{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "description": "You can sell strategy confidently when you specialize in a specific target market, focus on a painful problem, and align the roadmap with services you already deliver.",
  "path": "/articles/i-dont-know-if-i-can-sell-strategy/",
  "publishedAt": "2021-07-23T18:49:38.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:jznynyzgerlqmdbbj33o7wfs/site.standard.publication/3mnll3icujb2z",
  "tags": [
    "Getting Clients"
  ],
  "textContent": "One common objection that crops up when someone starts to contemplate ditching the proposal, launching a roadmapping service (/roadmapping/), and selling strategy is:\n\n“I don’t know if I can sell strategy. I’m not a strategic thinker. What if the client needs strategic help on something I don’t know how to do?! Ahhh!”\n\nWhich, fair objection.\n\nIf you, for example, sell SEO services to Shopify stores and someone shows up and asks for your strategic insights on, e.g., solving the environmental impacts of their product packaging, you might struggle.\n\nIf you’re looking to sell roadmapping (and strategy) on easy mode, this is where specialization, expensive problems, and the law of raspberry jam come into the picture.\n\n#1: Avoid Problems You Can’t Solve\n\nSee, barring some exceptions, you shouldn’t attempt to sell strategy to everyone for everything. That way lies madness and spreading yourself across a million different topics, diffusing any strategic insight you might be able to share.\n\nThe law of raspberry jam tells us:\n\n“The wider you spread it, the thinner it gets” — Gerald Weinberg\n\nIf you have too wide of a stance with your strategy-focused service offering, you’re going to struggle to make your service and marketing resonant with your target market.\n\nInstead, you need to make your strategic offering _ laser-focused_ on places you can provide strategic insight.\n\nHow can you do that? Three ways:\n\n#2: Focus On Problems You Can Solve\n\nA) You need to be specialized\n\nIf you aren’t specialized, you’re going to be selling to too many people for your marketing message to cut through the noise.\n\nAnd when you’re marketing to too many different target markets, the problems people ask you to help with can get very dissonant, which leads to you working on problems you can’t solve.\n\nInstead, you need to focus your strategic roadmapping offering (and all your marketing and services, really) on a specific target market, platform, or vertical (e.g., SEO Growth Strategy for Shopify+ Stores, Digital PR Strategy for THC and CBD Brands).\n\nThat specialized focus allows you to target the strategic problems you already have insight into solving.\n\nWhat contributed to that insight? You picked it up from:\n\nThe years of work you’ve done in this space\nThe experience you’ve had solving problems for your clients\nThe knowledge you’ve picked up reading and researching in this line of business\n\nAll that adds up to strategic insight on a specialized, expensive problem.\n\nBut specialization alone isn’t enough.\n\nB) You need to focus on a painful problem\n\nYou need to focus your strategic offering on a painful problem your target market is experiencing. The problem, ideally, should be costing your clients/the market time or money or preventing them from making money.\n\nWhy? Because if you aren’t focusing on a painful problem, the value math doesn’t work out for your service.\n\nImagine that you’re focused on sharing strategy for a problem costing your prospective clients, e.g., $50/yr. You’re charging $500 for your strategic offering to help them define a plan to solve this problem.\n\nWhy should they purchase? The math doesn’t work out in anyone’s favor.\n\nBut if the problem they’re facing is costing them $5000/year, suddenly your $500 (or $1,500) strategy-offering looks good. Invest a bit of money, get strategic insight, and understand how to approach solving this high-cost problem in a way that will make an impact.\n\n3) You need to align your strategic offering with the implementation services you already sell\n\nThe easiest way to sell strategy on easy mode? Align it with the implementation services you already sell (if you sell done-for-you implementation services).\n\nLet’s say that you sell rolls dice something like one of the following done-for-you implementation-focused services:\n\nSEO services for Shopify Plus stores\nDigital Public Relations for THC and CBD Brands\nBrand and Web Design services for early-stage YCombinator Startups\n\nIf you want to launch a strategy-focused roadmapping offering, make it the precursor step to what you already sell. That might look like:\n\nSEO Growth Strategy for Shopify Plus stores\nDigital PR Strategy for THC and CBD Brands\nBrand Strategy for YCombinator Startups\n\nYou already know that you’re successful selling these done-for-you services. So, launching a strategy-focused offering that’s a precursor step to your done-for-you implementation services aligns everything so nicely.\n\nSome clients will show up and already have a clear understanding of their strategy.\n\nWith those clients, you can jump to the done-for-you implementation services. They don’t need a strategy (or don’t need a lot of strategy), so you can focus on implementation\n\nBut other clients will show up with a need for a clear strategy.\n\nMaybe they need someone to define a plan for them. Or perhaps they’re searching for someone who can clearly explain the issue and the best approach to them.\n\nFor those clients? You want to direct them to your strategy and discovery-focused roadmapping offering. It’s what they need.\n\nPutting this all together\n\nIf you want to get started selling roadmapping and strategy-focused services (/products/roadmapping/), ditch the proposal, and protect yourself from time-wasting tire kickers, you need to focus on:\n\nA specific, specialized target market\nAn expensive problem that’s costing your target market money\nOffering a strategic roadmapping service that aligns with the implementation services you sell\n\nThat’s the high-level strategy, but what does the implementation look like? How do you get started selling roadmapping?\n\nWhat questions should you ask?\nWhat should you charge for your roadmap?\nWhat documents, emails, templates, or resources will you need?\n\nIf you’re looking for additional perspective, guidance, or direction on how to get started selling roadmapping services, then I recommend you check out Quick Start Roadmapping.\n\nQuick Start Roadmapping will give you the tools, resources, templates, and guidance you need to get started with roadmapping.\n\nOne bonus included with your purchase? A 50-minute video interview with Kurt Elster (of Ethercycle) about how Ethercycle uses roadmapping in their service offerings. You’ll love learning how a successful agency is succeeding with roadmapping. You can watch the recorded video interview or read the human-generated transcript.\n\nRead more about Quick Start Roadmapping, what you’ll receive with your purchase, and the all-new ‘Quick Start Roadmapping plus Strategy Call’ bundle right here: /products/roadmapping/\n\nExcelsior!\n\nKai\n\np.s., here’s that link one more time: /products/roadmapping/",
  "title": "“I don’t know if I can sell strategy”"
}