Salutations, friend! It’s RJ here, your favourite Income Strategist. When was the last time you had a hard decision to make? What made you choose the other option over the other? Were you able to put in proper discernment and weigh its pros and cons? No matter what we do in life, we are faced with making decisions—be it a day-to-day activity or something as challenging as pricing our services and niching down our target clients. In this episode, we are hoping to give you enlightenment in case you’re still wondering or trying to decide if you can already aim for serving and working with corporate clients.
Salutations, friend! Today’s episode will give you an insight into my career—how I shifted from the medical into the entrepreneurial field, and  some guidance on how to price your services and whether you should be serving corporate clients or not.Â
Links
Salutations friend, and welcome to The Profit Scale. This is the podcast for consultants, experts, and service providers who either already serve corporate clients or transitioning towards it. This is the place where you can find tailored solutions to help you close your first, next, or biggest client yet.   Â
I'm your host and Income Strategist, RJ Connell, and if you are looking for expert strategies to help you build on your existing success, then you, my friend, are in the right place. Turn up the volume and lean in, 'cause we are about to get started.
Intro
Salutations, friend! It’s RJ here and we are now in the last few months of 2020! As I’m recording this, it’s getting colder outside and getting darker faster. With so many activities being closed due to COVID-19, it may feel a little harder to push through this last quarter of the year.Â
If you’re feeling that way, know that you’re not alone! I’m having to find new ways to energize myself and keep my Q.4 goals front and center. One strategy that helps me maintain momentum is having great conversations with other business owners, and that’s why I’m excited to share today’s episode with you!
Today’s episode is a clip from an interview I did with Megan Nichole on her podcast—The LaziMILLENNIAL Lounge for Multi-Passionate Millennials!Â
In this clip, I share about my journey that led me to change paths from pursuing a medical career to starting my business, as well as how to know if serving corporate clients is the right avenue for you and whether or not you should be charging your worth!
What you’re about to hear is just a portion of the full interview, so if you’d like to listen to the full interview, you can find it on the Lazimillennial Podcast using the link in our show notes!
All right, friend. Turn up the volume and enjoy!
Interview
Megan: Welcome to the LaziMILLENNIAL Lounge, everyone. Today, I'm with RJ Connell, an income strategist. RJ, I am so excited to have you on the show today. Thank you so much for being willing to talk to us about corporate clients.
RJ: My pleasure.
Megan: Can you let us know what you thought you were going to be doing with your life around the time of high school graduation and how that compares to what you are doing today?Â
RJ: I was supposed to be in medical school right now and then looking to do my residency in neurosurgery. That's what I was planning to do—that was my trajectory. It is not where I am today, so things have changed along the way. It was a challenging pivot to kind of move from following that medical trajectory and moving from that medical career into entrepreneurship.
Megan: What sparked the change from wanting to go into medicine to what you're doing now?
RJ: It was one of the pivot points... or the pivot point was one semester where I had failed all of my courses. I had a full plate of courses at the time. I was working something like four jobs, as well as having a full load of school and extracurricular activities. All of those things combined, plus commuting and being in any kind of science program. I began feeling right from the very beginning when I got back to school... I remember sitting in my first lecture of the semester, and I could not focus on that first day. I was thinking like, 'My mind is exhausted, and I have nothing left.' I did not listen to what I was feeling. I decided to stay in school, and I failed that entire semester in every single course–not like I got a B, C, or D. I failed every single course. In the process of trying to get me back on track, I was thinking through, 'What is it that you want to do?' and starting to question what my path was.
Megan: Cool. So, now you are helping B2B business models create the systems to operate those business models. Is that what it is?Â
RJ: Yes, we create systems around sales systems and sales operations. That’s what I like to refer to it as. We help with sales strategy and sales operations. It’s what you need in place to support your business growing financially. We look at that from a few different perspectives, such as the financial perspective, client experience perspective, as well as from the process perspective. There is a lot involved in it, but at the end of the day, we are helping you make money in a very strategic way.
Megan: In what ways do you work with your clients? Are there coaching programs? Is it like a course? How do you do it?Â
RJ: One of the unique things about the way we do things at RJC Consulting is that we don't have any digital courses, so you will always get to work with a consultant. We have a signature program that is called a Systems That Scale. It is our comprehensive total program for clients who want to work with other B2B companies and are looking to land those corporate contracts.Â
The term "corporate" can have very different meanings. It can be the small business down the street, your local entrepreneur, or an online entrepreneur that is earning a million dollars or more or even less than that. There's a very wide range, but essentially, you want to serve other businesses and provide a professional service to businesses. We work with them for 12 weeks. We have a complete top to bottom as to what systems they need in place around their sales strategy, income, client experience, their process, etc. We go through all of that week by week, where you have one-to-one sessions with your consultant, as well as group sessions. That's the main way that we like to serve our clients.
Outside of that, well, we also have our CEO Quarterly Business Reviews (QBR). Essentially, we take a high-level look at the business and identify which strategies need to be put in place to support your financial revenue goals for the next quarter. What we do is a one-day intensive session where we spend the day with the CEO and the key members of their team that need to be involved in that planning. We outline from beginning to end. We go through the entire business and key areas.Â
We look at key areas of their client experience, revenue, internal systems, internal support, and more. Likewise, we consider the other things that we need to outline to help them reach and exceed their financial goals for the next quarter.Â
Part of Systems That Scale, specifically, is also pricing. A very big thing for our clients is how they price their services properly for the clients that they want to attract and make sure that they're not leaving any coins on the table.
Megan: Yeah.
RJ: So that's a big... That's always a big discussion for us as well.
Megan: I can testify, as a B2B business owner, that pricing is so tricky because you have to deal with not only the numbers themselves, but also the psychology around the numbers from a personal perspective, client or prospective client's perspective, and there's just so much discomfort initially when you're trying to figure out how to price. What does that process look like? Like if I am a person who starts working with you, how do you break that down for your clients and guide them through the process of developing those systems?Â
RJ: Essentially, what we do is, it always starts with an assessment to get an understanding of where that business is now, and so one of the things that we are offering is we have an assessment that you can do. It is a low cost, and it helps identify where the gaps in your business are. It is a comprehensive diagnostic tool not only for us but also for the clients. So that they can say, "Okay, we see that this is an area that we need to focus on." Then based on that, we can say, "Here's how we would move forward, and here's what we would recommend."Â
To ensure that you are getting the right service and that we are serving you with what you and your company needs at this point in time, we always start with that assessment. We need to take note of what you have right now, what the gaps in your business are, how can we fill them moving forward, and if this is the right time for certain things. Sometimes a company might need a particular service, but they might not need it right now. Sometimes it is a quick fix, like maybe even just in a 30-minute conversation, I can say, "Hey, Megan, just focus right now on getting an onboarding process in place. Once you've got that done, you will have enough information so that the QBR is going to be a good service for you." It is very helpful too for both us within the company and for the clients to be able to objectively look at what the company needs and not just what we are feeling.Â
As the business owner, when we are feeling stressed and not seeing the revenue that we need, we sometimes want to ask, "What is the fastest way to get to my solution?" Sometimes that end result is what we need. Sometimes the process is what we need to get to that end result. It just helps to differentiate where we need to start from, for it to be an easier 'yes' for the client so that they can see that this is in the best interest of the company. It is where we like to start.
Megan: Let's back up for a minute because we may have listeners who are either in the very early stages of their business or are thinking of starting a business, and haven't necessarily narrowed down their target client or customer.
Do you have any insight to offer around deciding whether a B2B or B2C business model is best for a person? Do you have any advice on determining whether what you are looking to provide is suitable for a corporate client?Â
RJ: For anybody who is at the beginning of their business, one of the things that I will say is, "It takes some experience within a business of your own or providing a service of your own for you to narrow down a niche." Sometimes you might start off your business and know with specificity who it is you wanna serve and who you don't. But for the majority of us, it takes us a little bit of time to then narrow it down to, "Okay, this is the industry I wanna work in. This is the type of service or the type of individual that I wanna serve." If you are at the beginning and you're maybe struggling with that, or you're, right now, you're just taking any business that comes to you, that's okay, that's most of us, right? That is the norm, and so there's not a problem necessarily with that.Â
If you are looking to see if serving corporate clients is a way that you can go, or even an aspect, or a revenue stream that you can add to your business, I would like to say, "Look at your past experience." For example, have you provided services to other companies in the past? I could be through your 9-to-5 job, through your professional career, or through your traditionally professional career, I like to say, because entrepreneurship is professional. Look at your past career or job experience. Have you performed similar services in your career that you can migrate those skills under your own business name and provide those services accordingly?Â
Another thing that I would like to say to look at is, if you feel that you have to consistently perform below what you know you are capable of in order to meet your clients where they are, then that is probably a good indication that you are capable of serving at a higher level and that the clients you are attracting probably are not aligned with that. Considering there are some people who have a high level of expertise and want to work with people who are just at the very beginning, there is nothing wrong with that either if that is your desire. It might not even be the client or the company itself, it could just be the stage that they are at right now, and maybe you need to serve someone who is further along rather than just at the beginning. If you feel like you constantly are having to slow your thinking down, slow yourself down, or you are not able to deliver the full value of your expertise because it is going above your client's head or they are feeling overwhelmed, that is probably a good indication that you might be able to serve somebody at a higher level.
Megan: That's really helpful. Based on those observations you are making, then you can kind of figure out where in the market you need to be, who exactly your target client is, and what stage of the business they are in so that you can more accurately tailor your service to that group of people rather than a group of people who are not necessarily aligned to your area of expertise.
RJ: Exactly.
Megan: Let's go back to pricing. We touched on that a little bit earlier, and I know that it is something that a lot of business owners struggle with, no matter where they are in their business journey. You mentioned something to me that I thought was very interesting, which was about the importance of not charging what you are worth and how that can actually be a hindrance for your business, which I think is the opposite of what a lot of people hear, which is, "Oh, charge what you're worth." Can you talk us through that statement and kind of give us some insight on how we should be pricing our services?Â
RJ: Okay, so friends, if you're listening, take a seat. We are about to have a conversation here. When I say, do not charge your worth, or that charging your worth is actually a hindrance to your business, what I mean by that is that when it comes to business, you charge for the value you add and not for the value you are. What I'm saying is that you have to be able to communicate, quantify, and qualify the end result that you are offering to your clients. When we focus on charging what we are worth, we make what should be a professional matter personal. We make it about us. One of the common things that I have seen in the online world, especially when it comes to pricing is pricing around what you want to earn for the year or what you need in order to live off of as a salary. While I understand that, of course, if you have no measure for pricing, then start somewhere. I'm not bashing that if that is the only thing or knowledge you have around pricing. However, when it comes to working with a B2B client, for example, when you're looking at charging what you are worth, you are focusing on yourself and you are not focusing on the value you add to the client.
It hinders your communication. It prevents you from having to get crystal clear on the end result, the value, and the benefits that the results are going to have for your client's company, and you don't communicate it well when you are speaking with them. So that lack of communication, that lack of confidence, and sometimes we even show up as, "Well, this is the price. This is what I charge for my service," and we get defensive. It becomes a personal exchange rather than a professional exchange around what it is that I'm offering your business and communicating in a way that is going to allow them to see the value. At the end of the day, we are focused on ourselves and that is what we show when we are having those conversations. It comes through whether or not we are conscious about it.
When I say don't charge what you're worth, charge for the value you add and not for the value you are, it is about keeping the professional matter professional. And the personal, when you're thinking about how much you wanna earn, that is an internal calculation that you do when you are looking at your entire revenue and determining your salary for yourself. That has nothing to do with your pricing. That has to do with how you handle and manage your finances internally.
Megan: That is extremely valuable information. How else can people connect with you online?Â
RJ: So, for anybody who's looking to learn more about our services, I always encourage people to come to the Coin-versations. One, it's free and two, it gives you an opportunity to see what it would be like to work with us, right? If you want to invest your time before you invest your money, that is a great way to kind of figure out, “Is this right for me?”Â
Our website is at rjcconsulting.com. When you go there, you will see our “Work With Us” page where you can find out more about how you can work with us. Our Systems At Scale service, as well as our CEO Quarterly Business Reviews, are the two main things. If you're just looking for, "I'm not sure what I need right now, and I'm not really sure how to move forward," you can also access our assessment there.Â
Our Instagram handle is @rjcconsulting.global, and you can come and hang out with us there.
Megan: Awesome! Thank you so much, RJ. This has been an incredibly enlightening episode, and I'm really grateful to you for dropping by.
RJ: Thank you so much, Megan.
Outro
So, what did you think?Â
I’d love for you to hear more about the story, so head over to Megan’s full interview using the link in the show notes, or type the Lazimillennial podcast into your favourite podcast hosting platform and listen there!Â
As I listened to the interview over again, I actually realized it was the first time in a while that I had shared my entrepreneurship story, so I’m excited to share my story with you in the episodes to come.Â
All right, friend. Before you sign off, can you do me a favour? It would mean so much to me and the team if you could leave us a 5-star rating and a written review on iTunes.
I know how busy you are, but that small action helps us reach more entrepreneurs just like you! All you have to do is click the link in the show notes that says “leave us a review” and leave your honest feedback!
I appreciate you taking 2-minutes out of your day to support us, so thank you in advance!Â
As always friends, I will see you at the same time and place in two weeks. Until then, I wish you coins, confidence, and all the bags! Bye for now!