Originally aired Wednesday, February 25, 2026. Businessing is now a weekly show with a new episode every Monday.
Short answer: To create a premium service, write down what clients buy from you, then ask why they want that outcome in the first place. Build an upgraded or add-on offer that serves that deeper reason. A travel client wants to reconnect with a spouse, an event client wants partners to feel celebrated. Sell to that.
Today I walked you through a thought exercise I call changing the camera angle. It started with a Stanford nasal spray vaccine that boosts your defenses instead of chasing one virus. For your business, you write down what clients buy, ask why they want it, then build a premium version that serves the why. I gave examples for travel advisors, event planners, tax pros and speaker agents. In the news, the State of the Union floated a retirement benefit for the self-employed. I also saluted bookkeepers and CPAs deep in tax season. Then Alison Ver Halen joined the Idea Slam to figure out who to sell her new sales and marketing workshop to.
Businessing is the weekly show where small business owners figure out what to do next, with a new episode every Monday. Hosted by Pat Miller, founder of the Small Business Owners Community: owners only, nobody pitching, $19 a month.
Key takeaways
- Write down the product your clients buy from you, then write down why they want that outcome in the first place.
- Build a premium package or add-on that serves the client's deeper reason, instead of only doing the base service cheaper or faster.
- Look for partners, like a remodeler for a tax firm, who can help clients use the result you deliver.
- When you sell a new service, show a quick win for the prospect before you ask them to buy.
- Give your process a name you can own so prospects remember what you do and why it's different.
Questions this episode answers
How do I come up with a premium version of my service?
Start by writing down what clients buy from you. Then ask why they want it, like wanting a stress-free trip to reconnect with a spouse. Build add-ons that serve that reason, such as extra touches around the trip, and offer them as a higher-level package.
How do I keep clients when AI can do what I do?
Go beyond the base service. If a screen can soon deliver what you do, your edge is taking care of why the client wants it and making them feel special. Premium add-ons deepen the relationship and make you hard to replace.
How do I sell a new workshop to companies when I've never run it before?
Find leaders who feel like they're losing the game, name their pain in plain words, and offer a quick win to earn trust. You can also offer a first client a reduced rate in exchange for a testimonial and honest feedback.
Worth quoting
When you're stuck in a problem, change the camera angle on that problem. Problem stays the same. How we look at it is a little bit different.
Pat Miller on Businessing
I don't wanna teach anybody anything. I wanna show them what I can do.
Pat Miller on Businessing
Are you just doing the service that soon, any screen will be able to deliver for them?
Pat Miller on Businessing
On the show
- Alison Ver Halen: A website content writer who brought her new sales and marketing alignment workshop to the Idea Slam to figure out who to sell it to and how.
- Idea Slam question: Alison Ver Halen asked who to sell her new sales and marketing alignment workshop to, how to get in front of them, and how to show them the value.
In this episode
- State of the Union and a retirement plan idea for the self-employed
- A salute to tax pros in tax season
- Change the camera angle on a problem
- Exercise: what clients buy and why they want it
- Examples of premium add-on services
- Idea Slam with Alison Ver Halen
- Name your process so you own it
- Remembering Robert Carradine
Watch, listen and join
- Watch this episode on YouTube
- Apple Podcasts
- Listen anywhere
- Small Business Owners Community
- The Small Business Library (add it to your AI tool)
More on this topic: Pricing answers from the Small Business Owners Community
Full transcript
Good morning. It's Wednesday, February 25th and we are Businessing. This is Small Businesses weekly show. I'm your host, pat Miller, founder of the Small Business Owners Community, and we're sponsored today by our friends at Gen Head and Enji. Thanks to them both for their support on today's show.
We got a lot to talk about last night. President Trump gave his State of the Union address and it was pretty much what we all expected, but. But there was a tiny, little delicious little nugget in there that my tax guy says could be a game changer for you and me for real. We'll touch on it in the news.
We're also going to take a second and salute the financial professionals that are the hardest working small business owners in America right now. We'll get to that in a second. In the lead story section, I need you to grab the notebook and I need you to sit back and kind of stare at the ceiling. I find that my best creativity, I think this is scientifically proven by the way, that when you sit back and you literally zone out at the ceiling, that works.
I think, I'm not kidding. I think that's a scientific fact. All of my best answers are written up there on the ceiling, but I'm gonna leave you through a thought exercise that will leave you staring at the ceiling. We're going to do it so you can make more money from your best clients by thinking about what you do in a new way.
And I'm super psyched because we've got a guest. We've got a guest for the idea Slam. Alison Ver Halen's on the show this morning. She's standing by and she's got a question for you and me in the Idea Slam, which is always fun. So if you're with us this morning, drop into the chat and let me know. Drop in your business.
Link so we can all learn about who you are and what you do. And Barbara is just, you're awesome, Barbara. You're just there every day. Can I just say how grateful I am for you, Barbara, and Steve and Nikki and some of the other folks that watch every day? We're just starting this journey trying to create this show as the daily habit for small business owners and those of you that are commenting on the show and sharing the show and showing up for it, I just really appreciate it.
I really, really appreciate it 'cause I love doing this and I love holding this conversation and I hope it's something we get to do for a long, long time. So if you're super cool like Barbara and you've tuned in this morning, let us know about you and we would love to say hello on the air. Like my buddy Michael.
Awesome to see you, Michael as well. Your hand pink waving. Cool. Thanks for doing it. Okay, let's get into the news, shall we? The president gave his State of the Union address last night now. I wanna have a conversation about the State of the Union that's independent from how you feel about President Trump.
Can we do that? Can we be like business adults for a second and just have a conversation about like policy for a sec. Because the actual speech was exactly what you would expect. America is back. We're in the golden age. Those are the lying Democrats, booing and hissing. Here are the hockey players with their gold medals.
Here's some military guys. I gave them the purple heart. I mean, it was all of that stuff and cool. Whether you love it or hate it, that's what it was, but that's not what I'm talking about. Today I want to talk about one little thing that was inside Trump's speech that could be a game changer. This is a direct quote from my tax guy.
It could be a game changer for us inside his speech. Trump is just listing through a bunch of different stuff. He just slips in there and I actually went back and replayed it. 'cause you know, when I'm watching stuff like this, it's like, okay, he's talking. Whatever. That's, that's what I expected. That's what I expected.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wait, wait, what was that back that up? That's what happened. So he is doing his thing, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then I backed it up and he said he's thinking about launching a benefit for people that don't qualify. For employer sponsored 401k programs. You're an entrepreneur, sole operator, self-employed, so am I.
We don't have an employer sponsored 401k, like we don't have a company that we report to and a 401k program we can opt into. Last night, he said for people like you and me, if that's your situation. They're considering allowing us to opt into the 401k programs that the federal government offers its workers.This is not investment advice, but this is news because Trump also says the government will match a thousand dollars of our deposits into said program. Now you have my attention. Hold on.
Say that into my good ear. Did you say free money? Did, did, did you say free money? It doesn't mean we have to stop doing our other 401k programs or Roths or investments or whatever you're doing, but it's not a bad idea.
I'm looking at it as a way for you to get some extra cash and before you think, ah, that's Trump. That's stupid. Okay, fine. Maybe he is stupid and you hate the guy, fine, whatever. That's not what I'm talking about. The program that this would get bolted into is a program that was started by Trump, enhanced by Biden, and then this would be added by Trump as well.
So it could benefit solo operators like us. So we have a 401k program we could invest in and get some matching. So free money could be on the horizon. Now is it close to passing? No.
Is it there for for us yet? No. And the first thing I did this morning is I, uh, emailed my tax guy Eugene at Magnolia Tax.
I'm like, Hey, what do you know about this? He's like, we're learning about it right now. Uh, I can't be on the air today. Uh, but if this goes through from what I've known about it, this could be a big deal for us, meaning Abby and I as solo operators. So I just wanted to share that with you. All the other stuff, yeah.
Political, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But free money for us. Ha ha. Had to bring that to your attention. Speaking of government money, can we just say thank you to everyone that's sitting in front of a QuickBooks right now? I, I don't know what hit me this morning, but I was thinking about Barbara Faucet at Money Masters just sitting there going through tax season.
I thought, oh my gosh, I, I don't know how you do it. I'm a creative guy, as you know, and I like to think, I like to stare at the ceiling. I like to come up with big ideas. So the thought of going line by line on tax returns makes me wanna jump off a building. And there are people like Barbara that do it and do it well.
I, it reminded me of when I did CrossFit. So I did CrossFit for many, many years. When you do CrossFit or any of those high intensity workouts, the people in the CrossFit box, they call it a box, not a gym, 'cause they're cool. But the people in the CrossFit box would say, okay, you're gonna go on the pain cave on this one.
And the pain cave was halfway through the workout, two thirds of the way through the workout. When you're questioning your life choices, like you literally want to die. I hate my life. Why am I doing this? This is stupid.
Beer is good. Like when you're having those thoughts, why am I, what the hell? What is wrong with me?
You are in the pain cave and they always talked about how really good CrossFitters could be in the pain cave. Know that they're gonna survive and get through it. And then finally get out of the pain cave and lay on the floor and have you breathe for 30 minutes and leave sweat. Angels. I, I'm not gonna go into details, but that's what I did.
'cause. It hurt me greatly. Anyway, all of that is where they are right now. They are stuck in the pain cave with the S corp filings due on March 15th. Everybody else's filings due on April 15th. And if we can reflect on how we treat these people, did you drop off a folder full of stuff? I'm just gonna set this, it.
It's as though your spouse is doing dishes and you set a dirty dish on the side. You think if you drop it slowly and lighter, it'll be less offensive. Here, here, honey. Here, like you're kind of saying, I'm sorry. When you do it, you got this folder full of stuff that you know is just a disorganized, hot mess and you just kind of, okay, I, I, if you need anything and then you run.
That's how many of us treat our tax people. So they're going through the nightmare right now. They're not only doing it for your hot mess of a folder, they're doing it for 10, 20, 30, 50, a hundred other clients all at the same time. So for those of you in the financial pain cave, I salute you. Was that even a salute?
I don't even know. I think that was a salute. I'm trying to salute you. I'm trying to say thanks to our bookkeepers and CPAs and financial pros and soon. We will be able to get together and we will be able to, uh, show each other a good time. Like, Hey, gonna buy you a beer and say, thanks for that folder that we dropped off.
And Abby knows the folder. Oh yeah, you know the folder. You've got a hot mess of a folder right there. Coming up, we have Alison Verhalen on the show. We're gonna do Idea Slam Image Live, which I'm really excited about.
But today I wanna lead you through a thought exercise. This is going to be work. As I mentioned before, we're gonna stare at the ceiling and we're gonna think deeply.
And I'm not just pulling this out of my backside. There's a reason why we're going to have this exercise today, and it's going to be a way that we can, uh, think about how to serve our best customers better. Michael, good morning. Great to see you. Um. My job is to lead brainstorming events. I do it all the time and for decades when I was trained on it, you learn little tips and tricks, and one of the things that I was taught way back when was when you're stuck in a problem, change the camera angle on that problem.
Problem stays the same. How we look at it is a little bit different. So today I wanna change the camera angle. I just wanted to do this 'cause I thought it would be kind of fun. I never talked to this camera.
Hi. Hello friends. We're changing the camera angle. I'm going back to the other camera. I just wanted to do that for a fact.
So we're gonna change the camera angle on what you do for your clients. And this idea came to me when I read a story today about something that's going on at Stanford. At Stanford. Right now they're making vaccines. That's what they do.
They're testing it on mice. That's what they do. And forever they've been trying to find a way to create a vaccine for the common cold.
Well, they think they might have it. That got my attention. But how they got there is what I think is really interesting. Traditionally, vaccines would say, okay, we're gonna get this big, bad, uh, virus. We're gonna come up with a vaccine to stop this thing. And they would learn all about that thing and they would learn how our body interacts with it, and it would create a virus that helps attack that particular, uh, pathogen, I think is the fancy pants word.
This new vaccine, which is just a nasal spray, changed the camera angle on how to solve this problem instead of prepping for the virus. What if we just supercharged all of our defenses? Any virus that shows up has no chance. I thought, damn, that's smart. They changed the camera angle on how to solve a vaccine.
Who cares what the pathogen is? If your body is enhanced to the point where it can fight out, fight off the pathogen no matter what it is and it's working. It needs some further testing with the mice. Again, shout out mice. Has that ever been said? Did we ever shout out to mice before? But you know, shout out to mice doing the hard work for us, and soon we may have a, and we have no colds, no COVID, no flu, no runs, no hits, no errors, nothing.
That's the literal definition of changing the camera angle. So that's your example about what we're gonna do today. In brainstorming practice. We would go through what you do for your clients. We would think about what you do for your clients and try and make that better. But today I wanna change the camera angle on it.
I wanna daydream about how might we add a new product or service, or an enhanced version of the product or service that you already provide by changing the camera angle. This is the time when you get out your notes. If you're watching this on replay, either in a podcast or on the YouTube channel, uh, which you can subscribe to, let me put up the old QR code here so you can subscribe to the YouTube channel.
So if you miss a show, you can always catch it on demand on the old YouTube channel. You can pause it and think and then come back. So if you're doing it live, awesome. If you've gotta come back to it, no worries. First thing, I want you to think about the product that people are buying from you. Why are they giving you money?
What are you doing for them? I have some examples just to give you some things to chew on in case you're not doing the exercise yourself. If you are a travel advisor like our friend Tanya Murphy, well I am offering them, they're buying a hassle-free travel experience. I'm gonna do all their plans.
They're gonna have a great vacation. If you're like Barbara, who we talked about before. I'm gonna help you get your taxes done by the deadline. That's what you're buying from me. If you are an event planner, I'm gonna plan your event so it goes smoothly. That's the product. Whatever it is you do, write down the product.
Got it? Okay. Step two, instead of doing what we would normally do in a brainstorming session, which is. How can we provide this outcome cheaper or faster, or make it easier? I wanna change the camera angle and have you think about, well, why do they want that outcome in the first place? So the problem is still here, but now I want you to look at it from a different way.
Why do they want that? And this will vary from customer, customer to customer. So we're kind of daydreaming here a little bit, but. If you are, uh, helping people with a hassle-free vacation, why do they want that? Maybe Good morning, Kent. Great to see you. Uh, they might be wanting to reconnect with their spouse and relax.
That variable will change, but that's why they want it. Why do they want their taxes done hassle-free So they can get a refund and pay off some debt. Why do they want their event planned so they can celebrate their biggest partners and constituents and further those relationships? Do you see what I'm going for here?
You do the event planning, but why do they need the event planning so they can celebrate their customers and their constituents? Okay, here's where things get interesting. You now know what you're doing for them, and you know why they want it done. Now I want you to think about when you're performing that level service, that base service, I plan your event.
How might we get after why they need the transformation with an enhanced offering or an upgraded service. When you think about why they want the transformation, we can start offering solutions to enhance their why as well, which could be a premium version of what you do or an alternate version. Of what you do, and this is now more accessible than ever because the cost of our labor on the whole is gonna go to zero real soon.
At least The thought labor in the administration is gonna go to zero very, very soon, or nearly zero. The cost of creating websites, the cost of outreach, the cost of research, the cost of software, all of that's going straight down to plummeting daily. So this gives us a chance to think about, okay. How can I enhance what I'm doing to get after the why they're buying the thing in the first place.
It's as though you're sitting on the same side of the table with your client. Let's think about how this rolls out. If you're the event planner, you want to throw a great event, why do they want that event done so they can celebrate their biggest partners? So how might we change the camera angle to help them?
You do a good job planning the event, but you also offer enhanced versions. So you go to them and say, I'm gonna do an enhanced communication package with all of your partners leading up to the event. Uh, so that way they feel even more celebrated and it's even easier for them to attend. But it's an add-on service where one of my people is gonna act as the event concierge and make sure that they know everything that needs to be done.
So you don't have to, because I know that your people are VIPs. You're gonna offer an event capture service and proof of performance. So you have a videographer on site and you give me the names of your five people, and you create a studio where those five people come over and they talk about why this organization is so important to them.
You're gonna capture it and edit it and shoot it and create recap videos and give it to the organization and these major partners to make their social media a breeze and to celebrate their commitment to the organization. This is the type of thing you can do as well. Talk about the event planner. The event planner wants to do a hassle-free vacation experience.
We know that. For this particular client, they wanna do it because they need to reconnect with their spouse. You offer an enhanced version of what you would normally do anyway, and this is the husband plan. The husband's planning a surprise trip, and when that happens, two weeks before the trip, a gift card shows up in the mail sent by the husband for the wife to go on a shopping spree to get ready for the trip.
A limo is a part of the package. Now at the resort, there are makeovers and massages that have been thoughtfully scheduled by the husband. All of this wraps up into a romantic acceleration package with roses that are delivered while they're in Puerto Rico or wherever you're sending them. It's an added version of what you do on top of the service.
You already provide taxes. We need to get that stuff done and we need to get our money back so we can use it. Well, what if you made it easier for them to use it when they got the money back? In addition to offering your service, you're making strategic partnerships with a travel planner, for example, or you've got discounts or bonus credits or no planning fees from a local remodeler.
You build these partnerships with your tax accounting firm, so people that get a big fat check in the mail can spend it easier. Now you've got a referral partner in a general contractor, and the general contractor can send you business. You're sending them business. We're thinking about what we do for people, we're understanding why they need it, which then changes the camera angle for us to offer enhanced versions of what we're doing.This door is wide open right now because our ability and leverage to get stuff done is growing every single day. So think about your transformation, think about the why, and think about how you can do more for your clients. 'cause you have more horsepower now than ever before. I've got one more example that hit me just to make sure that I'm driving this home.
You help speakers. PR and positioning. My job is to get speakers more stages. Well, why do they want more stages? So they can get more consulting clients and become a thought leader in their space?
Okay,
help them become a better thought leader with a premium package. You go make deals with four or five different podcasters to interview them.
You go make a partnership with a ghost writer to help them make their book writing faster and easier. You come up with video production that captures their talks that you book them for, to create entire campaigns for their content, for their new website. You get to change the camera angle, literally. On what they get from you.
You get to enhance your base package and you get to make more money, which is a premium package. Deepens your relationship with the clients and makes you indispensable. And at the end of the day, these kinds of thought exercises, these are the things they're gonna help build your moat when it comes to digital competition.
How will I keep my clients? If anyone can book any stage using AI's help, I don't know. What else are you doing for them? How are you going above and beyond? How are, how are you taking care of their why and making them feel special, making them feel celebrated, or are you just doing the service that soon, any screen will be able to deliver for them?
These are the thoughts that we have to be having right now. I encourage you to think about this thought exercise and see what you can unlock as far as premium service in a premium product for your client. I'm so excited 'cause we get to Idea Slam for real. Today, Alison Verhalen is standing by. She is going to come on the air with an idea slam question and you are gonna help me solve it for her.
And this is fun because during the idea Slam. You know, I'm not sure what Alison wants to talk about, so we are gonna brainstorm live without a net. It's gonna be super fun. I can't wait to have you help me. We'll bring her on in just one second. This portion of the show is brought to by, brought to you by our friends at Gen Head Scale Systems.
Not Chaos. Gen Head is built for early stage businesses and solopreneurs just like you and me, who have lean teams and need real momentum, not another software tool that requires a full-time operator to run. This thing is streamlined, practical, and it takes, I don't know, replaces eight or 10 different pieces of software all in one place.
Plus, it's powered by AI agents baked right inside, everything from content to follow ups to funnels, to websites, to texting, email campaigns. Gen Head can do it all. If you're looking for a CRM, if you feel disorganized, if you think there's gotta be a better way, hello? Gen Head. Gen head.com. It's gen head.com.
Thank you Gen Head for being our partner and for being a part of what we're growing here with Businessing, with Pat Miller. The idea slam is so much fun. If this is your first time watching the show, we get to talk about a challenge or an opportunity in someone's business. Not everybody is as courageous as our next guest, Allison, because some people need the help and they want some ideas to get them out of a jam, or they want some ideas to take their big project to the next level, but they're not so sure about that going on the air thing.
So if you click the QR code, you can book a time to come right on the show. We'll talk about you, we'll talk about your business, and we'll help you down the road. But if you're not quite sure, if you want to come on, we've added. An anonymous form. So if you click the QR code, you can tell us about what you're doing and ask a question that I'll talk about on the air, and you won't have to join us.
So if you're not quite ready to come on the air by yourself, no worries about that. Use the anonymous application and you can come on the air with your question, not your screen. Coming on the air right now though, and I'm gonna change the QR code in the corner, so when you find inspiration, you can snap it and get on the air with me.
Let's welcome Alison to the show. Alison, it's great to see you this morning. How are you today?
I'm well. Thank you so much for having me.
I'm excited that you're here. If someone hasn't met you yet, tell us who you are and what you do.
Yeah, I help high quality leads find you so you don't have to go out and hunt them down.
Uh, which basically means I write the content that goes onto your website that tells everyone who you are, what you do, and why we should all care.
Damn, you must be a writer. That's tight. That's great. Okay, so you've been a part of an idea slam before. At least you've seen one before, but I'm excited that you're on here today.
So tell us how we can help you. What's on your mind?
Yeah, so I am in the process of launching a new service. Um, it is a workshop for. Mid-level to some of the larger companies, not huge corporations, but those companies that have their own internal sales and marketing departments. Mm-hmm. And they're fighting with each other instead of working together to achieve the same goal when really they should be best friends.
And I don't understand why they're not So, um, I came up with this workshop to break past the misconceptions. Get them in the same room together, get them talking to each other, have sales, understand how marketing can, can help them. Marketing understands how sales can help them. And then set up a communication strategy going forward, um, so that a marketing can bring in better leads and then when they do, sales actually follows up and closes on those leads.
Um, so everybody does their jobs better and looks really awesome when the company makes more money. Um, my question is, because I'm just launching this and it's a little bit of a different market from what I've been doing, the like done for you kind of marketing service. So my question is, who exactly am I getting in front of, um, and how do I get in front of them and how do I get them to understand the value of what I'm offering here?
Okay, so let me make sure I understand. And this is where if you have questions or ideas or. What do I say? Questions, comments, and sarcastic remarks. Use the chat, let us know and we'll include you in the conversation. But I wanna make
all the sarcastic remarks, please,
all the sarcastic remarks. And our good friend Michael is here today.
He's always got the good sarcastic remarks. So I'm hearing you say that you're going to offer a workshop for, let's just say, mid, mid-size businesses, people that have a team, and that team that would be interested in buying this. They're not really on the same page. They, they don't understand how sales helps marketing, how operations helps sales.
They just don't understand how things are moving down the road. That's the product. Does that make sense? Okay. And you are gonna help them with communication and understanding how all the team members work together.
Yes.
Okay. So it's a communications workshop. We got that. Your question today is who's going to say yes and give you money, and how do you get them to do it?
Is that right? And
how do I get in front of them?
Right, right. How do you get in front of them? So who's, who are you gonna sell it to? How do you get it in front of them and how do you get them to buy? Yes. Okay. So this is where I get to ask you a thousand questions.
Awesome.
First question is, have you ever done this before for big teams or small teams?
I have not. This is a soft launch.
Okay. Soft launch. Very cool. Nothing wrong with that. Alright.
And when you do this program, what's the big takeaway? At the end of the day, I always like to say Cookie monster language. Cookie Monster Language. Why are they buying this? What do they get when it's all done?
What they get is an improved process of both marketing and sales, because they're both talking to each other and they're working together. Um, I, I like to use football terms. Sure. As far as like, in theory, marketing should be the quarterback throwing the ball to the, the receiver, which should be sales, who then takes it for a touchdown.
Um, with, that's what's gonna work. Afterwards, it's their, their, after this workshop, their, their quarterback and their receiver are looking at each other. They're communicating. They know what the play is. They're gonna make that pass.
They're gonna get that touchdown. Way more often. Um, so more money essentially.
I think in Cookie Monster terms, it's gonna be more money. Um, without spending more money, you're not hiring more people, you're not getting more tools, more stuff. It's just improving the process so that the process works better to get you more money.
Okay, got that. Is there a certain industry that you want to specialize in?
Not really. Um, it would, it could be professional services. That's my sweet spot is attorneys and financial planners. Um, manufacturing. I could also see being.
Uh, a, a good one here. It would have to be something that's not widget or a little $20 thing. It's not gonna be like an e-commerce kind of a thing.
Um, but someone who has that longer buyer journey and a little bit of a more complicated sales process where they need to educate their, their prospects on the value of what they provide and, and why they should work with them over one of their competitors. Um. Does that answer your question?
Yeah, absolutely.
Let's, let's go with service professionals. Okay. So how are you going to get in front of them? I think comes downstream from how we talk about the products. The thing that came to mind to me is it sounds like you like using the football language, like that's something you'd be willing to use. And the thing that comes to mind to me is you are giving them the halftime talk.
Mm. They've already got the first half play. Oh, I
like that.
With the first half played, they realize they're losing the game. And you are saying I help. Uh, what did you say? Uh, service businesses. How did you put mm-hmm. Professional services.
Yep.
I help professional services win the game. How do I do it? I give the best halftime speech in the world, so we're all gonna run the same play together.
Or, or something like that. So you can basically describe your service as this is the halftime talk your team needs in order to win the game this quarter or this month. And that way we're not talking about workshops, platforms, eBooks, classes. We're taking all of that stuff off the table. 'cause I want it to be as cookie monster as possible.
Mm-hmm.
So you're with me so far. I mean, it doesn't have to be in stone, but do you see where I'm going for there?
Yes, and I love it.
Thumbs up. I love it. Let's go. Now, how do we get in front of them? You need to go out and find people that think they're losing the game. You've, I know we've got a winning team and we just can't put points on the board.
I've got star players at every position, but they're playing selfishly. They just need someone to come in and draw the play on the board that they can all follow. That makes sense to them. Those are the pain points. Like that's what a CEO or uh, whomever it might be that would hire you to do this. I would imagine a CEO or founder at this size of company.
Mm-hmm.
You need to tap that pain point. We've been doing great. Why did things slow down? I've got all the right people and all the right seats, but they just don't seem to get it. And if you stay in that sports feeling, now you're looking for people that think they're losing the game. Sound. Does that sound like that makes sense?
Yes.
Okay. So you are the writer here, so how can you, and you could in, in another time, you know, with your whiteboard and your, your notebook, I'm sure you could write killer campaigns, shoot videos, LinkedIn posts all day long to do that. How do you get them to buy? That's the challenge. So to get them to buy, you gotta build trust.
'cause I would imagine a CEO would go, oh, yep, okay. The right person knows they're losing the game.
Mm-hmm.
They're willing to have a conversation. You need to earn their trust to show them that you know what you're talking about.
Mm-hmm.
So what is a quick win? What? What is your, I call it what is your magic trick?
Everyone's got a real special skill or a magic trick that they do for a prospect that makes them go, Ooh, that ooh moment. What is your magic trick in this realm? What's something that CEOs overlook all the time and they don't understand how important this thing is? What's the fastest, quickest win you could perform the, for them to build the trust, to make them go, I need more Allison in my life.
Yeah, I'd have to think about that.
Let's think back to the last time you've done anything close to this. When you've helped someone understand why their messaging was wrong or why something might be holding them back, or in fact, let's just project one of these companies. Michael's on the call. This is Michael's company.
He's got 10 different people. They're all, all stars. What might be holding them back? Just, just think about it. What, what, what do you think are some of the common things that hold them back?I mean, as far as marketing and sales, it's always the communication that's holding them back.
Mm-hmm. Um, and it's a lack of understanding and understand how marketing can help them. And marketing doesn't understand how sales can help them. So, um. I always go back to, the reason I came up with this is because I, I am a solo person who does my own sales and my own marketing.
Mm-hmm. So I'm kind of my own best case study here. Um, in that I've had sales calls where the client literally upsells themself because of the content that I had beforehand that. They, they read, they consumed, they signed up for it. They subscribed. They were consistently getting that content and it educated them and nurtured them.
So they were a really high quality lead. Mm-hmm. And it was like the easiest sale I ever made.
Great.
So. Right. Yeah. So those, those CEOs, as well as the salespeople understand how marketing can do that heavy lifting for you. So you don't have to have meeting after meeting and call after call, trying to explain the value of what you provide and why you charge what you charge, and what makes you different.
Because the content has done all that already.
Okay, we're gonna go further with this football, uh, metaphor analogy. I don't know what it is. You're the English language person. What is it? A metaphor or an analogy? Which one is it?
The metaphor. I
thank you. Think I, I, I'm, I'm a speaker, not a writer, as you can tell.
Okay. So the quick win might be Okay, Michael, the CEO. I find that the very first pain point that we have to solve is that people need to appreciate how marketing drives trust, so the sales team can make sales faster. Now, you can pick any one of these magic tricks that you have, but let's just go to that one.
'cause that's the first one you said. I wanna walk through. You tell me what your sales team needs to have to make a sale. Oh, they need to have this and this, and this, and this and this. It's great. With those inputs. I'll be in your inbox tomorrow morning by noon with four ways that the marketing team could build trust for the sales team, and I wanna showcase how they can change their behavior slightly to increase the amount of closes and the closing ratio for your sales team.
If I were to do that, can we continue the discussion? Whoa. You're saying you can help me close by 25% more, whatever percent you think you can claim. Okay, I'm in. And they have to give you, what are those pain points?
What? What's stopping the sales team? And then you go into the cave and you come up with some ideas and you send them a proposal.
And when they get the proposal, they go, holy cow, Allison knows what she's talking about. And now you're getting right after the thing that will help them say yes, which is how much money am I leaving on the table? Because these departments aren't talking to one another.
Mm-hmm.
This is the play you're writing on the board at halftime.
You're telling them you need to run the ball more. You're telling them they need to throw more screens, whatever it might be. But you're showing them, you're giving them. 'cause I am living in the land right now of I don't wanna teach anybody anything. I wanna show them what I can do. And you know that Michael Incorporated, you could literally tell them what to do and they still couldn't do it or they'd be doing it already.
You're just showing them what's missing. To earn their trust, to get them to close faster on your behalf. The last thing that I would think about here is how do we wrap all of this up? And maybe you have already, and I didn't hear it, so forgive me 'cause I'm, I'm going fast here. Do you have a name for this process?
Do you have an ownable idea, an intellectual property about what you do for this organization? Like, do you have a, a name for your system or something?
Um. I've, so far, I've just been calling it the Sales and Marketing Alignment Workshop. Um, I have not gone beyond that as far as getting clever with a, a headline or a title.
I'm hungry for something like the West Coast offense, like how can we come up with a name of how you get, 'cause again, we don't have to go down the football thing, but we're just doing the football thing
right.
When it gets time for a team to talk with one another, I always put them through the West coast offense and it, it doesn't have to be a literal football name, but do you know what I'm going for here?
The something, something offense?
Mm-hmm.
So, um. Uh, uh, like the, the Allison Alignment Offense or something like that. Or you come up with a name, uh, that is your intellectual property. Because one of the arguments I've heard, and this is just kind of outside of what we're talking about today, one of the arguments that I've heard today from really smart people, uh, Kaitlyn, is the person that talks about it all the time, is that we need to have an ownable idea.
And when we have an ownable idea, now you're not talking about just anything. You're showing up to that CEO with. Here's the problem I see over and over. I see it in your organization, and here's what I do for people. This ownable idea, my ownable idea, two of them Fridays off. I don't think we need to be working five days a week because I don't think we didn't need that much time to get it all done because of our delegation and automation and all the things we can have and to make our small businesses successful.
That's the ownable idea I'm using right now. Uh oh. So how can we wrap up all of that into an ownable idea for you, which I think would be the next step?
Mm-hmm.
And if you are curious about football, that could be the direction that you go. And for that, I would think about phrases, I would think about slang.
I would think about similar sounding words that start with V or A that you could rip off and give this exclusive process a name. You use that you can own. So then when you go in and sit down with the CEO, you're saying, I know you think your team is losing, but the good news is it's only halftime. You haven't lost the game yet.
If I install the Allison Ariel offense, we're gonna make sure that the team is all on the same page. And the way that that works is marketing gets the attention, sales closes the deal, and I'm gonna show how every player should be at the right place on the field. So you make this quarter. I can prove it to you.
Gimme a list of the five things they're struggling with right now, and I'll have answers for you in the next 12 hours.
Love it.
Holy crap. Okay, and then you either get the deal or you don't, and then you get it and you iterate. Last thing I would share, just to give you something to chew on, moving away, is I don't think it's a bad thing that you haven't had someone that you've worked through this with.
Which gives you a little bit of permission to go to someone to be your beta.
Mm-hmm.
And say, okay, you are exactly the type of person that I want to help. The package is normally $15,000. I'll do it for you for 75. The only hook is when I do it for you for 75 and you love it. You are gonna gimme a testimonial and tell me what I did well and you'll gimme some feedback on what I can do better.
Are you in the right person would say yes to that.
Mm-hmm.
So I wanna reflect back to the first question. You got this new service in this workshop you wanna take to people. We talked about all the different ways you can get in front of your target, how you could get their attention and close them. And when we start idea slamming, we go down rabbit holes and football games and all this other stuff.
Is there anything about the question that you asked about that you wanna clarify or some more information you're curious about? Are we way off track? Tell us, what do you think?
No, I, I think this has been great. I think I got exactly what I needed, um, and I have so much more to chew on, um, and a direction to go in which I, I love.
Thank you so much.
Oh my gosh, it's my pleasure. And thank you for coming on the show. I really appreciate it. Alison Verhalen. I can't wait to see what she comes up with.
Now, Alison, here's the last thing. Before you go away, I wanna see what you come up with. If it turned out to be a baseball thing and not a football thing, fine.
If it turns out to be this, I, if everything we said I said was trash fine, I don't care. All of this is about creating live without a net for two reasons. One, we wanna help you 'cause you are courageous enough to come on the air to talk about your show and we're all cheering for you and I hope you make gobs of obscene gaz zoo's money like crazy money.
But two other folks that are watching the show, hopefully. Listening to the stuff that you and I are discussing and saying, oh, I never thought about it that way. Oh, I bet I could do the thing. Ooh, I learned the word metaphor. It's kind of a team effort here. So thank you for coming on the show, Alison. I really appreciate it.
And now this QR code is right up here in the corner. I wanna talk about your business. I wanna talk about what's on your mind. I want to hear what's holding you back or what are you doing well, and we can 10 exit together. Just click the link. Come on the show, or if you have to send in an anonymous question for the show and we will chew on it together on the air.
Big thanks to Enji for being our sponsor today. If you are doing marketing like freestyle all by yourself. You're putting your marketing on hard mode because Enji will help you tell your story even when things feel uncertain or overwhelming or busy. Enji is gonna help you because it's an AI powered marketing engine.
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NG has changed the way that we market the SBOC, and I want you to try it out. They'll give you two weeks free. If you click the QR code, then a discount for the next two months, and then it's only 29 bucks a. Awesome software. Click the QR code or visit ng.co/sbo ng.co/sbo for the deal. NG solves the I do my own marketing problem.
Thank you Ng, for being a part of what we're doing here. One thing to share before we leave is a bummer. Remember the movie Revenge of the Nerds? Some of us who were nerds, really remember the movie, revenge of the Nerds? Fun movie, right?
Robert Carradine, star of the Show passed Away. Darn it. Darn it. Don't you hate that?
I really enjoyed him in that movie and talented actor beyond just this movie. And I was reading the story and thought, you know, that's sad. I just wanna salute him. And then I read, he was 71 when he passed away, and then I thought, how did he get so old? Then I kind of looked at myself in the mirror and thought, damn, how did you get so old?
Yeah. Here's the latest thing about being old, by the way, I mean, obviously I'm bald, newsflash bald. I've been bald, balding since freshman year of college. Okay? So this is not a new thing for me. I've just kind of had to own it. So, you know, devastatingly handsome despite being bold, but the new old thing in my life.
This really made me sit down and take a deep breath. So obviously I've got gray here. Like the hair I have left is gray, right? That's not cool. This is the thing that really got me.
I'm brushing my teeth and I look in the mirror. My eyebrows are going gray. Holy, oh God. If you've got four hairs on your head and then those four hairs start going gray, damn, yikes.
It's better than the alternative, but getting old kind of sucks, don't you think? I think it does. Let's talk one bit about the SBOC before we get outta here. Inside the community, we've got a couple of really good discussions going on. This is our owner's only group. Filled with entrepreneurs from all around the country.
Uh, and there's a conversation going on right now where we are reviewing someone's website. Uh, so this is a chance to have your website reviewed by owners and experts inside the community, also in the community. Right now, we have a coworking event today from three to five, where members are getting online and coworking with each other on Zoom, which is the most effective coworking I've ever done.
We get together, what are you gonna do? What are you gonna do? What are you gonna do? We set the Pomodoro timer for 25 minutes. Everybody turns off their cameras and you crush it, and you come back 25 minutes later. Did you do the thing? Did you do the thing with that little bit of obligation, that little bit of, uh, accountability, man, you actually do the thing.
It's incredible. We do that twice a week. By the week, Mon Monday and Wednesdays we do coworking inside the SBOC plus IDEA slams, uh, idea sharing, uh, camaraderie. It's, it's all there for you. 'cause at the end of the day, don't grow it alone is almost a warning as much as it is encouragement. Because if you're making big decisions all by yourself, what if you've never made those decisions before?
What if you had a group of owners around you? We're willing to support you and share their experience as you make those big decisions. It's $19 a month and we're growing like crazy small business owners community.com or click the QR code that's on the screen. We would love to get you inside the community as well.
Abby Miller, you're killing me. Thank you, lovely wife. My eyebrows have sparkles.
Thanks, dear. I am Pat Miller, founder of the Small Business Owners community. A big thanks to Allison for coming on the show today. Hopefully we helped her out. Hopefully she's just wasn't patting me on the head of, oh yeah, that was helpful. I hope it was actually helpful. I hope you enjoyed it as well, and I hope you found some inspiration to come on the show when it's convenient for you.
Also, a thanks to Gen Head and Enji for making the show possible. I'm back tomorrow. Thursday is my Friday 'cause I'm off on Friday. Then I'm off for an entire week. Vegas baby. All next week we'll play some best of episodes, so I'll be back on the air after tomorrow, the week of March 9th. Thanks for tuning into Businessing with Pat Miller.
I appreciate it. We'll talk to you right here tomorrow at 11:00 AM Central. Take care.