15/09/2024
Sleep consultants rely on fear and misinformation to sell their services… be wary.
Sales 101:sell your service in six easy steps!
1. Convince your prospect they have a problem (even if they don't)
2. Give them something for free (to establish trust and prompt the feeling they need to reciprocate)
3. Throughout the free information, continue to educate on the 'problem' they have and 'pitfalls' they may not be aware of (remember, fear sells!)
4. Explain you have the answer to their 'problem.'
5. Close the sale (link to the sales page, ask for commitment etc)
6. Level up: only 'solve' some of the problems you've told them they have, so they have to come back
How does this work for infant sleep?
I'm so glad you asked!
1. Convince parents they have a problem:
* Tell parents their babies need far more sleep than the research says (e.g. a three-month-old sleep schedule that aims for 17+ hours of sleep when this is the upper limit for average *citation below).
* Tell them that if their baby needs input from their sleep, it's a 'problem' and that they'll 'never learn to sleep independently.' (remember, fear sells exceptionally well when you threaten a child).
* Tell them their cognitive development will be impacted if they don't teach their child to sleep independently by nine months old. (I'm not kidding; this is currently being told to parents at a government-funded program in NSW)
2. Give parents free advice like:
* Feed, play, sleep (doesn't work for most)
* Drowsy but awake (doesn't work for most)
* Rigid sleep schedules (doesn't work for most)
3. Throughout the free information, keep educating about the 'problem':
* Sprinkle fear-mongering about 'associations' and don't forget 'cognitive development' and 'never learn to self soothe'.
* Back up your claims with 'science' and 'evidence-based' but don't bother to reference your information so they can't check (make sure they rely on YOU for the answers)
4. Explain that you have the answer! They can:
* Buy your sleep training program
* Attend your sleep school (this one is great because it also removes people from their safe spaces and community members, isolates them, and ensures the only people they can ask for support from are those you've hired to reiterate the 'problem' messaging)
* Engage you as a sleep consultant
5. Close the sale
* Bonus points if you sell it to a government so they can pay for your clients to do your program!
6. Level up (don’t miss these opportunities for more $$)
* If you're a sleep consultant, explain that there could be a regression and that you can help them overcome that in future. Think: transitioning to a toddler bed.
* If you're selling programs, limit the information by age (0-6 months, 12-18 months, etc.)
* If you're a government-funded service, create a referral pathway for families who need education in responding to their pre-primary aged kids' needs since you've convinced them to ignore them as babies and removed vital co regulation practice from their parenting toolkit...👍🏻
You, too, can create an entire industry out of babies sleeping..... like babies!
Don't let emerging neuroscience and developmental psychology evidence get in the way of a good sales pitch!
💵 💵 💵
If you're clever, you can cultivate ongoing income from one family!
Real talk, here are the sleep duration recommendations from The National Sleep Foundation's 18-member multidisciplinary expert panel put together to evaluate scientific literature concerning sleep duration recommendations:
Age:
* 0-3months - 14-17 hours (11-13 or 18 to 19 may be appropriate)
* 4-11 months - 12 to 15 hours (10 to 11 or 16 to 18 may be appropriate)
* 1-2 years - 11 to 14 hours (9 to 10 or 15 to 16 may be appropriate)
* 3-5 years - 10 to 13 hours (8-9 or 14 may be appropriate)
Yes. I am frustrated. How can you tell? 😅
Why?
Selling parents a problem to fund an entire industry of interventions that were only evidence-based before we had the equipment to measure sleep and see brains is unethical. Trying to convince the powers that be that we should create a framework for what the current evidence says is ideal for raising developing brains then measure any program to be funded against that... is exhausting.
Okay, rant over. Back to work.
Reference for sleep duration recommendations:
Hirshkowitz, Max et al. National Sleep Foundation's sleep time duration recommendations: methodology and results summary, Sleep Health: Journal of the National Sleep Foundation, Volume 1, Issue 1, 40 - 43, Jan 2015 (accessed 13 Sept 2024)
