Spend The Majority Of Your Time On High-Value Activities

You can spend a huge amount of time doing 'busy work'. But the things which drive results and attract new clients are rarely the things most consultants spend their time on.

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Don’t Confuse Fun Activities With Those Which Drive Results

It’s rare to generate B2B sales from social media activity

Social media tools (especially LinkedIn right now) are alluring. Every hour you can see how popular you are in comparison with others. These places often serve as the town square for their industries.

This makes it tempting to try and rise to the top. And if that’s the client-acquisition strategy you’ve landed upon then by all means go all out for it. Commit 50%+ more of your time to it.

Just be mindful of an obvious problem - very few B2B sales result from social media posts.

It’s not impossible - it’s just very rarely the best use of your time. It’s fun to do, rather than something which drives results.

(Aside: LinkedIn increasingly resembles a room of consultants shouting opinions at each other).

Taking A Direct Route To Building A Business

Take the direct route first, then worry about your social media activity

LinkedIn isn’t an isolated example. Skimming through my feeds the past hour or so I can see a lot of consultants spending a huge amount of time on the wrong activities.

You can waste a huge amount of time each day on fun activities. This includes social media discussions, talking with other consultants, being a guest on podcasts with limited reach, publishing opinions on industry issues, reading the opinions of others etc…

Part of the problem is all these things are relatively easy to measure and they sound like they’re bringing you closer to your goals. But the real problem is they’re simply not the best way to build a sustainable consulting practice.

Which Activities Have A More Direct Results With Increased Revenue?

It’s typically activities no one else will see you do.

I put the list below together pretty quickly but it generally reflects most of what I think will drive the best results.

We can quibble about the merits of some of these - but the broad point is almost everything on the right will drive better results than everything on the left.

If you spend your time:

• Building your own industry peer group with prospective clients

• Setting up private fact-finding discussions with key people in your sector.

• Building relationships with key partners in your field.

• Publishing solutions to six/seven figure problems people face.

• Researching the latest trends / best examples and publishing the results

• Completing training courses in relevant skills

• Helping and supporting past clients to achieve their goals.

You’re going to experience the results a lot faster than hoping to get benefits from social media posts.

You won’t get the same hit of dopamine when people hit like, but you will have a bigger, better, consultancy practice.

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Richard Millington