Hey everyone!
Jason here, digital marketing consultant.
And in this consulting strategy video, you're going to learn three big mistakes, that new
consultants make, that you must avoid in order to not look like a novice and actually enjoy
becoming a consultant.
So make sure you check out the links in the description, to other helpful marketing videos
and playlists, to market your consulting services along with a timestamp table of contents.
So you can easily skip around this video.
Now, as we dive in at the end of this video, I'm going to be revealing, the biggest mistake
consultants make with their proposals.
But first I want to dive into three keys to success, in order to help you efficiently
sidestep all of these mistakes and traps that we're going to be going over.
So the first big key to success is focus.
Something that's really hard as a new consultant, is saying no to potential business.
However, if you want to be successful long-term, you need to identify what skills or services
or results you're going to focus on and then say no to everything else because all those
other things are a distraction.
And the second key to success, which you think would be self-explanatory, but there are a
ton of 21-year old life coaches out there.
So I had to include this and that is you need actual experience.
Simply going through courses, watching YouTube videos and reading a bunch of books, does
not qualify you to be a consultant.
You need to have actual experience and you need to achieve the results that you're going
to be delivering for your clients and customers.
I know that's probably self-explanatory, but I just see so many new consultants who took
a Facebook ads course, and then think they're an expert now.
You need some actual experience under your belt.
Customers and clients are not Guinea pigs.
They are not test subjects.
Now the third key to success before we dive into those three big traps that you want to
avoid as a consultant, is to emotionally divest yourself from the sales process.
Essentially what this means, is when you're on a sales call, you're in, in-person sales
meeting, you need to be completely apathetic to the outcome of that call or meeting.
You have to not care whether or not you get the client.
Now, this attitude doesn't mean that you don't care about the prospect, you don't care about
the potential client, right?
That's not what I'm saying.
What I'm saying is, when things don't work out, you don't want to be so emotionally invested
in getting someone to say yes, that you force someone who's not a good fit for you or worse,
you get a bunch of noes in a row and then you totally get defeating and you're like,
“Oh, it's me.
I stink.
Nobody wants my services.”
And then you just give up, like most consultants do.
And I think this is where a lot of consultants ultimately wind up failing because you have
to emotionally remove yourself from the outcome of those sales calls and meetings.
It's not easy to do.
It will take some time.
You will get rejected a lot, but again, it’s just a number of occurrences, rejection is
part of the consulting sales process.
Now with those three keys to success out of the way, let's go ahead and talk about the
first big trap, a lot of new consultants fall into.
And this is actually a result of some really bad advice out there, and that is charge higher
prices.
Now, higher than what?
If you're just getting started, chances are you have a price or figure in your head, that
you want to charge as a flat rate or an hourly rate, it applies to both, that you'd ultimately
want to get to.
And then there's probably what you're making now, somewhere in the middle here, is what
you should actually be charging.
A lot of the advice out there, and I'm going to say is completely bonkers, stupid and wrong,
tells you to start at this premium high price point.
That is a recipe for disaster.
So here's why, there are a couple of key reasons.
Reason number one, is whatever skill or focus that you have you have, is only half the equation.
The other half of the equation, is actually being a business owner, learning how to manage
timelines, learning how to manage multiple clients, customer service, managing your time
and finances.
And then of course, there's the sales and marketing process, that is going to suck up
almost half, if not more of your time as a consultant, you're actually going to be astonished
about how much of your time is spent on trying to get new clients, versus actually servicing
the clients and customers that you already have.
And speaking of servicing the clients and customers you already have, the higher your
price, the higher you’ve perceived value of what you're going to deliver is, which
means the less wiggle room you have, in terms of making a mistake.
If you start up here, you need to have top tier results.
But if you're on client three or four, you don't know what top tier results look like.
And you're just doing, you're still getting used to the process.
Whereas if you're down here and you make a mistake, which will happen, we're not perfect.
We're all human.
You're going to have clients who are much more likely to be lenient and understanding
when you make a mistake, as opposed to up here, you are supposed to be like the pro
level flawless and perfect.
The other issue with this, is it's much harder to sell at a higher price point.
If you're just starting, you probably don't know how to sell.
You're still learning the process.
So as you learn the process, you're going to get more yeses, if you're closer to here,
because your sales skills aren't here yet.
Once your sales skills rise, then you can raise your prices as well.
So your prices will actually raise, as your sales ability becomes better.
Plus when you're down here, you're going to get a lot more clients and a lot more testimonials.
You're going to be able to build your portfolio and network of references significantly faster.
So that's the first big mistake, that a lot of new consultants make.
So trying to start out at this silly high price.
And that's simply because a lot of the advice out there is wrong.
Now the second big mistake deals with the sales process itself.
So chances are when you're interacting with a potential client, you're doing a sales call
or you're having an in-person meeting, well during at the end and of that, the client,
potential client is either gonna say, “Yes, let's work together” And you collect a credit
card and you're happy, good to go.
But 9 out of 10 times, they're going to come up with some sort of objection, that you're
not used to yet.
And this also ties back into the better you get at sales, the better you're going to be
with the objections, that always come at the end of the conversation.
So if you get an objection or you get something like, “Oh, I just need to think about it.”
You tell the potential client, “Okay, great.
When would be a good time, to schedule another meeting to talk about this?”
And you want to follow-up with a specific time and day.
So if they say, “Oh, I don't know, sometime next week” You can reply back with, “Well,
how does Tuesday work for you?
Then they go, “Oh, well, Tuesday's busy.
How about Wednesday?”
And you say, “Okay, Wednesday, does 3 or 4 work for you?”, Or whatever time of day,
you want to give them a call.
And most of the time you'll be able to get a specific day and a specific time, that you
can call them or meet with them again, to follow-up with the possibility of working
with you.”
Now, if there's a lot of pushback, like, “I don't really want to set a date.
I'll just like email you something”, That let you know, you don't have to waste your
time on the client.
And you're going to save yourself a lot of headache, trying to chase potential clients,
that actually don't want to do business with you at all.
So setting this specific time to follow-up is a great filtering mechanism as well.
So if you're getting some value out of this video, go and make sure you hit that like
button and subscribe for more consulting strategies and tactics, just like the ones we're talking
about in this video.
Now it's time for the final number three, the big consulting mistake.
And then we'll get into that bonus with the proposal trap, that a lot of new consultants
fall into.
No free time.
So this one deals how you manage those times, where you're on a paid consulting call and
it's 5 or 10 minutes to go.
And you know that you're not going to be able to finish what you're talking about during
this call or session.
So you have two options.
The first option is if you know that you're going to be able to finish it, if you win
an extra 5 or 10 minutes, if it's going to be more than 10 minutes, don't do this.
So if you know it's going to be another 5 or 10 minutes past whatever the time is supposed
to be, you simply say, “Hey, it looks like we're going to go over.
Is it okay if we spend an extra 5 or 10 minutes to finish what we're talking about?”
You want to ask the client that, because you want to show that you respect your time and
arguably more importantly, you want to show that you respect their time.
I've actually had clients that say, “Oh wow, I wasn't even looking at the time.
No, I have to run out the door to, for something.”
And then we just tabled it.
And we talked about it next time.
And this also makes sure that there's never an expectation that you're always going to
go over.
If you're constantly finding, that you're going over, over and over again with your
calls, then you can suggest that, “Hey, you know what?
It seems like we always go over, let's next time, let's schedule it for, you know, an
hour and 30 minutes or something.”
And of course you increase your rate, right?
You do charge more.
You don't just give them that extra 30 minutes for free.
And that's a great way to essentially make sure that you're never giving away your time
for free.
You need to really guard your time because it is the value, that you're providing to
your client.
Now, the second way to do this, is if you know it's not going to be finished within
the next 5 or 10 minutes, which is probably 9 out of 10 times.
So 10 minutes to go.
Don't wait until five.
If you wait until 5, it's way too late.
So 10 minutes ago, if you know you're not going to be done in the next 5 to 10 minutes,
say, “Hey, it looks like we need to table this for next time because we're not going
to be able to finish it.
And we're coming up towards the end of our time.”
And what's very nice about this, is it's respectful and it acknowledges that, Hey, this is important,
but we're out of time.
And then you can either suggest to pick it up the next time or if you think that they
need way more than you'd already talked about, in terms of sessions or consulting calls,
then you can suggest to add an extra one.
It's very important that at this point, you don't try to add time onto the current call
that you already have, because then it gives the client a sense of you pulling the rug
out from underneath them.
And you really do want to make sure, that if you commit to an hour, you only give them
that hour.
Even if you have nothing else the rest of the day, and following these two techniques
will ensure that you're never giving away your time for free.
And you ensure that all of your clients actually respect your time.
So that does it for the three big consulting traps.
Now for the bonus tip with the proposals, this is something that can trip a lot of people
up.
And I have literally spent days on a proposal and I want you to avoid this mistake, a proposal
should only take you, the first one can take you three or four hours, cause you don't know
what you're doing.
But after that, once you have your template down, a proposal shouldn't take you more than
an hour to put together.
And really all proposal is, is a summary of what was talked about in your sales meeting
or on your sales call.
That's it.
It's a, here's what we talked about, here's what you're going to get, here's what I'm
going to do, and that third one's actually optional, and then here's how much it's going
to cost.
That's it.
I put my proposals together in Canva and I actually have just a blanket template because
we do the same services over and over again.
And then we just insert the price and the specific services that they're going to be
getting month over month or one time.
And that's it.
That's all a proposal should be.
It doesn't need to be this lengthy document.
It doesn't need to go into your background.
It is not a resume.
All of the hard work of selling and convincing the prospect or potential client, that you're
a good fit, should have been done in the sales call.
So when you hear a client asks for a proposal, always make sure you clarify what was talked
about during the meeting or the call.
And then that proposal should simply just be a recap.
If you are really strapped for time.
Sometimes what I do is I say, “You know what?
We don't do proposals.”
And that that's true.
Not all of our services want a proposal.
So if we're not doing proposals for those kinds of small services, I'll say, how about
I just send you an email with a summary of what we talked about and what the pricing
would be.
9 of 10 times the potential customer/client is happy with that because they just are so
busy with other things, they don't want to try and remember everything that was talked
about on the sales call or in the sales meeting.
And that does it for the three big consulting mistakes to avoid along with the big proposal
trap.
So if you got some value out of this video, go and hit that like button, subscribe.
Comment below, if you have any consulting questions or you have your own traps that
you would avoid, sharing below will help other potential consultants sidestep the mistakes
that we've already made.
So until the next video, you know what to do, hit that like button, subscribe and keep
building the business you love.