I was stuck. Again. I had struggled for the first 12 years in my business as a strategy consultant for federal contractors because I didn’t have a clear offering that could help them grow their government sales. In 2015 I teamed up with a partner to fix that. Together we created what became a $9,997 offering that, over the next three years, appealed to over 60 companies who said yes to me.
But I was stuck by three problems. First, my whole business depended on people stepping up to one big-ticket product. I had no lower-priced offering to step up from, and no appealing next step when they finished. It was challenging and exhausting…and lonely and discouraging and stressful…to make the hundreds of individual sales calls, proposals, and follow up to nurture the relationships to sell that flagship product. Second, I had no integrated product creation and marketing strategy or vision for a product escalation in my business. In 2017, I exhausted my energy, resources (and profits) with trial-and-error experiments.
I invested in a mishmash of ideas, tools, services, books and databases from at least five other online marketing "gurus" and consultants. I didn't know how to connect those ideas and couldn’t see whether I had learned anything. My only goal was "figure out a write-once-sell-many to make more money than 1:1 service." I had NOT ONE DOLLAR OF PROFIT on six figures of revenue. All that effort sucked out the time and energy and enthusiasm and optimism I needed for consistent, focused work making sales calls. I was hurting.
In early 2018, I was determined to try again. New package, new offer…sold just two 1:few of something I hadn’t built yet. Instead of giving up, I decided to deliver via what I now know is live product creation, and then I’d have new assets to try again for the next iteration. I was getting things together for the October 2018 launch just when Marisa’s Fast Freebie on the Escalation Experience got my attention.
In seven days in October, by implementing just the urgency ideas that Coach Sofia gave me while I was still getting ready to sign up for EPM DOUBLED my personal best efforts of online course marketing – helping me bring in almost $16,000. The typical sales cycle for my flagship product had been months or even years. After I joined EPM, just *one* use of the "Sales for superheroes" enrollment conversation led to closing my next $9,997 program in four weeks and three conversations with a client I love who practically walked in the door without effort…and a lot of joy on both sides.
And the hard work and marketing of EPM helped me create a $9,443 miracle. In late January moving full speed ahead to my EP launch, fresh with hot skills from the EPM lab, I heard from a friend who had just hit a difficult situation…and a light went on! What if I could do a little detour from my hard-charging efforts for me, and take a few days to drive some revenue for her? In eight days, my team and I created a small 1:1 offer laced with “EP” elements, a sales page, bonuses, urgency, a script and a surprise offer to 200 people who attended a live webinar. We aimed to sell 10 packages for $497. We sold 19. And I gave my friend almost twice as much money as I had hoped.
My biggest internal shift was to understand the power of focusing an offer to achieve a defined result – both for myself, and for my clients. My experience in EPM – of setting a goal and moving towards it with small steps and constant wins – showed me how I could create a similarly transformative experience for my clients, who struggle even more than I do with the long sales cycle and endless frustration in trying to win federal contracts!
What did I do? I got vision for both where I was, and where I could go. I could see the “10x” elements in my current program, know why they work well, how to add and further intensify and evolve what I know is already good.
I’m launching my full EP program, and also looking ahead to transform EVERY ONE of my business offerings. We’re building more intense, sticky, learning experiences that I have every confidence will result in greater client engagement, results, renewals, and referrals. My energy and confidence in being able to reach people I can help has skyrocketed. I'm now on the path to creating an "ALL-EP" product escalation family that is giving me the scalability to grow my business that I had not been able to figure out how to do. as I discovered that I can be good at marketing; I had despaired for years that I could ever be.
By transforming my business based on the Experience Product & Marketing principles, I have given new purpose to my business, changed the trajectory of its growth, opened up new levels of creativity and collaboration, realized my passion for creating and strengthening community in my field of practice, and I’m having more fun in my life and my work than I have had in 31 years.
Oh, yeah, and EPM showed me how to intensify the peak emotional experiences (and thus create more “sticky” learning) in the (admittedly already kickass) indoor rock climbing class I’ve been teaching for 12 years!
What is your biggest takeaway from EPM?
People LONG for experiences and connection with each other, and EVERY service I offer can be experiencified.
How did EPM help you become successful?
Creating extraordinary, results-driven learning experiences has become my company's core mission as well as my differentiator in a market saturated with information products, database subscriptions, lobbyists and consultants who don't deliver results, and death-by-powerpoint non-interactive webinars.
How has EPM and your success impacted your life?
Shown me an extraordinary way to walk my talk and live my message, and given me the theme for my year: COMMUNITY. To create community, contribute to community, and encourage others -- clients and colleagues -- to do the same.
What has been the biggest change in your business?
I am transforming EVERY ONE of my business offerings to build in more intense learning experiences that I have every confidence will result in greater client engagement, results, renewals, and referrals. The before and after is still coming. By some accounting, I am still making back my ROI in new web infrastructure that has been in the works to for the company as a whole and is needed to deliver this product. But the most I ever made from a single offering of a small group course was $8,000; with the assistance of your coaches JUST AS I WAS REGISTERING for EPM, and FIELDING MARKETING for a course I was building and am now experiencifying, I generated nearly twice that -- almost $16,000 -- And with ONE use of the sales for superheroes enrollment conversation, I closed the most painless $9,997 program I have ever won. It took a couple conversations, but the business nearly walked in the door. I have the confidence to raise the price (and improve the experience through restructuring and rebranding) of that program to $14,997 for 2019.
What are you most excited about moving forward with your Experience Product?
I'm having more FUN creating not just "product" but being in deeper connection with my clients as we work together, and finding new team members who can complement what I can do to support my clients