8 Ways ‘Power Hours’ Are Actually Harming Your Business
Before you come at me with your £99 pitchfork, hear me out. Because ultimately I don’t believe power hours are supporting you to reach your income goals or supporting your clients to get the results they truly desire.
Let’s talk about why.
What’s the idea around power hours?
Your audience can buy one hour of your time, generally for a low-end price. It’s an easy way for them to get a ’taster’ of your services.
The idea is: get someone to invest for a low-end price, which will then leave them drooling over how awesome you are and they’ll go on to buy from you again.
You get a great testimonial and the client raves about the value they got. Often stuff like ’so much clarity’, ‘changed the way I think’ or ‘I have so many ideas now’.
Sounds great on the surface right? Think again my friend.
why power hours are not serving you or your clients:
Your client doesn’t get their desired result
People buy your service because they have a problem. Put simply, they don’t want to have this problem any more.
In my experience, it’s pretty rare that their problem can be solved in one hour. So by offering a power hour, you scratch the surface of their problem. Sure you help them move forward, but ultimately they don’t achieve the result they want - for their big burning problem to be solved.
So do they come running straight back to you? Often not. They’ve just spent money with you - for a power hour which probably promised quite a lot. So they’re not necessarily grabbing for their purse straight away. They might think that hour was incredible, but ultimately they don’t have the result they want.
Essentially what you do in a power hour is put a band-aid over their problem, send them away with a load of ideas and actions and cross your fingers that they’ll implement them. But here’s the thing, in the words of Chet Holmes from The Ultimate Sales Machine, ‘Implementation - not ideas - is the key to real success’.
You giving them the first step doesn’t deliver the transformation your client really desires and you miss a massive opportunity to serve your client deeply.
2. You don’t get results either
Your business is based on results. The bigger results you deliver for your clients, the more successful you are likely to be. People buy results.
It doesn’t matter how awesome you are, that power hour ain’t gonna deliver ground-breaking results. Because results take time.
So wouldn’t it be better if you offered a service which stuck with them long enough to delver that result? Your client gets what they want and you do too. Win win. Imagine how much better that testimonial would be?
3. You attract the wrong type of client
Say your main service is £2000. Ultimately, you want clients to invest at this level but you offer power hours to ‘warm them up’. Give them that taster so they’re ready for more.
Problem is, people who buy your £99 power hours are not necessarily the same profile of people who are ready to go all in with a £2000 service. You end up attracting people who are looking for quick-fix solutions and ultimately may never buy your high-end service.
4. It puts a price tag on your time
I’m not a fan of by the hour pricing. It severely limits your earning potential and it puts a price tag firmly on your time. Ever been for a massage and they’ve finished 5 minutes early.
What goes through your head: “Oh, I paid for an hour. What about my last 5 minutes?”
You want to eeek out every bit of value of that one hour because you’re paying for it right?
If you then try to upsell your package, people are already in the ‘by the hour’ mindset. Problem is, most packages move away from by the hour pricing - you price based on the result, your years of expertise, perhaps the additional support they receive.
You’ve unwittingly created discord between your power hour and high-end service.
5. You miss a massive opportunity to serve your client deeply
Power hours are often just a huge idea dump.
You try and give as much as you can in 60 minutes so they ‘get value’.
Do you want to serve at this level or do you want to offer the full transformation? To work deeply with fewer clients and be known as someone who delivers incredible results? I know which I prefer.
6. You fall into the low-end trap (and don’t hit your income goals)
You sell power hours because you think it’s an easier sell (and it can be, but you’re not necessarily pulling the right people in).
Problem is, when you focus on low-end services, that’s often reflected in your bank balance. To make even £2000 a month with a £99 power hour, you’d need to sell 20 of them. Pretty unrealistic right?
You end up pouring your energy into marketing and selling something that doesn’t actually allow you to hit your income goals.
7. You do shit loads of legwork for a one-off call
Whether you’re selling power hours or high-end services, you still have to market and sell it. If you sell power hours, you’re putting in a shit load of time and energy for a tiny bit of cash and then crossing your fingers that they’ll buy big later.
All the time you’re doing this, you’re not selling your high-end package - the one which actually delivers results and allows you to hit your income goals.
8. It adds an extra step which is frankly unnecessary
Be honest, you don’t offer power hours because you love them. You offer them because you think it’s an easier sell that will pull in more clients.
But what if you poured your energy into selling into a free call? Selling the value (just like a power hour) that they are going to get from an hour of your time.
Spend that free call uncovering the full breadth of their problem - what are they struggling with, where do they want to be and what’s holding them back from getting there?
From there, you can position your service (the big one) as the answer to that problem. You can step up and serve that client deeply - offer the full transformation, without pissing around with a £99-£300 call.
Capeesh?
The exception
There might be times in your business where you want to create cash flow, run a special offer or perhaps serve a past client as a one-off. I’m not saying that there is never a place to offer a power hour style service, where it serves you and the client. But where this is front and centre as one of your main services, I think it’s doing more harm than good.
What should you do instead?
Create an irresistible offer which solves your ideal clients’ burning problem. Price based on the result you deliver.
Serve fewer clients, deeply.
Create a lead generation system which has potential clients consistently booking into your calendar for sales calls.
Learn how to convert prospects on the phone and sell your high-end service with ease.
Want help with any of this? Apply for a free strategy session by clicking that big yellow button there and let’s dive in.
