Heyyy Steemit community 👋🏾 welcome to my first blog post ever. I've decided to dedicate this post series to something I'm deeply passionate about, all the Advance Consulting advice/tactics I’ve accumulated, researched and partly made up(just kidding..kinda…no not really….) over the years. My name is Bomani X (Digital Strategist, Guitarist, Rubik's Cuber)
I wish I can make this even more appropriate by deploying some gratuitous use of over-the-top intro graphics/gif as a means to make up for the complete lack of creativity in this introduction post about Advance Consulting tactics. I should've called it like consulting business secrets platinum diamond level.biz 2000 Now that would have been better/cooler but would be a little hard to fit of all that in the title description.
To put you in the same headspace I was in as I was writing this....imagine as you are reading this hearing what sounds like Godzilla and King Kong had some death battle using large pieces of steel. Now there are two possible reasons for this, and I'll let you decide which one to believe. A reasonable one is Murphy's Law would have it that the demolition in the space immediately behind me next door to my house had begun when I started typing. OR it could be that is just the hostages trying to get out of their cages. Whichever one you prefer to make this reading experience more enjoyable [insert reason here] but I do apologize in advance if the quality of this post (I didn’t have high hopes anyway...) is affected by all the distractions I was being forced to endure.
Here's that quality content you’ve been waiting to read. This first post will be about 80% head stuff and then 20% practical. This read is the only post during this series with a lot of head stuff (and I know someone out there probably just said…that's what she said...I'll give you that when that was a perfect opportunity to say that) the other post will be more tactical and practical…and I chose those words because they rhymed (Ahh a songwriting guitarist)
I’m going to give you an overview…give you some head fixing material. A LOT of planning. I’m going to talk about how to structure your time…how to determine that your pricing etc. Basically how to lay the groundwork for your consulting business. In the next few post I will talk all about;
- Market Selection
- Lead Generation
- Selling (accurately converting those leads into clients)
- Once they give you the money that your clients stay happy and will continue giving you the money for getting great results
- Other streams of income that you can utilize to supplement your business or if you want to take a break from consulting and do something else. I’ll show you fresh ways to make money at the higher spectrum of the marketplace.
So let's go ahead and get started 🙌🏾
There are several concepts I want you to write down because as this series progresses, we're going to be hammering on them.
Write These Down:
Confidence and Certainty
Results and Value
Power and Control
(I’ll explain these a minute)
When we talk about these phrases, I want them to be germinating in your mind, like a little primer. When we get to the planning stages, your business is going to revolve around these three frameworks, as well as your ability to generate leads and close them correctly. Now that is only a tactical skill that is not that hard and can be easily taught and learned. What can be more of a challenge is the mental state you have to be into actually run and be a high-level consultant. "Certainty and Confidence" is what's going to attract people to you what's going to make them want to pay you, precisely what makes him/her want to pay the price as you command. While you're at the very top of the market spectrum or somewhere in the middle or wherever you may want to be is going to be their confidence in you and their certainty that you can get the results that they want now. What's interesting is the only way (well not the only way) but the most efficient way you can convey that to them, thus drawing them in, is to have that confidence in yourself and that certainty that you can help the client get the results.
I know it sounds almost like this weird circle, but psychologically it's true. So right now a quick exercise before we begin the topic of market selection, who you're going to work with, etc. I know you might already be serving the market, but maybe there's a better segment for you. So right now I want you to write down while it’s at the top of your head
What segment of the market do you feel the most confidence in dealing within?
What area of your expertise, in general, do you feel the most confident working and living?
Of all the possible people in your marketplace all the possible types of individuals (avatars if you will call it) which segment of the market do you feel the most confidence that you could help?
I want to take this a step further. Imagine that you would only get paid after your clients got the results. Likely there's going to be a segment of your marketplace where you would feel very confident you could make that offer. (not saying you do make that offer) I'm saying this to help you sort grasp the Certainty and Confidence concept that you're going to need to embody while you go forth and do this business.
I'll give you an example for myself. Apparently, I've advertised to get clients and got a lovely amount doing so...I've had a pretty good run. Even though things are going pretty good there some clients I wouldn't take because I genuinely would not know how I could help them. There are also some clients I would take in a minute "blindfolded with both hands tied behind my back" because I know I could get this person results right away. Now usually when you have that reaction, that "I can get this person results no-brainer" that person is living in a category of the marketplace.
I want you to sort of stay in this area for a minute with me, in this field of certainty and confidence. If you work only with those clients, and when you market only to those clients and attract only those type clients your work is easy, and your life is stress-free. I don't want you reading this and ultimately be weirded out and pressured all the time. You want to make money helping people doing a good job getting paid what your work. So I want you do this exercise now
What area of your expertise gives you the most confidence?
For me, it is generating leads and converting. For you, it might be quickly weight loss for women, whatever it may be, whatever your area of expertise. What is the number one thing, the number one activity you feel the most certainty and confidence in your ability to deliver results? The second part of this equation is what type of customer do you believe if you could go and say "let me get the results for you first then pay me after I get the results?" When you have that number one activity and that sliver of the marketplace, and you perform that action with that silver and merge the two you got a resistance-free environment. Why I really want to plant the seed in your mind early. Okay so that's the end of world number one, the world of Certainty and Confidence.
World number two, I know I sound like a weird rabbi. I told you, in the beginning, this is going to be a little bit heady. Every other post will be very practical and tactical but bear with me on this. This is essential for laying the mental foundation. If you were to do that one thing that you can do better than anything else. Paired with that one segment of the marketplace that you have the most confidence and certainty in your ability to help. Focus on them doing the one thing you do, what is the number one result, that you could deliver for that person and what is the value of that result to the client. A lot of individuals get iffy about pricing, and that's the way broke ass consultants think. What I want to help you understand is the value of the results that you are able to provide. Once you really get a clear indication of the value of that result with your confidence and certainty on your ability to deliver those results, you start to understand the actual value of those results. You are now able to present your pricing in your structure to the marketplace to your prospect to your potential customer while living in world number three.
That is the world of Power and Control. I don't mean to imply that you can weirdly manipulate people, but basically your job as a consultant from the beginning of the relationship (before they're even a client all throughout the end of their relationship) after got the results that you want them to get. Your entire job is basically to bend them to your will. You are in the "bending to your will" business. To do that effectively you have to be very very comfortable operating in the world of Power and Control. You have to be comfortable being able to solicit what you need your clients to do, no excuses, not taking no for an answer. You got to be able to have that level of confidence that level of driving commitment and consistency in action and behavior. To get your client to do what the hell you told him/her to do. I know this is a little bit ethereal and a little bit dark but important concepts to be thinking about as we go through. I want you to think everything we talk about from this point. This concludes the first little section of this Advance Consulting Tactics. In the next post, I'm going to talk about how to structure your time, how to structure your pricing and the tools that you can use to run a successful consulting business.
Before you leave, humor me okay do the exercise I told you about. Identify that one sliver of the market that you would be willing to be paid after you get the results. Identify that one segment the market. Then identify that one activity you feel like you can do it in your sleep like nothing or blindfolded both hands tied behind your back right hanging upside down in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber like John Reese on a Saturday night. Just write that down for me now before you go to the next post of this series.
Thank you.