Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Made in the UK for HR Consultants worldwide. You're listening to the HR Marketing Guys podcast.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Hello James here and welcome to this week's podcast. In this week's main event, I'm going to talk you through the four Ps of marketing and how you need to use each one to get new clients and grow your consultancy. And in this week's Thought of the Week, I'm going to tell you some very exciting news and hopefully inspire you to dream big for 2025.
[00:00:34] Speaker A: So let's jump straight in this week's main event.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: As you probably know, I've spent loads of time this year helping HR consultants package up their services. And that's why I created my flagship video program, how to Package up and Sell HR to Make More Money. At the start of the year, I was discussing my plans with another growth consultant in the space and she was genuinely puzzled as to why she said, you marketing. What does that have to do with how HR consultants should package up their services? And I quickly quipped back and said that I can't polish a turd. You see, there is so much more to marketing than just putting a LinkedIn post up and hoping that someone will see it. There are four Ps of marketing, product, price, Place and promotion. Product is all about what you offer and ensuring it meets your clients needs. Price is all about your value proposition and making sure you're pitching your services at the right price. Place is all about choosing the best channels and platforms to reach your audience. And promotion is how you actually put your brand and services in front of people. And you need to get each of these four P's right in order to grow your consultancy without pulling your hair out. Because if you have a crappy product or service, or if you're trying to sell at the wrong price, or if you're using the wrong communication channels, then it is incredibly difficult to promote your services and you're unlikely to get any results from your marketing. And that's why in this podcast episode, I want to talk you through the four Ps of marketing and tell you exactly what you should be working on to help you grow your consultancy and get new clients in the easiest, quickest and most affordable way possible. So let's get started with our first P. And that's Product. I've said it before and I'll say again, how you package up and sell your services is the most important thing you can think about. Not only from your point of view, but from your clients too. Most consultants I know go into a business and Say that they can help with anything, that they work in a completely bespoke way, and then they just try to sell this big chunk of HR and as many hours as they can. But I think this is a really big sales get up. Business owners don't understand what they're buying, they don't understand what they actually need. It's hard to sell, it's hard to deliver, and for me it's just completely the wrong approach. So what should you do instead? Well, first you need to break HR down using the new framework I've created called the HR Service pyramid. So just imagine a pyramid for a second and think about your services through the eyes of a business owner. At the bottom you have admin, so this is HR software and payroll. You, you then have advisory, which is the day to day advice that business owners need. You then have management, which is the day to day operational stuff. You then have director, which is the strategic stuff. And then you have your specialist services at the top. You then need to package up each level of the HR service pyramid using the right revenue model. So there are four revenue models available to you. Passive, subscription time based and one off. You're no doubt great at selling your time, but you're missing out on a huge chunk of recurring revenue. So what I want you to think about is packaging up the admin and advisory levels of the HR service pyramid using passive and subscription revenue models. Then when it comes to marketing and selling your services, instead of trying to sell this big chunk of HR in as many hours as you can, I want you to flip the pyramid and think of it as your funnel. Start off by selling initial services like HR software. It's easy to market, easy to sell, it's easy to buy, and this will help you get your foot in the door. And then finally, I want you to think about value stacking your services on top of one another. So when it comes to the first P, which is product, instead of just trying to sell this big chunk of HR and as many hours as you can, I want you to create different packages for each level of the HR service pyramid. And I want you to think about value stacking your different packages on top of one another.
So let's just move on to our second P and that's price. From your point of view, you obviously want to make as much money as you possibly can. And from your client's point of view, your services need to seem like great value for money. So there is a balance that you need to find here. Most consultants I know are undercharging so if you're just setting your time right now, the only thing you can really do is to review your hourly rate and see how much you can increase them without scaring anyone off. But the ultimate flex here, both for you and your clients, is to create more value based packages as they allow you to scale your earnings beyond your available time and if positioned in the right way, will actually provide your clients with great value for money too. So remember that I said that we should turn the advisory level of the HR service pyramid into a subscription based package. Well, this package should only include first line day to day support that business owners need and if we were using a time based model, the costs could quickly escalate for the business owner depending on use. However, if we were to use a value based subscription based model, business owners could access unlimited first line support and it's a fixed cost for them each month. So by using this terminology, we make our subscription package seem like the safer option, more affordable and best value for money and we create an opportunity for you to scale your income beyond your available time. This only works because we have broken HR down via the different levels of the HR service pyramid and we've been very clear to define what's in and what's out of each level. I know this is a huge mindset shift and you might have lots of questions and that's why I created my flagship video program how to Package up and sell HR to make more money. And within this video program I talk you through exactly how to do this and eight steps you should take to create your own package prices. So once you've packaged and priced your services up in the right way, you can then think about getting your name out there. Which leads us really nicely onto our third P and that's place. This one is really easy to be honest. You just need to think about your target market, where they hang out and the best way to contact them. For B2B businesses like ours, there's only really four communication channels, socials, email, website and telephone. So social media wise I always get asked if you should be using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok. My answer is really simple. If your clients are using the platform for their business or personal use, then beyond that, if they aren't, then don't bother. So that's why I pretty much focus on LinkedIn and depending on your target market, you may choose to only focus on LinkedIn too. Emails and website are obvious and jumping on the phone to call someone is always an effective way to get an appointment in the Diary.
So once you've figured out how to package and price your services up and the best way to communicate to your target market, you will then actually want to get some comms out there. Which leads us nicely onto our fourth and final P, which is promotion. So there's two types of marketing that you can do. Some people call this farmer hunter marketing, but this cringes me out a bit. So I like to use the term push pull marketing. So pull marketing is the typical brand awareness stuff. This is all about putting content out there and hoping that it pulls people in. To do this, you simply need to create a content schedule for yourself, like a monthly newsletter, a weekly email posting to LinkedIn three times a week, and then you can create the content yourself or tweak the content we provide as part of the HR marketing box. This type of marketing is really important because it's how you're consistently seen and heard. But this alone won't help you to get new clients. And that's why you also need to do push marketing. So push marketing is when you push your message in front of someone by doing some direct marketing and multi touch point campaigns are a great way to do this. So let's say that you've got 50 leads that you want to target over the course of two weeks. You're going to contact them using all communication channels with the same angle and call to action. The angle could be HR software for instance, as this is an easy and great way to get your foot in the door. And then the call to action is to book a free demo. So on Monday, let's say you can send a letter, on Wednesday you could send an email, on Friday you could send a DM on LinkedIn. And Monday, the following week you can give them a quick call. So doing both pull and push marketing will help you to get results fast. So let's quickly recap each of the four Ps of marketing and what you should be doing to get new clients and grow your consultancy. The first and second Ps are product and price. So I think you have a huge opportunity to break your services down into different packages and value stack them on top of one another. This will help you to sell and to make more money. And then the third and fourth P is place and promotion. So you need to pick the communication channels that are right for your target market. And you need to do a mix of pull and push marketing. So although the four Ps of marketing is a bit old school, I do think it provides you with a great foundation framework to work from. So if you're thinking about 2025 already and what you can be doing to grow your consultancy, make sure that you're doing each of the four P's right and you should be okay. And as always, I'm here to help you if you need me.
So there are four ways that I can help you right now. The first is by signing up to my flagship video program, how to Package up and Sell HR to make More money. This video program will help you to stop selling your time, make lots of recurring revenue and free yourself from client delivery. I tell you all of the theory you need to know. We've created templated packages for you to use and a templated promotional deck to help you sell everything you need to transform the way you sell HR to make more money. The second way I can help you is the HR Marketing box. So it's an online portal full of ideas and ready to use content to help you increase your brand awareness and get new clients. It's a huge time saver, a thousand times cheaper than writing your own content or hiring your own content writer. And it takes the stress out of your marketing. The third way I can help is our marketing VA service. So our awesome team will create a bespoke content schedule for you, personalize all of the content and schedule it on your behalf. And then the fourth way that I can help you is one to one consultancy so we can jump on a call and discuss anything you need to help you get new clients, grow your consultancy and create a life you love. To learn more about working with me, Visit my website thehrmarketingguy.com or send me an email jameshrmarketingguy.com and hopefully speak soon.
[00:11:00] Speaker A: James Thought of the week.
[00:11:04] Speaker B: I have some very exciting news to tell you. So I've packed up my life in London and I'm flying to Bali tomorrow for the foreseeable future. Not sure what that really looks like. I could hate it and be back in a month, but I've gone without any ties back to London and I'm just going to go and let the wind take me to wherever I need to be. How cool is that? Don't worry, nothing will change business wise. I still have huge plans for business in 2025. The only difference is that I'll be working from a bamboo style wework surrounded by other digital nomad types like me that I hope will be super inspiring. So I attended an event a few months ago and one of the speakers spoke about the importance of dreaming big. This really resonated with me and it's something that I want to empower you to do too. I'd love to inspire you to dream big and take bold action to help you achieve your goals. And this time of year is perfect to start looking back at the year you've had and start thinking about what you would like to achieve in 2025. And I feel like this is perfect timing for me too. As I close this chapter in the UK and look back, I've been super proud of what we've achieved. I've dreamt big and we've really gone for it. I was first recognised by Breathe as their official marketing partner. I massively pushed myself out of my comfort zone and hosted my first incline event, which I think went really well. My accountant forced me to go VAT registered, so that was a few months ago. Now, Nikki, who looks after our BA clients, came on board full time, so that was a big internal change. I've launched this podcast, we've relaunched our BAE services and 20% of all clients have signed up. We hit our initial target of 100 clients on the HR marketing box. We've launched the HR marketing box in the usa, which is pretty much double the size of the business in two weeks, which was mental. I've launched my flagship video program, which I've been working on for most of the year, and 80 clients have signed up within the first week. I've doubled revenue since August. I've had our best ever month last month. I've packed up my life in London, I'm now moving to Bali and quite honestly, I'm exhausted and Nikki is too. I did actually get worried that I might break her at one point. She's worked so hard this year and I couldn't have done it without her. So a huge shout out and thank you to her and I think she's looking forward to me going to Bali to have a break as much as I am. So, yeah, this year I've dreamt big and I've been super focused on what I wanted to achieve. I made loads of mistakes, learnt loads of lessons and it's funny how you can kind of slog away for months, then all of a sudden everything comes together. So why am I telling you this? Well, I'm really excited by what we've achieved and I want to share that with you. I also want to lead by example and I also want to inspire you to think back at the year you've had and take some time to recognize all of the achievements that you've made this year, and I want you to treat yourself. So take yourself out for a fancy dinner or to the spa or on a little holiday to celebrate all of your hard work. And then I would like you to start gently thinking about 2025 and the year that you would like to achieve. What would the perfect year look like for you? What would you most like to achieve? What's in your vision board? What are your dreams? Then when you think of your goals, I want you to times 10 them, times 100 them. Make them bigger, make them bolder. Inspire yourself. Empower yourself and make 2025 your best year yet.
[00:14:25] Speaker A: You've been listening to the HR Marketing Guys podcast, helping you to get new clients and create a life.
