As a small business consultant, you have a wealth of information and years of experience. You’re also keenly aware that there are many businesses in need of help. The question is … how do you reach them? How do you hold their attention long enough to explain what you do?
Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as hanging a sign on your door. The public square is big, busy, and crowded, and it’s not easy to get noticed. If you are a consultant—and especially if you are just starting out—your first job is to market yourself and your services. Expect to invest a great deal of time and energy into marketing, at least for the first few years. After you’ve gained a steady client base, you won’t have to invest quite as much time, but marketing is still an important functional area of business for any self-employed individual.
To help you make the most of your time and effectively raise awareness of your services, we’ve put together three tips on how to market to small business owners. (For tips on how to sell to small business owners, click here.)
1. Know what you’re selling.
This may seem too basic to be mentioned, but it’s overlooked more often than you realize. You need to be absolutely clear about your product or service, the pricing, and the pain it will help your clients solve. As a consultant, are you selling your time? A specific outcome? Or is it a program? Detail everything that is included with your services and think through possible items that should be excluded. Are you willing to travel, for example? If so, who is responsible for those expenses? What about materials—are they included in your consulting fee or are they extra?
If you’re not clear on what you’re selling, none of your prospective clients will be either. And they’re not going to buy what they don’t understand.
Now is the time to think through all of these details, not when you are face-to-face with a prospect and find that you can’t answer their questions. You risk looking unprepared, which undermines your ability to deliver on the engagement. You also risk giving a premature answer that could a) cut into your profitability, or b) cause you to overshoot and lose the deal.
2. Know who you’re selling to.
You don’t need everyone in the world to know what you offer to get a steady client base, but you do need to be heard by the right people. This begs the question … who are the right people?
Essentially, the right people are the ones you most want to work with. They’re the people who would benefit from your service, are likely to work with you, and are able to afford it. They are your target audience.
Think of your target audience as the center of the bullseye. These are the people you want to reach, and in order to do that, you need to speak directly to them; you need to understand their language, their pain points, and their goals. Drawing from your experience (or that of others), put together a picture of your ideal client so that you know how to talk to that person. What is that person’s primary obstacle or frustration? What are they trying to achieve, and what’s standing in their way? Think about geography. Are you looking for local clients or are you willing to do virtual sessions? Do you prefer working with one industry in particular, or are you comfortable working with clients from a variety of industries?
Remember, you’re thinking in terms of the ideal, so it’s okay if this ends up looking like a wish list. That’s actually a good thing, because you’re only going to recognize a good client if you know what you’re looking for.
When you understand your target audience, you’re going to speak more clearly to them than if you are trying to appeal to all people everywhere. Once you have a sketch of the people you want to work with, keep them in the front of your mind. When you’re writing posts on social media, pitching a workshop, or attending a networking event, speak to your target audience. The people that aren’t in your audience won’t respond, but the ones that are will. Bullseye!
3. Engage in multiple marketing activities.
Marketing precedes selling. We think of it like this: marketing generates leads and sales turns leads into revenue. So, if you want to sell to small business owners, you have to start by marketing to them.
Don’t expect one type of marketing to be enough; instead, come up with a list of several marketing activities that you’re willing to pursue. Think about where your target audience spends time and try to engage them where they are. Maybe that’s virtually, on professional networking sites, or maybe it’s in person at a conference or dinner event.
Make a schedule of when and how you will spend time on marketing. Set goals so that you’re motivated to hit specific numbers each week or each month, whether that’s the number of emails you send, number of new contacts made on social media, or number of phone calls you have with prospective clients. If you focus on hitting your numbers, you are less likely to become discouraged if you don’t close any deals. That discouragement can lead to you quitting the marketing activity before it’s had time to work. Keep working on the parts you can control, and the outcomes will follow. Don’t rely on feelings or intuition to tell you when and how to reach out to people. Set a schedule and stick to it.
You will spend more time and effort on marketing in the early years of your career as a business consultant than you will later on. The key is to keep going. Don’t expect clients to line up at your door, but have confidence in yourself and the value of what you’re offering. Engage in consistent, targeted marketing efforts, and your work will be rewarded.
At the ReWild Group, our mission is to multiply the number of exceptional businesses globally. We share resources, ideas, and advice in advance of that mission. If you are interested in joining us in our mission, visit our page for Advisers today!