How To Triple Your Consulting Leads
Consulting is a unique field. No matter what your speciality, the true measure of success is your ability to help clients solve difficult problems. You possess an exceptional ability to think, create and communicate; a talent that is highly sought-after by executives. The pitfall of your profession is if your consulting business has no clients, then you have no consulting business.
We know that the best method of marketing your consulting services is recommendations, referrals and word of mouth. However, if you’re in the early years of your consulting career or a dry spell, the chances are this isn’t happening as often as you’d like. More likely, you’re struggling with:
- Not having enough clients
- Attracting the wrong kind of clients
- Trying to convert leads that are expensive and time-consuming
You’re probably also having to market yourself to prospects that may not even be aware that they need your services, which significantly lengthens the sales cycle.
Many consultants still heavily rely on referrals, but this is dependent on the size and quality of your network, is labour intensive and inconsistent. Combine this with the ease that buyers can search online and locate hundreds of qualified consultants in the same state, you’re facing tough competition to stand out.
So, what type of marketing can generate the highest quality consulting leads and opportunities?
This is the conventional advice given:
- Public speaking at events, such as conferences, trade shows and meetups — How many events in your niche are there per year? And how do you tackle falling attendance?
- Outbound sales calls — Cold calling is a tough slog warm calling, but that’s exactly what you’ll be stuck doing unless you can generate warm leads to follow up.
- Writing a book — Is an excellent prospecting tool, but it takes a long time to write 90,000 words, publish, print, promote and is costly.
These above definitely have their merit and place, but I want to explore how adding digital elements can have an enormous impact on the quantity and quality of leads generated, and amplify your exposure and branding.
What Makes You Unique?
Before we start on lead generation strategies, let’s review your personal branding. This goes beyond what you say about yourself, your experience and your services. Even if you think you’ve already nailed this, it’s worth reviewing with a fresh perspective. Consultants sometimes struggle to explain their uniqueness and how their expertise can benefit a business, so they default to talking about themselves, copy what others say, or worse, use complicated language stuffed with buzz words.
Basic personal branding showcases your beliefs, strengths and experience, but these alone won’t earn you a seat at the executive table. It’s time to take your exceptional thinking ability and turn it on yourself.
The following questions will help you uncover what makes you unique and how you can stand out amongst the sea of consultants. I’ve borrowed and adapted these questions from Dorie Clark’s book, “How to Find Your Break-Through Idea”. Dorie Clark is described as the thought-leader on how to become a thought-leader.
1. What do others in your field overlook?
2. What’s the conventional wisdom about how to do things “the right way” in your field?
3. What are three trends shaping your industry? Are they short-term or fundamental? How would you describe them to an outsider unfamiliar with your field?
4. What should smart companies or individuals do to thrive in the future? How should they prepare? What steps should they take?
5. What innovations or new developments do you know about that most others do not?
6. What experiences have you had that others in your field most likely have not? How does that difference shape your view of the industry?
7. What topics are you a “local expert” in — that is, not necessarily the best in the world, but better or more knowledgeable than those around you?
8. Is there a way you can differentiate yourself from others in your profession?
9. What is the traditional background of influential players in your field? Is there a way to leverage being the opposite of that?
10. How can you leverage experience to bring a new perspective to your current endeavour?
11. Are there parts of your background or resume that you consider “irrelevant” or out of place? How can you integrate them back into your professional life in a new way?
12. Has the overall nature of your field been articulated? Is there an aspect of your field that hasn’t been adequately defined?
13. What are the principles behind the best practices you champion? Can you explain the underlying premise of your philosophy?
14. What are the simple things that are stumbling blocks for other consultants in your field? What’s holding back their progress?
15. What do most people misunderstand about your field? What errors do they make, and can you help redirect them?
16. What are the strongest brand affiliations you possess? Have you worked with a prominent company, written for a major publication, attended a prestigious school, won a major award, built relationships with prominent leaders, etc.?
We then move on to communicating your value across different channels and how to 3x your consulting leads. The channels that you ultimately choose to pursue should be the ones that can best reach your ideal client, which may take some investigation and testing to figure out.
Accelerate Lead Generation with Digital Marketing Strategies
Make an Impact with Your Website and Thought-Leader Content
Your own website is a must. It’s an extension of your business card, giving you full control over positioning, messaging and visual elements. It’s also your stage to interact with potential prospects. Blogging is very popular, and for a good reason. It’s the perfect way to share insights, stories, case studies and various pieces of educational content mirroring the issues faced by your prospects. Regular blogging around your speciality area resonates with readers and demonstrates your knowledge and experience. To simplify, rather than to tell people they need your services; you’re sharing insightful, thought-provoking information that makes readers decide for themselves that they need your services. You may have heard this being referred to as ‘pull’ vs. ‘push’ marketing.
I make it sound easy, but many people have blogs and repeating the same information or thoughts won’t entice prospects to keep returning. You really need a strategy of who exactly you want to read your content and what specific topics will get their attention. Use your exceptional think ability to act like a journalist — research, question, interview, prod and poke.
It all begins with: what should you write about? Start by making a list of possible topics and match them with your target reader. Think about the most common questions people have about your field, misconceptions, emerging trends that will have an impact, or interesting shortcuts or ways to “hack the system or a process.” What strategies have enabled you to achieve success with other clients? If nothing changes, what implications will it have for the industry/field? You can also search LinkedIn communities and Quora to see what questions are being asked or topics that are being discussed.
Your goal is to genuinely help people in some aspect of their business through your writing. Instead of creating content on a daily or weekly basis, slow down. Spend at least 40 hours on every piece of content and make it exceptional. Make it 10X better than the next best piece of content on the topic; this will yield a significantly higher quantity and quality of leads.
Bonus Pro Tip: Scrap the Typical ‘Quick Enquiry’ Form
Everyone seems to use a dull quick enquiry form on their website. It’s the final step in the lead generation process and can influence whether people fill in their details or leave. Finding the right form that will convert your prospects will take some testing.
So, how do you improve your form? Prospects want to know four things:
- What will you do for them?
- How much will it cost?
- How are you different from everyone else?
- Do you know what you’re talking about?
Use your form to answer these questions by offering a free proposal, an introductory consultation, or a personalised audit. What’s more compelling: “Quick Enquiry Form, Fill in Your Details” or “Book Your FREE 30 Minute Consultation.”
Turbocharge Your Online Presence
To position yourself as a thought-leader, you’ll need to build your online presence beyond your website too.
