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One of the things that I’ve been documenting on the blog is the process of building a WOM/Social Media practice (see here, here, here (personal blog) and here).
Of course, I don’t want to look “unprofessional” or “unseasoned” to clients/potential clients, but one of the core challenges of the “Marketing 2.0” era (or whatever we want to call it) is getting comfortable with a few key concepts.
And a philosophy of development
- Perpetual Beta/Co-Creation
- getting comfortable with releasing "products” that are admittedly “not perfect” in the hope that the community will work with you to improve it.
So, I figure, if I am going to advise clients to follow this path, with the perceived risk that goes along with it, I’d better be willing to do it myself, right?
In my discussions with potential clients, I think I’ve made some mistakes in the sales process. I jumped too quickly on a few them to a paid engagement.
Recognizing that every client is different and unique and situations require customization, here’s what I am thinking. Let me know if it makes sense. I’d also like to give a call-out to Moe Kaviani, CEO of ICI Systems for helping define the line between “free/paid” as the difference between “not knowing what you don’t know” and “knowing what you don’t know.”
Activity | Purpose | Free/Paid |
| Introductory Meeting (keep those referrals coming!) | Does client even like me? Get sponsor buy-in. Sponsor may know what s/he doesn’t know, but rest of org may not | Free |
| 2 hour facilitated discussion “Rules of New Marketing and Social Media Strategy” (here is the deck-draft 1) | Involve larger group and move folks from “not knowing what they don’t know” to “knowing what they don’t know” | Free (or nominal fee) |
| 1 day workshop Rolling out a WOM/Social Media Strategy (based on formula outlined in this whitepaper and in a series of blog posts here (or download here) | Build the strawman of a WOM/Social Media plan with a deliverable of WOM/SM State of the Union/Diagnostic/Assessment | Paid |
| Phase 1 Work
| Demonstrate some ROI/benefit of WOM/Social Media (duh!) | Paid (tie compensation ROI/success metrics, in part) |
One of the more challenging aspects of being a consultant is knowing how much to give away for free…and when to say “hey, you know I get paid for this.”
Advice is welcome.
