My Plan to 10X My Prices (And Dominate My Industry)
Hey there. Tim here.
I've officially graduated from cold showers to the Ice Barrel. I love it.
Sponsored
This week's issue is brought to you by The ConvertKit Sponsorship Network. It's easily the best way to generate awareness to your business.
1. My Plan To 10X My Prices And Dominate The Behavioral Healthcare Space
A few months ago, I had a turning point in my business.
Long story short, I lost a deal to a competitor. I hate losing deals. I take it way harder than I need to. The reason is because I genuinely can't understand why any company would rather work with someone else than to work with us.
Stodzy Internet Marketing is far and away the best digital marketing company in the behavioral healthcare space. It's really not even close. We generate such better results than the #2 and #3.
I take it personal.
A Moment Of Clarity
I had a conversation shortly after with a friend of mine. This friend knows me and my business well. I was laughing about the situation and he said "well, you guys are both SEO companies, so they (meaning the customer) went with the cheaper option."
This sentence hit me like a brick across the face. He was completely right.
It's not about the work or even the results, it's about the perceived value. The market views us as an SEO company. I haven't created distance between myself and everyone else because regardless of how superior we are, the market still groups all of us in the same bucket.
We are all SEO companies. At least, we are perceived to be.
I know that Stodzy is more than that. We are a lead generation company. We generate interest, traffic, and inbound phone calls for our clients.
SEO is only one of the ways we do that.
Regardless, the market doesn't know. Our potential customers don't see us that way.
So over the last 2 months, I've been obsessing (as in actually thinking about it 24/7) about how to reposition ourselves to be the company that people WANT to work with.
In doing so, I'm going to raise our prices and make us exclusive so that we can chose if a certain client is even worth our time. I'll never again be in a position where a potential customer can chose if they want to work with us or not. We are going to chose if we want to work with them.
If a prospects biggest concern is price, they are better off going with the cheaper option.
Okay, cool story Tim. But how do you plan on doing this? I will tell you.
Step 1 - Be The Best (And Tell The World)
As you know, I'm very transparent about my business. I happily share what I'm working on with TimStodz and with Copyblogger.
But I rarely create personalized content for Stodzy. Stodzy is B2B company, and I've wrongly assumed that people in the space won't be as excited about the content. After all, who wants to read about the latest insurance policy news? or the most recent EMR tech stack updates?
In reality, there are hundreds of thousands of professionals in the space who would be thrilled to receive this type of content. So, here's what I'll do.
- Case studies that show what is working - For instance, we tried a new strategy on one of our newest site builds, and it's absolutely CRUSHING. People in the industry should know about it. Professionals in the industry would be thrilled to hear about how we applied different tactics and filled this facility in just 5 months.
- Create a media company - Again, my limiting beliefs tricked me into thinking that since Stodzy in B2B, typical content marketing won't work. Why did I think that? I will implement tried and true tactics. This includes a baller free course that I just finished recording, a weekly newsletter, webinars, interviews, articles, and more.
I know that we are the best, but not everyone else does, so now it's on me to prove my authority by creating free media, case studies, and education for the professionals in the space.
Step 2 - Build An Outreach Team
I hired my first sales rep. In another month, I'm going to hire another. The job of the outreach team is three fold. Here's what they will do.
- One person will do nothing but promote the Treatment Leads Workshop. This is so we can build the newsletter while giving away value.
- The second outreach rep will be in charge of setting appointments, writing free roadmaps, and closing deals.
- The second outreach rep will also attend conferences and be a physical representation of our brand.
Step 3 - Change Our Messaging
This starts with me.
It sounds so simple, but I never made the mental connection between what goes on INSIDE our company and what goes on OUTSIDE our company.
Everyone on the team knows that our objective is to generate phone calls for our clients. We don't see ourselves as an SEO company. In fact, we have 8 different departments that handle 8 different marketing channels for our space. They are ...
- on site SEO
- link building
- call tracking
- local directories (GMB, Yelp, YP.com)
- rehab specific directories
- alumni management
- content marketing
- data and analytics
We have a systematic approach to bringing a client through these departments in a way that continuously generates the most results for the least resources. I know this, but no one else does.
That's all going to change.
Thanks For Coming To My Ted Talk
Like I said, this week is a deep dive into my thinking. I realize it's more high level and esoteric than my usual weekly newsletters, but I want you to get a glimpse of the importance of positioning.
If you do what everyone else does, but try to do it a little better, you will not be able to charge 10X more and you will be fighting for the same clients as everyone else.
This experience really bruised my ego. I've worked so hard to elevate my company, but I had to come face to face with the reality that in the eyes of my potential customers, Stodzy is perceived to be on the same level as the hacks that I compete with.
That's gotta change. It is changing.
This change is going to be the driving force to get Stodzy to $10,000,000 a year. Just you wait and see.
2. Get Stronger
I struggle a lot with the concept of depression. It's not that I don't believe that people are depressed, but rather that "depression" is labeled as a thing that you have.
As westerners, we like to see it is something we can identify and treat. So what do we do?
Well ... we take pills. What else would we do?
Look, I'm sure there are millions of people who are on anti depressants and many of them may feel like it helps them. But I often dream of a world where medication was the last stop of the line rather than the first.
Point being, your life would be better in every way if you added physicality to your life. And I don't mean going to the gym once a week.
3. Sponsor This Newsletter
Guess what? You're reading promotional content in a newsletter. Sponsoring influencer newsletters, like mine, is a great way to reach engaged and targeted audiences. It will build your brand — whether that is your personal brand or your business.
The TimStodz newsletter is part of the ConvertKit Sponsor Network. This network connects businesses to audiences of newsletter readers. For example, you can sponsor this newsletter and connect with about 15,396 people with similar interests to yours.
4. This Is The Opportunity To Make More $$$ From Email
I received a great comment on my last video.
I genuinely appreciate the feedback, however, I'm doubling down on my answer.
Here's my response.
5. Podcasts Are Just Getting Started
Think you're too late to start a podcast?
Think again.
My friend Darren posted this great statistic that shows the trajectory rate of podcasts.
You are early. We are all early.
Something like only 10% of podcasts go past ten episodes and 1% of podcasts go past 100 episodes.
All you have to do to succeed in the podcast game is to continue publishing. It's that simple.
I hope you start and I hope you continue on.
I hope you all have a great week. As always, feel free to hit reply and let me know what you think or if you have any questions I can answer.
Love you guys.
Talk to you next week.
Tim