Roadmapping sessions, for me, are paid engagements that gives my clients a low-cost introductory to a project. It reduces risk to you and the client while eliminating ‘Tire kickers’. My session is a credit towards total cost of the project if the clients chooses to move forward.

The session is a 90-minute dive into the customers business and problems. During the session, I build that customer relation and trust by asking questions that traditional developers don’t ask or show concern about. The goal of the Roadmapping Session is to identify where they are now, where they want to be, and how you can get them there.

At the end of it all, there is a report that I create for the client. That report is essentially the proposal and blueprint that was derived from the Roadmapping Session. The client is free to do whatever they want with that report, including shop around. But 9 times out of 10, the client has already built up that trust with you and knows first hand that you understand their “expensive problem”.

Typical Proposal

A typical proposal usually involves the following:

• Cost base

• Feature focused

• Possibly hourly

• Pray and hope they accept

With the traditional route, your proposal is usually based on a ‘McDonalds’ style; menu of features and options. You are throwing in features that all websites/projects have and you already have a cost associated with that feature/solution. You may even have an hourly rate attached to the proposal. At the end of it all, after you’ve submitted the proposal, you hope and pray that the customer accepts what you’ve thrown at them.

Revised Proposals

A revised and updated proposal may involve the following:

• Anchor Price  base

• ‘Expensive Problem’  focused

• Moves away from Hourly

• Re-iterate clients problems

Your new proposals after the roadmapping sessions can take advantage of anchor based pricing. This means that you can potentially earn more and ask for more in your proposals. You’re also not tied down to an hourly fee. You’ve found what the clients “expensive problem” is; what is costing them money if this is not fixed.

Using that knowledge, you can definitely justify a higher fee.

Roadmapping Session

The session is a 90-minute dive into the customers business and problems. During the session, you’re building the customer relation and trust by asking questions about the business and eventually that “expensive problem”. These questions are generally what traditional developers don’t ask or show concern about. The goal of the Roadmapping Session is to identify where they are now, where they want to be, and how you can get them there.

You’re going to break down the session into 4 main points. Business, Demographics, Finances, and Risk & Success. With these 4 points, you’re able to get a better picture of what’s going on. AND you’ll be able justify the price you’re asking for because you’ve just identified how much it is costing if the client DOESN’T get this problem fixed.

4 Main Points to a Roadmapping Session

Business

The business part of the Roadmapping Session are questions that are designed to talk about the business overall. A few questions that you’ll want to have are these for example:

1.       How are your products cross-sold or up-sold? Do you have anything in place that increases the customer lifetime value besides customers deciding to come back for more?
2.       What are your best-selling products? Worst-selling? And why?
3.       Of the potential clients you interact with in a month, what % of them convert to purchase products or become customers? How many net new customers?
4.       How many customers do you have total? How many buy just the one-off products? How many have joined a recurring plan?  
5.       What email marketing work, if any, are you doing now? (Broadcast newsletters, subscriber onboarding, post-purchase up-selling or cross-selling, etc.)

Demographics

The demographics of a product or service is important. This information can help you identify a plan on how to target your clients customers more effectively. A few example questions would be:

1.       Do you have a defined market or industry you target?
2.       Define your ideal subscriber (reoccurring)? Your ideal customer (single sale)?
3.       For your ideal customer, what do they buy first? What leads them to your website and to buy?
4.       What resistance do people have in buying your products?
5.       For your monthly subscription product, what do you think separates these customers from the rest of your subscriber base?

Finances

During the discussions about the finances, its OK to get rounded numbers. This is where you’re going to start putting value against the demographics and products. A few examples:

1.       Without introducing any new products or getting an increase in monthly opt-ins, what realistic monthly sales figures would make this project a success? What increase in monthly sales would make this a home-run?
2.       What is the value of a subscriber? (Example: Total annual sales + revenue divided by subscriber count)
3.       What is the average value of a customer? (Easy formula: Total sales divided by number of customers)
4.       What percentage of customers buy just once, and what percentage buy again?
5.       What is the customer lifetime value (CLTV) of those who buy once vs. repeat buyers?
6.       What is the value of a subscriber who comes organically / via social media / via paid ads? (Don’t worry if you can’t figure this out just yet.)

Risk/Success

The risk/success portion is used to help your client, as well as yourself, understand what would make the project a success. As well as a failure. We’ll also want to identify what external and internal risks could be keep the project from moving on. A few examples:

1.       Define success for this project.
2.       Define failure for this project.
3.       What risks internally (e.g., untested business model) are there that could keep this project from being successful?
4.       What risks external (e.g., risky 3rd party APIs) ) are there that could keep this project from being successful?

Parking Lot (Bonus)

I include a section at the end called “The Parking Lot”. The parking lot is where ideas that are off-topic but business relate will go. If the idea does not need to be discussed now, write it down in the parking lot so we can circle back around.

Conclusion

After the session is completed and over with, both you and the client should walk away with a better understanding of the problem. You have an idea of what the problem is right now. Where the client is aiming to be. And how you can help get them there.

Mixing all that you know about the problem and how it could be costly if the client DOESN’T resolve it, you can now create a proper proposal. Take the time to compile a report that will essentially reiterate the information that you found during the session. From there, you can formulate a fee for each section of the business that you can help with.

When doing price anchoring, you will use the information from the business, finance, and demographic section to show that your higher rates are only a fraction of the money that the client will be saving/earning in the long run.

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