Clients Aren't Buying You, They're Buying Your Story
You should have an origin story which makes you a superhero in the eyes of prospective clients. Uncover it, shape it, and tell it frequently using a few specific prompts.
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An Origin Story Helps Others Sell You
The consulting sales process often works where your primary contact has to sell you to others, and you may or may not meet.
Your proposal, website, and positioning are crucial here.
But one neglected aspect of all this is your origin story. It’s your origin story which often helps people advocate for you.
Clients aren’t just buying you, they’re buying your story.
Your origin story is, to some extent, what Seth Godin would describe as the free prize inside. It’s the unique thing which makes a client feel especially good about hiring you.
We almost never buy the item we buy because it excels at a certain announced metric. Almost no one drives the fastest car or chooses the most efficient credit card. No, we buy a story.
[…] Simple example:
You have a seven-year old daughter. The last time she unexpectedly woke up after going to bed was three years ago. Of course, you're going to hire a babysitter and not leave her alone, but really, what are you hiring when you hire a babysitter? Is it her ability to do CPR, cook gourmet food or teach your little one French? Not if she shows up after the kid goes to bed.
No, you're hiring peace of mind. You're hiring the way it makes you feel to know that just in case, someone talented is standing by.
If her goal is to be a great babysitter, then, good performance doesn't involve honing her CPR skills or standing at the door, listening to your daughter breathe. Good performance is showing up a few minutes early, dressed appropriately, with an air of confidence. Good performance is sending a text every 90 minutes, if requested, to the neurotic parents. Good performance is leaving the kitchen cleaner than she found it.
It’s not hard to see how this applies to a consultant, solopreneur, or freelancer.
Good performance isn’t the deliverables; it’s how you show up, make the client feel, and guide them through change. The intangibles matter as much as the tangibles. And this is where your origin story helps.
Businesses Want To Know Why You’re a Superhero
Most organizations want to know they’re hiring someone unique and special.
They want a superhero they can brag about hiring to others. They want someone who has had unique experiences, which leads them to having a unique set of skills and perspective.
Your origin story is a carefully crafted narrative that you share with others. It addresses the most critical question the client is likely to ask:
Why you?
i.e. why do you have a unique perspective, set of skills, or knowledge that can help us solve the problems we face better than we can solve them ourselves?
After all, if you can’t answer that critical question, you’re not going to get the client.
Let Your Origin Story Be Weird And Wacky
Too many of my coaching clients hide or suppress aspects of themselves that they fear make them seem different, fearing they will be seen as ‘weird’.
This is a mistake. You want to embrace the peculiarities of your past. It’s what makes your story unique and memorable. And a unique story is how you can win business against more experienced competition. It’s part of how you own your solo status.
Better yet, the more genuine the story is, the more authentic your story will be.
You shouldn’t be hiding or suppressing the challenges which forged you into the excellent consultant you are today.
This doesn’t mean you should be trauma-dumping on clients. That’s not professional. However, it should mean that you develop and shape a narrative that explains why you’ve acquired a unique set of skills or a different perspective that the average person (or typical consultant) doesn’t have.
My Origin Story
For a long time, my origin story was some variation of this:
When I was a teenager, I became obsessed with online gaming. But I quickly realised I was never going to be a top player, but I loved supporting and then building communities for gamers. I spent my teenage years building and supporting gaming communities with tens of thousands, and even hundreds of thousands, of members. I had a crash course in everything there was to know about member psychology, community design, and moderation.
During my internship at a marketing agency, we had a client who wanted to establish a community for their customers. No one else had any idea how to do it, so they turned to me. Working on that account, I was shocked to discover that, despite having far more resources, the business world was a million miles behind the gaming world in building communities. Businesses generally didn’t understand the psychology of a community and had no idea how to create one.
So I started my consulting practice and began helping companies build their communities.
Notice your origin story isn’t how you started your business or attracted your first clients. It’s the why you did it.
Don’t confuse your origin story with your consulting north star (e.g. ‘I hated having a boss so decided to become a consultant’). That’s not what a client needs to hear.
But it should highlight how a unique set of circumstances you’ve experienced has equipped you with a different set of skills and perspective, which would be incredibly valuable to them.
Select Your Facts Carefully
In my coaching experience, I’ve found that consultants often struggle to leave details on the cutting room floor to make the story easier to understand.
Yet every sentence must earn its keep. You should be able to tell the story in a minute and leave out the parts which aren’t critical to the narrative.
I can tell a more extended version of my origin story which includes:
Spending a teenage year attending major eSports events in South Korea, USA, Latvia, France, Singapore, and many other places.
The local newspaper writing a story on it - which alerted my school that my ‘sick days’ were often ‘he’s in South Korea while pretending to be sick’ days.
The moment I walked into my classroom to find everyone huddled around said newspaper with the story about me on page 3 (no, the newspaper didn’t ask my permission first)
The school freaking out about all of the above and demanding I see a career advisor.
The career advisor who told me there was no future in community building, and to do a degree in marketing and events instead.
The internship with Seth Godin etc…
The problem with all of the above facts (which are true) is that they are fun and engaging stories, but don’t add anything to the narrative the client needs to know. This means they become distractions and make the entire story less memorable.
It’s like telling a joke - you skip the unimportant parts and think of each fact as an essential pillar for the message you need to convey.
What Makes a Great Consulting Origin Story?
The principles of origin stories are generally well known. But your consulting origin story should be
Personal – It reveals something about you, not just your work history.
Pivotal – There’s a moment of change, insight, or discomfort.
Relatable – It taps into a universal feeling (frustration, ambition, doubt).
Connected to your services – It makes sense why this is the work you do now.
Memorable – There’s a detail, emotion, or twist that sticks.
Here’s another example:
How Do You Uncover Your Origin Story?
It helps to have a coach guide you through it. It can be challenging to separate emotions from the creation of the story. But you can also use some simple prompts to uncover the key pillars of your story.
What did you once tolerate that you now help others fix?
What do you believe now that you didn’t believe five years ago?
When did you feel most lost, and what came from it?
What patterns do you help clients break because you broke them yourself?
What’s the one detail about your past that feels “off-brand” but actually shaped your perspective?
“So, How Did You Get Into This?”
When a client asks how you got into this, they’re keen to hear your origin story.
Remember, it’s a minute-long story. Slow down when you tell the hook. And get used to telling it freely and early in conversations with prospective clients.
Aside: I admire the way Matthew Hussey shares his origin story.
Good luck!
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