Jim Horan: Consulting is easy; Selling is Hard
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Productizing your Consulting
Practice...Profitably
Jim Horan, President
The One Page Business
Plan Company
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Plan Company
1
Consulting is easy…
Selling is hard!
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Plan Company
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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
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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
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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
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5
Many Consultants have Products…
• Assessments
• Book(s)
• Booklets
• Audiotape
• Software
• Games
• CD Rom
• Workshops
• Web Products
• and at higher
rates.
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Plan Company
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6
It all
started
with a
simple
mockup
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I started
speaking
at small
events
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Audiences
asked if I
had a
book...
~
2+ years
later I did
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Everyone said…
The One Page Business Plan
would make a great
software product!
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Plan Company
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Then I visualized an Organization
Chart – on the Web
Every
manager
has a plan
~
it’s just a
click
away
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Each
Objective
has a
Scorecard
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Every
Action
Plan
has a
Progress
Report
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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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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
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16
What’s your product?
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Plan Company
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Lessons Learned…
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Plan Company
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Products Create Credibility!
• Tangible…not just verbal
• Authors are given special
credence
• Products make companies look
bigger
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Plan Company
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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
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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
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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
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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
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24
Business Development
Key Question: Who can you
partner with that already has
customers that need your
product?
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Plan Company
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25
Trademarks, Patents, Copyrights
Protect your investment get
a good intellectual property
rights attorney
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Plan Company
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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
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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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