Frank Kern created a $175,000 per month consulting business. Here are my notes on his book “High Paid Consultant: How I Created a $175,000 per Month Consulting Business”.
There’s a ton of money in consulting
- According to Forbes, there is $100 billion per year
- This is way more than in internet marketing ($19 billion) and direct mail ($48 billion)
- Expected to grow 83% by 2018
- Has a high profit margin, you can work from home and minimal equipment is required
Why do consulting?
- You can make recurring monthly income.
- You can start quickly. Kern took only 90 days to get to $175,000 per month.
- You can control when and where you work.
- You can generate a lot of profit because fixed costs and overhead are low.
- You don’t need technology skills. Kern has a single opt-in page, PDF report and one email follow up.
- You’ll have happier clients because you can give them the results they are looking for.
- You’ll have an easier time selling because your client ultimately wants results, not to read about how to get the results.
What is consulting?
- Consulting is providing professional or expert advice to someone.
- There are all kinds of consultants like: productivity consultants, sales consultants, dating consultants, and even raw foods consultants.
- To see if your expertise lends itself to consulting, Google [your expertise] + consultant and see if other people are offering the service you are considering.
What is holding you back from consulting?
- You think you need credentials. But the truth is the only credentials you need is the ability to get your clients the results they are looking for faster and better than they could on their own.
- “The secret to consulting is to know more than your client does.” You don’t have to be a world class expert, all you need is to know more than your client.
How much do you want?
- Take your monthly goal and multiply by 12 to get your yearly goal.
- Say your yearly goal is $250K per year.
- Product versus Consulting
- If you sell a $100 product, this requires 2,500 sales, if you have a 1% conversion rate this requires 250,000 clicks. If you pay $1 per click, your profit is zero.
- If you charge $1,800 per month and your clients for your consulting service renew for a year, this only requires 12 sales, if you have a 1% conversion rate this only requires 1,200 clicks, versus 250,000 clicks.
- Case Study: Kern ran an ad, got 4,000 clicks, 1,200 opt-ins, 13 immediate client applications, took on 2 clients and the campaign resulted in $234,000 in revenue
How to identify the right clients?
- Identify the right segment of your market to make the most money. For florists it’s simple, men under 35 spent $30 for flowers on Valentine’s day, while men between 45 and 60 spend 350% more.
- Focus on who you can help the most and the fastest. For example a client with a million dollar business can easily pay $10k per month, while a noob with no business or product might not have $10 to spend.
- “You can set yourself up for success by only working with easy wins.”
- Don’t work with everyone, work only with people you can help the most and who are willing to pay the most.
The old approach to getting clients
- The significance model, telling people how great you are, getting other people to say how great you are and saying buy my products to become like me.
- Almost guaranteed not to work
- The amount of money someone is willing to pay you will be in direct proportion to the amount of confidence they have in your ability to get them results. Diego Rodriguez
The Client Centric Model
- The new way to get clients.
- Your potential clients don’t care about you, they care about your ability to get them the results they are looking for.
- Traffic > Opt-in page with compelling offer > Irresistible Intrigue process > Collaborative close
Ninja Tricks for Getting Traffic
- Kern only uses three sources: Facebook, LinkedIn and direct mail
- Focus on Facebook because it lets you target by demographics, affluence and purchase history
- If Facebook doesn’t have the option to target a certain type of business, you can purchase a list from someplace like http://www.usbizdata.com/us-business-specialty-databases.php and use it create a custom audience to target your ideal type of client.
The New Approach to Lead Generation
- Find the questions that you prospects are likely to be asking themselves and offer to answer that question for free.
- Realtor Example
- Old way that screams I’m going to sell you something: create a free report called “7 Questions You Must Ask Any Realtor Before Selling Your Ocean Front Home.”
- Instead a prospect most wants to know, “How much can I sell my ocean front home for?”
- So the better way to reach them is to make an offer like “Thinking of selling your house? Get our report on ocean front home prices for 2017.”
- Doesn’t scream I’m going to try to sell you something.
- Only attracts people who want your service.
- It is truly helpful to them.
- Demonstrate you can help people by actually helping them.
The Risk Reversal Process
- Offer to help for free
- Thank them for their interest and offer to help for free.
- Realtor example: In the report you’ll notice that two nearly identical houses sold for dramatically different prices. Would you like me to show you how it sold for way more money and how I can help you get the most money for your house?
- Explain the benefits of your help
- Realtor example: “I’m happy to help you design a custom marketing plan for your home, identify your perfect target market of prospective buyers and show you how to present your home to them for the maximum price possible. This way you’ll be able to sell your house quickly and get the highest price you can without wasting time or money. There’s no cost to this and there’s no obligation of any kind.”
- Explain why you are doing this
- Your prospect is thinking that there has to be a catch. So explain why you are doing this.
- Realtor example: “I offer this free service because I’m a realtor and I sell La Jolla ocean front homes exclusively. And there’s a good possibility I have a buyer who might be interested in your house especially considering the recent demand for properties like yours. So if you find value in the help I give you, you might want me to sell your home for you.”
- Eliminate their sales fear, because people are naturally skeptical about people offering things for free
- Realtor example: “With that said, please understand that I’m not offering a sales pitch in disguise. I promise not to pressure you or pester you in any way at all, in fact, if you feel like I’ve wasted even one second of your time..”
- Create irresistible intrigue
- Realtor example: “in fact, if you feel I’ve wasted even one second of your time…let me know and I’ll immediately write you a check for X amount of dollars” or immediately send a brochure about your home to a thousand potential buyers on your behalf on my own dime. Or I’ll pay your realtor’s marketing cost”
- Takeaway non-selling
- Introduce scarcity and value by starting to takeaway the offer.
- Realtor example: “Now wait a minute, before you go any further, you need to know that I can’t help everybody. I can only be of benefit to people whose properties are directly on the ocean, in good sellable condition, not under foreclosure, etc.”
- This eliminate prospects that will waste your time and put you into a position of authority, where they have to prove themselves to you.
- Get them to qualify themselves to you
- Realtor example: “Here’s what you do next. If you want to schedule a planning session with me, simply click the link below. When you click, you’ll see a form with a few questions about your home and what you’re looking to accomplish. Once I have that information, I’ll do some market research for you and we’ll set up the time to go over it together.”
The Client Conversion Process
- After a prospect has answered the questions in the previous step you should have almost everything you need to determine if you’ll be able to help them.
- Only schedule calls with people that you know you can help.
- Collaborative Bridge Building
- “If we are having another conversation a year from now and reviewing the past year, what would have needed to happen for you to be happy with your results?”
- Ask questions about where you client is now and what your client thinks needs to be done to get where they want to go.
- Ask leading questions to guide your client to the right solution that you offer.
- Prescription
- Based on what you told me, we should…
- Ask questions to confirm that your prospect agrees with your prescription
- Pre-closing
- Does that sound like an effective plan of action to you?
- Closing
- Would you like me to help you implement this plan going forward?
The Opportunity
- Things that are simple and obvious to you aren’t simple and obvious to your clients.
- If you can help people get something they want faster than they could on their own, you can grab a piece of the $100 billion consulting industry.
- “If you are waiting for someone to anoint you as worthy, then you are going to be waiting for the rest of your life.”
To learn the “most dependable and consistent way to generate wealth” visit https://frankkern.com/.