Mel,
A few years back I was coaching a business consultant who was on the slippery edge.
He does a rather sophisticated analysis that can identify problem areas and unplug huge bottlenecks, but it's been a roller coaster of feast and famine for him. More famine than feast.
He sells some books on his website, has an autoresponder sequence, some articles and white papers, and he's been getting LOTS of nibbles. Plus he's been steadily improving the results of his website. But no big hits.
One of the Catch-22's of being a consultant is:
Giving out free advice is murder on your positioning. As soon as the words "Sure, I have some free time to talk this afternoon" escape your lips, you go from "king of the jungle" to mangy jackal.
So how does he bump people up from the general interest level (i.e. on his email list) to seriously discussing possible consulting sessions?
The first step of the solution: "Openline."
I originally came up with this concept for another client of mine named Jack, also a consultant. Jack sold a very high-end service to corporate managers, and it's the kind of thing that requires a lot of discussion and massaging.
The problem is, if he makes himself available to whoever wants to chat, he devalues himself and his $340 per hour expertise.
So he has a time slot every week called Openline. Between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. every Tuesday, he makes available eight 15-minute slots that are booked by appointment only.
He's actually got this as part of his autoresponder sequence, where 1-2 weeks after they download one of his white papers, they get an email sort of like this:
Dear [firstname],
Does your company qualify to do a share split?
Everyone wonders about that, and many people expend months of tedious effort just to come up with an answer.
So I have developed a fast-track phone consultation which will help you find out. It's called "Share Split Open Line" and the next one is going to be on Tuesday from 10am to 12pm.
There are only 8 time slots available and they will be assigned on a first-come, first served basis. This consultation normally costs $85.00 but on Open Line days *only* it is free.
Here's what to do: Go to www.ACME.com/openline and complete the form. Many companies are receiving this message and there is only time for 8 appointments, so don't wait.
I look forward to talking you on [Date]!
www.ACME.com/openline
Sincerely,
Jack Rogers Principal
ACME Corporation
The openline page is active, with the very next Tuesday programmed in with the proper date.
In order to sign up they have to fill out a form (very important, it's the same "clipboard intimidation strategy" your doctor uses on you). They use the form to tell you about their business. People get to talk to Jack for 15 minutes, and when 15 minutes has gone by, the call is over.
Jack's job is pretty simple: 1) Disqualify the prospect if they're not a fit, 2) Identify an urgent itch the prospect wants to scratch—and attach financial value to it—and 3) define a next step if the prospect agrees this problem needs to be solved.
The client I originally developed this for has used it to secure several million dollars of business; it's a staple of their sales process now.
And I continue to use this strategy regularly. For the last several months I've dropped into the Mastermind Club forum for a question-and-answer feeding frenzy. If you're a member, you can ask me anything you want for 2 hours.
(Next one is June 22nd, 2016, 1pm to 3pm Eastern.)
So how did it go for my struggling feast/famine business consultant?
Well, he emailed his whole list with an Openline offer, and he got an initial rush of consultations. The conversations **seemed** productive...
But then nothing. No business.
He was very frustrated, and actually kind of scared. He had to make this work.
More to come...stay tuned.
Carpe Diem,
Perry Marshall
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