Public speaking is another excellent way to recruit new clients and to earn a reputation for excellence in your community. Unless you live in a town so small it doesn't have a chamber of commerce or a Lion's Club, Rotary Club or other similar service organization, you can begin offering your services as a speaker for luncheons, dinners or any other special occasion.
In addition to using the telephone directory, see if anyone has published a directory of service organizations in your community. You can visit the library and ask at the reference desk. Go through and make a list of organizations that hold monthly meetings and therefore may use guest speakers. Contact each group and offer your public speaking services.
Ask for Referrals
This often-overlooked method of finding new clients is such an easy marketing tool (which is why it's usually not thought of), you'll kick yourself for not thinking of it yourself. When you have finished your consulting assignment and your client is in seventh heaven (and is no doubt singing your praises), that is an excellent time to ask for a referral! Simply send a note or a short letter asking for the names of any colleagues, friends or business associates they feel might be good prospects for your consulting services. Ask their permission to mention their name when you write to the people whose names they pass on to you. Sometimes all it takes is having a mutual friend or respected business associate to get the potential client's attention.
The limits you place on advertising your consulting services will be directly tied to your advertising budget. If you are lucky enough to have a very healthy advertising budget, remember that you don't have to spend the money on ads just because you have it to spend. Advertising can be very expensive. Jeffery B., a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, consultant, advertises in his association's publication. "They publish what is called the Green Book, which is a directory of research and marketing consulting businesses around the country. It has helped me generate new business," he says.
Other consultants, such as Merrily S. in Newark, Delaware, depend on word-of-mouth. "The best form of advertising [for my business] has been word-of-mouth and recommendations from other people," she says.
Depending upon the type of services you offer, it may be necessary to advertise in specialized trade journals or magazines. For example, as a fund-raising consultant, I have placed ads in such publications as The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Non-Profit Times and Fund Raising Weekly.
Before you spend any money, start looking through professional journals and newspapers relative to the fields you specialize in. Take some time and examine ads that have been placed by other consultants, and then carefully determine how effective you think their ads may be. Then design one that suits you best.
Newsletters
Whatever your consulting field is you should have more than enough information to produce a newsletter as a means of attracting potential clients. If you don't have the time, or don't feel comfortable self-publishing your own newsletter, hire a local freelance writer and graphic designer to do the job for you. Again, you don't have to make it an expensive, four-color, glossy publication. The simpler you keep it, the better. A good newsletter will sell itself based on the content rather than the splashy design.
Start collecting newsletters that are being published in your consulting field. If you think there are none being published, or if you think there are only a few in your field, guess again. A quick visit to the library will reveal several newsletter directories--Oxbridge Directory of Newsletters (Oxbridge Communications) and Hudson's Newsletter Directory (The Newsletter ClearingHouse)--which list, by subject, newsletters that are published not only in the United States, but in other countries. Take some time and write for sample copies before you design and write the first issue of your own newsletter. You'll be surprised at the quality of the newsletters that are being produced today.
Newsletters are an effective means of communication and, in my opinion, represent the best advertising media for a consultant to sell his or her services. Think about it the next time you receive a newsletter in the mail. Did you put it aside to read it later? And why did you do that? Probably because you wanted to make sure you weren't missing any important news or information.
But what about that brochure you received in the mail the same day? Did you put it aside to read later? Or did it go directly into the trashcan? Think about this before you spend big bucks on a glitzy brochure that may not even be read.
There are five issues your brochure should address. They are:
It should clearly convey what your services are.
It should tell customers why you are the best.
It should give a few reasons why you should be hired.
It should include some brief biographical information.
It should include some information about who your other clients are.
That's it. Keep it simple, but do it right. Remember, your brochure represents you in the marketplace, so make sure you polish it before you send it into action. Your entire consulting career depends on it!
Cold Calling
You must do whatever it takes to make cold-calling work and make it easier for yourself. There are a few tricks you can use to make cold-calling a little easier for you:
Prepare a script ahead of time. Spell out word for word what you expect to say when you get someone on the telephone. Remember, though, that your goal is to get a face-to-face interview and, eventually, a new client. So before you end up stumbling over your sales presentation (either in person or over the telephone), write your script and practice it again and again.
Be creative in your efforts to reach the decision maker. Most times you will encounter a secretary or administrative assistant who has years of experience turning away cold callers like yourself. But don't give up! Don't let any obstacle stand in your way! To avoid being screened by the secretary, try calling before she is on the job. Yes, you may have to call before 8 a.m. or after 5 p.m., but at these times, chances are the decision maker you are trying to reach will answer their own telephone.
Limit your cold calls to just several days each month. And look forward to those days, making sure you put your best effort into the process. That way, not only will it become easier to make those cold calls, but you will find yourself actually looking forward to making them!
Working on a retainer basis gives you a set monthly fee in which you agree to be available for work for an agreed-upon number of hours for your client. While in the ideal world you would have a dozen or so clients who hire you and pay you a hefty sum each month (and never actually call you except for a few hours here and there), don't get your hopes up. Most companies that hire a consultant on a retainer basis have a clause in their contract that prohibits you from working for their competitors.
Working and getting paid in this method certainly has its advantages. You are guaranteed income each month, and when you are starting out in your consulting business, cash flow can be a problem. Some consultants actually offer a percentage reduction in their fees if a client will agree to pay a monthly retainer fee. The average income when a consultant is paid on a retainer basis is $3,500 per month.
There are many advantages to having a home office. Among them are:
Low overhead expenses. You don't have to worry about paying rent or utilities for an office; you will appreciate this feature until you establish a regular client base.
Flexibility. There is little doubt that operating as a consultant at home gives you a great deal of flexibility. You can set your own hours and take time off as you need it.
No rush-hour nightmares. For anyone who has had to commute to and from a job during rush hour, this will be a welcome change of pace.
Your home office space will most likely be tax-deductible. The IRS has relaxed the rules for people who work at home, but check with your account or income tax preparer to see if you qualify for this deduction.
Employees
When you first open the doors to your consulting practice, you may be able to handle all the operations by yourself. But as your consulting business begins to grow, you may need help handling administrative details or help completing the actual consulting assignments.
You need to make some important decisions. For example, do you have the time it will take to make labels and insert your brochure into 1,000 envelopes? Can you afford to spend time doing administrative tasks when you could be using that time effectively marketing your services--and signing up new clients?
There are many options when it comes time to decide if you need help with your paperwork. For example, a quick look through the Yellow Pages will reveal a number of small secretarial support firms. The rates will depend on a variety of factors, including how large or small an organization it is and what types of services it provides.
While it will pay you to shop around for these types of services, don't select a secretarial service just because it happens to have the lowest prices in town. Instead, ask for references, preferably from other consultants who have used their services, or from small-business owners. A good, reliable support service is worth the price in the long run.
There will come a time, however, when you may find it more cost-effective to hire someone to work in the office with you. Hiring a good administrative support person can sometimes mean the difference between success and failure--between obtaining more clients or constantly losing clients. There are some benefits to having someone in the office with you. Among them are:
You save time and money. By having someone concentrate on the more routine tasks (opening the mail, filing, answering phones, etc.) you can focus all your efforts on recruiting new clients. Think about this: Would you want to lose a $500-a-day client because you were too cheap to hire someone to stuff your brochures into envelopes?
You don't worry about being out of the office. If you are a one-person operation, it's hard to be out on the road marketing your services if you're worried about clients calling--and only getting your answering machine.
You have someone to offer another perspective. Sometimes it can be pretty lonely trying to do everything yourself. Having someone around the office during the day who can offer another perspective can be worthwhile.
Hourly Fees
You need to tread carefully when setting hourly fees, because two things could happen: A) Your hourly rate is so high that no one could ever afford you (therefore no client will ever knock on your door). B) Your hourly rate is so low that no one will take you seriously.
Keep one important rule in mind when establishing your fee, no matter which structure you decide on: The more money people pay for a product or service, the more they expect to get for their money. In other words, if a client agrees to your hourly rate of $400, then you had better give $400 worth of service to that client every hour you work for them.
Some clients prefer to be billed on an hourly basis, while others hate the idea of paying someone what they perceive to be too much per hour. Those clients usually prefer to pay per project.
Project Rates
When working on a project rate basis, a consultant normally gets a fixed amount of money for a predetermined period of time. A few of my fund-raising clients actually preferred to be charged this way, so it wasn't unusual for me to charge $36,000 for a one-year project in which I consulted them on how they could raise money. Because of the amount of money involved, most agencies preferred to be billed on a monthly basis. This worked out fine until I realized that many agencies were late paying their monthly bills.
Because of this, I decided that all future clients who wished to be billed on a monthly basis would pay the first-month fee and the last-month fee at the signing of the contract, which meant that if the agreed-upon amount of the project was $36,000, to be paid on a monthly basis, I received a check in the amount of $6,000 before I began any work ($3,000 for the first month's fee and $3,000 for the last month's fee).
