5 Ways To Sell More Advisory

I am going to share with you my top five strategies for selling your advisory/coaching offers, and what to do if your offers are currently being met with crickets.?

This is something I'm so passionate about because it is a great way to give you a baseline of income. What’s more, it is recurring.? Most people will pay for advisory services for 12 months or more. If you get an advisory or coaching client, you could enjoy that higher revenue coming in for years to come.?

It boosts your confidence and relieves anxiety when you know that you are growing your profits, and not just adding to your client roster. Additionally, it doesn't take a huge team to deliver the services.?

There are many ways you can deliver your advisory/coaching offers. Some examples are providing clients with courses, memberships, and VIP days.? However, the one I suggest you start with is a 1:1 coaching package. It is run initially for 3-12 months and is based on your signature methodology.

Now, this advice is different for some people.? If you already have a large number of advisory clients, then releasing a group program or mastermind class might be the logical next step.

If you only have one or two clients, then selling out your private 1:1 coaching/advisory offer is the thing that will give you more clarity, confidence, and take-home earnings.?

I no longer do a ton of 1:1 coaching these days. I have maybe one or two coaching clients, and I charge them upward of ￡30k a year for my 1:1 coaching, as I teach you to do.

It's not something that I do often anymore because I like to free up some of my time for other things. However, if private advisory/coaching is how you want to be making the base of your income, that's awesome. That's something that a lot of my clients do really well. They either offer advisory only or add it to the compliance work they do for their clients.?

Providing 1:1 advisory is amazing, as you get to add a lot of value to the people you work with. You will give them incredible transformations that will change both their businesses and their lives—maybe even their families and communities.

So that's why I love 1:1 private coaching.

If you want to learn how to sell out your private advisory coaching, keep reading.

The first tip that I have, when it comes to selling out your private coaching, is to design your advisory offer with your ideal client in mind. Start with the transformation first.

Many people will create programs, whether they are advisory offerings, or anything else, with the structure in the forefront of their minds. My clients will come to me and tell me that they want to hold a six-week online course, a three-month group program, or a one-year mastermind class.

They’re choosing all sorts of programs with definitive time frames and will try to stuff the transformations they are offering into the tiny little boxes that they've created. What they need to do is shape the box to fit the result that the client wants. They have decided on the delivery mechanism first, instead of what is best for their clients.

I teach my clients to do something completely different.? We create a signature methodology where they take their clients through 3 key milestones.?

The first thing you want to start with is transformation.

If you're going to be selling private coaching/advisory packages, don’t worry about the time frames you will be offering.

First things first:? What's the transformation that your client will have working with you? What's point A to point B, and what do you want to have happen? What is point B, and what is the gap that you need to bridge for them to make their dreams and goals come true??

Here's the thing:? You can have really big transformations, and you can have some smaller transformations, but they don't need to be the same offer.

For 80% of clients who are investing in your signature program, what is that transformation going to be?

What is it going to look like?

When I launched my first signature coaching package back in 2014/2015, the transformation that I had in mind was to have people escaping their corporate jobs, and making enough to cover their salary.? That was so they could confidently make the leap. In 6 months, we would build a brand new business that did 50-100k in revenue.?

That was my goal, so that was the transformation I had in my mind.

Point A is where your client is struggling. They are in a job they do not enjoy, and want more freedom and their life back. Point B is where they will have monthly recurring revenue, the ability to escape the corporate world, and have developed a viable business. They are bringing in enough to give them options. Not any different to what I do now; helping accountants escape the compliance cage and create a freedom-based practice. What I do has never really changed.?

The transformation for my clients, back in 2015, was saying goodbye to corporate and hello to a consistent income generated by their own business or self-employment.?

The question I had to ask myself revolved around how my client would get to the point where they were generating enough money to escape their job. What would they need to learn and experience, and what did they need to have in place to get to that point??

I started by writing out a list of things like content, marketing, branding, messaging, offer, and hiring their first virtual assistant.? I even worked with an accountant, who showed them how to set their business up from scratch, so it was set up in the right way.

I wrote about this signature methodology in the 5 steps I listed in my first book, ESCAPE - the Definitive Guide to Escaping the Rat Race.

This signature methodology accomplished two things. First, I had a framework for my marketing.? Second, it gave my clients a clear framework for what we were working through together.?

It never felt like they were just getting on a phone and asking me random questions for an hour a week. They actually had a process to follow, and they felt very safe knowing there was a method. They had control over what they needed to learn and put into action. Every step they had to go through was filled with intention and was leading them towards the transformation they wanted to achieve.?

The structure that felt best for me was to have clients meet with me every other week for 50 minutes, and they would stay with me for six months. This included giving them email access. (By the way, I do NOT do this now. My private coaching clients have WhatsApp access—I do not have email in my life.)?

They would email me. In return, I would assign them a to-do list, and they would share files with me, along with returning worksheets for me to check.?

That was the best possible structure for the transformation, knowing the process I had to take them through.

The first tip, when it comes to selling out your advisory offering, is to be able to understand why your offer is designed in the way that it is.? Then go communicate that to your ideal clients; communicate that on sales calls; and communicate that in your marketing.

If people don't know what your advisory offer contains, or if they don't know why they need everything that's included, they're going to have questions and doubts. However, if you sell them on your process and your approach to advisory, you're going to sell them on the package. Be clear on what is going to be best for your ideal client. and not how long you think it should be, or you want it to be.? Keep what the client needs in mind. Focus on transformation, not transaction.?

My second tip revolves around creating urgency with a launch strategy.

It is all about creating a sense of urgency by treating your advisory offering like a launch. Typically, in the advisory field, we don’t have a specific offer for a specific client, so you must get your signature process in place. You have a secure offer to sell.? The key is not to let this offer, or variations of your offer, become stagnant.?

If potential clients believe they can sign up anytime for your advisory services, they may never do so. People often delay action if there's no sense of urgency.

Let me share with you this game-changing strategy:? Treat your advisory offer as a launch. This approach introduces your advisory offering as a fresh, time-sensitive opportunity. I used this method in my early coaching days.? For instance, I had a week where I heavily promoted my private coaching packages. The urgency of a limited-time offer, combined with the excitement of a launch, significantly boosted sign-ups and even led to a substantial cash influx.

During that week, I also conducted a seven-day livestream series on Facebook, tackling various client attraction topics. This engaged a larger audience and generated a ton of visibility online, which introduced new people into my world.? It nurtured those who were ready to buy and gave new people an insight into what I stood for.

Launch strategies are great, and the secret is not to get caught up in thinking you can only launch a specific offer once. It's about using different angles to launch the same thing multiple times in a year.? As you get better at delivering your advisory offering, you will refine it further.??

Refining your offer means that you will develop a new way to articulate it.? When you have something new to say, or have something to say differently, you can launch again… and again…. and again!?

?Another tip is to launch your offering with different hooks. ? One launch could be the actual service offering. Another time, your launch could just involve getting calls booked in the diary.? A live event you are holding where you fill the event and fill your advisory offering is yet another type of launch.? It takes a little bit of thinking about the launch model, but it can be very viable and very rewarding. You are making a big impact when you are in launch mode.?

It is now time to cover my third tip, which is all about the one-time session upsell.

The one-time session upsell is a very powerful way to demonstrate how great you are while giving the client a quick win. It could be one of a whole host of options. You may offer a 2-hour planning session, or maybe a profit-boosting power session. (It could even be a Xero training session.)

Using one of these sessions as a jumping board, you can sell people into your long-term advisory.

Let's say you have a 12-month program priced at $2,500 a month, which would be $30,000 for the year. You could offer a half-day goal-setting or planning session for $1500. Then, at the end of the session, ask your client about their experience and takeaways. This is a good way to introduce your longer-term program, where you credit the cost of the planning session to the total price.

This approach is psychologically compelling. Clients feel they're getting a deal since they're "saving" the cost of the initial session. It's a powerful sales technique that I've leveraged multiple times. Even during my launch phases, I offered these bite-sized sessions, which effectively led to more extensive commitments.

In summary, remember, the key to selling out your advisory services lies in creating urgency and smartly utilizing initial, lower-cost sessions to lead to more comprehensive packages. By using these strategies, you're not just offering a service; you're providing an experience that clients are eager to embark on.

Remember, the goal is transformation and results. A client who experiences your expertise in a shorter session will be more inclined to imagine the possibilities of a longer commitment.

We are now on to the fourth tip, which is all about getting comfortable with the sale.

Becoming comfortable with the sales process is a common hurdle I've noticed, especially with my new clients.? It is the discomfort they have when asking for the sale. If you're able to get potential clients on a discovery call, but struggle to close them, it's often due to a lack of confidence in this area.

Here, we need to reframe sales as a whole. If you transform your perspective on sales, you can transform your profits. Some of you might be tempted here to say, “Ohhh, Amanda, everyone I speak to buys from me!” That leads me to think that you probably have a pricing problem.? We don't want everyone to buy; we want the right people to buy.?

We may avoid sales by undercharging because we are uncomfortable with sales. We make it easy for our clients and ourselves. Being uncomfortable with sales shows up in many ways.?

Here is the solution:? Rather than seeing it as a pushy or unpleasant task, view it as an opportunity to serve. Focus on understanding the client's pain points, and how your services can facilitate their journey from point A to point B. Bring a mindset of service and help to the conversation, and you'll find asking for the sale becomes much more natural and effective.?

Additionally, don't rush the sale.? After presenting your offer, pause and allow the client time to consider. This space is crucial, and it can significantly impact the outcome of your sales efforts.

Sales are about helping.? Movies, such as The Wolf of Wall Street, have conditioned us to think that sales are slimy, and not about helping people.? This could not be more wrong!

Sales are all about helping people. There are people out there right now, desperate for help! If you do not sell to them, they could lose everything.?

Selling is serving, and with that reframe, you will sell a lot more in the right way.?

Let’s bring this subject home, and move on to tip five. This is one which most people forget; the fortune is in the follow-up.

Rather than constantly casting a wide net indiscriminately regarding your offerings, focus on warm leads. These are individuals who have already interacted with your content or your accounting services. Your compliance clients could be warm leads.?

I find it very interesting when accountants tell me that their clients are not ideal for advisory services.? They assume that compliance clients can’t afford them, or will not pay them. This assumption is often wrong. If you do not offer them help, they cannot say yes or no.? Your job is to offer better help to current clients.? If they refuse, then that is their choice, but you must offer it to them. Nothing will annoy you more, than if you do not offer, and you find out that they have dropped 50k on business coaching for the year. Your clients are warm leads, and you need to offer them more services!

Going back to those who haven't yet bought from you, you can keep track of these leads, perhaps in a simple Google sheet, and regularly reach out to them.? This can drastically improve your conversion rates.

Remember, it often takes multiple touchpoints before someone is ready to invest in your services. By nurturing these warm leads, you're not only increasing your chances of a sale, but you’re building a more personal and meaningful connection with potential clients.

There you have it— 5 ways to sell your advisory services.

?Let’s recap:?

1. Design your offer with the transformation in mind first.
2. Create urgency with a launch strategy.
3. Provide one-time session upsells.
4. Get comfortable with the sale.
5. Follow up with warm leads.

I leave you today with one final thought. Always keep in mind that your work is a service to the world, and getting paid for it is a fair and necessary exchange. With these tools and mindsets, you're well-equipped to make a significant impact as a business advisor.

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