Beyond The Niche: How To Package And Position Your Consulting Services
How you describe your services matters as much as the service itself. Your words and language will significantly enhance or devalue how a client thinks of your service.
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You Are A Company Which Sells Products
Far too many consultants have a mindset of:
“I’m a great [subject] consultant - hire me.”
But this ignores the very first principle I shared in my first post.
You need to sell a service, not yourself.
As I wrote at the time:
There is a big difference between selling ‘Richard Millington’ and selling highly targeted services. For example:
3-Month Team Training Package
Comprehensive CRM Platform Migration
Launching A New CRM From Scratch
It’s a cliche, but you must sell solutions to their problems.
The Naming Of Your Services Matters A Lot
The words you use to describe the problems you solve and the solutions you present matter a lot.
Clients are looking for services which precisely match the problems they’re trying to solve.
For example, “3-Month Team Training Package” isn’t the best description because it’s an arbitrary time frame for a service with unclear benefits.
Yes, the time frame matters to the client, but it’s far lower down the list of priorities than what the service is and how closely it solves their problem(s).
A better description would be:
Management To Leadership Program: Skills To Improve Your Team’s Collaboration, Efficiency, and Morale.
This might still be a three-month service focusing on training, but you can see now that the packaging is entirely different. The targeting and benefits of the packaging are a lot more straightforward.
I’ve consistently found that the amount clients are willing to pay for a service is closely tied to its packaging (how it’s named, described, and presented).
But there are dangers if you approach this the wrong way.
Don’t Be ‘Salesy’
I’d generally avoid adjectives and superlatives in how you name your services.
For example, let’s consider another of my examples from above; “Comprehensive CRM Platform Migration”.
In hindsight, this is a little too vague and unclear about the benefit of being ‘comprehensive’.
One bad way to rephrase this might be:
Seamless CRM Transition: Unlock Effortless Data Integration, Boost Sales Efficiency, and Improve Customer Retention
The problem with this is it sounds too much like an advert. We all know you can’t promise these results, and your prospective clients aren’t dumb.
We want to hint at the benefit without drifting into the realm of late-night TV commercials.
A better approach might be:
Fully Outsourced CRM Migration: Data Preparation, Platform Configuration, Migration, And Post Migration Support.
The benefit now is clear - ‘we will handle this for you’. For the client, that means they don’t need to invest much time into it; they can be sure it will be done well, and they don’t need to be experts. It limits their stress. For those benefits, the client will expect to pay more. They can drop this task on you, and you will take care of it.
It’s common to think the ‘Seamless CRM Transition’ would be a better match. But the reality is people don’t believe in adjectives anymore. You must describe the service and hint at the benefits without using many (if any) adjectives.
Should You Have Multiple Packages?
But what if a client doesn’t want a fully outsourced migration?
What if they want to be involved? Or what if they don’t have the budget for the cost of a fully outsourced package?
This is why it’s common to create tiers of packaged services. While this is a good idea, it’s often poorly implemented.
Stop Using Gold, Silver, and Bronze Packages
You often see packages called Gold, Silver, and Bronze. For example, this might be:
Gold CRM Package: This package includes a full CRM setup, custom configuration tailored to your business processes, data import, team training, and six months of post-launch support to ensure seamless adoption and long-term success.
Silver CRM Package: This package includes essential CRM setup and configuration, data import, and basic team onboarding, as well as one month of post-launch support to get your team up and running efficiently.
Bronze CRM Package - Provides a quick setup of your new CRM, including standard configuration and a one-time data import, with one week of post-launch support to ensure everything functions smoothly.
This is okay, but the terms ‘Gold’, ‘Silver’, and ‘Bronze’ are largely redundant. They are you-centric rather than client-centric. They also don’t clearly describe the unique benefits of the service. It’s better to name the services something that highlights their differences.
If you imagine the client cares about the price and effort required from their side, you need to structure options which display the trade-offs between them.
So we want one option that will take longer, but we’ll do as much of the work as possible. Another option will be lightning quick - but they will have to take on more work in the long term.
And then, we want the ‘middle of the road’ option the client will most likely take. So we might get:
For example:
Option 1: Fully Outsourced CRM Implementation ($31k to $43k) - Full CRM setup, custom configuration tailored to your business processes, data import, team training, and six months of post-launch support.
Option 2: Collaborative CRM Implementation ($14k to $22k)– A six-week CRM setup where we handle the core configuration and data import while your team takes on key aspects such as training and ongoing customisation. Includes one month of post-launch support to assist with fine-tuning and troubleshooting as your team adapts to the new system.
Option 3: Rapid Two-Week CRM Launch ($7.5k to $9.8k)- A one-week setup and launch of your CRM with standard configuration, one-time data import, with one week of post-launch support to ensure everything functions smoothly.
Structuring options like this is better than having gold, silver, and bronze packages.
Recommended Option
The downside of presenting options is you might create a decision-paralysis on behalf of the buyer.
They can take or leave it if there’s just one option. But if there are three, they have to worry about making the wrong decision.
I’d typically suggest presenting a ‘recommended’ option based on your knowledge of the client and your research.
It’s good to share options - it’s often easier to know which option to pick when comparing it to an option you don’t want. But if you:
Want several options.
Want no options.
Aren’t sure what you want.
Making a decision becomes far more complex.
So, when you present an option, create a recommended option to make things easier for your prospect.
And that is how we position and package our services.
Good luck!
p.s. If you want to increase your proposal win-rate, make sure you sign up for our Proposal Mastery course.