The Simple Reason Why You're Not Attracting Many Clients Right Now
The very tough lesson I recently shared with a consulting client who was struggling to build a sustainable practice.
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Why You’re Not Attracting Many Clients Right Now
I recently spoke to a coaching client who needed help building a pipeline of new clients.
She had set up her website, identified a niche, developed her services, sent messages to prospects, and published several newsletters on LinkedIn.
But she wasn’t even getting a whiff of an opportunity. Nada. Zilch.
I took a moment, knowing I was about to deliver unwelcome news, and then said:
This isn’t remotely close to the level of work you need to do to attract clients.
These Are The Initiatives I’m Working On Right Now
Just off the top of my head, these are the things I’m working on right now [Aug 23, 2024*] to attract clients.
Undertaking a 1400+ person survey analysing the changing needs of our audiences in a marketplace. This will be professionally designed and published.
Publishing a 4000+ information-dense article outlining our revised approach.
Participated in 3+ podcasts this past week.
Prepping and delivering an online workshop for one of our partners.
Working on a new training course (in addition to the first one which attracted 1000+ registrations)
Judging industry awards in a related sector.
Contacting organisers of two events I’d like to speak at in the future.
Preparing a talk for an upcoming event in Amsterdam.
Applying to speak at two additional events.
Revising our benchmarks and industry standards to align with our new philosophy
Scoping out a potential speaking tour in India.
Scheduled three client research calls.
Contacting ten new registrations to our mailing list in the past week who might be ICPs.
Creating two proposals one for a large organisation, one for a smaller organisation.
Revising our system to maintain contact with past clients and connections.
And this is before we consider the work I’m doing to promote this newsletter.
This isn’t a prescriptive list of things you should be doing. But it does illustrate one important point.
If you want to thrive as a consultant, you must appreciate that attracting clients is the most challenging part and work like almost everything you want in life depends on it.
Lesson 1: Activity Opens Up New Opportunities
Doing something is always better than doing nothing. Momentum in almost any direction is good - even if it’s the wrong direction (you will find out sooner you’re heading in the wrong direction!).
Activity mainly opens up new doors and opportunities. You will connect with new people, gather new ideas, identify new trends, and more…You will also get feedback on your ideas and see what people do and don’t respond to.
The first thing I told my coaching client was that she could and should be doing a lot more. There’s no shortage of things to try, but first, she needs to:
Develop her marketing campaign. I won’t repeat this advice again. But she needed a core theme, set of linked messages, and means of distributing those messages.
Lesson 2: The Work You Do Today Will Attract Clients In 6 to 12 Months Time
It’s certainly possible that you publish an article or resource today and someone in the industry sees it and thinks:
“Holy smokes team! Have you seen this resource? We need to get this person in RIGHT AWAY to help us”
But the reality is that almost certainly won’t happen.
What will happen if someone sees it, notices it was from you, and becomes a little more aware of your existence?
Later on, they will read or consume something else you’ve created and think;
Huh, this person really knows what she’s talking about - I might subscribe to her stuff
Then they will keep reading your stuff. They might share it with their colleagues too. Eventually, they will have a challenge to solve or have some spare budget to invest in improvements. They will reach out to you to see if you can help. It’s very rare that someone contacts us because they were enamoured by a single article.
And that’s how the entire process works. You build trust over time. Drip, drip, drip.
This has a few important implications.
You don’t need to hard sell when someone subscribes or in the article itself.
The work you’re doing today will attract clients 6 to 12 months from now.
Many of the activities I’m doing above won’t immediately lead to any expressions of interest.
However, the plethora of activities combined with the increased likelihood people will hear about us from more than one source means the more I do, the more likely someone will reach out when they need help.
But that also means you need a big enough safety net to bridge the gap between ramping up your promotional efforts and beginning to attract leads.
Lesson 3: Focus On Strategy Over One-Off Efforts
In chess, intermediate players are taught to avoid making individual one-move threats in favour of broader plans focusing on imbalances and leveraging their strengths.
The same applies when trying to grow a consulting practice. One-off activities (writing a post, publishing a video, hosting an event, speaking at an event, messaging a prospect) rarely get results.
Everything you create and do should connect to your broader strategy. It should align with your fees, your positioning, and the image you’re trying to present. It should also help you build relationships with the people you need to build relationships with and raise awareness among the right audience.
When you create something, it should link and connect to other things people can do and see to learn more about you. There isn’t much point in spending considerable time creating content if your website is a pamphlet.
Lesson 4: Adapt Quickly To Feedback (The Non-Solicited Kind)
The best part of being an independent consultant isn’t the consulting part; it’s the independence part.
Some people use that independence to design a life they love - full of freedom and flexibility.
I use it to devise and execute any idea I like without bringing it to my boss's attention. (I hear he’s a jerk anyway!).
If I want to host a workshop on the other side of the world, I do it.
If I want to create and publish a detailed review of the top industry platforms, I do it (without worrying who it might offend).
If I want to spend $20k+ on developing new training courses, I do it.
If I want to launch a community accelerator tool, I do it.
If I want to host events attended by hundreds of people, I do it.
If I want to write a book saying something provocative or controversial, I do it.
If I want to launch a new service for my clients, I do it.
If I had a boss, it wouldn’t surprise me if she shot down most of these ideas as too risky, provocative, or time-consuming. And she would be right - that’s what many of them are.
But when you’re your boss, your risk calculus is different.
I’m not trying to eliminate the downsides or failures. Instead, I’m trying to expose myself to good luck. I’m testing many ideas, seeing what resonates, and quickly adapting.
These projects are all bets (ht
). Some bets pay, and some don’t. My calculus is to take increasingly bigger swings with the highest possible upside and the minimum possible downside.Some of these projects were failures (but were rarely costly failures). A few turned out to be huge successes that built my career. And you don’t need that many successes to build a successful practice.
The key is to adapt quickly to what people do and don’t respond to.
Summary
Let’s quickly recap.
Consistent, Strategic Effort: Attracting clients requires ongoing, large-scale initiatives, not one-off activities. This involves consistent outreach, content creation, and networking over time.
Momentum Creates Opportunities: Take action, even if imperfect, to open new doors and gain feedback. Regular activity builds relationships and reveals new trends.
Long-Term View: The work you do today might only bear fruit in 6 to 12 months. Trust-building happens gradually through repeated exposure and engagement.
Focus on Strategy: All activities should align with a larger marketing campaign, positioning, and long-term goals, not just scattered, isolated efforts.
Quick Adaptation to Feedback: Independent consultants should continuously experiment, assess results, and quickly adjust strategies based on unsolicited feedback.
Good luck!
p.s. If you want to learn more about fees and selling consultancy projects, sign up for my Proposal Mastery course.
* I write a lot of these post months in advance
I lead a team at a tech scale up and find your insights useful. In my work leading a partnership team, I consistently describe our work as placing calculated bets to maximize upside and minimize downside. In start up land, there are a lot of parallels to building a consultancy. Thanks for the help!