How to Become a Consultant | Consulting Fees

Consulting Proposals: Establishing Your Value to the Project

Michael Zipursky | May 23, 2013 | 8 Comments

Under almost every circumstance a consultant should not be charging clients on an hourly basis. If you’ve been reading any of my articles relating to consulting fees over the last several years you know that already.

As I coach and work with many consultants from around the world, it’s become clear that many people aren’t clear on how to establish the value of their projects…

Charging according to value is the approach to take. And as I work with and coach consultants from around the world, it’s become clear that many people aren’t clear on how to establish the value of their projects…

…which makes it rather challenging to set your consulting fees.

Today I’m going to share with you how to establish your value so that you can justify your fees, write effective consulting proposals and earn more. CONTINUE READING »

How to Use oDesk and Outsource Successfully

Michael Zipursky | May 21, 2013 | 5 Comments

Click here to ReTweet: How to Hire Contractors and Outsource Successfully

In today’s post I’m going to share with you how I access a low cost pool of skilled contractors that help me grow my business and how you can do the same.

There are 5 people in the “office” at my company. I put office in quotations because most of the time we all work virtually from our own home-offices.

Let me first set the stage for you before I get into all of the details.

There are 5 people in the “office” at my company. I put office in quotations because most of the time we all work virtually from our own home-offices.

Other than when I’m meeting with clients or working at their offices, I’m working from my home office.

This setup provides ultimate flexibility. The constraint used to be that unless you wanted to fill your kitchen table or spare bedroom with your employees you needed a physical office space for everyone under one roof. CONTINUE READING »

10X Business Growth: How an Engineer Turned Consultant Uses Marketing Automation

Michael Zipursky | May 16, 2013 | 2 Comments

Interview Transcript

Mike Zipursky: Hi, everyone. It’s Michael Zipursky here and I’d like to welcome you to another show. Today, we have Steve Gordon with us from Steve Gordon Marketing Florida. Steve took an engineering consulting firm from $250,000 to $3.1 million in sales in a few years. Today he works with businesses to improve their marketing in a variety of industries. Steve, welcome.

Steve Gordon: Hey, Michael, great to be here. Thanks for having me.

Mike Zipursky: Yeah, my pleasure. I’m excited about this. Steve, let’s start off and talk a bit more about your previous job at that engineering consulting firm. What were you doing there?

Steve Gordon: I started there fresh out of college and kind of wait behind the ears not knowing anything, and had the good fortune to have a really great mentor in the founder of that firm, and very quickly moved on to a path to succeed him in the firm. I’d been there about four years and then he asked me to take over. It was just an outstanding opportunity to step in to a bigger role really early in my career. CONTINUE READING »

The Consulting Proposal: A Guide to What It Can and Can’t Do

Michael Zipursky | May 14, 2013 | 12 Comments

Over the years I’ve found that many consultants misunderstand the real purpose and place of a consulting proposal.

The consulting proposal’s job isn’t to ‘win’ the client, you should have already ‘sold’ the client on your services before submitting the proposal.

In this article I plan to shed light on eight of the most common misunderstandings around proposals and provide guidance and best-practices that you can use in your business.

(If you enjoy this article and know anyone that uses proposals as part of their work why not share it with them by clicking the share buttons on the left.)

1) Purpose
You submit a proposal to summarize all the key points of agreement that you and your client have been discussing. The consulting proposal’s job isn’t to ‘win’ the client, you should have already ‘sold’ the client on your services before submitting the proposal.

2) Timing
A consulting proposal should only be submitted right before the work is to begin. Don’t make the common mistake of submitting your proposal too early in the process and before you’ve established that you are the right person for the project. CONTINUE READING »

Convert More Visitors to Consulting Clients

Peter Sandeen | May 9, 2013 | Leave a comment

When you read the usual advice on online marketing, you could think that traffic is the holy grail of profits.

Well, you wouldn’t be completely wrong; you need traffic to even have a chance of getting clients.

If you’re working on your conversion rates, you can waste a lot of time and money if you’re not doing the right things.

But the other side of the coin is at least as important. That is, converting the visitors to clients.

You can waste months working on attracting visitors if your site doesn’t convert them into leads and clients.

Similarly, even if you’re working on your conversion rates, you can waste a lot of time and money if you’re not doing the right things.

So, here are the three most important things you need to get right to get clients (or subscribers if you’re building an email list). CONTINUE READING »

The Best Marketing Tactic for Consultants

Michael Zipursky | May 6, 2013 | 8 Comments

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The right marketing strategy and approach can literally have your phone ringing off the hook. Your inbox flooded with inquiries from prospective clients hungry to pay you to help them.

Consultants face a constant challenge of bringing in new leads to their business.

And that’s what marketing is all about.

The right marketing strategy and approach can literally have your phone ringing off the hook. Your inbox flooded with inquiries from prospective clients hungry to pay you to help them.

I’ve been in the marketing and consulting business for over 12 years now. And today I’d like to share with you the best marketing tactic for consultants.

I’m sure you’re eager to know what it is. But before I share this, it’s important that I lay the foundation for you first.

You need to understand these key points… CONTINUE READING »

This Is Why Consultants Blog: Interview with Tamara Gielen

Michael Zipursky | May 2, 2013 | 8 Comments

Interview Transcript

Mike Zipursky: Hi, everyone. It’s Michael Zipursky from Business Consulting Buzz. Today, I’m excited to have Tamara Gielen on the show. Tamara Gielen has over ten years of experience in online email and direct marketing. She is the author of b2bemailmarketing.com, the founder of an international email marketing community and a regular speaker on email marketing international conferences. Prior to becoming an independent consultant, Tamara worked at EBay and Cognos and then at Ogilvy One. Her clients include Microsoft, DHL Express, Booking.com, Wizards of the Coast, NATO and Swift. Tamara, welcome.

Tamara Gielen: Thank you. Thank you for inviting me.

Mike Zipursky: Tamara, you’re an email marketing consultant. What is it that you actually do?

Tamara Gielen: What is it that I do? Well, I basically work with big brands – not only with big brands – but I basically work with brands – when they ask my advice on how to get started with email marketing, you know, how can they get more customers through using the email marketing channel, how can they get more people to respond to their emails, how can they get more people to sign up to their emails, how can they overall just have a good meaningful relationship with their clients using email as one of the channels to communicate with them at different stages in the life cycle of the customer journey.

Mike Zipursky: Okay. Are you actually doing the implementation work for your clients or is it mainly that you’re providing advice and then they take that advice and they do the implementation? How does that generally work? CONTINUE READING »

3 Psychological Tactics To Land More Consulting Projects

Michael Zipursky | April 29, 2013 | 16 Comments

I was re-reading a few books on psychology recently by authors that focus on marketing, advertising and sales…and thought I’d share with you 3 tactics that you can use to win more consulting projects.

1. Make the First Commitment Small

You’re speaking with a prospective client about consulting for them on a new project.

Things are going well, in fact, this is your second meeting with the owner of the business and the VP of Operations.

The owner looks over at the VP and then looks back at you and says “Well, that’s more than we can afford right now….”

You’re feeling good about yourself and about closing the deal today.

For weeks now you’ve gone back and forth answering questions they had about how you can help them. You’re here today, so you figure that you must be the right person in their eyes.

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The owner looks across their makeshift boardroom table and says, “So, how much is this going to cost?”

You respond, “For a project like this, I typically charge $15,000″

The owner looks over at the VP and then looks back at you and says “Well, that’s more than we can afford right now….” CONTINUE READING »

How to Write a White Paper That Wins Consulting Projects: Interview with Gordon Graham

Michael Zipursky | April 25, 2013 | 4 Comments

Click to play:

Interview Transcript:

Mike Zipursky: Hi, everyone. It’s Michael Zipursky from Business Consulting Buzz. Today, Gordon Graham, we have him on the show. He’s a white paper writer and consultant. He’s worked with Google, Oracle, Intuit among many other Fortune 500 companies. He’s interviewed over 200 C-level executives and written over 170 white papers. Gordon is based in Ontario, Canada. I’m excited to have Gordon on the show today because he’s not only a white paper writer. He’s a very accomplished consultant and a master at marketing his craft. Gordon, welcome.

Gordon Graham: Thank you very much.

Mike Zipursky: Gordon, I touched on the kind of companies that you worked with. Did I get that right? Can you tell us more about the work that you’re doing these days?

Gordon Graham: Sure. I’m basically a B-to-B copywriter. I’ve done lots of other things in my life – technical writing for a software companies and journalism and then I was a marketing executive in a software company. That’s when I found that there are certain types of marketing documents that really work better than others so I focused on those. Now I’m an independent copywriter and I really specialize in white papers and case studies. CONTINUE READING »

Best Questions to Ask Your Consulting Clients

Michael Zipursky | April 22, 2013 | 29 Comments

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One of the most important skills a consultant can possess is the ability to ask clients the right questions at the right time.

I know that sounds simple, but don’t fault me for it. Sometimes the simplest things can be the most powerful and profound.

This ability will help you uncover a client or prospect’s most urgent needs, the underlying issues, and what’s most important to them.

Before You Ask

Now before you start asking all kinds of questions at your next meeting, you need to do one thing well first.

And that…is listen.

Listening intently to what clients are saying is the starting point for making any consulting project a success.

If you don’t listen carefully to what your clients are telling you about their business and current situation, you’ll have no way to understand what solution will best give them the result they want to achieve.

I know that sounds simple, but don’t fault me for it. Sometimes the simplest things can be the most powerful and profound. CONTINUE READING »