The 6 Dangerous Myths About Getting High Ticket Clients That Consultants Should Stop Believing
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As a marketing consultant, it’s likely that you’re being inudated with offers from dozens of guru’s on a daily basis.
However, many of the most popular and shared articles and posts that I see online regurgitate many of the same talking points and concepts that are widely believed, but aren’t necessarily true.
So today I’m going to share and dismantle six dangerous myths about getting high ticket consulting clients that are circulating consulting circles online right now.
Let’s get started:
Myth #1: Fake it until you make it.
This myth is the most dangerous myth that any consultant can believe. It’s so dangerous that it can single-handedly destroy your confidence and your reputation in your target market.
You should never fake anything when it comes down to someone else’s blood, sweat and tears that they’ve poured into their business.
You will get exposed at some point or another.
You need to know that you can deliver exactly what you promise you will. Plus, it’s unethical and downright wrong to mislead a prospect about what you can accomplish for them.
That’s not to say that you won’t have to take a leap of faith at times.
In fact, there will always be a point where you have to take a leap of faith that’s based on your past experience, what you believe you can do and what you hope to accomplish by using a principle, strategy or concept that you know works.
That’s not faking it. And that’s not what I’m talking about.
I’m talking about intentionally saying that you’re something that you’re not.
See, nobody usually minds someone they trust trying something new that they think might work for them because of past experience.
But everyone gets pissed if they know that the person they’re trusting with their time, money and energy is faking it.
And the best way for you as a consultant to avoid “faking it” is to invest the time to become a real expert on a subject or a niche by reading, studying and testing strategies yourself.
That way when you say (for example) that direct mail can work for your client, you know because you’ve had successful direct mail campaigns.
Myth #2: Simply Believe That You’re A Expert.
I’m sorry to be the one to pop your balloon, but it takes more than simply “believing” that you are a expert and should be paid a certain fee in order to get a prospect to actually believe you’re a expert and pay your “expert” fee.
Yes, what you believe is very important.
You need to believe that you can help business owners by sharing your knowledge or resources.
You need to believe that you’re truly worthy of success.
You need to believe that you can build a successful consulting practice.
You need to believe that you can become a real expert if you posses the knowledge, tools and resources to get results for your clients.
And until you believe those things about yourself, you shouldn’t go anywhere near someone else’s business and try to “fix” their problems.
However, just because you believe those things about yourself doesn’t necessarily mean that your target market will flock to you in droves and believe that same thing about you just because you believe them.
Myth #3: Just Raise Your Fees.
Now, there’s some truth to this one one, but it’s shrouded in a half-truth. Yes, at a minimum you should charge right around what other experts in your niche charge.
However, it’s one thing to raise your fees, but it’s another thing to actually get clients to pay that higher fee.
See, business owners aren’t stupid.
They actually shop around and get a feel for what the market is charging. And when they see that your fees are higher than what everybody else is charging for pretty much the same thing, they need a compelling reason to hire you.
Charging (and getting paid ) higher fees is all about getting a prospect to believe that what they will recieve from you is…
1. Superior to what they could receive from your competition for a lower price or fee.
2. Your higher fees are nothing compared to the return on their investment they’ll receive by choosing you.
And how do you get them to believe and trust that both of those things are true by working with you?
The answer:
By having concrete evidence that no one else has that shows them that you can do everything you say you can do and more.
In essence, you have to show them that they can reasonably expect a five, ten or twenty multiple of what they’re paying you.
Myth #4: Become a larger than life personality or thought leader and clients will flock to you.
That may be true for Dan Kennedy, Perry Marshall or Alan Weiss, but for anyone who is not on that level, you better be able to show what you know and prove what you can do.
Better yet, if you could hop in a time machine and go back to their humble beginnings, before Dan Kennedy was “the” Dan Kennedy or before Perry Marshall was “the” Adwords Guru, you would see consultants just like you who were struggling to “prove” that they could do what they were saying they could do.
Here’s the reality:
Business owners will pay to get your unique perspective as long as you’ve properly demonstrated that you’re a expert in the specific area that they need help in.
If you can’t “prove” that you can do what you say you can you will struggle, it doesn’t matter how magnetic your personality is.
Myth #5: Produce Lots of Free Content And That Will Prove You’re The Expert
Listen, I’ve tried every freebie strategy out there and I can tell you that they work to a certain degree but in this day and age of information overwhelm you need more than content.
In fact, Ezinearticles.com, Youtube and Facebook are littered with the skeletons of hopeful consultants and coaches who were told that by creating great content, they’d get all the clients they ever wanted.
Creating great content is part of the formula, but it takes more than writing great articles, recording good video’s and posting to Facebook to get clients.
First, you must be in all the right places to get your marketing messages in front of your target market, but at the end of the day, just creating content and “hoping” it attracts clients is a weak strategy at best.
Let me give it to you straight.
You need strategically created content that is in the right places and is designed to lead prospects right into your sorting, shifting and closing system.
Every piece of content you put “out there” needs to be attached to a funnel that leads right back to you.
Just throwing content up and hoping prospect magically find their way back to you is not going to be that successful.
So, yes creating lots of great content is right on. But, it needs to be placed right where your target market “hangs out” and it needs to be the front-end of a conversion funnel.
Myth #6: A Magnetic Message or Hero Story Can Be Your Credibility
While “creating a “magnetic message” or “hero story” that resonates with your target market is part of the formula for “attracting” your ideal client, it’s incomplete by itself.
A wise man once said “sell the sizzle” but that doesn’t mean that you don’t put the steak in the ad.
Makes sense, right?
That’s why you need more than a message or a story. You need indisputable proof and evidence that you know your target market like the back of your hand.
Your story may endear you to your target market or “tell” them that you have a certain set of expertise, but you still need to be able to give them something they can touch, feel and taste, so to speak.
If you want credibility with your target market, it’s going to take more than a rags to riches story.
You need to be able to demonstrate that you are the expert because you can get them the results they want.
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