Did you know the management consultant market is booming? Between 2013 and 2023, it grew to around $100 billion in the USA alone.
And that’s just management consultancy; we’re not even factoring in others like IT, marketing, human resources, strategy, and operations!
What we’re trying to say is that consultant marketing is growing. This means now is the time to really think about the offer you present to prospective clients.
Not only does it have to get to their WHY, but you have to sell your expertise, knowledge and processes more than ever. But it’s not that simple either. You really have to show them they’ll get more value than what they plan to invest.
Plus, if you don’t give them a sense of urgency, prey on their emotions, and fail to present a compelling solution to their problems, you’re likely not going to land the lucrative deals you need.
With the growing competitive consultancy landscape, the last thing you can afford to do is make simple mistakes in your offers. Dive in with us to learn how to avoid common mistakes, craft compelling offers, and improve your existing ones to land your ideal clients.
Creating a Consulting Offer
You must understand your ideal client before creating a consulting offer from scratch. Writing an offer without knowing their needs, pain points, and goals is a complete waste of time and a recipe for disaster. The best offers center around their needs and subtly link to your services/support, showing how you can solve their problems.
Understand Your Ideal Client
Before you craft any consulting offer, you must know your ideal client inside out. In other words, knowing your niche and target audience is essential.
But how do you define your consulting niche?
First, undergo a thorough evaluation of your skills, expertise, strength, and passion. Note down what you excel at, enjoy, and experience, as well as typical feedback from previous projects.
Then, create a list and rank them based on your performance. Based on this, conduct market research to see where your skills match with a specific market, competition, and areas where you can grow and make a profit.
Knowing your ideal client
Once you've defined your niche, the next step is to know who your ideal client is and in what areas they might hire a consultant like you to solve their problems!
Pro Tip: It's also crucial to know the market size of your ideal client. It's often better to have an existing market to attract a handful of clients than to create a new market for yourself.
To know your ideal client, it's best to create an Ideal Client Profile. This Profile has a detailed description of your ideal customer based on market research and must factor in demographics, psychographics, and behavioral insights.
Conduct interviews and surveys and observe behaviors. Then, analyze their challenges, problems, and goals. To help you, you might want to think about the following questions:
What roadblocks do they face in their existing business?
What are the typical outcomes they require from your services?
Once you've identified their needs and pain points, it's best to zero in on the exact challenges where your services are most required. Stick to 2-3 areas where you can drive the most impact. You don't need a major understanding but must know how to create your value proposition.
Consulting services example: A consultant targeting mid-size tech startups struggling with scaling data infrastructure.
See what we did here? This example not only states who the customer is but also their size and problem. Try to create 2-3 areas where you can target.
Clarify the Problem You Solve
When writing a specific offer, one of the most important areas is to state specifically the problem(s) you solve for your prospective client. Clarifying this in your offer helps you stand out from the growing market. It also gives your prospective client an opportunity to see the void in their business and how you can fill that void.
But to do this, you have to be clear and convincing. To help you with this, you should follow the SMART goal framework.
Think about the criteria you need, such as:
Specific: State exactly what you intend to achieve.
Measurable: Add metrics to track progress.
Achievable: Make sure goals are realistic according to the client's resources.
Relevant: Align goals with the strategic objectives.
Time-bound: Create deadlines for achieving goals.
Pro Tip: The problems you solve must be quantifiable, so always ensure you never miss your KPIs when stating goals or frameworks. To ensure your problem statement is clear, you must avoid any general words, descriptions, or phrases; it's better to be straight to the point.
Consulting services example of vague wording: "I help e-commerce businesses improve their efficiency."
An example of being straight to the point: "I help e-commerce businesses reduce cart abandonment by 20% within 6 months."
Looking at the two differences, you can clearly see that the second one is specific, clear, gives a metric to measure, and is time-bound. Demonstrating a clear clarification in your proposal makes you appear more confident in your pursuit of your goals.
Design a simple clear offer
To show prospective clients that you have their best interests at heart, you must present your pricing in the simplest and clearest way possible. Now for consultants there’s generally different ways to do this such as packages, tiers or custom engagements. Let’s explain them in greater detail:
Packages
The first type of offer you can make is by compiling your services and creating a package or several. As the name suggests, packages allow you to tailor your expertise and skills to address certain problems and cater to the specific needs of your client.
By breaking them down into packages and giving them different options, you can provide a menu of solutions that gives your clients freedom and flexibility to choose what they need, adding more value and scope for them.
REMEMBER: Your consulting packages also give clients a glimpse into your value proposition. They allow you to reveal a blend of skills, methodologies, and insights that distinguish your consultancy services.
But what package do you create?
Well, there's a range of styles to choose from:
Foundational: A starter package for clients to lay the groundwork. These packages often include essential aspects of consulting services such as market research, business assessment, and strategic planning.
Tailor-made: Packages crafted to target clients who experience specific challenges. These packages are tailored to the strengths of your consultancy services. They reveal your in-depth knowledge and share targeted solutions to help address clients' specific pain points.
Project-based: If you want to work on a specific project for a client, a project-based package can be a great opportunity for them to leverage your expertise without feeling pressured to engage with you for the long term.
Retainer-based: This type of package allows you to work on packages based on a set amount of hours or services every month. It works well with clients who need your support every month.
Benefits of packages
No matter the package you choose to create, there are a lot of benefits associated with them, such as:
They help make them tangible: Packages turn your services into a "product," removing psychological barriers and encouraging the buyer's decision.
Provide clarity: Packages allow you to present a limited number of your services in a structured way, helping you win more clients.
Target prospective clients with different budgets: Different packages with different options help attract clients of various budgets.
Promote emphasis more on value over cost: Compared to itemizing certain services, which places more focus on cost, packages allow your prospects to see value over price. Customers who see more value are often willing to pay more for your services!
Tiered pricing
Tiered pricing is slightly similar to packaging but offers various tiers to solve different levels of problems. Basic tiers can offer essential services, the standard tier may include that plus additional support and maintenance, and the premium tier can help offer comprehensive strategies and support.
Example of tiered pricing for a data consultant:
Benefits of tiered pricing
As a consultant, tired pricing is linked to the following benefits:
Customization: Clients can select tiers based on their specific needs, budget, and fit, allowing them to feel more satisfied.
Helps you scale: As your clients grow, they can easily upgrade to higher tiers if they want to choose more comprehensive services.
Clear value differentiation: Every tier highlights what your clients will receive at every price point, making it easier for them to make calculated and informed decisions.
Custom engagements
Finally, there’s custom engagement pricing, which involves tailoring pricing strategies to the specific needs and value you deliver. That could be through value-based pricing, fixed fees, hourly rates, retainer-based pricing, or tiered pricing. To offer custom engagement pricing, thorough market research is needed to help position your services, and you must be able to demonstrate value through the customized model you choose.
Benefits of custom engagement pricing
Choosing the custom engagement option as a consultant is associated with the following benefits:
Increased efficiency: Allows you to tailor to meet your client's needs, saving time and resources.
Flexibility for you and your client: Helps you adjust your services and scale up and down according to market demands.
Better customer relationship: With customized strategies, you can foster deeper and stronger customer relationships.
Price for Value, Not Time
Remember, you’ll want to show your clients the value you create for them by helping them pay for your services rather than hourly rates. Value-based pricing provides you with a lot of control and authority over your processes.
When you select an hourly billing model, you have to track your time and hours, which can be difficult to manage if you have to deal with multiple projects simultaneously. Value-based pricing only involves a general estimate of the time needed, which is often easier to manage.
Clients with value-based pricing can immediately see the value you put into your services. It can help provide them with more clarity about the specific amount of time it will take to complete a specific project, and they will be able to know exactly what they’re paying for.
Selling Your Consulting Offer
Now, after you’ve created your consulting offer, the next step is to sell it to your prospective clients effectively. In this section, we’re going to break down the different ways you can do this:
Position Yourself as an Expert
To convince people to make that purchase, you need to showcase why you're a specialist and the value you offer without explicitly stating the value you create.
How do you do it?
Well, you have to find ways to demonstrate your expertise through:
Content
Create thought leadership content that explores complex industry topics, subtly revealing your knowledge and expertise. If you are stuck for ideas on what to write, one good way is to talk to yourself and record it. Speak to yourself about essential topics in your niche or area of expertise.
If you record yourself speaking your thoughts based on particular industries, you may find yourself (without realizing) providing certain advice and snippets of wisdom on topics people want to know about. Then, every recording can be turned into different forms of content for publishing.
But the key to creating content is to consistently post a variety through blogs, videos, webinars, social media posts, and more. Whenever possible, weave in metrics, case studies, and testimonials to add credibility—more on that below.
Case Studies
Case studies are an effective marketing tool you should use more of as a consultant. They’re powerful tools that can help you build trust with potential prospective clients by showcasing results from past projects. When writing case studies, make sure to:
Introduce your previous client’s background: Add information about their industry, business size and context which helps readers understand the environment where the problem occurred.
State the problem: Mention specific challenges or pain points the client faced. Try to avoid vague descriptions; always provide detailed insights into the problem and why it was important for the client to face it.
Mention your approach: After mentioning the problem, you should follow up with an explanation of your approach. Mention research methods, data collection, and any frameworks used.
Show your analysis: Break the problem into different components, show your evaluation, and discuss the strategies you used and why you thought they were important. You must do this to show your critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Display the results: Share the outcomes of your strategy. Add metrics to show success, such as revenue, efficiency, and increased customer satisfaction. Make sure to add ones that increase your credibility.
Add takeaways: Summarize the lessons learned and highlight how your approach can be applied to future challenges.
Use a storytelling approach: Always use storytelling approach to show your journey and serve as a trusted guide for prospective clients. Storytelling can help make your case studies look more promising and attract new clients.
Example: Publish a case study showcasing how you helped reduce a 15% cost for a logistics company.
Testimonials
As standalone pieces or weaved into your content, testimonials are compelling and can be a great final element of persuasion for getting new clients on board. While you can ask former and existing clients to give you one via email, one of the quickest ways to do so is via LinkedIn.
On LinkedIn, there's a feature where you can select a contact or contract and ask for a customized message in which they can give you a recommendation. Once they've written their message, you can quickly repurpose it into a blog or social media post. When asking for testimonials, try to get them to be specific and say how you've helped them by adding certain metrics, etc.
Understand Client Needs Before Selling
Before proposing your services, it's important to do everything you can to understand their pain points and goals. Doing so can help show your interests and concerns and increase your trust, credibility, and rapport, deepening the relationship. Once you know their needs, you can tailor your pitch to show how your services can help solve them.
Remember: Listening and asking targeted questions is crucial to gaining the right client.
But what questions should you ask?
Here are a few examples to get you started:
Can you tell me about your company?
What are your company's day-to-day roles?
What are your goals?
What is the biggest challenge you are facing (with specific problems) at your company?
What's the overall landscape of your company?
Why are you interested in today's call?
What's the source of your problem?
Why hasn't your problem been addressed before?
What would a successful outcome look like to you?
What's your typical budget for solving this problem?
Note: Discovery calls allow you to listen and gain insights into potential client's pain points and goals. So remember to make a list of questions beforehand to help you know which ones to ask in the discovery call. Always listen first and then supply them with the right questions. Always opt for open-ended questions, as they encourage clients to share more detailed information.
Craft a Compelling Proposal
After the call, craft a compelling proposal that addresses your prospective clients' issues. Outline the potential challenges your clients face, then lead in with the proposed solutions, expected outcomes, and the investment you require from them in the proposal.
For example:
Problem: Inefficient marketing attribution
Solution: Implementing a multi-touch attribution model
Cost: $15,000
Remember: When writing your proposal, always subtly include your unique value proposition. Also, share your experience, skills, and past success from other projects that demonstrate to the client that you can make a return.
Add visuals such as graphs, infographics, and charts to help show how you can achieve their outcomes. Include case studies and testimonials related to the project to show social proof and build trust with potential clients.
Handle Objections
Whenever you send a proposal, you should anticipate objections from potential clients. While a range of objections can be made, generally, three common ones arise time and again.
Budget
This is a topic that is guaranteed to come up in every discovery call or after you've submitted the proposal. Expect common objections to be similar to the following:
"We don't have enough budget allocated for this project."
"We don't have enough money to spend on this project."
"We need to seek approval before we can spend this amount."
Solution: If they're set on not spending the desired amount you mention, prepare to ask them questions to discover a way around this. Use the answers they give as an opportunity to demonstrate how they will be better off investing their money in your consultancy services, the value, and the ROI.
After all, unless they're deep into bankruptcy, they will have money and be prepared to spend. However, to get them to spend, you should also find out where their existing expenditure is going and effectively show them how they can redirect their budget. If they're still unsure about their budget, offer them a pilot project to demonstrate the results and value you can create for them before committing to a larger engagement.
Timeline
The second common objection that is likely to arise is timeline. Your prospective client will likely question the timeline and express concerns about delays and requirements that may impact the completion date. They may say statements similar to:
"The project will take longer to deliver the intended results."
"They cannot wait for the proposed start date."
"The timeline does not fit their internal deadlines."
Solution: One of the best ways to handle this objection is by reevaluating the project's scope. Then, work together to prioritize tasks that cater to their timeline and show how you can meet their objectives. When this objection arises, it's vital that you show flexibility in adapting to their deadlines. To sound more convincing, break up the project into phases with milestones, showing how you can meet their deadlines and create work on time.
Scope of work
No matter how much of a detailed proposal you’ve given, sometimes clients may feel that they still don’t understand the scope of work involved. Objections may arise about the uncertainty of your services, scope creep where additional tasks or deliverables may occur, or the scope of work does not align with their existing goals. Their objects may look like:
“What are the specific deliverables?”
“What is not included in the scope of work?”
“What resources are required for the scope of work to be done?”
“Can you show examples of similar projects that had the same scope of work?”
Solution: You can handle this objection by sharing a detailed outline of your scope stating specific tasks, deliverables, and responsibilities. Whenever possible, use bullet points and tables to ensure a mutual understanding of what’s included in the project. Whenever possible, provide different options for the scope to show your cooperation to adapt based on their feedback.
Improving Your Consulting Offer
After every consulting offer you make, know there’s always room for improvement. There are several ways to do this, including gathering feedback, measuring results, iterating, refining, and then testing new offers.
Gather Client Feedback
For existing projects, get feedback and insights after each engagement. You’ll want to ask questions about what was done well and identify areas for improvement. Gather feedback by sending surveys, conducting interviews, providing real-time live chat support, and conducting online reviews.
When it comes to questions, there’s a range of questions you can potentially ask, such as:
Were your expectations met?
What part of the process did you find the most valuable?
How could we improve our approach?
How has our service impacted your business?
How would you rate the effectiveness of our services?
Which part of our service was not helpful for you?
Would you work with us on future projects? Why or why not?
Try to ask open-ended questions instead of closed ones!
Measure results
For future proposals, you must add metrics from past projects to showcase markers of success from previous work, raising your credibility. You can start doing this by implementing metrics on existing projects to help track, visualize, and analyze your performance throughout and at the end of the project. To help you stay on track, you might want to use a project management tool that can help track metrics. Some of the main metrics you may want to consider are:
Return on investment (ROI)
Net profit margin
Cost variance (CV)
Once you have the metrics, you can later use them in a future client proposal, saying, “This campaign increased my client's ROI by 25%; here’s how.”
Iterate and Refine
Then, based on the feedback you gather from past projects and market trends, it’s important to iterate and refine your existing proposal to secure new clients. Tailor your offerings based on past client experiences and feedback to ensure you offer services you excel at.
Moreover, refining your offer according to market trends allows your services to stay relevant and competitive while showing your value. It can also enhance client satisfaction, build trust, and help you maximize profitability.
If clients constantly ask for ongoing support, refining your proposal to a retainer option may be beneficial.
Test New Offers
To grow your revenue, you should experiment with different service structures, pricing models, and audiences.
Service structures
Play around with different service structures to see which resonates more with your prospective clients. Think about offering:
Project-based models
Retainer models
Bundled services
Pricing models
Try experimenting with various pricing models such as:
Hourly pricing
Project-based pricing
Retainer
Subscription models
Performance-based pricing
Target audiences
Experimenting with various target audiences as a consultant can help refine your strategies. It can also provide you with new opportunities or niches that have often been overlooked. These insights allow you to expand upon your service offerings approaches and become more adaptable to client demands. For example, if you want to target small businesses, you may wish to launch a lower-cost group coaching option.
Bottom line on creating a consulting offer
Overall, if you’re wondering how to provide valuable consulting services, you’ve got to think about the offer you create. When creating an offer for your ideal client, define your niche, target audience, pain points, and goals.
Think about what problems of theirs you solve, design an offer around them, and sell your value, not your time. When selling your offer, always position yourself as an expert, understand client needs first, and create a personalized consulting offer that aligns with your expertise and client needs.
Remember to always position your offer as a solution to a specific high-value problem. If you’ve worked on previous projects and this is a new client, try experimenting with your offer among different pricing models and service structures.
Show your value using metrics over telling them.
Hopefully, this helped provide some insight into that!
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