This is all about how WordPress consultants can streamline their workflow and their cash flow while also providing a better client experience.
Here are some of the things we'll be covering:
How to get a project deposit during your first meeting with a client (both technically and strategically)
How (and why) to create a private page on your website to use for project management
How to share project milestones and collect payment for achieving those milestones
How to allow your clients to pay invoices on your website (either one-time payments or subscriptions for hosting, maintenance plans, and marketing packages)
These are all things that we can do – as WordPress consultants – to server our clients more effectively, provide better client experiences and make more money in the process.
If you want to get away from low-budget, small projects and you're thinking about raising your rates, there are three different pricing strategies you might be considering. In this session, we talk about hourly rates, fixed cost projects, and value-based pricing. Ultimately, as you move away from smaller freelancing projects into the role of a high-value consultant you are going to want to land on value-based pricing because you can charge dramatically more and it also creates the best outcomes for both you AND your clients.
The problem is the term “value-based pricing” gets thrown around a lot and there's confusion over what it means. For example, whose value are you talking about? Your value? The client's value? Also, what's the difference between value-based pricing and fixed cost projects? We're going to unpack all of that today.
One of the things that often gets overlooked is that your value is not going to be the same to all clients. I've seen a lot of people start to go down the path of shifting to a value-based pricing structure but really all that means is they have raised their rates for all of their clients and all of their work. The truth is that some clients will value your work more than others. The key to success is getting yourself in front of the clients who value your work the highest.
Once you make this shift you will find that other problems that used to be major roadblocks begin to fade away. For example, shifting to value-based pricing makes it pretty obvious what to say on your own website. So, if you're stuck trying to figure out what to say on your website and you don't just want to list the same services that everyone else is listing, then this value-based pricing shift will give you some clarity with how you define and market your business.
Also, this shift will enable you to literally charge 5x to 10x more than before without having to work more hours. In fact, you'll probably find yourself working fewer hours because you will be cutting out a ton of time-wasting “free” work. For example:
All the research and discovery phases for projects you don't win.
Writing proposals that don't get accepted.
Writing blog posts that nobody ever reads
Posting endlessly on social media
Wasting time meeting with unqualified clients
If you have been trying to figure out how to increase your rates without pricing yourself out of the market then this is for you. This is what “working smarter, not harder” is all about.
Have you ever wondered how some people are able to sell five-figure WordPress projects while everyone else is struggling to squeak out even $1,500 for their work? What's the secret? Do they have access to some hidden club where all the high-value clients hang out?
A lot of people think that spending over $500 for a WordPress site is a rip-off because it just doesn't take that long to build a site and almost anyone can do it with today's powerful page builders. You don't even have to know how to code to create some pretty amazing looking websites. So, what is the key to justifying your rates if you are charging 10x that price?
Having run a web agency for over 17 years, I have seen two approaches to high-ticket consulting. One approach boils my blood; the other is genuinely thrilling.
If you've been wondering how to get into high-ticket WordPress consulting without losing your integrity and without throwing honesty out the window, then this is for you.
Last week we talked about how to get the confidence to raise your rates. After that session people were asking how to know if they were actually ready to make that price shift. I was getting questions like:
Are my skills really worth high-ticket rates?
If I raise your prices will lose all my clients?
Where do would I even find clients who can afford higher prices?
These are all great questions. So, let's take a look and see if you are actually ready to make this shift.
Today you're going to discover the three signs that you are ready for high-ticket consulting.
After this workshop, you will have clarity on whether or not high-ticket WordPress consulting is for you and if so, you'll have the exact checklist of what you need to be rapidly successful.
There is a LOT packed into this session because we're going over each of the three big signs that you're ready. Then we are going to unpack each sign and break that down to expose all of the details you will need to get started.
You know that feeling you get when you're trying to win a client but you don't want to scare them away with your price? Then you wonder if they are getting quotes from anyone else? What are those other people charging? So you send in your proposal. Then you find out you didn't get the job because the client went with someone who CHARGED MORE!
So there you are sweating the price thinking maybe you were going too high only to learn that you might have actually won the project if you had the confidence to charge more from the start. Where does that confidence come from?
I've been working with DoubleStackers who have not only doubled their prices but in some cases are charging 5x and even 10x more than before. For example, Amy was charging $500 per site and is now charging $5,000. She's obviously able to do much better work at this price point and she's serving her clients at a deeper level by delivering the main thing her clients are depending on her for; RESULTS! By the way, you don't have to live in New York or San Francisco to do this. Amy lives in Idaho.
In this workshop, you're going to discover exactly how to get the confidence to charge the rates your work is actually worth. You'll also discover how to change your mindset about who you are, what you're doing, and why hiring you will be the best decision your clients have ever made.
With all of the different ecommerce options for WordPress available in 2019, let's explore a few of them and unpack the differences because you'll save yourself a lot of time, money, and frustration by picking the right tool for the job. While there are a lot of different options, they are not all the same and they aren't even designed for the same scenarios. In this workshop, we're going to take a look at some of the different ecommerce options for WordPress so you can decide what the best solution is for your next project – or maybe even your own site.
Full disclosure: I'm the founder of the Cart66 WordPress ecommerce plugin which was designed to meet a lot of my own needs. I have also developed sites with WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads. I'm definitely not a one-size-fits-all person and you shouldn't be either because that makes everything way harder, take longer, and cost more than it should.
So, today, you're getting a lot of cool information about WordPress ecommerce in general. I'm also going to take you behind the scenes with Cart66 so you can see why we created it, how it has evolved over the last 10 years, and who it is designed for. I'm really excited about this one because you're going to get some ideas for how you can start adding new revenue-generating tools to your clients' sites as well as your own.
It's almost impossible to stumble into success in the WordPress/web design world today. There is too much competition. Businesses are tired of hearing the same old, “Do you want a new website?” pitches. It is no longer enough to just have good technical skills. There are three secrets to developing a high-value, stable, reliable web design business in today's economy.
First, you have to change the way you talk about yourself and your business. There are so many different ways to get a pretty decent, very low-cost website. Most businesses already have websites too. So you have to change the way you describe what you do and market your business in order to stand out from the pack.
Second, you need to rise above the noise and stop using the same worn-out sales tactics that everyone else is using. It is no longer enough to passively wait for clients to show up at your door. Relying on word of mouth referrals, hanging out on job boards, and hoping someone finds your website are not reliable enough to power your full-time business. This is one of the major dividing lines between people who are struggling to get buy compared to people who have a seriously successful business. You have to change the way you generate leads and win new clients. You can't always be on defense reacting to everything all the time. You have to get on offense and start making things happen.
Third, you have to be mindful of your business structure. If you want a stable stream of income you have to get away from the one-and-done projects. You also have to take a serious look at your pricing because if you're not charging enough you lose before you even begin by not giving yourself the resources you need in order to do your best work. But, if you simply raise your prices without addressing the previous two points about your marketing and lead generation then you never win clients because you have priced yourself out of the market.
In this session, we are diving deep into the details of all three of these critical shifts so you can quickly turn your side hustle into your dream job. Once you make these shifts you will be shocked at how quickly things pick up for you. I have seen people go from literally no income to making over $50,000 of new business in less than 8 weeks.
There are three things that high-ticket WordPress consultants do that differentiate them from all the low-budget developers. We're going to dive into all three of them right now.
This workshop is for you if…
All your leads are coming from word of mouth referrals and that's causing a bunch of volatility in your revenue
You feel like nobody has the budget to afford the rates you should be charging
You're feeling burnt out and overworked and wondering what to do next
You are wonder where to find clients who can afford your services
You want to know how to set yourself apart from the all of the low-budget developers
There is a lot that goes into running a successful business. We're not going to be talking about everything it takes to build a solid business. But if you are missing any of these three things it's going to be very hard – if not impossible – to break away from the pack and win the clients you actually want to be working with.
These are the three ESSENTIAL components you need to run a high-value WordPress business so you don't have to wear yourself out fighting for cheap projects as just another face in the crowd.
If your marketing is ineffective then you won't be generating leads and winning new clients. That means you're not in control of your cash-flow. If you're not in control of your cash-flow you don't actually have a business.
Being in business for yourself means generating business for yourself. That means winning new clients and getting them to pay you for things. The problem is most people are uncomfortable selling and almost everyone hates being sold to. So, therein lies the problem. If you hate selling and your clients hate being sold to, what are you supposed to do?
Why This Is A New-ish Problem
The problem with selling is a fairly new thing because historically everything was very closed down. There was very little transparency. It was very hard to know if the offer being presented to you was genuinely a good offer. People tended to have a different and more curious mindset when they went into the marketplace. This is true both with the vendors and the customers. Vendors could believe in their products even if there were better products available because they didn't know about the better alternatives. Customers would happily accept the offers as being in their best interest because they didn't have access to any better alternatives. So, to some degree, everyone was blissfully entering into these exchanges feeling pretty good about things overall. Vendors were saying this is the best thing I know about to offer you. Customers were thinking this is the best thing available to me.
From Curious To Suspicious
As the marketplace started opening up – especially now with the internet – a lot of times vendors are fully aware that what they are offering is not the best. Customers have shifted from curious to suspicious.
This is so much the case that people in “sales” have all kinds of tactics and tricks to get people “close the deal.” The process has become a battle. The humanity has left the building. It has become very one-sided – on both sides. Customers want the cheapest prices because they are just looking out for their own best interest even if they don't know what's best for them. Vendors just want to “close the deal” even if what they are selling is not the right fit for the customer. Everybody gets beat up and everybody loses when the situation devolves into this type of situation.
The 5 Step Solution To Genuinely Fix The Problem Of Selling
In today's presentation, we take a deep dive into the 5-step process to genuinely fix the problem of “selling.” If you feel like sales is super uncomfortable but you have to do it anyway, then this is the session for you because you're going to get a clear 5-step plan that will genuinely transform the way you think about reaching out to clients. That will change you're mindset and the energy you bring to your client meetings. That will change the way people respond to you and the success you have winning new high-value, long-term clients.
I'm really excited about this one and I think you will be too!
What word or phrase would YOUR CLIENTS use to describe what you do for them? Would they call you some type of technical implementer? Or, do they think of you as a revenue-generating partner helping them build their business?
The answer to THAT QUESTION has everything to do with where you're going to be in five years. Even just a few years ago – before Wix and Squarespace – it was technically much more difficult to create a well designed, responsive website. A lot of people founded their web design businesses on being the resource for getting their clients online. Today, clients can get themselves online. Not only that but they can do it on a platform that doesn't require plugin updates, backups, or maintenance plans. How does your business stand up in the face of these changes? What are you doing to differentiate yourself? How are you going to attract clients willing to pay 10X more than what everyone else is charging?
If you're running your business as someone who “builds websites” and you're trying to generate recurring revenue by getting your clients to pay for WordPress maintenance plans, over the next few years you're going to find your clients opting to go with a platform where they can build their own websites and where maintenance plans aren't necessary. How are you planning to compete with that?
Let's talk about how to keep your business relevant in today's changing economy because there are two things that are true at the same time.
