How to craft your value proposition

When you have a clear value proposition you show up with confidence and intention. You attract better clients, do better work, and achieve better results.

If you're considering starting your own business as a self-employed professional, and you've completed your Statement of Intent, you'll have a much clearer idea of why you’re considering self-employment, and you're probably all fired up about what you can achieve.

Now it's time to think about how you might get there, who you might work with - and what you might offer them. 

Why consultants need a value proposition

When you have a clear value proposition, you show up with confidence and intention in your conversations, contracts and marketing. You attract better clients, do better work, and achieve better results.

In Consultants of Choice, we learn five critical components of your Value Proposition. Here's the first three: 

• Who you are

• What you know

• How you work

Get these ingredients nailed, and you’ll have a unique and buyable service offering to attract the right fit clients.

1. Who are you? Be clear about what makes you different

Regardless of how experienced, knowledgeable, or skilful you are in your field of work, the fact remains: people buy people. It’s not just your services that are for sale… it’s you.

So, the clearer you are about what makes you unique, and the more consistently you bring that uniqueness to the table, the easier you will find it to attract the right-fit clients.

Your unique selling proposition (USP) is a statement that describes what makes you, your business or your services unique and different from your competitors.

There are a few steps you can take to decide on your USP, which require looking at your life from three distinct perspectives:

• Your client

• Your competition

• Your context

Your client: put yourself in their shoes

Consider your client's needs and the problems they must solve.

What about your skills, personality, or life experiences make you uniquely placed to deliver those needs?

It might not be what you’d usually put on your CV – think about the sports you’ve played, countries you’ve lived in, family you come from or experiences you’ve had too.

Your competition: what’s out there?

Think about the consultants who already work in your space – you might have already encountered them in your employed work.

What was frustrating about them? What was great? How do you fit in that dynamic?

Look for ways to fill a gap, mitigate their weaknesses, or offer a new spin on their strengths.

Your context: focus on your difference

Consultants and advisors are a dime a dozen. But what about your unique skills and experience make you different?

Think about the exciting jobs you’ve had, the unexpected or surprising experiences you’ve enjoyed, or even the failures you’ve had in your career.

Those differences - possibly the things you’ve minimised in the past, in your career- will set you apart from the competition.

To understand your brand better, try asking questions like:

• Why are you not what you’d usually expect in a consultant? How is this your greatest strength?

• What do most people in your field do, know or think? What sets you apart from them?

• What aspects of your personality or personal life have you hidden or felt uncomfortable about in your career? How could those things be your best selling point?

2. What do you know? Convert career experience into expertise

You might not have experience as a consultant, but your entire career has prepared you for this moment. All the projects and organisations you’ve been involved in have prepared you for your new career as a SEP - here’s how to extract the goodness.

We’re going to draw on three key things to pull together what you know:

• Your experience

• The projects you’ve worked on

• Proof of your expertise

Mine your past for data

The first step to converting your experience into expertise is to map your career as a timeline.

Take inventory of the skills and experience you have gained as an employee and identify those unique and valuable to potential clients, marking milestone projects and organisational change as you go.

Create a career timeline from your first job to your current position. As you go, identify:

• Notable achievements. This includes promotions, awards, or accomplishments demonstrating your skills and expertise.

• Key skills. This can include technical skills, leadership skills, or soft skills.

Then, group those experiences by theme or industry to help identify areas of expertise or specialties.

You can create a clear and comprehensive career timeline by following these steps.

Gather key project highlights.

Case studies of a past project or organisational change demonstrate your expertise and attract new clients.

Select three of your most significant achievements and projects to use as your foundation portfolio, which you can include on your social media and website to provide social proof and evidence of your expertise.

Collect testimonials and social proof.

Ask former employers and colleagues for testimonials and references, similarly to how you would in a job interview process, but with a different lens.

3. How do you work? Make yourself a buyable service

There are many professional service options that people make a great living from. Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, it’s helpful to ground your new business inside common categories that people already understand - and buy!

The steps here are pretty simple:

• Choose your category

• Label your services as consulting

• Select your preferred mode

Pick your preferred category

Choose from a common category that people understand. i.e.

1. Legal

2. Financial

3. Environmental

4. Engineering

5. Operations

6. Strategy

7. Leadership

8. Sales and marketing

9. IT

10. Creative services

11. Healthcare

12. Education and training

13. HR

14. Real estate.

Label yourself as a consultant

Your market understands consulting better than ‘thought leadership’ or advisory services.

Regardless of how you feel about being a ‘consultant,’ it’s a valuable and pragmatic way to define your service offer to potential clients before zeroing in on the services you will offer.

Try describing yourself as a consultant, with some follow-up information about what that involves.

For example: “I’m a…”

• Strategy consultant: I work with clients to develop and implement strategies to help them achieve their business goals.

• Operations consultant: I improve the efficiency and effectiveness of a client's internal operations by… (speeding up their supply chain, streamlining their processes, etc).

• IT consultant: I help clients use data and technology to make their businesses grow faster and make more money

• Human resources consulting: I work with clients to better recruit, manage and develop their internal workforce to improve their employee experience.

• Financial consultant: I help people to achieve their financial goals through budgeting, investment, tax, or financial planning.

• Marketing consultant: I support clients with cutting-edge marketing strategies to help them reach their target audiences better.

• Management consultant: I help clients improve how they run their teams and organisations with more innovative management practices.

• Environmental or sustainability consultant: I help organisations to become more sustainable and environmentally friendly.

• See? Nice and easy. When you can place yourself inside an existing box, you increase your odds of being found, understood and buyable.

Now it’s time to consider what that might look like as a distinct offer or set of services for you.

Consider your mode options

There are many potential modes and ways of working out there.

Don’t worry too much about picking your favourite now, but it helps to understand the kind of services people buy from external SEPs and think now about how you can make the most of your skills and preferences.

Here is a summary of the ten main modes and services that a SEP might offer:

1. Audits and reviews

Conducting assessments of an organisation's systems, processes, and practices and providing recommendations for improvement. This can include financial audits, operational reviews, or compliance assessments.

2. Strategy and planning

Help organisations develop and implement strategic plans by identifying goals, objectives, and actions needed to reach them. They also assist organisations in creating long-term vision and identifying new opportunities.

3. Project management

Taking on the role of project manager, leading and coordinating the efforts of a project team to deliver a specific outcome or product. This can include managing timelines, budgets, resources, and communication and coordination with stakeholders.

4. Implementation support

Working with clients to implement the recommendations and plans developed in the previous modes by providing guidance and support to ensure successful execution. This can include coaching and training and monitoring and measuring progress.

5. Training and education

Providing education and training to clients on specific topics such as management, leadership, or technical skills. They can also design and deliver customised training programs.

6. Coaching and mentoring

Providing one-on-one guidance and support to individuals or teams, helping them to achieve their goals, develop new skills, and overcome challenges. This can include executive coaching, career coaching, or mentoring.

7. Research and analysis

Gathering, analysing and interpreting data to provide insights and recommendations on specific topics or issues. This can include market research, customer surveys, or data analysis.

8. Technical services

Providing specialised technical services to clients, such as IT consulting, engineering, or scientific research.

9. Creative services

Producing creative outputs in collaboration with clients to meet their objectives. This can include creating visual content for marketing materials, designing brand identities, providing writing and content or creating graphic elements for websites or social media.

10. Legal and regulatory services

Providing compliance or accreditation services, such as drafting legal documents, providing legal advice, and helping organisations to comply with laws and regulations.

How to choose your mode

You’ll operate across multiple modes in your new business, but it’s helpful to select your preferred methods or ways of working as you start to shape up your initial service offer.

To begin, select the consulting modes that align with your skills, experience, and interests and what your clients will be willing and able to buy.

Warning: don’t limit yourself to what you’ve done before! Many skills you’ve developed over your career will be quickly and delightfully redirected into new modes. This is a great chance to explore!

Bring it all together

When you’ve clarified who you are, what you know, and how you work, you have the beginning of your unique consulting value proposition. Now, there are just two more ingredients to consider - but to learn more about those, you’ll have to join the Consultants of Choice community. Watch the videos, do the exercises, draft up your value proposition, and then share it with a supportive group of your peers.