Episode 123: Unlocking the Secrets to Productizing Your Consulting Services

What if you could serve more clients, increase your revenue, and reclaim your time while delivering the same high-quality consulting services?

In this Black Girls Consulting Podcast episode, we are unlocking the secrets to productizing your consulting expertise into scalable, effective products. We're diving into the nuts and bolts of transforming your one-on-one services into repeatable frameworks that work even when you’re not actively involved. By focusing on proven outcomes from past clients, you’ll learn how to standardize your offerings, ensuring consistent success without the need to start from scratch each time. So grab a cozy drink and get ready to revolutionize your consulting business and your life.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Productizing Consulting Services for Women
• 3:58 Creating Standardized Offerings for Clients

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Imagine turning your consulting expertise into a product, into something that works even when you're not. I mean no more trading hours for dollars, no more being tied to every client meeting just so that you can make ends meet. Instead, you're going to create a solution that scales effortlessly, that delivers consistent value and that frees you to focus on what truly matters, which is what I know you really want. So today we're diving into the step-by-step process of how you can productize your consulting services and transform your knowledge into a tangible product that can revolutionize your business and revolutionize your life. All right, if you're interested, let's get started, they say. The odds are stacked against us as women, especially women of color, trying to thrive in the consulting world. But rather than wait for a seat at the table that may never come, what if we build our own tables? What if we channeled our talents into guiding each other towards the success we deserve? Welcome to the Black Girls Consulting Podcast. I'm your host, dr Angelina Davis, and I've walked the path from healthcare consultant to a mentor for women like you, ambitious, unstoppable and ready to make waves in the consulting world. This podcast is your go-to spot for all things entrepreneurial consulting. For us as women, especially women of color. Think of it as your weekly coffee date with a friend who's here to dish out real talk on building a solid business, elevating your thought leadership and mastering that all important mindset. And let's not forget, we're doing all of this while balancing day jobs, family life and running teams. Yes, we can do it all. So if you're ready to dive into how you can grow a thriving consultancy or get strategies and insights that actually fit your busy lifestyle, then you're in the right place. Grab your coffee, tea or, hey, even a glass of wine, I won't judge and let's get started.

Speaker 1: 2:10

Today I want to talk to you about how to productize your service, and one of the reasons why I wanted to have this conversation is because productizing your services can offer a lot of opportunity for you to increase the number of clients that you're able to serve, to increase the revenue you're able to generate, and then also to just give you more freedom and flexibility when it comes to serving clients and running your business. So in order for us to do this, we need a game plan. We need to know exactly how we are able to put our services together in a way that it sounds like a product, where we don't have to create one-off offers for every client that we want to serve, which more than likely has been what you have been doing thus far. So, as you know, productizing your services is something that sounds really, really appealing, but you're probably wondering if it will work for you Now, when we're thinking about how to create this product, this service that you can sell to a number of clients without having to start from scratch, how you don't have to recreate the wheel, as they would say. You're able to utilize something that you are going to package together that can be delivered to a client and serve them just as if you were doing this on a one-by-one or case-by-case basis. So that is our goal when it comes to productizing your services, and it's what we want to achieve by piecing together the essentials of what allows your client to really generate the best outcomes.

Speaker 1: 3:58

Now we want to start by first taking a look at the services that you currently offer. What we're looking for are similarities, so I want you to sit down and think about the last three clients that you have served, and I want you to pick the clients that had the desired outcome or your promised result, because we only want to look at the outcomes that turned out the way that we intended them to. We want the clients that did the work, that were able to show progress and that made a lot of movement toward their goals. Now, once you're identified these clients, then I want you to dig a little bit deeper into the overall experience and the process that you carried them through and then what they also did in order to generate the results. This is gonna give you a better understanding as to what worked. What have you done repeatedly that generated a common result? It may not look exactly the same from client to client, which is why we want to look at a number of clients and then pull out those commonalities, those common threads that led to the outcome that you want them to have.

Speaker 1: 5:06

When you're able to pull out those things that are common between each of the clients, that allow them to achieve a common result, you're able to create a standardized process, and what this means is that the process that you're creating is not one that's going to achieve every goal that one may have. It's going to target specific goals, specific outcomes that you can guarantee from client to client if they follow the step-by-step process that you're putting together. What you are pulling out are those essential elements that were needed to carry them from point A to point B Nothing more, nothing less. And by doing this, you're creating a way for clients to recreate this result for themselves. They're going to follow a similar path. That's going to simplify the process for you, because now you don't have to create this over and over again for different clients. You can direct them to this product that you're going to create. That will help them to achieve this core goal, and then everything beyond that you're able to add on as additional service offerings or to modify more simply than you have been doing in the past.

Speaker 1: 6:22

Now, when we think about creating a product, no two products look the same. Your offer, your productized offer, can take a number of different formats. So, whether that's a course or ebook, or a toolkit, or templates or software, those are all ways that you can begin to package your services into something that your clients can use as a productized service or offer and allow them to get this coming result. We want to make sure that, whichever format that we choose, that it meets the needs not only of our clients, but also allows us to walk them through the step-by-step process effectively. So if that needs to be done in a course format, then that is an option. If it needs to be carried out using some aspect of software development, then that is an option. If it needs to be carried out using some aspect of software development, then that is also an option. I don't want you to lock yourself into a particular format and think that, oh, I just need to offer a course Everyone doesn't need to offer a course. Or I need to go and invest in building out a particular software Everyone doesn't need to build out a software.

Speaker 1: 7:30

The key is understanding exactly what is going to be most beneficial for your clients to help them get that result, and then choosing that as a format that you want to use. So think about what is going to be most effective Number one for them to implement the steps and to carry out the process successfully. But then two, think about the feasibility of what you're able to offer. If you are not someone who has the money to invest in building out software or the IT experience and expertise in order to do so, then that may not be the best format. Focus on what you can do easily and more feasibly, and that's going to be a winning result. The key is that we're going to structure your offer to fit into whichever format you can easily deliver. So I want you to think now about how you can create the perfect format for your clients. What type of format will they resonate with? What are they gonna want to use? What's gonna help them move through the steps smoothly so that you get the best results possible? Because if they get great results, you're going to get great results and your business is going to grow.

Speaker 1: 8:42

A thriving consulting business is built on a solid business foundation and a consulting code that leads you toward your ideal business and your ideal lifestyle. And the great thing about this code is that it works for any type of consulting practice, whether you help clients with professional development, business management, grant writing, it or something entirely different. This consulting code is not rocket science and is not beyond your reach, and when you crack the code, it can jumpstart the growth of your solo consulting practice and is what you need to know to get started and land your first clients, and nothing more. This is a step-by-step process I wish I had so many years ago, and that's why I wanted to share this with you and how you can do this too. So if you're interested in starting your consulting business and creating a desirable offer to generate leads for your offer and to make sales, then the consulting code is your solution. Visit wwwexcelatconsultingcom for more information.

Speaker 1: 9:49

In order to build out your offer and create this standardized format, you're going to need a framework. Your framework is your way of carrying your client from point A to point B. It's a specific step-by-step process that they're going to take, and you want this framework to be designed because you want the outcomes and the results that you generate to be repeatable, meaning that no matter who the client is, where they're starting from, as long as they meet the set criteria that you have in place, they're going to get the outcome. That is the goal when you're using and establishing a framework. So we want this framework to be something that is clear, that is repeatable, that is easy to implement and that is going to be the center and the core of your product that you're creating. And when you create this framework, you also have the benefit of becoming known for this framework. It becomes your intellectual property that you are able to sell and to market and to create an expert brand for yourself, so that you become known for generating a specific result.

Speaker 1: 10:58

I like to encourage clients to keep a framework within three to maybe five steps. It could be longer oftentimes, maybe not shorter, but it can definitely vary. The key is that you want the framework to be crystal clear and to compartmentalize everything as succinctly as possible, meaning that they are going to know that it is going to take three or five steps to get to the results. When you're in the process of selling this offer, looking at a simple and streamlined framework is going to make your potential client feel more confident that they can generate the results, in that they can implement this effectively. That's going to help you sell your productized offer, as well as for you to gain the buy-in from the client to actually do the work the hard work of getting the result. So, when you're creating this framework, remember to keep it as short and concise as three to five steps. Focus on the key elements and the clear steps that you need in order to go from point A to point B and simplify it as much as possible. This is going to make your framework very actionable and allow clients to achieve the greatest results.

Speaker 1: 12:14

Now, just because you have created a framework and you've outlined the steps that have worked for clients in the past. You need to make sure that this is going to work for clients in the future. So this is where testing and iteration comes into play, when you first create your framework or when you first create your product as offer. It's not going to be perfect from the very beginning. You're going to have to work on it a bit, and this is the importance of taking your time to test and evaluate each step of the process. I like to do this by starting a pilot or having a beta test group. These are ways for you to work with a small number of individuals and walk them through your framework, walk them through the step-by-step process and roadmaps for achieving the result and then determining what adjustments you need to make for the problems that they face. How can you simplify and make their journey easier? How can you ensure that more of the clients that you work with in this pilot environment or this test environment achieve the desired results or the outcome?

Speaker 1: 13:22

When you're able to strengthen your framework and strengthen your approach, it's only going to make your productized service better and stronger and it's going to help clients move from make your productized service better and stronger and is going to help clients move from this core productized offer into more advanced offerings and services that you have, where they are going to increase their lifetime value and be with you for an extended period of time, which also, for you, allows you to generate greater revenue and grow your business more swiftly. So, before you decide to finalize the productized service that you're going to offer, you want to ensure that you're testing and that you're iterating on what you have created. And then the beauty of this is that once you have created this productized service and you package it up nicely for your ideal audience the people that you believe are going to benefit the most for the service that you created then you're able to market and sell this offer to a greater number of people. And the beauty of this is that, as you market and sell this offer that's built on this core framework, you're no longer limited by your time or capacity to deliver at least this core result. And then, if you want to expand upon that, it's very easy to do, because every client will need expanded offerings. But for those that do want to expand their work and they want to move in a different direction, they want to grow further and they want to expand and work with you, you have more time and freedom and flexibility to do so. So, then, the beauty of this is that you build upon that core offer that you've created.

Speaker 1: 15:03

The core product offer that you've created serves as the foundation. It serves as the baseline of what people need to know in order to work with you, and then what you design from there continues to elevate and grow them further and allow them to move throughout the journey and to advance with you to a higher level. This is going to make your work more exciting, more fulfilling and allow you to move beyond just doing that repetitive work from client to client, because you're placing this repetitive work into the product and then you're focusing on those things that really light you up, those things that you truly want to focus on, that challenge you, that keep you going as consultants. I know that this is a lot of what we desire and why we wanted to go into this industry for the critical thinking, for the problem solving, for the exciting cases that we're able to work through. So this allows you to do more of that.

Speaker 1: 16:02

And, just to recap, when you're thinking about prioritizing your offer, you first want to select those clients who have achieved great outcomes from your work thus far. When you select out those clients, you want to identify the common traits that they have, to generate a list of qualifications that clients need in order to achieve the desired outcome, and then you also want to outline the common tasks that they have walked through so that you know the steps that they took to get to that result. Once you have those commonalities in place, you can then create and establish a framework from this, and this framework is going to be your step-by-step process or intellectual property that allows you to help clients generate this desired outcome and result. Then you're going to test that out using a small test group, pilot group or beta case group or study. You're testing your ideas with a small group to ensure that the things that worked in the past will also work in the future. And once this is established, then you can grow and you can sell this productized offer as the foundation of your business and then offer elevated services that move beyond that at your discretion. The bottom line is that the more you can create as a product and something that you can eventually automate and sell through funnels or other types of evergreen services, then that is going to allow you to generate more consistent revenue and then free up your time and capacity to do the things that truly light you up and bring you joy.

Speaker 1: 17:41

Now, I hope you enjoyed this episode. Make sure you subscribe to this channel, as we're going to continue to share more ways that you can build and grow your consulting practice and take it to the next level. But until then, take care. Thank you for tuning in to the Black Girls Console 2 podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to leave your review on Apple Podcasts, subscribe and share it with a friend. We're on a mission to increase the success and longevity of women in consulting, and you can help us do just that. Also, I'd love to hear from you, so let's connect at Dr Angelina Davis on Instagram or LinkedIn, and don't forget to visit excel at consultingcom for more information to support your consulting journey. Until next time, keep breaking glass ceiling, all right, take care.