Marketing Consultants

I recently stumbled across an old video I saved years ago that I think you’ll like.

I completely forgot about it, but seeing it again, I realize how much it influenced my beliefs about advisory work.

What I particularly love is how he describes the advisor’s role as a being that of a fiduciary.

Whether you’re a pure advisor or someone who executes within an advisory context, this video should help you internalize what it means to be a fiduciary. 

Do yourself a favour and watch this video by Jay Abraham.

Being busy is a sign you should raise your prices.

When you’re busy, the market is telling you you’re not capturing the value you could be.

“But what if nobody signs up for the more expensive prices?”

If you’re busy, that’s probably more fear than actual truth.

The good news is, you can lower your prices later if you need to. But I doubt you will.

Personally, I’ve never had to reduce my prices after raising them. New clients sign up to the new pricing and I get to do even better work at higher margins.

I have created new offers at lower prices for people who can’t afford my higher-tier services. But never lowered my prices otherwise.

Those new offers typically also end up being more profitable on an effort-per-hour basis, too.

So, don’t be scared to incrementally improve your prices—it might even help you sell more and attract less price-sensitive clients in the process.

Nobody wants cheap advice, after all.

—kw

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The price is going up on EOD Friday, November 19th to US$449/month with a 3-month minimum commitment.

If you’re on the fence, now’s the best time to secure the pilot program pricing. Click here to learn more.

Gall’s Law says:

“A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system.”

Most marketing becomes complex over time. It’s especially true for bigger companies.

That doesn’t mean complexity is inherently bad. It can be an important factor for many companies.

But it does means we need to be ever-aware of the under lying simple system that produces the bulk of its success.

To me, the underlying simple system that creates most of marketing’s success is how frequently your ideal clients get exposure to you and your ideas.  

It probably varies for some companies, but that’s been the most true for me and the clients I work with.

The more people see your name and ideas (via things like content, ads, whatever) the more likely they are to:

1. Explore more about what you offer
2. Start to like and trust you over time
3. Think of you first when they need you
4. Consider purchasing from you
5. Refer you to others who may need you
6. Engage, follow, and share your work

…plus a whole number of other benefits that ultimately drive business results.

Of course, the quality of those exposures are essential to seeing those benefits multiplied.

Brand, for example, focuses on the quality of those experiences and has a big impact on how well those impressions perform.

But ultimately, the simple underlying system that creates the most success in your marketing is creating as much exposure to your ideas as possible.

Get that part right, and you have the bulk of your success.

Make those experiences great and it will fast-track your progress.

The more you specialize, the more you simplify your business.

Here are some examples of how this is the case:

• Your audience hangs out in fewer places instead of “everywhere” making it easier to show up where they are.
• The work you do is a lot more repeatable and patterns become more obvious, making your work easier and less time intensive.
• The services you offer are more specific and tailored to fewer people’s needs, making them a better fit for your ideal clients.
• The relationships you have develop more valuable and interconnected, making it easier to get referrals and do partnerships.
• Your expertise becomes more relevant to every client you work with, allowing you to achieve better results each time.
• Your marketing becomes more efficient and focused on a specific type of client, helping you attract and close more deals.
• You position yourself against fewer competitors, making it easier to stand out and demonstrate authority.

Instead of reinventing the wheel with every client, find a target market you want to serve and spend all your time learning what they actually want and need.

Do your research. Validate what people are saying, doing, and buying before you go and create your offers. Then keep learning some more.

Not only will this drastically simplify your marketing, it will simplify how you run your business, too.

At some point in your career, you may want to start to give back to people a few steps behind you.

Call it coaching, call it mentorship, call it whatever you want.

If you decide to do it as a business offering, here’s what I recommend when you just start out:

Start by helping people who are in the exact field you are or were in.

If you’re a successful web designer, help junior web designers.

If you’re a graphic designer, help designers and all their various permutations.

If you had a successful career as an in-house marketer, help in-house marketers with their career or skills.

The specificity of your positioning gets you noticed and your niche topics keep people engaged. 

If you try to help “freelancers”, “consultants”, or “marketers” instead of helping people exactly like you, your message will be lost in the noise.

The world is big—you’re better off leaning on your unique credibility than trying to reinvent a broad category.

If you want to make the biggest impact possible, start with people most like you.

You can then broaden over time, if you want.

Memberships and communities aren’t necessarily the same thing.

You can create a membership program, which offers an ongoing delivery of value for a recurring fee.

Or, you can create a community, which is a gathering of people sharing similar values, goals, or identities.

Or, you could do both. They each have unique pros and cons for your business.

Regardless of what you choose, it’s important you don’t conflate the two as it may impact how you decide to build them.

Sometimes, people want access to content or resources but aren’t looking to connect with others.

Other times, people value connection to their peers and other contacts more than any content or service you may provide.

If you aren’t clear on what you’re building—i.e. the job to be done—you may end up over-optimizing on one side and under-optimizing on areas that matter more.

Build a community or build a membership. Or do both. Just treat them as different things and you’ll have better luck succeeding at both/either.

Know the job to be done—for you and your members.

Trust is a funny thing.

Once you lose it, it’s really hard—if not impossible—to get it back.

You can lose trust all at once, or it can “erode” over time.

The more you can make deposits into the goodwill of the people around you, the more you can withdraw from it later on—usually by accident.

Always aim to give people more than they expect. Keep your promises. Act with integrity—even when you think people aren’t looking.

Trust is the commodity to manage. People may give you the benefit of trust early in your relationships, but if you’re not careful, it can erode slowly (or all at once) until it’s gone forever.

Without trust, you don’t have a business.

Make deposits everywhere you go.

This is a preview episode of the private podcast that comes with a free Mindshare Community membership. Join today for more members-only content and community.

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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.