In a post at LinkedIn, Luke Havard addresses the complaint that “You’re too expensive.”
We’ve all heard that from prospects or clients, and sometimes it’s true. If it’s the wrong client or if that client doesn’t truly need your services, then it’s time for a friendly farewell.
But Luke points out three sources of that observation:
- The prospect doesn’t see any difference between you and your competition.
- The prospect doesn’t believe you can solve the problem or help reach the goal.
- The prospect doesn’t need your solution.
The answer, he says, is to market to the right audience and clearly communicate your value.
When was the last time that you saw Bentley, Ferrari, Porsche, Rolls Royce, Lamborghini etc doing a special sale or offering a discount?
~ Luke Havard, You’re Too Expensive
How you do that is a separate question.
If you follow the marketing gurus, you’ll hear a million techniques. And what you learn from the legitimate experts is good stuff.
But let me tell you about a force multiplier for marketing techniques: authoring a client-attracting book.
Let’s look at how a book addresses Luke’s three observed problems:
A Book Separates You from the Competition
Writing a book makes you stand out from the crowd. If it’s professionally written and produced, the fact that it exists makes you an expert in most people’s eyes.
A book also allows you to speak directly and specifically to your ideal clients. If you craft it to meet their needs, they’ll find their own story in its pages, in their language, and giving them hope for the transformation you offer.
A Book Shows that You Know Your Stuff
The content of your book shows your process. Your readers understand what you do and how it works.
A book also gives you a chance to give a context to what you do, so that your readers get the bigger picture. Because it’s a longer work, you have more room for the “why” — and that helps the “what” and the “how” to make sense.
A Book Shows the Value of What You Offer
It may be that a prospect doesn’t need your services.
But all purchasers go through a buying process from not knowing their need to actively seeking the best solution. The need is just as strong for the person who’s unaware of it, but you can’t rush a sale to someone who’s not ready to buy.
The book lasts. It gives the prospect time to hear you out. Without pressuring, it simply makes your case.
And at the end, if the prospect truly doesn’t need your services, well, the book may be passed on to someone who does.
Magnify Your Marketing
No matter your mix of marketing techniques, a book may be the force-magnifier you need to gain traction against a crowded field of competitors.
It allows you to stand out from the crowd — as someone with unique and valuable skills.
It shows that your offer meets the needs of a specific audience, so that you understand their problems and how what affects them is so different from everyone else.
It allows you to make a lasting case before a growing group of people.
No matter if you use your website, social media, email marketing, online or offline advertising, or some combination of all those, your book gives you status and authority and opens doors of opportunity for you.
