November rolls around, and suddenly everyone is selling something.
Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday. Your inbox is full of discounts, your Instagram feed is full of marketing strategies you supposedly need, and every other business owner seems to be preparing some elaborate campaign.
If you're running a one-on-one service business, I have a very passionate plea for you this season: Please pay attention to what you're buying and what you're being convinced you need to sell.
Because there are two very tempting things happening right now that can make your service business harder to run, even when you're convinced they're going to help you make more money.
The first is buying marketing strategies that were designed for an entirely different business model. The second is creating Black Friday promotions for your services because everyone around you is doing the same.
I want to talk about why I'd caution you against both, and what I'd be spending my energy on if I were trying to book more clients this November.
Your Service Business Doesn't Need Every Marketing Strategy on Sale
I know how tempting those $27 and $47 marketing offers can be, especially when you're looking at your pipeline and wishing there were more prospects in it.
Someone is selling carousel templates, another person has a viral Reels strategy, and there's a whole collection of scripts promising to help you sell on Threads.
You see something that sounds like it might solve the exact problem you're having, and suddenly it's sitting in your cart.
But I want you to come back to the math of your actual business before you spend another dollar.
How many clients do you need to meet your revenue goal? How many qualified prospects do you need to speak with to enroll those clients? And what evidence do you have that your current marketing strategy is failing because you're missing a particular tactic?
Those are very different questions from asking how to get more views on Instagram.
I've talked before about finding 444 leads sitting in my existing audience. They were already there, and I needed to identify the people who were a good fit, figure out who was ready to work with me, and create a follow-up strategy that made sense for both of us.
Buying another marketing template wouldn't have addressed that.
One-to-Many Marketing and One-on-One Services Require Different Sales Mechanics
I've spent 16 years in this industry, and I've operated on both sides of the business model conversation.
I've sold more than 30,000 low-ticket offers. I've run paid ads, challenges, webinars with hundreds and thousands of registrants, and a virtual summit that had more than 10,000 people sign up.
I've had an Instagram audience of more than 50,000 followers and an email list with tens of thousands of subscribers.
I've also sold one-on-one strategy calls, $10,000 containers, and done-for-you services worth $80,000 and beyond.
So when I tell you that the mechanics of selling one-to-many offers are different from selling a one-on-one service, I'm speaking from experience with both.
A marketer selling a $27 digital offer needs a different volume of people coming through the door than a service provider selling a $10,000 engagement.
Their sales strategies are built around that reality.
Can we borrow ideas from those strategies and adapt them for service businesses? Yes, and that's something I work through inside Sold Out Services when we're designing campaigns around an actual service.
But that adaptation requires discernment.
You have to understand which pieces apply to the business model you're operating and what needs to change before putting them into practice.
Otherwise, you end up with a collection of purchased strategies that aren't getting implemented, and even more ideas bouncing around your brain every time you sit down to figure out how to bring in clients.
I would much rather see you get better at a sales strategy that fits your business.
Why Black Friday Discounts Can Attract the Wrong Clients
Now let's talk about the other temptation of November: Putting your services on sale.
I understand why it's appealing. Everyone is running promotions, people are paying attention to offers, and it feels like an opportunity you should take advantage of.
But I would be very cautious about discounting your one-on-one services.
When I talk about Level 10 clients, I'm talking about the people who are an exceptional fit for the work you do, the results you help create, and the way your service is designed.
Those clients are making purchasing decisions based on the problem they need solved and their confidence that you can solve it.
A discounted price doesn't automatically make your offer more compelling to them. In fact, it can create questions about the value of what you're selling.
And if you fill your calendar with people who enrolled because the price was lower, you might end up working on projects you aren't excited about, with clients who aren't prepared for the results you're trying to create.
Getting sales is one thing. Getting the right clients into the right service is what I'm concerned about.
Adding More Deliverables Can Hurt Your Positioning Too
Maybe you're thinking, "Okay, fine, I won't discount my service. I'll just add a bunch of bonuses."
I would caution you there, too.
Let's say you've spent months explaining that your service includes a particular scope of work because that's what your clients need to achieve a particular result.
Then Black Friday comes around, and suddenly you're offering several additional deliverables for the same price.
What does that communicate to the prospect who's been paying attention?
It can make them question your previous recommendations. If all those additional things are now included, were they necessary all along? And if they weren't necessary, why are they being added?
This is where positioning becomes so important.
When I talk about positioning, I'm talking about far more than the language on your sales page.
I'm talking about what happens when someone fills out your intake form, how you listen during a discovery call, and the questions you ask before recommending a service.
It's the way you explain which container makes sense for their situation, what they can expect to accomplish, and why that approach is appropriate.
Your Level 10 client wants someone who can confidently guide them through that decision.
Making your service bigger for a holiday promotion can interfere with the authority you've already established.
There Is a Smarter Way to Campaign a Beta Service
I was talking with a Sold Out Services client during office hours about a Black Friday campaign she wanted to run for a new beta offer.
She had been thinking about discounting the price, but when I asked what the eventual price of the offer would be, we realized the number she wanted to discount from was already her intended future price.
So we worked through the pricing differently.
She could offer the service at a legitimate beta or founder price, with the understanding that the price would increase when the offer moved out of beta.
That gives prospective clients a clear explanation for the current price.
But pricing was only part of the conversation.
When I asked about her campaign dates and when she planned to begin communicating with her audience, she hadn't mapped that out yet.
She thought she might send four or five emails, maybe six.
I told her to multiply that plan by four.
She was looking for five or six people to enroll in this beta, and based on the size of her email list, she already had a reasonable audience to work with.
The missing piece was identifying the right prospects and communicating with them enough to make a buying decision.
Your Buyer Bridge Starts With the Leads You Already Have
I've been using the term "buyer bridge" for the content and communication that helps people in your audience become ready to buy.
I'm interested in what needs to happen between someone being aware of your work and that person having enough information to make a decision about working with you.
For this client's campaign, we needed to identify what made someone a Level 10 client for her beta offer.
Then we could start paying attention to the people who were opening emails, clicking through to the sales page, booking calls, or reaching out with questions.
That activity gives us information about who might be interested, and it helps us narrow down the people we should be talking to.
The process requires consistent communication, especially when you're selling a newer service.
For someone committed to running a campaign, my recommendation in that conversation was to dramatically increase the planned communication. I suggested four times the original email plan, ten times the planned Threads activity, and two to four times the Instagram content.
But publishing more is only useful when you know what you're communicating and who you're trying to reach.
You also need a follow-up plan.
Selling Services Sometimes Requires Knocking on Doors
I'm working through this myself with a new offer I'm developing.
I'm reaching out to people directly, sending DMs, having conversations on Voxer, and paying attention when someone brings up a problem or desired result that connects to the service I'm building.
When someone engages with that conversation, I'm paying attention and following up.
This is a real part of selling one-on-one services, especially when you're transitioning away from being completely dependent on referrals.
And that transition takes time.
Maybe it takes a couple of months. Maybe it takes a couple of years. It depends on the skills you're developing and how consistently you're putting them into practice.
I currently have almost 800 people on my email list, get around 40,000 views on Threads, and receive DMs from potential prospects throughout the week.
I have people signing up for an opt-in that has historically brought in clients, and I continue to see new subscribers coming into my audience.
My priority right now is identifying which of those people are a fit for my services and making sure they have an opportunity to decide whether they want to work together.
I know I can grow my audience again when I need to. At this stage, there's plenty of work to do with the people already here.
So as all these Black Friday offers and campaigns start hitting your inbox, I'd encourage you to look at your own numbers before committing to another strategy or promotional campaign.
You can sell your services throughout November at their established price, with the scope and results you've designed them to deliver.
And if you're still making the transition from referrals to a more predictable pipeline, that's exactly the kind of work I'm passionate about helping service providers develop inside Sold Out Services.
Listen to the full episode of Sell the Damn Service for more of my thoughts on Black Friday marketing, Level 10 clients, and what it takes to sell your services when you're ready to move beyond referral-dependent growth.
Chapters
00:40 - Two Black Friday Traps for Service Providers
03:00 - Why One-to-Many Marketing Strategies Don't Work for One-on-One Services
05:18 - The Risks of Discounting Your Services
07:42 - Why Black Friday Promotions Can Repel Level 10 Clients
10:00 - Building a Sales Campaign for a Beta Service
12:18 - The Buyer Bridge: Identifying Leads and Creating Follow-Up
14:42 - Selling Services Without Discounts or Viral Strategies
17:06 - Moving From Referral-Dependent to Repeatable Lead Generation
Resources and Links
Threads: Mentioned as a channel for campaign communication, prospect engagement, and direct conversations.
About Facebook
Instagram: Discussed in relation to Reels, Stories, content campaigns, and identifying engaged prospects.
Voxer: Mentioned as a way I communicate directly with prospective clients while developing a new offer.
Zapier: Mentioned as the automation I use to receive notifications when someone joins my email list.
Ready to Restructure and Productize Your Service?
Inside Sold Out Services, I help service providers examine who each offer serves, what happens after someone buys, and where qualified clients are being left without a clear next step.
You do not need to create an entirely new business every time you reach capacity.
There may be more revenue, impact, and long-term client value hiding inside the client relationships you have already built.
If you’d like to see a library of all published episodes in a gallery with easy-to-find links to all listening platforms be sure to check out the Sell The Damn Service Episode Library.
