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How Smart Info-Marketers Sell Consulting Packages and Advisory Programs
By Janet Switzer
Consultants, experts and entrepreneurs can earn thousands of dollars per hour by conducting programs that help business owners or individuals apply proven principles of success.
A successful program packages your consulting and advisory services in a way that's designed to achieve a specific result. People buy results, not products. And as a consultant, you know that it takes time to achieve results for clients. So not only will you earn a lot more revenue if you sell a long-term package, you'll probably have a happier client in the long-run because you'll have the time to help them achieve the result they're looking for.
Who determines exactly what the "package" is and when the "result" is achieved? You do, of course. Remember, you are the expert. YOU tell the client which package they need to achieve the result they are looking for. If they knew everything it took to achieve the result, they wouldn't need you, would they? You dictate the services to be delivered. Of course, it helps greatly to have lots of testimonials that say "I bought Package XYZ and got this specific result."
What kind of packages can you offer?
Mentorship and Apprenticeship Programs -- Typically sold with an advertised goal or specific result in mind, these programs are marketed based upon the benefits the protege can expect to receive. They usually include both private and group coaching sessions -- such as a fixed number of private sessions with once-a-week group sessions for 6 months or a year. But most importantly, they are "hands-on" programs with participants applying what they learn during their time in the program.
Long-Term Consulting Contracts and Monthly Retainers -- If you can package consulting for a major corporation where you provide ongoing training for their staff or ongoing consulting services where there is a specific outcome expected, these contracts can be very lucrative. Monthly retainers can run into the thousands of dollars a month for each company you're working with, just to accomplish a certain amount of work each month -- or sometimes just to make yourself available.
Subscription Consulting -- If you successfully operate a specific type of business, fellow business owners will pay you a fixed amount every month for ongoing advice, materials, conference calls, email access or phone access -- assuming your program is marketed with a clearly stated result. Included services might include: (1) A private one-on-one call every month with a junior consultant or even the senior consultant, (2) A group call every month or every two weeks, (3) A monthly mailing of reference materials or business how-to information, or (4) A quarterly advertising and promotional sampler pack, and (5) A live event if required to effectively deliver your operating system. Pricing for these programs varies from $195 a month to $2,000 a month.
Business-Building and Practice-Building Systems -- When you sell to businesses who are desperate for the result you're offering, it not only makes your marketing job easier, it makes for a much more rewarding program for both of you. And whether you have a fixed system for getting results or you are offering business turnaround services, these programs can sell for thousands of dollars per person. One CPA developed an entire program specifically to help businesses bring more of their revenue to the bottom line. He didn't claim to grow revenues or grow the business in any way, he just claimed to help bring more of it to the bottom line through cost-saving procedures and other methods.
Coaching Programs -- Several years ago, some of the biggest names in the seminar business added an ongoing advisory option to their seminar programs and called it coaching -- making executive coaching, personal coaching and business coaching accepted and popular. Today, coaching has taken on more elaborate forms and typically includes:
• Live sessions over the phone or web sessions conducted live at a specific time
• Preparatory materials giving participants basic information they'll need to be coached effectively.
• Ongoing homework assignments -- which is what makes it a system, rather than just "small talk" over the phone.
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Janet Switzer is the marketing strategist behind some of the best known celebrity authors in the world: Jack Canfield of The Secret and Chicken Soup for the Soul, One Minute Millionaire author Mark Victor Hansen, personal finance guru David Bach, motivational speaker Les Brown and others. Subscribe to her FREE series of info-marketing special reports at Read about it here...TODAY
