Jessica Osborn:
Is your business ready to launch a signature program that sets you apart, you know, puts you on the map in your niche? Well, not every business is ready, and not everyone. Every business is the right sort of business to have one. So to find out if it's you, if you have the signs that you're ready, then stay tuned. It's coming right up. All right, welcome back. Now, in our last few episodes, solo episodes, that is, we have been talking about signature programs. What are they? What types of signature programs are good for coaching businesses? You know, the different ways that it might fit into a business model. And today we're going to talk about what are the signs that you're actually ready? Like, is this the right thing for your business? I'm going to answer some of those questions that you might have that could be making you think, well, I don't know, is it really the right thing for me to do or not? And then we can talk about the four simple parts to a signature program as well.
Jessica Osborn:
So make sure you stay tuned for that. I will be getting to that. But first we need to know, well, is it even relevant for you to think about it now? What are the types of businesses that are right for a signature program? And essentially, when you break it down, the ideal sort of business to have a signature program is one that is expertise led, I. E. You might be a coach that leads people to a transformation, or you are a consultant type of business where you have a specific kind of service or type of business that you consult with with a clear outcome that you get for them. So, yes, if you have that type of business, if you're a coach, a consultant, and you're somebody who helps others like you lead them to getting their outcome that they need, as opposed to somebody with a freelance type of business that basically gets told by the client what they want, then you would be the right fit for a signature program. Why do we even want one? Why would that be of benefit to you? Well, basically, a coach without a signature program is essentially like you going to a doctor and telling them what your diagnosis is. You know, without a signature program, you're asking your clients to figure out what their own transformation is and figure out how to get there.
Jessica Osborn:
Now, if they knew that already, then they wouldn't need you. So having a signature program enables you to lead. It enables you to establish that you know the way to the solution. You have that authority and you're able to get them there. That's basically what you're communicating to your audience, to your market by having A signature program. So simple, right? And it makes a lot of sense. Now the first thing you might be thinking is, ah, but I work with different people and each person is slightly different. So how could I have a program? Because that would essentially be creating a cookie cutter approach.
Jessica Osborn:
Now I have to say that is number one, the biggest myth we need to bust right now. Just because you have a signature program, it doesn't mean that every person who comes into it is working on the exact same steps and has the exact same business. Absolutely not. Can be completely personalized and customized. What we're doing, when we're thinking about it is more. So you're defining the journey from where they are now to, to where they want to get to now. If you're saying, well, where they are now is so different, there are all these different things going on, then you're either right now thinking too broadly in terms of your, your audience and your market. You might be operating in lots of different niches with different types of businesses, or you may be down in the detail too much.
Jessica Osborn:
Like, if we gonna sit here and describe what is the problem that your clients are trying to solve. Lets state that as island A, where they are now, where do they want to get to? Like what is the problem that they're trying to solve? That's how they get to island B. And you are the person that shows them the best way to get there. It is not the one and only way there. There are always going to be multiple ways that they could choose. But as the expert, as the leader, you're going to say, hey, I've figured it out. I've done that hard work for you. You don't have to waste time going off down the different tangents.
Jessica Osborn:
If we use that doctor's anal, imagine, you know, you've got something that you are trying to solve and cure. And if you keep coming to the doctor with your ideas and your diagnosis and they're just giving you the prescription for that, then you're going to spend a lot of time with ineffective solutions that aren't actually working. Because, you know, you're not the expert here. You've probably incorrectly diagnosed yourself. So if we go to the expert and say, hey, this is what's going on. They diagnose it, they're going to say, right, the best thing for you to do is to try this one, okay? And that's really what we're looking for you to do with your signature program. You're defining that best way for them to get from where they are to where they want to be. And that is essentially what your signature program is.
Jessica Osborn:
Yes. You can build into it. So much ability for your clients to customize and personalize it to their own experience. And that's 100% what I do. Inside Business Jam. You know, people come in at different phases in their business. Some people are in their first couple of years, you know, they've just started working with clients. Other people, 20 years have been in business, they've been working with clients for a very long time.
Jessica Osborn:
That doesn't matter. We're trying to solve a problem for them and the, the strategy, the questions and the framework can be applied to their unique situation. Now they also don't all create the same type of offering. You know, some clients come in and they will be creating a really high ticket, one to one experience experience that is their signature offer. Others come in and they've got more of a community focus and they create a volume based method that's more like a subscription or a membership, that type of thing. And we have everything in between. Obviously, you know, your signature program is something that's going to be designed by you to suit your market, to suit your audience and to actually suit the expertise and the transformation that you're helping them to deliver. Some transformations, as you would know, would take time.
Jessica Osborn:
They are going to take time. So you're not going to have a, an eight week signature program for something that's going to take a minimum of six months to a year, maybe even longer. You know, when I look at Business Jam, I'm like, right, we're working on fundamental business strategy here. Your, yes, your marketable offer and the messaging, the positioning around it, the sales system. That is not something that you do in just a few weeks. You know, that is an, that is a core fundamental part of your business that we're building. The systems in the back end, the processes that make it streamline, make it easy for you. Well, it takes time.
Jessica Osborn:
It's going to take a minimum of a year. And really when you're doing this, you're not thinking the signature program is only going to be a one and done thing that you do. Once you know that where you get the economies of scale and the benefits is because you have a signature program that then you roll with for years into the future, right? You, you tweak, you adjust, you optimize it, you make it better, you make it convert higher, more successful, better results. You work on that and you optimize it and grow it. You don't just try something once and be done with it. So that's where you're looking at. You know, signature programs can be so different. And yes, they are completely customizable and optimized for, for your particular business.
Jessica Osborn:
So there is no cookie cutter. Now you might be thinking, well, what if I'm not ready yet? I don't know if I need to have something in order to be ready or to be the right person to start a signature program. Now, we've talked a little bit already about, you know, the concern that your audience is too broad. I've got too many different types of clients. I'm not sure how I'd create one program that would serve them. And this is really part of the process that we do right in phase one, Inside business jam is helping you to define that clear expertise, that leading expertise that would be the foundation for your signature program. It doesn't mean that you're not going to offer other things. Of course not.
Jessica Osborn:
Usually the way best way a signature program works is that it's the initial gate. It's the thing that people come into. And from there, you know, you can decide how broad you want to offer your services and how wide you want to expand. The thing is that when you're trying to market an expanded array of offerings and services, that's where it becomes really high maintenance for you. So much time and energy involved when you're marketing multiple things, when you've got so much going on, you know, your time and your energy and your resources getting split from one thing to another. I have been there, I've tried it. Please don't do it. It is so ineffective.
Jessica Osborn:
And, you know, you can really have such a bigger impact and your message is so much clearer when you've got that simple focus for your marketing. So, yeah, if your audience is broad, that's okay. It doesn't mean that you're not ready. It just means that you really need to focus on that first step of defining that expertise. And exactly the space that we're going to play in where your signature program is going to be a great fit, you know, defining where you're going to have the authority. And that's what we really do inside my program Business jam. It's, you know, something that some people find really easy to do and other people need a little bit more support and help to go through all of their different expertise and really pull out what it is where they've got that opportunity to make the biggest impact. And, you know, that's obviously individual for everybody.
Jessica Osborn:
Now, if you have expertise in something and you've gotten results. You have either had results for yourself, ideally you've had results for others, then basically that means you, you're ready as a person. Yes, you could build and design a signature program for your business. We don't need to have any amount of time in business that you need to have been in. You know, there's no sort of rule out there that says no, you have to have been doing this for a minimum of three to five years before you can have a signature program. I would say, you know, who says that's absolutely baloney? It's just a number that your brain might have made up to hold you back from it, to keep you safe. A signature program, something you can choose to do at any point in time in your business. It's really just a decision and obviously knowing, yeah, I have something, I've got something great.
Jessica Osborn:
I know that I can help people, I know that I can get a result. Which just reminds me of, you know, an example. One of my clients who years ago now worked with me, and she had a really great service she was on and had more of a consulting business, and she helped businesses with their brand strategy and she was, you know, struggling to, to make this happen. Every time she would have a lead or a prospect, she was creating a really customized solution for them. And sitting down with her, you know, I said, you spending so much time creating these proposals and customizing and defining your price, and gosh, the hours that she would spend coming up with the price, you know, it's like, is there any similarity that you can see? Are there any patterns between your clients? Are there things that always go into your proposal? And in working through this with her, it actually came down to the fact, yes, like 90 to 95% of what she did was the same for each client. And the price range had a range. And I was like, well, how would you feel if you just stuck a price on it? You know, let's, let's just define this. You've now told me that you literally have the bones of your signature program.
Jessica Osborn:
We can, you know, define that even more. Yes, you're always able to add some customizations onto it if you want as an add on. But now imagine you've got one clear thing to sell. You already know what it is and you already know the price. How much easier would that be? And she's just looked at me and thought, oh, my goodness, that is going to save me so much time. So a little bit of time that we spent in defining her signature program, you know, really mapping out what was in it, what wasn't in it. Putting a price on it meant that she had a massively fast turnaround to any inquiry that came in. She already knew the price, and it gave her so much confidence because suddenly she's not there trying to figure out how she can morph her messaging into what, what other people were saying, what the prospect was saying.
Jessica Osborn:
It was like, let's just get clear. This is what you want. This is where you want to get to. Here's what I've got. And it cut down her hours in her business by a huge amount and actually increased her profit immediately because she realized in doing the pricing, it's like, wow, I was way underpricing it because every time she did it, she would get into her head about the cost and figuring out hours and all of this. And it's like so standardizing that and just making it something that was a clear program that then she obviously would customize for each client as she's working with them. But there was an overarching signature program pricing that she was now running with. And so much easier to tell people what you do, talk about it, bang, because you already know it.
Jessica Osborn:
So you might be thinking, well, I've already got a whole bunch of offers and they're selling, so would I. Or should I just go and add another one and create the signature program, you know, or should I just fix and optimize what I've already got? Is it going to be something that then, you know, you might be worried, well, is that going to affect what I already have going and take away from the income that you've already got coming in? Great question. Right. So we're looking at, well, what is the opportunity? And then maybe there's that little bit of risk there that we're thinking and turning that into something giant. But what is the real opportunity of taking multiple offers that are selling okay, looking at them and. And actually thinking, is there a way that I could combine these, I could upgrade it, or maybe there's an obvious one that's really ready to elevate into becoming your signature program. When I first started Business Jam, it was not a signature program. It was just a program that I had that I gave a name and a brand to, was one of a few that I had.
Jessica Osborn:
And as I said before, I have experienced the hustle, the overwork, just the energy sucking that happens when you are trying to promote multiple programs to multiple, you know, multiple versions of your IDE customer or, you know, slightly expanded niche. It. It is just hard work it is time consuming and you know, ultimately a bit of a brain strain as well. So yeah, if you've already got offers that are selling okay, perfect, right. That is the great place to be in. We don't need to necessarily stop doing all of that. But I think once you go through this process to define what is your signature program, you're going to be able to make the decision, hey, I can cut off some that really aren't serving me all that well. Which brings me to another story that I had.
Jessica Osborn:
There was a client I was working with and you know, she had so many things that she could do, so many ways that she could help her clients, and she had all these different offerings and in figuring out what she wanted to do, gave her the opportunity to look at, you know, all these things that she was doing. And I asked her, well, are they profitable? Is this something that is lending money to your business? Is it, is it adding more than it's taking? And she really quickly identified that there was certain areas that were completely non profitable. They were high maintenance clients that were actually really detracting from her profit making, you know, revenue generating types of offers. So it was then a really simple decision for her to cut off the ones that weren't generating any anything of real benefit for a business. And sometimes these things creep in without us even realizing that we are doing it or that they're there. We maybe start doing something because a client has asked us to do it once and you think, oh well, I did that time, now I can offer that as a service to other people. So it's really easy for your offers to expand and to diversify over time until you've got all these multiple things that you're offering. And usually we're just kind of doing it because we have been doing it because maybe other people in your niche offer them.
Jessica Osborn:
So you do it because they do. You know, there's all sorts of reasons why it might exist and it's okay. You know, there's no shame in that. That's just the way often that we evolve into our business. But it is such a great exercise to go through and literally look at them and go, is this one beneficial for my business? Now that I've been running it? Now I'm seeing what happens. Sometimes it may look profitable on the outside, but once you get the client in, it takes so much time, so much energy, added hours that were never factored into your pricing in order to service them that it actually becomes non profitable for you to operate and execute on. So those are the ones that you're really looking for. What is the dead weight, the dead wood in your business that is not helping you move forward.
Jessica Osborn:
And this is something beautiful about this process of really defining what your signature offer program would be is that you can look objectively at everything and go, right, well, that one isn't aligned, it's not helping and it's definitely not beneficial. And we can therefore make those decisions based on the real data and, and not feel afraid at stopping doing something. You know, there's people out there that need help with so many different things. You're never going to be able to service them with everything they need. You're never going to be able to service everybody who potentially could use your help. So it's okay, it's actually okay to drop some of that weight off and you will find, wow, once you let go of those rocks, how much lighter and easier is your business going to feel? It's so much easier to grow a business that feels light and easy where you've got focus, where you've got the energy. So we just want to get rid of those dead weight, hard, heavy, high maintenance things that, that are taking more than what they're giving now. You might think, yeah, I love this idea.
Jessica Osborn:
I like the idea of streamlining, of like dropping off the dead weight. What if I create a signature program and I can't fill it? You know, I've had inconsistent results before. Maybe you might think you've tried launches and while that just didn't work, so you might have given it to the side and thought it's just easier to sell sessions, it's easier to, you know, have the client come in and them to tell me what they need and I can put together something for them and I get it that that can have happened potentially, you know, what if you can't fill it? Well, that is a great question. Because if you've really created a signature program with a sellout offer like it is a winning offer, you've got the right elements in your office strategy, then it is a no brainer for your ideal clients. They're not going to be sitting on the fence thinking, oh, I don't know whether I should do it or not. That means that we're missing something in your structure, in your strategy. So there may be an issue with the offer and the alignment of the offer. There may be an issue with the messaging, the way that you're actually communicating it is missing some things that's letting people stay in that hesitation zone, like stuck on the fence and not jumping down off it.
Jessica Osborn:
But these are all things that are really easily fixable. You know, it is, it is about taking the pieces, bringing them together, making sure we have alignment and you can have a really simple, really fun but sell out signature offer. So you know, it doesn't, it's not about whether you need to launch it or not. You know, I've got so many clients that have had a signature program. There was a one to one program, they didn't launch it, they didn't need to. They've just got a signature program that clients come into and, and they have a sales system that's designed for their signature program. So when you're doing one to one, you know, you're probably not launching you, you're probably more getting people on a discovery call or you might have another way that you find is, is beneficial to sign on your clients. Personally, I love the discovery call for one to one clients because we need to do that vibe check.
Jessica Osborn:
You know, I don't want to accept somebody into working with me if I'm not sure that they're going to be the right fit for us to work together. Because at the end of the day they're not going to get great results if we're not the right fit for us to work together. You know, things I look for is commitment, like are committed, are they going to do the work or are they someone that's just sort of more of a dreamer then sits back, you know, does all the talking and what they want to do, but then doesn't execute on it? If that's the kind of person then, you know, for me that's not a great fit because I'm looking for someone who's going to do the actions that we agree on so that they make the progress so that we can move forward to the next stage. You know, that's just so important. There's a number of other things that we look for as well. And you know, really that discovery call for me, that's the whole purpose of doing that exercise. Now you might be saying, you know, I'm not clear enough yet on what my signature process is. So you might be like, well, I get great results and I know what to do.
Jessica Osborn:
And when I meet someone and I diagnose what's going on for them, then I figure out the path. And so you might be thinking, you know, I'm just not clear on what that path would be. And that's really part of the process that you go through in developing your signature program. Trust me, I'VE had so many people come through who haven't had any clue that they even had a core expertise. And helping them define that, that really lays the roadmap for the signature process. You know, you kind of. We do define the transformation first, like, what is that outcome? What is the thing that we're going to help people to do? And that's part of your process. That's part of the strategy building piece.
Jessica Osborn:
And I've had somebody, you know, you just think, well, it's not going to work for me because I've got too many totally different skills. And, you know, I've had a client come in who had so many different skills, each one of them could have been a business on their own. You know, she was qualified Reiki master. She was a functional nutritionist. She had, gosh, you know, there was about five or six different things, and I can't remember all them off the top of my head now, but she came in just going, I just don't know how to market my business because I've got all of these different parts of me, and each of them is a service or even a business on its own. And I was like, great, this is awesome, right? Because you have something unique. How many other people have these six different elements to what they can offer? And so helping her go through that process of like, right, so who is the person and what person would have benefit from these different elements? What is the issue that they're dealing with? We really helped her to map out what that combined expertise actually looked like, where she could leverage all of these different, really unique skill sets, bring them together into one that made her an authority in a particular space that hardly anyone else could even be in because it was so unique to her. So it's just amazing when you can do that.
Jessica Osborn:
And then she could map out a signature program based on that expertise, based on the transformation that she defined. And then it's easy. She's like, ah, now I've got so much clarity. I'm. I'm kind of marketing one thing instead of jumping all over the place with all of these totally different types of offerings. So in doing that, you know, her style of coaching was very much unique to her. And that made her, you know, someone who could stand out in the market. So it's great.
Jessica Osborn:
It's great if you have a customized approach. It's great if you go really deep with your clients and each one is individual. That leads you to, you know, probably having a signature program that is quite individualized. You know, for me, I Look at that and think. When I work with clients one to one, although I have the Business JAM framework that underpins it, it is very unique for each person. You know, even though we're applying strategies, we're bringing things in, there's a lot of choice and flexibility within that framework. But the framework makes it easy to communicate, it makes it easy for people to understand. So that is really, you know, hopefully we answered all those questions there.
Jessica Osborn:
You know, you might, that you might have been thinking, is it right for me? Is this the right time? Am I ready for this? And we've answered those questions for you. So now I wanted to talk more about what are the four parts to a signature program? This is what I promised that we would go into in last week's episode. And really simply, there are four key ingredients that go in a signature program that enable you to be able to, you know, successfully market it and also structure it and build it in your business. One of the beautiful things about having it is it gives you such an ability to streamline your business and have far less work that has to happen behind the scenes. The admin stuff, the things that are not revenue generating activities, we want to be reducing that as much as possible. If you want to have a lean, slim business, you know, and I always promoting, why would you want to build a business with a giant team if you only need a small team? A small team is so much easier to manage, so much faster. Your business is more agile, it's more profitable. Let's not make it more complicated than it needs to be.
Jessica Osborn:
Right? So streamlining it in and the ability of having this signature program gives you the scope to have processes, that you put a process in place and that is the process you don't need. You know, 10 different processes for all these, 10 different offerings. So it's a really, really awesome opportunity that you've got. Now the first core ingredient, absolute key ingredient is the positioning. Now I call it map it. That's like phase one. Let's map, put you on the map. Where are you going to be on the map? This is stating your expertise in the market, where you have authority, who you, who your ideal client is.
Jessica Osborn:
You know, what is that zone, that expert zone that you're operating in? We're going to put you on the map. So map it. First ingredient, fantastic. The second ingredient is the offer. That's obviously critical, right? We can't have a signature program that doesn't actually have an offer. The offer is what defines it. It defines what's in. It defines obviously Your pricing and a number of other things that make it really saleable.
Jessica Osborn:
So to have a sellout program, you know, you really need these elements that are in your offer. The offer is not just a price, it includes a promise, it includes the inclusions. But there's a number of other things that we build into the offer that make it something that is a high converting offer. So that's number two. Number three is how you're communicating it. Your brand, your messaging. Now I like to call branding. You know, getting you to think of branding more as a brand expression experience.
Jessica Osborn:
It is how people experience your brand when they engage and interact with it. Now of course we're going to have a brand element of your signature program. You know, that's what makes it a signature is it has a name, it is defined. It is a thing that often gets as well known as your own, you know, business brand or your brand. If you're a personal brand. Now, your signature program brand is something that, that stands up on its own and has that ability to be recognized. So we're making sure that there's alignment there within your business with your personal brand. There is that brand element to it.
Jessica Osborn:
The experience of what you want people to feel when they are engaging with you and the messaging, how you communicating this is so important. So that is the next phase because once you've got that, you're ready to put it out there into the world. So defining your sales system now I call it a sales system. It's really the entire journey from when they are a stranger, when they come into your world, when they become a lead, and then when they become a client. So yes, you've got your marketing activities a part of your sales system because you're selecting them based on what am I going to do in order to reach some new people? Well, you've got a marketing activity that we would put under the marketing banner that goes into that phase of it. When you have a lead and we're like, right, I want to convert this lead into a client, then that is usually far more of a sales activity. So marketing and sales, they go together hand in hand. You can't have one without the other.
Jessica Osborn:
They're all involved. And it's about when we put it together as a whole map, connected activities. This is where you get that streamlined nature happening, where we get the most amount of conversion and flow because you've selected the activities that are going to connect to each other and create that flow from stranger to client. So that's the fourth part of it. So there you have it, the four key parts of a signature program. That's what I teach Inside Business Jam. How you do each of them. Give you, you know, the examples, understanding, you know, messaging patterns and templates so that you know how to use it.
Jessica Osborn:
And yeah, if you're using ChatGPT for messaging, it doesn't mean that you don't need that. It's actually like, what are we asking ChatGPT to do? So you're going to know, well, this is what I want. This is the output I want. Now I can use Chat GPT to maybe help me draft some things, you know, giving it the right ingredients that go in then I'm always a massive fan. Do not ever publish anything that would come out of Chat GPT as a final, you know, copy. You do need to make sure that you've added your flavor into it. You know, even if you've taught Jet ChatGPT how to talk in your brand voice, it's still, you know, you don't want it to sound like AI. You really want it to be your own.
Jessica Osborn:
So take the pieces out of it that are really good, put it together and that becomes, you know, your messaging. But yes, absolutely, we love to speed things up and the amount of tools that we have these days is brilliant. So it's like, how can we use them to your best ability? You know, you don't need to turn into a copywriter, but you do need to understand what are the things that will turn this piece of copy or this message I'm building from something that is, you know, non engaging to something that's highly engaging and will get the conversion. And that's what, you know, these different types of messaging tools and techniques patterns that I teach you Inside Business Jam really help you to do. It takes, you know, adds a different slant to, to what you're doing, keeps your authenticity, makes you absolutely human and really highly engaging. So as I said before, the brand is about evoking that emotional connection and that's what we do through words, through visuals and through the energy in which you are operating and putting things out there. So that is really it in a nutshell. Brilliant.
Jessica Osborn:
Hope that's been useful for you. Now, Business Jam where I'm teaching this, I have right now, as this episode is airing, an opportunity for you to come and join me on for a live six month experience where you're going to come in. I'm rolling out a whole lot of new content, new, updated, upgraded content in Business Jam all specifically around creating and filling your signature program. So if you want and love the idea of it. You're like, yes, I'm ready. And you know, I'd love to have that coach who's really holding my hand through the process, you know, helping you to optimize it to the highest ability. Have a, have a really cool, successful launch of your program. Then this is the opportunity to jump in.
Jessica Osborn:
Now, because I'm doing this one live group, I don't normally run a specific, really small live cohort, just 10 people. We're going to have our own little private container where we can chat in between live training sessions, do hot seat calls so you can come on and get really detailed specific coaching on what it is that you're working on so that you know, you're like, yes, I've nailed it. Sometimes it's just a little piece that is in the blind spot, a little question I can ask that can have a huge shift and help you to actually take that one extra step into where you need to be so that you know that you've got the right solution for you. So that's happening and you can get in touch. You can jump over to my Business Jam page if you're interested. Put your name on the priority list there. All the information will be going out to people on the priority list. Um, there are only 10 spots, so it is a first come, first served basis.
Jessica Osborn:
Super excited about this. I will be selecting people for this. You know, making sure that you've got the right business and that you are in the right space. If you've listened to this episode now you will know whether that is you or not. Um, so pop your name on the list or reach out in the DMs. More than happy to send you the info there and we can kind of have that chat around what it looks like, what the program is and get you on board so that we can kick start this off. Super excited. Can't wait to see what signature programs we are launching this year because it is going to be incredible.
Jessica Osborn:
So make sure you get your name on the list. Reach out to me. I'm on Instagram, I'm on Facebook, I'm also on LinkedIn. You can send me a DM, any of those and I will personally get back to you. We can have a chat if you've got questions and I'll get you the info on it. And otherwise I will be back again next week with another amazing episode. So stay tuned. Make sure you've hit subscribe so that you're getting she's the Business in your playlist.
Jessica Osborn:
And we'll talk next week.
