Use the 'A-Frame' to Business Success

I always speak about the win-win-win, my favourite kind of result. And I am an advocate of making it as easy as possible for your clients and potential clients to come in and work with you wherever they happen to be on their path.

That's why the A Frame is such a vital component to your marketing plan.

So what's the A Frame? Imagine a ladder propped up against a wall and it has 5 rungs to reach the top, wider at the bottom, narrowing towards the top. That's my version of the A Frame. It is your client's ladder to success, the higher the rung, the greater the investment.

It is the model I use to structure the path for clients to come in from not knowing you at all to working with you on a one to one basis in your highest investment programme.

Let me share with you the basics of each rung. Imagine that rung 1 is at the bottom and 5 at the top.

Rung 1 – No cost, no real commitment from your potential client

This is where someone finds you who is interested in what you have to offer. They know nothing about you yet. Imagine it as a romantic relationship. When you first meet someone, there is no trust yet, so no willingness to commit. It is your job as the service provider to build the know, like and trust and to do that you have to be willing to offer free tasters of your work. One way to do that is via your website, offering the free giveaway in return for their email address. Remember the most important point here, is that there is virtually no effort required on the part of your potential client, so don't offer a free session, for example, where they would have to have an input.

Rung 2 – Passive – Once created requires none of your time or access to you.

This is the next step on the ladder and staying with the theme of making it as easy as possible for your client to get to know, like and trust you, will be at a low investment point. This maybe an e-book addressing a specific struggle your clients have. Again the win-win, your client receives help at a low investment point and gets to know you better, and once it is created, it takes little of your time and you are creating a passive income.

Rung 3 – Leveraged – Requires only some access to you and a limited amount of your time

Here you are offering a way for your clients to get to know just that little bit more, and to receive more of your solutions to their problems. This is the next step on the investment ladder. It could be in the form of a group programme. You are leveraging your time by sharing with a group rather than one to one.

Rung 4 – Active – Provides some access to you and time with you

This is probably the most popular of all the rungs when it comes to most service based professionals. This is the one to one work you do and generally speaking, your fastest path to cash when you are looking at the money side of things. For your clients, it is a great investment of their money, time and energy to produce the results they are looking for.

Rung 5 – Exclusive – Provides most access to you and your time

Top of the ladder. When clients come in and work with you here, they are looking for short term and long term results and have opted to do it on a very personal level with you. This could be a VIP day where a client spends one on one time with you because they want to address an issue in depth and want results quickly and want to get into action quickly too.

So when you are creating your A Frame, work from the top. Decide on your VIP package and work your way down. This is because ideally you want your clients to make it to the top of the A Frame if you like, and so once you know what the top package is and who would be investing in it, you can start working your way down, this way you’re creating a path of least resistance for your clients as they get to know, like and trust you, and you are helping them in the most effective way to have the transformation they want.

If you would like more information around the A Frame, what to include in each step for your particular modality, at what investment point, what's best to give away for free and what to charge for, and so on, then consider joining me on the Marketing from the Heart programme.