Latest / GTM Made Simple / Stop Thinking Like a $250K Fractional. Start Acting Like a $500K One.
Transcript
- Sangram here. Today I'm going to help you figure out the difference between a 250k to 500k fraction leader. There are 250k fraction leaders who are probably doing one or two clients a month and they're making 10k a month. That's 250k. A 500k client might actually have three to four clients maybe roughly that or even could have two clients doing 25k per client per month. And the difference is not what you think and it's definitely not more work. So let's break it down. What I'm going to go through is seven different ways to help you recognize how a 250k fractional [music] or a consultant thinks about and how a 500k consultant adviser [music] thinks about. Now, this is a common question I get all the time and here's why. We built a $7 million advisory business. It's Brian and I since 2021 when we wrote the book and built this go to market operating system. And here's the process. We [music] followed a process to do it. And it made us realize very quickly that the way people pay is not based on how much work you do. The way people pay is based on how much more quality work you do. Now, the difference is massive. The difference is you making 250k versus you making 500. And you know who make that kind of money that that's life-changing. And there are people who could make all the way to a million dollar. But before we talk about a million dollar, you have to figure out what a 250k person thinks and what a 500k person thinks. And I don't know where you are right now. You might be making 100k and even 250k might be stretched, but you'll learn a lot along [music] the way. If you're at 500K, this is going to solidify the things that you focus on and you need to focus on more of to get to a million. We built a $7 million business now almost $10 million in the last 5 years following these principles, these thoughts around it. So, let's get into it. Here are the seven different ways to [music] think about the mindset of a 250k versus a 500k consultant. So, let's get moving. 250k fractional [music] is often reactive, which means you're probably thinking inbound. You're probably thinking saying yes to any kind of [music] referral that comes your way. Does it even matter matter if it's in your ICP where you can just [music] nail the work. You're just trying to get more and you're adjusting the scope of every deal that comes your way. So, it's very sporadic in [music] a way. But here's what a 500k fractional or adviser or consultant does. They engineer their pipeline. They define a very narrow wedge between where they need to go. They just don't move in whatever direction the wind blows. They actually choose their clients intentionally. They walk away from misaligned deals. Now, if you are someone who said, "Man, I don't want to walk away from a deal because, you know, deal is a deal." That's the mindset [music] that stops you from making more money. And the control that you need to have at a 500k is that the control is really what's going to beat convenience. You have to get out of the convenience market of I'll take whatever it goes because that's what makes you busy as opposed to focus on control where where you need to focus on. And again, we know this because there are 100 plus certified partners today. You can go and look at them on G2 marketplace. They're all roughly making at least 250K to 500K and some are making over a million a year. And we're learning every single day. We do this mastermind. So here's how we think about it every single day, every single week as we work through [music] it. So that's the first one. How do you get clients? 250K things like I want to get clients that that's where they think their mind is whereas a [music] 500K thinks how do I control revenue. That gets us to point number [music] two. 250K fractional advisor consultant sells capacity whereas a 500k self outcomes. So at 250K the pitch sounds something like this. I [music] can help you with demand genen messaging pipeline and everything under the sun. At 500k you might sound something like this. I lead a post seriesa a go to market reset where I help company to increase their efficiency [music] in 90 days. You can see how clear that is. So now the targeting of 500k is what? Post [music] series A companies as a result of it when he or she is talking or when you are talking to a post series A company that's 100% match they will pay the premium you need. Whereas a 250k well you know I can do messaging I can do all those things. I've done 20 years of experience. the person, the CEO who's about to hire you had no idea what that means. The 250k one, you're selling effort and effort is cheap, like it's labor. The other one, the 500k, at that point, you're selling transformation. So specificity is going to help you scale your business, which brings me to point number three. At 250K, what you're really doing is trying to protect your time. And at a 500K, what you're really doing is protecting your [music] positioning. So most 250k fractionals obsess over, all right, here's my calendar. How many hours do I have? Am I going to get scope creeped into [music] different things? And all of a sudden, I'm working 80 hours a week, right? And at a 500k fractional, you obsess over what I call perception. You are obsessed with authority, making sure you're working on the right things and the referral is [music] coming from the right place. You're focused and obsessed about market narrative. Are you going to be known for this or not? You think about April Dunford. She's known for positioning only. She can do hundred other things, but that is what she has made her narrative around. you're focusing on strategic altitude because the higher you go, the higher you can charge. So you operate as executives, not contractors. Whereas a 250k when you're making [music] two, three clients at 510k, you're really acting as a freelancer, contractor, that kind of person as opposed to an executive who comes in and transforms the business. Guess who makes more money? You guessed it right. The person who does transformation is going to be making a lot more money. Which brings me to point number four. At 250K, you take what's available. Whereas at 500K, you're building leverage. So at 250K, it is often looks something like this. Six or eight smaller clients. You have mixed scope all over the place. You have a high context switching. And context switching has cost. Imagine you are working in the morning on a really tactical email thing and in the afternoon on sales thing and in the evening you're working on trying to put the messaging together. You're context switching all the time. And maybe you're working in a small business and a small solopreneur client and all of a sudden you're also working for [music] a publicly traded company. So the compliance and the process is much different. That's high cost of context [music] switching because you don't know whatever you're just taking whatever comes in. A 500k plus client, a fractional 500k consultant, 500k plus advisor looks at something like this. They typically have two to four serious clients. Clients that they want to work for long periods of time. They have clear retainers so that it's not just week in week out or month in month out. They literally sometimes have three or four months of um you know they don't want to work with somebody they have to give a notice of at least 3 months. It's way more than a twoe notice in a W2. But if you are working on strategic initiatives for transformations you should be able to get retainers with a very clear outline. It's a very defined role. You just don't walk in and say well I'll do everything. You walk in with a clear purpose. Remember, you're in the [music] business of transformation at 500K. And a lot of times you are dealing with a higher level problems because here's the truth. Fewer clients, bigger impact can drive bigger revenue [music] for you, bigger outcome for you, bigger rate that you can charge, higher value. That's the leverage that you're looking for it. So at 250, you take whatever you can. At 500, you're very, very serious about [music] every one of it. Which brings me to point number five. 250K, you want to be light. Now, it's going to hit really hard to some people listening to this. At 500K is you're willing to be direct. So, here's what happens in a real life. And again, we have 100 plus certified partners. So, I hear this all the time. At 250K, you are probably often you're softening on your pricing. [music] You don't really have a have a clear pricing strategy yet. You overexlain your value because you cannot really deal with pauses. You cannot deal with [music] no. You try to get client because you probably don't have a client. So, it makes sense. But that is what's stopping you from raising your price. You are probably hesitant to challenge the CEO who's typically looking for you. Their reason they're hiring is because they want somebody who could not only do the work but also can help them get better at the outcomes that you want to do. At 500K, you're pricing with confidence. Why? Because you know what you deliver. You don't have to overexlain. You speak plainly. You don't need to use jargon over and over again. And then you push back when the strategy is broken. And you know you can do all that because you have a clear scope. Executive presence in those conversations is non-negotiable. So really what matters at 250k to 500k the big difference is that you are willing to be rolled over at 250k and because you just want to be liked. You just want them to keep you. Whereas 500k you are [music] willing to be direct and actually can drive a great amount of business for your client. Which brings me to point number six. 250k delivers work. meaning you are literally giving them some sort of outcome from whatever you're trying to do. Again, it's [music] a messaging website. Whereas at a 500K, you're actually designing a system. This is a big shift for some of you just listening right now. It's like, what does that mean? So, here's an example. At 250K, you're probably running and executing on campaigns. You're probably reviewing dashboards. You're probably doing tactics at that point. Whereas, at a 500K, you're redesigning the entire revenue architecture. You are clarifying and pushing back on ICP and positioning. You're aligning and saying, "Hey, you are in a problem market fit company, Mr. or Miss CEO. You're not in product market fit, so we should not do that." Or you're in a product market fit, and you can't go to platform market fit until we hit a certain metrics for a business to be healthy. You're probably defining revenue motions. Is it inbound? Should we go partner? Should we do outbound? Should we go PLG? What should we do? You're thinking in systems, not in sprints where you're just going with whatever it is. It's not about being busy. So 250K is a lot of busy work, a lot of email, a lot of campaign, and there's no ROI to be shown. At 500K, you have a clear point of view and you are really building systems. So that way over a period of time because of those systems, your amount of hours that you work on stops going down, but the outcome and [music] the output is still the same, if not more, because you're building systems. Now, here's the final and hard truth. Most people plateau at 250K because it's comfortable. It's good money. It's freedom probably from your W2 and it's allowing you to be freelancing it. It feels like a little bit of success. But if you want to hit 500K, you really need to sharper your positioning. Are you for series A or private equity? Be clear. You probably need a stronger selling and positioning around what you're trying to do. So, which means you have to have a clear pricing. You need to focus on bigger problems. Problems of emails or sales calls or scripts is not a big problem. You don't get paid for that. Transformations are actually bigger problems. Helping CEOs and your clients getting to ICP positioning or trying to figure out which go to market motion to run or trying to figure out which market to enter. Now, those are bigger problems that have higher stakes, requires you to have more confidence, and you'll be paid way more. It's not about doing work. Hopefully, it's very clear through all these points. It's not about doing more work. It's about operating at a higher level. So the big question for you is, are you building a freelance practice? And if you are, you take all the notes I gave you around 250 and go building it. But if you're trying to build a half a million dollar to a million dollar business, then you need to have an executive operating business. [music] The answer will determine how far your ceiling is and how far you're willing to go. So if you want more information, you can go to run ongtmmo.com and we help 100,000 plus people how they can build businesses, how CEOs are running it. We write research notes on it. You can just subscribe [music] and get all the information over there. At the end of the day, you have to make the decision where you want to go and be happy about that. So, if that's good enough, let's get moving.