How to Sell Advice

> Click here to join the conversation on this episode in the Mindshare community. When it comes to value, there are two ways to look at things: The value of the expertise you have/bring to the table The lifetime business value of the outcomes you create In this episode, I break both of these down in an effort to help you understand the value at the table and also to keep it in mind when pricing...

> Click here to join the conversation on this episode in the Mindshare community. Have you ever considered writing a daily blog? In this episode, I break down some of the main reasons why I do it (and have done for 120 days in a row so far on kevin.me) and why you might consider doing so, too. Some of the main reasons include: Clarifying your ideas to make them better Creating a body of work th...

> Click here to join the conversation on this episode in the Mindshare community. What do you do when your client needs results ASAP? Or when you have a prospect who has no momentum with their marketing program but expects big things in year one? In this episode, I talk about setting expectations around the speed marketing should work at. I talk about what clients to say no to and when to educa...

> Click here to join the conversation on this episode in the Mindshare community. If you're in a marketing strategy/advisory role, you'll inevitably be called to ask to help hire someone in-house, whether it be a marketing manager, content person, or something else. Here's my general approach for helping clients find the right candidate. Provide a sample job description Ideally, you have a temp...

> Click here to join the conversation on this episode in the Mindshare community. Last episode , I talked about how I changed the price and scope up and down for a few different clients recently. One thing I didn't get into is when to drop your price and when not  to drop your price. There's a few situation when I might drop the price: When the scope changes significnatly When the value changes...

> Click here to join the conversation on this episode in the Mindshare community. There comes a time when you need to change prices with your current clients. For me, it happens a lot when I work with them for a long time. The value changes over time. And that's the key part here: value .  In most cases, I find new ways to create value instead of reducing my rates. I ask questions about goals a...

> Click here to join the conversation on this episode in the Mindshare community. Are you fully booked? When it happens, what do you do? Do you refer work away or put clients on a waiting list? Mark had a great question last week: Any advice on managing prospects when you're at full capacity? What's a good strategy to keep a customer in your pipeline. Ideally, they're willing to wait until you...

> Click here to join the conversation on this episode in the Mindshare community. Do you find yourself selling the way you work instead of what the client gets at the end of it? As marketers, we have a tendency to describe and sell our approach to solving client challenges, not necessarily the systems they'll use to run things later on. And as important as that I, most people care less about ho...

> Click here to join the conversation on this episode in the Mindshare community. Here's a great topic for today's podcast episode from Mark Evans in the Submit a Question channel: I just signed a new client and have an interesting problem. It only has one customer, which has been been a customer for 13 years. Any thoughts on how to get insight into the software's value, etc. with such a small...

I was speaking with a coaching client today about creating a list of offerings that make it easy for all opportunities to fall into one predefined offer. It's basically a reverse-product ladder. Instead of people ascending the ladder, they can jump in the middle and even descend over time. In this episode, I break down the "coinsorter" list I recommend for marketing consultants, including: Fractio...

> Click here to join the conversation on this episode in the Mindshare community. Welcome to the 100th episode of the Mindshare Mentorship podcast. In very meta fashion, I want to share an idea originally coined by Josh Spector , a friend who helps creators create, promote, and profit from their creations.  He wrote an article back in 2018 called Only Do It If You're Willing To Do It 100 Times...

> Click here to join the conversation on this episode in the Mindshare community. This episode is in response to the story shared by Michel Fortin in the #general channel about how to handle difficult client situations, scope, and spotting red flags before they happen. If you're in business long enough, you'll eventually run into people who aren't happy about something. Sometimes it's about you...

> Click here to join the conversation on this episode in the Mindshare community. Here's a good question from Mark about taking a one month vacation when you have a full roster of monthly retainer clients: For most of us, it's been all work, all the time since last March. My wife suggested that I take a month off (July) in the summer. It would be great to unplug. Any thoughts on how to do that...

> Click here to join the conversation on this episode in the Mindshare community. Productized consulting is a great way to design your business in a way that is profitable and aligned with the effort you want to put into each engagement. It's also easier for your prospects to buy, which means it's easier for you to sell. What's not to love? In this episode, I break down the ways you can price y...

> Click here to join the conversation on this episode in the community I had a great question come in via DM last night, so I'll keep it anonymous but I wanted to go deeper via audio to explain the nuances. Here's the question: I have Strategy (Audit + Roadmap) as a front offer, and then advisory later. Based on your experience, are you trying to close everyone for recurring advisory service ri...

One of the things I like to promote in my consulting services is creating consistent and predictable results for my clients.  In order to do that, you need to create effective systems and processes based on good strategy. At the end of the day, people don't want to hire consultants on their team forever.  Some will work with you for years—and those are great clients! But the majority want to hire...

> Join this episode's conversation here. According to the Pareto Principal: The Pareto principle states that for many outcomes roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of the causes (the “vital few”).  I recently noticed this pattern in my business. My coworking membership program was taking up more energy than it was producing in results. I decided to pivot on that to win back my time and ene...

> Join the conversation on this topic. This episode is related to the Daily Idea I posted today about designing your business. We're still in January of 2021, which means you might be still in business planning mode. A good time for this topic. This episode is all about the topic of designing your business in a way that adds the most value without taking up all of your personal time. All it tak...

> Join the conversation on this episode here. I was helping someone in the group win a proposal recently using the proposal template in the Templates section. I asked why it worked better than their old way of selling their services and got some interesting feedback. Here are a few lessons that stood out from the experience. People don't buy deliverables, they buy outcomes. People will only buy...

>> Join the conversation for this episode in the Mindshare community We live on Zoom calls and webinars now—mostly from our home office. That's the reality of most marketing professionals today. And it looks like 2021 won't be much different. And with that, I want to share an idea with you to keep it front of mind: people will judge you based on your "Zoom" appearance. That includes your lig...

When creating a productized services offering, you have two choices:  Sell just one signature offering Create a service ladder with ascending options I prefer the latter because I serve a range of clients who need different things. But whatever you choose, this topic will be for you. When creating a high-end productized service, there are a few things to keep in mind, including: Why the scope and...

This one might be a bit controversial. 🙂 Not really, but I do use the current political situation in the US to make a long-discussed point about where and how to build your marketing platform for longevity. Disclaimer:  I mention not liking Mr. Donald Trump in this episode, but it's not a slight at the Republican party, people, nor their values. My friends and colleagues walk down both sides of t...

> Click here to the conversation on this episode in the Mindshare community. I'm a big fan of productized services. They let you design your business in a way that lets you create predictable outcomes, scalable earnings, and managed effort. But I don't create these services in a vacuum. And they're never completely "done"—I'm always updating them along the way. These services are always born du...

Today's content comes to you a bit late in the evening.  I'm tired and ready for bed, but I didn't get this recording done so I wanted to make sure I delivered on schedule. I committed to Monday, Wednesday, Friday recordings, so that's what I'll do come heck or high water (except holidays ;)). In this episode, I talk about the reasons why you should aim to stick to a set publishing schedule. Give...

Link to episode in the Mindshare community Hey all, I hope you had a great week and were able to take a few days off over the holidays.  Today's topic is about how you position your services. I talk about how my two websites work and why Everspaces is really the model to follow. Here are my services pages as discussed in this episode: https://kevin.me/consulting/ https://www.everspaces.com/service...