Conventional advice from pundits says never serve "whales" in your consulting business. But what if they're wrong? (Hint: they are.) A whale model CAN work in the right circumstances, provided it’s a fit with how you like to work and you design and price them correctly.

Here’s my advice on whether (and how) to add whale clients to your service mix:

What exactly makes a client a whale?

A few examples of highly successful whale business models—how they’re structured and how much revenue they deliver.

Why conventional "wisdom" about whales doesn’t apply when you structure and price them correctly.

The three challenges you’ll need to address to make sure whales will work for your particular business.

Where to start if you decide adding whale clients makes sense.

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The Authority Code: How to Position, Monetize and Sell Your Expertise: equal parts bible, blueprint and bushido. How to think like, become—and remain—an authority.

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TRANSCRIPT

Rochelle Moulton

00:00 - 00:47

You just want to make sure that your whale clients fit neatly into at least one of your sweet spots, like the type of work, the industry, your client profile, et cetera. Otherwise, each one will feel like a supremely heavy lift, and that's the last thing that you want. Hello, hello. Welcome to the SOA's Life Podcast, where we're all about turning your expertise into wealth, impact, and power. I'm Rachelle Moulton, and today I want to talk to you about whether it makes sense to include whale clients as part of your service mix right now. I sent out an email to my list about this last week, and I got quite a few responses as well as a few questions.

Rochelle Moulton

00:47 - 01:27

So we're going to do a deeper dive on this today. Let's start with what I mean by whale client. They don't have to be a giant company or a huge organization. The whale refers to how much of your revenue they represent. So I'd call any client that is 15 to 20% or more of your annual revenue a whale. Now, there is this assumption in certain circles that a whale client model is bad. That the best goal is to build revenue streams where you can sell smaller things to more people. That that is less risky over time.

Rochelle Moulton

01:28 - 02:12

While there's nothing wrong with creating a diversified business, it isn't for everyone. Many consultants and advisors who are delivering major value to their institutional clients have built significant revenue and wealth using a whale model. So I'll give you a few examples. Number one, a specialty marketing consultant to big corporates who has a consulting book speaking model, earns $500,000 plus per year. They usually do a handful of $100,000 to $150,000 consulting projects and speak maybe half a dozen times a year, plus they earn royalties from their books. Now their downside is the travel required for speaking.

Rochelle Moulton

02:12 - 02:57

So this would be hard to master in say 20 or probably even 30 hours a week. Two, a retainer expertise model where the consultant sells $100,000 plus annual retainers to three to five companies. They typically are retained for a few years, you know, with annual renewals with the need and...

Have you noticed that expertise podcasts—even from “celebrities”—tend to have an arc? They grow, they evolve, they might even shrink or pause for awhile and at some point they end.

When Sales for Nerds host Reuben Swartz put his highly rated 100-episode podcast on hiatus with an intriguing announcement, I invited him to the show to talk about:

Why he hit the pause button on Sales for Nerds.

Where his podcast aligns with his core Soloist business—and where it diverges.

How he thinks about the value of his time and the role his podcast plays in personal learning and driving business.

The organic arc (rise, plateau, fall) his podcast experienced as his business and his goals have changed.

How finishing 100 episodes made him review his experiences and think about what’s next.

LINKS

Reuben Swartz Mimiran | Sales for Nerds | LinkedIn | YouTube (Mimiran) | YouTube (Sales for Nerds)

Rochelle Moulton Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

BIO

Reuben Swartz is the founder of Mimiran, the fun, “anti-CRM” for independent consultants, born of his experience as a sales and marketing consultant for the Fortune 500, struggling with his own business development efforts. He's also the host and chief nerd on the Sales for Nerds podcast.

RESOURCES FOR SOLOISTS

Join the Soloist email list: helping thousands of Soloist Consultants smash through their revenue plateau.

The Authority Code: How to Position, Monetize and Sell Your Expertise: equal parts bible, blueprint and bushido. How to think like, become—and remain—an authority.

BOOK A CALL WITH ROCHELLE

TRANSCRIPT

Reuben Swartz

00:00 - 00:28

So i dropped an email to jason cohen at wp engine hey jason i got this new concept for podcast i bring a bottle of wine to your office and interview you talk about wine i really like your blog he writes this brilliant blog and i've heard you speak at blah blah blah blah blah and I really like what you have to say blah blah blah blah blah blah And I'm also a customer blah blah blah blah blah blah Right? Like this really nice, suck up email. He just writes me back 5 minutes later--you had me at wine, here's a link to my calendar.

Rochelle Moulton

00:33 - 01:08

Hello, hello. Welcome to the Soloist Live podcast, where we're all about turning your expertise into wealth, impact, and power. I'm Rochelle Moulton, and today I'm so excited to welcome Ruben Swartz to the show. Ruben is the founder of Mimarin, the fun

When you’re building a Soloist expertise business, it’s pretty common to plateau around $200K or so in revenue.

Typically at that point, you’ve found your groove and can reliably hit that number—but if you want to scale beyond that, conventional wisdom screams that it’s time to hire employees.

Uh, no.

You’ve got plenty of faster, easier and safer choices when you want to scale:

Why hiring employees can be a viable model (I built and sold a boutique firm to the big boys for seven figures), but is front-loaded with challenges and risks.

The role niching can play in busting through a revenue plateau—by weaving yourself into an existing cohort of clients and buyers.

How to think about productizing your services and its impact on your revenue, your pipeline and your lifestyle.

Moving from implementation or execution services to high price point advisory options.

The three criteria you need to meet to make raising your prices a slam dunk.

LINKS

Rochelle Moulton Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

RESOURCES FOR SOLOISTS

Join the Soloist email list: helping thousands of Soloist Consultants smash through their revenue plateau.

The Authority Code: How to Position, Monetize and Sell Your Expertise: equal parts bible, blueprint and bushido. How to think like, become—and remain—an authority.

BOOK A CALL WITH ROCHELLE

TRANSCRIPT

Rochelle Moulton

00:00 - 00:52

You might have a business where you come in, you do a project, and you exit never to be seen again. But many of you do work that produces deep tentacles into client organizations, so you want any productized services you offer to support that. Hello, hello. Welcome to the Soloist Life Podcast, where we're all about turning your expertise into wealth, impact, and power. I'm Rochelle Moulton, and frankly, I'm still deciding how it feels to add power at the end of this intro, probably because I've never really been about power per se, but about my personal definition of wealth, enough money, free time, independence, flexibility and impact to enjoy my life and my work.

Rochelle Moulton

00:52 - 01:37

But as I said in my last solo episode, as soloists, we definitely have economic and leadership power, and it's time we use them. So I'm keeping that thought, power, and channeling it in this space for now. Speaking of power, today I want to talk to you about how to scale after you hit $200,000 or so in revenue. And the reason I want to hit on this today is I just tripped over a podcast episode about this topic, and I couldn't disagree more with the host's conclusions. See if you can't guess why. The main piece of advice was, wait for it, it's time to hire someone who does what you do, a mini-me.

Rochelle Moulton

01:38 - 02:24

Now, look, if your goal is to grow a business with employees, this is actually not bad advice. Somewhere around $200,000 is often when solos selling expertise bump up...