“My 121 service costs £8000 for the year and no one is buying it,” Blake told me in despair. 

“What does your marketing funnel look like?” I asked.

“What’s a marketing funnel?”

Whether your 121 coaching service costs £8000 or £800, if you’re struggling to get new clients, it could be because you don’t have a marketing funnel, don’t know what one is, or you’ve got the wrong services in it. If any of this resonates with you and you’d like to be selling more of your 121 coaching, then this blog will help you.

When you provide a personal service, such as 121 coaching, consulting or training to organisations or small groups, you have to build up a certain level of trust with your potential clients, before they will buy from you. Why? Because no sane business person is going to invest money with someone they don’t know. They’re not going to part with their money before they’re sure that you can bring them the results they’re looking for. When you’re delivering a service, you should be asking for at least part of your fees upfront. Why should anyone give you any of their money, without at least some level of trust?

A great way to build up this trust is by taking your potential clients through a marketing funnel. You start at the widest place at the top, with something that prospects can try for free. This could be your newsletter, some videos they can watch on your website, or articles they can read on your LinkedIn profile. There is little interaction – you can safely read Scribbles knowing that I won’t pounce on you to ask what you thought of this article, or even why you didn’t read an issue. The widest part of the funnel is where you collect the largest number of potential clients.

The next level down is narrower – fewer people – with more interaction. You could ask me for a 30-minute Marketing Review (click here to book this with me on Zoom.) You could offer a free webinar or event, such as Marketing Mondays, the free Zoom call that I run twice a month. At this level you’re allowing people to get closer to you. They can start to experience how you work and get to know you a little, if they’ve not yet met you.

Down one more level and you might offer a book for £15, or an ebook for a bit less. You could charge a nominal fee for a workshop. One of my clients, an HR Consultant, has been doing this very successfully for many years. £20 +VAT for a half day Employment Law update, which in 2020 changed to online events. They are a great way for her to show people her HR expertise and knowledge, always generating more work for her.

Your Funnel Needs to Flow

As the funnel narrows, you’ll be interacting with fewer people, who will be paying more to get closer to you. Blake knew about marketing funnels, but he was making a couple of mistakes. Firstly, he was expecting prospects to jump from nothing to paying nearly £1000 for the first part of his service. I suggested adding a couple of layers of funnel above this service, so that prospects could try him out before buying. He was then asking clients to pay only £199 for the next service. He wanted to use it as a filter, to see how many people would actually take the next step. However, if someone has already paid you £1000, I would say they’re quite interested in spending more time with you. Being presented with the next level that is cheaper is confusing. My suggestion to Blake was to add a 9 to the price – making it £1999!

This might sound like a big price jump (£199 to £1999) but it works as part of an overall process. While you’re delivering the £1000 service you tell your new client what to expect next and how much extra value, they’ll get from the £1999 service. Not everyone will take you up on it, but those who do are taking themselves another step closer to the £8000 a year service. They’re getting closer to you, experiencing more of the benefits of working 121 with you.

What’s in your marketing funnel? What could you put into the different levels, to help potential clients get closer to you and allow you to do your best work for them? If you need help with your funnel, use the link above to book a free 30-minute Zoom chat with me, or come along to Marketing Mondays and we’ll talk more.