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how to package consulting services

How To Package Consulting Services: 5-Steps To Six-Figure Offers

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Are you looking to package and position your consulting services to increase your fees — and earn more with every project?

Packaging and pricing your offers is one of the highest points of leverage.

I’ve seen many consultants leave hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table due to poor packaging and positioning.

Don’t let this be you.

In this article, you’ll learn the 5 steps to packaging a 6-figure consulting engagement.

Let’s dive in…

I’ve seen many consultants leave hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table due to poor packaging and positioning.

Step 1: Change Your Mindset Around Pricing

A few years ago, I spoke with several international tax consultants about helping us with our taxes.

One mistake that many of them made is that they just put out their hourly rate. And I’ve seen many consultants make this same mistake.

One of the tax consultants told me that his hourly rate was $450.

Now, $450 an hour might sound like a premium.

When you come out and say that your fee is $450 an hour, it doesn’t convey a lot of value. And results in you leaving a lot of money on the table.

Why?

The $450 price tag alone isn’t a compelling reason to buy. In fact, by itself, it can scare people away.

If you want to earn higher fees and win more business with your offer…

…you must package it in a way that your buyers perceive it as a high-value investment.

In this case, what could this international tax accountant have done to make me perceive their service as having higher value?

Rather than saying, “My hourly fee is $X,” think about creating a consulting offer.

If this international tax accountant had said, “You know Michael, I have a specific program where I will take you through A, B, C. It’s going to save you $500K per year in taxes, and the fee is $10K,” it would feel like a no-brainer.

Even though that is more expensive than the hourly rate, it’s much more attractive to me.

Why?

Because I see the value in it. It’s a significant ROI for me.

But all he said was, “My fee is $450 an hour.”

That might sound like a premium fee. But it doesn’t give me any reason to take action.

You want to shift the buyer from thinking about the cost to seeing the potential return on investment.

The lesson here is this: pricing is more than choosing an hourly rate.

Pricing IS marketing.

And your clients are going to see more value in a packaged consulting offer where you communicate the value you’ll create for them.

If they perceive higher levels of value, they’ll be willing, even excited, to invest a higher amount.

You want to shift the buyer from thinking about the cost to seeing the potential return on investment.

Step 2: Have The Value Conversation

Now that you understand how to think about your pricing, it’s time to use that mindset in your sales conversations with clients.

In order to charge based on ROI and value, you must conduct meaningful conversations to demonstrate to your client the ROI of investing in your services.

For example: You’re a sales consultant who helps enterprise SaaS companies improve their sales performance.

Now, telling a client that you can increase their sales is great.

But in a value conversation, you must get clear on what exactly “increasing their sales” means.

How much additional revenue or growth will your offer create for them?

For example: Your previous client gained an additional $750K in revenue over 12 months based on your training for their sales team.

The purpose of the value conversation is for you and your client to clarify and agree upon the economic outcomes and total potential impact that your service creates for them.

And it forces you to think critically about that value.

Charging $75K might seem like a lot for your service.

But when your client understands that they will gain $750K in additional revenue over 12 months, $75K is a superb investment.

It’s a 10X ROI. Where else will they see that kind of ROI?

(NOTE: Understanding the economic value of your services can be difficult depending on the type of consulting you do. If you want help with value pricing and value conversations, we teach you how to do this inside of our Clarity Coaching Program)

Mastering the value conversation is key to positioning your offer as a premium service they want to invest in.

Next, we’ll discuss how to build your consulting service from a delivery perspective.

Step 3: Build Your Consulting Offer

In the previous step, you learned how to conduct the value conversation.

Now, you understand the value your offer will create for your client.

In this step, we’ll think about the steps you’ll take to solve their problem and deliver results.

During your value conversation, your client told you about the problems they’re having and the results that they desire.

Write these problems down.

Example: The sales team has been underperforming since they began selling virtually. Sales are down 50%. Motivation is low.

You build your offer to solve their problem.

Next, write down the exact steps you’ll take to solve the problem.

Example:

  1. Assessment of the current sales team and processes
  2. Interview with the sales manager and sales reps
  3. Strategic Recommendations and Roadmap on your findings and the best path forward.
  4. Workshop training with the sales team

These are the inputs — the actions you’ll take to solve the client’s problem(s).

Now, let’s write the outputs — the outcomes that these actions will result in.

Example:

  1. You’ll understand why your sales team is struggling
  2. You’ll achieve alignment and buy-in from the team so that everyone is motivated to improve
  3. You’ll gain clarity on what will work to boost everyone’s performance
  4. You’ll consistently exceed your sales targets

Now we are starting to develop a clear consulting offer.

We know the…

  1. Problem(s) our client has
  2. The actions we’ll take to solve them
  3. The outcomes that our actions will create for the client.

Not only is this enough to market your offer, but it’s also enough for you to plan how you’ll deliver it.

But we’re not done on the marketing side just yet.

In the next step, I’ll show you something that most consultants don’t do with their offers (but will help you take yours to that six-figure level).

Step 4: Brand & Name Your Service

Now that you’ve figured out the “nuts and bolts” of your consulting service, it’s time to brand it.

Branding and naming your offer is all about making it more memorable and increasing its perceived value.

There’s a reason why our programs are called “Clarity” Coaching and Momentum.

There is tremendous power in a name. But naming is a challenge for consultants — especially if you don’t have much marketing experience.

Here’s a formula that will make it easier for you.

Back to our sales consulting example.

You run a sales workshop that increases your client’s virtual sales performance.

You combine the result (increase in sales) and the format (workshop) — and you add a power verb.

Result + Format + Power Verb.

Example: 1-Day Virtual Sales Revolution Workshop

Play around with it. Brainstorm until you figure out something that sounds right.

I spoke on this concept with Dave Ramos on podcast 128:

You have the Pit Stop Program and the Top Gear Program. You intentionally developed these names, which I love, and I’m in alignment with you. Explain to everyone why you did that. Why not just call it, “We do strategic planning workshops?”

“A key reason was that I wanted to differentiate ourselves from everyone else. Let me say it this way. There are dozens of other companies that might do strategic planning. We’re the only one that has the Pit Stop Program. Not only is that a registered trademark of ours, but that’s also our brand. We own that brand. It makes it sound more tangible, more differentiated, more like a productized offering. In fact, it is. We talked about the Pit Stop Program being the entree offering, but my goal was to turn a one-time sale into a long-term retainer.

That’s where we developed the brand called the Top Gear Program. The idea is you come out of the pits. We’re going to shift your company into top gear. It’s the racing imagery, and it works for us. It’s fun and the clients like it. That has worked very well for us. Back to that Pit Stop meeting where we write a bunch of ideas on flip chart paper. We have to implement those ideas. We can’t just leave the flip chart paper rolled up or maybe somebody types them up and nothing happens. The Top Gear Program is we provide ongoing strategic advice and coaching and sometimes the kick in the rear that they need to implement the things that we wrote on the flip chart paper and we hold them accountable.”

Branding and naming your offer is the beautiful gift wrapping around your offer. It makes it more enticing and presentable — an offer that your clients can’t wait to open.

Step 5: 3 Options For How To Package Consulting Services In Your Proposal

Now, you might just have one price point for your offer.

But unless it’s a discovery session offer, I recommend presenting your client with 3 options.

Why?

When you give your buyers multiple options, they shift their thinking from how to work with you instead of whether or not to work with you.

Think about your offers in terms of Good ($), Better ($$), and Best ($$$).

For example, you might structure your offers like this:

1-Day Virtual Sales Revolution Workshop – Option 3: $25,000

  • Everything included in options 1 and 2, PLUS…
  • We will personally review your team’s sales calls for an additional 2 months and build out your sales processes and systems.

1-Day Virtual Sales Revolution Workshop – Option 2: $10,000

  • Everything included in option 1, PLUS…
  • We will interview key people on your sales team to identify the biggest areas for improvement
  • We will work for your team for 1 month to advise them and coach them as they implement the plan.

1-Day Virtual Sales Revolution Workshop – Option 1: $5000

  • We deliver a 2-day sales improvement workshop that will outline step-by-step how your team can increase its sales performance.

When you give your buyers multiple options, they shift their thinking from how to work with you instead of whether or not to work with you.

Notice how I lead with the most expensive option.

This allows you to leverage price anchoring.

By leading with the most expensive option, the other options seem less expensive.

Expect most of your clients to choose the middle option.

Including 3 options in your consulting proposal will help you close more deals.

Get Personalized Help On How To Package Consulting Services

What can packaging and positioning your offers do for your consulting business?

Let me tell you a story about one of the consultants in our program…

Vince Rath, a retail consultant, charged a daily rate for his onsite consulting projects.

He wanted to create predictable income and scale up his business…

…but if any of his work was rescheduled or canceled, he didn’t get paid.

Vince was following the typical, outdated consulting advice (from those who’ve never done it successfully themselves)…

  1. Set an hourly or daily rate
  2. Get paid when you work onsite for clients
  3. Only charge what you think your clients will pay

He blocked out entire days for his consulting projects.

And when those days didn’t pan out, he lost all that revenue he planned to come in.

As a result, Vince was fighting for scraps — taking on extra work to make up for all the lost revenue. He knew that if he continued like this, he’d be stuck in a never-ending cycle of frustration and stress.

Instead of growing a profitable, thriving consulting business, he’d be treading water, thrashing around just to stay afloat.

After being stuck on this problem for months, Vince reached out for help.

He joined our Clarity Coaching Program and we took him through the Consulting Success® Framework.

We helped him create his Performance Optimization Program, enabling him to evolve from charging an unpredictable daily rate to a sizeable deposit and a monthly retainer.

No longer does Vince have to stress about where his next client (or paycheque) will come from.

Not only that, but he’s developing a learning management system so he can deliver his expertise without needing to visit his clients in person.

And with the ability to handle more clients (without losing the personal touch they value), Vince has started to scale his consulting business.

On top of that, he raised his fees by 600% — which has led to an ADDITIONAL half a million+ in revenue per year.

Vince isn’t alone. Doug Nelson, who before starting his consulting business was the president of the BC Cancer Foundation, joined Clarity Coaching and took his consulting business from $400K to over $2M per year in 18 months.

Donna Bates in Western Australia added 11 new clients — in a single quarter.

Mike Gamarrino in Santa Monica, California went from 0 clients to 7 clients…and grew his one-person consulting business into a 5-person company.

They all took the most important first step: they reached out for help.

If you want help packaging and positioning your consulting offer so you can charge higher fees with confidence, our Clarity Coaching Program.

We’ll work hands on with you to develop a strategic plan and then dive deep and work through your ideal client clarity, strategic messaging, consulting offers, use an effective and proven consulting pricing strategy, help you to increase your fees, business model optimization, and help you to setup your marketing engine and lead generation system to consistently attract ideal clients.

To learn more about the program, click here.

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