Why You Shouldn’t Charge Your Worth and What You Should Do Instead

Your Dream Business

If you offer a one to one service or are thinking about it, you are going to love today's episode.

Janine Coombes, and I talk all about marketing for one to one services, discussing why maybe you shouldn't niche straight away in your business, and how you can price with confidence. We also chat about why Janine doesn't buy into the philosophy of charge what you're worth, and how she advises to price with confidence at the level you want.

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

1. Janine's 'Reverse Niching Principle' explained
2. How to confidently price high-value services
3. Top tips for selling one to one services, focussing on risk removal and social proof

Janine Coombes is a marketing and sales strategist specialising in service offer positioning, pricing and sales for ambitious coaches and consultants. She’s a dynamic and engaging speaker who has shared the stage with Deborah Meaden and regularly appears on internationally renowned stages such as Atomicon, MarketEd Live and You Are The Media. With over 20 years of experience she has an extensive background in business and marketing having worked with big brands like EE, Orange and Europcar as well as hundreds of entrepreneurs and service based business owners. Her sweet spot is helping coaches and consultants to earn drastically more from their 1:1 services without slogging their guts out or moving to a more complicated business model. She has a business degree, a post-graduate marketing diploma (CIM Dip). She’s a skilled writer and one of the most creative content creators out there having garnered international attention with her sketch style show The Secret Marketing Show. If you enjoyed this episode then please feel free to go and share it on your social media or head over to iTunes and give me a review, I would be so very grateful.

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Download Janine's '6 steps to charging more with 100% confidence' workbook Download Janine's 'Coaching Sales JetPack' Connect with Janine on Instagram, LinkedIn or Facebook Connect with Teresa on Instagram, LinkedIn or Facebook

Transcript

Teresa: If you offer one to one services or are thinking about it, you are going to love today's episode. My guest and I talk around niching, pricing, and marketing your one to one offer. She shares why you shouldn't niche when you first start, and we discuss how pricing with confidence is key and why she doesn't buy into the charge what you are worth philosophy. We also look at how you can more one to one clients. And how to successfully get testimonials from those clients you've been working with. Hello and welcome to this latest episode of Your Dream Business. Thank you so much for taking the time out to listen to learn and to grow, which is something that as business owners, we should be doing all the time. But I really appreciate that you have chose my podcast. And I know there are a ton of podcasts you can listen to, So I really do appreciate you being here and thank you so much for tuning in. So today we are going to be talking with the lovely Janine Coombes, all about Marketing your one to one service. Now you might be thinking, but Teresa, I don't have a one to one service. Is this episode not for me? No, not at all. This episode covers so many good key foundations that actually, regardless of the services that you have, I think It's gonna really help lots of you out there. So we talk about pricing with confidence. We talk about niching, we talk about how to get more clients, and also things like how to get testimonials from people, which can be tricky and what to do if you don't have any testimonials. So there is so much good advice in this podcast that you are not going to want to miss out in. I would even go as far as to say that you should probably share this episode with one of your friends, business buddies, whoever it might be that has a business. And if they are offering one to one services like coaching, then boy, this is for them more than ever. So please do go ahead and share this with someone who you think it might be useful for. My lovely guest today is Janine Coombes. She is a marketing and sales strategist specializing in service offering, positioning, pricing, and sales for ambitious coaches and consultants. Her dynamic, engaging speaking has meant that she shared the stage with people like Deborah Meaden and regularly appears on internationally renowned stages such as Atomicon, Marketed Live, and You Are The Media. With over 20 years experience, she has extensive background in business and marketing, having worked with big brands like EE, Orange, and EuropaCar, as well as hundreds of entrepreneurs and service based business owners. Her sweet spot is helping coaches, consultants, earn drastically more money from their one to one services without slogging out their guts or moving to a complicated business model. So there is so much good stuff that you're going to get from today. I really hope you enjoy it. Without further ado, here's Janine. Janine, welcome to the podcast. Janine: Thanks for having me. Teresa: My pleasure. I realized that when I just said that I almost have like a podcast voice. Like I say things a certain way when I start the podcast. It's very odd, but this is how I talk. It's just, I just noticed how I said that. I was like, Oh, I always say it like that. Anyway, just a little insight for you and the lovely listeners. So Janine, let's start as I always do, which one day I might change this up, but we'll keep with it for now by explaining to my lovely listeners who you are and how you got to do the thing that you do today. Janine: Right. How? Oh, gosh. I mean, I could talk half an hour on that, but I'll try and keep it short and sweet. Hello, everyone. I'm Janine Coombes, and I help coach shaped people earn more from their one to one work without slogging their guts out. And it came to me, this, this mission of mine, over years. Over the many years of my marketing experience, my marketing career, and then working with service based business owners, like, it revealed itself over the years, and I realized that that's who I was working with. I was trying to appeal to a broader market, but actually, when I drilled down in it, it's what I did and what I needed for my own business was to get clear on my offerings, my pricing, my positioning, and then do the sales and marketing. And that's what I love helping my clients with. And they do tend to be coach shaped people. Teresa: Okay. Awesome. So you have a marketing background. Janine: Yes. Teresa: And how long have you had your business? Janine: Just over seven years. Teresa: So what were you doing before you did your business? Janine: So my, my original career was in house marketing for service based businesses like was telecoms mainly and broadband. So EE, Orange, spot of national renter car and Europe car. Yeah. And then I took a break to look after my kids or have my kids and look after them. Yep. And I didn't know whether I'd go back to my marketing career, because I kind of fell out of love with it to an extent, but I just couldn't keep my nose out. So I had some friends who were starting up businesses. I was like, we don't want to be doing that. I think, you know, like Janine. Go away. Teresa: I, that is me all over. I literally, this is why I have to be so careful with the services that I offer and how much time I give people because I can't help but go, Oh, I'll tell you what you should do. You should try. Because when you've been in marketing for such a long time, like, It's, it's in you, it's bred in you. So that's cool. I like that you came from a marketing background. How did you find, I'm only asking this because this is something I struggled with. How did you find marketing yourself as opposed to marketing a service? Janine: Well, funny you should ask because I thought, well, I'll set up my own business, you know, and at least the marketing will be easy. Teresa: Yeah. Good luck with that. Janine: Marketing yourself will be really, really easy. Teresa: It's a nightmare. Janine: I think it's been the most painful for me, nailing my own messaging. following through on the advice I give clients is hideous. I thought, you know, it took me a while because I thought I had to know all the answers. I mean, this is another little knot I got myself into. I thought I had to know all the answers and be faultless. And, People would expect me to be on all the social media platforms, but I held myself up to such a high bar. I think I thought I was a big corporate and I knew my brand didn't need to be on point. I had to have a perfect website and I needed to be on all the platforms and it was just ridiculous looking back. Absolutely ridiculous. Teresa: That, you know, it's so funny because you do think, you know, this is the thing I'm an expert at. This is the thing I do with ease. So surely it's just a matter of just doing it for myself. And it was the hardest thing and still is one of the hardest things like, you know, both you and I are in positions where we work with other people and we help them do their marketing. And yet you and I still need someone else to help us with our stuff because even though we know what to do, it's still not easy doing it. Janine: Yeah, absolutely. Teresa: There was like a million things I could talk about with you as, as you guys probably know, listening, when I ask people, either when I asked them to come on or they applied to come on, I get them to fill in a form that gives me like, where can we go with this? What kind of conversation can we have? And there are like so many options for Janine that I'm like, I almost don't want to pick one. And I want to kind of scoot into each one of them. Cause I think it will, it will help. So let's start with you sharing your reverse niching principle. What do we mean by that? And, and the reason I'm asking this is because selfishly, which actually most of the podcast questions I ask are quite selfish because I like to know for my own business, which surely is one of the perks of having a podcast. But selfishly, I am currently going through a new, I'm going through a business review and I'm about to do a rebrand and I'm just working on my customer profile questions for myself now and I'm debating moving down the niche type route. So I'm interested to hear your thoughts on niching. So what do you mean by reverse niching principle? Janine: What I mean by it, so the context, let's start with the context. I think there's so much about niching or niching and the riches are in the niches and people talking about it and I think And people who are just starting out in business, how on earth can you niche? Like, how can you, how can you niche? Like, I can only think of a few people that I've come across who, who have a, like an obvious niche where they obviously should go sharper with their messaging from the get go. And even after years, like I found my niche pretty much it was last year after like six years. And it was, it was a gradual thing. And what really helped me was thinking about it less about the niching of your whole business. So like top down, but actually thinking about being clear on who you were targeting with each offer, which is why I call reverse, call it reverse niching. Cause you're not thinking about, okay, Who is my ideal client for my whole business? You're saying, okay, I've got a series of offers. I've got one or two main offers or however many offers you've got could be like 50 courses, but each of those individual offers have an ideal client for each. So that is more important question. I think is for each of your offers, are you clear on who's going to buy it and why they would buy it? And for each of those offers, The target market or niche, if you wanna call it that. It could be very wide or it could be very small and it doesn't matter. And for me, it was much easier to think, okay, for each of my offers and for a lot of my clients as well, who is your ideal client for each of the offers? And then what's the theme there? Is there a theme? And then that can be your niche and it's almost bottom up. So you're looking at your offers, and then you're looking upwards and saying, oh, okay, actually my brand as a whole is appealing to these people. Teresa: So there's a couple of things I want to pick up on that you said there. The first one is very few people can niche the minute they start. I wholeheartedly agree with that, because at this point, and I've got someone actually in my world that is just starting in the coaching world. So she has a full time job and she's starting the coaching on the side. And the ultimate aim is to move fully into the coaching and stop the job. And she came on a call the other day and was like, I'm not sure I should niche. I'm not sure how I should do this. I'm not sure what my branding should be targeting. I'm not sure this. And I'm like, at the moment, I just don't think you can because you haven't had enough experience in it. You don't know what you like. You don't know what you don't like. And like I said, the reason I was selfishly asking this question is because 10 years in, I'm still questioning, should I be niching more? Should I not be niching more? So that was the first thing that I want to say that is brilliant. So if you are listening to this and you are early days in your business, do not be freaking out that you haven't got a niche, because actually I think you need to try so many different things like, and work with that person and go, Oh, I hate that. Don't want to work with those businesses again, work with that person and go, Oh, I love that business in that industry that, and actually I work really easily in that industry. So I think that is first awesome thing to think about. Also, I love the idea of, and again, selfishly, this is a really good exercise for me to do is am I clear on the different products? Now, being in business for 10 years means I have a ton of stuff, right? A ton of stuff. And yes, I have some core products that I sell, like the membership and the exec club and the group coaching program. However, like I have a ton of stuff and I'm constantly going, I really should do more with that. I have a whole course on how to build an email list. I barely talk about it. Like I have a whole thing, this, this, this, but actually, Looking at those products individually and going, who would be the perfect customer for that? Because I think I've got an idea for the overall arching customer. However, there is a disconnect and this is why I'm looking at it. There's a disconnect between who I want my perfect customers to be and the products and services I offer. So actually, starting the other way around and going, what are these aimed at? Then I can, it's just a different way of looking at it. So I loved that. I really, really loved that. So when you decided on a niche, how do you then get clear on saying, this is how I'm going to go after these people. And I want you to answer the question as well, in terms of like people often fear me included doing a niche because I don't want to put people off. And I don't want to, because I work with such a wide range of people. I love it. I don't want to suddenly go, Oh no, I can't work with you anymore because that you're not my niche. So what, give me your thoughts on those two very different questions that I've given you once. Janine: So how do you go after the, but I think that's the easier question. How do you lump it to that niche? I think If you do take this iterative approach and you're like, okay, I like working with these people. I like working with these people less. You kind of get a feel for where they are and where they're hanging out and how to speak to them. And you know, whether do your book podcast or a blog or whatever. And I mean, a lot of come, a lot of that comes from your own personality and skill set and likes and dislikes. So I'm of the opinion that it should fit you as much, if not more than the client. Like, you know, you could be, there's a florist who does really, really well on LinkedIn, you know, people, a marketing consultant would tell her to be on Instagram. Yeah. Why, why are you focusing all your time on LinkedIn? She's doing brilliantly there because she likes it. She knows the lay of the land. She knows how it works and because she enjoys it, she does it more. So. Teresa: Yeah. And I think that's really important as well to say around You've got to want to do the thing that you're, you know, so if, like you said, Instagram isn't your thing, but LinkedIn is, or the other way around. If you don't want to do a podcast, but you love speaking on stage or you like writing, then it's still got to be in line with you. You can't just go, well, customers would love this in this niche. So I really must go down that route. And actually, I guess for her, she is a big player in a small pond of florist on LinkedIn. Janine: Yeah. So it's the only person I know. The only florist that, yeah. Teresa: Yeah. 'cause I would go to Instagram. So the other thing, my brain keeps coming and going. I've got so many questions. I keep writing things down and like I'm not focusing very well 'cause there's so much to talk about. So the one thing I wanted to say was, and the reason I'm looking at my niche, and again I just wanna get your thoughts on this, is when I interviewed Amy Porterfield for the summit, one of the things that Amy said. Which I thought, I don't have that, is Amy is known for online courses, right? You want to go to Amy? You want an online course? You go to Amy. Like, she has done the same thing for like 15 years, taught the same stuff, showed up in the same places, has completely got her niche that like, like you said, you know, If someone thinks online courses, you think Amy Porterfield, if you're in that world. And I just didn't have that thing, right? I don't have a thing. And I was talking to Katie Caldwell, who's redoing my brand. And in our preliminary conversation, we're going to have a proper one soon. But I said it, I said it jokingly, but I kind of like, I am fairly serious. And I