If you want your consulting firm to attract and close more engagements than you’re currently winning, you’ll need to make a change – to invest in growth. But where? The answer will probably surprise you.
Below is a broad (and admittedly incomplete) range of people and services you could invest in to accelerate your consulting firm’s Business Development results:
Branding agency
Messaging expert
Marketing agency
“Professional” salesperson, rainmaker or BD specialist
BDR/appointment setter
Entry-level consultants
Senior-level consultant with a “book of business”
Social media marketer
SEO expert, service or agency
Sales trainer
Pastry chef
Market research service
PR agency
Consulting BD “coach”
BD “engine builder”
Strategy consultant
Content writer
That’s a big list with a lot of options!
Where do you think you should start if your goal is to sell more consulting services?
The 3 BD Requirements
To invest your time and resources wisely, let’s look at the process of winning consulting business. You know the Six Steps to Unlimited Clients. (If you don’t know them, do yourself a huge favor by reading this book.)
For the purposes of this investment decision, let’s simplify the six steps into three BD requirements:
Impact – Solving the Right Problem for the Right People with the Right Solution (at the Right Time)
Visibility – Being considered a credible, reliable resource for a valuable solution by more, high-potential prospects.
Rainmaking – Effectively handling all the “human-to-human” bits of winning business, from connecting, through becoming the obvious choice, to proposing, negotiating and closing deals.
(Wondering where Right-Side Up Thinking fits? It’s a mindset that supports the entire process.)
Which one of those requirements is the weakest link for your firm, and which, if you invest in it, will create the greatest increase in sales over the long run?
The Visibility Fallacy
Many (perhaps most) firms confidently point to visibility as their weakest link. Leaders of these firms claim, “When we get an opportunity, we almost always win. So we just need to be in front of more opportunities–that’s a Visibility problem.”
Sound familiar?
Even firms that believe their visibility is strong also view visibility as the fastest path to new clients, and that’s where they invest their money.
Hence, tons of cash flows to website builders, SEO optimizers, branding agencies, social media agencies, content writers, appointment setters, etc.
That’s the wrong investment. (Sorry.)
Visibility is the least common problem facing most consulting firms.
Yes, visibility does matter. It just matters less than the other two BD requirements.
Spending on visibility is like your teenage son buying expensive speakers and big amplifiers in an effort to attract more neighborhood youth to his dance party. Unfortunately, if his speakers are pointed into the bathroom and he’s playing Viennese waltzes, his audio equipment investment will sorely disappoint him.
The Right Resources to Hire
Your #1 priority should be improving your consulting firm’s Impact.
We’ve worked with hundreds of consultancies, and the most successful consulting firms invariably boast outstanding Impact.
Therefore, spend resources on market research to determine what your clients actually want, what they’re currently paying for, and where they are dissatisfied with the solutions they’re currently buying.
Your #2 priority should be establishing effective, sustainable Rainmaking at your firm.
You need a Business Development approach at your firm that will continue to succeed as your firm grows and more consultants take on BD responsibility.
That includes, tools, systems and, most importantly, ongoing coaching for everyone who has or will have BD responsibilities.
Therefore, your best investment after market research is into developing a world class BD Engine.
What About Visibility?
If you spend wisely on market research and BD Engine development, your visibility-building efforts will yield better, more efficient results; i.e., more consulting clients with less effort and a lower spend.
Visibility is established by strong rainmakers working within an excellent system. As a matter of course, your rainmakers will be networking and engaging in visibility-building activities such as speaking, writing, and collaborating.
This is a good week to redirect your spends from wasteful marketing activities into optimizing your Impact and improving your BD Engine.
Has investing in understanding your market ever helped your consulting firm?
Text and images are © 2024 David A. Fields, all rights reserved.
