Self Employed Success

Over the past several years, people have become accustomed to building personal relationships with a business via email. They reject companies and service providers where they don’t feel they’re being honored.

Your first email to them, your “Welcome” email, can begin that relationship, and turn a one-way conversation into a conversation that goes both ways between your business and your customer. Make it count.

Send the first email out automatically, within a few minutes after a person subscribes and opts-in to your email list. It can be one email, or a series of emails, triggered by a person’s joining.

Some tips on what you should put in your first email:

• Welcome them to your community. Remind them how they got on your list – did they sign up for a free offer, or did they make a purchase from your online store?
• Thank them. Acknowledge that you’re grateful they chose your content, or for their purchase.
• Talk to them about what they’ve signed up for. What kind of content can they expect? If they bought something from you, let them know how to access that item or when they can expect to get it.
• Give them more than they expected. Offer links to important and helpful content on your website, or links to audio files, documents or webinar and video content.
• Tell them how often they can expect your emails. You should be sending email newsletters at least once a month, but once a week is better.
• Provide them with links to your social media accounts as another way to connect.
• Answer frequently asked questions. Are there questions that pop up all the time, that an FAQ could answer quickly?
• Continue the conversation. If you promised something in return for their signing up, make sure you give it to them. You can also follow up to make sure they’ve received your email, ask them to fill out a survey about what they think. Remember: Even if it’s free, they’re still a customer. They’re consuming your content.
• Tell them how to unsubscribe. It’s important that you give clear instructions on how to get off your list.

Doubling down with a double opt-in

Sometimes, asking people to confirm their email address – known as a “double opt-in” – will be your first electronic correspondence with a client. By asking people to double opt-in, you’re ensuring a quality list of real email addresses. The double opt-in is meant to get people to click on a link to confirm their email address. Some people don’t do this right away – or they don’t do this at all – so you might have to send a reminder. You can also check the list of people who signed up but didn’t confirm their subscription to check for obvious misspellings in their email addresses.

A well-crafted welcome email – whether it’s confirming a person’s subscription or offering immediate access to your content – can build trust and a rapport with your audience. It sets the tone of future communication, starts a conversation, helps reinforce your brand and message and acknowledges how important they are to you. Consider it your calling card; it’s your one opportunity to knock their socks off with meaningful content that solves their problems or answers their questions. You want them to open future emails from you. Be warm, professional, helpful – and human.

I’d love to hear from you.

Are you sending out Welcome emails? Do you add anything to them aside from the 9 items listed above? Do you send them automatically or manually? Share your story, comments and questions in the Comments area below.

In 2008, Pizza Hut saw its sales drop because of the economy. Competitors were lowering their prices and offering discounts — and Pizza Hut figured they had better offer a discount if they wanted to compete with Dominoes Pizza and Papa John’s Pizza for a dwindling market.

So in 2009, Pizza Hut began to offer a large cheese pizza with three toppings for $10 (the normal price was $15). Then they sweetened the deal by offering unlimited toppings for the same $10 price.

And sales rose.

That’s a good thing, right?

Fast forward to 2011. The economy was easing and Pizza Hut (and the other pizza competitors) now wanted to reinstate their normal pizza price of $15.

And customers resisted.

Why? Because of two psychological triggers:

1. People had gotten used to paying only $10 for a pizza with unlimited toppings. When you increase the price back to the “normal” $15, people see that as a raise in price of 50 percent, conveniently forgetting the pre-2009 pricing.
2. When you lower your prices, you devalue your product or service. You’re basically telling people, “It’s not worth $15, it’s only worth $10. We’ve been overcharging you all along.”

As a business owner, what do you do when sales are sluggish and you want to offer a discount, but you don’t want to imply that your products and services are worth less by lowering the price?

Enter the Concept of Adaptive Pricing

Here’s the psychology behind the concept: Customers have different needs and place different values on the various aspects of your product and service (pricing being just one aspect of your offer).

For example, many customers value access to a live instructor above learning on their own, so if they have questions or are working on their homework assignments, they can get help from the instructor. Therefore, they’re willing to pay more for a live class than a self-study program. Some customers place value on group discussion and 24/7 access, and are willing to pay to be a member of a private membership website. Other customers value private one-on-one services and are willing to pay a premium price to get your total attention to help find solutions to their problems and challenges.

By knowing what your customers value, and creating pricing and discounts based on those values, you can increase customer satisfaction and sales at the same time.

Be careful of your OWN psychology: you might be a budget shopper yourself, but not all your customers are. If you constantly offer things for a discount (or for free!), it’s more about your own feelings about money and pricing than the needs of your customers.

For every customer who wants things as cheaply as possible, there are customers who demand extraordinary quality and are willing to pay for it. Just look at the different price/value levels of department stores (from Wal-Mart to Neiman Marcus) and you’ll see that there are huge ranges of quality, service, experience and price needs among customers.

So, You Want to Offer a Discount

Great! Offering a discount has a lot of benefits for your business. Pay attention to WHY you are offering a discount (to increase sales, to increase demand, to test a pricing strategy, or to get the word out about a new product/service) and price accordingly. But don’t devalue your product or service and don’t train your customers on a discounted price that’s not going to be around for long.

Three Adaptive Pricing Techniques to Use in Your Business

• Versioning. For customers who are concerned about price above all else, offering them your product or service in a different version at a lower price-point will serve them while still keeping your sales up. Here’s an example: I teach a 5-week teleseminar series called SEO For Everyone, where students submit their homework assignments to me for review and analysis, and have access to me during class to ask questions. That class is priced at $219. But for the budget-conscious student, I offer similar material in a self-study audio with the PDF transcript for $99, (and they don’t have access to me at all if they purchase the lower priced product). For customers who want private access to me to learn how to do SEO, create an SEO strategy, and want me to analyze their website for them, the price is higher. Each customer has a different need and by creating three versions of the service, I meet the needs of each type of customer.
• Additions for Free. Another adaptive pricing technique is to offer an “extra” or “bonus” for free, but keep the base price of your product and service the same. For example, you could offer your individual service to your customer at full price, but then offer them a free additional hour of your time. Walt Disney World theme park had a great success with offering their Buy Four Entry Tickets and Get Three Free package. But don’t offer pseudo free bonuses unrelated to the product or service that customers are buying. Customers are now savvy to the free bonuses that many internet marketers offer (like: Buy Our Ebook and Get $40,000 Worth of Bonuses Free), and it just makes people think you’re trying to fool them, lowering trust and harming the relationship.
• Unbundle. Everyone is telling you to combine a whole bunch of your offerings together, then give the customer a special price. But what if your customer doesn’t want everything in the bundle? Consider offering your main product or service at full price, and then offering upgrades at a reduced price. You could offer your live event for $1,200, then offer an hour of private consulting time for an additional (discounted) fee to those who are attending the live event. Or you could offer them an ongoing mastermind group for an additional fee. Or you could offer them recordings of the live event for an additional fee. That way, customers can choose which upgrades are valuable to them and you can clearly see which upgrades are the winners in the eyes of your customer.

The key here is to know your customer, and know what he or she values when it comes to purchasing services and products. If you’re not sure, test out several pricing strategies and see which one pulls in the most revenue.

It’s also important to pay attention to the economy and stop offering discounts when they are no longer needed to boost sales during tough times. Be strategic and think through your pricing ideas before implementing them so they don’t come back to bite you later!

In Part 1 of this article, I gave you some ideas on how to spot a crazymaker client (or student, or business partner, or mastermind group member – whomever you have a close business relationship with).

Now that you’ve got a list of how to spot them, you might be able to avoid getting into a business relationship with a potential crazymaker client. Sometimes you don’t know you’ve got a crazymaker client until you’re already working with them because they’re good at hiding their crazymaking traits until they’ve won your trust.

I think it’s time to bring in the pros, so I interviewed Wendy Pitts Reeves, a psychotherapist from Maryville, TN about how to deal with crazymakers. She’s been a mental health professional since 1981, and she’s a small business owner. If anyone knows how to deal with the difficult people in your business life, Wendy does.

Your own happiness and the health of your business must be your first priority.

When someone’s repeated behavior causes you concern, you have a right to protect yourself. Remember, you’re looking for patterns of behavior and how that client makes you feel.

Having someone act badly once may be a coincidence or a bad day; when they do it a second and third time, you’ve spotted a crazymaker and you need to handle it.

The Three Basic Steps

• First, admit to yourself that this is an unhealthy relationship. Trust your gut when something doesn’t feel normal. Check out Part 1 of this article where I talk about some ways to spot a crazymaker client. Speak with your colleagues, mentor or mastermind group to double-check your feelings about the situation and get an outside perspective.
• Second, give yourself permission to require boundaries in your business and be willing to enforce those boundaries as necessary.
• Third, ask your client to change their behavior, but don’t expect it to happen. They’ve gotten along for many years with this type of behavior and they’re unlikely to change just because you ask them to. If the relationship is worth saving, it’s worth asking for change.

18 Ways to Deal with Crazymaker Clients

There’s an old saying, “Rewarded behavior is repeated behavior.” Remember that the reward that crazymakers are seeking is a sense of control and power, typically by creating a negative atmosphere and/or making you doubt yourself. If you allow this to happen, you are rewarding this toxic behavior and it will continue.

1. Put everything in writing. Get them to sign-off on any major decisions, project plans, designs, and task priorities in writing. Wendy Pitts Reeves says, “Set boundaries about what you expect, in writing, and then they can choose to comply or not. Be clear about your policies, procedures, fees, cancellation policies, schedule, and availability.”
2. Constantly push back to the agreed-upon boundaries. Don’t let them keep bending the rules. Learn to say no. Don’t say yes, just to avoid conflict. Here are several ways to learn how to say no.
3. Tell them when something is outside the scope of the original project or agreement, and that it will cost them extra (or that you can’t do it).
4. Set and manage expectations. Tell them what’s going to happen next and how long it will take. If they want to accomplish something in 4 weeks that you know takes 6 months to accomplish, say so.
5. Remind them what will happen if they break the contract.
6. Talk to them about their behavior and ask them to change it.
7. Get them to pay up-front, or in deposits before you do more work for them.
8. Educate them on the process you use, on unfamiliar vocabulary, on anything that might hinder communication.
9. Be clear about deadlines, especially when they owe you information or a decision, or they have to take a certain action by a specific date.
10. Put your fees, price list, and any other financial information in writing, preferably in a contract. Have them sign the contract.
11. Limit communication to scheduled appointments; don’t answer emails just because your Inbox indicator flashes. If you’ve told them you don’t work evenings and weekend, never answer emails or phone calls from them on evenings or weekends.
12. If you don’t have it already, get Caller ID on your phone, so you can tell when it’s the crazymaker calling. Let voicemail pick it up.
13. If you will be out of the office for a day or longer, email them in advance of when you’ll be away and when you will return.
14. If they twist what was said verbally in a phone call, use email to communicate. At minimum, follow up all phone calls with an email “summary” of key points. Keep all emails, even after the project is over.
15. Don’t let their crisis become your crisis. If you’ve stated that you are not available for immediate tasks, don’t do an “emergency” task just to please the client; they’ll come to expect this type of behavior from you again and again. If it’s a true emergency and you agree to help them, explain to them what your additional fee is.
16. Keep asking them what THEY are going to do to resolve the problem. Don’t try to fix everything for them. Help them to create action plans and to implement them. (This is especially true in mastermind groups.)
17. Ask them what outcomes they want. Make them come up with concrete goals.
18. If the client doesn’t comply with the rules, if their attitude and behavior is causing problems and they’re not willing to change, let them go. Walk away from the business relationship. It is not worth hanging on to a client who is harming you and your business.

Don’t Get Defensive

Don’t get into an argument with a crazymaker or spend extraordinary amounts of time and energy defending yourself. They seek power, and when you become defensive, you have given them that power. Instead, listen to them, repeat back to them what you’re hearing, but don’t fall into their trap. Do not play their game.

Wendy says, “Stay neutral. Thank them for sharing their comments and thoughts, but don’t get into an argument with them about what’s right or wrong.” Say something like, “It’s interesting that you heard me say X when I really said Y, and I’m a little curious about that,” or ” I notice this certain behavior keeps happening and I’m curious about why you keep doing that.” Not judgmental or critical, just putting it out there. Then pay attention to their reaction. If they’re defensive, you’re not likely to get anywhere; if they’re open and interested, the relationship might be worth saving.

Happier You

A great final tip from Wendy Pitts Reeves: “Seek consultation. Talk to colleagues and friends, your coach or mastermind group, to think out loud about this problem. Someone who has a little distance, someone whose advice you trust and respect. State the facts, state how it makes you feel (you’re already emotionally involved and you can’t see clearly). They can help you be objective and get clarity about blind spots, and can brainstorm about what to do in each situation. Many small business owners work alone and having a group of people who you can connect with around things like this is essential.”

No one wants to think that this will happen to them, yet many, many people emailed me or posted blog comments after Part 1 of this article to say that this had, indeed, happened to them. Keeping your eyes open to people’s behavior and being willing to deal with problems when they arise will make your business a much happier place.

Did you find this blog post helpful? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. And if YOU have any suggested ways to deal with crazymakers, I’m all ears!