What to Sell as a Freelancer, Expert or Consultant

What to Sell as a Freelancer, Expert or Consultant?

You want to start and grow a business, but you're hung up on what to sell.

Don't worry, I've got you covered in this article.

If you have an existing skill or expertise, you already have something to sell.

You just need to learn how to position your expertise as the only viable solution for your perfect client’s most painful problem.

We sometimes refer to this as your “packaging” or building the perfect “offer” that people love paying you for.

Once you go through this process, you’ll know exactly what to sell as a freelancer, expert or consultant.

It all starts with “What do they need?”

Yo, Taylor Welch here, Co-Founder of Traffic and Funnels.

Our Income Skyrocketed

…when we stopped selling random stuff.

Structuring your offer is an ever-evolving process.

What’s most important is getting what you are going to sell to the market.

From there, after you start talking to people in the market, then you will make refinements.

Get people on the phone and listen to what they say.

Then adapt your offer to what they need.

For our first 3 clients, we did different things for them.

Sometimes you are going to need to start selling something before you have created it.

As long as you are confident that you can help people in your field of expertise, you can start selling it before you have the full “offer” put together.

What is it they need?

The answer to that is what you will then sell as an expert or a freelancer or consultant, coach, etc.

What you provide for people should not be a box that you want to force people into.

It’s actually something that you design based on what the market tells you they want.

“It’s like wrapping a warm blanket around your market.” – Chris Evans

I’d add to that “…on a cold winter evening, with a cup of hot cocoa.” – Taylor Welch

All these pitfalls came from mistakes we made. I wish we had these when we started.

You don’t want to put together a package or program that people don’t end up buying.

Get people to give you their credit card first.

Pro Tip: 

You can sell your package as a “beta” program at first until you have it fully built out.

Also, less is more.

Your clients want clarity in what you will do for them. 

Including a few pillar steps is all it takes.

And, don’t let this excuse stop you from starting:

“I don’t have case studies or testimonials yet!”

Do you think we had case studies or testimonials when we started? Nobody does.

Use that to your advantage by saying something like:

“You’re never going to have the opportunity to work this closely with me again.”

Or:

“We’re going to grow and we won’t be able to do 1:1 any more.”

Or:

“We're going to raise the price in a few months. I’m only working 1:1 with my first 5 clients.”

Etc..

Rolls Royce Vs. Pinto.

Imagine if you were a freelancer, an expert, a consultant and you went to somebody and tried to sell them a Rolls Royce for $5,000.

They would look at you and wonder:

“What is wrong with this car?”

A lot of freelancers try to sell a Rolls Royce for too little money and people will think it’s a piece of crap.

You have to charge for the level of your value.

It’s ok to start lower when you are starting out. 

We started at $3,000 before we began raising our prices. 

Don’t be scared to ask for money.

“I love asking for money.” – Taylor Welch

I’m so cool I can quote myself.

Don’t charge so low that you lose business to competition.

Let me say this again. Don’t charge so low that you lose business to competition.

Last note here:

• You can’t negotiate the price of a Rolls Royce.

• You can negotiate the price of a Ford Pinto.

If and when you’re selling a high quality product and experience, you don't have to worry about the price.

Commodity VS. High Paid Expert

We used to be generalists. 

We were all things to all people.

We charged the least and were at the bottom of earners.

Want to know what to sell as a freelancer, expert or consultant?

Become a high paid specialist freelancer, expert or consultant.

There are 3 ways you can sell what you do.

You can sell on:

• Price

• Value

• Results

Selling on price is like Walmart. It isn’t a good way to start and scale your freelance / expert /  consulting business.

Selling on value is selling on all the “time with you” or “stuff” that’s included: 27 bonuses for the price of one, etc…

Specialists sell on results.

These are the people who are at the top of their markets: The neurosurgeons, the highly-compensated marketing consultants, the highly specialized experts or freelancers.

Designing The Journey For Your Package

Everybody is selling to a market in pain.

This is where you start putting together your package or program as an expert or freelancer or consultant.

You want to bring people from “stuck” to “unstuck.”

Let me show you how to do that.

To the left is where your market starts: in pain.

To the right is where they end up after working with you: not stuck.

The line moving up diagonally across the middle is your clients’ confidence meter that your process or system works.

Let me take you through this.

It’s as easy as writing down a few key barrier steps:

• Where they are stuck. (Write that down) 

• Where they want to get to. (Write that down.)

• Then the 3-5 barriers or bottlenecks that they don’t know how to get through.

Then arrange these in order so you can boost their confidence quickly as they begin to get results.

The first step should get them some kind of breakthrough.

When it does, they become invested and build momentum.

An Example:

Here’s an example of brides wanting to lose a certain amount of weight before their wedding:

What Should I Charge?

My first offer as a freelancer in business was $400. (And this was for a TON of work.)

Our first Traffic and Funnels offer (BETA) was $3,000.

It was one-on-one (not group), and we took three clients our first month.

From there, we added a group call, but still did one-on-one.

Then we added training and stopped doing traditional one-on-one.

We’ve raised our prices and tested all the way to up $15,000.

We really sell this program for what we feel is the best investment to repel ‘losers’ and get A-players terrific results.

Nothing happens until you take action.

I highly recommend checking out our Packaging Blueprint product to get started quickly on this.

So many people struggle with overthinking this.

Don’t worry about having the perfect offer before allowing yourself to take action.

The Packaging Blueprint will give you the map to get started quickly

It took us about 50 calls before we had our offer nailed and dialed in.

We condensed what we learned inside The Packaging Blueprint premium training.

We made 46 grand from the packages we sold during those 50 calls. 

Honestly, there was a little feeling of dread after we enrolled all the clients, because we then had to fulfill on all of them.

I remember writing up a welcome letter on a road trip, to send to clients.

We figured it out as we went.

And that is good.

Now we're living the good life.

It’s the action and learning the lessons that got us to where we are today.

That’s why I’m sharing this with you.

I want you to win!

Start Taking Action

Start selling your offer at a lower end price. (We started at $3k.)

Then raise your price as you gain confidence and results for people.

Your Package Should…

• Take your high value avatar…

• Help them go from “stuck” to unstuck…

• Give them the life, money, feelings, security (etc.) that they desperately want or need…

• In as short a time frame as possible (leveraging quick wins to boost the confidence meter early.)

Money ROI is not the only ROI you can sell to your prospects.

There are emotional ROIs. Security ROIs. Freedom ROIs. Peace of mind ROIs.

Don’t:

Don’t go on and on talking about what is inside your program or service.

Don’t deep dive into all the features and benefits. (“X” amount of HD stunning videos… blah blah blah…)

Don’t deviate from the script (in theory, use your personality but use the script as your outline.)

(Our sales script is included inside The Packaging Blueprint training.)

Creating Your Package:

Work backwards.

Find out where your prospects are stuck.

Figure out the 4 – 5 core steps (barriers) that you need to take people through to get them results.

You want to “mold” your offer for the different types of people you speak to.

Don’t force people into a box. 

Even if the timeline might be a little different or they want certain things more than others, reflect parts back to them so they’re getting exactly what they feel they need.

Your Offer and Packaging Worksheet

I’ve given you a lot of information here.

Inside The Packaging Blueprint I also go over the offer and packaging worksheet. 

Leverage this knowledge.

Take action. Get the momentum going.

To your success,

-T