No more beating around the bush. Here’s the exact process I use with my clients with tips and resources. (Scroll down)
Why am I giving this away?
Well, in case you need it. In case it’s useful to you. And in case you like the look of it and you’d like my help to implement it.
I’ve developed this process over the years from courses, coaches, books and trial and error. Like many creatives I “Steal like an Artist“. I take the good stuff from a lot of different sources, mix it up and make something new with it.
So here it is.
Here’s the Lead Machine Framework and below a special invitation for September.
How to get clients when you sell 1:1 or creative services as a solopreneur.
1 – Get in front of people in a way that feels right.
This looks different from one person to the next because it all depends on what suits you as a person. Here are the main headings, the 3 Ps!
Partnerships , Press and Paid Reach
Partnerships
Find people through on or offline networking who speak to your audience but are not your direct competitors. For me, I partner with business coaches, photographers and community leaders who have an audience full of my ideal clients. We partner up, recommend each other, offer workshop and webinar cross-overs and boost each other up on socials. This takes time to cultivate, but suits people who aren’t super comfortable with the flashy visibility stuff.
Press
Get your messaging and positioning figured out and validated (!!!) and start creating content around your expertise. Then find publications, media outlets, journalists, podcasts (with a proven audience) TV, or Radio shows who speak about your area of expertise and approach them with a story pitch or collaboration. This, done well and consistently can be really powerful for visibility. Be sure to have something online that people can join – like a mailing list or group.
Paid Reach
Yep, ads. This is the only one that uses money budget. The others take from your time and energy budget, this one takes from time energy and money budget. I’d only recommend this when your offer or service has been validated (someone has already paid the full asking price). There are lots of parts to the paid ads strategy. It is NOT just about boosting posts. Please don’t boost posts. You need to know the places your ideal client spends time, what you can say that gets their attention and have a clear call to action that is easy to do. Just one call to action.
2 – Build trust and credibility.
So, this will look different depending on your service and depending on what folks need from a service like yours. Your engagement should give the potential client a way to get to know you, especially if you’re the face of your business. You’ve probably heard this but, people buy from people they know, like and trust. That’s exactly what we’re talking about here.
So what builds trust and credibility for your ideal clients for a service like yours? It’s verrrrry easy to go off assumptions in this. Assumptions will come back and bite you in the arse every time. So instead of that, be sure you know for sure what works for them, what words they use and what they’re sick of.
This is ideal client work.
Maybe it makes you cringe at the very idea of it, but you need to be asking real people. I usually get my clients to interview their ideal clients. We create a list of questions and go about it in a very intentional way.
Another massive part of this is testimonials, social proof and case studies. I help my clients create a strategy for this so that they’re consistently getting good ones that help them sell more. Which brings me to…
3 – Make sales.
Even the word “Sales” feels gross to most people, especially those who have always focussed on “the work”. But if you’re not making sales, you’re not going to have clients and you won’t have a business. So yeah, sales. You need to be making them and you can make your sales strategy your own.
When I work with my clients we find the most aligned way to make sales. This sometimes comes down to consultative selling or selling with a discovery call. Most people have dabbled in this BUT end up giving away too much on the call. Or they get inundated with “tire-kickers” and time-wasters. Or endlessly following up, getting fobbed off, and chasing people with no conversion. That’s sooo frustrating.
Getting better at sales takes time, but it gets so much easier when you have a sales script to work from. This is another thing I help my clients to create.
So that’s the framework. Here is a list of exercises I use.
Specific Exercises
The ideal client interview – Challenge your assumptions and get everything you need for you marketing, offer design and strategy. What are they struggling with? What have they tried? What is driving them nuts about the problem you help them to solve? Who else do they look to online? What books, podcasts, or courses have they looked to for help. That’s just a warm up! These interviews are the key to your entire communications kit!!
The Bro Deck Challenge © – Create a confident messaging system by embracing your inner bro’. We get bold. We get sassy. We get to the the juicy value of your service. Then we put it into words you can say – without cringing. I bloody love this one. It’s super fun and incredibly useful, especially for folks who stuggle to express the value of their service.
The Appointment Path © – What does the path to meeting you look like for a new lead? How can we create a better one? Or optimise and underperforming one. What tools do we need to set up? And how can we “reduce friction” for a lead to get on a call with you? This is so useful for anyone who has lots of pieces of a sales process, but crappy lead flow.
Aligned Action – What will your sales process look like for YOU. How does it feel to you and how can we get self-sabotaging behaviours out of your system?
Scope of Work Implementation Doc © – I need to work on a better title for this one, but it’s does what it sound like. It’s a document to track the tasks in your project. It sounds SO BORING! And thats kind of the point. It’s the antidote to shiny ideas. This document is your project HQ and once it’s set up, you’ll know exactly what to do first, and next. You’ll stop going back to the start, strategy switching and re-inventing the wheel. ‘Tis all about seeing your plan through. All the way through.
Another one that I offer, when it’s needed is the:
100 days of Content Workshop©. This is design to “fill the content gap”. If your online presence is lacking, out of date or just a bit shite, we flood it with on-brand, on-message, value-rich content so that when folks come looking, your presence is working FOR you not against you.So that’s pretty much it. I have a tonne of other more specific, granular exercises that help speed up the Lead Machine set up process, but this is the full framework. There’s nothing revolutionary here. It’s fairly standard stuff, but the key to it is that it responds to you as an individual. We tailor everything based on what will be sustainable for YOU and effective at getting you clients. It can be a joyful process. It can offer clarity to folks who are in the social media hamster wheel – or just wondering how to get a better flow of leads.