How She went from Freelancer to Five Figure Consultant…

How She went from Freelancer to Five Figure Consultant…

TRANSCRIPTION

Hello and welcome to the “S” Word LIVE. My name is Renee Hribar, sales strategist, TEDx Speaker and author. And I’m coming to you today live from Detroit. Although I am a native New Yorker, in fact, I started selling SkyTel Skype pagers on the streets of New York in nineteen ninety four, and a lot has happened since then. So if we haven’t met yet, I help women sell for themselves. Women, freelancers, business owners, agency owners, done-for-you service providers. It is so different to sell for yourself. All this junk going on in our head. And that’s what I want to talk about today. How this particular freelancer went from Freelancer, you know, looking for jobs on Fiverr, race to the bottom of the barrel pricing, to five figure consulting offers, a lot different than doing it yourself. Right. Who here is a freelancer? Let me know who here identifies as a done for you service provider. I have a lot of clients that I work with that are done for you designers, done for you copywriters, done for you Facebook ads. Managers, done for you course creators, done for you funnel for creators. And they take the work. They’d take all the ticks and the boxes and they create it and they deliver a finished product. The problem with that, that a lot of them express to me, is that they come in to see the sales process with the expectation that they’re supposed to know how much to charge because we’re supposed to know exactly what the client needs.

So the story I’m about to share with you is about this particular freelancer where, let me know if you can relate to this, whether you’re listening live or on the replay, let me know. She would come into the sales conversations. She would get an inquiry or a referral because she’s good at what she does. And the person wanted to say, hey, I need a funnel built. Can you do that? And she said, sure. And then would get on the phone or sometimes they wouldn’t even get on the phone. And they’re, like, send me a proposal. How much does it cost? Well, then they’re kind of, you know, this particular friend kind of left, like, well, I don’t know what to charge. I don’t even know really what they want. And they say a funnel. But, you know, that could be like a thousand things. I mean, what platform are they using? Where are they connecting it to? Is this a proven offer? You know, there’s literally a thousand components. So they haven’t really asked enough questions. They don’t really know what to propose, but they make the proposal anyway because they got a lead. So they do it right. So they give a guesstimate. And really not even a hypothesis is not even an educated guess. They don’t have enough information, but they feel compelled because they were asked to send out that proposal.

So if you’ve ever felt compelled to send the proposal just because you were asked, let me know in the comments. That is a common easy fix. So if I know about it, I can help you. So this particular freelancer on this particular scenario, she would get the inquiry, send the proposal and they would either accept it or not. So let’s say they accepted it because oftentimes they would accept it because she would dramatically undercharge because in her head she’s like, well, I mean, if I add up all the things they think that they need based on what I know. I mean, that’s going to be like a lot of money. That’s what she would say. I don’t know if they can afford them and I want the job, so I’ll just do it for, I’ll just discounted. I’ll just. I’ll just. So the ten thousand, I’ll just make it up to make it 1200. That seems good. Right. So they would take it for twelve because it is a friggin deal and she would deliver like to the moon and stars. And then she would get referrals for the same type of work. Hey, go to so and so. Right. she’ll do it for a deal. So this was a pattern, a cycle that so many great, smart, smart skillfull done for you service providers get into.

So in this next step, this shift that happened, she had gotten fed up. You know, she was resenting her clients scheduling, she didn’t even want to get on sales calls because she’s like, I don’t know.

I really want I don’t want more that I don’t want more that.

Thank you. So that being said, what do you do? How do you do it? How did she go from freelancer to five figure proposals for consulting? So this particular person that I’m referencing, I’ll keep all names anonymous. Right. Names have been changed. What do they say in the shows? So this particular freelancer, she started to invest in her business. Right. So we actually met in a mastermind that I am in. And it’s a high level mastermind. It’s with people that are really, really ready to level up and a lot of seven and eight figure business owners in there. So she came into this mastermind we met probably two years ago, and we’ve been working together intermittently since then. And what I taught her is the same process I’m sharing with you, which is when you get an inquiry, ask deep questions. If you listen to the show for any length of time, you know that I always say great sales people ask great questions. Good sales people have a good pitch, but great salespeople ask great questions. So you have to ask those questions. Be that deep listener. So let me know in the comments. Do you love asking questions? I bet your significant other would say probably, yes. My husband always says you’re asking too many questions and I’m like never. So let’s see. Out there of you, you love asking questions. If you do, you’re already on the right track. You need the full picture before you can make an offer. So asking great questions and then repeating back, making sure you’ve got it right.

Is this the full picture or is there more? Right. So there’s always multiple facets to where the person is coming from. So if I say I want a funnel. I mean, there are literally thousands of variables. How much is built? What platform is it on? How much do you want to spend? Do you have ads been going into it? What are your current metrics? I mean, there’s literally thousands of really good questions to ask. And very quickly, they can determine that you do know what you’re talking about and they’re like, oh, dang, I’m not dealing with just a noob here. This is the one who actually knows what they’re doing. I actually could learn something from them. So now you’re bringing your strategy to the table. And as a done for you service provider, you probably already were giving your strategy to the table, bringing it, but giving it for free. So say hello as you join, whether you’re alive or on the replay. Where are you? Where are you listening in from? I’m in Detroit. Where are you at? We are global. We’ve had 4000 downloads lately.

So this is definitely a show that people are listening to. And if you’re like most of the other listeners, you’re probably a female business owner who wants another way, is looking for an alternative to the way things have been, a better way, easier way to deliver your skill sets to the world without killing yourself, without working 24/7. So if you’re that kind of person, then let me know and definitely make sure to click that link when it’s available, because it’ll help us to continue the conversation. There’s lots of resources that I have. So moving on with this particular story, with this specific freelancer, we started working together intimately, like I said, and I told her to ask questions, get the full picture, repeat back.

Hello, Tiffany. Hello, Doreen. Hello. Francai. New Jersey.

All right. I love it. Thanks, guys, for saying hello. So this particular freelancer, she knows that. Ask questions, repeat back. But here’s the difference. What we started to do. If you been listening along and talking about this for the last month. As she started to create her value stack. Right. So what does that mean? So what we did is I’m like, tell me everything you do for someone, like, literally break down every single nook and cranny, little thing that you do. And she broke it down. And there were literally, I’m not even kidding you, for this one particular contract that she got paid twelve hundred dollars for for three months. Yes. That was a long contract.

She was doing 27 different things, specifically things that are available that she could sell separately.

Ok. So from research to strategy to who was actually doing it for her writing copy, creating, you know, royalty free images, really, really doing amazing things. And this particular funnel that she built created over six figures and she wasn’t doing a commissioned bonus. Right. Which is another thing we can talk about negotiations as you do the work. It’s always good. So here’s what she did when we created what I call the value stack. And many people call it just my words, but we actually listed out all those particular items and put an estimated value next to them. And then what you have is a total value. OK. When you start to look at it like that and Pete, the person you’re making a proposal to is like, oh, wow. So a couple not long ago a couple shows back, I made an analogy of when you see a car sticker for like a new car that new cars like the Bose stereo system, the sunroof, the heated steering wheel. Right. All those things, I’m like, wow, I didn’t realize a sunroof was like five grand. It’s a lot. It made me value the sunroof that much more. Or I didn’t realize the winter package was actually seventy five hundred. Wow. Value. Now these are these are values that the actual car company place on. So I mean some people have told me these are arbitrary? I mean, they’re based on something. They’re based on fact. But they are sort of arbitrary. But you have to place a value on them. Otherwise, people don’t know they’re there. And it even helps to name them. But we’ll get to that in a second. She didn’t name this. She didn’t name her specific strategies.

And they all the line items in this particular proposal that she made six figures, which I’m not so sure is. Five figures with. Well, it was six thousand a month for consulting. That’s what she got, 6000. Just like yesterday. So this is a big shift. But the thing about big shifts is they can happen like that. But they might take years to develop because the shift, unfortunately, happens here.

These four inches. Right. My first sales manager, Rosario, used to always say the hardest territory to work is the one between your ears. And that, my friends, is so, so, so vital. So I’m giving you strategy. I’m giving you tactics, but I’m also giving you emotional intelligence to let you know that this isn’t necessarily a magic pill or a silver bullet.

This is a plan, a strategy of what to do, what she did. But then you have to do it.

And that’s why I have a job, right? Because people are like, what do I do? I know I understand it, but I need help doing it.

So let me finish a story with this particular freelancer. So she was undercharging, resentful of her clients. This is the process it into her income and she would try to figure out a proposal without all the information. Now she asks questions. She gets the full picture and she lists out everything she would need to do to accomplish that result that the potential clients said that they wanted. Right. So in this case, when she did that, she was like she herself was like, hey.

That’s a lot of value. And then she herself was like, I should charge more. I’m like, yes, you should. So here’s another caveat. A lot of business coaches will come in to be like, you should charge more. That’s one thing for them to say. But if you believe it, it’s never gonna come out right.

So as a sales coach, who knows business, I know that the person has to have that switch flipped on their own. And that’s why what I do is have them list out everything that they do, value it out and then come to their own total value. And the same switch flipped for her. So in this moment, she had really what was a big fish on the line. It was a client that was a referral from another student that had bought a twenty seven dollar thing from her. So that’s pretty awesome. So keep selling stuff, guys. Even if it’s small, even those no brainer offers. Where are my Sell Like a Mutha students? The No brainer offer. All right. So that being said, what she did then is she went into this, showed the total value then because it was a referral from a former student, She gave them a friends and family discount.

So not only just the car dealership. Right. Just like you listed out, total value. Wow.

They are going to give you a friends family discount. So it ended up being instead of, you know, whatever it was, it was like eight thousand or twelve thousand a month. And then she gave them a deal of only six grand. Meanwhile, she had never charged six thousand dollars a month for consulting only. She had charged that much with commissions for results for done for you, where she was in the mix and she was the one doing it all. Here she’s just consulting their people, consulting the owner and their team. What’s the difference? Did she get new skills? No. Did she did she somehow become better at her job? No, she was always freakin good at it. Amazing. She worked so hard to get those skills. She earned her stripes. But now what shifted is her head and how she valued herself. So if you want to know this little lesson that I share with her that I think was like the straw that broke the camel’s back because she was like, huh? If you want that same lesson, just write value in the comments. And you’ve got until, if you listen to this on the replay, you’ve got until 12:00 noon tomorrow to do it. If you don’t tag me, I can’t know it. I won’t see it. I’ve got Lots and lots of Facebook comments. So let me know for sure if you want this lesson. Type value below. And I will see you next week for another edition of the “S” Word LIVE!

Let’s make sales simple and fun.