September 2, 2022
10 Ways To Package Your Expertise
If you’ve been “doing your thing” for a long time, you’re probably pretty good at it.
If you’re pretty good at your thing, you can probably get paid pretty well to do it on a project basis for your clients.
But getting paid to do project work has its limitations. Here are three:
- Projects are labor intensive, so your prices have to be pretty high.
- Since your prices have to be pretty high, projects can be hard to sell.
- Since projects can be hard to sell, there’s pressure on you to price competitively, which decreases your profit margins.
If you’ve been doing project work for long enough to recognize this pattern, it might be time to think about branching out.
Below, I’ve listed 10 non-project ways to package your expertise. They’re broken into two broad categories:
- Productized services
- Products
Productized Services
Examples:
- 30 minute phone consult
- 60 minute presentation
- Half-day strategy session
- Two-day training workshop
- Project roadmapping
Productized services are pretty easy to launch. You basically just need to publish a compelling sales page with a BUY NOW button and it’s live.
Compared to projects, productized services are much easier to sell because the price points are typically lower and the value propositions are very clear.
Productized services are much shorter and less risky than projects, which makes them a great way to “test drive” the relationship. If things go well, they can often lead to bigger engagements.
Products
Examples:
- Books
- Workbooks
- Video courses
- Template libraries
- Swipe files
Products can take a fair amount of time and money to create, but they can sell forever with virtually no additional effort.
Think of them like annuities... money you have invested that throws off dividends in perpetuity.
Furthermore, they act like marketing for your higher tier offerings. Customers who are happy with your products will be more likely to climb up your product ladder to more expensive offerings.
Here’s the thing...
Of everything on this list, the easiest to design, setup, and deliver is the paid phone consultation. You could probably have it launched in an hour or two.
If you’re looking to finally branch out from just doing project work, that’s where I’d start.
Yours,
—J