We addressed the mindset piece and the pricing piece in earlier posts, so in this article I’ll be talking about how using a call to action is super critical in growing your revenue, and what to do if you have a bit of a hard time asking for that.

OK, first things first.  You do use calls to action, right?  With every email or article or written correspondence, are you directing your readers what to do next?  On your interviews or teleclasses, is there a ‘next step’ you want folks to take?  I think sometimes we get a bit lazy or just forget that this is a critical piece of having people move into connecting more with us.

So here are a few places not having a call to action is hurting you and how it’s related to the dreaded “Oh crap….they aren’t buying” syndrome.”

1.  They don’t know how to work with you. Yikes.  This happened to me once.  A person who had the profile of my ideal client responded to something I put (for the first time!) in my newsletter.  Basically I said, “Hey I have spots for a few more 1:1 clients, so if you are struggling with these issues, contact me and we’ll set up a time to chat.” By the time she got to the call, she was already sold because she’d seen my work.  When I asked her why she decided to respond to that ad in the newsletter she said,

“Because I never knew how to work with you before.”

See, I had been sending out articles, doing expert interviews, and had launched a few programs, but that wasn’t what she’d been looking for.  No where  in anything she read was a blurb that said, “if you want to break free of whatever it is that is stopping you from your business success, click here to do that and I’ll partner with you.”  Big lesson for me there!  My call to action for you….find places you can ask folks to take the next step.  Actually first figure out what that next step is and then go for it!

2. Your call to action is worn out and tired. So maybe you do have something at the end of your blog post that says, “leave a comment” or maybe you say “go to my website and sign up for my free report.”  But what if folks are getting sick of that?  What if they have already downloaded your freebie and left a comment or two?  What then?  Or what if your freebie is outdated and doesn’t match the talk you are giving now or the branding you are currently rolling out?

Here I want you to do a bit of spring cleaning.  You don’t have to go crazy, but you do have to have more current offerings.   And when you do, you may want to ask your market what they’d like.  Example….”would you prefer to listen to a 45 minute audio, or receive the same info as a 5 day ecourse?”  My call to action for you here is to let your readers tell you what’s working by asking them.

3.  Your mindset is getting in the way of asking people to take a next step. If you are first born child,  have super-hero tendencies, or tend to be a bit of an overachiever I have a prediction about you.  My guess is that you have a bit of a hard time asking for things.  Most of us (particularly women) get into “let me help/support/nurture you” mode and HATE to ask.  Very often the sale or opportunity to work together is just laying on the table but because we get so freaky about wanting to ask for things, we miss it.

I want you to notice what goes on in your head as you think about asking people to take the next step.  Do you recoil?  Feel like you’ll be ‘pushy’ or bothering them?  Are you afraid to seem to ’salesy’ or aggressive?  My call to action for you is to notice the places of resistance.  Notice if you get a bit anxious or uncomfortable.  This is a huge point of growth and so you may want to lean into where you normally would back down.

4.  You don’t know what to use for a call to action. Simple stuff here.  If it’s not your mindset, it may be that 1) you didn’t realize you should be using CTA’s in your pieces, or 2) you haven’t taken the time to plan or strategize where things should go.  It’s simple if you think about it in relationship building or developmental terms.  Let’s break it down.  Say someone reads one of your blog posts.  They get a feel for your work and expertise.  What is the next thing you want them to do.  (Asking them to leave a comment is really fine here)

Sometimes we may ask for a specific thing like “go to Facebook and join my group” but other times it may be more intangible like “Ask yourself what’s the definition of success in your business.”  You don’t want to continually be promoting, so are there CTA’s that will help your audience answer their own questions?  Find their own solutions?  Even if you are just asking the question, you are still viewed as a trusted source and that’s precisely what you want!  My CTA (call to action) for you is to take some time to look at each piece that you put out and plan on the call to action requests as well.  Don’t take it for granted that people know how to work with you, how to find you, how to benefit from your expertise, or even how to contact you!

Now my final call to action is to go out there an be as brilliant as you can be because the world needs what you have to offer!

And if you want some support in doing that, email me at Therese@HappyinBusiness.com.

Blessings!

I’m still ‘high’ from doing a free “Bring Me Your Business Challenges” group coaching call where I had people just call in and get coached. We got to work with 5 business owners, and one of the themes that came from that call inspired these blog posts.

When I asked for volunteers, one woman shared that her coaching request was around getting help in how to visualize working with so many clients. When I pushed for more clarity around this, she really didn’t want to see a huge number of people a week in her service-based business, so it didn’t make sense. It wasn’t until the questioning process lead her to say this statement that it all clicked—

“I don’t want to become what I think it will take to get all those clients in the door.”

Eureka! For this person, her mindset block was that she believed that she needed to become a very driven type-A person in order to attract anyone, and the cost of doing that seemed way too great for her. She’s very sweet and grounded in her energy, so the thought of being anything else caused her to probably sabotage her progress in a very big way.

So how do you confuse your market and lose faith in yourself? By trying to be something you are not! But almost everyone makes this mistake at some time when they are building and marketing what they do.

On one hand it’s exquisitely simple, but on the other hand it’s a very complex idea.
After working with loads of people (and with my own business) I will show you three reasons why we try to be something we are not.  Check back for the next blog post to learn why this can plague entrepreneurs and what we can do about it.