What Makes a Transformational Engagement?

What if I told you theres a way to work with clients that will bring ingenious work out of you, get massive results for your clients and win, win win, pay you an easy six figures or more often, multiples of that.

That, my friend, is exactly what you get from transformational engagements.

Hey, its Samantha and I selected this encore episode because I created this approach to help women consultants who thrive in deep, collaborative client relationships to transform their businesses by getting better results for their clients while making life changing revenues. If you like what you hear, please be sure to subscribe and share this episode with a colleague who's doing great work.

Welcome to profitable, joyful consulting where you'll discover how to multiply your revenues without exhaustion. Working with perfect clients on transformational engagements. I'm your host, Samantha Hartley. If you're a woman consultant ready to increase your profits and enjoy your business more, you're in the right place.

One of the questions that I get. Very often in my business from new clients especially, is what makes a transformational engagement transformative? Like what am I really looking to do? And like, what's my version of a transformational engagement? So they're always wondering, like, if I. Were to do that, what would that look like? So most consultants, as you might know. Are doing, you know, project based work.

They come in, they work for, you know, three months or six months, and they make solve a problem. You know, solve usually a discrete problem, meaning a thing that is, you know, has a beginning, middle and an end. And truthfully, I would say that we. Probably solve a smaller problem that could then lead on to discovery of new problems. And that is how a lot of consultants will get ongoing work within single clients is that they come in for one thing and then like, well, you've.

Solved that problem here, let's go do. That same kind of thing, but in a different department, or, well, now that. You'Ve done this and we trust you. Let'S do longer term work. And that's how things can look a. Lot now that's different from one offs. We don't want to do one offs. That's the thing that you go in and like, you do that and kind of never really come back. What you're looking for in these kind of engagements is what's the longer term relationship that's possible.

And so in transformational engagements, we really. Want to look at, like, I don't want to solve like a small problem. What I want to do is I want to zoom out of and look what's the larger problem behind this problem. So for example, if you have a. Situation in which in a certain department, they find that they're constantly missing their sales targets. So we can come in and we can work with the sales team and. Figure out how to plan better and do figure out what their sales challenges are.

And that's going to be a big deal for the client. So we come away from that with. Let'S say, like a new sales plan. Or we've done a training and we've. Given them some new techniques and skills. And tools that they can use, and. That may or may not solve that problem. For, you know, maybe they start hitting their sales targets, which would be a great thing. In my experience, though, any kind of. Short term fix that we do usually. Will break over time. It can break in any number of ways.

So either the people who started doing a new thing kind of fall off the wagon. Like, they forget that new skill and. It was a little harder. It's easier to kind of backslide into old habits, or here's things that will likely happen. Those people get promoted or go on to new jobs or things like that happen. So sometimes it's hard to get those. Changes that we make to stick.

And this is one of the reasons that I've been so adamant about doing transformational engagements in the first place, is because in the beginning, in my career, I did a number of these kind. Of project based engagements where everybody was. Super happy with the work. But when I checked back with them about, like, how has your business changed? They couldn't give me the results based. Testimonials that I was looking for or case studies even.

I couldn't tell a story of beginning, middle, end benefit that lasted because they didn't last. And that was incredibly frustrating to me. Because I'm not just in this for the money. I really, really want to solve problems. I really want to see changes in my clients. So that led me to say, what. If we worked with the clients for. Longer and in the beginning? Actually, I would sell in that same sort of beginning, middle, end, short term engagement, whether it was three to six months.

But the difference was I would stick around available to the client as part. Of this engagement for twelve months. So I would make sure that I could come in, they could call on me, and then I could come in. And check on them and be like. Aha, it's month seven and somebody here has fallen off the wagon, or they've. Got a new person in this role. And the, the new way of doing things didn't cascade to that person.

So I have found and part of the reason I work this way is that it takes at least a year. To change people, to put in place. Behaviors and to make them stick. We love the training workshops. We love that workshop high. But all of us know that about a week and a half later, all. Of the things that we learned in. The workshop have been forgotten and we've gone back into our old habits. Habits are hard to change. And so often I think these kind of engagements, they're looking to change too.

Many things in too short a time. Like we can't introduce like five new behaviors and expect those things to stick. So when we're thinking about transformational engagements, the thing that I want you to be thinking of

is what is the lasting change that you can get for an organization? This is the defining aspect of a. Transformational engagement, is what is the transformation that the client is looking for. I like the word transformation because it's. Not just a change. This is like a behavior is going. To be completely different when this is done. And for organizations, the organization's behavior is. So this means multiple people across multiple departments are going to be doing behaving differently.

So when we change behavior of adults, they have ingrained habits, they have their way of doing things. They wouldn't have been doing it that. Way if it hadn't worked for them. So we're coming in and saying, the way that you've been doing things has. To be different because that way either isn't sustainable or isn't working. Or we have a new piece of. Software that we're bringing in here, or we have a whole new methodology that we're doing, or we're merging cultures.

Like think of all of the ways. That change happens inside organizations. So for me, what I'm asking us as consultants to do is figure out. What is the change that we want to have happen in an adult's behavior. Now, I don't know if you thought. When you went into consulting that you. Were going to end up in change management. Maybe you're a specialist in change management. Like some of my clients are, or that we were going to be in.

The business of adult learning and adult behavior change, which I never thought I. Was going to be. But so often what I see is that my work with my clients is to help them to change longstanding, usually behaviors. How do you make adult behavior change in your clients? This to me is the heart of transformational engagements. You're coming in with a process, a system, a methodology, something that you have worked out already that you've learned over. The years in your work with other.

Clients and you're going to take a group of people in your client's employ and you are going to change their behavior. That to me is I think it's worth a lot of money. I think it's very valuable to clients. So I'm going to back this up and talk about what we're doing. So behavior takes at least a year to change and stick. So sustainable change takes at least a year. That's why transformational engagements last for no less than a year.

So don't sell in anything that is less than a year. The second piece of this is there's almost no problem of this magnitude that is worth less to one of your. Organizations than x amount of money. So let's think about what the cost of a problem like this is.

And when you're looking to develop your transformational engagement or what you're going to be helping your clients with, I want you to think about who has a problem that is a million dollar problem or more. There's almost no business that is in business right now. If you're b two B corporate, even small businesses of $10 million, if they could add 10% sales, then that's a million dollar challenge, not necessarily a problem.

A lot of companies are losing people, just all kinds of quitting, disengaging all kinds of people behaviors. To me, people problems are necessarily expensive ones, right? You multiply any single number of people. By any salary and it's easy to get to a million dollars. So I say million dollars because if. You'Re solving a million dollar problem, then. You should be compensated for that, at least 10%. So at least 100k for those engagements.

So I like for transformational engagements to be at least a year in duration valued at at least 100k. Because seriously, right, there's nothing valuable that. You'Re doing for them that should be. Valued at less than one hundred k to pay you. And I want them to change behavior. I want them to make a measurable. Visible difference in the organization. So some of the transformational engagements that my clients have done, well, I'll start with me.

The things that I will do is put in place sales and marketing systems to where we come in and we help the client identify what their brand. Identity is going to be, what their. Messaging is going to be, and then. Cascade that through the organization so that anybody selling on behalf of the company. Anybody marketing or writing, everybody knows the messaging and is able to express that. Now my clients will very often increase their sales.

You know, a lot of them double their sales, and that can mean 100k or more. So my transformational engagements are not necessarily 100k engagements because I work with a smaller sized company. So my clients usually top out around $2 million. Yours probably begin around $2 million. That means if mine are in the $50,000 range for transformational engagements, yours should. Be, again, a minimum of don't be. Shy about pricing this. Part of the transformation that happens when.

A company engages you is they think. Oh, wow, this is actually more expensive than we expected. That's a great thing. They're going to take it seriously. If you think about the gym that costs $5 a month versus the one that I had, that was $140 a month. Which one do you think I went to more often? I think I'd ever gone to the. $5 a month one ever, maybe like twice $140 a month, one three to five times a week. So that investment will get and signify commitment.

So don't be shy in the pricing of this. I have an IT client. A lot of my IT clients are helping clients to utilize software, but it isn't just like, yay, I get to. Use this software and I get to be more fluent with it. What does that software do? It pays people on time. It saves them the time that they. Were spending doing something manually or trying to figure something out so that they. Have more time for themselves. They can go home, have a life. Be with a family.

The work that we're doing, even if it's about software, is actually about people, isn't it? So systems processes, my clients who work in efficiency of manufacturing and warehouses, it's about helping the people who are working. There to hate their jobs less and. Actually to take pleasure in them. Because things work in an expected way. They're making the most of their time. They're actually being valued as a resource in the organization. My clients who work with nonprofits are.

Helping them to fundraise, bring in millions more dollars. That kind of transformation is super valuable. And look at the impact of it. The organization makes more money, and then. Their constituents, the people that they serve, make more money. Very valuable. And if you feel like nonprofits don't pay any money, you might want to check again. Lately I'm seeing a lot more people. Getting transformational engagements, working with nonprofits. So a little unexpected, and we're starting.

To shake up the paradigm. Here's another paradigm that we shake up. HR doesn't have any buying power. HR doesn't have any budgetary responsibilities. Not true anymore. A lot of my clients will come in through the HR function and then implement leadership development programs. Why is this important? Because traditionally HR was doing like compliance and maybe hiring and things like that. And nowadays, guess what we do.

HR is way, way more involved in developing people, handling engagement, making sure that. People are excited about their jobs and. That they have a workplace that is. A desired place to work. So when my clients come in and. Work on that, why is it transformational? Because the behavior change that is happening in these organizations means that the leaders are nicer people to work for. They say people don't quit companies, they quit crappy leaders. I know I quit one.

So when you're making these leaders better people to work for, you're creating a happier workforce and you're making better places. To work for those people who choose. To work in jobs. I'd love for everyone to be self. Employed, but I think actually there's plenty. Of people who just want to go. Work, not just who get to go work for companies where they feel their contribution is valued. And that is super important to me.

That's why I like to work with my clients who are working with organizations like that. So there are all kinds of ways that you can do transformational engagements. But remember, the core of this is you're going to change behavior of the people who work in those places, and. That'S going to be incredibly valuable to. Them because it's going to help them to solve multimillion dollar problems. Your question for yourself is, what's my transformational engagement? Who do I get results for?

What kind of behavior do I change in organizations? What does that mean is possible for those organizations after I have done it? And most importantly, who has a million dollar problem or more that I can help them solve? I hope these ideas have been helpful. And expansive for you. If you'd like to talk about more ideas like this, then I urge you to get in touch with me.

I help consultants to dramatically increase their revenues by working with perfect clients on transformational engagements just like the ones we've been talking about today. And with that, I am wishing you. A profitable and joyful consulting business.

Thanks for listening. As a thank you for being part of my community, I'm sharing free, exclusive resources to help expand your consulting business. Head to samanthahartley.com super to access bonus. Content and tools from the show. For a complete transcript of this episode and all profitable, joyful consulting episodes, visit samanthahartley.com dot.