At some point, every entrepreneur struggles with filling their program. Obviously, as evidenced by the droves of ads… there are a million ways to go about it. And still, entrepreneurs try one marketing strategy after another, sometimes with little or no results. When lack of sign-ups leads to dwindling revenue and profit… it starts to get really uncomfortable. Most entrepreneurs think that this is time for a solid plan, a marketing plan, however, the solution may have nothing to do with marketing.
Marketing plan problem or conversion problem
Linda called me in the middle of the afternoon one day. “Can I get your advice?” she asked. “Of course!” I replied. Linda was a longtime client. I knew her business well and loved helping her out.
“I’m thinking of hiring a marketing person.” Linda said.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because I can’t seem to fill my programs. I was thinking if I hired a marketing person… they might be able to help me get clarity on my message.”
“Is that what you want, Linda? Clarity on your message? I asked. “Or do you want to fill your program?”
The fact was that I knew Linda was concerned about revenue. She wanted sign-ups and was starting to get concerned that the program she loved wasn’t going to bring in profits. She was getting desperate in fact. Linda revealed that it wasn’t that no one was interested… it was that no one was signing up. She was having conversations, but she wasn’t converting.
Marketing wasn’t the problem
Linda had a sales problem.
As Linda and I continued to talk I could feel the desperation in her voice. I knew there was more going on for her that was just below the service. So, we started to do some mindset and motivation work to figure out what was really going on.
As it turned out, Linda had a fear of people thinking she didn’t know what she was talking about. That fear was a subtle undercurrent in her messaging and although her clients wouldn’t have been able to identify it themselves, they could probably feel that “something was off” with Linda. Linda thought she just needed more people to talk to so her plan continued to repeat in her head… “get more leads” but with this message that both spoke to her client’s hopes and dreams and her own fear of being rejected for not knowing what she was talking about… no marketing strategy was going to dig her out of this hole she was is. In fact, if Linda had invested in marketing help, she would have been seriously wasting more money.
The problem started in her body
The position Linda found herself in many entrepreneurs can relate to. The fact was that Linda tried all of the regular tactics (ideal client exercises, messaging workshops, etc.) She had done all the right stuff but nothing was working because her fear lived in her body, not her head. It wasn’t until she did somatic work that she was able to get to a new level and finally become a person who was closing sales.
Somatic work is body-centered work. The somatic work that we did with Linda was Sensation-Based Motivation coaching. By tapping into the felt quality of Linda’s fear, she was able to acknowledge and experience it in a way that allowed her to let it go. She was also able to tap into a felt quality of her “knowing” which gave her true confidence and true clarity from within.
Marketing a business is important. Marketing plans and strategy are important. But without clarity of messaging, we can’t truly connect to our clients. Building a marketing strategy on top of confusion or desperation will not provide the solutions, profits, and revenue we’re seeking as entrepreneurs. That is like building a house on quicksand. We need to be clear in our messaging before we invest in marketing support. That clarity needs to be felt in the heart and body and understood by the intellect in order to be truly magnetic.