Structuring Your Services: From DIY to Full-Service

In a previous blog I’ve outlined the need for subject experts to offer a ‘value ladder’.

This method helps your clients incrementally grow their relationship with you, where each step up the ladder increases the value you provide, and in turn, the investment your client makes.

Naturally, your clients are drawn to you because of your approach, your level of expertise (and the change this can unlock), and your relevance to their needs. They now want access to that expertise.

Let’s consider the following product categories you can offer to your clients:

1. Do It Yourself
2. Do It With Others
3. Do It Together
4. Do It With You
5. Do It For You

1. Do It Yourself

This is where you productise your expertise, typically in a digital format. Think of self-study online courses, resource banks or recorded videos/webinars – these are all scalable assets that involve no ‘delivery time’ from yourself, just the initial setup.

The beauty of this is when they are created, they can be left to generate income, barring the occasional update. The challenge lies in convincing your client these will have an impact and the up-front investment required in creating it.

Typical price rating: £
Delivery time involved: None

2. Do It With Others

As a subject expert, you attract a number of like-minded people into your tribe. Community groups – where people connect, share, discuss and collaborate – are a way of monetising your audience in a relatively hands-off way.

Be aware that any community requires constant ‘feeding’, particularly in the initial stages. As your community grows it can also be difficult to maintain that ‘community-feel’, especially for any early adopters whose experience may change as the size grows.

You may decide to add value to your community by providing access to your ‘do it yourself’ products as part of this.

Typical price rating: ££
Delivery time involved: Low

3. Do It Together

This is where you lead a group of people towards a common goal, typically through a group workshop or cohort-based learning. Unlike a community offering, which tends to be a bit more free-form, a cohort-based format often requires you to play an active and leading role in supporting your group towards a positive outcome, often guided by your framework or tools.

This option is not resource-intensive when compared to one-on-one coaching, but still offers high value through shared experiences.

Digital content and resources can do much of the heavy lifting, but you’ll likely be involved to guide, encourage and facilitate the sharing of experiences. Your clients may expect opportunities to ‘pick your brains’ at times and have immediate access to your expertise.

Typical price rating: £££
Delivery time involved: Medium

4. Do It With You

Now we’re moving into premium offerings. ‘Do it with you’ offerings are typically consultancy and coaching options, where you work closely with an individual or small team to help them achieve their desired goals.

While there are some economies of scale in this (particularly if you’re attracting similar clients, or have a long-term relationship with the client), this can require a significant amount of your time, and as such should be reflected in your price.

Typical price rating: ££££
Delivery time involved: High

5. Do It For You

This is the nuclear option, and may not be suitable for many subject experts. But it’s an option nonetheless. This is where a desired outcome is outsourced entirely to the subject expert where the client has to do little or nothing.

Think of a marketing expert creating and executing a social media campaign for a client. Or a legal expert drafting bespoke contracts, policies, or compliance documents.

I’d always argue this is never a good use of your time. As an experienced subject expert with knowledge and skills worth sharing, working in a non-scalable way may not be the most effective way to work – unless you’re relatively new to your field and need more experience, more credibility or to trial a new approach in the ‘real world’.

Typical price rating: £££££££
Delivery time involved: Very High

Structuring your services in this way allows you to cater to a range of clients, ensuring that your offering reflects the value and level of access they need. The key is to strike a balance between scalability and the depth of engagement you’re willing to provide.

And don’t forget, you probably ditched your well-paid job to become a subject expert so you could do things on your terms. So don’t commit to anything that doesn’t align with your personal goals.

Over to you…

Andy Jack

Andy loves helping subject experts, authors, speakers, coaches and key persons of influence to monetise their expertise with online learning. When not on his laptop, he'll usually be found up a mountain!