Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants

Get Ready--Here Comes 2005

It's that time again…time to reflect on the past year and resolve to do better in the next. If you're thinking about resolutions for your consulting business, here are a few thoughts, in no particular order, to kick-start your brain.

1. Dust off your marketing plan. Go back through your marketing plan and review what's working and what's not. Should you consider adding new services to your practice? Should you discontinue others? Is your target market right? Are your marketing tactics working? Is there something new and different about your business you'd like to highlight in the market?

2. Raise your rates? Evidence that the consulting market is picking up steam makes this a good time to consider if your rates are aligned with the market. Take a fresh look at your services and fees. You may find an opportunity to raise your fees, particularly for new clients.

3. Prune your client list. Consider which clients you'd rather refer to others this year, instead of serving them yourself. Are there client relationships that aren't working for you, either professionally or financially? Examine your existing client list and decide if you would be better off not working for any client on the list.

4. Strengthen ten relationships. With client relationships-current and past-fresh in your mind, find ways to renew and strengthen the relationships you want to keep. You're likely to end up with more business if you do.

5. Revisit your Web site. Is it time to refresh some or all of your Web site? Does your site reflect your current capabilities, differentiators and service offerings?

6. Contribute to your industry. Whether you practice in financial services or information technology, find a way to contribute some of your time and consulting expertise to solving issues your industry is facing. Make a difference.

7. Market your practice daily. Find a way to do one thing, even something small, each day to promote your practice. It will pay off.

8. Fill a gap. Is there a gap in some part of your business or consulting knowledge? Devote time to identifying an area for professional development, and then head to that conference, or read a few books. Whatever gap you spot, plan a way to fill it in the coming year.

May 2005 be your best year yet!

Words to Avoid in Proposals

Proposals brimming with consultant-speak drive clients to the competition faster than you can say "paradigm shift."

Scrutinize every word in a proposal and strip out empty phrases like "seamless connectivity," "strategic convergence," or "we deliver unparalleled solutions that create leverage for the enterprise." In the war of words, your most potent weapon is your computer's delete key.

Of the three ailments likely to infect a proposal--tired superlatives, buzzwords, and the plague of pronouns--superlatives are the most insidious.

Superlatives are like weeds in a lawn: Unless checked, they tend to take over. Avoid prose such as "Our unsurpassed commitment to client service ensures your needs will be our highest priority." Does that mean the needs of other clients are a lower priority for you?

Consultants hope to get an edge by claiming to be the fastest, best, or most experienced. Clients routinely ignore such claims as unproven hype. Unless you can quantify your claims beyond a doubt, dump superlatives from your proposal.

Tired superlatives to delete or justify in every proposal include: Most, Superior, Best, Maximum, Optimal, Minimum, Fastest, Unsurpassed, Shortest, Unrivaled, Easiest, Highest, Least, Unique.

Nothing is intrinsically wrong with any of the preceding words, and we all use them in spoken and written communication (for example, "This is the fastest way to do that.") But in proposals, they are suspect, and you should use them sparingly, if at all.

Instead of promising an "optimal solution for reducing customer complaints," say, "We will reduce customer complaints by 9% in 90 days." Then amplify in the proposal exactly how you will achieve that reduction.

Since proposals are often used to justify unspoken decisions made earlier in the sales process, include in your proposal facts that validate your supporters' desire to hire you. Give them powerful ammunition to advance your firm's credibility and convince others in the organization that you are the right choice.

The Art of the Start

Consultants are always starting something, whether it's a new project, a new line of business or a new relationship with a client.

To help you start whatever, we asked Guy Kawasaki, the managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, and former chief evangelist of Apple Computer, Inc. to share his ideas on getting just about anything going.

See the recent issue of Management Consulting News for our interview with Guy Kawasaki.

Landing Your First Client

The Consulting industry is a big—and growing—business. The market for consulting services is estimated to be between $130B and $150B annually, and professional consultants are among the highest paid workers, earning more than many doctors, lawyers, and other professionals.

It’s not surprising that consulting is attractive to many people who want to launch a business. After all, if you have a saleable skill, no one will stop you from calling yourself a consultant, and startup can cost as little as printing business cards and getting a business license.

So how do your break into consulting?

Have a look at my recent article on the subject published by About.com at http://entrepreneurs.about.com/od/salesmarketing/a/firstclient.htm

Your Toughest Competitor

It’s easy to forget that the toughest competitor in a consulting sales process may not be another consulting firm, but the client. In every opportunity, you have two invisible competitors. The first is the client who chooses a “do nothing” strategy and abandons the project; the second is the client who decides to do the project without a consultant.

Competing against an undeclared rival is the most complicated selling situation you face because it involves so much uncertainty. You rarely know what will kill the project or what will keep it alive. You also don’t know what will motivate the client’s team to take the project on without you.

Your best approach is to explicitly ask the client. You may get a clue about what you’re up against. After discussion, you may conclude the project isn’t a good idea, or that the client should go it alone. If so, talk straight, stay objective, and don’t try to force the sale. Suggest innovative ideas on how the client can solve the problem that led to calling a consultant in the first place, and stress your firm’s specific ability to help.

If the client decides to go it alone, position yourself for the future. Offer to provide advice, guidance, or assistance during the project if needed. Clients often reverse themselves or change direction in midstream, especially if they encounter roadblocks. When and if they do, you want to be the first one they remember and turn to for help.

December Issue of The Guerrilla Consultant

The December issue of The Guerrilla Consultant focuses on twenty ways to float your firm to the top of the pack.  Signs are everywhere that the market for consulting services is picking up steam. Researchers have found that operational performance of consulting firms is better than it’s been in more than three years.

That’s the good news.

You won’t find a better time to take a fresh look at your marketing strategy. Chances are you’ll recognize opportunities that will bring more clients—and more profit—to your practice.

Have a look at the 20 Guerrilla Consulting Principles and use them to help tune up your marketing strategy.

Avoiding Marketing Pitfalls

Many competent consultants risk their own success, and their bank balances, by driving straight into the same old marketing potholes again and again.

Take action to avoid these ten common traps:

1. The curse of experience. Many consultants believe that their deep understanding of clients and their businesses translates into an understanding of the nuances of marketing. That assumption can cost you clients and money.
2. Go it alone. Consulting is a collaborative business. Whether it’s Web design, writing marketing copy, or launching a survey, you should always be on the lookout for talented people to partner with in marketing. Focus your efforts on what you do best—deliver value to clients. Let the pros cover your weak spots in their areas of expertise.
3. Overestimate clients’ interest in you. Clients care about their own problems and how to solve them, not about your business. They’ll engage you to help and express polite interest in you, but keep the focus on them, not you.
4. Believe your services are top-notch just as they are. Clients’ needs are always changing, so your service strategy must always be evolving too. It’s never good enough.
5. Sell too hard. Don’t think clients are ready to be sold by you right off the bat. Clients buy, they’re not sold. Give them something to buy that they really need.
6. Dabble in marketing. You can’t just throw an article or two out there and expect clients to take notice of you. Successful marketing requires sustained, consistent, and coordinated effort.
7. Focus on your “accounts,” not your clients. Learn as much about the people as you do about each client’s company. Plan and market in a client-centered manner—at the individual executive level.
8. Take the one-size-fits-all approach. Each client and project is different. Your previously winning formula can easily backfire unless it’s tailored for each individual situation.
9. Impatience. Instant gratification and marketing rarely go together. Be patient. Your marketing investments will pay off, but it almost always takes longer than you think.
10. Dread marketing. Consulting is a marketing business. If you don’t enjoy marketing, the road will seem like—and be—one pothole after another.