Consultants: Sell Strategy, Not Doing

Strategy is hard to sell because it’s IN-tangible. People are used to buying things they can touch and feel. To sell strategy, we have to turn our intangible knowledge into a tangible process with deliverables they can touch and feel.

You’ll need to answer three questions:

1. What do clients get? — What are the tangible plans and

resources they’ll have at their disposal, how will they be used, and

who will use them to achieve the result?

2. How do they get it? — This one is pretty standard. The process to create an actionable strategy consistently includes consensus building (like a workshop), discovery (like an assessment), collaborative planning (the plan), and resource development (deliverables . . . tools . . . whatever), then briefings for the implementation teams so we can pretend they won’t f* things up.

3. How do they pay you? — What does it cost to get started? What will it cost to continue to implement and refine the solution? What else will they want to pay you for?

SHORT CERCUIT YOUR FEAR

Commit, sell, deliver.

Without a personal commitment to break through the plateau we won’t risk our next deal. We’re too hungry to resist an easy meal.

“The next thing I sell will be a plan.”

Say it!

*Smack*

SAY IT!!

With a personal commitment we MIGHT hold ourselves accountable to sell a new idea. The idea needs enough thought behind it to set and meet the expectations of our first “pilot” client. We need to answer basic client questions like “Why do I need it?” and “What do I get?” and “How do we work together?” This amounts to a couple-page proposal for strategic services.

When that first client cuts us a check, they tap into our very best: our deeply rooted motivation to impress our clients and give them more than their money’s worth.

This process of “sell then build” tricks our mind to focus on creating something new, hitching a ride on what we do naturally: make our clients happy.

For years I thought that agency owners and consultants would take the plunge, build and sell strategy because of the clear value to our organizations and their personal well-being.

Not true. Fear and hunger prevails 99 percent of the time.

Turns out the only thing that beats fear and hunger is values. We don’t change because it benefits ourselves. We risk going hungry and we step into the void for our clients’ benefit ONLY.

That is the mind trick. Sell it first. Sell the minimum viable product: because the obligation to deliver for a client is the only way to overcome your natural resistance to change.

BEWARE OF FEEDBACK

The more focused we get the more our ideal customers will see indispensable value. On the flip side, non-ideal customers won’t get it.

Feedback and observations from paying clients are gold. They should drive all product development past our initial idea and minimum viable product.

Feedback from anyone other than paying clients is dangerous: it dulls the blade.

Be CUSTOMER focused!

NOT friendly-advice focused . . .

NOT competitor-posing-as-mentor focused . . .

Just people-who-pay-you-money focused.

SHITTY JUGGLERS

I’m a shitty juggler. Too much stuff in the air and I drop shit.

Why do we think business is any different? Let’s make our lives easier, shall we?

New rule: We sell one thing, one service process, not a menu of services.

You want more return on effort? Stop breaking your process. Stop taking on one-off clients. Stop using “growth” and “learning” as an excuse to create complexity in your business and your life.

Sell that which is most valuable and difficult to replace: your knowledge.