Sometimes you need expert perspective without long-term commitment
Strategic consultation provides dedicated time to think through your marketing approach with someone who brings experience from working with diverse organizations. Get clarity on your path forward without binding retainer relationships.
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What consultation sessions provide
These sessions create space to examine your marketing situation with fresh perspective. Rather than telling you what to do, we help clarify your thinking through frameworks and questions that reveal possibilities you might not have considered.
Mental Clarity
Walking through your situation with someone outside your organization often illuminates aspects you've been too close to see clearly.
Strategic Frameworks
Access to tested approaches for evaluating marketing decisions helps you think through choices more systematically.
Actionable Direction
Sessions conclude with clear next steps rather than vague suggestions, giving you concrete paths to pursue.
No Pressure
Get expert input when you need it without committing to ongoing relationships or feeling obligated to implement everything discussed.
Marketing decisions feel harder when you're the one making them
You understand your industry and your organization's strengths. You've read articles about marketing tactics and maybe even tried implementing some. Yet turning that knowledge into an effective strategy for your specific situation feels elusive.
Perhaps you're considering different marketing approaches but can't determine which makes most sense for your resources and timeline. Or you're getting conflicting advice from different sources and need help evaluating options. Maybe your current marketing efforts produce some results but you suspect you're missing opportunities.
Hiring a full-service agency feels like more commitment than you want right now. Building an in-house marketing team requires resources you don't have. You need someone to help think through your situation and provide honest guidance without trying to sell you ongoing services.
The core challenge: Good marketing strategy requires both knowledge of general principles and understanding of your specific context. You have the context but could benefit from strategic frameworks and objective perspective to evaluate your options effectively.
Our consultation approach
Strategy sessions work best when they focus on your actual needs rather than following a predetermined agenda. We adapt each consultation to address what matters most for your situation.
Situational Assessment
We begin by understanding where you are currently and what brought you to seek consultation. This includes examining your existing marketing efforts, organizational goals, resource constraints, and competitive landscape. The assessment reveals patterns and opportunities that might not be obvious from inside your organization.
Strategic Frameworks
Rather than jumping to tactics, we explore strategic questions that clarify your direction. Who are you really trying to reach? What makes you different in ways that matter to them? Where should you focus limited resources for maximum impact? These frameworks help organize your thinking around fundamental decisions.
Option Evaluation
If you're considering different marketing approaches, we walk through pros and cons for your specific context. This includes realistic assessment of resource requirements, expected timelines, and likely outcomes. You'll understand tradeoffs involved in different paths rather than getting one-size-fits-all recommendations.
Actionable Recommendations
Sessions conclude with specific next steps prioritized by likely impact. You receive written notes summarizing key insights and recommendations for your reference. These aren't vague suggestions but concrete actions you can implement or evaluate further.
Sessions typically run between one and three hours depending on complexity of what you're working through. Some situations require multiple sessions to address thoroughly, while others benefit from a single focused conversation.
What a consultation session looks like
Effective strategy sessions balance structure with flexibility, ensuring we address your priorities while bringing relevant frameworks and perspective to the conversation.
Pre-Session Preparation
Before we meet, you share background information about your organization and what you hope to accomplish during the session. This allows us to prepare relevant frameworks and examples rather than spending consultation time on basic context gathering.
Focused Conversation
During the session, we explore your situation through strategic questions and relevant frameworks. This isn't a lecture but a working conversation where your knowledge of your business combines with our marketing expertise to generate insights. We take notes on key points and emerging recommendations.
Synthesis and Recommendations
Toward the end of our time, we synthesize what we've discussed into prioritized recommendations. These connect back to your specific goals and constraints rather than generic best practices. You'll understand not just what to do but why certain approaches make sense for your situation.
Written Summary
Within two business days after the session, you receive written notes documenting key insights, recommendations, and next steps. This gives you a reference document to share with team members and consult as you implement suggestions.
Session format options: Consultations can happen via video call, phone, or in person if geography allows. We adapt to whatever format works best for productive conversation.
Investment and session structure
Hourly consultation allows you to engage for exactly as much time as your situation requires without paying for services you don't need.
What's included:
- Focused consultation time addressing your specific marketing challenges
- Strategic frameworks relevant to your situation and goals
- Objective evaluation of marketing options and approaches
- Prioritized recommendations based on your resources and constraints
- Written summary documenting insights and next steps
- Follow-up email support for clarification questions after the session
Typical Session Lengths
Most consultations run between one and three hours depending on complexity. Simple questions might require just an hour, while comprehensive strategy reviews benefit from longer sessions.
We discuss appropriate session length during initial scheduling based on what you're looking to address.
Multiple Session Options
Some situations benefit from multiple shorter sessions over time rather than one long meeting. This allows you to implement initial recommendations and return with questions.
Each session stands alone with no requirement for ongoing commitment.
How consultation sessions create value
The effectiveness of strategic consultation comes from combining your organizational knowledge with our marketing expertise to generate insights neither party would reach alone.
Clarified Direction
Organizations typically leave sessions with clearer understanding of their marketing priorities. The confusion about where to focus energy gives way to specific, actionable direction aligned with their capabilities and goals.
Avoided Mistakes
Outside perspective helps identify potential issues before you invest significant resources. A few hundred dollars for consultation can prevent thousands spent on approaches unlikely to work for your situation.
Faster Progress
Rather than spending months trying different tactics randomly, you move forward with informed strategy based on what typically works for organizations in similar situations.
Confident Decisions
Understanding the reasoning behind recommendations lets you make marketing decisions with greater confidence. You're not just following someone's advice blindly but understand why certain approaches make sense.
Realistic expectations: Consultation provides strategic clarity and direction but doesn't replace implementation work. You'll understand what to do and why, but executing those recommendations still requires effort from your team or hired help.
Our commitment to valuable sessions
Consultation time represents an investment, and we take seriously the responsibility to make that time genuinely useful for your organization.
Focused Preparation
We review your background information before the session to arrive prepared with relevant frameworks and examples rather than wasting your time on basic fact-gathering.
Honest Assessment
If we believe a different approach would serve you better than consultation, we'll say so. We're not trying to maximize billable hours but help you solve actual problems.
Practical Recommendations
Advice considers your real constraints around budget, time, and team capabilities. Generic best practices that don't fit your situation serve no one.
No Pressure
We don't use consultation sessions to sell ongoing services. If our other offerings could help, we mention them, but there's no expectation you hire us for additional work.
Our approach: Good consultation helps you think more clearly about your marketing rather than creating dependency on outside expertise. You should leave sessions feeling more capable of making decisions, not less.
Scheduling a consultation session
If strategic consultation could help clarify your marketing approach, here's how to arrange a session.
Initial Inquiry
Contact us through the form below describing your situation and what you hope to gain from consultation. Include any specific questions or areas you want to address.
Brief Screening Call
We have a short conversation to ensure consultation makes sense for your needs. Sometimes a different approach would serve you better, and we'll suggest alternatives if appropriate.
Session Scheduling
Once we agree consultation would be valuable, you schedule a session at a mutually convenient time. We typically book sessions one to two weeks out to allow preparation time.
Consultation Session
We meet for the scheduled session, work through your marketing situation together, and develop recommendations. You receive written notes within two business days.
From initial contact to scheduled session typically takes about one week, though we can accommodate urgent needs if your timeline requires faster turnaround.
Ready to gain clarity on your marketing strategy?
Let's explore whether strategic consultation could help you move forward with greater confidence. We'll have an honest conversation about your needs and whether this service makes sense.
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