How To Craft A Killer Offer Part 1
How well do you really know the ins and outs of your target market?
How well do you understand what it's like to live a day in their shoes?
In this edition of the Unconventional Consultants, I'm laying out the level of detail you should be able to provide on your target audience if you want to be able to craft offers for them.
I thought long and hard about showing you this, but in the end, it seemed to make sense. You see this is part 1 of an internal document I crafted years ago when I was developing an offer aimed at solo consultants. What better way to prove it than to see if you can see yourself in this document.
When you see anything starting with * It's my today commentary. Apart from that, this is the word for word internal document I crafted to launch a new offer.
Read it first to see if it resonates with you. Then take the headings and write them out for your offer and 1 target buyer persona.
What’s the big idea?
Proprietary Step-by-Step System For Generating An Endless Supply of Highly Qualified B2B Prospects… all with ZERO Advertising Expense and NO Cold Calling
* I wouldn't include 'no advertising expense' if I was looking for bigger companies. This is a low investment product. I also don't believe advertising is an expense BUT you have to get into the conversation in someone's heads before you can lead them.
Can you help me picture it?
Instead of spinning your wheels trying hundreds of marketing approaches that don’t work on C-Level decision-makers we simply build a small and highly targeted list – say 500 as an example, that will have large deal sizes for your business – say £100k and we reach out to them. Typically resulting in around 100 meetings within 90 days that will create your sales opportunities for the next few years.
What else could it be described as in my marketing?
Selling to corporates – a traditional way of describing large/whale clients
Selling to C-Level executives – a traditional way of calling senior decision makers in large B2B businesses
Getting your foot in the door – how to get the first meeting with any senior business person
So the problem/pain is?
Not enough leads with high quality ideal senior decision maker prospects which means inconsistent deals which means inconsistent or no predictability of revenue and cash flow. Research [my own interviews] shows most consultants have on average 2 new business meetings per month and would like 10 or more.
So the glory/solution is?
A predictable number of high quality new business opportunities with highly targeted B2B senior executives leading to predictable revenue and cash flow. Your deal sizes will go up meaning you can make the same revenue with fewer clients or grow without a large number of new clients you have to service. Your sales cycle will go down meaning you spend less time working on deals and having to manage cash flow.
So my mission statement is?
I help consultants win large deals with C-Level executives with zero cold calling, expensive advertising or spending endless frustrating hours a week blogging or pissing about on social media trying to ‘attract’ people.
I do this with my 7 step [insert system name], which typically creates more opportunities in 43 days than most consultants create or attract in 1 year.
Who does this work for?
I have worked with all style of businesses that are looking to build predictable sales opportunities in a B2B sales environment. This works for printers, software, technology, consultants, marketing etc
Who am I targeting and why?
Consultants that sell into corporations, fast growth companies and traditional bricks and mortar businesses. I have chosen consultants because:
Fit the group coaching model well
Used to investing in themselves and make their own decisions about investment. EasyYes/No. Quicker sales. Shorter time t cash.
$5,000 fee paid back many times over by winning 1 client = massive return on investment
The Steps To Success:
*Here I had the steps the program covered to take someone from their existing state of dissatisfaction to the end state of their desired result. The steps aren't necessary for this illustration.
The Program Name Options:
Consultants 30 Days To 30 New Clients System
How To Land Whale Clients System,
Selling To C-Level system
The 'How to get your foot in the door with the biggest deals in the industry' system
3 TO 21 Highly qualified meetings per month system for Consultants
The screw wasting time trying to ‘attract’ C-Level deals, client winning system!
Predictable Profitable Prospecting system
The Blueprint To Get a New Business Meeting With Anyone
How do I define who my perfect prospect is
a. Age - 30 to 50
b. Geography - predominantly USA and UK, Australia, English speaking Europe Singapore, Hong Kong
c. Income - $150 - $500k
d. Education - Degree, possibly Masters and continued professional development via an Industry Body such as a Chartered Institute Of….
e. Family - Married with 2 children who are in the early to late teens stage of life
f. Specific niche - what type of consultant?
i. Management Consultants
ii. Strategy Consultants
iii. Executive search Consultants *Big mistake - not my market
iv. Business Transformation and Change
v. Multi-Divisional firms such as: *specific website linked to
vi. Energy Management
vii. Marketing automation consultants
viii. Marketing Consultants
ix. Digital Marketing Consultants
x. Technology/Software consultants
Do my best clients/customers have commonalities?
· They’re in B2B selling larger value services often with long sales cycles
· They invest in their education and systems
· They sell at a high level in an organisation
What is profitability for each client/customer?
Consultants can have deal sizes from $5k to $100’sK. For example I have just started working with an executive search specialist in the Chinese marketplace whose typical fee is $80k. 1 extra client from working with me = no brainer. He created $500k sales pipeline in 30 days.
Consultants – A previous Management Consulting client added close to $1 million in repeatable revenue which added a few M 0.00%↑ ill when he sold out 2 years later
Digital marketing and Web - Again - high value. A previous client sold sitecore websites with a typical sale being $500k plus. Also PPC, retargeting services etc at $5k month recurring.
Do I have expertise and commonalities relating to these prospects?
Yes --- there is a saying in old school consulting about “having the grey hairs” which is about age, experience and trustworthiness. I don’t agree with it but it can be used to my advantage. I have grey hair (literally and figuratively), and I have an MBA and a track record. I’m also in the same age grouping as the target demographic for consultants and just squeezing in and not too far removed from the digital side.
What is the high level view on ‘my angle’?
A unique METHODOLOGY to access (get into first new business conversations with) C-Level corporate decision makers that is ‘step by step’ and has been described as ‘a massive amount of knowledge presented in easily digestable chunks’ that is easy to implement for results. = RESULT – predictable high value deals with shorter sales cycles = predictable revenue
I have unique processes that no one else is teaching 1) Sales Gates 2) Productization where you design your sales system to create value for the prospect - this is the missing link for many people I speak to. I also have a few proprietary methodologies that are essential to a company's objectives A) Three levels of prospect outreach and how to determine what is right for your business objectives. B) Message, Market Mix (M3) methodology that dovetails with the 3 levels of prospect outreach to determine what process you can use and what messaging is right for your target market
What is my negative promise?
This doesn’t have, contain or include (things they hate) - cold calling, long boring lectures, knowledge without implementation steps
This doesn’t result in (thing they hate) sales pressure, pushy sales techniques, wasted time, energy and resistance, long hours doing manual tasks yourself, learning hundreds of new skills
This doesn’t need, involve or require (something they don’t want to put in) major expense in testing and learning online advertising, outsourcing, hours spent on the phone cold calling, buying lists,
What important need of this niche does the service fulfil?
Predictable sales pipelines that drive predictable cash flow that’s scalable
The certainty that they can achieve the results - lifestyle, build a business, time with family, reduced time input from them, attract other consultants/partners into the business and provide value in the business to sell the business
What are the needs, wants, problems, and challenges this set of prospects has?
Predictable deal flow = predictable revenue = predictable cash flow
Certainty of results
Ability to plan life and business
Want to do it without cold calling
Want to do it without labour intensive outbound sales process
They aren’t trained sales people and have negative experiences of it and many may have negative views about selling
They don’t know where to start. there is so much noise about how to ‘attract’ clients, how to use Linkedin, cold calling is dead etc They are looking for someone to cut through the clutter and tell them what to do, when to do it and make sure they implement it...
How do I address these?
CERTAINTY: I provide a step by step blueprint/framework that I take them through to provide a consistent level of first meetings with highly qualified ideal prospects who are at the C-Level that they can convert to revenue. They mostly believe ‘if i can get in front of people I can close business’. This may not always be true but I can focus on getting them ‘a foot in the door’ as this is their biggest fear and inability
Helps them get clear on ideal prospect profile: which means they don’t waste time dealing with people that are unlikely to ever buy from them and will drain their resources. This means they spend less time and have higher conversion rates to provide greater results
I show them at least 7 different resources to quickly and easily get highly targeted lists of ideal prospects complete with email addresses without dealing with old school list brokers. This means that they don’t have to spend huge sums of money in one go buying big lists of largely out of date data.
I show them a system that tells them when their best prospects are at the highest chance of wanting their service (think artificial intelligence) so they can magically make an introduction just at the right time
How to be aware of opportunities before anyone else in the marketplace which gives them the opportunity to be first in – research shows the first person into a deal wins the business over 80% of the time – sometimes with no competition at all
How to make first contact without cold calling with anywhere up to 80% success rates to first meeting at the C-Level
Allows them to prospect much higher up into organizations without having to work their way up gate keeper after gate keeper
Help them sell bigger deal sizes – typically my clients can double their deal sizes – not by raising fees but by getting access to their top 20% prospects that they couldn’t do before
Create instant brand awareness in your target market and make them think you are everywhere
What are their DESIRES?: What’s my prospects most urgent problem regarding my solution?
Not enough clients NOW – In the next 30-60 days – not in 12 months time. Urgency
Not able to create consistency and CERTAINTY
No deal flow
Difficulty getting in front of the right prospects
Unpredictable revenue
Not enough large deals
Need first meetings as they believe they can close business when they speak to people but they DON’T BELIEVE they can create first meetings
What do they want to avoid?
Not having prospects to get in front of
The peaks and troughs in between deals
Cold calling
No certainty around cash flow
Working with clients they don’t like to get cash to survive
Working on projects they don’t like just to get cash to survive
If they had a magic wand, what would they want more than anything else in this area?
Predictable number of large profitable deals
The ability to do it without having to cold call
Someone to provide them a step by step system and tell them exactly what to do at each stage so they don’t get overwhelmed and don’t have to waste time trying things that don’t work and put the pieces together for themselves
What do they believe fundamentally about their problem?
They can win all the business they ever need if only they can unlock the secret to ‘getting your foot in the door’
That you have to outsource outbound lead generation to external telesales companies and specialists
It’s physically impossible to easily connect with senior people in an organization
They can’t get through the gatekeeper
There’s people purposely put in the way to stop them from getting access to a senior decision maker
OTHER people can do it but they can’t as they have not had any formal sales training and don’t have the skills or balls to do it
It’s hard work and there isn’t a step by step solution available
What could they believe about this type of solution we need to deal with?
It isn’t easy to do
People won’t respect their expert positioning if they proactively prospect into them
They don’t see why they would need help
It’s way too time intensive
It will create more work than the benefit they get from it
It doesn’t fit with modern communication styles
Takes too long to learn
Other people can do it but not them
How do they feel when they look for the kind of product/service I’m selling?
Confused - about what will work, who to believe
Overwhelmed by all the approaches – Inbound/outbound
Reluctant to take advice
Don’t know whose methodologies will work for their specific problem
Self doubt about popping their head over the parapet and taking a position
Embarrassed they need help as they are educated people and experts in their field.
How do they feel when they read related advertising in my industry?
Built on hype
Weary of empty promises
Tired of hearing phrases such as ‘social media’, ‘magnetically attract clients’, ‘sell without selling’. – they know that’s all BS with their own prospects
How could they feel about my product/service offer?
Great value in comparison to conventional training
It looks promising
Too good to be true
Others can do it but i cant
What makes them happy/What would make them happy?
CERTAINTY of results
Relief of someone guiding them and making the decisions for them so they don’t have to worry any more
worlk/life balance
What are they most proud of?
Their service/product
The size and reputation of the clients they deal with
Their expertise
What are their secret self-doubts?
They’re not good enough to do the front end prospecting or even to be standing up and being well known in their industry
There’s other competition better than them that deserves the bigger deal sizes
Not good enough to deal with larger companies – ‘they know more than me’
Others can do it but they can’t
What arouses their skepticism?
Unsubstantiated claims
Sayings its simple to do – they know this isn’t true. Everything takes an amount of effort and work
Not being industry specific (it won’t work for my type of business)
No proof
Not being able to speak to a person to ‘suss them out’
What angers & frustrates them?
Not getting the financial reward they deserve
Not getting their desired recognition by bigger clients
Not being able to hit a breakthrough to create a bigger business
Having to take clients they don’t like to provide cash
What are their deepest fears?
Having to lay people off
Going out of business
Not having a work life balance
Working long hours with little reward
Working too much with too little pay
Not providing for their future
Looking like they have failed
Comparisons of failure against successful people with zero education
What are their hopes, dreams, and aspirations?
More freedom in life
To be recognized
To be rewarded
To have more control
Critical Questions
What desires does this audience have that companies in the space just don’t seem to serve?
A way of connecting with senior executives (C-Level) without cold calling to win predictable B2B deals
Predictability of results
Scalability of results
What are the most important aspects a solution must absolutely have to serve their needs?
Can’t damage their personal or company brand/reputation
no sleazy sales tactics
doesn’t overwhelm them
GIVES RESULTS they believe they can achieve
What questions does this audience have about products/services like mine?
Is it legal?
Does it work?
How long will it take to get results?
How many hours a week do i need to do it?
Do I need to do it at all?
Can I outsource it?
How much will it cost on an ongoing basis?
What are their top three immediate goals my product/service can help them achieve?
Immediate first conversations with senior executives = immediate sales opportunities
Immediate bigger deal sizes
More leads
Certainty of results
What are the top three problems that are standing between them and their goals?
Lack of time to implement
Their own lack of knowledge
CONFUSION - what to do? linkedin direct messaging, article marketing, guest blogging - just what is the best way to drive first meetings for them?
What objections might they have to purchasing a product like mine?
Too expensive
Time consuming
Something in place already
Going to focus on inbound marketing
It won’t work for our specific type of business
Don’t believe the results are achievable by them - others can do it but not them
Indifference - don’t feel the urgency to act now - review it later
Don’t trust me or no rapport with me personally
Want a done for you system rather than doing it themselves
END OF PART 1:
Watch out for my special edition on Friday [part 2] where I complete the research and start the marketing of this offer.
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Please put this into practice and let me know the results in the comments.
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If you want me to personally coach you on this strategy to make sure it gets done then schedule a coaching call here: https://consultingrevenue.com/coaching