Go from SMS to Consulting or Go Straight to Consulting?

I guess my idea is why not both?

SMS is a service. Include with the setup basic consulting and even have an options for monthly consulting built in.

Why miss selling a Chevy to maybe sell a BMW and vice versa? You can do both. Now which way you pitch will depends on you and who you are pitching to. Myself I'd try to ask questions up front and have brochures and such for each service I might pitch. Then it is just a matter of tailing each pitch to the customer based on their needs.

Also by being able to be and do more you can close more. Depending on your sms service you may want to offer it in multiple flavors from customer ran to semi-managed, to full managed with monthly consulting.

And a higher paying customer may not always be easier. The set it and forget it customer is. if you can get a 100 customers paying $70 a month for an sms service that requires little to no interaction on your part wouldn't that be great? You can upsell them even. "John I was looking at your account today and I had a great idea for a campiagn based on something we did the other day with another client. Do you have time on Thurs afternoon or me to stop by and go over my idea with you." Now you would pitch him on that campaign. Maybe $300 for you to set it up or whatever. If it is a good campiagn then you try to sell him on a monthly marketing meeting. Say $100 or $200 for an hour or two meeting where you can discuss campaign ideas. If he wantst o handle them himself he can or you can pitch him on your price to handle the marketing for him.

Notice how you are taking a select few customers and turning them into more while always having your base? It's like a loss leader in retail but in this case you are making money and spending very little time with them. The profits they generate allow you the freedom of time to upsell a selct group of them and get paid well for your time.

And the clients that see value in what you are already providing for them will be more likely to consult with you.

You might only sell me on the SMS service at first but I could see a monthly consulting fee and even paying you to plan campaigns for me if you bring value to my business. You can turn me into a $500 a month client easily. And you can land a lot more clients by making the price for the basic product such a great value they are stupid not to work with you.

I'll just outline what I do, and you can compare and contrast there. I have two packages for lead capture and retention - one is mobile and the other is email. They're both very different, but when used in tandem they're awesome at getting current customers coming back and getting new customers in the door.

• Email Marketing: $200/month 6 month minimum. Includes professional copywriting of email specials (generally 1-2 per week) + one free monthly newsletter for your customers. Includes customer service training to increase opt-in to your email list and addition of email capture to your website. Also includes reports of read/click rates for all emails.
• SMS + Email Marketing: $300/month 6 month minimum. Includes everything in the email package, a custom SMS keyword for your business (Ex. Text "pizza" to 88-888 for special coupons from The Pizza Man) + Phone number capture on your website + one free run of 500 flyers for your business promoting the text/email service to give out to your customers + up to 15 text messages per month to send out special offers.

You can see that the first includes customer service training to increase opt-ins, and the second includes a built-in "subscribe to me!" flyer that helps jump start the service. Given the fairly low cost of my ongoing fees to the providers (~$130/month) I'm making money back with my first client and I'm practically fail-proofing the package so they'll want to keep going.

I guess my prices are more than yours, kind of, but I never thought about positioning myself as a "consultant" rather than "a local guy" since most of the time the latter is what business people are looking for anyway.

So rather than labeling yourself this way or that, you can always charge more if you offer something the other guys don't. Here, nobody offers free flyers or staff training or, actually, SMS marketing so I have an advantage here.

In my experience it's always important to have a little cliffhanger as the doorway for an upsell, for example I have this package:

• Website + Mobile Website + QR Code for mobile website (any number of pages, images, revisions, etc): $1,000 + $15/month hosting if needed. Includes training on updates, additions, etc. Conversion of existing site to mobile: $500 flat rate.

and the conversation usually goes like "well what can I use the QR code for?" and then I can answer:

-You can have people scan it and sign up for your email list on your mobile website
-You can have people scan it and sign up for your sms list on your mobile website
-Wouldn't it be cool to put it on a business card?

and those are all things I can charge for.

I think if you really sit down and structure your packages and products in a way that has them build on each other, build on your involvement with their business...you'll naturally be at a point of constantly "teaching" or "consulting" with the owners and then two things will happen:

-You're easier to buy from.
-You can charge as much as you want.

In terms of actually offering "mobile consulting" there's soooo much more than SMS that you could focus on like - you could set up training sessions at local businesses and spend two hours talking about:

-Mobile analytics on websites
-Mobile user interaction with websites
-Click to call, pseudo-apps
-adMob and other mobile advertising

you get the idea. Make it a seminar and charge as a standalone thing, or charge $50 per head at the local chamber to get more clients.

Anyway, this is longer than I anticipated and I hope it can help, maybe, a little!

You guys have got some great ideas. And since I have some experience doing true global consulting, the "adapt and propose" is an approach I can easily "switch on".

My issue is that I want to be build a sales team. And IMO, the less options the reps have and the less options the clients have, the easier it is to close. Though they could close a "straight service" (like SMS) and then in the follow up I could upsell them, using your great technique: "John I was looking at your account today and I had a great idea for a campaign based on something we did the other day with another client".

But sometimes it's better to just go right for the right deal, as a $300 service is perceived as such and might go well, but going from $100 to $300 might not be so welcomed. It can be done, no doubt about that, but it's harder than a straight higher price service IMO if it's for the same kind of service.

My point is that for the reps to sell effectively, the packages must be simple and well defined. They can't adjust and adapt like we can on our own. And my other point is that setting up a good SMS campaign often involves a good deal of interaction and advice that is a form of consulting, so why not offer it as such.

Appointment reminders and the occasional blasts do not need our upgraded service, but many others would benefit for sure.

Oh yeah. I readily believe than after 4-5-6 months, whether it's pure SMS or includes consulting, it can become set and forget, and that's what I'm aiming for.


SMS, like effective email marketing, is a great for us to keep the clients, as the hassle from getting to another provider is too much for them, and not needed anyway if we deliver the goods. So the monthly fee is something HUGE in that model = the higher the better. And it's good for the reps too if they can share in that profit.

I also think having packages for SMS would be good so even the set and forget customers end up slowly paying more as they get a bigger list.

And yes if your service is good they will not go to the hassle of changing providers.

As for using sales people i think I would have them focus on a simply close with a few packages. Have them also presell later for your upsells. Give them a large percent of their sale and a small percent of any sale you upsell since they planted the seed.

Classic way the F&I office works.

Good way to put it.

I'll still devise a consulting package for them as they might feel it's the good time for it right off the bat anyway, and they can always "downgrade" to a lower package if needed.

I have never wanted to do webinars, but I might just do that when there's a volume of clients. To give yhem more value, and to give them the opportunity for additional services and upgraded packages. I say webinars, because my clients will come from all over the place, not just locally.