This Is the Silent Killer of Most Consulting Sales

Transcript from video:

Let's talk about the silent killer in most consulting deals, and it revolves specifically around pricing and a confusion around what you're pricing.

So, here's a short story. Client in the coaching program, in my coaching program, was trying to shape his services and was really having kind of a mental block around how to do pricing. Actually, what he was saying was, "Alzay, I can't price this service. This is what I want to offer, but I don't know how to price it. I CAN'T price it" is what he was saying. So, we unpack that a bit and let me give you the short version right now.

In that unpacking, what we admitted to was in his brain, he already saw the scope of the project. He saw all the details, he saw all the code to be created. I mean, he could see it in his mind's eye, but there were gaps in that picture in his brain. He had gaps because there are certain questions that his client hadn't answered yet. So, he wanted to see the whole picture. He wanted to see all the moving parts. He wanted to see all the elements. But every now and again, his brain would get stuck because he didn't have all the details. So, in his mind, he was having trouble coming up with that final pricing number because he didn't have all the details.

So, in our conversation, we had to stop, take a step back and own that reality. You don't have all the details, so you can't create a complete scoping document because you don't have all the details. You can't price all the individual deliverables because you don't have all the details. So, then let's back up even further.

This is the same advice I'm offering to you. Your job is not to fully scope the invisible product or project. Your job is not to fully price the invisible project or product. Your job is to identify the problem first, what you're valuing, what you're pricing, what your client is valuing, what your client is pricing is the problem facing them, not that scope of work. They don't understand it. Remember? You're the expert, not them. Don't let yourself go down that rabbit hole of detailed scoping. Begin with fully understanding the problem. Fully value the problem, price the solution to that problem.