Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants

Tip #14 of 25 - Be Accessible between Projects

When your current project for a client wraps up, don't be surprised if you're not asked to do more work. But don't give up. Clients notice how consultants behave between projects. If your firm is only visible when there's an opportunity to sell work, clients are not likely to believe you when you claim to be committed to the relationship.

Stay in contact regularly. Invite your clients to events and help them with issues as needed. Propose coauthoring an article or presenting jointly at an industry conference. Keep your firm's presence alive and continue to build relationships within the client's organization. Resist the urge to zoom off to the next opportunity.

If your previous work was well received, chances are good that clients will bring you back. It just may not be when you expect it.

How Much Does “Free” Cost Clients?

As I was reading one of my favorite e-newsletters, I came across a sponsored offer to download a “free” whitepaper on a subject that interested me.

I clicked through to a Web page describing the company, its offerings, and the whitepaper I was about to download. When I saw how much personal information the company required in exchange for a ten-page whitepaper, I should have trusted my instincts and bolted from the site.

Reluctantly, I provided the details the company requested, including my phone number. I know—it was dumb.

I hit submit and landed on another page with instructions for downloading the whitepaper and a sentence informing me that a sales rep would call me to discuss the company’s products and services.

They got me. Now I’m waiting for that sales rep to call—no doubt during dinner.

What are two fast ways to alienate prospective clients on the Web? Ask for too much personal information and conceal how you’ll use it. Steve Krug, author and Web usability expert, calls this practice “a very bad idea.”

In this case, the company in question shot itself in both feet. If you’re offering something to prospective clients, ask only for the details you need to get that information into their hands as quickly as possible. Let clients check you out and voluntarily contact you if they want to know more.

And if you’re a directing your readers to organizations that behave this way, beware of collateral damage. Align your site with those who are willing to intrude and mislead, and you risk ending up with the same black eye.

Tip #13 of 25 – Enter with an Exit Strategy

Many clients’ worst nightmare is consultants who just won’t leave. Whether or not clients need the additional work, some consultants continue to unearth new opportunities to “help” clients.

That behavior gives consultants a black eye.

Recognizing that some consultants stay at a client long after they’re welcome, one consulting firm promises that, “We do not want to be disruptive to our client's business, so our projects are focused and when our job is done, we leave.”

Amen.

Next time you’re creating a proposal or beginning a project, ask yourself, “What’s our exit strategy?” Know at the outset what you must do to be sure the project wraps and the team goes home.

Being explicit about a team’s departure date will reduce a client’s anxiety. And if you stay focused on your completion date, the client will be much more likely to consider you for future projects.

Your Seat Cushion May Be Used as a Flotation Device

We’ve all heard that familiar phrase during an airline safety briefing. As much as I’d like to believe my cushion is a safety device, it seems improbable.                              

In the consulting business, the notion that external marketing alone will lead to a profitable business is equally improbable. Client-level marketing is more likely to provide a safe landing for your practice. So in this month's issue of The Guerrilla Consultant we focus on the importance of client account management.       

Enjoy the article.

What's Your Return on Customer Rate?

Are you capturing the maximum value from your scarcest resource, your customers and clients?               

In this month's issue of Management Consulting News, we feature two pioneers of Customer Relationship Management, Don Peppers and Martha Rogers. Their latest book Return on Customer is called a “conceptual breakthrough” by Scott Cook, founder of Intuit.      

Peppers and Rogers make a compelling argument: that maximizing your Return on Customer rate will also maximize shareholder value—and they have the numbers to back up their assertions.            

Read the interview with Don Peppers and Martha Rogers

You'll also find an article on the relationship between creativity and consulting value by Luc de Brabandere, a Boston Consulting Group consultant and the author of The Forgotten Half of Change.

Read the article by Luc de Brabandere