Latest / Black Girls Consult TOO! / Episode 95 Maximize Efficiency by Crafting Low-Effort Consulting Offers [Consulting Simplified Series - Part 2]

Transcript

Episode 95 Maximize Efficiency by Crafting Low-Effort Consulting Offers [Consulting Simplified Series - Part 2] · Black Girls Consult TOO!

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: There's a misconception that we don't exist, that somehow our ability to excel at the highest level of our industry is limited, that overcoming barriers as a woman of color would be insurmountable.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: But what would happen if we decided to venture out on our own, despite everything we're up against?
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you Welcome to the Black Girls Consult 2 podcast.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, dr Angelina Davis, a healthcare consultant, consulting coach, high performance fanatic wife and proud girl mom.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: I help transform female professionals into thriving solo consultants and, just like you, I'm wearing all the hats and doing all the things.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: So this podcast is to empower the busy female professionals to move past fear to start and grow a successful consulting business, despite the obstacles you may encounter.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: We'll dive deep into consulting practice, business strategy, mindset and more.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: So grab your cup of coffee or tea, if that's your thing, and let's get started.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Hello, hello, hello.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Welcome to episode 2 of Consulting Simplified.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: This is a bonus series from Black Girls Consult 2 podcast, and I hope that you have enjoyed day one, as we talked about the problem with complexity, and so, as we dived into that initial episode, we were able to uncover some issues with having a more complex business, and so today we want to talk about how you can begin to magnetize your offer to attract more leads, because one aspect of that complexity comes in with you having to search for clients to serve and try to figure out how you're going to land more business, how you're going to connect with other individuals in your space, how you're going to network.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: All of that takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of energy and if you have a way to draw the clients that you desire to work with and that you are able to help, if you're able to draw those people to you more seamlessly, that can actually simplify a lot of the work that you're doing currently on the front end of your business, just trying to get business into the door and get those contracts signed and land clients for the long term.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: So I do want to say that, starting out, my assumption is that you have a service that you currently have available and that you are offering for sale in your marketplace.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: So you are either working with clients through referrals or you have, in some other capacity, landed clients in the past, or you're trying to land your initial client right now, but you have something that you have put together that you want to offer Now.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: If that is not the case and you are brand spanking new and trying to get started in the consulting industry, then what I actually recommend is that you listen to this episode and think about how you can use this information to build a more magnetic offer right out the gate.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: All right, so today our topic is how to magnetize your offer to attract more leads, and I want to start by having you think about where you normally get food late at night.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: I know this sounds very weird for me to start off this way, but follow me here.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: So when I was in college, we actually you know, after a party or going to the club, whatever it may be oftentimes we'll be hungry and at that time typically is really, really late at night and there's nothing open.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, if you are from the South, then one of the places that typically would be open that time at night will be a restaurant called Waffle House.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: I don't even know if there are Waffle Houses everywhere, so if you're listening from another part of the country or even overseas, you know this is just a place where they serve a lot of quick breakfast food.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: There are other things on the menu, but for the most part, if you're going to Waffle House, you're usually getting breakfast and this is a place that many people tend to frequent or it may be even a diner.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: I know there was a diner that opened up close to my house back when I was younger that we used to frequent as a family.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Especially, we were out late at night in many of the other restaurants that closed, and typically, if you're going to any of these food spots late at night, they are places typically where the food wasn't bad.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: You know it's not bad food, but it certainly would not be your choice if other restaurants were open right, and so because of that, oftentimes what will happen is that these restaurants would have a number of different options on the menu because it's late at night, you don't know if you want breakfast, you don't know if you want dinner, you don't know if you want something light or something heavy, and because of that they try to cater to a lot of different people.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: You never really knew what you were going to get, because there were always people that may at times be a little sketchy working there, so you didn't know whether or not your service was going to be good or whether or not it was going to be so-so or bad, but you just knew in that moment you wanted food and you needed to get food from someplace.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: And so, really, I'm saying all that to say that typically, when you're going to one of these types of restaurants, it was not going to be an experience you plan to write home about, right, and so this is oftentimes what it feels like when you are in your industry trying to sell multiple unrelated services.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: So we do this all of the time.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, I was on Instagram the other day, just scrolling through, and I ran across another page and this is a consulting practice.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: I don't know how successful that particular practice may be, but there was a blanket statement on this post that just stated business consulting.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Contact us.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: And I'm thinking to myself contact you for what?
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: What would I contact you for?
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: I don't really know what you do.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: You haven't told me anything that you do.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: You haven't provided any summary of a service.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: You haven't given me any idea as to how you can help.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: You just pretty much made a statement about your job title and the fact that I should call you.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: So that's already problem number one.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: And then also, I ran across another, and this second post was actually one that I saw only LinkedIn, and this was one where the individual was citing that they write RFPs, they help you start a business, they offer done for you marketing and accounting services and host DI or diversity, equity and inclusion workshops for your organization.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: And I'm thinking to myself how in the world are you doing all of that?
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Because, at the end of the day, I know in that moment, you cannot be great at all of those things, because they're completely unrelated and many of them are vastly different.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: So one of the things we have to be careful about as consultants because we are often extremely ambitious, definitely go-getters, people who have a lot of talent, a lot of skill, and we can see just so many things that we can offer our industry and that we can put out into the world.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: But just because we can do it, it does not mean that we should do it, and so this is the conversation that I want us to have, because what we're doing, when we're trying to sell everything under the sun, is that we are pretty much becoming that late night diner of our industry, and so we don't want to be that.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: The thing is, this is actually what makes it more difficult for you to stand out and really generate demand for the services that you offer.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: It's really this whole premise of being the big fish in a small pond Instead of being the small fish trying to compete with the masses, and this is why we have an argument for niching down and really narrowing your services and your focus in to address the needs of a specific audience.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: And I won't dive deeper into the whole concept of niching, because, if you want to learn more about that, I recorded a previous episode I believe it's episode 23 on the podcast that dives deeper into why you still needed to choose a niche as a consultant, and so if you're interested in learning more about niching down and why that's important, then I definitely recommend that you turn it tune into episode 23.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: But the bottom line is this what simplifies the process of acquiring more business is to actually develop an offer that attracts the clients that you want to serve.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: You need your offer or your service to really act as a magnet.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: You want it to draw people in so that you can generate more business without you doing a lot of extra work, and so what I want to share with you are really three things that I think that you should focus on so that you can begin to magnetize the offer that you have, so that you can attract more leads to your business that, hopefully, will eventually become clients.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: When we're talking about the three things that you should focus on, the first thing I want to discuss is providing what your potential clients want and need, and oftentimes, what we end up doing is we Create an offer based upon what we see a need for in the market and, as experts, this happens because we are great at determining need.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: We know how to figure out what's needed and to provide a solution and to solve the problem.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: That's what we do.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: We do it well.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: But the issue is that when it comes to initial attraction to your offer, to your service and this is true whether it is the B2B or B2C space, it does not matter that initial attraction is going to be based on what people want.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: So the decision in terms of the final decision may include the aspect of what's needed, but that initial attraction is going to be largely driven by what people want.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Typically, many consultants run into difficulty trying to sell their services because they're often communicating what a client actually needs or what they presume that the client needs, but in that moment they are not really aware that what they are stating is either something that the potential client doesn't recognize as a need in that moment, meaning that they are unaware as to what solution they need.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: They're not solution aware or they are just not desiring that as an outcome.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: And so, in the business to consumer space, the easy way of really explaining this is to think about weight loss.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Oftentimes, when it comes to weight loss, we want to if you're like me fit into a dress that we had previously, and so that may be a dress that's like two or three slides smaller, and so we have this dress that may be hanging in the closet and we're looking at it every day, and that's what we want to get back into.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: That is why I may go out and seek a trainer and a nutritionist and really try and create a plan and a strategy so that I can lose weight, so I can get back into this dress.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: But what you may know that I need is to eat healthier so that I can take care of my body.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: I may need to count my calories or count my macros, or whatever strategy you may use so that I can accomplish that goal.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: But if you were to sell me a macro counting service, I'm not going to want that, I'm not looking for that, I'm not desiring that, and so oftentimes we can have great offers and great services but not really speak to what our potential clients want.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: And to give an example, in the B2B space, sometimes we create, you know, offers that sound good because maybe it is something that we see as an overall need in our industry, but we may not be keeping in mind that the way the particular business is structured, that they may have employees that are hired under that umbrella to do some aspect of that job, and so if you are selling this inclusive full service that they don't need, they may view that as a waste and then look for something that's a little bit more targeted and detailed.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: So we have to just have an appreciation for what our audience wants and what they need, so that we can both provide our service and frame our services and our offers in a way that speaks to their desire but then also provides the need, because, remember, the need is what is going to actually generate the result.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: So we can't forget about that and we don't want to hide that or create a situation where they're not aware of that need, but we do want to be very cognizant of what they want, and so this is one key aspect when you're building your offer that helps you to magnetize.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: It is to make sure that you are providing in the offer what your potential client wants and needs.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Now the second thing is that you want to understand the true dynamic in your industry so that you can differentiate yourself effectively, and what I found is that many consultants do not take enough time to do this.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: We often start our businesses and we are told that we need to do market research, and so oftentimes people will do a few interviews.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: They may ask you know a couple of questions of referrals and survey a couple of people.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: Maybe they investigate a little bit behind the scenes of a couple of businesses and they get a general idea of what's going on and we design an offer and we kind of move forward.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: And I want to caution you against that, because thorough market research is very, very important.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: There are a lot of things that you have to understand about your industry so that you can differentiate yourself effectively, because we choose differentiators that truly are not different.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: They're not different because we never took the time to understand fully what others are offering, or we come up with the offer or a service that can't compete because, once again, we didn't fully understand the sophistication in our market and what's actually available, and so we offer something that is seemingly not as good as our competition.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: The only way that we can really get around this is to make sure that when we're doing our market research, we're focusing on the things that are working and those things that are not working.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: So it's not a matter of just finding problems, but it's also a matter of identifying successes, right, those strengths that may be present that can pose a threat to us if we're thinking about them as our competitors.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: So we want to have a better understanding of what's working as well as what is not.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: And then the one thing that I think people forget about is that, even if you're in a setting such as like the nonprofit space or even just more friendlier, you know markets.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: Definitely.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: I find this to be true in a lot of creative industries and fields where many times people look at competition as being a bad or kind of a dirty word, you still have to understand your competitors in your industry.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: You have to know what they're able to offer, what they provide and how you can be different, because if you don't understand that, you can't differentiate yourself effectively.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: So it's not even a matter of just going in for the kill and trying to take someone else's business out.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: It's more or less the ability to really place your service and your offer in the market in a way that it stands out and is clear that you are different and therefore they need to pay attention to you.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: And one of the things that we often forget about is that when we're considering our competitors in the marketplace, we're not thinking about alternative options that also may be available.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: Sometimes one of the biggest, you know, aspects of competition for your offer, for your service, is going to be the status quo.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: It's going to be the fact that people don't want to make a change, and so they may be comfortable doing the things that they're doing currently, or following through and moving forward with a process that has kind of been bandaged and pieced together, and because that's not very painful in this moment, they are okay with moving forward with that, because they see the larger financial investment, maybe in another service or offer, as being unnecessary in that moment or maybe being, you know, something that is not required, and so we have to be really, really mindful of that so that we can begin to overcome those what, in essence, become objections, because they are desiring to move forward with what they have had currently and been content with, although they know it is not optimal.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: And so that takes another level of education and perspective shifting.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: That also has to be taken into account when you're placing your service and your offer into the market.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: So it's really important that when you're thinking about differentiating yourself and standing out and really attracting you know, your, your clients to you, you have to understand your industry well enough so that what you're offering truly is different.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: If you don't know that your competition is offering the same exact service at a lower price, then you're not going to really understand why you may not be winning business.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: If you don't understand or know that maybe the service you offer is not as comprehensive as the one that everyone has been used to, is, that is, more well known, then once again you're not going to know how to address that issue.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: You have to have a very thorough understanding, and that comes from the level of market research that you're doing.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: So don't rely on just a couple of different interviews.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: Make sure, in addition to the interviews, of the surveys that you may be conducting, that you are also doing a very thorough job of analyzing your market, analyzing the industry itself what is happening in your industry, what are the things that are on the horizon in terms of the future of your industry, how things are moving along, how they are progressing.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Focus on what's working and understanding what is not working and why, and then also identifying who your competitors are, as well as the alternative options that actually may be available.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: So that's number two.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Now, number three is that you want to aim to create a very targeted, value-based, reproducible process, and let me tell you why.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: I want to sum it up kind of like this so greater clarity, the greater clarity that you have and that you're able to provide, is going to lead to your ability to build greater trust, and that greater trust is what's going to make it easier for your audience, or your potential client to make a decision.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: So greater clarity leads to greater trust, which leads to a decision.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: When you are creating your service and your offer, you want it to be something that resonates with your audience, so much so that they are attracted to you.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: You have to ensure that your offer and your service is targeted, because the more targeted it is, the more clearly it's going to speak to a specific person, a specific audience, a specific business, and also it's going to speak with greater clarity so that they understand what is being provided.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Now, the key about having something that is value-based it is to ensure that, when you are creating this offer, that the value that you want to provide is embedded in that process, meaning that if you are going to shorten the timeframe in which someone achieves a goal that you want to have built into your offer ways that you can clearly shorten that timeframe, shorten that timeline and get them there faster, you want it to be something that not only you can provide but they can recognize.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: And if they are able to recognize the ability for that process to shorten the timeline or the timeframe, that is going to make them a believer in the service or the offer that you have.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: It's going to really magnetize that, because they are going to feel as if, and be attracted to the fact that the value that you are professing and that you are guaranteeing is something that can actually be a result that they achieve.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: And so, once again, you want to make sure that this is targeted, value-based, but then also reproducible, because one of the biggest time drains that we have oftentimes in a consulting business is recreating the wheel over and over and over and over and over again.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Oftentimes we will try and and this happens often, definitely with referrals.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: This is one of the things that I always like to caution people about when they are using strictly a referral process.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: There are ways for you to do that effectively, but most often people don't take the time to set the structure up in probably the optimal way.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: But when you're thinking about providing a service, you want to ensure that you're just not solving random problems and you're doing it a different way every time, generating a different result every time.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: Because at the end of the day, if your service, if your offer, is not reproducible, then number one you're not going to be able to guarantee the return on investment.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Our goal is to be able to guarantee that return on investment so that you can build your reputation, build the outcomes that people can see in the marketplace, which is only going to build momentum for your service and your offer over time, because people know that you can generate this particular targeted result and that's what they're going to come to you, for that is true whether or not it's a business consumer or business to business space.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: So you want to ensure that you are creating processes that are reproducible.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Now, it does not mean that you you can't modify that when necessary for various clients, but you want to avoid changing it all together.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Another thing is that this reproducible process will allow you to simplify the the overall process that you're taking, because now you don't have to do everything from scratch.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: You can build in, you know, those templates and workflows and automations and things like that that can help you along, and definitely as a solo consultant or even someone with a small firm or small team, it's going to make life just so much easier and allow you to really build this level of simplicity into your business.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: So by doing this, we're freeing up time.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: We are freeing up time through the attraction process, but then also on the delivery side, when you're thinking about the reproducible nature of this offer, and then also you are creating a scenario where you're able to really improve upon this process.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: So it only gets better the longer you have this service available to your market and those that you serve and you can do building up time atau possibly over all, when you think about creating a simple business.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: Part of this simple business is really eliminating much of the time that is wasted trying to land clients over and over again and trying to make sure that you are producing a given result, because so many things come into play that cause you to spend more and more time when you don't have these things worked out.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: So I want to really encourage you to consider really working on magnetizing your offer, magnetizing your service, so that you can attract more leads, and doing that by once again providing what your potential clients want and need.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: Number two, understanding the dynamic in your industry thoroughly so that you can differentiate yourself effectively.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: And number three is to aim to create a targeted, value-based, reproducible process, something that is very clear and builds trust and makes it easy for them to make a decision.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: All right, I hope that you enjoyed this particular episode.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: As always, if you have any questions with regards to this podcast series, make sure that you reach out to me.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: I am definitely open to provide any feedback and any guidance with regards to this series, and my hope is that this whole episode on magnetizing your offer will help you think about ways that you can improve upon your offer so you stand out in your market as a provider of a service that is different, that is unique and highly valuable, so that you do not have to track down and fight for business, but you will have actually clients lining up to work with you.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: All right, I will talk to you soon, take care.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning in to the Black Girls Console 2 podcast.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to leave your review on Apple Podcast, subscribe and share it with a friend.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: We're on a mission to increase the success and longevity of women in consulting and you can help us do that Also.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you, so let's connect at Dr Angelina Davis on Instagram or LinkedIn and don't forget to visit excelatconsultingcom for more information to support your consulting journey.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Until next time, take care.