Ed Gandia shares a mental framework for pitching advisory services to writing clients. The heuristic helps you categorize what clients actually need and confidently offer work beyond writing projects, so you can earn more while doing less.
Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast, helping you propel your writing business to a whole new level. And now, here's your host, Ed Gandia.
Hey there. Welcome to another episode of the High Income Business Writing Podcast, the number one podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to earn more and less time doing work they love for better clients. With over 1 million downloads from listeners just like you across 101 countries, this episode is much shorter than usual. Rather than my typical 45 minute format. Today I'm sharing a quick tip with you. This is part of the audio insights I publish for my private coaching clients every weekday, and I thought you'd find it helpful.
So here we go.
Hope you enjoy it.
When you're starting to offer advisory engagements to clients and prospects, it's very common to get nervous. Say you're talking with a prospect and you can tell that they need help beyond writing. In fact, you can see that it doesn't yet make sense to go right into a writing project with them because they're not at a point where that's the best first step. And here's the kicker. You're nervous because you're not sure how to think about what they're sharing in the conversation or how to steer the discussion down a path of starting with some sort of advisory engagement as a first step. So here's what I do mentally to help me get better clarity quickly and to calm my nerves when I am in that conversation. It's a bit of a decision tree or decision flow chart, a powerful heuristic, if you will. So I ask myself the following questions. Number one, does it sound like they need help coming up with the right solution or intervention? So, in other words, the right solution to the problem that they're discussing is not very well defined yet. And you can't really move forward with anything until they figure that out, hopefully with your help. Okay, so is that the thing they just haven't really decided or haven't really formulated the right solution or intervention to solve the challenge that they came to you with? That's the first one. Number two, do they have the right intervention? But you can tell they need help improving how they're going to produce or create that intervention. So, for example, they have the right idea for how to solve the problem, but as you listen to them talk about it, you realize the topic or the theme or approach they want to take is flawed. It's got some holes. They really shouldn't approach it that way. Okay, so do they fit into that bucket or do they fit in this third bucket. Do they have the right intervention and the right approach, but they need help bringing that intervention to light? They haven't figured that part out yet. The execution part, like how to actually design or plan that out. For example, they want to interview or they telling you they want to interview 15 subject matter experts, which you know is way too many. Or they want to do too much way too quickly and you realize that they don't have a hand, they don't understand what that's going to take. Okay, so that's what I look for. Which of these three buckets do they fall into? Number one? Does it sound like they need help coming up with the right solution? Do they have the right solution but need help improving how they're going to create it? Like taking the right approach? Or number three, do they have the right solution and the right approach, but in terms of the execution, they have the wrong plan to bring it to life? And I've found that in 90% of cases it's going to fall. The issue is going to fall into one of those three buckets. And the reason these internal questions are valuable, they're internal to me. That's what I'm asking myself. That's what I'm thinking through as I'm listening to them, is that they can help you categorize the exact type of need the prospect has and how you'll steer the conversation and how you're going to offer to help them. And if you can determine this quickly and efficiently during the prospect conversation, you'll have more mental and creative bandwidth to listen more attentively to what they're saying and end the conversation by stating your case confidently. For why you're suggesting that you start out with this type of engagement. So my suggestion is to give this heuristic tool a try next time you go into a prospect or client conversation where you notice that they may need help beyond just the writing. Well, that's it for today.
I hope you enjoyed the episode. And just a quick reminder to grab your free copy of my latest book Earn more in less time. The Proven Mindset, Strategies and Actions to Prosper as a Freelance writer. You can get your free copy@b2b launcher.com where you will also find the detailed show notes to this and all my other episodes you find can enjoy and have a great day.
