It’s becoming pretty predictable that whenever I post something about how it does not HAVE to take a long time for corporates to accept your 5-figure mindset, leadership or wellness proposal, someone chimes in that in their case it does because their offer is so complex.
Or “different” from the mainstream.
Or for some other reason. 🤷♀️
It’s time to dig into this!
Let’s assume for the sake of this post that you have done all the basics.
That means you have decided on a niche, you understand what the issues are that your prospects are facing and you have created a clear message about the overall value that your work brings to an organization (any doubts on that, here is a summary post that gives you all the details): https://www.facebook.com/MiriamGilbertImpactfulnessLab/posts/849423019101402
By the time you get to the proposal stage, you will have had a conversation with your prospect and hopefully would have asked them insightful questions too (here is a post on how to do that): http://impactfulnesslab.com/questions-to-ask-to-get-clear-on-what-your-client-needs/
Common mistakes I see – Lack of detail
But let me ask you this question:
👉 When you submit your proposal, do you outline in detail how every individual part of the work you are recommending contributes to the greater outcome?
👉 And do you outline what progress people will see after each part?
👉 And do you state what the value is of each?
Because in my experience from buying services when I was a CFO and from reviewing past attempts by my students, I rarely see that level of detail.
Let me explain:
Say you are a mindset coach empowering female leaders.
What I frequently see in proposals are things like this:
“In our group session, we will analyze the feedback from our leadership effectiveness survey.”
Or they say “During the workshop, participants will create their DISC personality profile.”
This is all well and good, but it doesn’t explicitly say how this links to the overall goal of specifically developing female leaders and what outcomes and value participants will come away with.
Another example I recently saw was from a mental wellness coach who was hoping to land a corporate tech client whose developers were getting burnt out.
The proposal stated:
“You don’t have to choose between having a “healthy mind” and “healthy body”. Our weekly workshops work on how to reduce stress while improving productivity which will benefit you and your employees.”
Again with the vagueness.
Neither does it explain how many weekly sessions there should be, what to expect after each, how they relate to each other and how this specifically helps stressed developers who struggle with work overload.
As I am neither a mindset nor a wellness coach, I cannot give you exact examples (and it would be unethical to use those of my students who are in that niche) but I can show you how I would approach this situation:
Part 1 – How to be more specific in your proposal (Mindset Coaches)
Taking the examples from before:
✏In the mindset coach example, you could say: “In our 90min kick-off session, we will analyze the feedback from our leadership effectiveness survey. This will help us establish a baseline for the participant’s perception of their leadership vs that held by others.
Analyzing the gaps allows us to decide on some quick actions and longer-term development goals. That means your female leaders will be able to track their progress throughout the program as well as make improvements in some of their leadership skills right away.”
(For bonus points, you can add that the value to the company is to see improvement in terms of increased effectiveness of their leaders and other links to the overall outcome)
Part 2 – Wellness Coaches
The wellness coach could say:
✏”We’ll run weekly workshops that are recorded for those who cannot attend in person. We recommend a minimum of X workshops to enable your developer not just to understand their personal triggers for stress, but to also develop a short and long-term plan on how to reduce unhealthy stress.
Each workshop will contain a bite-sized theoretical element (5 minutes max) and practical techniques to reduce immediate feelings of stress. This means that your people don’t have to wait for weeks before they feel any benefits from workshops.
Getting some immediate benefit helps motivate people to stick with their longer-term stress management plans which helps avoid burnout and reduces employee turnover due to stress”.
When you present your proposals (or your work in your marketing) in vague terms, you are asking your prospects to perform some mental gymnastics to link what you offer to their needs – hence the delays in getting back to you.
Yet when you explain how each part of your work contributes to the company’s goal relating to your topic AND the value of each part, you will see a much quicker response time.
What I can offer you
In my 1:1 intensive coaching program, I go even deeper with my students on what makes a perfect proposal, including things such as addressing buyer psychology and corporate decision-making dynamics so that your proposals should convert above 80% of the time.
📌This is after I help you focus on the right niche that you are excited about working with, support you with your marketing message so that you attract only those prospects who are right for you and show you how to find prospects that are ready to buy.
I will even teach you how to have simple but effective sales conversations that don’t ever feel icky.
The approach I teach you has helped me land multiple 5-figure clients who come back for my services year after year, win new business in just a few weeks and charge over $20k for 1.5 days of work.
What is more, my students have been able to land their very first corporate clients, sometimes in as little as 4 days and have been able to charge $15k for just 3x90min coaching.
As this is an end-to-end program that allows you to earn $100k+/year from 5-8 corporate clients in perpetuity, I have priced the investment for the program in the upper 4 figures.
📌I have a very simple process for those who are interested: just DM me and I’ll ask you a few quick questions to assess whether you’re a good fit to get results (no pressure to get on a hyped-up sales call).
If my approach is likely to work for you, we can get started at a time that suits you right away.
