A243 - How to sell strategy?

02/13/19 • 6 min

First let me say that if you are still working your full-time job or have less than 2 years under your belt as a business owner, this may not be the ideal opportunity for you to try and sell strategy.

Simply because you don't have that experience yet. No doubt you have the skills, but to differentiate yourself as a consultant rather than a developer or designer comes with a proven track record of success.

I'm not saying that you can't sell strategy, in fact, I would suggest selling discovery phases which are strategy sessions of a different sort.

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What I'm saying is that if you want to be a consultant selling strategy to a client, you have to be positioned as an expert in a particular space, understand the hurdles on the track and how to get over them, and most importantly, you have to be sure of certain outcomes of the project.

With that caveat out of the way, let's dive into how to sell strategy

1. Understand the problem

An absolute must to selling strategy is a full understanding of the problem. This means that you have to be able to notice a lead that has this particular problem and then have the solution to that problem.

The most important piece of this is to then connect all the dots in between. You do this by walking through the problem, then the process with milestones attached and then what the dream is on the other side.

2. Your process

The process you use here is important. It needs to illustrate progress to the end goal. The dream of what the client has at the end of the project.

Imagine building a house and as the days and months go by and you don't see the blueprints, plans, permits, foundation being poured, walls going up and so on, you'd no doubt be disappointed.

By explaining during the sales process what the process of getting to the solution will be, you help the client visualize their journey through the strategy and then getting to that implementation.

Illustrating your process will establish that you've been down this road before. Allowing your client to feel that they made the right decision.

3. What's next?

Whether or not you are doing the implementation, that's what will come from your strategy sessions.

To be honest, doing the implementation yourself will further establish you as an expert. You'll simply be able to speak to obstacles that may come up, and you'll be able to fully understand what the next steps in the dream are.

This is the best opportunity to hand off the deliverable as a proposal/contract to your client. Obviously, you've gone through and walked them on every step of the process of the service that is to be implemented, what better person for the job than you, right?

If the strategy and deliverable were outstanding, you should have no problem in closing the deal for the next phase of that project which is the implementation.

I'm not saying that you can't sell strategy, in fact, I would suggest selling discovery phases which are strategy sessions of a different sort.

-------------------
👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you.
-------------------

With that caveat out of the way, let's dive into how to sell strategy

1. Understand the problem

2. Your process

The process you use here is important. It needs to illustrate progress to the end goal. The dream of what the client has at the end of the project.

Imagine building a house and as the days and months go by and you don't see the blueprints, plans, permits, foundation being poured, walls going up and so on, you'd no doubt be disappointed.

By explaining during the sales process what the process of getting to the solution will be, you help the client visualize their journey through the strategy and then getting to that implementation.

Illustrating your process will establish that you've been down this road before. Allowing your client to feel that they made the right decision.

3. What's next?

Whether or not you are doing the implementation, that's what will come from your strategy sessions.

If the strategy and deliverable were outstanding, you should have no problem in closing the deal for the next phase of that project which is the implementation.

Previous Episode

A242 - How to add a productized service to my business?

Are you providing a solution that allows a potential client to work with you at a lower risk?

Custom work is often times a big ask. It's a big investment for someone to not just pay, but also to spend time on.

Here's why I like having a smaller, more productized option.

Reduces the risk for the lead
Reduces the risk for you
Allows both you and the client to get quick results

This especially works nicely if you are just starting out.
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👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you.
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Are you thinking...

"I would like to have one, but I just don't know what."

What this solution could be, starts by listening and observing opportunities.

During a sales conversation simply ask the lead "What would be a quick win for you?"

As you start to hear answers, watch for a pattern. What sort of quick wins are you hearing?

Write them down.

In Ask Rezzz A233 I share with you 3 other questions that you can explore in order to start building out a productized service

In this episode:

Who will buy my productized service?
How to do market research for a productized service
Land that first client
Are you going to give this a try

There are many more steps in this process, but I wanted to spark some inspiration and direction for you to take if this is something you are considering.

Next Episode

A244 - 11 Lessons on How to Find Clients

You are selling a service or product and want to have a system that continuously attracts clients and customers in a predictable way, right?

Can I share with you 11 of my top lessons to do so?

These aren't tips and strategies that are overplayed. These are pretty unique and work amazingly well.

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As you know we are coming up on the magical episode 261 here on Ask Rezzz. And as such, over the next 11 shows I want to share with you 11 of my top "getting clients" lessons.

Thanks to my good friend Mark Asquith for inspiring this series of shows.

Mark, is currently running a series of podcasts on his show The 7-Minute Mentor called 11 Podcasting Lessons To Help You To Become An Audio Influencer in Your Niche.

So how do you get more clients? I thought I'd create a series that does just that.

Over the next 11 episodes, I'm going to share with you my top lessons that are tactful, repeatable, and help you establish yourself as an expert so that you not only clients, but get your clients on a consistent basis to build that pipeline.

There are more freelancers and competition out there in the world than ever before and tactics that you see out there that worked last year, 3 and certainly 5 years ago, just won't work anymore.

Platforms like Upwork and Toptal and others are a race to the bottom. They force you to try and manipulate algorithms and compete with other people on the wrong thing. That's price.

And while these platforms have many companies and opportunities coming to them every single day, those companies are looking for one thing, the cheapest price possible.

What I believe, and with great reason since I did it myself, is that you can build a sustainable business providing services for clients without selling to hundreds and thousands of people.

You certainly do not need to be dropping your prices, racing to the bottom and spend tons of time trying to figure out an algorithm to stand out.

You can build a business that's built around your life and your dreams with a small number of carefully selected clients.

Then you can build a system that continually feeds into your pipeline so that you can build a predictable income.

When I say recurring income, most people, and maybe you as well, think that means providing a monthly service. It's not.

It means that you are selling a service or product that continuously attracts clients and customers in a predictable way.

So that's what I'm going to share with you over the next 11 episodes.

Lessons to build your business with a core type of client and attract those types of clients that you want to have more of.

They are all based on strategies and tactics that have worked for decades in business that I myself still use to this very day that has allowed me to build a profitable and sustainable client services business for close to a decade here in NY.

If you want more, then head on over to rezzz.com and subscribe. No one taught me when I started out, which is why I failed quite often, but I stayed persistent and share with you over at rezzz.com those tips and strategies that work in today's market.