"I'll hire you...but how can you help?"
"I'll hire you...but how can you help?"
Hey! It's Angelina Fomina from Ambition & Careers Redesigned.
If you're talented and do consulting or fractional work part-time ➞ people might ask "I'd love to work with you. How can you help? What can you do for me?".
...so what do you say?
People appreciate your passion and expertise but need clarity.
Here's how to define how you can help:
1. Focus on the person asking ➞ "The Buyer Persona"
↳ List their needs, blind spots, and strengths.
↳ Are they missing your domain expertise? Or your execution skills?
↳ Categorize your "persona's".
Example Buyer Personas:
(1) Tech founder with no experience in healthcare
(2) Clinician with no experience in tech
(3) Founder where I was 5 years ago.
2. Analyze their product and company stage
↳ What's most important to them? Companies in different stages will have different needs. If you know they have a very tight funding runway, or if they are bootstrapped, well then revenue is a clear target. How can you help boost this revenue? If they are scaling, and growing super fast, can you help with processes and structures?
↳ Ex: Is it immediate sales, or feedback from the market and clients?
3. See if the person is YOU but 2, 5, 10 years ago.
↳ Many see you are a role model. People want to get to where you are.
↳ Reflect on your journey. Key actions. Mistakes. Hacks.
↳ Do a free intro call to refresh your memory. See if you can help. LISTEN. Thoughtfully respond.
4. Create your LOW, MID, and HIGH touch offerings.
↳ Low: i.e coaching or consulting by the hour. You can offer a package of 4 hours each month, or even more spread out. Have a sequence or framework that guides the client through to a desired goal. Ex: Are they shipping something for the first time, then create a 0 to 1 framework that shares your knowledge in 8 calls
↳ Mid: i.e 10 hours a week of product execution work. Clearly define your boundaries of what you will do, and you won’t since you only have a few hours a week.
↳ High: i.e recruiting a team of designers, to launch a product 0 to 1
5. Price each offering differently
↳ Low: per hour
↳ Mid: on monthly, or per-project retainer
↳ High: on deliverable
↳ ASK: "I'm excited to work with you, which option do you want?"
6. Define an early and quick "win"
↳ How can you provide value right away?
↳ Usually, it's not telling the person what they already know.
↳ Be mindful of ideas. Most know what they need to do, but don't have resourcing or time.
7. Pretend you already got the consulting contract
↳ What does success look like in the next 3 - 6 months?
↳ What results did you deliver?
↳ What will you highlight, to get more clients?
↳ How did this help define your specialization?
8. Write out a hypothetical proposal
↳ Categorize all of the "to-dos" and wins into sections.
↳ If you were to get a sign-off from your client, what would their feedback be?
Example Proposals…
9. SYSTEMIZE
↳ Focus on 2 - 3 "Buyer Personas"
↳ Focus on 3 offerings for each
↳ Rinse and repeat your proposals...
10. Check in with your heart ♡
↳ Who do you love helping? And how?
↳ What gives you energy, vs. takes it away?
Careers, Redesigned
Careers, Redesigned is your source to find purpose, follow your authentic path, switch careers, thrive doing meaningful work, and lead with love. By Angelina Fomina - x-Meta, Oculus, Shopify Product Manager, 3x founder, Fractional Lead, and forever side-hustler.