How to Sell Advice

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If you're selling advisory services and feel stressed, burned out, or exhausted in the process, this episode is for you.

Your job as an advisor is to sell access to your brain. 

Sure, you may also bring a Rolodex of people, some systems and templates, training, and other supplementary resources, but that's not the same as tactical execution or project management. 

If you're doing execution and/or project management but want to be selling your brain instead, there's room for improvement which will free you from the stresses I described above. 

The critical piece to selling access to your brain is ensuring expectations are set up-front and then "installing the engine" before you begin your engagement. 

Listen in for what this means and why it's so important if you plan to scale your expertise and not get mired in the execution details.

-kw

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One of the ways I get clients in the coworking industry is with a travelling roadshow.

It ultimately comprises of:

1. Your big idea/way of achieving a desired result
2. A lesson with free resources on how to DIY
3. An offer to those who need (paid) support

It's usually a webinar but it could also be a podcast appearance, conference talk/workshop, or any other kind of free training you do.

The key is to let people know upfront that you'll be sharing ways they can hire or buy your ideas at the end of the talk, but that you'll also be giving them all the tools and basics needed to take an honest shot at the DIY approach.

This has worked for me to acquire several clients who have gone on to be long-term clients with me. 

It's also worked to drive people to my free resources (and therefore email list) which has resulted in untold sales and audience growth.

Give this a listen and let me know if it gets the wheels turning for you, too!

—k

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When you approach your client work, do you follow a Methodology or standard process? Or do you make it up as you go along?

I have a Methodology, and it makes every engagement streamlined and less stressful.

It's like a checklist. Something to capture and document your ideas. But also to use as a reference in your client engagements to ensure nothing gets missed. This creates predictable outcomes when applied consistently.

I call this the Methodology. Your prospects may not care much that you have a Methodology, only that you can get results.

But once they become your clients, they do start to care if it feels like you're winging it every day or there's no method to your madness (results) to speak of. 

They also notice and appreciate it when you do show them how it works. When you create a Trello or Asana board just for them with the entire picture mapped out. It gives them a lot of confidence to see they're part of your tried-and-true process. 

In this episode, I talk about my own Methodology and the general approach I use in my marketing advisory practice. 

I store it in Trello, and every new idea or learning I get goes into the core template that becomes the basis for every new (and current) engagement I run.

If this topic is interesting, let me know. I'll give you a bigger peek behind the curtain at how it looks.

More on this soon,

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To succeed as an advisor, you need to get a lot of details right.

But above all else, there are two core areas you need to get right when it comes to delivering your advisory services.

1. Over-delivering for your clients
2. Maintaining high ethical standards and integrity

When you over-deliver, you're not only more likely to get results, you'll also blow your clients away with unexpected value. And that's what creates excellent referrals, word of mouth, and long-lasting relationships.

Maintaining high ethical standards and integrity should go without saying, but there's a lot of nuance to how to do that.  

In this episode, I talk about a story of my recent experience with real estate agents and what we can learn from both great and shady practices.

Hit that like button and leave a comment if this resonates!

–kw

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Every so often, a prospect comes along who's not an ideal fit.

And with that, the sales conversation usually doesn't go super well.

In this episode, I talk about a recent sales conversation I had with someone who was not in my ideal target market.

And there were two lessons:

1. Niching and credibility are at the top of my Mindshare Methodology Framework for a reason—and it impacts the sales conversation (see image below)
2. Instead of answering how you work, start by figuring out what your prospects wants, why it matters, how they envision success looking like, and only then explaining how you work once you understand their true goals and think you can help.

Give this a listen and see if you agree.

Here's the framework I mentioned, which I talk about in Episode 134: A framework for leveraging and selling your expertise.

—kw

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Today, I've got two ideas for helping you sell better advice.

I'll give you a hint, it involves getting excited, saying yes, and articulating value and trade-offs. 

Give it a listen and tell me what you think.

—k

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The premise of this group is to help you package, sell, and create leverage around your marketing expertise (not your hands).

In this episode, I break down my 5-part framework for how this all works. It's the latest version of my thinking and it's always a work in progress.

The high-level points include:

1. Niche
2. Credibility
3. Methodology
4. Business Model
5. Marketing Engine

In the coming weeks and months, I'll be fleshing this out in more detail.

For now, if you're stuck on any part of this, drop me a line in the Ask Kevin channel or reply to this episode below!

Have a great weekend.

—k

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Are you still debating about the benefits of niching?

Do you feel like you might not be niched enough?

Give this a listen if you're on the fence and not sure if niching is worth the "risk" for you (hint: it probably is).

Here's the top-level list:

1. When you know who you're targeting, every decision is easier
2. You can show up where they hang out
3. You can understand your target market deeply 
4. You can speak their language (which lets you be heard)
5. People are more likely to share your content (and reach more people in the niche in the process)
6. You create better products and services the more you do it
7. You become rarer and more valuable to your target market
8. You can more easily sell group programs/info products/training
9. You solve similar kinds of problems, making your engagements more efficient (and therefore profitable)
10. You have less competition, which lets you close more deals and charge a premium
11. People will travel from further away to do business, which gives you location independence and other freedoms
12. You gain more confidence in your work, which gives your clients confidence, too
13. You'll develop a better network, which can cross-pollinate and create even more opportunities
14. You can partner with others who offer complimentary services, allowing you to build your audience and make the pie bigger for everyone
15. You create better social proof via logos and case studies, improving speed to trust with your ideal clients
16. You become known for something specific, making you more likely to get referrals through word of mouth
17. You're seen as a credible expert on a specific topic, making you more likely to speak at conferences, on podcasts, media mentions, etc.
18. Your advertising is far more targeted (better reach + conversion rate)
19. You get the feeling of being great at something, which is better than solving new challenges every day
20. Those who lead a market gets the lions share of results

Was this helpful? Let me know in the comments below.

—k

P.S. Want to help me out? Recommend Mindshare to a friend and I'll give you three months free to the group as a thanks. :) 

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Oren is interested in exploring group coaching and mentorship for in-house marketing managers. I really like the idea.

Here's the original heart of the questions asked in the "Ask Kevin" channel:

So then I began exploring what others are doing and what does that look like. I remembered you run one so was wondering about the format. Is it the same weekly or variable and what do you do when individual groups members begin to ask questions regarding their own marketing strategy / challenges. Don’t want to play fractional CMO on demand support for 50-100 marketers.

Re: "higher-touch, small-group models or something low-touch, large group?"
I was reflecting on whether it's easier to start with low-cost/touch large group and then upsell a subset into group coaching.

On Propeller do you cap the number of people re group coaching calls? Is the format of the bi-weekly assignments personalised or the same to all group coaching clients?

In this episode, I talk about:

1. The benefits of leading with a niche
2. Doing 1:1 consulting before going to group
3. Creating and refining your methodology before trying to teach it
4. Consider doing training content inside the group coaching program
5. The different business models I've seen work
6. How to design it based on your conversations, not plucking it out of thin air and trying to sell it to people
7. How to actually validate and sell the idea once you have it formalized

Oren , I hope this helps you somewhat! If you can get people interested in your day-to-day conversations, it will go a long way towards creating something people actually want.

Cheers!

—k

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I was talking with a client recently about the value of a project we were considering hiring someone for. The client wanted to know if paying a premium for a high-value writing project was worthwhile.

It was a fair questions. So, we compared:

1. The opportunity costs of not doing the project
2. The DIY option and implications
3. Hiring a generalist to do the work cheaper—and the trade-offs in that
4. Hiring a specialist to do the work—and the benefits of doing that
5. The longterm value that can be spun off of a well-produced outcome

In this episode, we go into the nuances of value conversations applied to this particular situation, as well as understanding the impacts of marginal profit and costs in the value conversations you have with your clients.

At the end of the day, you need to be able to articulate the value of working with you (or not working with you). Hope this helps you navigate your next discussions around price and value. 

—k