I have the expertise but no product. What service should I offer as a consultant?

You know your field. You can sell yourself, your knowledge and your experience. What you do not have is a product, and you are not sure how to turn twenty years of expertise into a service somebody will pay for, especially when you are starting from scratch.

Twenty-four of the 35 people who filled in my diagnostic said they had no idea yet what they would sell. It came up again and again in the masterclass registrations.

Positioning other people was my job

For years, positioning other people was literally my job. In technology HR and reward I helped senior employees position for promotion and salary increases.

It took me a while to pin that down for my own business. I did not find the answer by thinking harder. The answers came from saying them out loud to people and watching which ones landed.

When I did start, I did not invent anything new. I picked the thing I already knew I could do, and I went and found out whether anybody would pay me for it. They would. My first client came in my second month.

What to do this week

Start with two lists, both from your own history rather than your imagination.

1. The problems people brought to you because you were the one who could solve them. Not your job description: the things colleagues came to you for that were not technically your job. Open a note on your phone and add to it every time it happens, or every time you remember one.
2. The people who had those problems and would recognise your name. Former managers, peers in other teams, people who relied on you.

Then pick the problem that appears most often, say it in one sentence, and say it out loud to five people from the second list. Watch which version makes them lean in. That is your first offer, and it is a sentence long before it is a product.

That list is closer to an offer than your job title is. There is more on that in what can a corporate leader sell as a solo advisor?

Your next step

If you would rather not build the list from memory, my free diagnostic does it from your history: what would people pay me for?