Hey everyone!
Jason here, digital marketing consultant.
And quick question for you.
Would you rather be paid like an Uber driver or an F1 race car driver?
Because the answer to that question will not only determine your consulting business model,
but also how profitable your new consulting business will be.
Timestamps below, along with some other helpful videos to growing and actually acquiring new
clients for your business.
So let's go ahead and jump right in here, taking a look at this diagram.
On the first part, we're actually going to skip the client acquisition side.
Again, links in the description to a lots of videos, that go through how to actually
acquire clients.
Here, we're going to focus on your actual product offerings and then how you can actually
scale with this business model, that we've developed over the past couple of years.
And so you're going to have one front-end package.
Then you're going to have one, two-two, three add on packages.
And then of course that sweet, sweet, sweet, reoccurring revenue, where you figure out
some way to actually retain and keep clients on with you after all of those front-end packages
are complete.
And then we'll wrap up when you stick around to the end, with how to actually productize
your service, and we'll be sharing our actual process for making sure clients are kept happy
and satisfied through the entire engagement process.
So let's jump right into your package.
Now, going back to our example, we'll look at the Uber driver versus the F1 race car
driver.
They technically both have the same skill and it's the same skill as someone who drives
for FedEx or UPS, right?
They all drive some sort of vehicle with four wheels, right?
Just the F1 car costs a heck of a lot more, than let's say a UPS truck or a normal Sedan
than, that an Uber driver might be driving.
And so the reason that we go through this facetious example is Uber drivers, they pretty
much go around picking up any client that they can get, right?
Whereas the FedEx and UPS drivers have a very specific route that they take every single
day because they know exactly who they're targeting.
And then we have the F1 race car driver, that does one thing and one thing only, and then
builds a team around them.
Now, I know this is a bit of a facetious example, but when it comes to consulting, a lot of
new consultants walk around as if they're Uber drivers, just looking for anyone who's
up for a ride, versus the F1 race car driver, who decides on the one race, they're going
to do the one thing they're going to do.
And they build a team around them.
Now I'm not ragging on Uber drivers or anyone who does anything other than drive for an
F1 race team, right?
It's just an example of focus and how the same skill can actually result in incredibly
different incomes.
So enough with the silly example, let's dive into what exactly your package should be.
The whole point here is that you might have the same skills as hundreds of other people
in your area, right?
But the way that you can differentiate yourself is identifying a very specific problem, for
a very specific person.
And then going after that specific type of business or customer.
And so with a package, what you want to do is, come up with some sort of results that
your ideal customer is looking for and then create a complete service that would solve
that issue for them.
A great example of this is something that we do with our digital marketing agency is
we offer a Google ads foundation.
So we target a specific type of business.
And then we just brainstormed, okay, if a business wants to run ads on Google, what
is everything they need, in order to be successful?
And we listed all of that out and that became our front-end package.
Now, if you're not quite sure what your package should look like in your niche or industry,
there's a site that actually has a bunch of examples for you.
And that is Fiverr.com.
Now pump the brakes because I'm not saying that you generally charge 5 to 50 bucks for
your package.
Not at all.
What you can do though, is head over to Fiverr.
And take a look at the gigs that are being offered.
And it will give you a good understanding of how you can put together your services
into a package.
And it's very important that you create a package and you stick to it.
You're not an Uber driver going around trying to find anyone who's interested in getting
a ride or purchasing your product or service.
You have to be focused and you have to stick to whatever your package is.
And that's going to be incredibly important, when we get to the end, when we talk about
how to actually scale and productize your service, because if you're doing something
different for every single client, who comes through the door, you're going to be in for
a real headache, and you're not going to be able to scale long-term.
In addition to the long-term benefit of being able to scale the package also helps you fight
against scope creep, which is one of the biggest headaches and killers of new consulting businesses.
Because when you say that, “Hey, you know, I'll do this for you and it's this price”,
and there's no itemized list of exactly what you're going to do or exactly what is included
in your package or service, well guess what?
You're going to have some awkward conversations later on down the road, when a client asks
you for something, that's not actually a part of what you originally thought you were going
to have to do.
And so packages help you combat and keep off, stave off scope creep, which is a huge, huge
problem.
The other big advantage here is it helps you disconnect your work from time because you're
selling a package with a result and the time factor for you and how much time it actually
takes you, is completely removed from the equation.
And it's not even part of the sales conversation, which is very, very important for you, in
terms of scaling long-term, but also not feeling like you're stuck tracking your time as a
consultant.
Now, the next step here is once you identify that package, stick to your guns, stay focused
there.
The next step is figuring out how you can actually add on to that package.
Now what's very important here, with the add on services is that they're actually additional.
And if they aren't taken up by the client or the client, doesn't ask for them, your
package can stand on its own.
It's very, very important.
So I'll go through an example.
So when we first got started creating our front-end package for our Google ads, we actually
didn't include anything with conversion tracking or landing page conversion optimization, because
we figured that most businesses would actually have that, well, turns out we were incredibly
wrong.
So there are two things we could have done.
Number one, we could have created a separate service, where if we found out that the client
didn't have that conversion tracking set up, we could say, “Hey, you know, for an additional
X amount, we can actually set up the conversion tracking as well, but it's not actually in
part of the foundation.”
Well, what we found is, we can't run ads effectively without having the conversion tracking.
So what we had to do is we had to take what we thought was extra and included it in our
package, which increased our packages price, which made the package harder to sell, especially
to people who already thought they had conversion tracking in, but it's been almost four years
now.
And we have not had one new client, who had it set up a hundred percent correctly, right?
And so sometimes you'll find that you need to include things in your package that your
client doesn't actually want, but you know that it's necessary, in order for them to
be successful.
And in so those particular instances, you're not going to want to create an add on, you're
going to have to include it because you know that if it's not included in the package,
the client's not going to get the end successful result that they want.
And sometimes that means you're going to have to wind up charging more.
And yes, it's a pain in the ass in the sales processs, because sometimes your prices might
be a little higher, but the clients that you do get will be a whole lot happier on the
back-end, and you're much more likely to get a referral, right?
So just keep in mind when you're creating additional things or coming up with additional,
add-ons three to the absolute max, make sure that they are actually optional things, as
opposed to something that should have been included with your original package.
Now the third step here in creating your packages and your business model is going to be figuring
out what kinds of things you can offer on a reoccurring basis.
So you can keep the clients that you've worked so hard to keep happy and actually acquire
in the first place.
Now, this one can be a little tricky, but there are two main ways that you can keep
clients on.
There's the retainer model.
And then there's the ongoing services model, which is essentially a package that repeats
month after month or whatever the timeframe may be.
So this is essentially something that you create so that you can keep the client relationship
going.
It's normally going to be significantly less, than whatever the initial package or add-ons
were, but there are three big advantages before we get into the two different types that you
can offer.
Advantage number one is this almost always gives you right of first refusal.
So what this means is, even if you come up with something that's not very profitable
for you, it keeps that door open.
And you're much more likely to get the questions or get requests for new projects, as opposed
to them going and finding somebody else, right?
Because they're already doing business with you.
You've been working with them for X amount of time.
So they're much more likely to come with you, to come to you with new work or new projects.
And you actually become more of an expert and advisor in their eyes.
And so, you're much more likely to get to that new work, as opposed to someone else.
The second big advantage here is, it does bring some predictability to your consulting
practice.
Because it can be really, really annoying and sometimes frightening, when you haven't
closed any clients, for a specific amount of time and maybe it's a month or two, and
you've just had a dry spell and there's no income coming in, because you don't have any
new clients.
So it can bring some predictability to your cash flow.
And the third and final reason that this is really powerful is, it can actually help against
question creep.
Yes, that's right.
Question creep.
And this ties into the retainer model.
So the first model you can go with is, some sort of retainer model where you essentially
stay on to answer their questions, 48/5.
So you're not 24/7, that's within 48 hours, five business days a week, right?
If you want to be 24/7, go ahead.
Personally, that was something that I could not handle at all.
I got questions at the weirdest times, and we just had to go to 48/5, with our retainer.
So what the retainer essentially is, is you are an advisor.
And so you have the ability to email or schedule a phone call with you.
They can't call you up at random, but email or schedule a phone call with you to ask questions
about whatever your area of expertise is.
Now what's important here is you aren't actually lifting a finger to do any work.
You're just using this.
You're giving them strategies.
You're giving them insights based upon your experience, but you're not actually doing
any of the work, right?
So that's the retainer model.
And that also helps again to question creep, during one of your packages, because something
that you may find is you might be doing some work.
And then all of a sudden, they're asking questions, that have really nothing to do with what you're
working on.
Sure, they're in your niche or industry and your area of expertise.
And so having some sort of retainer is something great to offer.
And we've had to do that a couple of times where we say, “Hey, Whoa, um, we're just
working on Google ads”, or “We're just doing your Facebook stuff.
But if you want help with your sales funnel, we have a retainer model”, where or we have
a retain, we don't say retain model.
We have a service where we can provide feedback or do copyright reviews and that's over here.
And so then you have something to point to say, “Hey, you're asking for this, but it's
part of that package, not necessarily what you're talking about here.”
And of course, the second type of ongoing that you can provide is, some sort of service.
As an example, for us, we manage advertising accounts on a month to month basis.
And of course, the period with which the contract renews is up to you, but something to keep
in mind is the lifetime value of a customer.
Because no matter how great your advice is, or no matter how hard you work with your ongoing
service at the end of the day, it's reasonable to assume that after a certain number of months
or years, they're going to move on, right?
And so something you want to track is, the average amount of months or years someone
stays on with you, before they decide to move on to somebody else or their business just
changes, right?
So you also want to make sure that you aren't being unrealistic with how long someone's
going to stay, on your retainer.
And so that can also affect the price that you charge, because if you're charging something
super low, because you expect them to stay with you a year, but you find that people
only stay with you three months, then you might actually need to bump up that price,
so that you're protected because you know that most of them are going to leave after
three months anyway.
And so that does it for the three core components of your consulting business model.
Having that front-end package, having one-two, or two-two, one to three, Oh my gosh, losing
my numbers here.
So one to three, add on packages and then having some sort of ongoing package, whether
that's doing some sort of ongoing service, that's clearly defined, it's just a package
that repeats itself or some sort of retainer model, where you're an advisor answering questions.
Now this next step is going to be arguably one of the most important parts of your business
model.
And that is optimizing your delivery.
So go ahead and take a look at this quick diagram.
I'll link up in the cards, in the description to a video that takes a much deeper dive on
exactly every single step of this process.
I'm going to 80/20 and walk through how we make sure that our packages are very optimized
from an internal perspective.
Because after all, it's really hard to productize your service, if you're doing something new
for every single person.
So what we do is, we have phase number one of any package we offer is our onboarding
process.
We have some email templates that we automatically send them.
We ask for the information that we need, in order to be successful.
And then we have a welcome call.
So those are the three steps that we go through for every single new engagement, irrespective
of what the package is.
Now, this is really important to copy for your own consulting business.
Because number one, you want to present an organized front, as soon as someone gives
you that payment information.
Because when you send out an email that is templatized, even though it's not as personal,
you do want to personalize the first who it's to.
And then of course, the first paragraph referencing, whatever you talked about in your sales conversation.
But after that, have it very, very formulated to present to the client, so they know that
you've done this before, this isn't your first rodeo and you are on top of things.
So maximum of three welcome emails, and those emails simply ask for the information that
you need.
And so once you've collected all that information you need to be successful, you have a welcome
call with them and that's where you alleviate any stress and answer any questions.
And so what you want to end the intake phase with, is number one, the client is peace of
mind, that you know what the heck you're doing.
And number two, you have all the information that you need, to go to start working, which
is going to be phase number two.
And here, this is going to be just where, you're doing your work.
Ideally, you don't have a lot of communication with the client here, because you're busy
doing their work.
If you need to ask questions of the client or you need to get feedback, then you want
to create milestones ahead of time, so the client knows when you're going to be contacting
them or when they can expect to see some work.
By simply telling the client when they're going to see the first deliverable or when
they're going to see some sort of result, is going to alleviate their stress.
And they're going to be much likely to email or call you every other day, asking how things
are going because you have a clear milestones.
And it helps you stay focused on your work and not have to answer 21 questions from the
client, right?
And so once you're done with your work, you move on to the off-boarding phase.
And this is arguably just as important as the first two, because you want to make sure
that when the client leaves the door, they have everything they need and they're super
happy.
So you can start getting some referrals, right?
Referrals are very powerful to growing your consulting practice.
So here what you want to do is, deliver some sort of rough draft, and then you have some
sort of timeline for reviews and revisions.
It's very important that you have clear, clear timelines for how long someone has to get
back to you, with revisions.
I had a consulting friend who ended up forgetting to do this, and she wound up having a website
built drag out for over six months because the client took so long to get back with basic
revisions.
So you definitely want to be very, very clear and stringent with these revisions and make
sure that you aren't just waiting around twiddling your thumbs saying, well, it's been a month
and they haven't said anything.
And I think I get my final payment or I think we're done.
So you really want to make sure that you're very clear with how long someone has, in order
to give you feedback on your revisions.
And of course, you'll have some sort of offboarding process where you summarize everything that
you did.
You let them know how to use whatever they've been given.
And then that conversation is where you bring up your reoccurring service, right?
So that does it for the best business consulting model that we found.
Go ahead and comment below, if you have any questions with your own niche or industry,
or how to apply this to your new consulting practice, because it's been a long road for
us.
And we definitely want to make sure that it's a lot easier when you get started.
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And until the next, keep building the business you love.