Top Lessons from Frank Kern that I Use to Sell High Ticket Consulting Services
In business we all have those we turn to for guidance and leadership. For me, one of those people is Frank Kern. If you aren’t familiar with him, he’s perhaps the most well-known direct response marketing consultant and expert. He created this behavioral dynamic response system, which is really automated marketing based on how people respond. Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to study Frank Kern, take several of his classes, and I attribute very much of my success as a consultant to him. In this article, I’ll be sharing some of the top lessons from Frank Kern that I use to sell high ticket consulting services.
For those of you who may not know, Frank is super generous on what he shares. He’s an open book about all things internet marketing and consulting, as well as the skills he's developed over the years in his own private client base, which he charges a fortune for. I’ve found him to be such a great resource in my own learning journey. He’s helped other incredibly successful brands such as Brooke Castillo of the Life Coach School; she’s been able to generate tens of millions of dollars using his programs, tools and strategies that he's developed.
Prefer to watch this in a video? Click below to view it on my YouTube channel:
Top Lessons from Frank Kern that I Use to Sell High Ticket Consulting Services
How to Add Consulting as High-Ticket Recurring Revenue
One of the first lessons from Frank Kern I was able to apply was that consulting is a fantastic opportunity to add high ticket recurring revenue to your offer stack, especially when you structure it the right way and sell it to the right client.
A lot of people think that low ticket memberships are the only way to create recurring revenue in your business, but this isn't true at all. In fact, he opened up my eyes to understanding how a large retainer or large project that expands for a long period of time has the same potential to generate recurring revenue in your business with much less effort.
At the time I started learning from him, I was a brand strategist and my projects were really short. While the work I was doing was very powerful and impactful for the client, and it gave me a high level of enjoyment as part of the creative process of establishing a brand platform, what I found was these projects typically only lasted ten or 12 weeks at the most. Then the client would be off and running, and I would be looking for a new client.
It was really difficult to maintain any type of long-term recurring revenue because I would continually find myself in this feast or famine cycle where I would have huge big projects coming in, and then nothing, and huge big projects coming in, and then nothing. It was really frustrating!
After working with Frank, I was able to take the brand strategy work I loved and then truly monetize it by tying it together with direct response marketing. This is how my work as a fractional CMO or a business growth strategy consultant came to be, and I was finally able to see the impact of the brand strategy work, which I loved doing. It was so rewarding to see how the messaging and the branding, the value proposition, and the marketplace positioning worked to apply to a measurable tangible result.
Frank Kern taught me that if I could become a better direct response marketer, in addition to being a world-class brand strategist, I could take the messaging, the value proposition, the points of differentiation that I was so good at, as well as the visual identity and visual communication piece, I could create something that was a long-term recurring revenue for me and also provided quick wins and ROI for my clients. Once I put two and two together, the direct response marketing with the brand strategy, my business transformed.
In addition to providing a high-ticket recurring revenue stream to my business, this idea of providing quick wins and breaking the projects into steps that could be easily renewed on retainer allowed me to make my consulting business recession-proof as well.
How to Sell Consulting Services the Right Way
The second lesson that I learned is how to sell consulting services the right way.
Frank recommends that his consultants use the oldest trick in the book, which is actually helping people by showing them that you can actually help them. I try to do this during my consultation calls. I love the integrity around that, and the philosophy is a great fit for my own values and the way that I choose to do business. In fact, if I'm not confident that I can help a client see a pretty quick return on investment as a result of our work together in a short period of time, I will turn them down or I will send them in a different direction that I think is a better fit for them at this time.
The way in which I do my consultations adds so much value that the client can't help but say to themselves, “Wow, if I learned this much in 45 minutes, what would it be like for us to work together?” And as a result, I close about 90% of the clients that I talk to.
Today, as a result of Frank Kern’s method, my consulting services are so easy to sell and it’s very high ticket to work one-on-one with me with an average cost of about six figures a year. However, I’ve learned that once I get on a call with a client, I begin by asking them a few questions and then they come to the conclusion that they're either going to make a lot more money with my services than without or we're not a good fit, which is usually something that I will identify early on in the consultation.
How to Use a Framework to Scale
One of the most valuable lessons from Frank Kern is to use a framework to scale. I am so grateful to this lesson. Frank has his own framework which is ‘SANDOR.’ By learning his framework for certifying consultants, it’s help me to understand the simple power of a framework.
Over the years, I created my own model, my own methodology called the LEAP Method, which I now certify consultants in. And this helps me train other people, whether they're a student or an internal employee on how to deliver my consulting offer. By having a framework to guide the decision making process, my company has grown and I've become very busy.
I’ve found implementing a framework is really ideal to aid in scaling. It can be used for yourself and just simplify your offer, operationalize it in a way that makes it easy to onboard and hire other team members. Or you can hire other team members long term in order to help you deliver on the offer within your own consultancy.
Could Applying Lessons from Frank Kern Help You Grow Your Own Consulting Business?
Becoming a certified consulting professional has a ton of advantages for any consultant in any career. Not only does consulting certification provide an amazing opportunity to increase credibility with your clients, it gives you an edge over others who don't have that certification or aren't using that framework.
If you’d like to start or even scale your own consulting business, a small business consulting certification can really help you get started and help you just become more successful. I’ve found consulting credentials often open up new opportunities as they allow you to monetize your expertise. What I find is that our students, because of the consulting certification, are more confident on sales calls, adding it to their websites and bios, and they really enjoy being able to call themselves a ‘certified growth consultant,’ which separates them out from other consultants in the field.
Additionally, achieving this milestone really is a confidence builder. It really helps you demonstrate your commitment to becoming a great consultant and your dedication to continuous improvement and learning.
You don’t have to sign up for his programs to learn these lessons from Frank Kern. Fractional Freedom is a consulting certification I offer specifically for those looking for the intimacy of a smaller group and focusing on growth consulting for small to medium size businesses. It’s typically available a few times a year because of the busy and growing nature of our consulting firm. The program is designed to help you gain real world consulting skills and just a closer connection with other people who are experienced in selling and delivering a consulting offer. They’ll be able to help you with every single step of the way from creating your framework, developing your packages, and so much more.
Check Out More Posts Like This…
Have you reached the limits of your time and resources? Learn how to scale your consulting business beyond those constraints, find a tool that works for you, and create more value with fewer resources.