What’s the best way to talk about your consulting practice? How do you entice people to call you? How do you get invited to make proposals?
I’ve been through this exercise with consulting groups several times this year.
Here is what we figured out:
Hurdle #1 is explaining exactly where you can help, and what kinds of things clients should hire you for.
They will not sift through a list of services looking for something they can use.
They won’t study credentials and competencies and think up a project for you. (And they don’t care about credentials and certifications nearly as much as you’d think.)
Instead, talk about the types of problems you fix, the situations you untangle, the things you actually build.
You have to spell it out. In plain English. No consultant-speak. Be specific, concrete, real-world.
Talk about burning issues, holy grails. Offer to take hairballs off their hands. Paint a picture of what the company gets, how life will be better. Vague abstractions and theory doesn’t work now.
In these times, NOBODY will authorize money for assessments, audits, reviews or paradigm analyses. Nowadays, you get paid for untying knots, bringing in business or saving someone’s ass.
Relieve pain, and you’ll get work.
