Today I want to talk about the 5 red flags I see online when it comes to creating, marketing and selling your offers.

I decided to speak on this topic because my coaching clients often share with me the advice others have given them in the industry as a way of explaining why they do things or why their business looks the way it does.

And we’ve realized that a lot of this advice has had a negative impact on their business because it’s been outdated, binary and hasn’t taken into account their lived experiences, skill sets, experience and knowledge.

Successful businesses are built around unique and money-generating offers, so it’s important you get advice from the right people who have your best interests in mind.

My hope by sharing these common red flags is that it will support you to dive deeper into the needs, challenges and opportunities of your business and trust that you know what’s best for you.

So if advice feels invalidated or not applicable to you, you don’t need to act on it.

Let’s dive into the red flags

1. Raise your prices

Online coaches and creatives love telling everyone to raise their prices. And in most cases, this general advice is sound – many of my clients are undercharging.

But continuing to raise them simply because you want to make more money or work with fewer clients isn’t always the best strategy.

My clients have actually lost money when they’ve followed advice like this because their clients can no longer afford their offers.

And they haven’t justified their price increase by sharing the value of their offer. For example, client results or recent training they’ve completed. So their dream clients don’t feel the offer is relevant.

So next time you’re told to raise your prices without an explanation as to how and why you should do that, consider what problem you’re really trying to solve and how best to solve it.

2. Invest in complex marketing strategies

I love marketing strategies; I could talk about them for days. Just ask my coaching clients.

However, not all marketing strategies are created equal. There is a narrative right now that layering multiple marketing tactics is the only way to sell out your program or book your services months in advance. I’m talking paid ads, email nurture sequences, daily Reels, free challenges and so on. All of these tactics are great and can work for you.

But you don’t need to be doing them all. This often leads to burnout, half-developed offers, mixed messaging and forgotten sales conversations.

Many of my clients have grown their sustainable income by only focusing on one or two tactics at a time to sell their offer.

If you’re already having a good stream of clients coming in from referrals and word of mouth, ask yourself what additional marketing tactic would put you in front of your potential dream clients and start there.

3. Why do when you can teach

One of the biggest challenges my clients are experiencing when we start working together is that they aren’t seen as an expert in their niche.

In 30% of cases, the reason is that they pivoted from offering a done-for-you service to a coaching or teaching model too soon.

A well-intentioned coach or peer shared how they were able to make more money doing less work and that my client should change their business model too.

The problem with this advice is that it doesn’t take into consideration skill sets and experience, processes and frameworks, access to resources and a team, or the strategies needed to reposition and rebrand.

It’s often smarter for my clients to continue supporting their clients through services and build their credibility and profit this way before looking to step into a coaching and teaching position.

When you receive this advice next, consider if you changing your business model is really the path to a profitable business.

4. Sell multiple offers

The pressure to pump out new offers each week is real. But I’ve learnt over the past 10 years running my own online business that you don’t need a million offers. You just need one.

We’re often told that creating multiple offers is how we can serve more clients through the lifetime of their business. And again, this is true for some business owners.

But many of my clients end up spending more time creating and selling their offers than practising their craft and supporting their clients to achieve the full transformation, which is the opposite of where they should be investing their time, money and creativity.

If this is you, ask yourself if creating another offer is going to get you the cash, clients and opportunities you want in your business.

Or if you should focus on creating one money-generating offer instead. And then build out your offer suite if and when you need it.

5. Create a ‘makes sense’ offer

Energetics is trending in the coaching industry right now, so I’ll create a workshop on how to vibrate at a high frequency in your business.

Or Instagram is pushing video content, so I’ll create a course on using Reels as a sales strategy.

You shouldn’t be creating offers based on what’s trending or seen as profitable offer.

Especially if it’s outside of your knowledge, experience and skillsets. This often leads to all the challenges I’ve mentioned above and moves you away from your business goals, ethics, values and purpose.

Over time this erodes trust and credibility, too, because your dream clients don’t know what to expect from you. And it takes a lot to come back from this.

I’ve been seeing this happen a lot recently, and it makes me sad because I think of all the clients and customers that could have been served by the business owner but aren’t getting support because every online business is launching the shiny new Tik Tok for business course.

So as tempting as this is, know that there is value in taking the time to create an offer that will continue to support your business growth year on year.

If you’re using launch strategies, following up in the DMs and inviting people to work with you daily but still aren’t seeing the cash, clients and opportunities you need, it’s time to revisit your offer.

I’ve grown my profitable business because I’ve taken the time to create my unique, money-generating offer and confirm it’s what my clients want before investing in sales and marketing tactics.

I didn’t have a huge following, email list or sales page, but I was still able to:

• Make $2,000 AUD from my digital product in 36 hours
• Enrol 10 people in my first online course
• Fill my coaching program within 72 hours

Skipping the offer creation process is common, so I created my new intensive Create a Unique, Money-Generating Offer.

After 90-minutes you’ll have your: 

• Profitable idea that is going to help you reach your desired income
• An entire outline of your new offer, so you know what you need to include
• Transformation statement so you can easily invite your dream clients to work with you
• A name and price that will have everyone excited and ready to buy

Everything you need to revamp a current offer or make a new one.

I’m running the live intensive on Thursday, July 7 at 10 am Melbourne, Australia time.

Save your seat via the link in the show notes, and let’s create your unique, money-generating offer together.

Thanks so much for tuning into today’s episode.

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