Lesson 4 of 4:
“The 10% Rule For Generating Outstanding Client Results And Making Your Clients Happy Working With You…”
From : John Pagulayan
San Pedro, Laguna
Missed any of the prior lessons?
If so…
Now brace yourself because this is gonna be a loooong one.
Alright, before we begin, let me show you something…
What do you see?
Testimonials?
Wins?
Raving clients?
Now most people who’d see those (including clients) would be quick to say that I’m probably one of the baddest email copywriters alive.
But I digress.
The images alone don’t tell the whole story.
Because any mediocre email copywriter could have had the same results I had — if only they knew this 10% rule.
More on that in a moment.
First, let’s start things off by telling you three things EXCEPTIONAL freelancers are really good at.
Things that if combined with the first three lessons, can explode your freelancing potential in such a short amount of time.
Here they are in no particular order…
1. Increasing Perceived Value.
2. Uncovering Client Assets.
3. Spotting ‘Hidden’ Opportunities.
And I’m telling you this because of one simple fact…
That no matter how many client generating tactics you apply nor how many strategies you use for signing up premium clients…
Your freelancing career will not take off unless you give real value and results to your clients.
So the purpose of this final lesson to help you generate easy wins for your client’s business earning you their admiration and trust.
Which for me is the holy grail of freelancing.
Like we discovered in Lesson #3…
And the three things I mentioned above could help you achieve just that.
Let’s start with the first one…
Increasing Perceived Value
It only makes sense that to charge premium rates, you have to provide premium results.
But don’t worry, this isn’t as hard as it sounds.
Because one thing I’ve noticed as I continue to ramp up my rates is that the focus to QUALITY of work doesn’t really increase much compared to what most people think.
In fact, the same emails I’ve written for $12 a piece when I was starting out…
Is the same emails I’m writing for $3k to $10k.
Does this mean I’m scamming them out of their money?
Hardly.
And the difference between me charging $15 to $10,000 is that I’ve learned to increase the perceived value of my service.
You see, whatever your client’s business is, their goal is to either SAVE money or make MORE of it.
So if you’re a website builder…
You can make the website pretty.
You can make it fancy.
You can even put all the bells and whistles.
Yet the ONLY reason a client would want those services in the first place is to attract more website visitors are clients and nothing more.
As such, one thing you may want to find out from your prospect is how much is an average customer worth.
Ex: 1 customer = $500
From there, you can ask them how many customers can they generate from every 100 leads (subscribers). This will give you an idea of their conversion percentage.
Ex: 10 customers out of 100 leads = 10 new customers (10% conversions.)
10 (customers) x 500 (price) = $5,000
With those two questions alone, you can pretty much sum up that giving them 100 leads every month from the website you created will result in 10 customers which is equal to $5,000 in revenue.
Still with me?
Cool.
But let’s probe a little further and ask your prospects how many people are landing on their site every month and out of those visitors, how many of them become subscribers?
This will give you a clue on whether it’d be EASY or HARD for you to generate them that kind of result.
So the question you should be asking yourself and probably your client is asking too is…
“What can I do to make sure they’re gonna get those 100 subscribers/leads?”
Think of what you can ADD to your service to make whatever it is that you’re going to create even more EFFECTIVE.
In this example, one could…
Study website optimization so that every visitor that goes to the site becomes a LEAD (e.g. popups, landing page, etc.)
Learn copywriting to make sure the ‘copy’ on the site is on point and people who land on the website gets interested to become a lead.
Or discover how to craft enticing offers and persuasion to make sure that the ‘bribe’ or the ‘offer’ is enticing enough for people to opt-in.
So that on your proposal/strategy, you could add these “mini-services” to make your offer DIFFERENT and more ‘results’ focused than any other freelancer they would ever encounter.
This allows you to charge premium because they have NO ONE to compare your services to.
And here’s another example from my newsletter…
This is probably THE MOST IMPORTANT — and probably the most boring — email you’ll receive from me so make sure you pay attention to every detail.
I have to admit, this is a bit high-level so it may take a couple (or several) readings before some of the ideas and strategies make sense.
You see…
A good friend of mine, a transcriptionist, seems to be having a bit of trouble ‘positioning’ herself.
She told me…
“All I could call myself is a Fast, Accurate Transcriptionist because I could most likely do all audios that fall under the General Transcription category. And if clients would ask if I could do a podcast, interview, sermon, etc, I would still say, “Yes, I do.”
Now don’t get me wrong… she’s already making good money from her freelance business.
But what if we can increase her business — 6-figures a month more?
Think about it, clients are already paying for her services.
How much more do you think can she add to her bottom line if we can help her make a better offer?
So first, the important questions…
How will she be able to fit her services into what we call the ‘Revenue line’ so that her service won’t be considered a commodity?
What services do you think she can add to make her service more enticing? Does she even need to add a service or a skill?
How do you make a simple everyday ‘transcription’ service irresistible?
Let’s start with the foundation …
Phase 1: Who Do You Want To Work With?
“Finding out what people want before you create something or offer a service is the very essence of marketing”
Based on her previous experience, we already know there is a need for her services.
So the only thing left is to find which of her previous clients need her services more often than others.
Judging from the people she worked with, one can assume that it would be smarter to focus on those who need podcast transcription.
Why?
Because podcasters stick to a regular podcasting schedule.
Compared to speakers, online marketers, and coaches, podcasters publish content at a more regular interval(usually weekly) which gives you a chance for a stable ongoing work.
And just like that, we’re done with Phase 1.
Next is…
Phase 2: Develop A Skill That Fits Your Client’s Business Model
For most people, this is the hardest part of the 7 phases.
And it only makes sense because if you screw this up, even if you do the next phases right, your results will be reduced dramatically.
So what’s a podcaster’s business model?
People who do podcasting usually have these 3 business goals…
1. Build Authority. Some people don’t really try to monetize their podcast. They just use the influence of their guest to establish themselves as experts — enabling them to promote their own services.
Where you fit: If you can help them develop authority through additional marketing, like spreading awareness and such, the more valuable your service becomes.
2. Advertising. If a podcast has a huge enough audience, advertisers will pay $500 to $1k and above per episode so their product can be mentioned. The more audience the podcast has, the higher the advertising fee.
Where you fit: If you can help them get more listeners on every episode, the more valuable your services becomes.
3. Information Marketing. Some podcast owners don’t really care much about advertisers. Instead, they use it as a way to get more email subscribers for their own product/service/coaching. In fact, most speakers and coaches fall in this category.
Where you fit: If you can help them get more email subscribers (not necessarily podcast listeners), the more valuable your service becomes.
“John, how do you know such things?”
Research my friend… research. 🙂
Talking to podcast owners about their problems ain’t such a bad idea either.
So to summarize this phase…
If you can help them get more subscribers, more listeners or develop authority in the process, then you become infinitely more valuable than just doing plain transcription services.
Your goal is to make your service an integral part of their business model.
Is everything clear so far?
Great.
Now you’re probably asking yourself, “What’s next?”
Well, let’s head on to the next phase.
Phase 3: Find Your Audience
This is arguably the easiest part of today’s process.
Just a quick search on facebook using the word ‘podcasting’ was enough to give me dozens upon dozens of podcast groups with thousands of members.
All that’s left is to join in on those groups and connect with the existing members.
It can’t get any easier than that.
Phase 4: Position Your Offer
It’s where the rubber, meets the road.
To be honest, a simple name change isn’t enough to separate you from the rest of those offering general transcription services.
Remember that ‘positioning your offer’ also means packaging your service in a way that helps them optimize their existing business model.
So let’s review what we have so far.
Based on Phase 2, her service will look more valuable if she helped them:
Build authority.
Get more listeners.
Get more email subscribers.
So how can you transform a general transcription service to something that caters to at least one… or better yet… all three business goals?
Simple.
Create a package that answers at least one of the above needs (or all three).
Ask yourself, what can she do to help them build more authority without adding more skill or work on her plate?
Here’s an idea…
How about aside from transcribing the podcast episode, she also writes them 3 Facebook Value Posts based on the episode that she just transcribed?
This way, they’d gain the like and trust of the people in their immediate circle who’s not yet a listener of the podcast
And it doesn’t add too much work on her part because she already has the content to work with which is the podcast she just transcribed.
How hard do you think it would be to copy, paste, and tweak a few words? 😉
Next question…
How do you give them more listeners?
Here’s another idea…
She can leverage her client’s existing list of email subscribers.
If you do some research, most podcasters have a list of email addresses of their audience.
In fact, it’s one of the biggest secrets of bloggers and podcasters as to why they are getting consistent traffic without worrying about SEO.
All they do is send an email (like the one I’m doing now) and entice them to listen to the podcast or read a blog.
So how about aside from transcribing the podcastepisode, and writing them 3 Facebook Value Posts based on the said episode…
You also write them 2 emails which they can send to their subscribers to get them to come back and listen to her client’s podcast?
Again, she doesn’t have to write from scratch because she already has the transcript. Just a few adjustments here and there and she already has 2 short emails telling the subscribers to listen in on the latest episode.
How hard can that be?
Of course, doing these things are enough to increase her rates considerably.
But why stop there when she can still help them get more subscribers?
Say for example instead of just transcribing the episode, she also helped them turn the episode into a small 4-5 paged “lead magnet” ebook which they can giveaway to get more email subscribers.
Now you may think that’s a lot of work but remember that you already have the transcription.
You only have to tweak it a bit, put into a PDF and — ta-daaa! — you now have an ebook which they can use to get more subscribers.
But wait, there’s more…
You can also give them the benefit of having a SlideShare presentation for more leads.
I mean, how hard would it be to copy and paste the words you already transcribed and put it into bullets?
Following the suggestions we have above, she can technically tell a prospect when asked about what she does…
“I help Podcasters increase their brand awareness, engagement, leads and traffic through carefully planned transcribed content.”
Now compare that to saying…
“I’m a fast, accurate transcriptionist”
Which one do you think would get a favorable attention from podcasters especially when she starts telling them about her package and how it’s gonna help them?
Just imagine putting these services on your proposal…
- Podcast episode transcription they can give their listeners.
- 3 Facebook value posts for Authority.
- 2 ready to publish blog posts to rank better in Google.
- 1 SlideShare presentation for lead generation purposes.
- 1 short PDF report they can give to their followers for credibility.
How much do you think a client would pay for that?
I bet $200 would be considered small for that kind of package.
But say we stick to $200 per client.
Doing a bit of Math, you only need 5 clients (podcasters)at $200 doing at least 2 episodes a month to break 6 figures.
Best part?
The same transcription you’ve written for the podcast episode is the same copy you’ll use for all other marketing materials. So hindi rin siya masyado matrabaho
Notice how something considered by many as a not-so-highly-paid-skill can become so damn irresistible?
If you’re an article writer you can do the exact same thing — add services that compliments your existing skill and notice the PERCEIVED VALUE of your service go up.
Too bad most freelancers are too focused on UPSKILLING instead of complimenting their existing skill set.
It’s like a buying another car when you could just put turbo on your old one so you can go to your destination faster.
Uncovering Client Assets
Remember that old saying…
Okay, fine. It’s not a saying at all and more of a cliche statement women friends would say to me to make me feel better. lol!
But in all seriousness, that statement has a bit of merit.
Because more often than not, the results you create for your clients has less to do with your skill but more on how you make use of it by combining it with your client’s assets.
I was reminded of this on a recent call I had with a would-be client when we briefly talked about their revenue.
On the outside, their business looked spotless.
Over 1k customers.
New clients coming in like clockwork.
And they just had their biggest month ever sales wise.
But after all’s been said and done, with the acquisition cost, cost of goods, admin fees, product delivery expenses, employee salary, and miscellaneous expenses…
They’re only roughly bringing in over $60k in a year.
That right there is a huge red flag.
I mean think about it, how can you expect a company who only gets around $5,000 plus in revenue per month to pay you premium?
If you were in my shoes…
Would you feel comfortable charging them $2,000 for freelance work when that’s almost half their monthly revenue?
Here’s the plot twist…
I actually charged him $2,400 PLUS 10% in commissions.
Heartless?
Not really.
While on the call, I discovered he’s keeping a list of over 50,000 people that have YET to buy his product.
(They tried selling it once but not a lot of people bought)
I also found that he has a high-priced offer at $497, which he didn’t really want to sell hard for fear of being called ‘salesy.’
Now, picture this…
Even if I sucked and only got 1% of his entire list to buy (500 people out of the 50k), he still stands to make more than $240k.
But say that I performed horribly and only got 0.05% to buy…
That still means over $120k in revenue.
After all’s been said and done, we figured we can make him another 100k to over 200k without any expense at all — even if I’m not that good of a copywriter.
So let me ask you…
Would you feel guilty asking for $2k and commissions knowing he has over $100k in potential revenue just waiting to be made?
Doesn’t sound like a bad deal. Is it?
And that’s what smart freelancers do.
They uncover ASSETS they can leverage to make their service a no-brainer offer that clients would pay PREMIUM with a smile.
If you’re a social media manager, your client may have thousands of fans just waiting to be tapped and sold to.
If you’re a freelance customer/sales rep, your client may have a list of leads they already forgot whom you could call right now, sell to, and rake in commissions.
If you’re a freelance web designer, they may have hundreds of thousands of website visitors that aren’t turning into subscribers or buyers just because their website sucks.
And that’s the secret sauce really…
To get familiar with the assets that can help you make the work you do even more effective.
Because by knowing what to measure, what to leverage, and what ASSETS to look out for, it’s not only easy to give your clients results…
It also makes you confident about your service and how much you charge.
Doesn’t it feel better knowing there’s no way you could fail your client? 😉
Spotting ‘Hidden’ Opportunities
Freelancers are famous for being one-hit wonders.
Take a project.
Do the work.
Get paid.
Some have it better and ask to be paid before they even do an ounce of work.
(Which in my humble opinion is the right way to do it to avoid no-shows and non-payments.)
But just the same…
They have to work — again — in order to get paid.
This, in turn, creates a couple of problems…
Like lack of scalability for example.
With only so many hours in a day, it’s hard to increase your monthly revenue.
Unless you increase your fees…
Or decide to focus on client generation and start outsourcing work.
But what if *gulp*, something bad happens to you?
Just like an employee, without YOU, your freelance business stops generating income.
Scary, isn’t it?
Heck, that scenario has been on my mind ever since I started freelancing.
Now, what if…
You can do the ‘work’ ONCE, and still get paid month in and month out?
Sounds crazy to even think about.
Yet how can you explain money coming in from projects that I’ve only done once?
In fact…
I could literally stop freelancing right now and still make a healthy six-figure income each month.
Impossible?
Not really.
You could do something one time and reap the benefits every single month.
Especially when you discover…
That by simply looking at your client’s problems and opportunities from a different angle, you can easily identify one or several, revenue and profit increasing possibilities.
Like my friend, who only a couple of years back, was struggling to get clients to pay him the $2K USD to $5K USD he’s asking for funnel work.
For some reason, he was attracting newbie marketers — and most of them couldn’t afford his services.
But instead of looking at it as a problem, he decided to use it to his advantage.
His offer?
He’ll build you a FULL funnel for only $197 USD.
Now it may not look impressive at first glance, but here’s where the magic happens…
That fee is a monthly recurring fee.
So each month, clients would pay him $197, which, in a year is equivalent to $2,364 — the same price he’s asking for funnel work.
With a no-brainer price, a lot of people took him up on his offer.
And it didn’t end there.
There were still a lot of folks who are unable to afford the $197 monthly fee so he decided to create another package.
A full working funnel for only $97!
The catch?
If you take him up on his offer, aside from the $97/month fee, he’s also taking a 20% revenue share for all future sales minus tax.
(Only 10% – 15% rev share if they take the $197)
Now, remember, these are newbies…
So they didn’t really mind agreeing since most of them have YET TO EARN their first dollar.
In their minds…
“I can always afford to give 20% of nothing“
But following the 80/20 rule…
Out of 10 marketers, at least one or two are going to explode and make a name for themselves.
Which is exactly what happened.
Now, not only is he earning steadily from his monthly packages…
He’s also earning passively on revenue shares from a handful of successful clients.
The best part?
He could stop working right this second and still rake in $10K each month.
(Of course, he has to find a new client in case someone cancels their monthly subscription)
To think he just has to build ONE funnel.
And to do the same thing for his other clients — he literally just needs to copy and paste.
Impressive isn’t it?
It’s amazing how one can turn a disadvantage into an opportunity.
And more often than not, the reason why most freelancers are missing out on these kinds of opportunities is…
We’re just not looking.
And yes, even if you think you’re only a VA and have no whizbang tech skills to offer your client.
Because it’s not the skill, that makes this work…
It’s in your ability to spot opportunities in your client’s business — an ability almost never used by local freelancers.
Take Alvie’s case for instance.
She works as a virtual assistant doing customer support, announcements, ‘thank you’ emails among other things for a bed company in the U.S.
What did she do to generate additional income from her skills?
First off, you have to be aware that there are really only three ways to improve a business.
Get more customers.
Increase transaction value (would you like fries with that?)
And increase the buying frequency – get repeat customers.
Now don’t worry if these business principles sound foreign to you. We’ll talk about them more inside the program.
Anyhoo…
Knowing these basic principles, Alvie, identified one area her client is lacking from.
Getting repeat customers.
What’s even more important to note is this…
The more recent the purchase is, the more inclined someone is to buy from you again — there’s a science behind this phenomena but we’ll stick with the story for now.
Let’s just say it’s the same feeling evoked when you go shopping. 😉
So going back to Alvie’s example…
All she did was strike a deal with her client and asked if she could be an affiliate of the same company she’s working with.
(If you’ve no idea what an affiliate is, it just simply means getting a commission for promoting a certain product or service.)
The deal?
For every repeat customer she’s gonna give them, she’ll receive a 5% commission as an affiliate.
Now you may be wondering…
“How does this make it a passive income for her when she has to actively promote the product to get a commission?”
Turns out, she didn’t have to.
Since she’s the one sending the “Thank You” emails to new customers…
All she had to do was copy paste a quick blurb on the email saying that new customers are entitled to a 10% OFF on their next purchase.
Meaning…
She’s getting commissions for pretty much doing what she needs to do in the first place.
And to track her sales, all she does is check in with the ‘orders’ team (which she’s also a part of. lol!) on who used the 10% off coupon code.
No special tracking software required.
No additional work (it’s pretty much a template)
No super-awesome skill needed.
And she’s more than glad to do her VA work because she’s earning far more money from it.
See how this works?
So what do the images on the top of this page have to do with the three concepts I just shared with you?
A LOT!
Let me share with you, my dirty little secret…
(I swear it’s almost borderline criminal).
Remember the images above?
Now, the images aren’t meant to impress you.
On the contrary, I’m going to un-impress you.
Because I’m going to spill the beans about my “10% Business Model”.
What does this mean?
Look at the following testimonies to find out.
Exhibit A: The “Best ever, 224 in total! – woo hoo!!!”? Screenshot
Here’s the dirty deet…
I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary to get them that result.
I didn’t do anything different from what a normal email copywriter would do.
But during the call with the client, I found out that when they first launched their product, they only sent 3 emails.
Who launches with just 3 freakin emails!?
So what did I do?
I took them as a client, slashed my normal fees to about half and asked for a 10% profit share.
Why?
Because I know that increasing the number of emails alone, is enough to get them the results they want.
So I ramped up the number of emails for that launch and sent 10 more of what they sent last time.
Nothing special.
Nothing fancy.
All I did was send more emails and they were over the top happy about it. fancy.
Who wouldn’t?
That’s over $44,128 of profits they otherwise wouldn’t have.
Exhibit B: The “remaining 6 emails” screenshot.
The dirty details?
Before they contracted me, I asked if they can send me a doc containing all the emails they sent last time for their diet program launch and they happily obliged.
As soon as I received the doc, I already know I can beat the hell out of their last launch.
Why the confidence?
Two reasons.
Their emails were horribly written.
And two, I found that they were not leveraging the celebrity behind the product who was a host of a popular TV cooking show in Australia.
They keep using their generic company name when doing the opposite could’ve been better.
So all I did was change the ‘from‘ name of the emails to the name of the celebrity herself and sent the emails based on her personality.
(She’s the program owner anyway so it only makes sense that the invitation to enroll comes from her).
The result?
We nearly tripled her program enrollment from last time.
And all I did was leverage her celebrity status.
Exhibit C: The “top email copywriter in the world” screenshot.
The dirty deets?
They are already a decent 7-figure company when I came in.
Problem is, they were just unable to utilize their assets to its full potential.
In this case, they have an email list of over hundreds of thousands of people and they have done little to monetize it.
So I came to the rescue.
I sent daily emails selling the products they have and… BOOM!
Additional $56K to $75K profit every week.
And all I did was leverage their already existing asset which is their huge email list.
Did I do anything spectacular?
Nothing really.
It just so happened that the other copywriters they hired before me, were just too afraid to sell.
Had they done the same thing I did and sold daily, they would’ve gotten the same or even better results.
Anyway, by now you’re probably already seeing the trend and probably a hint on my dirty little secret — the 10% Rule.
And that is…
I prefer to work with clients that are already 90% there.
Clients who are almost about to reach their goal and all they need is a little push on my part — the remaining 10%.
These are my favorite clients to work with.
When I hop on a call with prospects, I EVALUATE their business and ask them questions to reveal any existing assets I can leverage or an opportunity I can take advantage of.
Trust me…
Spotting “profit opportunities” is the second best skill a freelancer could learn besides ‘marketing‘ because it’s 100 times easy to help someone who’s already helping themselves.
Less work.
Less stress.
More money.
If you’re a blog writer, would you rather work with someone who’s just starting to build a business with zero authority in the market?
…Or someone who’s just starting out as well but already has a TON of social media following which you can leverage to drive eyeballs to your article and get those ‘likes‘, ‘comments‘ and ‘shares‘?
If you’re a web developer, would you work with someone who doesn’t have a website?
Or someone who already has a website with consistent monthly traffic and doing a couple of tweaks to their existing website can generate them additional customers which they might not have had before?
Which one do you think will sing you praises in case everything works out?
And which one which chew your head off in case nothing happens?
I think you get the point.
And if you’re someone who believes in the ‘getting-rewarded-based-on-effort’ mindset, then this secret isn’t for you.
Why?
You’d feel awfully guilty for being paid tons, while having rave reviews from your clients, and establishing yourself as an authority from the results you’ve generated when you didn’t even have to work that hard.
Most of us have that kind of mindset.
Heck, I had that too. I felt so unworthy of both price and praise.
That was until I realized the brutal truth that…
The client doesn’t give a shit about how hard you work.
You can spend 24/7 on a project, work really hard until you almost kill yourself and it’d mean nothing.
In fact, they’d prefer you work less and still generate them revenue than work 40 straight hours on a project and return a big fat $0.
They’d let you go as soon as they realize that you’re an expense more than an asset.
Because what they really care about more than anything else is RESULTS.
Period.
And to help you absorb this long-ass lesson, let me ask you some questions…
When was the last time you were contracted and you analyzed your client’s business challenges at every possible angle?
When was the last time you were brought onboard and you checked their business for leaks or opportunities?
When was the last time you did client work and all you’re thinking about is getting the job done instead of how can your work get the job done?
Now, this isn’t a knock on your problem-solving ability but rather a wake-up call that if you only come from one point of view each time you take on a client…
You’ll miss more than what you’re supposed to see and your results will be significantly less than they could or should be.
Personally, I believe this is what separates the thriving from the struggling, which is why I purposely made it the last lesson.
Whew!
So on the first lesson, we busted some freelancing myths and discovered a shortcut to getting paid your desired rates without being the best at what you do
On the second lesson… we talked about the the not-so-secret process for having a sustainable, predictable, and consistent freelance business.
And on the third lesson, we learned a whole new way of generating clients for your freelance business by leading with value first.
Lesson #4 is a culmination of all that and more.
And if you’d like to know more about how you can implement this in your very own freelance business…