Why does a client decide to buy services and products from you? What can you do to break down the barriers to buying? Sean D'Souza, author of The Brain Audit, explains the process that goes on in a potential customer's mind as they decide to buy or not, and what you can do so that the customer buys from you.

Sean shares with us the main concepts in his book, how to apply these concepts to your freelancing business, and explains how he has re-envisioned his work-life balance so he can spend more time with his family and away from work for 3 months every year.

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Sean shares with us:

• Barriers to buying: There are seven barriers, or bags on the airport carousel in Sean's metaphor, that stop clients from buying:
  • The Factors of Attraction:
    • The Problem
    • The Solution
    • The Target Profile
  • Reduce or Eliminate Risk
    • The Objections
    • Testimonials
    • Risk Reversal
    • Uniqueness: Most important!
• How to niche down to a target profile: You don't have to be all things to all people. Focus on the one big problem that one person has and find all the other people with the same problem. How do you find out what that problem is? Interview the client, dig deep.
• How to close the deal: Make it clear and easy for the client to take the next steps with you, “You are Here.” This can be the message on your website, or consider writing a pamphlet or book about your philosophy and methodology so the client knows what to expect working with you and is ready to commit to your style.
• The Three Month Vacation: This is the title of Sean's podcast, but also his philosophy on work-life balance. You need to take a break, otherwise you will pay the toll for working like you are built to last forever.
  • Sean shares a three-prong system for setting up your business so you don't stress out while you are on vacation: offer training (one to many), consulting (one to one), and leverage (such as a book, one to thousands!).
  • When you do work, manage your energy, not your time.

Resources Mentioned:

• Excerpt of The Brain Audit
• The Brain Audit: Why Costumers Buy (And Why They Don't) by Sean D'Souza
• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... And Others Don't by Jim Collins
• Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It by Gabriel Wyner
• Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (3rd Edtion) by Steve Krug
• The Non-Designer's Design Book by Robin Williams

Find Sean Online:

• PsychoTactics.com 
• 5000bc.com
• Sean's Podcast: The Three Month Vacation
• Facebook
• Twitter: @seandsouza