Why you should sell roadmapping services

Roadmapping (paid discovery) makes a lot of sense for solo consultants and agencies.

I’ve been selling roadmapping services (since 2014), currently sell them, and am working on developing a new roadmapping service for a new market. Hence the roadmapping on my brain this week.

Over the years, I’ve been selling roadmapping services (since 2014), and I’ve found four main reasons why you should sell roadmapping services. (Truth be told, there are many more reasons, but these are four of the most impactful ones.)

#1 It differentiates you from your competitors.

They’re selling ‘a pair of hands to do the thing.’ You’re selling ‘expert, strategic insight into how best do the thing, plus an experienced pair of hands to do the thing.’

#2 It builds you a moat that keeps the ‘free proposal’ tire kickers out.

When you have a roadmapping process, you have an alternative to proposal writing. You can point to your paid roadmapping service when someone asks for a free proposal. When I started doing this, I noticed my close rate went way up because I was no longer writing proposals for leads who were kicking tires.

#3 It gets you and the client on the same page regarding what needs to happen.

We’ve all been there. The client shows up with a powerful reality distortion field, pitches you on the project, and you get started.

Except, as you start to get to work, you discover things just aren’t what you expected.

  • The problem isn’t quite what the client described
  • The resources they thought were there are missing
  • And now that you know this critical additional information, their approach no longer makes sense.

Roadmapping helps you get on the same page with the client. You’re meeting with them to understand what they already know and start to surface mistakes or assumptions in their plan. You can propose a plan based on your experience and insight.

#4 It gives you an escape hatch from the client relationship.

Sometimes you and your client aren’t a fit. It happens, and I’ve found that the earlier you discover that lack of fit, the better. You want to discover they’re a one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater during a small, fixed-scope, paid project, not doing Month # 3/36 of a long, ongoing implementation project.

That’s why roadmapping makes sense. You can get started with a small, paid project, see how it goes, and then optionally move forward to the implementation project.

If you’d like to start selling roadmapping (paid discovery) to your clients, you should check out Quick Start Roadmapping (https://kaidavis.com/products/roadmapping/). Inside Quick Start Roadmapping, you’ll get the tools, templates, guidance, and instruction you need to get started with roadmapping.

Quick Start Roadmapping focuses on giving you an ‘80/20’ approach to roadmapping. You’ll get started with the essential information to market, sell, and deliver roadmapping projects to your clients.

Excelsior!

Kai