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4 steps to ensure you only accept your best clientsAugust 17, 2015 @ 2:33 pm by Mr Phil Newton in Blog Comments are off for this post.

When I first started my business more than 15 years ago, the internet was new and shiny and suddenly the worldwas at my finger tips.

No longer was I restricted to my local area or restricted as a new business by geographic restrictions.

The world was suddenly accessible!

As such I wanted to reach as many people as I could…

Who wouldn’t want what I’m selling, right?

I wanted to make what I had available to everyone that wanted it. In my case the industry I was in was rife withscamming and overpriced whizzbangs and making the little guy have the same tools and information was nearand dear to my heart.

This might be considered to be

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Piling it high and selling it cheap.Piling it high and selling it cheap.

This comes with its own set of problems. As it turns out not everyone is ready for the tools and information thatyou have.

It also turns out that pricing low brings about a certain mind set or type of person that is less desirable. Noteveryone, but enough to be a nuisance.

1 – Increase your prices1 – Increase your prices

In my situation I was discovering business practices that perhaps a lot of people were taking as a standardoperating procedure and figuring out who your customer actually is should be high on every business owner andentrepreneurs startup to do list.

Keep the idiots outKeep the idiots out

Most people suggest that you figure out your true customer avatar and only advertise to those people. Which inand of itself is sound advice but early on on your own business development you might not have enough clients toreally nail this down.

I took a very different approach my first time on the dance floor. I wanted to keep the idiots out, while allowing thepeople who were getting great value from me to stay in.

Increasing the price steady and regularly was essentially what I ended up doing. This is using price as a barrier toentry and while it galled me to do so as I wanted it available to everyone. Everyone isn’t always ready but my bestpotential clients were well prepared to pay higher prices for access to quality information and results.

Hiking prices that first time was not something I gave much thought to. I looked around at what other people weredoing and saw they were having similar experiences to me so it made sense to flip from undercutting mycompetition to overcutting (is that a word?).

I’ve since heard stories from many different sources that this seems to be a sticking point for a lot of people as toif they should and by how much prices should increase.

My best piece of advice here is to go ahead an make a price increase big or small, just do it. If you are worriedabout pricing, only apply new pricing to new members/clients. Do it slowly if you must and incrementally (ie 10%higher with each new customer).

While it is a slower process, it can be a good method as it allows your marketplace to tell you how much you areworth and when you get resistance from the majority rather than a minority (those are the people you want tokeep out anyway) then you can always back peddle a level.

2 – Make yourself exclusive2 – Make yourself exclusive

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If your name’s not down, you’re not coming in!If your name’s not down, you’re not coming in!

I run subscription based businesses where people pay me ongoing for access to services or skill sets that theywish to learn, develop or have done for them.

Initially I let everyone in as it was all online and for all intents purposes automated. People came to my website,saw what I had to offer and if they liked it they signed up. Very simple & very profitable.

Increasing the prices was not stopping everyone I didn’t want to work with out. Also I was seeing a steady increaseof people who would sign up and cancel in a short space of time. Very clearly they are not getting benefit butwanted to look behind the curtain anyway.

Putting a very small barrier to entry on the sign up would be quite beneficial as the people who have taking thetime to investigate what you are doing and how you can help them will benefit the most. Having a buy option foreveryone is not always the best course of action.

Turning off the digital welcome matt and putting yourself to a waiting list is definitely a great idea that will benefityou in more ways than you can think of.

Firstly, you are making yourself exclusive to your existing members and create loyalty and that warm specialfeeling they they have what other people desire.

The grass is always greenerThe grass is always greener

Having the people outside see that your work is in high demand to the point where there is a waiting list and theyhave to add themselves to that waiting list is a big thing.

What happens is that your potential clients start to self filter themselves again into those that have soldthemselves on what you do and are prepared to wait for the opportunity and those that were not that interestedin the first place.

Thus removing those small groups of people who will still sign up take a look behind the curtain and then ask for arefund or be a complete dick and charge back (you know the ones I’m talking about)

To apply this is very simple. Have the buy button direct to a waiting list page rather than your shopping cart. Verysimple yet very effective.

From there you have choices. You can wait until a certain time has passed 1 week or 1 month and mail all newand past applicants that positions are open again or you can wait 24 hours and start calling new applicants for abrief chat. One in one out could be the ultimate filter for the perfect customer.

Which one you do might depend on your business model and your capacity for new business as well as thenumber of applicants.

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Finally, using this filtering method makes increasing prices by large amounts significantly easier in my opinion.

3 – Make new clients apply to be a client.3 – Make new clients apply to be a client.

Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your bodyTry to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your bodyexploding at the speed of light. – Egonexploding at the speed of light. – Egon

I alway image the scene from Ghostbuster where the are trying to reverse the flow of the minions from Dozer’sdominion. To stop the bad thing happening they had to cross the streams. Which pretty much amounted toreversing the flow of power

Cross the streams – reverse the flow of powerCross the streams – reverse the flow of power

When you have an application process this is exactly what you are doing, you are changing the flow of power fromthe customer to you.

What I mean by this is that if you are doing a good job of educating your potential client about who you are andwhat you can do for them. It should then be a simple case of them applying to be your client compared with youtrying to sell them on your thing.

This is also excellent positioning as you get to brand yourself as exclusive and as the expert at the same time whilealso commanding higher prices. At least, that has certainly been my experience of this. I would also presume thatyou are already good at what you do. If you can’t deliver what you say you can then all of this will be for naught.

The way that I add this part of the filtering into my business is as an alternative to the buy it now choice or waitinglist choice. If, for example, I am talking about something specific I specialise in and can help business owners withthen I would explain the process I’m talking about and simply offer people the opportunity with more detailed helpthen they can apply to work with me.

To illustrate, in this article, I am talking about how to go about setting up a system or a filtering process that allowspotential clients to set up your very own version of this application process so that you can work with only the verybest potential clients relative to your business.

4 – Sell the result not the thing4 – Sell the result not the thing

This is probably one of the biggest concepts for business owners and entrepreneurs to get their head around.

It is akin to selling what a thing is versus what a thing doesIt is akin to selling what a thing is versus what a thing does

There are variations of this depending on what business you are in. In my particular situation I have been sellingmy expertise for many, many years. They however, can get that same information for free most of the time withzero explanations or reasoning or points of reference or context to support that information. They will have exactly

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the same information I have.

This is what I mean by saying the thing. People who sell the thing are in a long line next to other people who alsosell the thing which means who ever reaches that persona buying first or with the best price gets the sale.

If I change that message to say that with how I show you how to use the thing to get a very specific result andshow how that result will save them time and money and heartache then this will separate me far from themaddening crowd.

I cease selling the thing which they can get anywhere and start selling a specific result which can only be had fromme. This makes what I do unique and exclusive.

I can legitimately state that I can show you a roadmap to success that I have spent the last 15 years developing ashighlighted by my own previous business success stories which is in addition to the success stories of the manypeople I have already helped.

What is the result that you sell them makes you completely unique?What is the result that you sell them makes you completely unique?

Mr Phil Newton

You are amazing at what you do but... you're working 60hrs a week to 'make it happen'

I help busy and successful entrepreneurs like you become less busy and more successful

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I do this using smart strategic systems and technology

I’d love to have a virtual coffee sometime to talk more

Do you need help with setting up your system to attract new clients?Do you need help with setting up your system to attract new clients?

Apply for my 60 minute complimentary and private strategy session

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