How to Sell Advice

Mindshare member, Sean, had an interesting objection while selling his advisory services.This is a common question when selling advisory work, so it's worth unpacking this and other follow-up questions Sean had."What if my marketing budget doesn't allow me to implement your advice?"In this episode, I talk about:How to answer this question succinctly in your FAQs or sales conversationsThe difference between cash flow/budget adherence and long-term ROIBreaking out a spreadsheet to show potential cash flow scenariosComparing their other options, like agency, in-house employee, and DIYBusiness model and pricing questions around advisory vs. managed advisory servicesAt the end of the day, your job is to get an ROI for your clients in a cash-sustainable manner.If budgets are strict, your job is to work within their constraints.But it's also worth noting that sometimes, the ROI pays dividends over a longer time horizon.The better you can prove a business case, the easier it will be to sell.Listen to this episode for a more in-depth response.

Mindshare community member, Jack, had a great question about how narrow to go with your niche when just starting out as a new consultant.Here's the gist of his question:I'm currently in-house at what would probably be classed as a B2B manufacturer. The plan is to step into strategy/advisory within the next 6 months.So with my current experience, I see it as an easy step to niche further into B2B - helping B2B manufacturers grow by transforming their marketing. However, the company I work for is actually a manufacturer/service provider in the fire safety space. As a result a lot of my experience is how to target, position, market etc to a pretty specific ICP. So my options would/could be:1) General B2B2) Manufacturers3) Fire Safety & Security companies (B2B focussed but not all will be manufacturers)Some of my thoughts on 3 come of the back of going to a big fire safety expo recently—there are a lot of companies with bad websites/branding spending a lot of money on their marketing!I'm just concerned I could narrow myself too much.As always, any thoughts are greatly received. This is a great question that I answered in the community but wanted to give greater nuance to with a long-form audio recording.The question really is: how niche do you go when leaving a job and starting a consulting practice?In this episode, I talk about factors like:The amount of runway you haveThe size of the marketAccess to the target market in your networkWhat things you're credible atThe benefits of staying broader at firstAlignment of your niche with your genuine interests And general strategies for transitioning out of a job and into consulting with less riskIf you're thinking of making the leap from employment to consulting and aren't sure how niche to go, this episode is for you.—k

Mindshare Pro used to be a premium upgrade to the free Mindshare Community membership.But in my opinion, that was a mistake. It should have been positioned as Group Coaching.And the templates/resources should be categorized separately as knowledge products. In this episode, I talk about categorizing your own products and services, how to break them down, why it matters, and also how to apply it to an industry like web design.Give this a listen and let me know if your products and services have had similar categorization issues.—k

On a long drive today, I re-listened to some of the book, The Passion Economy, by Adam Davidson.It spoke to me the first time I read it. It's about craftsmanship in your business and working on something you're passionate about.It's about the power of building small-scale, high-quality work instead of mass-produced commodity work that can be scaled infinitely.The book has a lot of great rules, quotes, and stories. I'll share one quote that came up because it fits so well into how we price our work.Here's the quote:“I recently hired a lawyer who told me that he would not charge me by the hour but would, instead, agree to a fixed fee for the work we were going to do together. He explained that charging by the hour contradicted his core values of serving his clients; it would create an incentive for him to spend more time even if it wasn’t strictly necessary. Or, on the other hand, he might choose to rush some work to save me some money. He preferred not to think about time at all but, instead, to focus on providing me with the greatest service. I found this comforting.”— The Passion Economy: Nine Rules for Thriving in the Twenty-First Century by Adam DavidsonSelling by the hour often doesn't feel good for either party, nor is it always aligned with the best interests of your clients.The incentive structure is broken.I've noticed hourly is most often the best option when you're doing commodity work, like website support or odd design tasks, for example.I'm not bashing hourly work or these kinds of support roles. They may be necessary to grow and/or sustain your business. They can be profitable.But I am pointing to the fact that hourly work—when it is required—is closest to commodity work and therefore should come with an orange flag.The longer you do commodity work, the harder it will be to do great work.

How much work should you take on?When does the quality of your work suffer?What are the ethical implications?I talk about this and more in today's episode.—kw

A while back, I had my car detailed at a new shop around the corner. When I called to book, the new business owner asked how dirty it was. I said it was decent but it had some dog fur in parts of the back seat.He grumbled and told me (reluctantly) to come in. They were closed a few months later.In this episode, I get into a few lessons we can all learn, including the importance of:Doing work that you're intrinsically motivated byFor people you enjoy working withAt prices that excite you to bring your bestSo you can build a sustainable businessWhich allows you to become great at what you doWhich becomes a continued flywheel for your businessGive this a listen if it feels timely for you.—k

There are a lot of problems with having purely generalist positioning.The main one, though, is that potential clients don't know what you're actually good at.So they're left to figure that out for themselves—and there's no way to tell what you're actually good at until they work with you.And by then it's too late.The best clients will go to someone who looks the most qualified on paper.  They will spend top dollar with them to do things right.And that means you'll be left with the less-than-ideal clients. The ones who don't understand just how nuanced the work is to do right—which means they won't value your work enough to pay you well.They'll be price shopping and have unrealistic expectations based on naive perceptions that things are easy.Yes, I think you can be a generalist and specialist at the same time. You can build around your best skills and ideal niche until you don't need to take on other clients.But having purely generalist positioning is a recipe for having a business you don't want to run.

I cleaned my office today and I felt a lot better. More clear-thinking.Strange how your environment can affect your mental state.And to me, this is analogous to all areas of your business. For example, cleaning out expenses you no longer use.Or services that are not profitable enough. Or clients who are not the right fit for you.Or emails that are left unanswered for too long.Or tasks that you have neglected and need to be either dealt with or deleted.Or decisions you have been putting off until today.I’m a big believer in creating space to think. I took today off calls to give myself time to clean things up and work on the things that mattered.Without space, there’s no time to clean up. And if you don’t clean things up, your mind and your business will eventually be overrun.This is your reminder to reserve time, clean up, and work on the things that excite you most in your business. Or, just take a nap. Either way.

I had a window installer come by recently to quote new windows on my house.When I asked how the process works, he told me he'd educate me on the products, size the windows, give me a quote, then I'd "beat him up" on price, and then we'd make a deal when we figured out the details.The throwaway line about haggling over price had me feeling uneasy. I don't know anything about windows let alone how to haggle over their prices.There are lots of lessons here to unpack. Should you negotiate? If so, when and how? What do you do when price is a factor?We'll get into that and more.—kevin

One of the things I've noticed about myself is that when I don't have a fixed publishing schedule, it's easy to push it off for long periods without publishing anything.Just like exercising, the longer you don't publish content, the harder it is to get going again.I noticed this recently with Mindshare Radio, too. I used to publish episodes 3 times per week—every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.Then, I decided to record something once per week. But, I didn't set a strict publishing date or really commit to anything publicly. And that resulted in inconsistent publishing—and worse, some over-thinking and even occasional anxiety about what to create.In this episode, I talk about why committing publicly to your publishing schedule can not only make you more consistent, it can reduce the anxiety you face each time you stare at a blank page. Give this a listen and let me know if you can relate.