If you’ve been struggling, trying to build your educational consulting company on a solid business foundation, so things run smoothly and profitably from month to month and year to year, you’re not alone.
Sometimes it can seem like a huge puzzle (you know, one of those 5,000 piece ones that you have to devote an entire coffee table to).
And not only are there thousands of pieces, but you have to figure out how they all fit together…and you’ve lost the box it came in, so you don’t have a picture to go by…and you’re beginning to suspect that there are a few pieces missing entirely.
Yeah, business can be like that. And that’s why I write these posts–to help you figure out the puzzle and how to get all the pieces to fit.
In my last post, I talked about how one of those pieces, your Core Offer–the primary product or service you’ll offer to your Ideal Clients–grows out of the intersection of three key positioning elements: Your Persuasive Persona, your Ideal Client Avatar, and your competitor research.
Put in plain language…
When you present yourself as an attractive expert who’s knowledgeable about the challenges your audience is facing and offer a solution (Core Offer) that’s fundamentally different from and better than your competitors, YOU WIN.
Only makes sense, right?
Other Elements of your Business Foundation
But there’s more to running a successful educational consulting business than putting the right offer out there, and I spent a few posts recently talking about three other elements of your positioning: your Mission, your Promise, and your Primary Role.
And I realize that there’s a chance (OK, probably a good chance) that you could be suffering from “business-speak overload” right about now.
So, I wanted to take a few minutes today to explain how all of these concepts fit together. Here goes…
Your Mission is the driving purpose behind what you do.
As such, I envision it sitting above and behind everything else in your business hierarchy, driving all of your actions.
It’s the change you want to make in the world. It’s the thing that motivates you when times get tough.
So, when do you determine your company’s Mission?
It depends. Your Mission may have been the initial spark behind your decision to become an educational consultant in the first place. If this is true in your case, all you need to do is come up with a clear statement of that Mission in a single phrase or sentence and let it guide you moving forward.
On the other hand, you may not be clear about your Mission right from the jump. Instead, your driving force early on might be more about sharing your expertise with the world and making a difference in some vague way (and maybe making some money at the same time).
And that’s OK…for a while.
You can put in the work to figure out the other aspects of your business’s foundation now and put aside the job of defining your Mission more clearly until you identify your personal stance vis a vis your clients (Persuasive Persona), nail down who specifically you want to serve (Ideal Client), and analyze the offers of your competitors–all the stuff I talked about in my previous post.
But once you’ve done that work, you’ll have all the data you need to create your Core Offer.
And at that point, since you know what role you’re going to play, who your target market is, and what your unique Core Offer will be, it’s time to declare your company’s Mission.
Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Do not do anything else until you nail down your Mission statement.
Same goes for your Promise, which is a (general) statement of the number one value you provide to your Ideal Clients.
Once you’ve identified your Ideal Clients, decided on the Persona you’re going to present to the world to attract those clients, and identified gaps and opportunities in the market, you should have a very good idea of the value you want to provide to your audience.
And that’s the Promise you make to them in your marketing.
Finally, there’s your Core Offer–the more specific product or service you’ll provide to deliver on your Promise and solve your clients’ problems.
And finally, there’s your Primary Role, which is the #1 thing you need to do in your business to deliver on your Promise to your clients.
And good news…
Your Core Offer and your Primary Role are basically the same thing.
I say “basically” because your Core Offer is the main thing you deliver to your clients, so it’s outward-facing. While your Primary Role is inward-facing–the way you see yourself serving your clients.
Now, I know this might still be a bit confusing, so let’s look at an example.
Promise, Core Offer, Primary Role: An Example
If your Ideal Clients are high school English teachers, your Promise might be to help them to…
Provide curriculum and instruction that develops independent, socially-conscious students who are adept at extracting lessons learned from literature and cultural studies and transferring and applying those lessons to societal challenges.
I know, that’s a mouthful and it needs to be tightened up, but I just came up with that off the top of my head, so let’s roll with it.
OK, if the above was your Promise, your Core Offer might be your “Using Lit to Light the World” curriculum and instructional approach (I know, terrible name, but it will do for a hypothetical example).
And, as part of that program, teachers learn how to teach students to relate lessons from their reading to relevant social issues, examine those issues critically, generate solutions, and communicate those solutions to real-world audiences dealing with those same challenges.
So, you can see that your Core Offer is a specific manifestation of the broader Promise you make to your clients.
And your company’s Primary Role is how you deliver this Core Offer.
You may have other offers (you probably will develop multiple offers over time), but as long as you determine that this program is your Core Offer, most of your efforts should go toward marketing and delivering this program.
And if other activities start to interfere with that Primary Role, your job is to find a way to either streamline those activities, delegate or outsource them, or cut them out altogether.
That’s the rule: nothing is allowed to interfere with your Primary Role (how you deliver your Core Offer).
That’s how you stay focused in your business and develop a reputation as THE solution provider for the specific problem your offer solves.
And that’s the pathway to a highly successful consulting business.
I hope this attempt at clarification hasn’t muddied the waters any more than they already were. If so, please send your questions my way.
Just reply in the Comments and tell me where you’re confused. I’ll get right back to you and we can clear things up.
To Your Success,
Willy
CEO, Ed Consultant Marketing
www.edconsultantmarketing.com
P.S.–I know all of this can seem complex–or even overwhelming–but I’ve found that it becomes much clearer when we have a real business to use as an example.
So, if things are still a bit muddy for you, just shoot me an email and we’ll figure it out using your own business as our focus. You can find me at willy@edconsultantmarketing.com.
Or, if you’d prefer to talk it through, you can schedule a Zoom call. Either way works for me.
Click here to schedule your free consultation.
