Someone asked me recently:
“What are the key areas of value that corporates are looking for and will pay multiple 5 and 6-figures for consulting or coaching?”
Actually, this question kinda jumps in at the middle of the corporate decision-making process and to answer it, you need first to understand a few things about how corporates think.
Understanding your prospect’s specific problem
To start with, corporates will NOT buy consulting or coaching for the sake of it – they will not hire you as a stress coach or leadership consultant because it’s a nice thing to do.
Even those who genuinely care about their people’s well-being, for example, will hire a wellness expert not JUST because they want their people to be well.
They hire experts because they need help with a specific problem that matters to them (their team) AND the organization as a whole.
That means the first step to understanding what type of consulting or coaching corporates are willing to pay large sums for is to understand what the challenges are that they struggle with.
Common mistakes I see – not stepping into your corporates’ shoes
This may seem obvious when written down, but far too many experts look at the value they bring from their own perspectives, not how the client comes to need their expertise.
Meaning they say things like:
“I help build high-performing leaders” or “I help teams create better work/life balance”.
Those are great things, but corporate decision-makers don’t start at that level when they think about hiring someone to support them.
They don’t wake up one morning and say “we need more high-performing leaders”.
Well, they might – but BEFORE they do, they had many mornings where they were frustrated by the lack of impact performing leaders were having on their business, such as lack of progress on costly projects, or poor customer feedback.
Or they’ve had mornings where they worry about how deadlines will be met because more people are off sick or have resigned.
Key areas to focus on
So to really know where you can provide high value, you need to understand the downstream impacts of your work and the specific impact it can have on corporates.
Typical areas of value are:
– Improving their cost base
– Helping them make more sales
– Strengthening their market position
– Showing their brand in a positive light
– Enabling them to attract and retain great people
– Keeping their customers happy
Remember to ask yourself – how specifically (not generally!) does your work help them achieve their goals in those areas?
Contact me
If you’d like to brainstorm ideas around this, join and post in my free FB group and if you want guidance on answering your specific questions, send me a DM to discuss if one of my business mentoring options is right for you.
