How to Sell Advice

Taking notes during your client calls is one of the most valuable things you can do. It outlines what you talk about, what you mutually decide on, and who's responsible for doing what. In other words, it creates a record and accountability, which leads to better results. It also lets you reflect on the work you do. Clients get to see progress and you have a fully documented record of accomplishments that will make it easy to write case studies on in the future.Listen in for the specifics in how I do this.Yours,—k

Do you have a hard time getting paid in advance?If not, it could be due to one of a few reasons:1. You don't have enough leverage (i.e. unique specialization)2. You don't set expectations in advance3. You don't follow up for missed payments in a way that fixes the systemic issueOr any number of other reasons, but these are the big ones.Here's how to get paid in advance for all of your engagements. Yours,—k

Happy Monday!I had a question over the weekend from Oren, a new member of the Mentorship who positions himself as a "chief growth officer" and runs a hybrid agency/consulting model.Oren asks:Have you seen benefit from making your pricing transparent on your websites (everspaces & kevin.me) Excellent question! Here's an overview of some of the reasons I publish pricing transparently for my consulting services.:1. It's all about the customer experience—transparent pricing is a better experience for my clients. They don't need to come in feeling like it's a negotiation. They have their guard down and we can talk transparently about their business, finances, goals etc. My prices don't change once I find out their problem is urgent or they have a lot of money. 2. I'm optimizing for trust and transparency—most of marketing is a black box to my ideal clients. They have been burned in the past or couldn't interpret whether their suppliers were getting results. I'm positioned as a safe haven for them. Someone they can trust. So, my prices are fixed as a way to demonstrate stability and transparency.3. Differentiation—most consultants don't publish their prices. When everyone does one thing, I like to do another. Especially when it serves the customer. Consultants who don't publish pricing perpetuate the "black box" feeling many clients get around hiring marketing professionals, making them less likely to reach out (I think). 4. I get to design the business the way I like it—I've designed my services to be able to sustain up to 10 1:1 clients at a time generating multiple six figures in profit if I do. I also get to work 9-5 pretty regularly, don't feel stressed after work because I'm not driving/managing projects, and I can maintain a calm schedule with lots of buffer in my day. 5. Operational efficiency—because all of my engagements go roughly the same way, I can budget my time and roll out processes that are the same (or similar) for each clients. Because of this, my time intensity decreases and therefore the more profitable my engagements are. There are many more benefits to published pricing, but for me, it just matches my style and approach to the clients I serve.Thanks for your question, Oren! I hope I've converted you—at least in part—but if not, I'd love to hear why not!Yours,—k

Hello my friends,I hope you had an amazing week, it's been a long one for me. In this episode, I share a few updates and then answer this question from Michelle:Hey Kevin, I don't know if you run into this issue, but I have. My client is very cheap (and right now bc of covid and election here people are full of fear and do not want to spend money). They don't have an accurate marketing budget - which makes it very hard for me to help them. Do you have techniques that help clients that generate 3.5 million in sales that they need to spend at least 3-5k a month to really get any results? I feel like my hands are tied here and then I feel even worse because I feel like I'm not really helping them by working with them for less than that... Thoughts?I've seen clients like this before. Either they are not good clients or they simply need a reality check. 1. My advice is to guide them back to their goals. Find out what they are trying to accomplish and ask them if their tiny budget is reasonable to get them there. You can't turn $1k in to $1million. You're not a magician. 2. You can go a step further and roadmap a rough project using the KPI document as a way to show month-over-month cashflow. That can often help clients really visualize what's involved.3. If they don't have money to spend and they expect you to pull a miracle out of your hat, it's time to move on. There are more educated clients out there.4. Be sure to create trust, first. They may have been burned in the past by weak marketing suppliers and unwilling to do that again. You need to show competence to gain their trust. The KPI sheet shows them you're serious about financial ROI.Hope this helps! And as always, if you have any questions you can DM me or reply to any of these posts in the comments below.LOTS more soon,Yours,—k

Here's another great question coming after last episode on negotiating with clients.I mentioned that my first few months are heavy in terms of workload, involvement, and the value I deliver relative to later months, so Jordan asked: Since a lot of work is front-loaded, do you charge more in the first few months and then decrease in the following ones? And why/why not?Great question!The short answer is: sometimes. If the value and workload is setting to drop off consistently, I don't like to charge full rate if I can put them into a better option for the needs. I also don't like just saying goodbye (unless it's time to part ways). So, I use a "continuity program" which is less involved. I also set new goals to reestablish purpose and direction for the next phase of our engagement. The key, though, is value. Not time or input. Are you producing value that far exceeds your price? Can you prove it by making a reasonable case? That's all that matters. Here's the long answer (recorded).Until next time!Yours,—k

Do you know what to do when your clients try to negotiate with your proposal?Sometimes it might be the scope, or the price, or the term length. Or any other form of customization.Is it a red flag? How do you handle it?I go deep into a few examples of how to handle those discussions in this recording.Do you do this or something different? Let me know in the comments (you can use the Patreon app if you don't already).Yours,—k

I reviewed two clients' websites today and thought I'd share the main two things I look for in case it helps you do a similar review for your clients.I won't go into all the possible details here. It's not about fonts, colours, design, or anything like that.This is high-level, functional things that really make or break the user experience.They are:1. The 15-second test - do I know what you offer, who it's for, and how they're unique within 15-seconds of landing on the site?2. Don't make me think - everything should be obvious, including what's clickable, where it goes, where to find information, and how to navigate the site overall. If you get these two factors right, the rest is going to be a lot easier.Have a great weekend!Yours,—k

For the first few years in business, all my clients were local to my area.I was worried about moving to another city in case it meant I'd lose all my clients! Gaah!In retrospect, I had little to be worried about. But it was a very real concern. Today, none of my clients live or operate locally. The closest one is an hour away. Most are flights away.What changed? I specialized. On our Q&A call, only two of us had clients from around the world. We were also, coincidentally or not, specialized.Those who had local clients all had one thing in common: they didn't specialize.Now, there's nothing inherently good or bad about local clients. If anything, it's good to have clients locally for the face-to-face element (remember that?).But the point I'm making is that when you specialize, your market actually opens up. You actually do marketing in a very different way. You think in terms of where your target market hangs out.You form partnerships, seek to share audiences, and so much more. People like doing business with the best person for the job. If they can find a specialist, they'll likely try to work with them first. If not, they will go with whoever they know.Here's my thoughts on the whole thing and how it all worked out. Yours,—k

Hey, everyone! Thanks so much to those of you who joined us on Friday for our first Q&A call.This is the recording from our Q&A call where we talked about things like:1. How to package and sell a first phase engagement with a client who's interested in starting a membership program2. How to organize your time and energies for maximum output3. General discussion and ideas around things like proposals, projects vs. retainers, initial discovery and strategy phases, and a whole lot more!Listen in, and as always, keep your questions coming!Yours,—k

Here's a response to Michelle's follow-up question on which platforms to consider when building a membership program.She asked:Are there any other platforms you'd recommend for building a subscription-based membership besides Patron? If so, can you list them? And why did you choose this platform over others? Here are the platforms I discussed during this recording:1. Circle.so2. Podia.com3. MightyNetworks.co,4. Kajabi.com5. Slack.com6. Patreon.com7. Memberful.com8. RestrictContentPro.comAs well as payment processors like:1. Thrivecart.com2. Samcart.com3. PayPal.com4. Moonclerk.com5. Stripe.com Hope this helps!Yours,—k