Price on Outcomes, Not Effort: The Revenue Game-Changer

Hello, my name is Frances Pratt from Accelerate Sales, and for the next 20 minutes I'm going to be talking to you about selling and pricing and all the things that you love, right? So let's be real, most people hate selling, but the reason they do is because they're not doing it the right way. And the next 20 minutes I'm going to show you why you're in feast or famine, what to do about it, and how to make some really important changes to get into a way of flowing in your business. So let's get started. I'm just going to expand the slides, um, and I'll come back to me later on in the presentation. So here we go. So this is what's happening, right? You hustle, hustle, hustle, land some clients, stop all the client and the hustling and the landing the clients to do the work, and then you come out the other end with an empty pipeline, exhausted, because the whole hustle, land, do the work empty pipeline. It's exhausting. I get it. And here's the reason that that exists. We think that selling is about hustling. We think that it's about being snappy like a crocodile. And I've got a revelation for you, and this is, um, what I call crocodile selling. So do we see people who sell like that in the real world? Absolutely. But are we in the age of the dinosaur? No, we're not. The new age of selling is actually about helping people buy. So sales is a service. Sales is helping someone with a problem that they have find a solution that is going to work for them. So I want to cover 3 key things with you today. The first one is about pricing. We don't need to price like we're in a famine, like everything that we— every client Is, is so needed that we price our way into famine. Secondly, I'm gonna talk about the conversion, and this is not that icky sticky yucky snappy crocodile conversion. This is flow and beauty and grace, just like a dance. And then we want to fix the scaling. Let's make it. an engine that's going to work for your client and for you. So the first thing I want to say to you is that selling— I love selling, and I know that you don't, but I'm hoping by the end of this presentation you get a bit of my vibe around loving it. So let me guess about how you price things right now. You think about your effort in number of hours. What do I get done for the client? What are all the things that I give them and how do I price it as a minimum that then they can choose to buy more? Am I kind of hitting the mark with that? Well, that's where your pricing is really feeding that famine. So I want you to think about the outcomes, and don't worry if you don't know exactly about the outcomes you're achieving right now, because you can go and ask your existing clients about what they've achieved because of how you've helped them. So I want you to think about the transformation that they have. What if you're a, a VA, or if you're helping them in some way, what has that allowed them to do? That's what I want you to talk about. I want you to think about the transformation. You've taken someone from point A where they have a problem, going through a process with you that's Alleviated that problem, and that's then allowed them to what? Okay, that's the transformation. I also want you to think about this isn't just you taking a job from them. This is you giving your years and years of expertise, your senior judgment, and applying that to their business. That's invaluable. And what you're supplying is something that you have trialed and tested and done over the years, right? So it is a definitive expert solution. This isn't just time where you've got no expertise, no experience. So I want you to lean into that. And I want you to feed that not with my words, but with the words of your clients. So go and ask your clients, what's the transformation? If I can get that word out. What's the transformation? I want you to ask your clients, where have I shown you a piece of judgment that's really made a difference? And I want you to also ask them about What does the solution look like for them that you're doing? So with pricing, I want you to do 3 things. I want you to signpost the agenda. So, hey, today we're going to talk about selling. I'm going to show you why it's not working for you. What to do about it, and then some clear steps to take. So in the same way, you want to say to them, I want to understand your problem. I want to understand more about you, and then I'll look at a way that I might be able to help you, and we'll talk about price. But once you mention the price, stop talking. Don't talk your way out of it. Don't do the things. that, um, you're not trying to persuade them. It's an offer. So this is how I run a meeting. So back in the other slide, I said we were going to, we were going to signpost it. So done that. Then we talk about the client. We get the client talking about themselves. So 80% of the time in your first meeting, They should be talking about them. So I want you to take on the role of being an investigative journalist. So what does that sound like? Tell me about you. Tell me about your business. What problem is stopping you right now? What have you tried to do to fix that problem in the past? What has worked? What hasn't worked? What is this problem stopping you from doing? And the list goes on. I've got thousands of questions that you can ask. Okay. So we've understood the client. And part of that listening cycle in the you is repeating back to them. So what I've heard you say is. So then the next part is the me. So that's when I get to talk about myself and what I offer. But here's the thing. It's not just a laundry list of all the things I've ever done in my whole life. It is an application of what you can do based on what you've just heard. So what that sounds like is, thank you so much. What you said was that you have a problem, that you really feel icky when you're sitting in front of a client. So how I can help you is, and you detail the parts of what you can do with great stories that, that help the client understand how you can help. And the last and crucial step, please don't forget this step, is the next step. So this is, are you going to send them a proposal? Are they signing up today? What, what does that look like? But not just the what, when. I will get you a proposal by 3 o'clock, or I will get you a proposal by Thursday. Given that I do that, when should we connect again? So see how it is the next step, but it's the next few steps so that you've got those times and dates in your calendar and in their calendar as to when you are presenting the proposal and when you are speaking with them again. Really, really important. Okay, so I know that most of the audience that I'm speaking with today, you'll have kids or have been around kids, and let's understand what works and what doesn't work. If you shout at a bunch of kids and go, right, these are all the things you have to do, what's the likelihood of that getting done? High or low? I'm tipping in my family anyway, it's low. Instead, if we tell a story, if we give them a reason, if we embellish it, not embellish it in a lying way, but embellish it in a fun way. Hey, mum's got a recording to do this morning, so wouldn't it be wonderful if you got yourself organized for school? How does that sound? So think about the stories that you have, um, in your pocket of clients that you've spoken to. And remember in the, um, previous slide I was talking about going and talking to your clients. So that's a perfect place to grab those stories and just think about it as a simple beginning, middle, and end. And here's an example for you. This is a client that I was working with last year, and this is what she wrote on a review for me, which I just love. Thank you, Cheryl. Simple, relatable, and powerful. I stopped overexplaining And tripled her sales. So her conversion rate went from a 10% to a 33% close rate, and she closed 5 sales in 1 week. So this is the power of a story. So by applying the, the tools that I provided her, she was able to make the mindset change of how she thought about selling, act differently, and then get different results. And that's exactly what I'm talking about. So think about what are the powerful stories that you have in your business, and I know you have them, that you can help tell your story. Okay. So I have two rules with selling. Rule number one is be yourself. So I'm not asking you if you're an introverted analytical type of person. I'm not asking you to turn into an extroverted person who tells jokes if that's not your style. What I am asking you to do. is to be yourself. So use your analytical, use your introverted skills, use those beautiful listening skills that I know that you have. Okay, so it's not a revamp of you. It's a reframe of the skills you already have. Okay. But there's a second rule, and the second rule is get over yourself. And I say that with love and kindness. Because selling takes practice. Just like the first time you hopped on a bike, you didn't ride it beautifully. You didn't. You probably fell over. You probably skinned your knee, and that's okay. Give yourself some grace and some latitude to be able to practice this, and it is eating your greens. And I promise you, this isn't about hustle. But it is about intention. And I want you to give me, please, 15 minutes of your day. 15 minutes. And let's move into what we can do with those 15 minutes. Okay. Number 1. Please block your calendar. Open up your calendar, whatever you're using, and protect this 15 minutes every single workday for your daily sales rhythm. Please, I promise you, this will absolutely help you. And choose a time when you are the freshest. For me, I do my sales work in the morning. Why? Because my brain is the best. Secondly, I want you to think about the exact name and persona of your target client, and you can call them whatever you like. You can call them Cheryl, you can call them Bob, you can call them Sally, but instead of dreaming into the future, You know, people talk about an ideal client. I don't like that. I would prefer you to go into the past. Think about that client or that group of clients who you loved working with, that you thought that they were amazing to work with. You love them. They loved you. You got great results. They were a joy to work with. They paid their invoices on time. Oh my goodness, if I could rep— Let me try again. Replicate. If I could replicate that client, I would absolutely do that. That's the target I want you to think about, and I want you to write it down. Who are they? What industry are they in? How big are they? Are you talking to the decision maker? Are you talking to the marketing manager? Are you talking to— who are you talking to? What are the things that they like? So this isn't Um, a persona in the sense of, um, you don't visualize them. When you write out your target, I want you to get crunchy. I want the person to be so real that they appear in front of your face. Now, I want you to not start on the worst person. I want you to start on the best person that you would love to work with. And I want you today to draft out a clear message that you would like to send them, suggest a specific date and time to reconnect, and get on board with that. So often what I do is I like to use a thing that I call 2-year-old logic. So I might say to someone, hi Sally, I know that you've been thinking about sales coaching. I would love to talk to you. Here's the time on Tuesday and Wednesday next week that I would love 30 minutes of your time. Which one, which one do you prefer? So I want to go back over what we've talked about today. So the reason that we've got the feast or the famine is because we have the fear that our clients are going to go away, a fear that we will not— they won't pay that amount or they won't do that thing. Instead, I want you to imagine a life and a business where there's a clear revenue engine, that you are clear on your pricing, and you are pricing for the value and the transformation that your client is receiving. Okay, I want you to have a clear way methodology of working with that client, starting with the first meeting, which is that you, me, and the next step. Simple, clear, actionable, just like a yellow brick road. And I want you to be having that 15-minute engine in your day to actually fill the pipe. So who are you reaching out to? What are you saying to them? When are you meeting with them? When do they get the proposal? What does that process actually look like? And it does not need to be complicated. What it does need to be is it needs to represent you. And so I just wanted to encourage you today To set aside that 15 minutes, I wanted to encourage you today to go and talk to some clients, understand your stories, review your pricing. And funny story, I just hopped off a call earlier today, and a client that I'd been working with was using a pricing tool that I gave her, and It encouraged her. It's an AI tool, but it encouraged her to double her price. Double. And so she made, from following that advice, she made an extra $5,000 from one client. So all of the things I'm telling you are tried and tested. I would love, um, you to let me know how you go. And if there's more that I can help you with, please don't hesitate. To get in touch. Thank you.