A new consultant on a forum I belong to posted this question:
I’m getting started with my first consulting clients and my main focus is email marketing but I also have experience with content marketing and I can advise on web page layout and design in terms of visitor experience and conversion.
The general gist of my question has to do with whether to charge a flat fee or hourly or (?)…
How do you determine how much to charge considering that a marketing consulting job often involves more than just one or two elements (i.e. the email campaign, creating landing pages, modifying existing web pages, etc.)?
Stated another way, it’s one thing to say “I’ll create 12 auto-responder messages for $1200” but what about the less clear-cut tasks such as making all the miscellaneous website design improvements and such, considering that it’s difficult to anticipate and plan everything up front?
I posted the following reply:
Some random thoughts on how a consultant should charge:
— If you are acting as an extra pair of hands for your client, your work is relatively less valuable than if you are enabling a transformation.
— Always be raising your fees. Usually to do this consistently, you need to also be raising the quality of prospect you’re talking to. What happens over time: Your confidence grows and you realize you should be charging more. But many of the people you’ve been talking to either can’t afford or won’t value you enough to pay your higher fees.
So you need a simple marketing and selling system that brings you a consistent flow of your ideal clients. See my free seminar on “The 5 Steps to A Consistent Flow of Clients.”
— How you package your expertise will make a big difference on how much you can charge. For example, if you package your expertise as someone who helps with email marketing that’s different from being someone who helps companies increase sales to the people already in their database. You may be doing the same actual work, but you package it differently.
The latter packaging sounds relatively more transformative and is likely to help you charge higher fees.
— This last point is closely connected to the earlier point about needing to upgrade your prospects as you raise your fees. Some prospects will be looking for an extra pair of hands to help them with “email marketing.” Other prospects want your brain – your transformative abilities – and they’ll be willing to pay a lot more.
Mixing them up, and trying to convince the prospect wanting an extra pair of hands that they should really want your brains (transformative value and higher fees) will work sometimes. But usually you’re better off just talking to a higher quality prospect.
— In your case, since you can help with email marketing AND landing page optimization AND other areas, you should be moving as fast as you can to packaging and presenting your skills as more transformative, rather than task (pair of hands) oriented.
I know I didn’t answer your question of whether you should charge by the hour or a flat fee. Instead, I’m trying to share a broader perspective.
Does this help?
Dov Gordon
PS – Each month I give away a handful of “Consistent Flow of Clients” strategy sessions. To request a session go here and fill in the form. I’ll get back to you within a few days.
These sessions are suitable for coaches, consultants and other experts who already have a business going – and they’re trying to figure out how to systematically and consistently attract their ideal clients.
