6 Ways to Sell Better and Get More Consulting Clients (Guide)
10 MIN
As an independent professional, you have a lot of additional responsibilities. Not only must you deliver quality work, but you must find it as well. Winning new contracts isn’t just about luck and having an attractive portfolio. To maintain a steady flow of leads, you need a proactive approach and a clear plan of action for seeking out new projects.
GATE
As a solo business owner, neglecting business development can lead to an unpredictable revenue stream and greater stress. While you may be doing well with just one or two large contracts, your future success hinges on consistently bringing in new business. And the way you sell has an impact on your ability to win new business. Here are six practical tips to help you secure more clients and maintain steady work.
How to Overcome the Fear of Selling
The word “sell” makes many solo business owners nervous. After all, no one wants to come across as the fast-talking manipulator who convinces people to buy things that you don’t need. No one likes being sold either, which carries the implication of overriding someone’s better judgment with slick talk and sleazy techniques. Given the often-unfair perceptions about salespeople, it’s easy to understand why many independent consultants—who choose the path because they are experts and not salespeople—find the idea of selling their services uncomfortable or distasteful.
Selling is a natural process that is integral in much of our daily life. Have you ever presented an idea to a board, committee, or client? Have you ever interviewed for a job? Have you ever convinced a child to try a new food? These are all examples of selling. To excel at selling, keep in mind that it’s simply a process of helping people determine whether your product, service or idea has value to them.
While moving to the stage of persuasion is an element of sales, this occurs after you have established that a client sees value in what you are offering. When you sell persuasively, you are not selfishly imposing your will, but rather listening, discovering, clarifying and collaborating. Ultimately, you serve as a partner and a problem solver. You do not have to be an extrovert, smooth talker or “salesy” type to successfully sell your services. Overcoming the common fears of selling will help even non-sellers be able to sell with ease.
Learn from rejection
Rejection is a reality in selling, but it can actually help you in your solo business. These setbacks can offer valuable insights into client expectations and help you get better at uncovering needs, discovering roadblocks, and better communicating solutions. When a prospective client declines a proposal, there may be other factors influencing their decision. For example:
- The scope of work may have been bigger than their original vision and budget
- The proposal uncovered other issues/challenges that made executing a solution more complex
- The company’s priorities shifted and the problem you’re aiming to solve has now fallen to the bottom of the list
You will want to understand what triggered the search for further support along with their commitment to implementing a solution. Research the company before your initial discussion so that you can prepare a list of questions. To gain insights into the business, use social media channels such as LinkedIn, the company’s website and branded content, and company announcements and press releases. If you have inside connections, ask questions that will help you learn more about the operations and culture of the business.
In such cases where the company selected another vendor, conduct a loss analysis if possible. Below are just a few areas to consider in your loss analysis.
- What is the opportunity and what are the solution(s) offered?
- Did the customer believe that you had the ability to solve their problem? How did your solution compare to your competitors?
- What pain did your solution address? What pain did you not address?
- How can you work with them in the future?
- There are a variety of reasons that the client selected another vendor, including:
- A relationship with another firm
- They were more comfortable with a larger firm
- A competitive solution offered more benefits and features
- Pricing
Keep in mind that any information that you uncover can help you improve your selling process.
Proactively build your pipeline
There’s no greater feeling than the phone ringing with clients wanting to do business with you. Whether through referral or discovery, they found you and they want to learn more. Responding to these opportunities is crucial, but you should also be proactive in cultivating a steady flow of opportunity. This means setting up a regular process for cultivating selling opportunities.
There are several advantages to actively seeking new sales opportunities. Remember: you are an expert at what you do and what you offer. You are intimately familiar with the topic of conversation and aware of potential objections. Proactively reaching out to prospective customers gives you an opportunity to demonstrate your expertise by connecting your services to their needs. Initiating contact also allows you to build a relationship with a prospective customer in advance of the selling process.
Manage the sales process
Good preparation will help you to effectively manage the sales process. This includes preparing for the unexpected, such as being stumped by a question from your potential client. Selling your services does not require you to have all the answers. On occasion, a prospective client may ask a tough question that cannot be answered in the moment. When this occurs, acknowledge the question and commit to following up with an answer.
A piece of advice: Listen more than you talk in the sales process. Clients will tell you exactly what they need if you listen. Repeat information back to confirm your understanding and always connect your solution to what is most important to them. Then, express your interest in moving the relationship forward and provide a next step such as meeting with other stakeholders or following up with a written proposal. Each contact with a prospective client should lead to the next step, even if that’s just scheduling a follow-up call in three months.
Learn from the best
In your career, you have likely been on the other end of the selling process. Leverage what you have learned as a decisionmaker to sell your services to clients. What did these salespeople do to grab your attention? How did they create a win-win solution? Selling is not persuading someone to do something against their will. When you sell someone something that alleviates pain, solves a problem or generally makes their life easier, that is cause for celebration.
Ask detailed questions to understand why your proposal was not chosen. Client feedback is an essential learning tool to improve your skills.
You’ve taken the leap. You’ve launched your consulting career and are working your first contract. Now what? Learn more in our blog, “How to Land Your Next Consulting Contract.”
How to Master the Sales Planning Process
As an independent consultant, you must be especially conscious of how you spend your time. You want to engage in lead generation on a regular basis while still maximizing your billable hours. A little sales planning will help you to get the most return from your efforts.
The goal of selling is not just to generate a high volume of leads but to cultivate high-quality opportunities. Identifying your ideal market will help you maximize the time you spend selling. Knowing your best customer will help you to be smart about how and where you spend time selling.
For instance, if your ideal customers spend time on LinkedIn, you can focus your social media marketing efforts on that platform. Plan your outcome before you begin by clearly defining your sales goals and asking yourself some key questions: Do you want to generate a certain amount of revenue for the month, quarter, or year? Is your goal to grow the number of leads in your pipeline by a certain percentage? Are you looking to expand your newsletter subscriber database by a certain amount. Clearly articulating what you want to achieve from your sales efforts will keep you focused and allow you to measure your effectiveness.
What would you do if in one day you lost every single client? Many independent professionals faced this very challenge in the wake of natural disasters such as Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Katrina. These tragic events are a stark reminder of why it’s critical to always have a pipeline of opportunity. To avoid the vagaries of the economy or climate, selling must be a routine process.
Map out your sales activities for each month and follow the plan. Consistency is critical to ensuring that you have a steady flow of new business opportunities. Remember that selling is a process of discovery and collaboration. You will be building relationships over time, so it’s important to have tactics for both generating new leads and nurturing prospects. For example, you may include follow-up sales calls to clients you met at an event. Or you may send out an article of interest to a prospective client you spoke with on the phone.
Your sales planning should also include preparation for managing prospective clients. Every opportunity will not be the right one. Qualify leads to ensure that they are a good fit. Nothing is more frustrating than spending time developing a potential client only to discover that they do not have the budget to hire you.
Here are a few key questions to ask:
- What business problem will you solve by working with me?
- Do you have a defined timeline and budget?
- What will success look like for you as a result of our working together?
- How quickly do you need to see improvement to determine that the project is a success?
- What is the process for bringing someone on as a provider?
Knowing when it is time to grow your solo business is an important decision, but you must first define what success means to you. How you measure success will also help you identify hope to develop a business growth plan that is uniquely tailored to your business vision. Learn more in our blog, “How to Create a Growth Strategy for your Small Business.“
How to Find New Clients
Even if you are comfortable selling your services, finding new clients can be challenging for independent consultants. Use the tips in this section to create your own customized list of lead generation activities.
- To get more ideal clients, talk to your own ideal clients. Your best customers can provide you with much more than referrals. They can help you identify unmet needs in the market, illuminate key selling points you may be missing, and point you to lead sources.
- Optimize your website. Your website can sell 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Make sure that your website provides a clear path for prospective clients looking for information. Writing case studies, articles and whitepapers can provide rich sources of information that will help clients learn more about you and develop interest. Add a visible opt-in form that offers clients an easy way to connect for more information.
- Become a thought leader. By becoming a trusted expert you can develop a platform for cultivating sales opportunities. Opportunities such as speaking, teaching, training, and publishing are just a few of the ways that you can become a go-to expert in your field.
- Cold call. Who are your dream clients? Make a targeted list and reach out by phone to decision makers. Build cold calling into a regular routine. For example, you may set aside 30 minutes a day for cold calling or have a goal of calling three people per day.
- Local business journal, newspaper, or trade publication. Organizational news is a great way to identify potential business opportunities. A change in management plans for expansion or a new product announcement may all be opportunities for your services.
- Corporate departments. You may already be selling to corporations but also think about departments you would not normally approach. For example, a marketing consultant may find work in the training department, human resources department, or even IT.
- Learning institutions. School districts, colleges and universities frequently hire outside consultants. From hiring marketing consultants to risk management professionals. solo business owners like you can see a wealth of opportunities.
- Media. The media can be a powerful vehicle to achieve visibility in your market and they are always in need of expert content and sources. Network with targeted media contacts and let them know that you are an expert source. Make a list of your target media outlets, such as industry verticals, local print and broadcast journalists, and broader business publications. You can also subscribe to Help a Reporter Out (HARO), which connects media sources with experts for free.
- Industry events. Use websites such as Meetup and EventBrite to discover conferences and events in your area. Rather than passing out business cards to everyone in the room, focus your efforts on having deeper conversations with fewer people. Ask questions and listen carefully for the answers and try to establish the next step for moving the relationship forward. You may agree to connect on LinkedIn, follow-up with an email or phone call, or commit to scheduling a one-on-one meeting.
- Social networking. Social networking can help you identify new business opportunities and serve as a tool in moving relationships forward.
- Create a LinkedIn company page. In addition to your profile, you can create a company page for your business. Use it to share expert insights, news items, photos or videos, and more.
- Join a LinkedIn group and participate. Just like with offline networking groups you need to be active to be top of mind. Find a group that has active discussions and set aside a little time each day or week to participate.
- Business blog. If you enjoy writing or have the resources to hire a writer, this can be a wonderful resource for selling your expertise. You need no more than one or two posts per week to be effective. Focus on creating relevant content that benefits your ideal audience. If you don’t want to maintain your own blog, guest blogging is another alternative that can help you be seen as a trusted expert.
- Segment your social circles. You can communicate with and deliver targeted information to your social circles. Create a list of potential clients and partners who actively use social media. This makes it much easier to track and monitor conversations that matter the most to you.
- Repurpose your presentations. Share your presentations using social networking tools such as SlideShare. After all, you’ve already done the hard work of creating the content and delivering the presentation, so why not make it continue to work for you? These presentations demonstrate your expertise and function as social proof that others consider you a trusted resource.
- Video and podcasts. Create a YouTube channel or podcast as a vehicle for sharing expert insights. You can use it to educate, teach how to solve a specific problem, or even interview other experts. Both video and audio have incredible reach and can be a useful tool in generating new business leads.
- Advertising. Today there are a variety of traditional and digital platforms available for advertising. You can create highly targeted ads on Google, LinkedIn, or Facebook along with traditional ads in newspapers and publications. It’s critical to spend your advertising dollars wisely. Before you commit to any advertising, you want to make sure that it will reach your target audience. Like all sales and marketing efforts, advertising is not a one-and-done activity. You must commit to a focused and consistent plan.
Many new forms of advertising yourself involve online platforms. It is important to understand technology in order to reach new audiences.
EXPERT TIP: “It may seem tedious, but doing homework on the person you’re calling will make a huge difference. This can be as simple as doing a google search on the company or looking up the prospect on linkedIn, says Sam Richter, author of Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling (adams business Press, 2012).”
Final Thoughts
- It can be tempting to keep your head down, do the work, and hope that the business will just come to you. But as an independent professional, it’s your job to let people know about the solutions you offer so they might consider working with you. Organizations need your knowledge and expertise to solve problems and help them move their business forward. Selling is the first step to connecting their needs with your solutions.
- With the right mindset and a little planning, anyone can master the art and science of selling. Be honest and transparent in your sales efforts—there’s no need to put on a show to be successful. Remember to listen more than you talk. Meaningful dialogue only happens when you actively listen. Ask lots of questions and listen carefully for their answers. Your clients will lead you to a deal if you pay attention.
- Before you can sell to others you must be convinced of your own value. You can genuinely offer solutions when you have full confidence in your ability to be a problem solver. Not every sale will go your way, but this should not dampen your confidence or enthusiasm in your ability to help others solve a business problem.
On the surface, it may seem that it would be easy to sell something that you know and are passionate about. However, just because you’re an expert in your industry doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve developed the skills and techniques to excel in the sales aspect of your business. Learn more in our blog, “How to Become a Better Salesperson.”
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