Jan 31

Jan 31 Ep. 151 - Expanding Yourself For High-End Clients

Ep. 151 - Expanding Yourself For High-End Clients

Gabrielle Leonard is an expansion strategy coach and author of the book Becoming a CloseHER: The Art of Reinvention that attracts High-end and Corporate Clients. As a coach, she helps entrepreneurs expand their businesses by organizing internal operations, building productive teams, and securing high-end contracts. In this week’s latest episode, Kiki & Gabrielle dive into the topic of how to expand yourself for high-end clients

Read on or tune in to the podcast below

So, What’s Expansion Anyways?

Gabrielle has a unique and powerful definition of this verb. In fact, for her: it's really about internal expansion. She’s actually written an entire book on this internal expansion that needs to happen in order to book high-end clientele and high-end sales. And so for Gabrielle, it is really about shifting how you believe, shifting how you think, shifting what you believe is possible for you.

And, she explains, expansion is really a cycle. It happens in five stages, but it happens in different ways.

“It's this desire to act to move to your next level, then you have the urge and desire. And then what happens is you start to feel uncomfortable with where you're at, you start to feel like this no longer feels comfortable for me, I don't want to do this anymore. I feel like I want more. And then you have that desire, and you make a decision in alignment with your desire. And so once you make a decision in alignment with your desire, then you are faced with a breakdown. You start to feel like ‘Oh, do I really want that?’, and you start to change your mind. So you either change your mind and you go back to what's comfortable for you, or you rise and expand to your next level.” ~ Gabrielle

How Do You Know If You’re Ready To Expand To Higher-End Corporate Clients?

This is explained simply and to the point. Basically, if you have

a system and
it works (i.e. is proven time and time again by personal clients) -

then, YES you are ready!

In other words, the biggest part is having success with your private clients. If you're able to have success with your private clients, you have a proven track record of results. If, like clockwork, you can consistently say, “My clients are getting these results”. Now, you can turn that into case studies - and those can be used to close corporate clientele.

With that said, there’s a special nuance to keep in mind as it relates to corporate clients.

“Here's the thing, corporations are not just investing in your services - they're investing in your confidence in your ability to get them results. So if you don't have a proven track record of results with your current clients, you're not going to show up in the confidence that you need to, to go to a corporation. If you have that track record, if you have a signature method with your clients, you're ready. Let's get it.” ~ Gabrielle

Small Budget Vs. Large Budget Clientele

For those of you reading this who are looking to make the shift in increasing your prices - or perhaps totally up leveling your offerings and seeking to target a new demographic of clientele, Gabrielle shares a past client success story to offer some insight on this type of journey.

She asked this past client, “What was the thing that shifted for you?” (in regards to selling high vs low tickets). And she said, “You gave me permission, you told me that it's okay to charge more. I don't have to jump through some hoops. In order to charge more, it’s simply about giving myself permission to charge more because I know I'm worthy of charging more. It's a decision.”

Wow! Talk about an internal mindset turnaround.

Let’s Face Them: Limiting Beliefs

“It is really true about you saying I'm giving myself permission to charge more a decision. That's it. That's the secret sauce.”

So, if it’s so simple - why is it also so difficult for so many of us?

One of the things that Gabrielle brings up as a huge limiting belief that many of us as service providers let hold us back is our misunderstanding that cheaper = more appealing. We think that if we charge less, it will be easier to sell our services, programs, offerings, etc.

As a concrete example to show the opposite, she brings up the circumstance of shopping for a car, where, naturally, we automatically believe that more expensive = better. That’s something we can certainly understand and hold true for us. So why charge less, when you can often charge more - and be perceived as more. Of course, this is when you indeed have a proven, valuable offering, which I know many of you reading this indeed do! Give yourself some credit, and sell yourself like the BMW you are!

Okay, So Where Are All These “Affluent” Clients?

This is a common question that Gabrielle gets asked. Once we’re on board doing this whole “high-ticket” thing…we then have to market and sell ourselves to that market - except, where are they anyway?!

Gabrielle explains, “Do you have to go somewhere else for you to find high-end clients? The answer is no, your high-end clients are watching you right now.” You need to understand and get acquainted with the fact that there are always both low end buyers AND higher end investors are in your audience - and you don’t need dozens of thousands of people in your audience for this to be true! In fact, Gabrielle explains that even in her relatively “smaller” audience of about ~4K on Instagram, she can indeed close high-end clients.

So what’s the problem? Well, the common mistake is that we're creating content for low end buyers, because we're taught to do so by all the marketing gurus! Here’s the truth: low end buyers have a lot of time, but not a lot of money - and high end investors have a lot of money, but enough time. And what does that tell us? Your low end buyers are going to be the ones engaging with your content the most. They're going to be the ones giving you the feedback. And so because you're getting feedback from them, you're creating programs and things based on their feedback and not based on the feedback of your high end investors!

This vital truth is what you need to keep in mind should you decide to shift into high-end and start positioning yourself as luxury.

Your Homework

For those of you who are leaning towards more high-end clients, but feel stuck as to exactly how to pivot, I suggest you do the same journaling exercise Gabrielle mentions at the end of our conversation: find the common denominator in your higher-end clients (vs your lower-end clients). Get crystal clear on how your high-end clients come to you so that you can replicate that process moving forward.

“When you understand and grasp that concept, you realize you don't have to go anywhere else to go find clients. Just show up in your unique power and speak to high-end buyers and investors. That's all.”