“Marketing and Selling without slime…the secret to success with these sister functions”
Recently, I told you that your primary job wasn’t doing bookkeeping, it was MARKETING.
Well, that’s not the whole story. You also need to spend a fair amount of time closing…or selling.
Marketing and Selling go hand in hand. They are sister functions – kind of like Siamese twins. After all, the goal of your marketing is ultimately to sell your services.
Sure, there are different purposes to your marketing at different times…like building your list, educating your clients and creating awareness of your product or service, and there are multiple and varied avenues through which you can deliver your service – articles, blog posts, Twitter, Facebook, press releases, video…and the list could go on.
BUT, no matter the marketing tool, the end goal is to sell your product – and done right, create long-term clients. (It’s much easier to keep a client than it is to get a new one. Client Acquisition can be costly.)
Marketing is just one step in a multi-step cycle that should lead to s-a-l-e-s.
Now, now, now…don’t panic…when you understand what sales and marketing are REALLY about, you can feel GOOD about sales. When you know this secret, you can stop hiding and really put yourself, your business and services out there.
The SECRET to marketing and selling without slime is simple: Solve Problems and Create Results for people.
If you do these two things, then the slime factor disappears.
Your service becomes about…well, service.
You’re not trying to swindle people, trick them or take advantage of them…you could even say that if you have solutions for people’s problems, then you are OBLIGATED to “get the word out”.
The good news is that if you are solving people’s problems and creating results for them, then those people will sell themselves!
3 Steps to Solving Client Problems and Selling without Slime:
1. Prospect/Market – let people know you’re there through all those marketing channels mentioned above. Talk to people and find out what their problems are and how you can help them. Take the position of a trusted advisor. Listen to their problems – and if you aren’t the one who can best solve their problems, then say so…and if you can, refer them to some people who can. The word will get around that you are trustworthy and that goes a long way in marketing and sales.
2. Present your service packages or product– Repeat your client’s problems to them and show them how you can help. Let them know the benefits of your service. Tell them what your service will do for them…and don’t just list the features. Tell them a story…how will it FEEL to have that problem solved.
3. Close – There are many different ways to “close the sale”. (This could be its own topic.) Closing is where most people “lose the sale”…either they don’t want to ask for the sale, or they’re afraid of offending the client. What you need to remember is that you need not force the situation. Done properly, the client understands that you can solve his problem and sells himself. The client WANTS to buy from you at this point. You should also keep in mind that “it’s not about you”! This is about how you and your service can help the client.
When you approach marketing from the perspective of solving people’s problems and creating results for them, you never have to feel guilty, sleazy or slimy again.
Remember: Your business is about helping clients with a need or problem. NOT marketing and NOT selling is actually doing people a disservice.
Plus, you’ll stand out from the crowd as a trusted advisor who knows how to make their pain and problems disappear. (That’s a great position to be in…and it makes both marketing and sales much easier!)
Your Only Responsible for Yourself
In a private coaching session with Jane (names have been changed to protect privacy), we were talking about how bad she felt that one of her clients was experiencing financial difficulty. She was experiencing real angst and turmoil because she knew of the client’s financial hardship and felt guilty about charging them for her services. At one point in the conversation, she said to me “I’m going to call them when we’re through with our session and tell them I am giving them a refund!”
This was not the first time Jane and I were having this type of conversation. Jane is a wonderful coach and mentor but from time to time experiences boundary and deservabilty issues surrounding money. Jane was projecting her own issues with money onto her coaching relationship with this client.
I knew that day was going to be a tough session and I was determined to shed light on this issue for Jane once and for all. I decided to show Jane exactly what she was doing by deciding to “fix” her financial situation with me.
Jane became outraged when I suggested to her, that we reduce our number sessions since she was soon to be experiencing financial difficulty with her clients. When I first asked the question, she started to agree with me and then, being the smart woman that she is immediately saw what I was trying to do. I asked her how it felt that I had made a decision for her about her financial well-being. Her response, “disempowering!”
When we make a decision for someone, for whom we are not responsible AND who has not asked for our input, we are not giving that person the opportunity to step up and be called forth in their spiritual evolution. Instead we are perpetrating our insecurities onto that relationship.
If you have a client who is experiencing financial difficulty and they have ONLY shared that information with you, it is NOT your responsibility to offer to change the level of service being provided to them. Is their responsibility to bring that subject forward to you.
If you make a decision for your client that they cannot afford your service, you are energetically saying to the Universe that you don’t need the money. Again, this is not your responsibility. If you are in a coaching relationship with your client then you can take it a step further and help them to see alternatives they may not be able to think of.
Remember, you are only responsible for yourself. It is not your job to fix the financial situation of your client.
The Real Reason Why You Are In Business
Do you know the real reason why you are in business?
The first response I hear most often to that question is to be of service. That is a wonderful reason and very true for the majority of individuals in a service business, including myself. However, there is a key component of to that answer that is missing. That missing component is why so many of us experience difficulty manifesting abundance and prosperity in the form of money. We have no trouble attracting clients, just attracting clients who can pay us.
That is why it is so important to be extremely clear with yourself about the real reason is why you are in business. That reason is:
To be of service AND to provide those services in EXCHANGE for FINANCIAL COMPENSATION
That certainly sends a clear message to the Universe – doesn’t it?!
There is another form of payment that happens when we are being of service to our clients. It is the gift of seeing how you have positively affected another human being and that gift fills you up.
Consciously, we may believe that we deserve to be paid but somewhere in our unconscious mind, we don’t believe that we deserve any other form of payment. Our conscious mind makes up 10% of our brain and our unconscious mind makes up over 90%. The 90% – unconsciously believing we don’t deserve any other form of payment – is the vibration that we are sending out in the Universe.
When you are struggling to make the mortgage payment each month, the worry and stress you are feeling comes through the service you are providing and is energetically felt by the client. At first, it may not affect them and they will continue to work with you, but at some point the service they are receiving will no longer feel good and they will seek that service from another source.
Do you see how not knowing the real reason why you are in business compounds negatively upon itself?
When you are clear about your reason for being in business and you have that resonating in your body, mind and spirit that energy will emanate forth from you and you will attract clients who will willingly pay you for your services. You in turn will receive abundance and prosperity in the form of the seeing how you have positively impacted another human being and monetarily. Resulting in ever expanding abundance and prosperity for everyone involved.
Just remember:
□ You are in the business of providing a quality service.
□ Clients hire and pay you because they are in need of those services.
□ You provide these services for financial compensation.
Repeat these three lines, as often as needed.
Don’t Let Your Client’s Financial Woes Become Your Financial Woes
Being the owner of an accounting and bookkeeping services firm, my company has a front row seat to how “well” our client’s business are doing. One particular client, made the decision to wind down operations and close the magazine he was trying to get off the ground. At the time this decision was made, there was a tremendous amount of debt on the books, investors who needed to be notified, a tax return that needed to be completed as well as some bookkeeping work to wrap up.
When the owner called me with his decision to wind down operations, he asked me if I would assist him with the accounting work that needed to be done and if I wouldn’t mind being paid after the work was completed. Red flag! My gut instinct told me to get paid up front (as I do with all of my other clients and had in the past with this particular client) but I felt sorry for the financial situation this young man was in and I agreed to let him pay me once the work was complete.
My firm went about doing the work and coordinating with the attorney in charge of winding down operations. As soon as our part was complete I received a letter in the mail from that very same attorney stating that the company was bankrupt and we would not be paid for the services we provided. Needless to say I was a little angry!
We had spent at least a two weeks preparing the information that was needed on the word of this young man that we would be paid. We also had first-hand knowledge that he received a severance package. I had made a classic mistake, I allowed my client’s financial woes to become my financial woes, and as a result my firm walked away without being paid while he did get paid. My decision placed his well-being, both financial and spiritual, above my own, and thought because I performed the services in good faith, that he would in return, act in good faith. It was a tough, expensive lesson to learn.
Since then, I make it a point to engage my prospective clients in a dialog that will provide me with clues to the financial condition of their business. For example, I’ll ask a prospective client “What impact will our service have on assisting you to grow your business?” or “What direct impact will our service have on your business and how will you measure that impact – through the acquisition of new customers, increased revenue, etc.”
I’m really curious as to what their response to those two questions will be. I like to make the questions thought provoking and open-ended because my main objective is to start a dialog, to obtain more clues obtain more clues about the financial condition of that business.
The other thing I do is ask those same questions a couple of different ways. When you ask the same question a couple of different ways and you receive different answers or inconsistent answers you will be able to string together new questions that will help you to get a better picture of what is going on.
With existing clients I make sure I have clear, concise, boundaries surrounding how and when I will be paid because once you provide the service, as you saw from my story, you are left with little recourse other than hiring an attorney or going to small claims court to obtain payment – both of which will cost you more time and money!
Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride
It always amazes me how The Money Conversation™ appears in my life and either teaches me a lesson or reminds me just how far along the path towards healing my relationship with money has come. Just this morning while making my bed I was reminded of a situation I had long forgotten about.
A couple of years ago, my friend Sara suggested that I hire her friend from NYC to perform a Feng Shui consult of my home. The NYC friends would come down, do the consult and then we would all go out to dinner.
That evening when we went out to dinner and the bill came to the table, Sara announced that she and I would split the bill and treat the NYC friends and that the next day she had a prior engagement and I would be brining them back to the train station. Prior to this announcement at dinner, I was not privy to Sara’s plan.
I felt ambushed by Sara and this was not the first time I found myself in this sort of situation with her. I didn’t know what to say or do at that moment so I went along with the situation even though financially I was not in a position to afford both the Feng Shui consult and treating them to dinner.
So what is The Money Conversation™ in this story? The Money Conversation are those stories we tell ourselves about money. There are always at least two conversations or multiple conversations going on depending on how many people are involved in the situation.
My Money Conversation: At the time of this situation, I allowed my boundaries to be taken advantage of. At dinner when Sara announced that we would be treating them to dinner and I would be taking them to the train station the next day, I could have spoken up and asked to speak with privately or had been honest with the table and say that treating them to dinner was not a part of my financial plan for the evening.
What’s the worse thing that could have happened? There would have been a moment of awkward silence?
Instead I became angry at myself and Sara. I allowed this to brew under the surface and eventually it came to a head and resulted in our friendship being severely damaged.
Sara’s Money Conversation: Whenever the NYC friends visited, Sara would pick them up from the train station and treat them for the whole weekend – what ever they did, she footed the bill and then afterward complain about it! Also, Sara had just gone through a divorce and was not in the financial position to be treating anyone to dinner let alone a whole weekend of events.
What was going on with Sara is that she was feeling obligated to the NYC friends because they helped her leave a marriage that was not right for her. Guilt was fueling Sara to spend money she did not have.
As you can see from both of our money conversations™, it’s never about the money but rather the emotional place we are operating from. In this situation, it just showed up through money.
That is why it is so important to check in with your emotional guidance scale and determine if you are operating from a lower, slower energetic vibration (anger, guilt, insecurity, unworthiness) or a higher energetic vibration (hopefulness, joy, appreciation).
When we are emotionally operating from a lower energetic vibration it is harder to create a solution that is in your highest and best interest. At these moments, you must be willing to be courageous and take a stand for yourself. One of the best ways I have learned to do this for myself is to PAUSE and BREATHE.
PAUSING AND BREATHING allows me center myself and create space to move to a higher emotional vibration, thus creating a solution that is more in alignment with my highest and best interest.
So, the next time you find yourself in an awkward money situation remember to PAUSE and BREATHE!
Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride
In the late fall of 2008 I made a promise to myself to clear out what was no longer working in my life and figure out what I truly wanted for myself. What I didn’t know then was that I was jumping on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride!
The past year has stressful, eye opening and full of blessings beyond my imagination! I now clearly see without a doubt how each of is 100% responsible for our current situation. We are constantly manifesting – our thoughts and feelings are what bring about the events we experience – the good ones and the ones with all of those ugly warts. They show up and lead us to where we need to be healed.
My healing usually manifests itself through my financial well being. In the past year I experienced a whole host of financial wake-up calls from paying for a service and not receiving the quality that was promised to receiving an unexpected cash influx only to have it go immediately out the door to cover an unexpected expense.
Hitting my pocketbook is how the Universe gets my attention. When my cash flow stagnates it has nothing to do with my earning potential (I know how to make money) and everything to do with my self worth.
For me, my root issue is feeling supported. When I don’t feel supported, I don’t feel safe and those are the feelings I am sending out into the Universe further perpetrating the experience that no longer serves me. Money is repelled by negativity.
To counterbalance this I have incorporated into my daily life time for ME – yoga, mediation, taking myself out for breakfast. I get bored easily so I like to shake things up by doing something a little different every day. An important component of each activity, no matter which one I choose is envision my heart’s desire. I play it like it’s a movie in my head AND I feel the joy, light-heartedness and happiness of what I am seeing. That is how to bring about the positive change we want to experience – see it and feel it as though it is already happening!!
We all are deserving of the abundant riches the Universe offers each of us every single day. Take a closer look at your financial hiccups and see if you can see the recurring pattern.
Join me for my free call on Wednesday, March 10th at 7pm EST.
Money and Forgiveness
I kept hitting a roadblock so I decided to revisit and study the Universal Laws of abundance and prosperity. Pretty much whenever you read about abundance and prosperity, gratitude it is one of the keys that leads to abundance and prosperity. As I read the word gratitude, my intuition told me this is where I was hitting that roadblock.
I know I am grateful and yet I am having a hard time feeling gratitude. Then it dawned on me! I had no idea how gratitude felt in my body! So before going to bed the other night I asked my guides, guardians and helpers to please show me why I am having difficulty feeling gratitude.
The answer did come to me and it hit me like a bolt of lighting! Underneath it all I didn’t feel as though I deserved what I had in my life. I felt guilty. Guidance further went on to show me that I am capable of feeling gratitude however, my feelings of non-deservability were overshadowing my ability to express gratitude in a deep and meaningful way!
So I have began searching, delving deeper into why I didn’t feel as though I deserved abundance. The next level again took me by surprise. Old situations began to resurface where I still had unresolved feelings – guilt, resentment and shame. These situations are long past and yet I had not forgiven myself for being human and doing the best I possibly could at the time.
Did I learn from these situations – absolutely yes! Have I repeated the pattern – probably! But holding onto the resentment and shame was serving no one, especially me. In your life experiences you will find that, when the good you wish has not appeared, it is usually because you need to release and let go of something to make room for it. In my case that was forgiving myself.
Forgiveness creates a vacuum within which your desired good can begin manifesting. Nature abhors a vacuum, and when you begin moving out of your life what you do and do not want, you automatically are making way for what you do want.
Perform this exercise in forgiveness to create a vacuum within which your desired good can begin manifesting. Whenever you dare to form a vacuum the substance of the Universe rushes to fill that empty space. This applies on the spiritual, mental and physical planes of life.
Exercise: Forgiveness is the Answer
1. Find a quiet spot and take several deep breaths. Allow your mind to wander and let rise to the top anything you are out of harmony with, feel badly towards or are concerned about. Have you criticized or gossiped about anyone? Are you involved with any legal matters that are causing you stress?
2. Acknowledge the situations and/or names that come to your consciousness by writing them down on a piece of paper. Do not judge or edit.
3. State the name each person on your list and repeat the following:
“I fully and freely forgive you. So as far as I am concerned, that incident between us is finished forever. I do not wish to hurt you. I wish you no harm. I am free and you are free and all is well between us again.”
Repeat this step as many times as needed for each situation and or name until you feel a sense of release. (Your body will feel lighter.)
When you have gone through all of the names on the list, shred the paper and throw it away.
4. Then forgive yourself by declaring the following:
“The Universe’s forgiving love has set us free. Divine love now produces perfect results and all is again well between us. I behold you with the eyes of love and I glory in your success, prosperity and complete good. I am forgiven and governed by Universal love alone and all is well.”
Repeat this step as many times as needed for each name until you feel at peace.
5. Thank the Universe.
Join me for my free call on Wednesday, March 10th at 7pm EST.
Tomato Sauce vs. Gravy
If you grew up in an Italian household, like I did then you know that we, Italians, refer to tomato sauce as “gravy”. When you mention gravy in context to meatballs and pasta to someone who doesn’t know our affectionate term, you will most likely notice a very funny look come across their face. In their mind’s eye they have an image of brown gravy over pasta. Which I agree is gross!
So what does this have to do with money? Simply, that our thoughts and beliefs about things and situations are formed from the environment that we were raised in and can sometimes be referred to as “heritgage beliefs”.
A heritage belief is a thought pattern about a thing or situation, that we inherited from previous generations – familial or societal. They are neither good nor bad, just not necessarily true for you and sometimes they are not even conscious.
Just yesterday, I was driving to a meeting thinking about several projects I have in the works for my business and the assoicated cost when I heard my inner voice say “In order to get what you want, you have to spend money.” That statement, from my inner voice, stopped me in my tracks because it was not mine – it was my Dad’s. It was a belief that he had about money that had been subconsciously (until yesterday) mine. Without realizing it I was living and breathing his truth about having to pay for what he wanted, not mine!
As a child, my cousin was conned into giving her dimes to her older brother in exchange for nickels. He convinced her that the nickels were worth more because they were bigger in size. To this day, my cousin believes that the bigger the item, the more it is worth.
Our heritage beliefs effect our interaction with money whether we realize it or not. Uncovering our heritage beliefs as they relate to money (or anything else) is like peeling back the layers from an onion. You have to start with the outer most layer and work you way towards the center. I can share with you, I am halfway through the layers of my onion and working through each layer strengthens my relationship with money.
Your Money Alignment Exercise
To begin peeling back the layers of your onion, think about your answers to the questions below. They will help you to begin to understand the heritage beliefs you have formed around money and determine whether or not they are true for you today.
1. As a child, what were you taught was the most important thing about money? Did you adopt this idea or rebel against it?
2. As a child, when have you been positively moved by money? For example, you bought a toy with your allowance or you shared your money with a friend so you could both get ice cream.
3. As a child, when have you been negatively moved by money? For example, when you had to share your birthday gifts with your sibilings before you even had the chance to play with them.
Join me for my free call on Wednesday, March 10th at 7pm EST.
Money is a Transaction Tool
Have you ever noitced that the mere mention of the word money can make the energy in a room shift? Feelings of serenity, happiness, anxiousness, tension – to name a few rise to the surface and each of us places on our money mask – whether we realize it or not.
Every one of us has a different understanding of money individually and collectively and that understanding effects our interaction with money on a conscious and subconscious level. Over the next several weeks we will begin to redefine and reshape our thoughts about money and begin to bring our relationship with it back into balance. Let’s begin our re-alignment by redefining and understanding what money is -
Money is an exchange given in consideration for something that is received as an equivalent.
Something is given and received – a balanced relationship.
Money is the transaction tool that helps us obtain what we want and need – it does not define our worth. It is a separate and distinct form of energy just like electricity, a book or a table.
Money Alignment Exercise
This simple yet powerful exericse will create awareness of how you feel when spending money.
- Take out a sheet of paper and make 3 columns. Title the first column – Purchase; second column – Feeling At the Time; 3rd column – Feeling in Review.
- Over the next 3 days, each time you spend money whether to pay a bill or buy those great pair of new shoes, pause for a moment and notice the feeling(s) you are experiencing at that moment. Don’t judge them to be good or bad – just notice what they are and write them down.
- At the end of the 3 days, sit down and review your list. Notice the intensity of each feeling(s).
- Remind yourself of the definition of what money truly is – “Money is an exchange given in consideration for something that is received as an equivalent. Something given for something received.
- Now re-read each item on your list and note in the third column how you feel after reading the definition. Re-read the definition of money as many times as necessary. Your feelings may stay the same or change.
- Compare your feelings in written in column three to those in column two. Make note of any shifts or similarities.
Join me for my free call on Wednesday, March 10th at 7pm EST.
One-On-One Coaching
My one-on-one monthly coaching is ideal for the freelance bookkeeper who is looking for guidance and additional accountability for getting items OFF of their To Do List!
Why Coaching With Me Is Different Than Working With Other Business Coaches
The main way I differ from other “business coaches” is that I bring to the table an understanding of what’s is like being a freelance accountant/bookkeeper and working with the small business community. I share with my coaching clients not only an understanding of the challenges but real-life solutions that they can easily implement into their own business.
I remember when I first started out I could not find any resources specifically geared to helping me grow my bookkeeping firm. There was plenty of technical advice and guidance out there but nothing on the practice management side. So while those coaches were very helpful to me, I did not get the fast results I was looking for. So because I’ve been through it, I know I help my clients get there faster.
Results, Results, Results
I am all about results. When someone coaches with me, we create a game plan of the items causing the most pain and prioritize that list. I structure each coaching session to include a 10-minute catch-up of what has been going on since our last session and the remainder of the time is tactical. If one of your pain points is how to create packages for your business, that is what we work on. I also assign homework in between our sessions to keep us moving forward towards your goals.
Your Investment
The monthly coaching program requires a minimum four month commitment and includes:
- Two 60-minute coaching sessions per month
- Unlimited email support
- 20% off all products while coaching
Will you recover your investment? – YES!
Many clients are excited to report that they were able to cover their investment often with only one new client. I want you to stop reading for just a moment to ask yourself, “What is one new client worth to me, and, what is the average revenue I make from the lifetime of one new client?” Chances are that amount will more than cover your coaching investment. Most likely, you will make 10 times what you invested in this program in the next 3 years.
What you’re regularly receiving when coaching with me one-on-one is what I call a series of “AHAS!” that will move your business forward faster than you would on your own. Expect to get a lot of these as well as the resources you’ve been looking for and haven’t found until now. That’s what you’re investing in, results, more revenue, more profit, more clients and systems that you can immediately implement into your business and see results. Not just more “information!”
It has been a real pleasure working with Linda. She has helped me to see what area of my business is really my passion and focus my attention on that area.