How to get paid BEFORE sending a proposal
Would you charge money to send a proposal? I just did.
What if I could show you how to find more customers and how to get paid by your clients before you’ve even sent a proposal?
Think about the financial impact of charging customers for meetings, consultations, deep-dives, audits and general advice BEFORE you even send them a proposal for a larger project.
Finally! No more low budget customers
Even better, the exact same method actively prevents low budget, low value customers even getting through and wasting your time.
- no more “we’re just shopping for prices”
- no more “can you just do us your best price”
- no more “can I just pick your brains?”
3 things killing your sales
- You’re not charging what you’re worth
- You’re happy to sell to anyone and everyone
- You don’t follow a proven sales process
Do you struggle to attract leads? Are you sick of low budget clients?
My two biggest problems when I ran a marketing business were:
- attracting leads
- dealing with the leads I did manage to land because they sucked
Ever heard the expression “be careful what you wish for”?
I would lay up at night and wish for more leads and clients. Then BAM - I’d land them.
And they’d be an absolute nightmare to deal with 😨😱😰
What you must do to avoid “we can’t afford much” clients
Even when I did manage to land clients, they’d tell me that they can’t afford to pay me much. Or that they were willing to offer me a % of sales.
I couldn’t figure out what to do.
I knew that I needed customers who would pay me, but whenever I landed a client I barely made any money.
It’s not your fault that you’re struggling to find paying clients
The problem is in the clients that you “lose” or even the ones you sell to.
We’re taught that we should feel lucky when the customer decides to use us. So we happily pay for coffee, give our time for free and prove to the customer that we’re the best marketing agency.
When it comes to the proposal, we send it over and hope that they see just how valuable we are. If they decide to work with us, that’s a huge win.
The weird 22 question script that gets customers to tell you everything about their business
No more skeletons in the closet! 💀☠🦴
Because when you DO land those awkward clients, how often have you found that their business is in WORSE shape than you realised?
I remember landing one customer, who took ages to close, and when I finally got a look at their website it was clearly just a ripoff of a competitor down the road.
I now had to create a new website for them because they hadn’t been upfront about their business.
When customers aren’t honest, it costs YOU money. For every hidden roadblock and buried body you uncover, you’re the one who has to pay the price.
And what about those projects that CAN’T be successful - no matter what you do or try, they just don’t work because the customer’s business is in such a bad state.
WARNING: Avoid going for coffee with customers at all costs!
Coffee kills deals. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again. Coffee shops kill deals.
Back in the day, I used to take clients to lunch and wine and dine them in order to sell a project to them. Especially when I worked corporate, because that was the expected thing to do.
I’d tell them how to fix things, what they should change and I’d flatter them about their business choices. All because I was desperate to win their business.
It’d cost me time and money just to sell to them and even then, it wouldn’t always work.
The truth is that going for coffee and letting someone pick your brains is killing your business AND makes it harder to make sales.
Why “showing your expertise” almost never works - do this instead
Of course many customers insist that we demonstrate that we’re the right marketer for them.
- How much should I spend on traffic?
- What kind of website should I get?
- Is SEO/social/email dead?
- What kinds of tools and software do you use?
We try to demonstrate our expertise and show them what we know. We try to show how we can help them and just how much value we could bring to their business.
I mean that just makes plain sense right?
Letting customers pick your brain is harmless, right? Wrong!
The absolute worst thing you can do for your business, is allow leads to pick your brains. Why?
Not because you’re not charging for your time. Not because you’re not charging for your knowledge. But because the customer will not value something which is “free”.
Have you ever given advice to someone only for them to totally ignore it (or forget it) days later? It’s a common phenomena because they haven’t paid for the advice, therefor they won’t do anything with it.
How to turn isolation and quarantines into a full time income generator
Far from jumping on a bandwagon, or selling the idea of Covid-19 being a good thing, it’s important that we address the WAY that we sell and make money HAS changed forever.
What if instead of isolation and working from home being a roadblock, it presented an entirely new revenue stream? What if you were paid to get on Zoom and help people with their businesses?
Did you know you’re MORE likely to make a sale, the more hoops you give customers to jump through?
Make it as easy as possible to take their money - rule 1 of selling. BUT - you need to give them a few hoops to jump through.
Just as we talked about before, giving away time and advice for free will kill your business. Instead, next time starts inquiring about working with, you want to give them a tiny tiny small easy task to start with.
- join your Facebook group
- connect with you on LinkedIn
- sign up to your newsletter
Something so small and easy that it would be considered trivial to do. It’s not the act which is important, but the gesture. It’s getting them to play by your rules.
The proposal is the prize. It’s literally the document telling them how you’ll make their life easier. They need to work for it.
Why beginners can sell five figure projects and find more customers with little to no experience
The classic approach to selling marketing projects to customers, is, as we’ve discussed above - a bad idea.
Take them for coffee (on your time and wallet), tell them how you can help, send a proposal, hope it converts, land a customer (at a loss), discover it’ll take way more to help them than you first thought.
Here’s 5 things that have not affected that process whatsoever.
- Your experience
- Your knowledge
- Your ideas
- Your brand/reputation
- Your desire to help
Doesn’t it sound bizarre that collecting all that knowledge and experience doesn’t affect the sales process? Shouldn’t you be rewarded for your hard work in the past?
If you’re a beginner, then don’t you want to start on the right foot and work on great projects even faster? Skipping the usual bullshit unnecessary struggle to attract customers?
I used to believe that I had to meet customers at my cost, now I know how to charge customers for a meeting before I even agree to work with them!
Before I even send a proposal, I know that each customer has spent in the region of $500 to $2000 on me. Sometimes more.
That’s NOT because I’m Mike Killen, or because I have a YouTube channel and best selling books. It’s because that’s just the way our business ran and runs and will continue to run.
You have to pay to play with me and even though I’m considered the worlds #1 sales coach for funnel builders, many of my team members and colleagues sell five figure projects with these principles.
Introducing APEX Audit
For the first time ever, we have decided to release the first part of our best selling APEX Campaigns program, Audit.
APEX Audit is the full, first module of APEX Campaigns and comes with everything included in the full APEX Audit module.
For a limited time, we’re offering lifetime access to just the first module so you can start charging for consultation, your time and audits.
No more low value clients, just do this - start charging for consultations, meetings and audits
- What if from now on, you knew that each meeting would AT LEAST bring in some money for your time. And even better, for each meeting you’ll get a clearer and clearer idea if they’re the right customer for you.
- No more hidden surprises. No more skeletons in the closet.
- APEX Audit can show you how to only get high value clients, how to charge for your time and meetings AND what to say in those meetings with our Qualification Script
The single most important sentence you’ll ever need to sell consulting, coaching calls and “advice”
- But HOW do you sell consulting? It all depends on how much you’ve been listening.
- There is a magic sentence that I’ve found will sell almost anything to anyone, if you’ve spent enough time listening.
- Would you like some help with that?
- That’s it - that’s the magic sentence. And this sentence has made me hundreds of thousands of dollars. Would you like some help with that?
- Because when the customer says YES, that means you’ve made a sale. Simple as that.
- And I can show you how to get there, WHEN to ask the magic question and what to do before and after with our Growth Session Sales Email from APEX Audit
What never to do when writing a proposal
- Don’t just guess what needs to go into the proposal - get the customer to tell you exactly what you need to sell to them.
- If you’ve asked enough of the right questions, listened and paid attention, writing a killer proposal will be faster and easier than ever.
- Use our Growth Script and get paid to write killer proposals faster, that convert.
Where to find clients who want to pay for consultation from you - even if you’ve never sold consulting before
- You’re looking for a sweet spot, a specific client that you can add value to who no one else wants to work with.
- Sounds too good to be true but really its simply a case of choosing who you want to help and who you CAN help.
- After that you’re looking for “Success Signals“. Customer identifiers and traits that tell you that they’re not only a good customer to go after, but that you can help.
- Once you learn how to identify Success Signals, you’ll wonder how you ever missed them in the first place.
Better than buying MORE funnel software - save thousands of dollars a year and get customers to pay for your advice, not your tools
- Imagine if I could SAVE you thousands of dollars a year from stopping buying funnel tools?
- What if I told you that the tools you use and buy have absolutely zero impact on your sales and closing rates?
- Instead, what if you charged customers for your time and advice, helping them decide a marketing plan that works?
- And then if they want to work with you, get them to buy the tools and use you as an implementor, advisor or consultant.
- When you learn to drive, the driving instructor doesn’t also buy you the car.
- Use our sales templates and email scripts to sell more consulting, audits and projects without spending a cent on new tools and software.
Find more customers just how Ryan Deiss does
I spoke to Ryan Deiss years ago and he gave me two incredible pieces of advice.
- Never build someone’s business for them
- You’ve gotta keep the crazies out
You need to make sure that you’re selling “partnerships” and working with the customer, not doing all the work for them. Better yet, you can be paid for the privilege of finding all this out.
You also need to keep the “I want a site like Facebook for $500” maniacs away.
This is why we have our scorecard and examples, to show you exactly how difficult/easy/profitable/fun a client project will be. It’s like a crystal ball for clients.
I’ve tried to sell consulting before and no one wanted to buy!
I totally understand and many customers are over consulting. They’ve tried consultants, coaches, mavens, gurus, mentors and guides. And now they swear that they’ll never buy consulting again.
No problem. Because we’re not selling consulting. We’re not selling solutions or creative problem solving, we’re not going to sell ANYTHING to the customer until they’ve told us everything about their business.
Take the pressure off the sales/buy push-pull and just ask questions. If someone doesn’t want to buy, no problem, but following the APEX Audit model, they are way more likely to (:
Join over 1000 funnel builders who now can sell consulting to clients
APEX Campaigns is our best selling program ever and it’s no wonder why. The first module which you’re getting access to, today, is literally a step by step process to discovering the best clients, selling to them and making you more profitable.
- How to get paid to NOT work with customers
- The complete step-by-step script on selling consulting to customers
- The magic questions that tell YOU if a customer project will be a success (even before the customer knows)
- 15 individual templates and swipe files to qualify, audit and consult customers (and charge for it)
Sold individually in the past for $1997, or part of the full APEX Campaigns program for $597, we’re releasing APEX Audit for $197 one off.
WARNING: You might end up realising that selling consulting and deep dives is more profitable than building funnels
When you start to charge for calls, meetings, deep-dives, audits, consulting and more, your entire revenue stream grows exponentially.
More often than not, APEX Marketers use marketing funnels and projects as prizes for their truly valued customers. They’re more profitable and work better after they have charged for consulting and meetings.
100% satisfaction guarantee
If you buy APEX Audit, take the entire program and use all the resources and it doesn’t help you sell consulting, I’ll give you a full refund. I’ll even give you 30 days to try out the content and the resources.
The biggest (and easiest) secret of finding more customers
Is to start charging what you’re worth. I stopped getting low value, low budget customers overnight as soon as I started using the APEX Audit framework.
Leads would convert into paying clients before I’d even offered them a full proposals.,
Your search for better customers ends here
- Have you got a scorecard?
- Have you got a sales process for selling consulting, deep-dives and audits?
- Have you got a closing script?
Without these, you’re just hoping to convert clients the old, expensive way.
Unless you’re willing to change HOW you get more customers, you’re just going to have to work extremely hard to get them.
APEX Audit for funnel builders is here!
$197 lifetime access
Join today and get access to over 15 templates, processes, guides and scripts
- Learn the exact Order Of Priorities for highly successful marketing campaigns
- The Scorecard system that tells you who will be profitable and who will be a nightmare
- Every line I say to sell and close a paid audit
- The project management “RFA” email that starts all audits off right
- Sell consultation “Growth Sessions” over email (and close them easily)
- Our entire audit checklist (so you even know WHAT to do when you’ve sold it)
- How to use data, information and results to give insight to customers (which sells larger projects)
- And many more