even for the free product, you are giving them something valuable. What is good with webinars and publishing a book, is that you can talk to groups easily. It’s very easy for them to step up at this stage. If they don’t sign up, and this may happen, it means that they don’t really need it, so no worries. 

Consideration

Now, they have seen what you can do, they have seen the problems and their solving, your service. This is the stage where they are not fully committed to buying your service but getting familiar with it. If you offer them something that would be so easy to buy, like free trials, you can give them something to say “Yes” easily. At this stage, your product is an entry product so make sure to keep the price low. Also, keep this in mind, they can easily refer you at this stage. Which is a perfect advantage for your business.

Purchase

By this stage they will understand what you do, understand how you are different so they won’t ask you the price-related questions because they already know the answer. They can see the value you are offering to them. It means that it is time for the core product. Complex and profitable. 

Advocacy

Ok, they are now clients. Many clients will want to buy more from you, be a VIP or premium version of what you do. Create a product just for them. We would like to call this a premium product, with the highest profit. Around 20-30% of your clients will be ready to step up. You can give them even better service or something extra and they will pay you more.  

What are the common mistakes? 

So the fact is, many businesses make the mistake of not having Awareness and Consideration stage, which means the clients are not ready to jump up to the Purchase stage. They will lose clients and generally, the lost-clients will directly go to the competitor. Skipping the Advocacy stage is also a common mistake. Many of the businesses don’t have premium products. Therefore, make sure to have all these stages. One step further is a membership. One step further is a client. One step further is the highest profit. Never think you don’t need it. You need all these steps.

Pricing? 

Once you are ready with these stages then you think of the pricing and products. Marketing doesn’t start with communication. It starts with the right product staircase, then communication. So it’s time for organic and paid commercials. Don’t be mislead, even if your product is a service you should be able to productise what you offer. Think of your product staircase, how you can meet your prospective client at where they are at not where you are. Think with their heads and you will get this done!


This article was written by Timea Kadar, Chief Marketing Strategist of Francis Cooper based on the thoughts of other professionals duly quoted. Timea has 21 years of experience in marketing working as a marketing lead at large corporations and a marketing mentor at smaller ventures and start-ups. If you’d like to know the marketing strategies for your business, contact her at tk@franciscooper.com

What does it cost – how to communicate the price?

Price is always a crucial part of any marketing communication, there is a pressure on the writer that this is the point where the deal will make it or break it. While actually, this shouldn’t be the only point, it is admittedly a delicate issue we should have a closer look at.

At the end of the landing page

Traditionally, on the landing pages, it is somewhere towards the end after the value proposition is explained, all the benefits are clear and excuses are treated. The reader consciously and unconsciously balances between the values and the price, so it is the writer’s job to make the value side very strong.

However, as users got used to this traditional way of presenting the price, some of them scroll right to the price presentation to find it out, skipping the value proposition. And this is not the only reason why we should shortly list again the benefits and what the price includes (even things that are evident to you but probably not for the customer.)

How much it is worth

A popular technique is to say how much the product could be sold for, how much it cost to create it, but it is only x. Even better if the cost and the higher price is scattered throughout the whole page in the relevant copy. Like if you offer a course, you can say earlier on the landing which conferences and schools you attended to get the knowledge and how much it cost. Or how much you spent on experimenting until you got to the best conclusion you are sharing now.

Right after stating the price you can explain how you came to that amount.

You can use it for segmenting: if it is a high-end price in the industry, you can say that the product is not for everyone, and you segment with this price. Users will feel tempted to belong to those qualified customers who can afford it.

If the price is low-end, you’d better avoid users think that also the product/service is low-end. Give them a reason why you want them to have access to it at such an exceptional price (your mission e.g.).

You should be very careful with this, though, as you can end up over-explaining the price and seeming to think that the product is not worth it.

Start with the price

A brave and advanced technique is to start with the price. It can as well as be in the headline: “Get back to your pre-baby size in two months for just $xxx. “

With this, you position your offer right at the beginning as a good deal, and the customer will not worry about the price but read on to find out what is in. Obviously, this technique is recommended if you have a good price, but it doesn’t mean it has to be cheap. It just has to be well-priced compared to what you offer. Going forward, it is crucial to justify that the price is a good deal.

Emphasize the losses

An other aspect is to show the customer how much they lose by not buying your product. It is difficult to imagine the future and especially accept that things can turn out bad, so you have to specifically explain what might happen with them without your service, and how much they will regret not to have spent this amount of money and save with it.

Say that it is expensive

An amazing technique for advanced writers. You can come up with an excuse one of your earlier clients made, saying “It is bloody expensive.” This will definitely catch the attention of the user and make them read on. Here you really have to explain and prove why this excuse is dull and how your client later found out that it was the best deal of his life. To reach this your value proposition has to be excellent.

Better to avoid

There are a few things to avoid when presenting the price:

–         Hiding the price or part of it. You should be clear about all the additional costs, package and handling, and if it is a membership, it should be clear.

–         Still, many sites use the ‘Ask for a quote’ formula which pushed the reader to make the extra effort by contacting you. Even if you can not say a definite final price you show price ranges or some examples.

–         Saying “Only today”, or “Only for you” if it is not true. You lose credibility if these statements are there for weeks.

–         Exaggerating the value of the product or service. Use statements about how much it is worth you can justify.

A brilliant content marketing idea: a real estate agency publishing an article as the diary of an agent.

It starts with a cute story of a fox stealing the high heels of one of the prospects during the flat viewing. Great opening the catch the attention.

Then it goes into more details – but not in a boring way – how they successfully closed deals, rented flats which are very difficult to rent, and how smoothly they handle their cases.

It is a perfect mixture of the ‘behind the scenes’ factor to keep me reading and the implication of how professional they are. Unconsciously I feel by the end, I really want to work with them. Isn’t it the easiest way to get me there?

Image and copy by Timea Kadar, www.writefab.com Read my quotes about words here: www.instagram.com/writefabulously