How to convince your boss to say 'yes!' to IMPACT+ Pro

Personal and professional development is at the core of all successful teams. It’s how they level up, how they stay up-to-date on current best practices, and stay competitive.

Now more than ever before, teams that become comfortable and complacent in their knowledge and skills will fall behind and, soon enough, become irrelevant in the marketplace. 

Yet too often, teams and organizations as a whole aren’t willing to pull the trigger on professional development when they don’t clearly see what the return on their investment will be. 

This is especially true when it comes to online training/education platforms. And I don’t knock that hesitation either. 

Taking a course and attending a training session certainly doesn’t guarantee any sort of result. It’s easy to check the completion boxes and show your report card, but that’s not what taking these trainings and education opportunities is about. 

Instead, the goal of taking these courses, participating in online communities, or attending an event is to learn new ways to help yourself and your business succeed. You can learn a new skill, find a new tool, even make a new connection that will ensure you bring more value to your organization and find more success. 

Looking at a platform like IMPACT+, this value is direct, whether it be from the events, course content, mastermind groups, or online communities — and when you upgrade to IMPACT+ Pro, you get even more. 

However, the reason you’re reading this article is likely because while you see this value, you may be having a hard time getting your team to as well.

In this article, I'm going to share how to approach the common objections we've heard from both sides of the issue, so you can get the training and education you’re looking for in IMPACT+ Pro. 

IMPACT+ vs IMPACT+ Pro

I think it’s important to briefly review the difference between IMPACT+ Free and IMPACT+ Pro. 

Simply put, the free offering is designed to open the door and allow you to start exploring IMPACT+ and learn basic digital sales and marketing skills. This includes courses, full access to our public communities, and select event recordings. 

On the flip side, IMPACT+ Pro unlocks everything on the platform, including our mastermind groups, additional, advanced-level course content, all of IMPACT’s virtual events, and our strategic business tools. 

The main difference to note is that IMPACT+ Free can provide a lot upfront, but to get those tactical learnings that will truly show you how to generate greater results and excel in your role, you’ll need IMPACT+ Pro. 

At $49 per month (or $490 annually), IMPACT+ Pro isn’t an enormous investment by any means compared to other online training platforms while still being competitive in the value provided.

How to convince your boss to say “yes!” to IMPACT+ Pro

The value may be clear in your eyes, however, that doesn’t always mean your boss or the person who owns your team’s budget will see it the same way. 

Some of the common concerns we’ve heard are not having a sufficient budget, a lack of buy-in or knowledge of the platform, as well as the platform's relative newness versus more established competitors. 

So what can you do? To help you make the case, I’m going to lay out some of the most common objections that come from these concerns, where they come from, and what you can do or say in response: 

1. “Why can’t you just use the free version of IMPACT+?” 
2. “Can you prove that you’ll get results by joining?” 
3. “There are other platforms and learning opportunities that are better known, why this one?” 
4. “Why do you need IMPACT+ Pro if we’ve already worked with IMPACT before?”

1. “Why can’t you just use the free version of IMPACT+?”

Long story short, this is the “Why should I pay if it’s free?” question. 

As I mentioned earlier, you can get started in IMPACT+ for free and access several great features and content. But, like any other subscription-based platform, IMPACT+ Free only gets you so far. 

Eventually, you either max the offerings of Free or you simply say, “I’m looking for more than what I currently have. What’s next?” 

The key to approaching the freemium conversation is clearly explaining the difference in value between a Free membership and a Pro membership. It’s not so much about the total cost, but the difference in potential gain between the two. 

🔍 Related: IMPACT+ Free vs. Pro Account: What's the difference? Is Pro even worth it?

Here’s the snapshot breakdown of Free vs Pro memberships in IMPACT+: 

IMPACT+ Free: You receive ~50% of our course content, all of our public communities, and select recordings from our past events. 

With this, you have the ability to connect with over 7,000 members of our community, many of whom have the same goals and ambitions as you. Networking is a huge part of career growth and development. Not only can you learn from the experiences of others, but these connections you build can also lead to new business opportunities and stronger personal and professional networks. 

At the same time, you get access to course content that will start you on your journey to owning your skills individually, and owning your digital sales and marketing as an organization. 

IMPACT+ Pro: With Pro, you receive all aspects included in Free, plus all our more advanced level course content (more tactical, do-it-yourself content), our expert-led mastermind groups, tickets to all of IMPACT’s upcoming virtual events, all past event recordings, as well as our strategic planning tools to measure yours and your team’s progress in applying everything you’ve learned. 

By unlocking all of these additional features and tools, you gain new opportunities to connect with industry experts as well as access to new ways to approach situations and excel in your role. 

Whereas Free helps you get started, Pro will take those skills and translate them directly to results that can and will change your business.

As I mentioned earlier, it’ll also help your case to show you’ve gotten a lot out of Free and see your continued learning and growth being a valuable piece of this equation. A great solution for this is to take part in an IMPACT+ Pro free trial as well. It’ll give you additional context about where you’re currently at with Free and where you can be with Pro. 

2. “Can you prove that you’ll get results by joining?” 

This is the return-on-investment objection. This objection focuses on the idea of, “If we invest in this, what will it bring our company down the road?”

As I said earlier, some look at professional development as checking a box and getting their stamp of approval, and others truly want to take the time to learn and actually apply those learnings.

With that, both you and the company will want to be able to say, “since investing in ABC, we’ve seen an improvement in XYZ.” 

So how do you prove that investment is worthwhile?

You start by showcasing the value you and other members have found in your experiences on the platform and in the community. 

For example, if you’ve been struggling to gather reviews online for your organization, and you take my course on managing your online reputation and reviews (#ad), you will have the opportunity to showcase what you learned almost immediately for your organization.

On the flip side, you can also use social proof to make your case. 

Many of our courses and event recordings talk not about the success IMPACT has had, but the success that our clients and partners have had based on the methodologies and strategies we teach. 

A recent example came during the Website Optimization Summit (a virtual event included with your Pro membership), where our keynote, Liz Moorehead, showcased IMPACT client Berry Insurance and its website as a prime example of a transparent and value-driven website. 

We also didn’t let the Berry Insurance team (who were in the audience) know we’d be showcasing them, so that was a fun surprise. 

Connecting a problem you face and the solution IMPACT+ Pro offers will help justify the need and the return. 

While this is more me saying it than you perhaps showing it, IMPACT+ Pro is built around the success YOU have, not the success our platform has. We want to brag about your success, and we’ve created a place for you to do so. 

3. “There are other platforms that are better known; why IMPACT+ Pro versus others?” 

IMPACT+ is a newer education platform than others, such as HubSpot Academy, Digital Marketer, Business Made Simple, and Copy Hackers, just to name a few.  

When it comes to convincing your boss about IMPACT+ Pro, you need to showcase the key differentiators between the platforms. 

To showcase the key talking points, let’s do a quick comparison of HubSpot Academy with IMPACT+ Pro. Both platforms are going to cover topics specific to HubSpot. HubSpot is, well, HubSpot, and IMPACT is an Elite HubSpot partner agency. However, the value of each platform is where those differentiators live.

🔍 Related: IMPACT+ vs HubSpot Academy: A head-to-head digital marketing training comparison

Imagine you’ve just purchased HubSpot for your organization and you aren’t really sure how to get started or what to do with it. HubSpot Academy is perfect for you. HubSpot Academy is free and excels at educating its members on the fundamentals of inbound and using HubSpot to be successful in implementing it. They also have a robust certification program that’s highly recognized across the industry. 

Now, imagine you need a deeper framework for applying the fundamentals you learned at HubSpot Academy through a proven inbound methodology. IMPACT+ Pro is your solution. 

IMPACT+ Pro is built around the business philosophy of They Ask, You Answer. 

Whether you’ve read the book, seen author Marcus Sheridan speak, or take our free course content, IMPACT+ Pro is the key to unlocking those methodologies for your organization. 

Courses such as How to write “The Big 5”, Crafting “Selling Seven” videos that convert, and Fundamentals of ROI reporting in HubSpot are all Pro courses that take a much deeper dive into applying the concepts of inbound marketing with They Ask, You Answer in mind. 

On top of that, these three courses alone cover HubSpot, video, and written content, all of which will be required for your organization’s success.

4. “Why do you need IMPACT+ Pro if we’ve already worked with IMPACT?”

If you work or have worked with IMPACT in the past, you know that we are a coaching and training organization. We’ve likely helped you hire, onboard, train, and grow your teams to get the inbound results you need or even helped you implement them in the past. 

Why do you need to pay for an additional service to do this training online and on-demand?  

The value comes in the reinforcement and continued learning of the topics you’ve worked on with our team. Rather than having to connect with a coach or trainer about a topic and hoping they respond quickly enough (which you can still do in our conversations or online communities), you can instead watch a specific course or lesson on the topic. 

Plus, with new courses, lessons, and event content coming out each month, IMPACT+ Pro will help you continue your learning even after you complete your engagement with IMPACT. 

Another thing to keep in mind is our communities are a great networking opportunity for current and past clients. Learning happens through experience and all of our clients have had unique journeys to get to where they are today.

Lastly, our mastermind groups create a place where different levels of experience in a specific role can bring their challenges to the table and solve them as a unique team, rather than just the people you may work with on your team every day.

Convince your boss to say “Yes!” to IMPACT+ Pro

You want to grow and succeed in your career and we want to help you get there. IMPACT+ Pro is a perfect first step in connecting with fellow driven professionals, learning the skills and techniques you need to succeed, and discovering future opportunities for you to continue bringing even more value to your organization. 

As you take on these challenging conversations, remember that the end goal is for you to succeed. IMPACT+, Free or Pro, is a great option for you to learn, grow, and connect. 

Hopefully, you’ll have a great, successful conversation with your boss and your team will decide to join you in your journey to digital sales and marketing mastery through IMPACT+.