I will review the Momentum Club from Ian Brodie.
>>> Click over to the Momentum Club (affiliate link)
Who Is Ian Brodie?
Ian is a UK based business coach who specialises in helping consultants, coaches and other professional service businesses to get more clients.
He rejects the hard sell approach that some coaching marketing specialists recommend that is such a turn-off to professionals who want to spend their time working with clients rather than marketing to them.
In their place, he uses an approach he calls Pain Free Marketing (affiliate link) and writes an excellent blog at IanBrodie.com (affiliate link).
Ian is a good friend and, when I decided to form a mastermind group of coaches I respected, he was one of the first people I invited to join.
Who Is The Momentum Club For?
Ian sees his core market as coaches and consultants but ideas that apply to these two professions also work for many of the other professional services.
He loves the Internet and is active in social media and has over 107,000 followers on Twitter. However he also recognises that the traditional offline marketing methods have their place too.
What’s Different About Selling Professional Services?
Why would you want this training instead of or as well as Profit Before You Pay?
Because selling services and especially professional services can be very different from general marketing and sales.
- Services are intangible. With a product, you can see what you’re getting before you buy. You can judge the product attributes and decide if it looks as if it meets your needs. That’s very hard to do with services which are “squidgy” around all the edges and hard to define without a lot of effort.
. - It is hard to judge quality, even after the service has been delivered. Do you really know how good a job your lawyer did? If he made sure that you were found not guilty, it was “mission accomplished” but how well did he do drafting those terms and conditions or advising you on your intellectual property options?
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What about your tax accountant? Even if he saved you tax, did he save you all the tax that it was economical to do or has he opened you up to potential trouble in the future by using a loophole that is being challenged?
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Sometimes the results are tangible and will give buyers comfort but other times, it takes something going wrong to identify a poor service. In theory a problem avoided will point to a good job done (e.g. a computer software house using four digits for the year and thus avoiding future costs caused by the millennium bug scare stories) but the buyer will very rarely identify these situations.
. - Market size is a poor indicator of quality. Apple grew because of the high quality innovations like the iPod, iPhone and iPad. Growth comes naturally and causes economies of scale that help consolidate consistent quality. That doesn’t necessarily happen in professional services. As firms get bigger, sales staff and those who do the work are disconnected. More people get involved and knowledge and insight gets divided amongst the team. Clients keep having to repeat themselves to different people. But dealing with a high quality one person consultant or coach, it all seems so simple and straightforward.
. - Price is a poor indicator of quality. Bigger professional service firms usually charge more than small firms but buyers have to be careful about following the rule that “you get what you pay for.” At the same time, no one should buy professional services on the basis of the lowest price.
. - Professional standards and associations damage opportunities for differentiation. While the intention is to assure a high quality service, they tend to turn a service into a commodity where it’s hard to judge which will be most suitable.
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At the same time, sometimes professional qualifications are assumed when they don’t necessarily exist. For example, in the UK, accountant is not a legally protected word so anyone can work as an accountant, regardless of their knowledge and experience.
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Worse, some professional sounding bodies don’t have the legitimacy that an uninformed person might assume.
These issues result in a “buyer beware” situation which makes it hard to convince sceptical buyers unless it is a forced purchase, required by law or situation.
There’s ls also the issue that marketing too hard creates the impression in the buyers’ minds that “they can’t be much good if they always need more work.”
As a professional service supplier, you can’t abdicate responsibility for marketing and the profitability of your business. You might want to because you don’t want to spend your time marketing. You’d much rather provide the service.
The end result is that marketing professional services is difficult. There’s a balance that needs to be found.
That’s why I recommend you consider carefully the specialist training provided by Ian Brodie in his Momentum Club.
What I Like About The Momentum Club
- Ian’s character and approach. Some coaches and trainers are too full of themselves and will put you off an idea, even if it has merit. Ian is softly spoken (with a Geordie accent), well researched and never over the top with fake enthusiasm. He’s very approachable and welcomes questions and feedback.
. - The low cost, no risk trial for the first month. At the moment it only costs £5 and if you decide you don’t like the training, you can even ask for and receive a refund.
. - The Core Marketing lessons are available from the start. Ian has put together a series of videos to help you to get the basics of your marketing right including your mindset, your value proposition and the idea of adding value in advance to prove your worth.
. - The monthly implementation projects. Ian wants you to change your business and how it makes contact with, attracts and converts clients. To help you to take action, he has created step by step guides that walk you through the process. Each month a new project appears.
. - The monthly masterclass webinar.There is more general training on marketing and selling topics that give members the chance to ask and get answers from Ian.
. - The gradual introduction of the training each month means that you don’t get overloaded. If you buy some other training you might not know where to start because there is just so much there.
. - There is a balance between online and offline strategies but favouring online. At the moment I’m 21 months into the webinars and 18 months into the projects although I’m lucky that Ian has given me free membership. (I did say that we were good friends at the start). It wouldn’t be right to tell you what’s coming each month but Ian covers a wide range. There is a bias towards online but that’s what is changing most often.
. - All the training can be downloaded as a video or pdf slides. You can watch from Ian’s website or you can transfer the training to another device that isn’t dependent on Internet access. This also means that you still have access to any downloads even if you decide to cancel your membership. It may be a small point but Ian has made sure that all the files are downloaded with clear, sensible names. In my experience, this is far too rare but it shows the care and attention Ian has given to his Momentum Club.
What I Don’t Like About The Momentum Club
No training product is perfect and it wouldn’t be a review if I didn’t point out some of the negatives.
- You won’t get value for money if you don’t take action. I say this on each of my reviews but I am guilty of spending money and not following through and I suspect that most people who are regular purchasers do the same.
. - There is a lack of natural flow and structure in the projects and webinars. For example, an early project is about getting more traffic to a website which is fine if you already have a good website but a problem if you don’t. Three months later, there is a project for improving your website. An early webinar is about Linkedin, the how to do it project is some months later. This means that it will suit existing coaches and consultants better than new start-ups.
. - The delays in providing the training mean that your big problem may have to wait. The downside of introducing training gradually so that you’re not overwhelmed means that the order Ian delivers it may not suit your needs. I’d encourage Ian to consider offering a version that provides everything for one much larger payment. As Ian thinks of new things, it can be expanded for free. This wasn’t an option at the start as Ian was working one or two months ahead of publication but he now has a lot of training provided.
. - There is a little used forum. The idea of a forum and members asking questions of Ian and each other is great but it’s not used much,. I’ve seen this with much more expensive training but it is a waste of an opportunity to engage with Ian and the peer group. I feel guilty because I promised Ian that I would do more to get this off the ground.
My Overall Thoughts On The Momentum Club
Coaches, consultants and small professional service firms should pay attention to Ian and his ideas.
He is very practical and avoids any marketing that smells bad. I’m sure you know what I mean.
The initial offer with its low price and money back guarantee means that anyone who is short of work and needs more clients should give it a try.
>>> Click over to the Momentum Club (affiliate link)
How To Cancel Your Membership
If you join, you will pay a monthly fee until you cancel. I think it’s important that you know how you can stop it before you start.
The club has a contact form that is accessible from every page that lets you email Ian and he also gives you his telephone number – 0161 408 0984. He doesn’t have any support staff so you’ll be dealing directly with him.
If you’re an affiliate of mine and you’re having trouble I’ll also get involved but I can’t imagine that happening. Ian is one the good guys.
I Am An Affiliate
If you join, I will earn an affiliate commission.
That gives much a financial incentive to persuade you to buy but that’s no different than retailers of products who earn a margin. I’ve made my affiliate status very clear because I believe it’s the right thing to do but other people may hide it.
I only recommend training programs that I believe can help you and I try to make it very clear that you must take action.
>>> Click over to the Momentum Club (affiliate link)