Productized Consulting: A Unique Way to Achieve Business Success

Productized consulting has been around for a long time, but it is only now that it is receiving the attention it deserves.

This is due to the fact that productizing consulting services provides numerous advantages to both consultants and clients, including:

Clients receive higher-quality productized products and are guaranteed on-time delivery than if they worked with a traditional retainer model.
Consultants can charge less for productized services than for off-project work, making them more competitive in an increasingly crowded market.
Furthermore, productized consulting services can be used in a variety of business models, including freelance consultants working on an hourly, full-time, or part-time basis, as well as established and growing firms looking to diversify their offerings.

What is Productized Consulting?

Productized consulting is one of the increasingly popular productized services. Productizing consulting entails turning your expertise into a fixed-scope, publicly priced product that people can purchase.

In most cases, selling a high-value service with low overhead allows you to earn more money while having fewer logistical headaches.

Productizing consulting services are especially valuable to small teams due to their guiding nature of telling you what needs to be done rather than a stream of random feedback that you may or may not know how to address.

Why is it significant?

Productized Consulting enables you to provide high-level services without the risks associated with traditional consulting engagements, such as upfront payment and hourly billing rates.
Productized Consulting enables your team to focus on what matters most: providing value to your customers while eliminating the distractions that come with project management.
Concentrating solely on productized consulting can help you increase capacity and scale quickly. This allows you to spend more time with clients, allowing you to build stronger relationships.
It can also help you avoid the time-consuming productized product development process.

When can you use it?

Productized Consulting can be used when the company is new, when the productized product team is small, or when both are present.

As your productized product company matures, you will find that long-term contracts and retainers, rather than just nice-to-have features, are required.

The longer you work with a client, the more likely they are to productize your expertise into a productized product or service, allowing you to maximise revenue while minimising operating costs.

What are the advantages of consulting productization?

When you turn your service into a productized product, it is worthwhile to productize consulting. There are numerous advantages to productizing consulting, including:

Improved Client Experience:
Because client experience is such an important component of a productized product, it's critical to have a productized product that provides high-quality service. This includes setting clear expectations and ordering quickly.

Easier Revenue Scaling:
If your productizing consulting is successful, the price must be raised to maintain revenue levels as your capacity shifts. Productizing consulting reduces the time wasted when productizing a product.
Productized products have more predictable profit margins than productized consulting, which means you can accurately predict how long a project will take and how many resources it will require. This allows for more accurate budgeting in your company's productization strategy.

Reduced Marketing Costs:
Productizing consulting eliminates the need to productize products, lowering marketing costs. Instead, you can use productized products to generate more inbound leads by directing visitors to a landing page where they can request productized products.

Easy Employee Acquisition:
Because productizing consulting is a productized product, it is easier to hire employees.
With a productization plan in place, your productizer can focus on what matters most: providing value to customers while eliminating the distractions that come with project management.

Improve Your Customer Understanding:
You'll gain a better understanding of customer needs as they collaborate with your productized products. You can use a product to identify painful problems and validate what so many others are saying about the value of your product.
Productized consulting is an excellent way to monetize and expand your productization strategy. You can earn more money for yourself and your company if you understand how it works and when it works best.

Financial Tactics behind Productized Consulting

You can productize almost anything that does not require significant customization for productized consulting.

If the productizing process involves a lot of customization and little standardisation, traditional hourly billing for productizing consulting services is probably the best option.

The point is that you will never productize your product as long as your customers keep returning for a productized product.

There are numerous reasons to consider productizing consulting, including:

1.Enhanced Revenue
If you can create a set of documented processes that work well for your customers, you can charge recurring fees rather than one-time costs.
Because the costs of billing, accounting, and relationship management are lower, recurring revenue is more profitable and scales better over time.

2. Reduced Risk
Because productizing consulting requires little change, there is less risk involved. This means you can concentrate on generating recurring revenue rather than making risky investments that may not pay off, as is the case with productized services.

3. Increased Quality Control
Customers who pay for productized consulting services on a recurring basis are more likely to provide regular feedback and make suggestions for how to improve the service.
This allows you to avoid quality issues and provide higher levels of customer satisfaction.

4. Lower Marketing Expenses
Customers for recurring revenue are easier to acquire than one-time projects through advertising because they do not need to trust you or understand how your product works. Instead, they are only concerned with the value it provides and how frequently they can use it.

5. More Consistent Income Streams
One-time projects can be more difficult to predict because they are usually more complex. Everything is laid out in advance with recurring revenue, so you have a better idea of what your future revenue will look like.

6. Increased Cash Flows
With recurring revenue, sales projections are easier to make because customers receive value on a regular basis rather than at infrequent intervals. As a result, forecasting cash flows for future projects will be easier.

7. Less time spent on administrative tasks
If you properly productize consulting, the majority of your tasks will be product-related. This gives you more time to focus on other aspects of your business, such as marketing and leadership/mentoring, which can help your company grow even more.

8. Increased Concentration
When customers are paying for a productized consulting service, they expect the very best from you because there isn't much room for error.
Because your mind is always in "product-mode" rather than "project-mode," you can better manage distractions and maximise productivity.

9. Reduced Stress
Because consulting is recurring revenue, you can work at your own pace without being constrained by specific deadlines or customer expectations.
You may have a broad goal in mind, but everything else is dependent on how quickly you can productize consulting services for customers.

10. The ability to scale it up or down
Your business should always be growing, but depending on market conditions, you may want to scale back or ramp up your operations.
Scaling one-time projects presents its own set of challenges because you must constantly re-market yourself. People are more likely to sign up again if they have previously had a positive experience with your services.

What Consulting Services are Productivable?

Every type of consulting service you can think of has a productized product company, including web development, design, content, copywriting, customer research, and growth consulting.
If the productized product is successful, the price must be raised to maintain revenue levels as your capacity fluctuates. Productizing consulting reduces the time wasted when productizing a product.

You don't always need to productize a product when productizing consulting, which lowers your marketing costs. Instead, you can use productized products to generate more inbound leads by directing visitors to a landing page where they can request productized products.
Because productizing consulting is a productized product, it is easier to hire employees.

With a productization plan in place, your productizer can focus on what matters most: providing value to customers while eliminating the distractions that come with project management.
As you both collaborate closely, you will gain a better understanding of customer needs. You can identify painful problems and validate what so many others are saying about the value of your product by seeingling a productized product.

Launch Your Productized Consulting Service

Because you are also trying to sell the productization plan, it can be difficult to productize a consulting service.

You must clearly communicate the amount of work that goes into each task, what customers will receive in exchange for their investment, and how your productizing strategy is unique.

Your productizer should already be aware of the majority of the components of your productized consulting service.

Productization consulting is easier to pitch when you know what customers want and how much they are willing to pay for it.

Because the customer has already stated an interest in purchasing something similar, pitching a productized service becomes less risky, increasing the value of the productized product.

How to Price Your Productization Plan?

• Pricing a productization plan is difficult because you don't know how much sales will be in the future, so you can't compare it to previous work.
• Instead of pitching your hourly rate or value-based pricing, find your productized product through competitive analysis and productizing.
• If you can productize your product alongside a few companies that provide similar services, you can easily use their pricing as an anchor and propose something similar.
• When deciding on a price, the productizer should also consider market demand because there may be too much competition if the productization plan costs less than the productized product itself.
• The productization process for consulting services is similar to that of traditional productization, with the exception that it does not have to be as detailed because there are fewer variables to consider.
• You simply need to outline the key components of your productized service and explain how they interact to achieve specific results for customers. They can pitch the productization plan to customers and help them understand how it works once you've productized your product according to these points.

How Do You Sell Productivity Plans?

When it is unclear how much time is required for productizing consulting or how your plan works, selling productization plans can be difficult. This complicates the process more than selling a traditional productized service with defined expectations and pricing.
You must productize a product before you can sell productization plans productizing consulting. Both parties must understand the worth of each component in your productized product.
You must outline all of the components that comprise a productized service, as well as their estimated time frames, so that they understand how much work is involved.

How should your consulting services be packaged?

A productized item can be packaged in seven different ways:

1. A market-oriented approach
A "market focus" productize product is a type of productized consulting service that assists a company in making its products or services more marketable.
For example, building sales funnels, email campaigns, and landing pages for online marketing campaigns.
You can use the market-focused approach to generate high-quality leads for productizing your product while also earning some money.

2. A product-centered approach
The "product focus" productized consulting approach involves selling a small portion of your service as a product.
Audits, discovery sessions, e-books, and e-courses are some examples.
You can use the productization approach to make your product more affordable to customers while also generating recurring revenue through subscriptions.

3. A service-oriented approach
The "service focus" productization approach involves packaging all or some of your services as a single offering.
Webinars, live events, workshops, and training sessions are some examples.
You can use the productization approach to sell your product to customers as a more expensive productized product and generate recurring revenue through monthly plans.

4. A solution-oriented approach
The "solution focus" productization involves providing a complete solution to a customer's problem and being compensated for the results.
Coaching, mentoring, and mastermind groups are some examples.
Productizers can use the productization approach to sell higher-priced productized products while also generating recurring revenue through monthly plans.

5. A content-centered approach
Productization with a "content focus" is where you create educational content that customers can use to solve their problems. For this type of productized consulting, content creation will be an ongoing process, so it is best suited for people with the necessary expertise and writing skills.
E-books, podcasts, videos, and webinars are some examples.

6. A community-centered approach

Productization with a "community focus" is where you create a space for customers to come together, collaborate, and solve each other's problems.
Inbound marketing communities, mastermind groups, and regional meetups with paid attendance are examples.

7. Hybrid approaches

Some use a combination of two or more of these approaches to create their productized consulting services.

Example: Webinars and live events to support the e-book, which is available for purchase on your website.

Where can you market your productized consulting service?

It's time to decide where you'll sell your consulting services now that you know how to package them as a product.

Here are four possibilities:

1. Direct sale - One of the most significant advantages of selling products is that their perceived value is higher than that of your services.
   You can capitalize on this advantage by selling directly to customers, either offline or online, and making them aware of the distinction.
2. Distributors - Productized consulting can also be sold through distribution channels such as Amazon or your own website.
3. Affiliates - It's possible that your customers aren't the only ones interested in your productized consulting services. You can also approach other people and businesses to sell it as an affiliate product.
4. Existing platform - If you're a speaker, author, or have a large online audience, you can sell your productized consulting directly on your website or through a third-party platform like Udemy.
   Before you begin selling, make sure you understand who your customer is and what they desire.
   You can create a productized consulting offer that perfectly caters to your target customer's needs once you have a complete understanding of them.

Why should you specialise in productized consulting?

As previously stated, people prefer products to services because they have a higher perceived value.
People will believe that if you sell something rather than just offer a service, what you're selling is more valuable and worth paying for. There are several other advantages to consider:

1. Sales process - Selling products rather than services simplifies the sales process. You don't have to call or meet with your customers on a regular basis, and they won't either.
2. Increased revenue - Rather than selling your services to different clients, productized consulting can help you generate more revenue. Your old clients may want to purchase upgrades, so this is a good avenue to pursue, especially if you're having difficulty closing sales with them.
3. Recurring revenue - You can also retain your customers for a longer period of time by offering recurring productized consulting plans that they must sign up for on a regular basis.
4. Scalability - Selling products is scalable because it is simple to create more. After launching the initial product, you can create new products at any time and sell them to new customers.
5. Easier to manage - Because you deal with fewer clients each month, productized consulting can be easier to manage than selling your services (one client only). When selling a productized consulting service, there are no payment terms to consider.
6. Greater perceived value - Selling products is very different from selling services, even if you're trying to sell your own services.
   People will perceive what you're selling as more valuable and worthwhile to pay for because they understand that creating a product takes more effort than providing a service.
7. Saves time – If you're an advisor, consultant, or coach, selling your service to different people every month can be time consuming. It may even get to the point where it interferes with your other personal and professional obligations.
   Productized consulting makes it easier to manage your business by streamlining processes and devoting less time to sales.
   What are the drawbacks to productized consulting?
   Selling your services as products has some drawbacks, just like any other business model. Here are some of the most important limitations to be aware of:
8. Less flexibility - Because customers will have to sign up for your service on a regular basis, productizing it may make it less flexible for you and your customers.
9. Not appropriate for all types of services - Productized consulting is not appropriate for all types of services, so make sure you create the right offer before selling your services as products.
10. Less customization - Because you must create a standard offering, you cannot customize your product as you would with a custom-built service.
11. More effort - Creating a productized consulting offer requires additional effort and cost, so make sure you can manage these costs before proceeding.
12. Committing to a schedule - Your customer may be unhappy with having to pay for your service on a regular basis, and accepting a specific time frame may be difficult for them, especially if their needs change.
13. Less control - Because the price is already set, you won't have as much control or flexibility when selling a productized consulting offer.
    
    Should You Use a CRM Portal?
    
    Now that we've discussed productized consulting, we've arrived at the point in your journey where you must make a critical decision.
    CRM Portal Softwares are critical in assisting you in starting your business from the ground up. They enable you to manage your clients, collaborate with them, and invoice them.
    
    There are many options, such as Dubsado, Asana, ManyRequests, and others, that we have covered in previous articles, but today I want to tell you about my personal favourite, ClientVenue.
    
    ClientVenue is an all-in-one CRM platform for selling your productized consulting services, with a slew of unique features and add-ons that set it apart from the competition.

Why Should You Go With ClientVenue?

Client acquisition is becoming increasingly difficult, and many consulting firms have discovered that creating a customised marketing plan for each customer results in overly complicated processes, manual data entry, and little return on investment.

ClientVenue is one of the most popular Customer Management Platforms available. It is one of the most powerful and user-friendly Client Management Platforms on the market today, having been used to optimise the delivery of services by a variety of consulting firms and freelancers.

2. Easy to view Services section

• Each service's payment method is listed next to it. As a result, you may find all of your company's services under this tab.
• You can quickly generate preview links for your clients with a few clicks. The client only needs to click on the link to see how far you've gotten on the project.

3. Integrates with the best known tools available on the web

• Clientvenue does an excellent job of selecting the most appropriate tools to connect your organisation, ensuring clarity in communication and seamless integration to ensure you and your client are always on the same page.
• Simply sign up for any tool of your choice (for example, Slack) and it will connect to your ClientVenue workspace. Simply enter the one-of-a-kind reference code, a live website, or your licenced licence details into ClientVenue, and it will handle the rest.
  
  Furthermore, this is not an exhaustive list because Clientvenue is constantly integrating more and more critical tools, such as Hubspot and LiveChat, to name a few.

4. Personalized Workspaces

• Personalized workspaces enable you to neatly organise all of your projects in one location without having to keep multiple tabs open at the same time.
• The attractive interface, combined with the straightforward design, eliminates the need to keep extensive records.

You can seamlessly include both services provided outside the client and services provided within the client, as well as a record of archived and completed projects.

You will be able to see all of your projects, which are automatically subdivided into the following categories:

Internal: For use within your company.
External: To be completed for a customer
Archived: Projects that you have saved.
Projects that have been completed
While creating a project, you can also add teammates and edit all of these details as needed.

To learn more: CLICK HERE

All of these features enable ClientVenue to be the leading CRM Portal Software and to sell your productized consulting service to the most satisfied clients.

Conclusion
Customer experience is essential when developing products for your prospects. The immediate next step is for them to feel "at home" and not like they were sold something insignificant. Before developing your productized consulting service, ensure that all customer needs are met.
Productized consulting is an excellent way to grow your business, generate new revenue streams, and attract new customers. Follow these pointers to improve your chances of success.
Make the right important decision and use ClientVenue as a stepping stone to success.