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Opinions needed - Consulting Pricing & Structure

by Domenick DelBuco
21 replies
Hello again, WF!

So, if you've been following the 2 threads I posted before, one was first page featured! Pretty exciting for me!

Alright, so I'm a little stuck on a business model here, I found what I can do for others that mostly all business owners cannot do.

Instead of a CEO hiring a marketing team in-house for around $5k-12k/m plus managing them and providing benefits, ect, hire my consulting company for X amount!

The model makes sense! It saves the company money, and it's been done before! I'm guessing most of you have or had a working consulting business.

What I can do for a company -
Wordpress management
Effective FB Ads, YT Ads, Google Ads,Radio ads ect ads
Lead generation & Capture (Cold to warm)
Workflow automation & Email automation using Infusionsoft
Build a monthly or bi weekly report of data
&more

What would you say something like this would be worth for a company? I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around this, because I know depending on the CEO or head in charge, they might have high demands or low demands depending on how much of a marketing mavin they are. I know I can produce great value for these people either way, but how do I structure this?

I want to start exclusively in my city, Gainesville FL so I can bring that personal touch and on-board companies by going in personally with a pamphlet and explaining in person how I can drive sales for them.

What do you think, WF?
Thanks for reading
#consulting #needed #opinions #pricing #structure
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
    What's their average offering worth?

    What are they converting at right now?

    How much better do they think your help can get them to convert?

    What does that translate to in terms of actual new sales?

    What's the revenue increase due to that?

    Charge 5%.

    Eg. average offer is $1000; they agree you can get them an increase of 3% in conversion over the next 6 months. That translates into 160 new sales they would not have otherwise have gotten. 160 X 1000 = $160K in new revenue for them. Your fee: $8K and it's a deal.

    This is called Monetizing The Problem and I shared the concept in a post four years ago. So many concepts I've shared here that have been buried.

    Hint: have a minimum price you'll go to work for. If the problem is too small to warrant your involvement, you'll see it. Say in this example your minimum price is $10K. Since the 5% fee is under that number, you bump it to $10K. If they balk, that's fine and you walk. It's still a deal.

    I realize you are coming at the problem from the traffic side rather than the conversion side, but I'm sure the two of you can get to an agreed-upon set of numbers about how the funnel will work after your improvements. It's key they say you can help. If they don't, no amount of you insisting that you can will work.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve B
    Originally Posted by Domenick DelBuco View Post

    I'm guessing most of you have or had a working consulting business.

    Dom,

    I think this assumption is way off base. My guess is, 99% of the members here have never had or been associated with a consulting business. People come here looking to make fast easy money online and the vast majority have never been in business for themselves.

    Which leads me to believe that you're probably putting your question(s) to the wrong audience. I would think a better place for polling would be LinkedIn or some other business owner forum.

    Two suggestions:

    Originally Posted by Domenick DelBuco View Post

    • What I can do for a company -
    • Wordpress management
    • Effective FB Ads, YT Ads, Google Ads,Radio ads ect ads
    • Lead generation & Capture (Cold to warm)
    • Workflow automation & Email automation using Infusionsoft
    • Build a monthly or bi weekly report of data
    #1 - Using this list above (of what you can do), make contact with other competing SEO services/companies and ask them what they would charge you to do these things. This will give you a range of competing services so you'll know what the market is pricing for similar services.


    #2- Put yourself up for hire and charge the amount that you feel is what your time is worth (of course, it must be a reasonable amount in the eyes of your clients.) If you get lots of interest you will have some initial work and can even price yourself higher if the market bears the increase. If you market hard and get no one taking your offer, you'll have to adjust your price downward or maybe adjust your services. Of course what I'm suggesting is you test the marketplace and adjust your prices up or down depending upon how many clients your can get vs. the amount of time you need to work in order to complete your list of services.


    I think it's a good idea to start your business locally where you can meet face-to-face with prospects and clients. Treat them very well and get a portfolio of valuable testimonials that will come in very handy as you expand to other locations.

    The very best to you,

    Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
    If you want champagne fees, don't market to businesses with tap water budgets. (See Steve's comments above about who you might find here.)

    I'm surprised no one has mentioned Fiverr yet.

    Your rates might be very fair to companies with large marketing budgets, but most of what you find here are people who think $10 for a 500 blog post is big bucks.

    Hook up with a car dealer with half a dozen franchises and lots in multiple towns, and you can charge premium fees. Hook up with "Cousin Bubba's Buy Here - Pay Here Used Card Emporium" and your rates are probably more than the worth of the trailer he uses for an office.

    Jason, excellent video. Keep digging out that buried treasure...
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  • Profile picture of the author Domenick DelBuco
    I like the idea of not going after tap water budget stores, that's one thing I was doing - going for restaurants, clubs and bars ... probably not the people with a large marketing budget.

    Also, the pay per percentage thing is a good idea as well. When I was going after the tap water stores, they had no metrics or KPIs for lead generation, but going after the big fish, I'm sure they will have numbers I can base my lead gen success on.
    Thanks!
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  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    Originally Posted by Domenick DelBuco View Post

    Instead of a CEO hiring a marketing team in-house for around $5k-12k/m plus managing them and providing benefits, ect, hire my consulting company for X amount!

    What I can do for a company -
    Wordpress management
    Effective FB Ads, YT Ads, Google Ads,Radio ads ect ads
    Lead generation & Capture (Cold to warm)
    Workflow automation & Email automation using Infusionsoft
    Build a monthly or bi weekly report of data
    &more
    You have some amount of history.. but not much overall ( I could be wrong ) and you are going to walk in and pitch $8K a month?

    The question has to be asked Who are you? and why would I hand you that kind of money?

    The issue with your list of suggested services... Its a list of potential ways out of the pitch.. oh we don't use wordpress.. or oh we don't do radio ads, or We don't believe FB is worth the investment. Or Explaining "InfusionSoft" and watching the eyes glaze over as they begin to think about what they are going to have for lunch today.

    You need to systematically work your way into a business... start with a single trip wire. I prefer using a service that future services build apon - starting with a base, and then adding value as you add more.

    A company that is utilizing any amount of your list will already have someone.. or they will have employees that do this... getting them to fire people is going to be difficult. ( as much as it would possibly make all the financial sense in the world )

    Not so sure I would shy away from bars and clubs... there is more money there than you might think... you can ask what the average drink count of a nightly patron maybe... they will probably know.. gives you a value per head count. Also keep in mind that there is some "free" money here with beer and liquor company promotion dollars.

    Your a young guy.. you have some experience in the business world, and you are probably still in touch with your inner college self.. it makes for an appealing combination to these types of business owners.

    best of luck
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    • Profile picture of the author TrickyDick
      Originally Posted by Domenick DelBuco View Post

      Hello again, WF!

      So, if you've been following the 2 threads I posted before, one was first page featured! Pretty exciting for me!

      Alright, so I'm a little stuck on a business model here, I found what I can do for others that mostly all business owners cannot do.

      Instead of a CEO hiring a marketing team in-house for around $5k-12k/m plus managing them and providing benefits, ect, hire my consulting company for X amount!

      The model makes sense! It saves the company money, and it's been done before! I'm guessing most of you have or had a working consulting business.

      What I can do for a company -
      Wordpress management
      Effective FB Ads, YT Ads, Google Ads,Radio ads ect ads
      Lead generation & Capture (Cold to warm)
      Workflow automation & Email automation using Infusionsoft
      Build a monthly or bi weekly report of data
      &more

      What would you say something like this would be worth for a company? I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around this, because I know depending on the CEO or head in charge, they might have high demands or low demands depending on how much of a marketing mavin they are. I know I can produce great value for these people either way, but how do I structure this?

      I want to start exclusively in my city, Gainesville FL so I can bring that personal touch and on-board companies by going in personally with a pamphlet and explaining in person how I can drive sales for them.

      What do you think, WF?
      Thanks for reading
      These talk too much to "what you do." Business owners don't care... at all...Talk about results.

      Here's a more profitable approach...

      I can make you more money... It "costs" you nothing "out of pocket." You simply pay me a percentage of the money that comes in... There is absolutely no risk involved.

      Pro Tip: I would not charge "bargain basement" prices... I would be at least at the "average" market rate. That way, if you costs go up.... or something else "unforeseen" happens, you have more "wiggle room." You NEVER want to be seen as the cheapest... It will eventually come back to bite you on the posterior.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

      You need to systematically work your way into a business... start with a single trip wire. I prefer using a service that future services build apon - starting with a base, and then adding value as you add more.
      This works, as long as the tripwire price represents professional level fees.

      One example I recently read was a copywriter who was hired to write some blog posts promoting a subscription offer.

      He submitted the posts - on time - and came back with "now that you have these, I could write the thank you page and the follow up emails. That way they would have the same voice. And because I am already familiar with the project, I can quote you a fee for the whole bundle that is less than what hiring the individual pieces would be."

      According to the interview, this eventually led to a long term retainer for continued work.

      Note that the bundled project was a value-add, not a straight up discount.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

      Not so sure I would shy away from bars and clubs... there is more money there than you might think... you can ask what the average drink count of a nightly patron maybe... they will probably know.. gives you a value per head count. Also keep in mind that there is some "free" money here with beer and liquor company promotion dollars.
      This is true. You can even score big points if you can point out the availability of coop money. Even a place that only does a few thousand a night can afford more than they think when their distributors off a 50/50 match. Show them how you can double their marketing budget with no extra out of pocket, and you'll be a hero.
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  • Profile picture of the author professorrosado
    I have a completely different take on your question.

    If you came into my business touting that you can get me more business by doing the things you listed, I would politely wait till you finished and tell you, "I'll look it over and call you next week" (and I wouldn't).

    You wanna know why?

    Because all that you demonstrated to me was that you don't rely on what you're selling me yourself to get new business!

    I would take some of the great advice from the replies above and just do new business canvassing by giving your targets a dry run trial of your services and let them see a few leads coming in (sort of puppy dog sale) which they will not easily ignore - guaranteed client and referral source!
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  • Profile picture of the author marco005
    So my two cents on this is;

    I not known a good marketing agency company or consultant, that work only on get paid by percentage /provision. Look at Frank Kern or many other's who are not so famous, but good be good consultants. They not work on provision they have fees who the client has tp pay in advance.

    The best marketing company big or small, the best consultant can not give you warranty how many sales/ income you will make the next 10 months. To make such predicts is not possible.

    Not possible when you create an University marketing case study, this will be little bit more accurat, but they can not 100% predict how much money you will make in the next 10 months too.

    Please correct me if I wrong here, I see that many people say: "But I not have the money to start an big business like you"........such peoples looking for an agency who make money for them and they pay it when the incomes rolling in as percentage. Personally, I not want such clients.

    My thought is; it can be a long road to go from $7 product selling to the $200 upsells you will make, you will need 3-5 years to make the $200 upsell sales when you start at $7 or 10 or whatever, you can not make high ticket income from people who are willing to pay for products cheap as possible.
    These cheap people is not the right target audience to build such a business.

    marco005
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  • Profile picture of the author OptedIn
    The OP hasn't been here in 10 months.
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    • Profile picture of the author Domenick DelBuco
      Originally Posted by OptedIn View Post

      The OP hasn't been here in 10 months.
      I'm still here!
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      • Profile picture of the author OptedIn
        Originally Posted by Domenick DelBuco View Post

        I'm still here!
        The OP is back, after 10 months! :-)
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        "He not busy being born, is busy dying." - Bob Dylan • "I vibe with the light-dark point. Heavy." - Words that Bob Dylan wishes he had written.

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      • Profile picture of the author Steve B
        Originally Posted by Domenick DelBuco View Post

        I'm still here!



        So what approach did you decide upon and how is it working?


        Steve
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        • Profile picture of the author Domenick DelBuco
          Originally Posted by Steve B View Post

          So what approach did you decide upon and how is it working?


          Steve
          Great question, Steve!

          A lot has happened since this post - my baby was born and I was fired from my day job 9 months ago. My fiance told me it was a blessing in disguise because my "day job" was commission based and I ended up making more money on the side than I did selling sport bikes.

          So, with no major guidance - I started bartering with my original clients about starting a business because most of them were small business owners. I learned how to start an LLC, create an EIN, start a business bank account, use Quickbooks and more for close to nothing in a short period of time.

          Today is month 8 that I have been full time working for myself.

          To answer your original question about how I structure my pricing -
          I started off charging people by the hour, then after I was comfortable knowing what I did yielded results, I started selling these "packages" of services. After that, I bought a course from Julie Stoian called Proposal Secrets that basically teaches you how to sell your custom proposals for $1000 .
          I don't want to give away the course information, but a huge takeaway I had from this course is pre-planning is key and your client will respect that you've taken the time to go ahead and plan everything out (even thought it costed them) with a completely custom marketing plan/proposal.

          Though, I have not sold a proposal yet (still building confidence) I have been creating custom marketing plans for my new customers. They seem to appreciate it a lot more, and since I haven't picked a niche yet - I have noticed this gives me an upper hand over hyper-niched digital marketing companies because everyone thinks their company is different, which at the end of the day, most are, and most don't deserve packages, and you don't deserve an hourly rate. So I believe the answer is custom packages if you are not hyper-niched. You can't go wrong spending an extra 10 hours aiming before you shoot.
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          • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
            Originally Posted by Domenick DelBuco View Post

            Great question, Steve!

            A lot has happened since this post - my baby was born and I was fired from my day job 9 months ago. My fiance told me it was a blessing in disguise because my "day job" was commission based and I ended up making more money on the side than I did selling sport bikes.

            So, with no major guidance - I started bartering with my original clients about starting a business because most of them were small business owners. I learned how to start an LLC, create an EIN, start a business bank account, use Quickbooks and more for close to nothing in a short period of time.

            Today is month 8 that I have been full time working for myself.

            To answer your original question about how I structure my pricing -
            I started off charging people by the hour, then after I was comfortable knowing what I did yielded results, I started selling these "packages" of services. After that, I bought a course from Julie Stoian called Proposal Secrets that basically teaches you how to sell your custom proposals for $1000 .
            I don't want to give away the course information, but a huge takeaway I had from this course is pre-planning is key and your client will respect that you've taken the time to go ahead and plan everything out (even thought it costed them) with a completely custom marketing plan/proposal.

            Though, I have not sold a proposal yet (still building confidence) I have been creating custom marketing plans for my new customers. They seem to appreciate it a lot more, and since I haven't picked a niche yet - I have noticed this gives me an upper hand over hyper-niched digital marketing companies because everyone thinks their company is different, which at the end of the day, most are, and most don't deserve packages, and you don't deserve an hourly rate. So I believe the answer is custom packages if you are not hyper-niched. You can't go wrong spending an extra 10 hours aiming before you shoot.
            Let me ask a clarification question here: are you saying it's been 8 months and you haven't made a sale? Or am I wrong?
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            >> Executive advisory: Unstick sales, strategy & growth problems fast → jasonkanigan.com

            >> Selling? Then this is the FREE YouTube series you need RIGHT NOW
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            • Profile picture of the author Domenick DelBuco
              Originally Posted by Jason Kanigan View Post

              Let me ask a clarification question here: are you saying it's been 8 months and you haven't made a sale? Or am I wrong?
              No, i think where there was miscommunication was when I said I haven't sold a proposal.
              I have given free proposals and made sales based off of that, but I haven't reached the level of selling a proposal for $1K like the lady teaches in her class.
              I make sales all of the time, if I didn't, I wouldn't be able to do this full time, lol.
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  • Profile picture of the author marco005
    Short and simple:

    When you deliver good work, your customers are satisfied with your work- so then why you should charge yourself cheap? There is no reason to do that.

    Narrow down your target audience,deliver good work, listen to your audience, this is the road to success.

    marco005
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve B
    Domenick,


    Good luck to you in your new business - whatever that turns out to be.


    It seems most solo business owners adapt and modify and change the structure and focus of their businesses often to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves along their business journey. Down the road two or three years their business doesn't look anything like they planned in the beginning. Do what works best!


    Keep posting here in the forum and share your new found expertise with others.


    The best,


    Steve
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    • Profile picture of the author Domenick DelBuco
      Originally Posted by Steve B View Post

      Domenick,


      Good luck to you in your new business - whatever that turns out to be.


      It seems most solo business owners adapt and modify and change the structure and focus of their businesses often to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves along their business journey. Down the road two or three years their business doesn't look anything like they planned in the beginning. Do what works best!


      Keep posting here in the forum and share your new found expertise with others.


      The best,


      Steve
      This reminds me of a quote I have to tell my beginner entrepreneur friends who plan too much - "Ready, FIRE, Aim!"
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