If you are a consultant who is a little frustrated about how to attract enough clients, you are not alone. Many consultants struggle with marketing and hope that networking will bring them enough clients. This isn’t exactly hoping and wishing for clients, but it is darn close.
There is a better way to get clients. First you probe for pain, then you educate prospects how to solve their pains in general. The more you educate how to solve their pain in general the more that will hire you for specifics.
Unfortunately, many consultants who learn this truth find the idea of writing and speaking about client pain too daunting and even mysterious. Most feel this is only for a select few mega-minds like Peter Drucker, Suze Orman or Tom Peters, but that is a miscalculated view. You don’t need to write three dozen books and have them translated into 30 languages. Just becoming a local guru can work wonders.
Professional organizer Paulette Ensign turned a business book idea into a million-seller. She is teaching consultants how to do the same at the upcoming Nov. 13-14 2010 Marketing With A Book Summit at the La Jolla Shores Hotel.
Understanding the psychology of clients provides critical evidence of the validity of the speak up and get published approach. Consulting is what economists sometimes call “credence” goods, in that purchasers must place great faith in those who sell the services. How can potential clients trust you if they never hear what you have to say?
The good news is there exists a body of knowledge that some have discovered to grow their professional and consulting practices. As an example, management consulting firms like McKinsey & Co. pioneered the approach beginning in the 1940s and now have it down to a science.
How do you get started as a guru? First, understand that generating new clients is an investment and should be measured like any other investment. Next, quit wasting money on ineffective means like brochures, advertising and sponsorships. Rather than creating a brochure, start by writing how-to articles. Those articles turn into speeches and seminars. The best marketing investment you can make is to get help creating informative Web sites, hosting persuasive seminars, booking speaking engagements, and getting published as a newsletter columnist and eventually a book author.