Why selling by the session hurts everyone

Today I want to talk to you about why selling your services by the session or by the hour is not only hurting your business, but it’s also hurting your clients.

I have been teaching exactly why this puts you and your business on a downward spiral inside my Get More Clients Saying Yes! course for many years.

In the video (or read the blog below) I share two personal experiences that really highlighted this for me and have inspired me to record this video for you.

Watch the video or scroll down to read more.

If you’re reading this, then you might be somebody who charges out your services or your work by the session or by the hour.

OR mayb you’ve already brought your services together into some sort of package or programme, but are not yet feeling completely comfortable about it.

A lot of heart-centred business owners “get” why packaging their services is a good idea, and often create one. But then those little internal voices kick in. You know, the ones that say, “Oh, but I can’t imagine any of my clients would buy a package from me,” or “I don’t think that what I do is something that I can really sell in this way.”  With the result that you have a package ready to go, but you don’t have the sense of confidence and conviction that you need if you’re going to offer it in a clear and compelling way. So instead you tend to shy away from actually selling the package that you’ve created.

Before I share my recent personal experiences,  I’m just going to do a quick recap of why selling your services by the package rather than by the session is so important.

Why Sell Packages?

There are two important reasons to sell packages or programmes:

It’s better for your clients. When you sell your work as a programme or package, you’re asking your client to pay for the end result, and the package or programme is designed to deliver them to that end result. This means that your clients get better results because they’re more likely to see the process through. This means: better case studies for you, more success stories for you, and of course, more clients running around the planet, having had this transformation from you and giving you word-of-mouth referrals and recommendations.

It’s better for your business. Selling programmes and packages makes your business work so much more smoothly and more sustainably. As an example, it is so much easier to sell two packages of £1,000 each in any given month than it is to sell 20 single sessions of £100 each. To sell two packages you’ve only got to attract and have a conversation with and enrol two people. To sell 20 sessions you’re going to need to be out there doing a huge amount of work to enrol that number of people. And if your clients are paying you session-by-session a lot of them are not going to stick the course, so then you need to find new clients to replace them.  This is one of the fastest ways to burn out and it’s just not a sustainable model for a business – even though it’s something I see a lot of.

My Personal Experiences

Experience #1 – She Didn’t Care
I recently sought help for something that I knew it was a fairly deep issue and wasn’t going to be a “quick fix” and I identified a healer and had a Skype call with her – for the sake of this story, I’ll call her Jane. Jane recommended that I come and see her for a one-off session.

That first session lasted 2 hours and Jane worked right up to the final minute.  At the end I was expecting her to talk to me about next steps and offer me an ongoing way of working, and she didn’t say anything. She didn’t even say, “Think about it and get back to me.” Instead she wrapped up the session and she showed me out. I was particularly confused because I’d read on a questionnaire she’d sent me that she offers three month and six month programmes.

I felt bewildered. The part of me that teaches sales and knows that a lot of practitioners feel uncomfortable talking about pricing and money was able to think, “Perhaps she wasn’t comfortable offering me ongoing work because she didn’t want to seem salesy.” But the other side to me – the regular human being who’s vulnerable and has “stuff” I’d wanted to work on – felt bereft. I’d really opened up to her in that session and shared a lot of very personal things because I thought this was the first session in a longer process. Because Jane sent me away with no further solution or follow-up work I was left feeling that she’d cared about me during the session, but didn’t care about me once the session had ended.

I felt rejected. I’ve talked in past videos about how rejection is one of my triggers – I thought maybe she doesn’t like me or want to work with me so maybe that’s why she hasn’t offered me the next step.

I felt annoyed. I’d invested both time and money in that first session because I believed we were embarking on the beginning of a process together. While I was very, very happy to make the investment in the transformation that I want, I wasn’t happy to just waste money on a one-off session that I knew (and I’m sure she knew too) wasn’t going to be enough on its own.

Experience #2 – I Felt Supported
This story illustrates just the opposite. I had been having acupuncture and was seeing an acupuncturist who was charging session by session – let’s call him John. I had four sessions with John, after which I started to have doubts because there was no clear outcome or result that we were heading towards. I also started to doubt the process, wondering if he could really help me. He was just letting me come as and when I feel like it, rather than encouraging me to commit to a regular programme.

Around that time somebody recommended another acupuncturist and of course because I’d made no commitment to John it was easy for me to switch to her – I’ll call her Laura.  Once Laura had done the initial consultation she talked in very clear terms about the end result that I could expect to get as a result of working with her – which of course was the result that I was looking for.

She told me how long she would expect it to take me to get there and she recommended that I see her once a week for six weeks and then go on to a monthly maintenance programme. She recommended that I purchase that six week package for £800. Now, I know that some of you would baulk at the idea of making that offer to one of your potential clients because you’d be thinking, “Oh, she’s going to think that I’m just trying to sell to her. She’s going to think I’m just wanting to get her money” but the experience for me as the client was quite different.

I Felt Cared About

In comparison to Jane and John, I felt as though Laura really cared about me. She had listened to me, she understood what I wanted to achieve and she cared about me enough to offer me a programme that was going to support me to get the result that I wanted.

I felt supported by her and confident that as a “team” we were on track to get this result together. There was a plan and a clear roadmap of how she would help me to get to where I wanted to be.

Instead of feeling salesy or self-serving, the fact that she offered me the 6-week package made me feel reassured that there was a plan I was going to get the outcome I wanted.

I was delighted to be able to make the commitment to do the work with her. 

Meanwhile the two other practitioners are putting a lot of effort into their marketing but missing out on the opportunity to enrol their clients in ongoing work, their clients are missing out on getting the help they need.  Everybody loses.

If you remember, I came to Laura via a word-of-mouth referral. And of course, Laura’s much more likely to have those type of referrals because the way she works and the programmes she offers are more likely to lead to clients actually getting long-term results.  Everybody wins.

So if you want to create lasting change in a way that gives the client the transformation they’re looking for but also gives you a sense of fulfilment because you’re making a genuine difference and actually seeing results, then maybe it’s time to shift your thinking about packages.

What about you? Has hearing the perspective of the client changed your thinking about offering packages? Does it make you feel more confident about it? Please share in the comments below – I always love to hear your thoughts.

Live Q&A on Packaging your Services – TODAY at 6.00pm (UK)

If you’d like to go deeper into the topic of offering packages rather than single sessions – why it matters, and how to package your own services to get the best results for your clients – I’ll be doing a Live Q&A on exactly this topic and answering any QUESTIONS inside the Selling from the Heart Group on Facebook TODAY (Wednesday 13th) at 6.00pm (UK). Click on the link now and request to join – then come back at 6.00pm! If you can’t see me straight away refresh the screen until you do.

Join the Get More Clients Saying Yes! course

If you would like to learn exactly how to packager and price your services I teach you how in my Get More Clients Saying Yes! course. The course will be opening for enrolment early next month. Click here to be notified.