Here's How You Can Charge $500,000 for Your Services Learn the kinds of questions you need to ask for potential clients to raise their hands and say, "Yes! I'm in!"
By Mike Koenigs •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Have you ever wondered how to charge $50,000, $250,000, $500,000, or more for a professional service or product?
How do you influence and persuade someone in 1-2 conversations instead of 9-27 points of contact? What kind of scripts or systems need to be in place to close and enroll a perfect-fit client? What kind of questions do you need to ask for people to raise their hands and say, "Yes! I'm in!"
Over the last 30 years, I've sold over $60 million worth of products and services online and face to face. I'm completely obsessed with the idea of creating the shortest sales message possible so a perfect fit prospect shows up to your business, website, phone call, or Zoom meeting and says, "I already know I want to work with you, how do we start? I've been looking for someone just like you!"
Related: How Much Should I Charge Clients?
I've been able to consistently create systems that work for myself and clients that reduce the conversations to 1-3 conversations max. Best of all, it doesn't feel "salesy" or manipulative to the prospect or you.
And once you have your marketing and sales message figured out, the next step is to build a replicable and scalable system with automation to do the tedious, repetitive work.
This article and companion video will give you actionable "what's working now" strategies, tactics, tips and secrets that I use all the time with my clients and their teams.
RELATED: Use the 'SuperBeing Breakthrough' to Get Paid for Who You Are Instead of What You Do What It Means to Be a Hero 25 Ways to Make Your Zoom Meetings Awesome!
Step One: Connect with Mobile, Give Massive Up Front Value
As soon as you connect with your prospect for a sales conversation (via phone, Skype, Zoom), get their mobile number. For example, I say "Hey, if it's okay with you, I'd like to record our conversation today and give you the recording and transcript." (I use Otter.ai which gives you real-time transcriptions.)
"Without exception, everyone I chat with experiences multiple breakthroughs and you won't have to worry about taking lots of notes. Would that be helpful?" Everyone says yes. I'll say, "In case we get disconnected, what's your mobile number? When we're done, I'll text a link to the recording, transcript, and video and you'll have my direct contact info. Providing value first is critical to this process. It's simple and very effective.
Step Two: Sell the Transformation, Not a Transaction
No matter what business you think you're in… you're in the transformation, not transaction business. That mindset alone is the single most critical part about doing high ticket sales.
Sell the outcome, benefit, result, and transformation. I help my clients craft premium offers that are three to twenty times higher than anything they've ever sold before.
That might sound impossible, but it isn't. It's all about positioning, packaging, crafting a great message, and adding stories, prestige, and mystique. No business or industry is unique. It requires you to adopt a different mindset, level of self-worth and self-value. You are going to attract exactly who you deserve based upon the words that come out of your mouth and taking on "the servant mindset."
You aren't delivering a product or service, you're delivering a before, during, and after experience on a "Hero's Journey". Imagine a movie, starring your customer as a hero with you, your product, or service as the "guide", leading them to defeat their enemies, retrieve a magical power, and live happily ever after.
It's about turning your delivery into creating and capturing irrefutable proof of an experiential transformation. Every "transformation" becomes a testimonial that can be used to enroll more clients or customers.
Step Three: Sell a System, Not Time or "Stuff"
No matter what you're delivering, it's critical that you create a framework around it that embodies and transfers trust. I call this moment a "transfer of certainty" — when you have a blueprint or "step-by-step" system that serves as a guide towards success.
The four-step framework I use is called; Market, Model, Message, Medium.
Market: Who Do You Want to be Hero To? Who is your ideal client or customer?
Model: What is Your Offer? What is your business model?
Message: What is the story the prospect needs to hear in order to raise their hand and say, "yes, I'm in"? The perfect enrollment conversation or "pitch" engages the prospect in a movie, starring them as a hero with you or your product as a guide.
Medium: What channel are they receiving the message?
Will they read it? Listen? Watch? Whatever will capture the attention of your prospect, guide them through the journey in a way that will influence and persuade them to the sale.
For example, one of the ways I sell people into my service is I teach them my framework on a sales call. I openly describe what we're doing so they experience a transformation or "aha moment" by going through the experience. They walk away with clarity, focus, a roadmap, and destination — essentially a movie, starring them as a hero, with me as a guide.
Related: How to Set Prices When You're New in Business
When we're done with our first conversation, I simply say, "Now that you know where you want to go and how we're going to get there, my last question is, do you want me to help you?"
The answer is almost always yes.
I recently recorded a special podcast of the Capability Amplifier where I teach these techniques. It's everything that I've learned about influence, persuasion, and enrolling high ticket clients over the last 30 years in 40 minutes, including how to go from a face-to-face business to being virtualized, digitized and de-materialized and how to scale it with your sales team. Watch the YouTube video here!
Learn more about Mike here: www.MikeKoenigs.com
