The Serving Mindset

Stop Selling and Grow Your Business

Brock Farnoosh

• Publisher: Skyhorse
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781510741966
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Entrepreneurship
• Index: Business

What if you could stop selling altogether and grow your profits? With The Serving Mindset, you'll learn how to serve, elevate your business success, and feel great about it! Targeted to business owners and entrepreneurs who are very good at what they do but feel guilt and shame around selling and sales and therefore limit their own success and overall possibilities, The Serving Mindset: Stop Selling and Grow Your Business positions selling as serving and takes readers through the process of why and how to acquire this "serving mindset" and put it into practice. For readers who hate sales, The Serving Mindset will help you diagnose the source of the issue, understand how your mindset affects your sales directly, and discover a fresh approach to selling as serving—an essential lesson for enabling any business to explore maximum levels of prosperity. Using case studies as well as the experience of the author and that of her professional-coaching clients, The Serving Mindset is sure to change how readers view selling, serving, and growing. The powerful insights and applications in this book are game-changers for every business owner and entrepreneur who wants to attract and secure ideal customers and premium clients while maintaining integrity to his or her own core values.

MINDSET FOUR: CHARGE APPROPRIATELY FOR YOUR SERVICES.

MOST BUSINESS OWNERS COME from a place of generosity, humility, and goodwill by pricing their services or products “affordably,” which is often way lower than their competitors. They want their prospective buyers to see how unselfishly they are running their business and how much of a “better deal” they are getting by working with them versus someone else.

Except it doesn’t work that way. Your underpricing yourself does nobody a favor—not you, not your prospects, not even your competitors. This is the beginning of confusion for most business owners because it’s another paradox. It doesn’t make much logical sense.

My mastermind group was just as keen to explore and research this Abundant Sales Mindset as was I. Our research around this led us to new discoveries every time and left us surprised as to the counterintuitive nature of them. When we started out as coaches, for example, we priced ourselves as low as possible. We wanted to be kind and generous. We wanted to be affordable and accessible to everybody. We wanted to make money at any cost. And we struggled selling our tiny $250 or $375 packages. We struggled to convince our prospects that the value of such a package could be as much as 100 times the investment. Why? Because they didn’t believe us. We were priced way too low. They could not believe that $250 could possibly get them a $10,000 raise in salary or a $20,000 signing bonus or a $30,000 client contract.

The Ultimate Punishment for Your Low Prices

I met up with one of my favorite yoga teachers in Los Angeles a while ago, and when she shared this particular client story, my jaw dropped, so I begged her to let me put it in my book. “As long as it’s anonymous,” she agreed. So, here it is:

A client took a couple of private sessions with her for his shoulder pain. He did not know how much she charged, nor did he care. He felt incredible afterwards. The sessions had an immediate positive impact on his body. Later, he had his assistant call in to pay the invoice. (Yep, he was that kind of well-to-do client with his own PA to do his bidding! Nice, right?)

The assistant inquired about additional ongoing private sessions, which the boss wanted to do, but after my friend quoted her rates, she came back with this shocking statement: “He doesn’t want to do any more sessions. He doesn’t believe you can be that good if your prices are that low. Sorry!”

It’s a true story, and what a favor he did her by telling her this brutal truth, one that very few dare to share. It’s not the nicest comeback my friend had hoped for, to say the least, but it was necessary for her to have this painful experience when she already felt conflicted about her rates so she could begin to understand the psychology of pricing and its many paradoxes.

Low prices hurt you. Low prices are like cancer to a business. They grow, they cause pain and frustration for the business owners, and, if gone unchecked, they eventually kill the business. Low prices are not the way to the type of profitable, sustainable, long-term business that we seek as professionals.

You Alone are in Charge of Your Prices

My mastermind group peers and I had the very same problem with low prices, but we needed proof, so we did an experiment: we decided to raise our prices to the level that matched the perceived (and proven) value of our work and, boom, we started selling a lot faster. We did “The Money Game,” designed by Rich Litvin, which asks you to focus on what you most control, which is the number of proposals you make rather than what you least control, the conversions from prospects to customers. Yes, you can influence the latter, but you 100% control the former, and it emphasizes the point again: you alone are in charge of your prices.

So, we got to work. We made outrageous proposals by following three simple rules:

1. We felt highly confident about our ability to help each individual with their particular challenge.

2. We came from a place of service, not selling or neediness or ego.

3. We were not allowed to assume, guess, or judge who can pay what, because we would be wrong 100% of the time. That is their business, not ours.

In the early part of this experiment, I proposed a number of $5,000 packages, which yielded a 20% conversion, but I noticed that the process was long and arduous, and I had to work really hard to position their value. I then started to propose packages at $15,000, $25,000, $30,000, $40,000, and $70,000, which to my shock yielded a 57% conversion, with far less effort and energy on my end. These new packages included longer contracts and a higher level of engagement, but the conversion rates were very encouraging, and the investments up front scaled well with my time and energy. As a result, I ended up delivering at a far higher value for fewer clients. In hindsight, if all my $5,000 proposals had come through, I’d have been booked with too many clients and too many small packages, and too busy to pursue higher proposals. This proposal taught me about scaling my time, energy and resources as I reached for my revenue goals, but that was just the beginning.

The experiment continued to surprise and delight me. The clients who invested at a much higher level treated the coaching as central to their business or career. They capitalized on everything they received. Their minds were open to new ideas and necessary shifts, and they were ready to take action when those shifts occurred. Naturally, their results matched their level of commitment.

Moreover, I noticed the positive changes in myself as a coach when I worked with higher-paying clients. I raised my own level of commitment, devotion to client success, and service, and I grew more as a coach than if I had taken on the easier problems, which would have kept me in my comfort zone. The success of the client was always important, but now I began to see my clients as an extension of myself, and while I was not responsible for their success—an important distinction in the coaching realm—I did everything to make sure they felt responsible for their own success. I found I cared deeply about these clients, not because they were paying me more, but because they were so committed to their own journeys. After all, it is always a privilege when an individual invites you along on their journey of transformation.

Most people who invest in coaching get the concept at a surface level and reap the benefits at the same level. My high-paying clients were going well below the surface. They were exploiting possibility upon possibility for themselves. They were discarding old identities that no longer served them. They were going deep. They didn’t want 10% or 15% growth in their business; they were taking leaps. They refused to let their past experiences play a role in their future, and as I worked with them, I was able to witness something extraordinary.

Just as wasted potential is a depressing sight, realized potential is light and glory itself, especially that of someone you helped enable. This is not accidental. When you invest in yourself at uncomfortable levels, you tap into something magical. You know you have to make it work. You know you couldn’t live with yourself if you wasted your investment. Too much is at stake even to consider failure as an option. So, you make the “impossible” happen because your mind believes that you can. And thus, you go beyond your edge.

You best realize your potential to serve others by charging appropriately for your services.

You are allowed to completely ignore your competitors’ prices or the market as a whole—if you want to price yourself above all of that, the only justification you must have is to be able to first articulate the value of your offerings to yourself. If you are 100% convinced that what you have to offer is appropriate for what you intend to charge, you shall find buyers.

Bucking the trend, so to speak, happens every day in every industry and market. Take the $10,000 “designer” plastic handbags. They have proven the extremes possible on a pricing scale. When the designer of that first handbag got this idea in his or her head, knowing well that the average plastic handbag sold for $175, they went for outrageous and, at the time, impossible. While we can be certain that the ROI of $10,000 is not there for any designer plastic handbag, we can see that they sell.

Why? Because people love to pay premium prices. It makes them feel good. Emotions call the shots on these types of purchases, not logic. When you’re buying oranges at Whole Foods and you know you could get them cheaper at Walmart, you are using logic in order to save $3.50. When you buy an expensive handbag for your wife’s fiftieth birthday, you are not using logic, because the logic is laughable here. You are using your emotions and you are convinced it will be worth it.

I use this example not to suggest designer plastic handbags as a guide to follow for our professional services. Far from it—I use it to remind you that if you want to charge higher prices, you absolutely can. The only person standing in the way of making that happen is you. The only person whose permission you need is you.

Think about it: Do you have a product or service that can deliver far more ROI than a plastic handbag? Can you see yourself charging $10,000 or more for it? Can you envision yourself describing to a prospect the value of this investment? And can you feel good about it all?

Your Pricing Reflects Your Self-Worth

Pricing our services pushes the self-worth button. It doesn’t matter if you are a solopreneur working from home or the president of an established firm with many employees; in my work with clients from all walks of life, pricing triggers a very vulnerable button: our self-worth.

My clients would argue with me, using their logic and rationale to mask the real issues. They would explain how they couldn’t possibly raise prices, based on data and market value and competitors and so on and so forth. They have proof, too, because when they tried to raise them once, it backfired and nobody was buying. If you want to believe a myth, you will always be able to back it up with enough data to prove your point, and then the myth becomes your reality. But if you want to create a new reality, let go of the myth so you create space for this new reality.

We all know at least one entrepreneur who has found a way to charge precisely what he or she desires and has happy clients. How did they do it against all the odds that you are facing in the same market?

The odds are in your head, but not in theirs. So, you stop yourself while they enable themselves.

If you are less than 100% satisfied with what you are charging today, you are charging too little. There is a reason behind your dissatisfaction and, if left unexplored, it will grow over time into an annoying resentment. I’ve experienced it. My coach and consultant peers have experienced it. The resentment falls like a shadow on your creative genius and affects the deep quality of your work.

How do you know if this is happening? Pause and reflect. Ask yourself if you are thrilled with your prices in exchange for what you are delivering. If you said yes right away, skip to the next chapter. If you paused or said no or maybe, keep reading.

What often gets in the way is confusion about what low prices actually mean. We hurt ourselves by implying we are not as good as someone charging twice or three times as much, which is a reflection of our self-worth. We think too small. Why? Because small is familiar. Small is comfortable.

Just listen to aspiring business owners—while you have your ambitious types who are out to dominate the world (Apple, Amazon, Google), most business owners at the start of their journey cling to the myths below:

• They talk about their size (a reference to both company size and revenue): “Oh, I’m just going to open a small chiropractor practice, nothing fancy.”

• They use the struggle mentality to justify low prices: “I’m doing some coaching work on the side. It’s hard to get clients to pay, so I’m making it really affordable to work with me.”

• They convince themselves their low revenue is just the way it is, not a direct outcome of their own doing: “I have my own consulting business. The pay is okay. Not as good as my old job, but it beats having a boss.”

• They confuse business with charity because of the “money is evil” mindset at the base of their belief: “I’m happy if I can just stay in business. I’m not here to make a fortune or anything. My work is spiritual and for the greater good.”

To this group, the ambitious, confident business owner comes across as egotistical, arrogant, even aggressive or overly confident, and can pose a threat to them, whereas the struggling, “humble,” and “modest” entrepreneur is ideal to commiserate with.

Does any of this sound familiar to you? Do you or someone you know use this language when they talk about their business?

Your pricing reflects your self-worth, the amount you perceive you are worth in exchange for your goods and services. If your sense of self-worth is low, you are most likely underpricing yourself. You may feel guilty charging more. You relate to and have grown comfortable with the constant struggle of running a barely profitable business. You probably envy or resent your counterparts for their higher prices, and you see yourself as separate from them. You cannot see that you are where you are not because of any circumstance or outside decision made on your behalf; you are exactly where you put yourself.

The good news is that you can move. If you put yourself there, you can just as well get yourself out and move up the ladder of pricing. You are not separate from success, because success does not discriminate. You are connected to the same frequency of success that your counterparts are enjoying, but you can’t stand in the way, complain, and expect miracles at the same time. You have to learn to get out of your own way. Let’s see how we can help you do that and bring your self-worth and your pricing to match your incredible gifts and talents.

LIMITING BELIEF ONE: “IF I CAN’T MAKE A SMALL SALE, HOW CAN I POSSIBLY MAKE A BIG ONE? OBVIOUSLY, I’M ALREADY TOO EXPENSIVE.”

COUNTERINTUITIVE AS IT MAY be, people are more than willing to pay for “expensive” as long as they want what you have, they’re not being sold, and they see the value. You will experience this as you move into higher echelons of service offerings and feel comfortable charging higher prices, but to get you there, we have to get you out of your limiting beliefs first.

When You Are Starting Out

My brother, Sina Bahram, runs Prime Access Consulting in Research Triangle Park, NC, which primarily helps organizations in the cultural heritage sector (such as galleries, libraries, archives, and museums) to implement universal designs in service and products offerings. His goal is to enable all of his clients to reach the widest audience possible.

Sina happens to be one of the best in the world in his industry, and the awards for and praise of his work (such as being recognized a White House Champion of Change by President Barack Obama for his work enabling users with disabilities to succeed in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields, as well as an Emerging Leader in Digital Accessibility Award at the annual Knowability Community Heroes of Accessibility Awards, among other accolades) have established him firmly in a well-respected spot in his market.

Sina admits that he never experienced any inner conflict about selling his services. At the beginning, he charged lower prices until he built up his portfolio and, along with it, his reputation, and he says this is key in building up one’s confidence inertia: “It’s really easy to keep a moving train going, but getting it started takes a ton of energy.”

I asked Sina what advice he would give an equally smart and driven fellow entrepreneur who does not have confidence when starting out. His suggestion is to build up your confidence by direct experience and by continuing to iterate and failing forward again and again.

“Do the maximum amount of work upfront. In the first six to twelve months of your business, take all the jobs and don’t worry about what you’re getting paid. In fact, take the lower paying jobs. Screw them up if you must. Make all of your mistakes early on so that you don’t mess up the $25,000, $50,000 or $500,000 contracts.”

That’s right—Sina goes so far as to advise you to say yes to all jobs at the beginning. He attributes the successes he’s most benefited from in his life to his being unwilling to say no to opportunities. It’s tempting to point to the ne...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Dedication
• Foreword by Michael Bungay Stanier
• Introduction: Does this Apply to You?
• My Story
• The Problem is in Your Thinking
• The Premise of This Book
• Mindsets and Limiting Beliefs
• Mindset One: You Are Not Selling. You Are Serving.
• Mindset Two: Enable Your New Identity to Emerge.
• Mindset Three: Care About Your Prospects and Show It.
• Mindset Four: Charge Appropriately for Your Services.
• Mindset Five: Address Voiced And Unvoiced Objections.
• Mindsets in Action
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgments