It feels odd to say, but I know that a bunch of you awesome people who read my site appreciate the advice I give, and I’ve earned some credibility with you. Acquiring this level of trust feels odd because I’m just some dude building sites for clients in a small town in British Columbia. The ‘tech scene’ here in my part of the world is me and maybe 2 other people.

But I know from talking to some of you that I’ve really helped you improve the way you run your business.

I know that I’ve helped some of you increase your income after just one coaching call.

But in spite of having great clients, a growing business, and getting a positive response to the advice I’ve been offering, I’m still not as great as I want to be. I want to continue getting better at what I do and increasing my value to my clients.

[Tweet “I want to continue getting better at what I do and increasing my value to my clients.”]

Defining your value is a process

I stated above that it feels odd to realize my credibility is growing and that I do indeed have something to offer my clients and readers. That I’m providing value. Like I said, I’m just some dude in a small town.

Defining your value is hard. You may be struggling with this part of your business, and if so, rest assured I’ve struggled with it too.

But I know that defining my value is a process, not a light-bulb moment. Not only a process to define my value, but also a process because I’m increasing my value to my clients as I learn more, develop new skills, acquire more experience, and generally get better at what I do.

One tool that’s helped me in this process is courses. This is a commitment to learning that helps me get better at what I do and increase my value to clients. Let me be clear here: I’m careful about investing in, and committing to, courses. I choose one, complete it, then choose another that will provide value. Don’t be like that guy who buys every damn course he sees, but never completes any of them.

[Tweet “Don’t be like that person who purchases every course and never does any of the work”]

I just finished Day 5 of Brennan Dunn’s Charge What You’re Worth email course.

As I got into the course, I was a little disappointed to discover I’ve already done most of the work Brennan outlines in the first 4 days of his course. I don’t struggle with many of the issues he covers in the first 4 days. (That’s not to say the material in the first 4 days wouldn’t be awesome for you, though.)

Because of this, I was tempted to discount the course as irrelevant to me — and I suspect others who have taken this course may have done so. But I was glad I stuck with the course until the end, because I found some awesome content in Day 5. In the final lesson of this course, I discovered some rich material that helped me improve my client vetting process.

Email templates

A while back I wrote about my email templates when vetting prospects for my business. Brennan’s course inspired me to add 2 new questions to my email templates. They are:

1.  What would happen if we didn’t do (your feature)? What opportunities would be lost?
2.  After we build it (client project) what is your dream for its success?

I love these, because the first one makes the prospective client think about a lost opportunity and engages in a bit of loss aversion since they don’t want to have it not happen.

The second question is aspirational and gets them to dream about the success of their product or idea. The other powerful thing about this second question is that it moves us away from the negative of dwelling on a lost opportunity and pushes them toward engaging with you to make their dream a reality.

Even if you have a client process and know your value, I highly recommend you go through Brennan’s course. I believe it can help you refine your process and gain a more solid understanding of your value, and it might just lead you to make some significant improvements to your own business.

Are you as good as you want to be? Are you giving your own clients as much value as you’d like? Will a commitment to learning make you better?

photo credit: ltdemartinet cc