jim horan: consulting is easy; selling is hard
Post on 20-Oct-2014
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Revised slides from Jim Horan's January 28, 2011 presentation to the Bay Area Consultants Network (BACN) about how to create products from your consulting businessTRANSCRIPT
Productizing your Consulting
Practice...Profitably
Jim Horan, President
The One Page Business
Plan Company
2/10/2011The One Page Business
Plan Company
1
Consulting is easy…
Selling is hard!
2/10/2011The One Page Business
Plan Company
2
Consultants want…
• Opportunity to work
• Be in the game of business
• Interact with business people
• Earn a livelihood
• Grow professionally
• Be a part of the community
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Plan Company
Page
3
Let’s make selling stress-free
• Freely share information everywhere
• Capture intellectual property in writing
• Speak anywhere…everywhere
• Become known as business resource
• Create products
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Plan Company
Page
4
Why Consulting Products?
• Easy & effective way to sample services
• Creates opportunity for others to sell you
• Build creditability
• Reduces sales cycle
• Leverage time – more income, less work
• Larger, more profitable engagements
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Plan Company
Page
5
Many Consultants have Products…
• Assessments
• Book(s)
• Booklets
• Audiotape
• Software
• Games
• CD Rom
• Workshops
• Web Products
• and at higher
rates.
2/10/2011The One Page Business
Plan Company
Page
6
It all
started
with a
simple
mockup
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Page 7
I started
speaking
at small
events
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Page 8
Audiences
asked if I
had a
book...
~
2+ years
later I did
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Page 9
Everyone said…
The One Page Business Plan
would make a great
software product!
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Plan Company
10
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Page 11
Then I visualized an Organization
Chart – on the Web
Every
manager
has a plan
~
it’s just a
click
away
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Page 12
Each
Objective
has a
Scorecard
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Page 13
Every
Action
Plan
has a
Progress
Report
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Page 14
11/30/2000
10/28/2000
12/29/2000
2/5/2001
2/15/2001
Tell the
status
of
every
plan at
a
glance
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Page 15
It’s working…our results
• Best-selling business planning book on
Amazon.com most days
• National consulting firm w/ 70+ consultants
• 100+ companies using web system
• Many colleges using book as text
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Plan Company
Page
16
What’s your product?
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Plan Company
17
Lessons Learned…
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Plan Company
18
Products Create Credibility!
• Tangible…not just verbal
• Authors are given special
credence
• Products make companies look
bigger
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Plan Company
Page
19
Give others a way
to give you money!
Products provide a business
model for others to pay you
a royalty for the use of your
processes.
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Plan Company
Page
20
Marketing 101a
The market expects successful
consultants to have products
and will actually tell you which
ones to create and what
features they want! Listen!
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Plan Company
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21
Learn from others…
Selling products can be very
profitable. You can also lose
money and waste a lot of
billable time. Be mindful.
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Plan Company
Page
22
Listen for the WOWs!
• Experiment
• Ask for feedback.
• Listen for the WOW’s
• Act on the WOWs!
• Clients will tell you when they are
excited about a product or
service
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Plan Company
Page
23
Go for the basehits!
•Limit your investment!
•Print in small quantities.
•Almost nobody hits homeruns.
• However lots hit singles
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Plan Company
Page
24
Business Development
Key Question: Who can you
partner with that already has
customers that need your
product?
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Plan Company
Page
25
Trademarks, Patents, Copyrights
Protect your investment get
a good intellectual property
rights attorney
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Plan Company
Page
26
Be Smart…Learn from others!
•Don’t try to do it all yourself.
•Find the specialists who can
help you create your books,
tapes, & software.
•Benefit from their mistakes!
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Plan Company
Page
27
Create revenue models where
others make so much money
from selling your product that
they won’t build their own.
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Plan Company
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28
Consultants can create a
great job selling services…but
building a company with a
future resell value requires
products.
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Plan Company
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29
Final thoughts…
•Enjoy the journey…
•Build on your successes
•Have fun!
•Be patient…products take
time
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Plan Company
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30