Want to know the number ONE reason people can't land high-ticket clients?

It's not a problem with their offer.

Well, it is.

It's just that most people don't understand WHY they have an offer problem.

They don't realise that it stems from something deeper…

They don’t understand their prospect.

They don’t understand their problems.

They don’t understand their daily pains.

They don’t know what they’ve already tried and why it failed.

They want to sell something, but they don't understand the person they're trying to sell to.

That's right.

They don't have an offer problem.

They have a research problem.

And, as a result, when they present their offer it flops harder than the 40 year old dad who’s spent the last 15 years accumulating a blubber ring around his midsection and then decides to do a belly flop at the kids’ pool on holiday…

But research is boring AF - hence why 99% of the morons on Twitter don’t bother with it.

So to make research a bit more “fun” in this email...

I’m going to outline the exact research process I went through for my latest group coaching offer.

(And, FYI, I filled all 6 spots in 72 hours - so I clearly did something right…)

Note: I’m only going to talk about research in this email. I won’t cover how I turned this into my offer. That’s a subject for another day…

Right.

Without further ado, let’s dive in…

Step #1: Define your “avatar” and where they are NOW

Before you do any research, you must first understand EXACTLY who you’re selling to.

For my coaching offer, I was targeting people who were:

1. Stuck in a 9-5 they hated
2. Wanted to build a freelance business to escape, but
3. Didn’t know how to land clients

Why did I choose this avatar?

Because…

1. I’ve done this myself, which adds a lot of credibility to my offer.
2. I remember how much I hated the 9-5 life and I enjoy helping other people escape.

Once we’ve nailed down who we’re pitching to, we need to get into the actual research…

Step #2: What daily PAINS are they facing?

Humans don’t buy based on logic.

They buy based on emotion (pain, in particular).

So you need a list of emotional trigger points they can relate to. This will show them you understand their daily struggles.

Here’s how I gathered this data:

1. Personal memories from my time in a 9-5
2. DM conversations, video calls and sales calls
3. Tweets and comments from people stuck in a 9-5

And then there’s one extra secret weapon for finding pain points…

Reddit Forums

When I was formulating my offer and sales page, I literally Googled “I hate my 9-5 Reddit”.

Within seconds, I’d found 5-10 posts of people listing out all their 9-5 hates and pet peeves.

1. Pointless meetings.
2. Small-talk over lunch.
3. Constant MS Teams messages.

Etc. etc. etc.

Every time I found a new pain point, I added it to a Google Doc called “Research” (lol).

If you can show you understand exactly what struggles, pains and frustrations your prospects face on a daily basis then you’re going to be 100x more relatable (and hence they’ll be 100x more likely to want to work with you).  

Next, I needed to understand where they wanted to be…

Step #3: Where do they want to be? (broad)

How did I gather this data?

I followed the exact opposite process as when I gathered my pain points.

Instead of thinking about the horrible aspects of my 9-5, I thought about the amazing things I’ve experienced since becoming a full-time creator.

Instead of reading tweets by people stuck in their 9-5, I read tweets by people who had escaped their 9-5.

And instead of Googling “I hate my 9-5 Reddit”, I Googled “why I love being a freelancer Reddit”.

I wrote down every single positive aspect of being a freelancer.

1. No boss snooping over your shoulder.
2. The ability to do whatever you want all day.
3. No depressing morning commute stuck in traffic.

Etc. etc. etc.

I then used this to paint a vivid picture of what my client’s lives could look like if they chose to work with me. (I’ve heard this called “future pacing” before, and I kinda like that name tbh).

But this was all very broad, superficial outcomes.

So, then I needed to get specific…

Step #4: Where do they want to be? (specific)

It’s not enough to promise someone a fucking rainbows and fairies outcome.

You have to get specific, quantifiable and tangible.

How did I do this?

I thought about:

1. The results I’d achieved myself
2. The results I’d achieved for the clients in my existing cohort
3. The people in my market that were offering a similar transformation

And then I turned this into a tangible outcome I was confident I could achieve for my clients:

$0 to $5k/month in the next 90 days.

This was both achievable (I’ve done it for both myself and multiple other clients) and attractive.

And that’s all you really need with your big promise.

Next, I needed to think about all the stuff that’s blocking them from getting there…

Step #5: What BLOCKERS are they facing right now?

You need to position yourself as the solution to their problems.

But in order to do that, you first need to understand what’s blocking them from solving their problems.

Blockers are almost always one of three things:

1) Lack of awareness

Example: They’re a good writer, but they don’t know what content will attract leads and for their email marketing business.

‍2) Lack of skill/knowledge

Example: They want to be an email copywriter, but they don’t know much about email copywriting and they haven’t started building out their own newsletter yet.

‍3) Not enough time

Example: They’re a good writer, they know how to write good email marketing content but they’re and don’t have enough time to write content.

So, here’s what I did:

I listed out all the blockers my avatar was facing.

I grouped them into these 3 categories.

And then I paired each one with a solution I’d already created for my own business (we’re only talking about research in this email so I’ll save this one for another day…)

Finally, I thought about possible questions and objections…

Step #6: What are the OBJECTIONS they might raise?

I put myself in their shoes and imagined I was being presented this offer.

What questions would I ask?

Here’s a few of the many I came up with:

1. When will the program start?
2. What if I’m not a great writer?
3. How will I be able to contact you?
4. How often will we have calls each week?
5. What if I’m not an expert in my field yet?
6. How much time do I need to commit each day?

I listed out every possible objection I could think of.

And then I thought of what I could add to the program to nullify each objection (again, that’s a topic for another day…)

Which (sadly), brings us to the end of this “research” email.

I hope you found it useful.

And I hope you can see how to apply the lessons here to whatever offer you’re currently cooking up.

Talk soon,

Harry

PS. I built a $10k/month personal brand in under 4 months.

Want to do the same?

Join 2,000+ creators here: The Beadle Newsletter.