One to one coaching or consulting is brilliant for launching a consulting or coaching business. You are able to dive deep into your client challenges and solve many of them quickly. However, there comes a time when you reach capacity and possibly exhaustion and you need to move to digital sales. How do you do this?
My name is Nick Jervis and I launched my consulting business in 2003. I sold my first digital product in 2007 (a PDF book) and launched my first membership programme in 2008. I was a solicitor before starting my marketing consultancy, so, perhaps not surprisingly, my first digital products were for solicitors.
Advertising Success Secrets For Solicitors was my initial offering which I believe sold for around £99, but is now on Amazon as a kindle only book for just £9.99 more as a ‘lead magnet’. It still sells and still contains my unique PASTOR advertising formula for writing great advertisement copy.
I then sold another PDF book for solicitors, The Cross Selling And Referrals Toolkit, showing solicitors how to cross sell their services and to generate referrals.
I then launched and sold my first membership course, once I realised that there was an appetite for my content having launched and sold the first two PDF books.
The process that I followed, and which I will set out for you below, is the one that I also suggest that you follow too.
Here it is in short form:
- Launch a one off digital product related to a topic of your expertise; and
- When you have the confidence, launch a membership site service whereby you are paid monthly for access to your training.
The reason that I recommend this method is for two reasons:
- It proves that there is an appetite for your advice in digital format; and
- It gives you the confidence that you can move from one to one coaching or consulting to digital sales. When you get to that point I can assure you that it feels very good!
Prior To Launching Your First Digital Product
It sometimes amazes me when I meet a coach or a consultant for the first time and I ask them how they generate their new clients, expecting only one answer really. However, they may surprise me and state that the way they generate their sales is by constantly networking to find new prospects.
“Oof, how horrible” I say to them.
“Yes, it really is”, they reply, “but there isn’t any other way to do it.”
Oh, there really is, and it is the way that I have always sold my consulting services and I haven’t undertaken any marketing since I started doing this.
The thing is, too, that it is absolutely vital that you have ‘this thing’ is place when you decide the time is right to move from one to one coaching/consulting to digital.
This ‘thing’ is an email marketing list.
Without an email marketing list there is no way I could have built a beyond six figure consulting business without leaving my office to do so.
There is also no way that I could have sold my first digital products without the email list of people ready and raring to buy it when I launched it.
If you don’t yet have your email list, my incredibly strong advice, boomed from a megaphone is START YOUR EMAIL LIST NOW.”
If you don’t yet have one and want some more information on why you need one and how to do it, read my article here:
What every business coach, consultant and mentor must offer from their website and why:>>
However, just trust me on the advice that without an email list you will never be able to move from one to one coaching/consulting to digital, so start your email list today with my free guide on the page above if this applies to you.
You will be amazed how quickly your email list will grow once it is in existence.
Launching Your First Digital Product
Your first product doesn’t have to be a PDF book, it can be in the format of your choice (or preferably your clients preferred format). If you prefer to record videos, it could be one or several training videos, or if you like to present webinars, it could be a webinar.
The choice is yours. However, I recommend testing a ‘one off’ product first before putting the effort into launching a membership website, which will take time to launch and a long time to prepare all of the content that you need to make the first sale, although, that being said, I give you some tips on this below.
Once you have prepared your product, you can then write your sales page, decide your price and use your preferred payment provider to get going.
My advice is to offer a special launch price for a period of no more than 14 days, then send several emails over the course of that period of 14 days with at least two or three on the final day (when you will make as many sales again at least as you have done over the previous 13 days). People always react to deadlines.
Use those first purchasers as guinea pigs, asking them for detailed feedback on what they liked about your digital produce and what else could be added to it to make it even better.
When they say that nothing else could be added because it was already fantastic, make sure you capture that review for use on your sales page going forwards.
Once you have improved your product with all of this feedback and added all of the reviews to your sales page, you can now do another launch at the full price. Those who missed out the first time may now decide to buy.
Many coaches or consultants worry that they can’t sell a product at a higher price than their initial launch price, but I can assure you that you can. Your clients will have forgotten the initial price and now might be the right time for them to buy. If they do notice the price has gone up you can remind them that you told them it would after your initial launch offer. Never reduce the price if someone asks; this weakens your proposition.
Once you have proved that you can sell a one off product, why not move to a membership offering to your email list where your clients pay to access material from you each month?
Launching Your Membership Website
Many coaches or consultants feel absolutely daunted at the thought of launching a membership website.
They see the prospect of writing dozens of training guides or preparing hundreds of videos as just too big a course, so they don’t take action.
Would you like two options to completely remove this fear?
The Sell Before You Prepare Your Digital Content Method…
When I launched my first membership website for solicitors in 2008, Marketing4Solicitors, I will let you into a little secret; I hadn’t prepared any of the content whatsoever!
I prepared the sales page, emailed my list several times over the course of the 14 day launch period, then I waited to see if anyone would buy what I was offering (which at the time I sold as a monthly PDF newsletter packed with the latest legal marketing tips.
Once someone bought, they received an email stating that they were going to get some incredibly valuable information in 14 days time, which they needed to be ready to action because it could seriously increase the profits of their law firm.
I then spent two frantic weeks writing my newsletter and sent it to them when it was completed.
Once I had made my first sale there was no way that I was going to let my clients down. They would receive their newsletter as promised, and they did. The fact that my first member is still with me some 11 years later suggests that the content has been good enough for them and that my launch method worked for both parties.
That makes me very happy.
Marketing4Solicitors is now a huge treasure trove of marketing goodies for solicitors, from training videos about Google Ads and Website Design to 10 printed newsletters every year, dozens of PDF books and access to everything else that I launch for them, including The Legal Syndicate whereby they are able to access all of my trusted suppliers for website design, graphic design, call handling etc.
However, it started off as just a monthly newsletter that wasn’t even written…..
But, there is another way, and I used this when I launched my second membership website, The More Clients Academy.
Here it is.
The Digital Content Drip Feed
I have always had a lot of business owners on my email lists and as clients who were not solicitors, and they kept on asking me to launch a membership website advising them how to sell their services.
In doing my research, I discovered that a lot of them were terrified at the thought of receiving access to a wide range of content and not having a clue where to start.
They wanted a more structured approach to growing their business, a drip feed of the content month by month which allowed them time between each batch of content to take action and implement the advice.
This made sense to me, as I know a lot of people who have spent thousands of pounds on digital products yet never taken any action due to not knowing where to start.
With 11 years of content under my belt, I stripped it all back, worked out the best order for it to be delivered to my clients in terms of achieving fast results and return on investment for them, and launched my More Clients Academy.
Using special membership software I am able to release each training Module at monthly intervals, but then in between each module I also send more snippets of valuable content to keep my members motivated, enthused and taking action so that they generate fantastic results.
Membership websites do not have to be hard but can provide incredible value to your own business and to your clients’ businesses.
Don’t miss this opportunity.
How will you move from one to one coaching and consulting to digital product sales and membership websites?
I have set out for you how easy it is to achieve this.
I have shown you how I have done it.
I have provided you with shortcuts and different ways to achieve your objective of moving from one to one coaching/consulting to digital product sales.
My question for you then is this: will you do it?
If you will, would you like my help?
I offer a complimentary strategy call where we can discuss your plans in detail and I can point you in the right direction of making the process as simple as possible for you. After all, I have been there, done it and got the T Shirt several times.
Simply click the button below to download my guide and you will also receive instructions on how to set up this call with me.
I look forward to speaking with you soon. You are going to LOVE your future coaching/consulting business I can assure you!
