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Do Good Work is not a label but a way of living.
It is the constant and diligent effort to achieve a new level of excellence in one’s own life.
It is the hidden inner beauty behind the struggle to achieve excellence.
It is not perfect but imperfect.
It is the effort, discipline and focus that often goes unnoticed.
The goal of this podcast is to highlight that drive.
The guests I have on this show emulate this drive in their own special way. You’ll be able to apply new ideas into your own life by learning from them.
We will also have 1on1 episodes with me where we’ll dive into my own experiences with entrepreneurship and leadership.
Every episode is designed to provide you with ideas that you can apply and grow in excellence in all areas of your life, business and career.
Do Good Work,
Raul
INTRO
PODCAST
Speaker: There's one word that a lot
of service-based companies chase,
and that word is predictability.
We want revenue predictability.
We want ongoing, predictable revenue.
People are selling you on this idea of
predictability, and it's not a farce, it's
not a fake idea, but I see it too often.
You do a project, maybe it's a three
month project, four month project, six
month project, and then from there, I.
The client's done.
You part your ways and it's over.
So then what next?
And you're like, okay, That was great.
Cash flow for three months.
Now we gotta start all over again.
Now we gotta prospect again.
Now we gotta do that outreach again.
I gotta do those sales calls again and
rebuild this over this yo-yo diet of
up and down, Up and down might work
for some are like, I'm tired of this.
I go to this idea of
I want predictability.
I want, recurring revenue.
I want a RR.
So then how do you actually do that?
what I'm gonna explain are tactical
and strategic ways to do that based on,
My work, client's work and how we're
actually doing this in real life today.
So project work doesn't end, so please
do not stop selling project work.
You could go straight into subscriptions
and then start testing that out and
figuring, okay, how, what if we were
to break this project instead of a big
project where you pay 25, 50, a hundred
grand, 120 grand for this project,
how would we break that down if we
were to work together, let's say four.
12 months at x retainer or X
subscription per month, or what if
it was a pure monthly subscription.
So those are like, that's going into
the deep end that's saying, I want
predictability, but I'm going to burn
the ship and just test everything.
Now, don't recommend doing that right now.
What I do recommend is figuring out
when I'm making an offer to a client.
Ideally, you've done your proper two to
three discovery calls, you've spoken to
stakeholders, you know where they're,
what they're trying to achieve, and
it's a pretty of a complex project.
When you start crafting the offer,
when you start working with clients
saying, here's how we can work together,
why don't you just craft the offer
that benefits you for longevity and
creates predictability and cash flow?
For example, some of the clients you
win, if you're working on those big
projects, instead of saying it's gonna be.
This whole project, you have to pay 25%
down and then everything else is due in
month three, and then everything else is
due in month nine or on the deliverable.
What if you just do it, in terms of
monthly payments that way either A, you
can test putting them on a subscription
or B, you work with their accounts
payable team the whole idea is to take
that big project and chunk it down into
milestones or just a monthly payment.
And then you start working on transferring
a big project to, monthly receivables.
Now, after the project is done and
let's say it's 12 months, you need
to re-up the contract or renew.
You gotta be thinking about, am I
going to be doing that new or am.
We're just maintaining what we build
for them because usually big projects
create an expansion in an opportunity
in an organization for one time,
and they may not need that again for
the next three or five or even 10.
Years.
So then the question becomes,
when you go to sell the next
level, is your team prepared?
Do you want to actually create
that new opportunity for
them based on what you build?
Because the foundation that you
build should be pretty substantial.
From there, they should have a new
opportunity or a new way of operating,
seeing business and a new way of
just doing what they've been doing.
Or are you looking to do a maintenance
plan and go under like that, like the mic?
The question then it's up to you like,
what do you wanna sell after the project?
Because typically if you're just
selling the same old, you're either
gonna a, keep the same subscription
price or actually lower it.
And there's psychology behind it where you
condition someone to pay a certain amount.
then you have an offer where they pay
a lower price ongoing because it's
quote unquote cheaper, but it's a
maintenance package versus, you know
what, we're gonna charge the same or
even more 'cause we're gonna do more.
For you, and that forces
you to get creative.
What did you build for them?
What changes in the world because
of what you build for them.
And then from there, what are the new
possibilities that you can help them
explore because you've helped build that.
that's where you become a strategic
partner versus just a vendor.
You can still be charging high project
fees and still be treated as a vendor.
If you keep thinking that you're
gonna only maintain and go
downhill from after a big project.
When you finish the big project,
you got those two options.
Do you wanna do net new
or do you wanna maintain?
The other key thing to look at what
if you sell a smaller project to begin
with and then you work on the recurring
work thereafter, where the smaller
project isn't this whole grandiose, big
tier, big escalator, big new building.
The big new like facility quote unquote
facility idea where you're selling them
that a hundred k, 200 K, 500 K project.
What if you focus on selling them a
smaller engagement three to four months?
Maybe even 60 days, maybe even six
weeks, where you sell 'em something
smaller, packaged together to a
specific outcome that still moves them
along, the milestones on the journey
that they want to be on, and you
enable them to go a little further.
But then you build relationship,
build reciprocity, understand
their ins and outs, and.
Typically, you might even say, Hey,
this actually may not be a good fit
for us for the bigger project because
we see things from the inside that we
couldn't see in our discovery calls.
So that is option number two.
You sell the smaller project and you
just focus on delivering that building
relationship and locking yourself in and
figuring out where can I be essential?
Where can our services really
drive you forward in what
you are looking to achieve?
And either doing subscriptions there.
bigger projects that you break down
into monthly recurring revenue, like
payment plans or you look at, base
plus performance depending on what
they're doing, what you're doing for
them Outputs that you produce for them.
So instead of saying they have
three tracks that they can be
on, they could be on five tracks
and get to their outcome faster.
Or you can just get to their outcome with
higher guarantees or more opportunity
or less likelihood of failure.
And the guarantee doesn't mean that you're
just gonna give them their money back.
It just the perception of when you
draft the offer have some appear
that the higher likelihood of the
outcome is gonna happen versus not.
So how do you actually do that?
It depends on your industry, what
you do and what you feel comfortable
doing, sometimes you just.
State what you're gonna do for
them anyways, and give them
unlimited access to something.
Maybe it's unlimited access to your team.
Maybe it's unlimited access
to asynchronous communication.
Maybe it's as many calls as they need
to feel comfortable, not because they're
gonna take you up on this unlimited
access, or that's just an example by the
way of this unlimited access thing to you.
But because it makes them feel
secure, and I personally do that.
Like I per, I have clients that
only talk to me once a month.
I have clients that talk to
me almost every other day.
I had some clients that talk to me
almost every single day, and it's fine.
Why?
Because it balances itself out.
The goal is to help the other
person achieve their goals and
feel secure working with you.
Feel that they have everything in
their, in your disposal to serve
them at the right level so they
can move forward and make progress.
you don't have to say it's, I'm
gonna give you your money back,
or it's gonna be guaranteed.
But you say that implicitly through
the things that you already do, the
operations you already have going on
in your business to service the client.
And sometimes you might have the most
amazing thing that you're doing for the
client and they never hear about it.
that becomes an issue when you're crafting
an offer to work with the client long term
after a big project So those are the three
things I wanna dive into specifically.
So you do the big project, you have
the option, do I go up or do I go down?
Because no one likes to maintain.
if you're maintaining, you
are gonna be going down.
'cause it's essentially just, oh, we're
gonna update your WordPress site every
quarter or whatever, which is fine.
Or it's we can do this new thing for you
and that increases your lifetime value
and that could increase your retention.
So it's a benefit for both.
It helps them go further, helps
you make more money, helps
you keep the client longer.
Option two is when you actually
work with them intentionally.
Working on a smaller project is
identifying, okay, when we're working on
the smaller project, that's a milestone.
We're gonna finish this milestone,
and then from there, that unlocks.
These three options, or these five
paths that we can go in, depending on
the path you wanna dive into, we can
help you build the track to get to
that end outcome depending on the path.
So again, you're positioning
yourself as a collaborator, as a
strategic partner, not a vendor.
Then the last thing is, when you
make your offers, how do you help
them see that you become essential
in moving together with you?
Not just, oh, they did my website,
or, oh, they did my messaging,
or, oh, they run my ads.
How do you enable them to say, oh, they
do this, but I also have access to all
these different areas of things that they
can give me or that they're servicing me
or that I can tap into if I, so please.
So those are some simple tactics and
ideas to how to go from fixed major
project to ongoing work and ideally
helping you hit predictability.
predictability just means that
you have, you made a sale.
You have predictable revenue coming in
every single month because of that one
sale, you enjoy the benefits six months,
12 months, 18 months, three years down
the line of that initial sale, knowing
that the revenue's gonna compound
because of the work you did two years
ago, one year ago, three years ago, I'm
speaking from experience the work you
do now can compound, but it's all about.
How are you enabling that person
to go further in their journey?
Identifying can I help them go up?
Are we helping them maintain identifying?
Can we just start with a small
milestone and increase from there?
And also helping them see the value
of the work that you already are doing
and they don't know about, and they
just need to be communicated about it.
Those are a few ideas that
are applied right now.
Buy these ideas, test them out,
gimme some feedback and see what
works for you and we'll go from here.
Thank you for listening to the podcast.
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As always, it's an honor to be
a small part in your journey.
This is Raul Hernandez.
Do good work.