How To Find Consulting Clients

How to Find Consulting Clients
Warning: you need to be clear on your solution AND the problem it solves
before you go out looking for clients. If you don’t, you can do a lot of
“research” and spin your wheels...never finding the client most interested in
working with you.
With that said, the goal of this short report is to help you identify where to
find specific audiences in large groups...quickly.
As you read through, you will find a particular approach that resonates with
you as the best place to find your BEST client. Go with that! Research that
method at the expense of the others. Do not try to know everything about
each method. Trying to know everything is an exercise in futility.
Read quickly. Execute fiercely. Get some results!
Where is your BEST client hiding?
Are they Local? If you’ve decided to focus on your local area the local
newspaper might be exactly what you need. Local newspapers understand
their market well and are more than happy to help other local businesses
reach their preferred clients. If you need some resources to find newspapers
in your area here are two:
50 States
http://www.50states.com/news/#.VW32WM9Viko
USNPL http://www.usnpl.com/

Are they involved Professional Associations? If your preferred client is
part of a specific association or group you should look into advertising with a
relevant organization. Professional associations include much more than your
local Chamber of Commerce. In my own research, I’ve found that just about
every profession has an association attached to it. Some are locally focused
with small memberships and others are nationally focused with huge
http://covetedconsultant.com/howtofindconsultingclients
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memberships. It is just a matter of how you would like to target. Need a
resource? Here’s a good one.
Career One Stop
http://www.careeronestop.org/

Do they share a Hobby or Interest? You might find that your BEST client
has a particular hobby or interest. This particular interest may not deal
directly with their field, but it might be something many of them have in
common. (For example, many male executives enjoy golfing as a leisure
activity. It might make sense to reach your BEST client in the clubhouse on a
golf course.) Need a resource? Some simple internet searches go a long way
here.
I searched “top hobbies for women” and found
A List of Hobbies for Women Over 50 Amazing Ideas from the Sixty and
Me Community
http://sixtyandme.com/listofhobbiesforwomenover50amazingideasfro
mthesixtyandmecommunity/
I searched “top hobbies for men” and found
Top 75 Best Manly Hobbies for Men
http://nextluxury.com/menslifestyleadvice/top75bestmanlyhobbiesfor
men/

Are they specifically on YouTube? Depending on your specific approach
you may choose not to do video marketing. But if your content marketing
strategy includes video, YouTube has more than 1 billion unique users each
month . It’s fair to say that your BEST client visits YouTube…at some
point…for some content. You should be there with the content they need.

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Do they engage on Facebook? If you think Facebook is still just a
playground for “kids” and “young adults” you are wrong…just wrong.
Companies are selling soap, plane flights, medical advancements, and
everything inbetween on Facebook. Most importantly, the Facebook
advertising platform allows you to target your BEST client
(see step 3) in
ways that just weren’t possible before.

Do they have a presence on LinkedIn? If you are a business professional
you should have a presence on LinkedIn. Period. Once you’ve optimized
your profile the LinkedIn publishing platform provides another opportunity to
post your highlevel content and attract more clients to you. If you are
looking for a set of best practices for their platform, Paul Shapiro wrote an
excellent article on
LinkedIn publishing success .

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How to Handle Conversations

Like I mentioned in the video, once you’ve put yourself in front of potential
clients you need to have a prepared process for how to understand their needs
and close them. This is a process you should have in place before you start
“meeting people” .

Potential clients will want to have conversation(s) with you. They need to
have conversation(s) with you. Controlling the scope of these conversations
is makes them more valueable for you and your potential client.

Conversation #1 The Discovery Call

First and foremost, it’s a
discovery call
. It’s NOT a sales call. It is literally
about your discovery of their issue. Rule number one here is, do not sell . It’s
feels weird for you when you push your service on them and it feels weird
from them to receive such a hard sales pitch.
Furthermore, it feels needy. It feels desperate. Who wants to work with a
needy, desperate expert?
No one.
Remember rule number one, do not sell. You can just wash that idea from
your head right now. This is what you
should do
:
1 – Set expectations. Tell your prospective client exactly what is going to
happen in this call. You expect to gain a better understanding of their issue
and what they would like to do to improve their situation. Very simple. It’s
your job to set expectations.
2 – Ask about their situation. I normally use the phrase, “Tell me about your
challenges with X. Tell me how you got started and how you ended up here.”
The goal here is to begin a conversation. Nothing tricky.
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3 – Be quiet. Once you say, “Tell me about your challenges with X.” Be
quiet. Don’t say anything else.If they’re quiet, you’re quiet. If they stop, you
stop. Please, if they’re talking, you listen. Be quiet and let them tell you all of
what it is that they have to say.
They will talk themselves into whatever is most important to them (and that’s
what you want). But if you get in the way, you will stop that clarity from
happening. Your goal here is to help them make an informed decision, NOT
trick them into buying something from you.
4 – Let THEM decide. Most often, your prospective client already knows
what they want to do. They just hadn’t had a chance to talk it all the way out.
Maybe they say it in a sentence. Maybe they say it in five minutes. Either
way is fine. Let them tell you. Let them process out loud what they’re trying
to get done. When they tell you what they’re trying to get done, there’s a very
simple closing question that asks for the sale without hitting them over the
head.
5 – Ask if they want help. Simply ask them, “Do you want help with
that?”And be quiet. They will tell you if they want help or not. Not only that
they will be very clear about the kind of help they believe they need. They’ll
just come out and tell you.
The simplicity of this conversation allows you to easily match where they are
with the services your offer. If you don’t see a match…say so. If you see a
match…say so.
6 – Setup a final call with all decision makers. Before you get off the call ask,
“Is there anybody else who is involved in the decision making process? I
would like to invite them on our final call.”
They’ll tell you who else should be considered. Maybe it’s a spouse, maybe
it’s a business partner, maybe it’s a subordinate, maybe it’s a boss, maybe it’s
a team member, it doesn’t matter. But make sure you know everyone
involved in the final decision before you get off the line and setup your
proposal call.
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Why is this so important? It shows immense respect for everyone’s time. No
one wants to meet for “meeting’s sake”. No one. The fact that you have a
process in place that allows your BEST client to make a smooth, efficient
decision builds your authority.

Conversation #2 The Closing Call
Remember rule number one, do not sell. They talked to you already on the
phone and you discussed a match in problem and solution. You don’t have to
sell them anything. They’ve already made their decision. You just want to be
clear with them on where they stand. That’s all. Remember rule number one
do not sell.
1 – Set expectations. Again, set the expectations. “Hey, everyone, I’m going
to walk you through what we’ve talked about so far and what I recommend.
My team and I are excited to begin this project today.” Boom. Expectations
set.
2 – Follow a very short outline. Here is the basic flow of your proposal.
Here’s what I heard you say…
Here’s how I believe I can help…
Are you ready to begin today?
3 – Be quiet. They will tell you exactly what they want to do.
By this time, they’ve already figured out if they want to go forward or not.
Either choice they make is fine. Your job is to make their choice easy. You
will earn their respect either way.

Why this works...
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You are the authority. If your BEST client already knew what to do they
would do it. They need someone (preferably you) to set the scope and help
them take decisive action. That is exactly what this process allows you to do.
The prospective client makes all of the decisions. There’s no obligation for
your prospective client to do anything. They chose to be on the discovery
call. They chose to be on the proposal call. They will also choose whether to
work with you (or not).
That means…
When they decide to work with you, they are not only saying yes to you and
your services but they’re also saying yes to whatever other resources they
need to put forward to reach the preferred goal. They are making full
commitment (and that is exactly what you need).
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