I think we can all agree by now that times have certainly changed, the world looks different now to 4 months ago, even 2 months ago and in reality we don’t know when a return to “normality” will happen or if “normality” how we used to know it will even exist again.
Many offline service providers and consultants are now needing to pivot online, you can’t keep your business closed indefinitely and moving forward virtual is definitely going to be here to stay. But what route do you take to making a success of pivoting online?
Do you just throw up a website with some hourly virtual options and away you go, fully booked?
The short answer is no, it is unfortunately what a large % of consultants and service based business owners will attempt to do, just pick their offline to online and hope for the best, but there is a way you can pivot online quickly and not spend 8 months or more trying to make all of this work.
Find a niche
The first secret to successfully pivoting online in a way that means you actually stand out and get seen is to niche down, you want to be that big fish in a small pond VS the small fish in a very big pond. It’s important to remember that the online space is very busy, incredibly busy in fact and it’s full of noise every single moment of the day. The only way you’ll cut through that noise is to be seen directly and heard directly by someone who really wants what you do, and to do that you have to niche down, niche down so you can be really specific with your content, marketing and selling.
Create packages that sell the want
Your service or consults help people do/achieve/change/or get something, hourly packages when no one knows who you are online very rarely do well. If you already have a current audience then you can of course leverage them to sell those spaces but still you’ll likely need to be filling most of your days to the brim with hourly services to hit your sales goals. With high ticket selling you don’t do that. By leveraging high ticket selling to create a package that speaks directly to your ideal clients wants you’re able to raise above the noise, clearly connect and show value to your ideal clients, leverage your time whilst also drastically increasing your sales numbers. If you sold at the low end of high ticket 2-3 sales a month maximum would see you sell over 10k in a month.
Focus your marketing efforts
One of the biggest mistakes made whilst transitioning to online is to be marketing in the wrong spaces, just because you hang out there doesn’t mean your ideal clients do and you could try to create those funnels and freebies and drive ads but you’d likely be burning more money than you would making it. Another reason why high ticket selling is perfect for those transitioning and pivoting online is the volume of number you need is much less, you could sell 2/3 high ticket packages per month and only need to get in front of 10-15 people, most people can get in front of that amount of people with a video posted on the right platform to be seen by their ideal clients. Focus on where your ideal clients hang out, where they spend their time and where you can directly get in front of them.
Leverage collaborations
When I started my coaching business online in 2013, collaborations were my secret weapon and they continue to be a secret weapon currently. I went from no audience at all with no sales to over 40k in sales in under 30 days just by leveraging collaborations. Why do they work so well? Easy, you get put directly in front of your ideal clients in a way that people automatically trust you on a level they wouldn’t if they had just randomly found you online. This is someone they already trust telling them you can be trusted, that you are someone they should listen to and even work with. What does a collaboration look like? There’s a lot of options, everything from joint events, trainings to a simple giveaway.
Pivoting online doesn’t have to be really difficult, in fact if you leverage the correct tools with the right model you’ll be able to pivot online and make sales extremely quickly. The biggest mistakes people make are doing the opposite of the above, trying to be everything to everyone, trying to sell individual 1 hourly packages and simply marketing in the wrong spaces.
Focus on niching down, creating packages that sell the want and having a simple daily action plan with 3-5 activities and marketing actions that get you seen by the right people and position you as being the person who has exactly what they want.
