What Makes a Transformational Engagement?

Samantha Hartley
00:00:02
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.

Samantha Hartley
00:02:24
So for example, if you have a.

Samantha Hartley
00:02:26
Situation in which in a certain department, they find that they're constantly missing their sales targets.

Samantha Hartley
00:02:33
So we can come in and we can work with the sales team and.

Samantha Hartley
00:02:35
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.

Samantha Hartley
00:02:43
So we come away from that with.

Samantha Hartley
00:02:44
Let'S say, like a new sales plan.

Samantha Hartley
00:02:46
Or we've done a training and we've.

Samantha Hartley
00:02:48
Given them some new techniques and skills.

Samantha Hartley
00:02:50
And tools that they can use, and.

Samantha Hartley
00:02:52
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.

Samantha Hartley
00:03:03
Short term fix that we do usually.

Samantha Hartley
00:03:06
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.

Samantha Hartley
00:03:16
It was a little harder.

Samantha Hartley
00:03:17
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.

Samantha Hartley
00:03:27
So sometimes it's hard to get those.

Samantha Hartley
00:03:29
Changes that we make to stick.

Samantha Hartley
00:03:31
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.

Samantha Hartley
00:03:39
Of project based engagements where everybody was.

Samantha Hartley
00:03:42
Super happy with the work.

Samantha Hartley
00:03:43
But when I checked back with them about, like, how has your business changed? They couldn't give me the results based.

Samantha Hartley
00:03:51
Testimonials that I was looking for or case studies even.

Samantha Hartley
00:03:55
I couldn't tell a story of beginning, middle, end benefit that lasted because they didn't last.

Samantha Hartley
00:04:02
And that was incredibly frustrating to me.

Samantha Hartley
00:04:04
Because I'm not just in this for the money.

Samantha Hartley
00:04:06
I really, really want to solve problems. I really want to see changes in my clients.

Samantha Hartley
00:04:10
So that led me to say, what.

Samantha Hartley
00:04:14
If we worked with the clients for.

Samantha Hartley
00:04:16
Longer and in the beginning?

Samantha Hartley
00:04:18
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.

Samantha Hartley
00:04:28
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.

Samantha Hartley
00:04:36
And check on them and be like.

Samantha Hartley
00:04:38
Aha, it's month seven and somebody here has fallen off the wagon, or they've.

Samantha Hartley
00:04:42
Got a new person in this role.

Samantha Hartley
00:04:43
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.

Samantha Hartley
00:04:55
To change people, to put in place.

Samantha Hartley
00:04:57
Behaviors and to make them stick.

Samantha Hartley
00:04:59
We love the training workshops.

Samantha Hartley
00:05:01
We love that workshop high. But all of us know that about a week and a half later, all.

Samantha Hartley
00:05:05
Of the things that we learned in.

Samantha Hartley
00:05:06
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.

Samantha Hartley
00:05:18
Many things in too short a time.

Samantha Hartley
00:05:20
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.

Samantha Hartley
00:05:39
Transformational engagement, is what is the transformation that the client is looking for. I like the word transformation because it's.

Samantha Hartley
00:05:46
Not just a change.

Samantha Hartley
00:05:47
This is like a behavior is going.

Samantha Hartley
00:05:49
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.

Samantha Hartley
00:06:13
They wouldn't have been doing it that.

Samantha Hartley
00:06:14
Way if it hadn't worked for them.

Samantha Hartley
00:06:16
So we're coming in and saying, the way that you've been doing things has.

Samantha Hartley
00:06:20
To be different because that way either isn't sustainable or isn't working. Or we have a new piece of.

Samantha Hartley
00:06:26
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.

Samantha Hartley
00:06:32
That change happens inside organizations.

Samantha Hartley
00:06:36
So for me, what I'm asking us as consultants to do is figure out.

Samantha Hartley
00:06:40
What is the change that we want to have happen in an adult's behavior. Now, I don't know if you thought.

Samantha Hartley
00:06:47
When you went into consulting that you.

Samantha Hartley
00:06:48
Were going to end up in change management.

Samantha Hartley
00:06:50
Maybe you're a specialist in change management.

Samantha Hartley
00:06:51
Like some of my clients are, or that we were going to be in.

Samantha Hartley
00:06:54
The business of adult learning and adult behavior change, which I never thought I.

Samantha Hartley
00:06:57
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.

Samantha Hartley
00:07:24
The years in your work with other.

Samantha Hartley
00:07:25
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.

Samantha Hartley
00:07:50
That's why transformational engagements last for no less than a year. So don't sell in anything that is less than a year.

Samantha Hartley
00:07:57
The second piece of this is there's almost no problem of this magnitude that is worth less to one of your.

Samantha Hartley
00:08:06
Organizations than x amount of money.

Samantha Hartley
00:08:08
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?

Samantha Hartley
00:08:55
You multiply any single number of people.

Samantha Hartley
00:08:57
By any salary and it's easy to get to a million dollars. So I say million dollars because if.

Samantha Hartley
00:09:04
You'Re solving a million dollar problem, then.

Samantha Hartley
00:09:06
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.

Samantha Hartley
00:09:25
You'Re doing for them that should be.

Samantha Hartley
00:09:26
Valued at less than one hundred k to pay you. And I want them to change behavior. I want them to make a measurable.

Samantha Hartley
00:09:33
Visible difference in the organization.

Samantha Hartley
00:09:35
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.

Samantha Hartley
00:09:49
Identity is going to be, what their.

Samantha Hartley
00:09:51
Messaging is going to be, and then.

Samantha Hartley
00:09:52
Cascade that through the organization so that anybody selling on behalf of the company.

Samantha Hartley
00:09:56
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.

Samantha Hartley
00:10:11
So my transformational engagements are not necessarily 100k engagements because I work with a smaller sized company.

Samantha Hartley
00:10:16
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.

Samantha Hartley
00:10:28
Be, again, a minimum of don't be.

Samantha Hartley
00:10:30
Shy about pricing this.

Samantha Hartley
00:10:33
Part of the transformation that happens when.

Samantha Hartley
00:10:35
A company engages you is they think.

Samantha Hartley
00:10:37
Oh, wow, this is actually more expensive than we expected.

Samantha Hartley
00:10:39
That's a great thing.

Samantha Hartley
00:10:41
They're going to take it seriously.

Samantha Hartley
00:10:43
If you think about the gym that costs $5 a month versus the one that I had, that was $140 a month.

Samantha Hartley
00:10:48
Which one do you think I went to more often? I think I'd ever gone to the.

Samantha Hartley
00:10:51
$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.

Samantha Hartley
00:11:13
Use this software and I get to be more fluent with it. What does that software do?

Samantha Hartley
00:11:17
It pays people on time. It saves them the time that they.

Samantha Hartley
00:11:21
Were spending doing something manually or trying to figure something out so that they.

Samantha Hartley
00:11:25
Have more time for themselves.

Samantha Hartley
00:11:27
They can go home, have a life.

Samantha Hartley
00:11:28
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.

Samantha Hartley
00:11:43
There to hate their jobs less and.

Samantha Hartley
00:11:45
Actually to take pleasure in them. Because things work in an expected way.

Samantha Hartley
00:11:49
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.

Samantha Hartley
00:11:56
Helping them to fundraise, bring in millions more dollars. That kind of transformation is super valuable.

Samantha Hartley
00:12:03
And look at the impact of it. The organization makes more money, and then.

Samantha Hartley
00:12:06
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.

Samantha Hartley
00:12:15
Lately I'm seeing a lot more people.

Samantha Hartley
00:12:17
Getting transformational engagements, working with nonprofits.

Samantha Hartley
00:12:22
So a little unexpected, and we're starting.

Samantha Hartley
00:12:24
To shake up the paradigm. Here's another paradigm that we shake up.

Samantha Hartley
00:12:27
HR doesn't have any buying power.

Samantha Hartley
00:12:29
HR doesn't have any budgetary responsibilities.

Samantha Hartley
00:12:33
Not true anymore.

Samantha Hartley
00:12:34
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.

Samantha Hartley
00:12:56
People are excited about their jobs and.

Samantha Hartley
00:12:58
That they have a workplace that is.

Samantha Hartley
00:13:00
A desired place to work. So when my clients come in and.

Samantha Hartley
00:13:03
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.

Samantha Hartley
00:13:29
To work for those people who choose.

Samantha Hartley
00:13:30
To work in jobs.

Samantha Hartley
00:13:31
I'd love for everyone to be self.

Samantha Hartley
00:13:32
Employed, but I think actually there's plenty.

Samantha Hartley
00:13:34
Of people who just want to go.

Samantha Hartley
00:13:35
Work, not just who get to go work for companies where they feel their contribution is valued.

Samantha Hartley
00:13:40
And that is super important to me.

Samantha Hartley
00:13:42
That's why I like to work with my clients who are working with organizations like that.

Samantha Hartley
00:13:47
So there are all kinds of ways that you can do transformational engagements.

Samantha Hartley
00:13:50
But remember, the core of this is you're going to change behavior of the people who work in those places, and.

Samantha Hartley
00:13:57
That'S going to be incredibly valuable to.

Samantha Hartley
00:13:59
Them because it's going to help them to solve multimillion dollar problems. Your question for yourself is, what's my transformational engagement?

Samantha Hartley
00:14:07
Who do I get results for? What kind of behavior do I change in organizations?

Samantha Hartley
00:14:11
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.

Samantha Hartley
00:14:24
And expansive for you.

Samantha Hartley
00:14:25
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.

Samantha Hartley
00:14:40
A profitable and joyful consulting business.

Samantha Hartley
00:14:43
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.

Samantha Hartley
00:14:54
Content and tools from the show.

Samantha Hartley
00:14:56
For a complete transcript of this episode and all profitable, joyful consulting episodes, visit samanthahartley.com dot.