An area that some people find difficult is coming up with the right consulting offers and pricing them correctly. In this article, we will recommend what kind of offers you should make to your clients and how you can price them in the right way.
It is not a good idea just to have one rigid consulting offer for your clients. You need to be more flexible and provide your client with a choice of offers. This does not have to be a lot of different offers – three is a good number. People always like to have a choice so make sure that you provide this to them.
Determining Your Consulting Offers
If you want to be a successful consultant then you need to accept the fact that you are in the results business. It is best to tailor your offers so that they provide specific solutions to your clients and achieve the results that they are looking for.
To do this, you need to know your target market very well. You need to know the kinds of problems that they are experiencing and create offers to solve these problems for them. Think through how you will solve each problem that your clients have. What actions will you need to take, and how long will it take you to solve the problem?
Present Different Offers to your Clients
Your client will likely be experiencing several problems in their business or personal life, and some of these will be more difficult to solve than others. You can come up with a range of consulting packages that address all of these problems.
In each case, you can offer different packages. For example, you could have a basic package where you will charge your client an hourly rate and commit to solving one problem. Then there could be a mid-range offer that you will provide at a fixed price to solve more than one problem.
At the top end, you can offer a premium consulting service where you will solve a number of their problems again for a fixed amount. In addition to these packages, be sure to offer the client a monthly deal where you will perform specific tasks for an ongoing monthly fee.
By the Hour Pricing
The simplest form of consultancy pricing is to charge by the hour. You need to take into account that you have other overheads to consider such as the marketing of your business. If you were employed as a consultant by a firm then you might earn $75 an hour. Double this when you are operating your own consultancy.
Clients will expect you to charge a high price for the service you provide. Charging between $150 and $250 an hour is acceptable. The problem with charging clients on an hourly basis is that they do not know how much you will charge overall.
Fixed Pricing
Your client is going to prefer a fixed price for your services. When you are calculating a fixed price you need to estimate the amount of time you will spend on the assignment and apply your hourly rate to it.
When you calculate this number times it by a factor of 1.5. You are never going to estimate perfectly how long a job will take and it is likely to take longer. Clients will expect to pay thousands for a fixed price so don’t be shy with your pricing.
