To kick off our training sessions I asked you to fill in the blanks for “Who is Deb Corn and what does she do?”
My name is Deborah Corn and I am really good at creating connections and community building. Companies that need to expand awareness and generate buzz for their products, services and events will benefit from working with me because I create meaningful engagement with industry influencers.
Ok Deb. This is a great start. The above exercise was intended to make sure that you had a firm grasp on who you are, what you do, and who you serve. That is pretty much the cornerstone of any person or company who wants to be in business today. It also serves you by being able to convey to others what you do, for networking purposes and for building your brand (which you are already great at, by the way)
So now onto the real work. Which is monetization (Is that a word?) Because Deb’s gotta eat. And so does Deb’s cat. Here’s the thing. It is absolutely true that you are a rockstar when it comes to creating connections and meaningful engagement with industry leaders. But do they know they need you? Is it easy for them to need you, and easy for them to understand what they will gain from being associated with you? Here are the next things that we (you) need to do in order to get ready to make the sales magic happen.
FIRST, you need to create a list of all the companies out there that would possibly qualify as someone who would do business with you.
NEXT, we come up with all the tangible benefits to your offering. What will the company gain from working with you? For you, it would be a good idea to almost think of this in terms of a menu. There should be low, medium and high cost choices for any particular prospect to choose from. Here is an example of what that might look like:
Nibble – for XX$ PMC will do this. You, as the client, will enjoy XX and YY. This is ideal for blah blah companies that desire blah blah or are suffering from blah blah. This is your least expensive option.
Light Meal – for XX$ PMC will do ____________ this is the mid range offering
Full 5 course meal – for XX$ …. you get the picture by now, right? This one is the full monty. For every different option that you offer, the increase in dollars needs to be represented by a significant increase in value. The full 5 course meal should have the most description and it should be obvious to targets what they will get.
The idea is also that there is little risk in choosing to start with you on a low cost engagement, and that upgrading at a later time is easy for them to do. So, if they start with a snack and get so much out of that experience that they decide to go with the five-course meal, you make it easy for them to do so.
Make sense? So now y our homework is to write out your menu. Maybe you already have one. If so, I want you to look at it with a fresh pair of eyes and make sure that it makes sense and that for each price point, your prospects will understand what they get for what they are paying you.
I can almost hear your voice in my head saying, “But what if I don’t KNOW how to price myself?” Here is what I would say: With regard to the “nibble course” make the dollar figure something that makes it hard for people to say “NO”. What I mean by that is make it valuable but inexpensive (you KNOW I hate the word CHEAP) Make sure that the offering is affordable, easy for you to deliver, but packed with value. Once a customer sees how awesome it is to work with you, they will be upgrading in no time. Perhaps there is even some product that you can offer that you can make once and deliver often, like a white paper, presentation or engagement that has a finite time period associated with it. Also, know what your hourly rate range and day rate are for when people ask you to speak at conferences and the like. You can always be flexible, but know what your desired rates are so you can rattle them off when someone asks.
Next time, we will be working on a script to get you ready to start making cold calls!
Kelly Mallozzi will contribute to the PMC as often as her life and four small children will allow, which will be at least once a year. As a sales and marketing coach and consultant at Success In Print, Kelly advocates for graphic arts companies to start a revolution and fight to keep print relevant. She may be irreverent, but what she lacks in convention, she makes up for in smart-assery.
Connect With Kelly: Twitter @SuccessInPrint and check out her weekly blog on Printing Impressions.
