How to Sell Advice

As I wrote about the other day, one of the most critical aspects of scaling a consulting business without hiring a team is to generate assets from your ideas and expertise.

In this episode, I break down how and why you should aim to document all your ideas and processes in your business to help you create leverage and grow without working harder.

—k

P.S. Know someone who would like to join this group? Have them visit https://mindshare.fm and click the button to join the free (or Pro) tier. Your referrals are all I ask if you enjoy the community and content.

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A while back, I wrote a post arguing how specialization is simplification.

The article spawned a series of questions around how to find a niche, so I thought I'd do an episode covering just this topic.

In this episode, I talk about:

1. Why you should niche (or not)
2. Things to look for when picking a niche
3. How limiting your focus increases your opportunities
4. How and whether you should specialize in multiple niches
5. Examples of horizontal and vertical specialization
6. Why excluding industries is actually good for business
7. Why the target is not always the market
8. And a lot more!

If you're considering niching, I go deep on the topic in this episode so give it a listen.

—k

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In this episode, I break down the how and how long it took me to build an advisory practice out of my former marketing agency, including:]

• Revenue growth and timelines from 2017 to today
• Transitions from freelancer to employee to agency owner to consultant
• Bring a specialist and a generalist consultant
• Managed advisory services vs. pure advisory services
• And other topics related to growing over the past 5 years

Give this a listen if you're wondering what my path looked like and how yours could, too.

It takes time to build, but advisory work is a great business model.

—k

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Sometimes, people will not be able to afford the sticker price for your consulting services.

Instead of folding and offering an immediate discount, there are lots of ways to work with them collaboratively to create a win-win (read: mutually profitable) situation for both of you.

The first way is by removing scope.

What can you take off the table while still helping them accomplish their business objectives?

Examples might include:

1. Who has access to you (owner, staff, suppliers?)
2. Frequency of calls
3. Medium of contact (i.e. Slack vs. email vs phone)
4. Deliverables (or not)
5. Additional content or bonuses
6. What will you advise on or not
7. Access to your network/Rolodex

You can listen to episode 65 for examples of the levers of value I employ with my advisory clients.

Another form of scope change is to elongate timelines while reducing interaction.

I did this recently by turning a $27k/6 month project into an 8-month project for the same total amount.

We also agreed to do twice-monthly instead of weekly strategy calls instead, giving a longer lead time to their launch date (this was a new coworking business).

This actually resulted in being more profitable on a per-hour basis (not that I charge hourly), given I'd be having 50% less calls for 25% longer period of time for the same money.

It also reduced the stress that comes from needing to do everything quickly and intensely leading up to a launch. We have more time to get things done, which causes less stress for me.

You can also reduce prices for something beneficial to you in return.

Ideas include getting permission to do detailed case studies or testimonials (which will help win business later on), or getting constructive feedback on your process, referrals, services in kind, access to an audience, or any number of other factors that may create benefit to you commensurate with the reduction in price.

Whatever you do, don’t just discount your services for nothing in return.

There are a lot of ways to play with scope, time, access, and benefits to create a customized proposal that is a win-win for you and your clients.

The worst thing you can do is straight discount your time unless you feel there's a good reason to do so.

If people can't afford your services, and none of the above ideas work, it's not your place to subsidize their businesses.

—k

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In this episode, I talk about:

1. Why you want to develop systems in your clients' business—not just implement projects
2. Why you want to start slowly before adding on more layers
3. Why you want to watch for signs of overwhelm closely
4. And why you want to create momentum and confidence instead

…all of this so that you can create more consistent and sustainable results for your clients.

—k 

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Working with bad clients:

1. Distracts you from doing your best work for your best clients
2. Ties you up from working with new and better-fit clients
3. Creates stress which you bring home to your loved ones
4. Eliminates the chances of you getting a referral in the end
5. Reduces the chance of you being able to do a case study
6. Drains you of your energy (physically and emotionally)
7. Hurts your confidence in other areas of your life and business
8. Burns you out more quickly—which is bad for business
9. Creates risk like reputation damage, lawsuits, and other negative byproducts

As a consultant, you're the asset. 

Working with bad clients is like allowing corrosives on your core machinery. If you don't fix it, you'll have no business.

Don't mistake revenue for a profitable situation. 

Remove the acid in the vessel. 

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Do you get clear on business outcomes during your initial sales discussions?

Do they make it into your proposal?

Do they get referenced during and after the engagement?

If not, chances are you're not winning as many deals as you could, and you may run into challenges down the road even if you do.

In this episode, I talk about why capturing your client's business goals during the sales process and including it in your proposal is immensely valuable to the success of your projects.

Doing this upfront and including it in your working Trello board (or whatever you use to store information) is key to actually achieving the things your clients want you to, making for better relationships and results for everybody.

Give this a listen and let me know what you think!

—k

P.S. I did a training on this for members of Mindshare Pro today, including where and how I incorporate this information into proposals.

And yes, I do proposals and agreements even for my productized consulting services. Sign up to get access to these trainings, resources, and monthly group coaching calls here: https://mindshare.fm. 

> Click here to join the conversation on this episode in the Mindshare community.

Last week, I had a sales conversation for a $4,500/mo. advisory engagement that I almost lost because I didn't explain what I do well enough.

Luckily, I was able to save the conversation and left the call feeling good about future next steps.

What saved it was being able to show my documented methodology, including my KPI spreadsheet, Methodology Trello Board, and Client Operating System. 

All of these and more are included in the Pro membership, by the way. 

Give this a listen to hear how I almost dropped the ball and learn how to better sell your advisory services.

—k

> Click here to join the conversation on this episode in the Mindshare community.

I saw a tweet the other day by Andrew Warner, host of the Mixergy podcast.

He reaches out to potential guests asking if they would like to appear on his shows. Only 25% of the people he reached out to replied... which is wild because he has a huge platform.

But when he started doing follow-ups, he doubled his response rate to 50%.

Which got me thinking, should you do follow-ups to your prospects who don't reply?

In this episode, I explore whether you should, and if so, how you could do it without seeming desperate.

Give it a listen and let me know what you do when following up with potential opportunities.

—k

P.S. If you're interested in jumping on a beta version of a mastermind group coaching program, hit me up in the DMs or email me at [email protected].

I have three spots remaining in a group of five and I'm aiming to fill it this month. Learn more here: https://society.mindshare.fm/c/announcements/are-you-interested

> Click here to join the conversation on this episode in the Mindshare community.

There's a common concern that working with multiple companies in a niche might create competition among your clients—especially when they operate in similar geographic areas.

Usually, it's not an issue—especially if you don't work with companies who are going after the same market in the same locations at the same time and who are completely undifferentiated.

But what happens when you do SEO/PPC services for companies with global reach who have similar audiences?

If search engines are zero-sum, wouldn't you just be competing against your other clients by doing that?

It's a great question by  Alex Nech so I want to explore the nuances with you all to help navigate the uncertainty.

In this episode, I talk about picking a broad enough niche, helping your clients with differentiation, the ethics of working with similar companies later on, and creating custom solutions that work for your individual clients, even if you apply the same general methodology in doing so, and much more.

Give this a listen and let me know if you agree or disagree!

—k