Writing Resume Updates

Another resume writer and I got to talking about resume updates yesterday. She mentioned that there was a thread on the NRWA E-List about some resume writers not wanting to do updates for clients, preferring instead to focus on developing resumes from scratch. Since I'm very behind on my e-mails, I don't know if the thread she's referring to is a recent one or not, but I've seen this discussion online before.

There are certain resume writers out there that just don't do updates for the resumes they write. I can certainly understand. Updates can be a pain in the butt. They don't pay as well as new projects, and a lot of times -- especially for older projects -- you can spend more time revising what you did the first time around than simply adding in a new position or two (perhaps that's the perfectionist in me).

But providing resume updates as a service can pay off -- even if it's not from the money you make on the update itself. I find that I get the most referrals from clients who come back from updates. I've had two examples of that just this week.

Most service providers consider the "lifetime value" of a customer when deciding how much to spend on marketing their services. If you only work with a client one time over his/her lifetime, you're missing out. I have a few clients that I've worked with for over 10 years ... some of whom have referred more than a dozen other clients. I'm going to be doing an update/retarget for one of them later this week in fact.

I've had several posts in the past about "retention marketing" -- that is, keep-in-touch marketing designed to spur repeat business from existing clients. If things are slow for you right now with new clients, now would be a great time to reach out to your client base and see if there's interest in updating their resume. I'm putting an e-mail script into the May/June 2008 issue of the Resume Writers' Digest newsletter that will help you do just that.

Guest Author: Turning Your Services Into a Product

By C.J. Hayden
Author, Get Clients Now

One of the biggest challenges in selling professional services is that what you are offering is intangible. Your product can't be seen, touched, or tasted. Until your prospective clients experience what you do, they have no way of knowing if it will turn out, whether they will like it, and how well it will work in their situation. To make a buying decision, the client must first trust that your work will produce the result that they need.

The most common way to package professional services is by the hour or day. The client pays for your time, and they keep paying until the project is declared complete. But clients are often resistant to this. You will hear them say, "I don't want to leave it open-ended," "That seems high for an hourly rate," "I'm not sure my budget will allow for this," or even "I'm not quite clear what it is I'd be getting."

You can overcome these barriers to making a sale by "productizing" your services. This awkward term simply means that you make your service look more like a product, so that it becomes easier for your clients to buy. You give it a defined scope, fit it into a limited time period, assign it a definite price tag, and attach a distinctive name.

Let's say you are an image consultant, and you've been selling your time for $75 per hour. Instead, you offer a "One-Day Makeover" at a price of $495, and include a wardrobe assessment, color consultation, and shopping trip. You're giving your clients a defined result with a clear timeframe and set price, making it easy for them to buy. Plus, you are able to let clients experience a range of the services you offer and suggest additional ways they can work with you.

A market research consultant working with corporate clients at $150 per hour could instead provide a "Market Position Blueprint" for a flat fee of $2500. The package would include a comparison matrix of three key competitors, qualitative data from interviews with six loyal customers, and recommendations for improving the client's market position, all to be delivered with 30 days. Clients know in advance exactly what they are paying and what they will get for it.

When buying your services in a package, the client runs less risk. They don't have to worry about cost overruns or getting an unexpected result. They know how soon the result they are paying for will be delivered. There's also an emotional comfort factor in buying a package. Purchasing something with a name attached makes it feel much more tangible than simply buying hours.

For you, offering a package helps you get your foot in the door. Once you show a client what you are capable of, more business will often result. Even if you price your package at slightly less than what you would earn for working the same amount of time at an hourly rate, you will probably profit more because more of your time will ultimately be sold.

Many consultants find that fixed-price contracts are much more profitable than working by the hour. In a survey quoted by the late Howard Shenson in "The Contract & Fee-Setting Guide for Consultants & Professionals," consultants working exclusively on a fixed-price basis had 87% higher profits than those working on a daily or hourly basis.

To determine which of your services would be best to turn into a product, consider what your target market most often wants from you. Is there a specific set of steps you usually follow when first working with a new client? Activities that you perform repetitively with many people give you an opportunity to create templates, worksheets, and other tools that you develop only once and use over and over. This effectively allows you to charge for the same work more than once.

Be sure to spend some time on coining a unique name for your product. You want a memorable results-oriented name that will help you to stand out from the competition, and perhaps even allow you to trademark it.

To launch your first product, you may not need to do much more than develop a standard format for what you are already doing, set a price, and name your new invention. Taking this critical step toward making your services more tangible can result in easier sales, more repeat business, and more profitable engagements.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Copyright C.J. Hayden.
To subscribe to the "Get Clients Now!" e-newsletter
visit http://www.getclientsnow

Top 10 Marketing Tools for Small Business

Marketing coach Veronika Noize has created a list of what she considers the Top 10 Marketing Tools for Small Businesses. Among them are some obvious items (web site, business card) … but do you use your e-mail signature line effectively? How about a script for when clients call?

Find a Resume Writer By Auction?

Combing through some old notes this Memorial Day weekend, I came across some musings I had about an "Auction System for Resumes."

Using an eBay-like interface, the client would input information and standards (timeline, job target, products he/she is interested in -- like a resume, cover letter, bio, etc.) and resume writers would bid for the project (the lowest bid would win).

I tried looking online for something like this, but didn't find it. I did find a site -- CareerAuction.com -- that offers client resumes for auction, using an unusual strategy of paying clients when their resume is used to win them a job. (It's a strange concept, and even stranger when you read about it.)

Have you heard of such a service? Let me know if it exists...