Advice, Consulting, & Projects

Remember a day when personalized service meant something?

Texaco used to have a slogan “You can trust your car to the man who wears the star.” That may have been over half-decade ago, but the Idea Mechanics still believe in full service help.

Do you need a strategy for educating and convincing your buyers? Have you asked them how satisfied they are; what else they want (or need)? You should. We talk a lot about the middle three steps (2. Tell your story, 3. Show proof, and 4. Try it) in the Convince Me! (CM!) approach, but the first (1. Plan) and last (5. Satisfy completely) steps really frame what you need to build a convincing sales approach.

We help people sell. From developing a strategy to executing a campaign, here’s a few ways we can help you better sell your product, service, or point-of-view:

Advice

I believe in giving things away, including advice. That’s why theideamechanic exists. Read it, sign-up for our email list, subscribe to the RSS feeds, or follow theideamechanic on social media sites: it’s all free. Tell you what – as long as I’m in a give it away for free mood – let’s grab coffe or lunch together. After we’re done I’ll kick around your challenges and offer some suggestions for a half-hour; no charge.

Let’s take it even one step further. If we grab lunch, talk for a half-hour, AND you want to talk for another hour – I’ll give you a 50% discount for that hour. You get a total of 1-1/2 hours of advice for just $100. It’s not free, but it’s pretty darn close. Interested in coffee? Drop me a note.

Consulting

Our standard rates for the 2011-2012 calendar years:

Hourly: $200 (3 hour minimum)
One half-day: $750
One day: $1400
One week: $6500
Monthly retainer: $3000 for 20 hrs (2 month minimum)

Please also refer to the billing, travel, and expense policies for more details.

What can we do? Well, just a few ideas to get you started:

CM! strategy – Build your plan for pre/post-sale customer education
Customer satisfaction – Create a “Think like a buyer” culture
Sales execution – No sales staff? No worries.
CM! execution – Need help educating customers? You bet!
Awareness campaigns – Want to sell? Get the word out.

Have something in mind? Contact us. Let’s talk more.

Projects

Sometimes you need more than just a few hours of help. It might be a series of training seminars for your sales department. Or, you might have an idea for software that could make your sales process rock! If you’re thinking fixed price or time-and-material for that special project, we can help. And fit your budget.

What kinds of projects? Here’s a few ideas:

CM! sales tools – Need some custom tools? We can do that.
CM! workshops – Train your staff; both on-site and webinars
Demonstration – Fixed, mobile, physical, virtual: you choose
Experiences – For one person or a hundred; Make It a Wow!
Media creation – Digital audio, video, graphics … print too.

Have a project in mind? Need a price? Contact us. Let’s brainstorm.

Partners

Nobody can go it alone. Well … rarely. Whether you are a big business or a business of one, there are times when we all need an extra hand.

Our core skills are with the five tools every seller needs in their toolbox. We also have a strong group of valued partners. Some are experts in areas like the five building blocks of convincing. Other partners are master craftsmen in trades like graphics, broadcast journalism, or prototyping. Click here to see a few of our partners.

Policies

Policies help set common expectations between a seller and buyer. Here’s ours:

Travel

Hourly and one-day consulting engagements are assumed to include one round-trip ground travel totaling 60 minutes or less. Unless otherwise specified within an engagement contract, ground travel for weekly consulting, retainer consulting, or project engagements in excess of 60 total minutes is billed at 50% of the contracted hourly rate. Travel other than standard ground travel is treated as an expense and is covered by the expense policy.

Retainer contracts

In good faith, the Idea Mechanics agree to allocate and execute the contracted hours of service each month. In corresponding good faith, the client agrees to request and prioritize the matching contracted hours of service each month. Contracted hours must be used each month. Unused hours may not be rolled into a succeeding month.

Expenses

Expenses may include but are not limited to items such as non-ground travel, lodging, meals, and supplemental materials or services. A non-binding budgetary estimate for all anticipated expenses will be included within the engagement contract. If an expense item is determined to vary more than 10% from the budgetary estimate, confirmation of acceptance by either written or electronic communications will be required.

Billing & payment

Unless otherwise noted within an engagement contract, all non-exense charges will be billed by electronic invoicing no later than the 15th day of the succeeding month. The invoice will include a statement for the period of performance, hours of service, and tasks accomplished. Unless otherwise noted within the engagement contract, all expenses will be billed as incurred. Unless otherwise noted on the electronic invoice, all amounts are due upon invoice receipt. Unpaid amounts exceeding (30) days from date of invoice will be charged an additional 5% per month.

Privacy and confidentiality of information

the Idea Mechanics understand privacy and protection of intellectual property is critical to your business. Specific terms of privacy and confidentiality are defined within each engagement contract. Until such time as the information is known to the general public, we agree that all proprietary materials, information or ideas you provide to the Idea Mechanics will not be reproduced or disclosed except to the extent necessary to perform the contracted services. These items may be in oral or written form and include but not be limited to materials, information, ideas relating to business, plans, operations, products, services, methods, procedures, clients, equipment, and systems.

Contracts

A written contract will be required for all consulting or project engagements exceeding $100. The contract shall be supplied by the Idea Mechanics and will include but not be limited to the following:

scope of services
period of performance & schedule
price and payment
termination
confidentiality of information
ownership of work product
return of property
publicity

compliance with laws
independent contractor status
obligations of sub-contractors
indemnity
entire agreement
notices
statement of work
schedule of deliverables

Satisfaction guarantee

If for any reason – at any time – you are not completely satisfied with work performed by the Idea Mechanics, we will expect no payment. Simple as that.

In return we have only two requests:

In addition to abiding by the written terms within a contract, the SPIRIT of the engagement must also be honored. Each party must execute a best faith effort to establish common expectations for both performance and deliverables prior to beginning an engagement.
Disagreements regarding contractual performance must be documented through written/electronic communications and verbally negotiated with best-faith effort by both parties as early as possible in an engagement.

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