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How to Find Consulting Clients

chrisachard.com

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Re: How to Find Consulting Clients

#51

Post by shartshooter »

I started a consulting business doing CRM work on nights and weekend about five years back that’s now running close to $100k/mo.

It all started from a former colleague who’d moved onto a new role and asked me to help them set up their CRM. This colleague talked to their friends, I started mentioning it in casual conversation and more referrals started pouring in.

This process of working nights and weekends meant I could scale it without pressure.

Your network will be your best asset early on because you have no brand awareness not evidence that you can do the job. Folks will be working with you because they know and trust you.

We’re now at an inflection point where that method of driving business won’t scale as fast as we want so we’re now relying on channel relationships we’ve built with the CRM provider. We also work with consultants in related fields that don’t want to do CRM work which has been a huge boost to our bottom line as well.

On the flip side I have a friend trying to break into devops consulting who couldn’t get a single customer despite relying heavily on his network so take both anecdotes with a grain of salt.

Re: How to Find Consulting Clients

#52

Post by jessems »

krm01 wrote: post #21

The way we’ve been attracting Software companies to our UI/UX agency is through sideproject marketing. I wanted to write an article about this but here’s the tldr version of it: build small standalone projects that provide value and communicate the value you provide to potential customers. There are a few good articles about this but I feel sideproject marketing is highly underrated. You can use your skills as a deve…

Interesting! Can you share an example?

Re: How to Find Consulting Clients

#53

Post by JamesBarney »

monknomo wrote: post #49
JamesBarney wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me you find people who have a vague idea of what project they want built the same way you find people who have a fleshed out idea of what project they want built. And I'd much rather find people who have fleshed out idea of what they want to purchase. They seem to much more reliably and quickly pull the trigger. Imagine you're selling ERP systems and you have a client who says "we need an ERP system that…

It's usually more "We think we need some type of system to manage our business, please deliver a white paper and presentation comparing options, and then stand by to design the option we choose"

Yeah, we've had a couple of leads like this but each has wasted an enormous amount of our time. The general story has been they'll bring in several companies, we'll compete to get their business. We'll win the "competition" and then they'll assure us they're right about to pull the trigger for years.

I've found that a large portion of clients that have vague idea of what they want are window shopping or very early in the purchasing process, that usually when I have vague requirements I'm usually pretty far from writing a large check. And it's really difficult(for me at least) to tell the difference between "I want to write a large check to solve a problem which I don't have any proposed solutions for" and "I have no idea what problem I want to solve, and if I even want to solve it, but I'd like to bring in a highly paid expert and chat with him for free to figure out if I even want to solve this problem".

Re: How to Find Consulting Clients

#54

Post by JamesBarney »

rpeden wrote: post #48
JamesBarney wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me you find people who have a vague idea of what project they want built the same way you find people who have a fleshed out idea of what project they want built. And I'd much rather find people who have fleshed out idea of what they want to purchase. They seem to much more reliably and quickly pull the trigger. Imagine you're selling ERP systems and you have a client who says "we need an ERP system that…

True, if you're selling ERP systems. If you're selling ERP consulting where you go in and help clients figure out what they actually need, client #2 would be a better prospect because client #1 doesn't need your services. :)

That's definitely true that you want to be selling what your client is buying :).

But even in that circumstance I'd rather approach a lead that says "We need a consultant to come for a week look over our processes, and help us decide between these three ERP based on this criteria" :).

Re: How to Find Consulting Clients

#55

Post by sgillen »

josefresco wrote: post #29

I take issue with using "meetups" of other tech consultants as a way to get clients. I'd rather "network" (another uncool word for meetups) with potential leads, within an industry vertical than spend my time talking to other geeks.

I can see how going to a meetup for an interest orthogonal to your own could be fruitful. If I’m a hardware/embedded person and I go to a python meetup it’s possible someone works for a company who is looking for some one off embedded work.

Though as you say, if you can directly find the people who are looking to hire you even better.

Re: How to Find Consulting Clients

#56

Post by JamesBarney »

shartshooter wrote: post #51

I started a consulting business doing CRM work on nights and weekend about five years back that’s now running close to $100k/mo. It all started from a former colleague who’d moved onto a new role and asked me to help them set up their CRM. This colleague talked to their friends, I started mentioning it in casual conversation and more referrals started pouring in. This process of working nights and weekends meant I co…

Hmm that's not what I expected. I always thought DevOps consulting would be an easier to break into because your professional network is also who you'd sell to.

Because as a developer I know where to find tons of developers, I have a large network of developers. But the only type of software they or their employers want to buy is staff augmentation.

Re: How to Find Consulting Clients

#57

Post by jlu »

shartshooter wrote: post #51

I started a consulting business doing CRM work on nights and weekend about five years back that’s now running close to $100k/mo. It all started from a former colleague who’d moved onto a new role and asked me to help them set up their CRM. This colleague talked to their friends, I started mentioning it in casual conversation and more referrals started pouring in. This process of working nights and weekends meant I co…

Out of curiosity, what does CRM consulting look like? Is it autonomous job (configuring servers and applications) or face to to face to work?

Re: How to Find Consulting Clients

#58

Post by enraged_camel »

BrentOzar wrote: post #44
enraged_camel wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Short version: Consultants tell the client what to do. Contractors are brought on to do what they're told. My company does both of these (we're in tech), and I can authoritatively tell you that in the overwhelming majority of engagements this is a distinction without a difference. Over the past five years I haven't had a single client who just had me "tell them what to do". Typically, if we're being brought in, the…

> Over the past five years I haven't had a single client who just had me "tell them what to do" Okay, great: that means you're a contractor. In the past five years, all of my clients have told me, "Tell me what to do." (I'm a consultant.)

I mean they don’t just have us tell them what to do, and then we go our separate ways after that.

Rather, after we tell them what they should do, 99% of the time they respond with “okay that makes sense, can you give us an estimate for how much it would cost to have you guys do that? Because we don’t have the inhouse expertise for it”

Re: How to Find Consulting Clients

#59

Post by gk1 »

cosmie wrote: post #42
11eleven wrote: post #13

I don't necessarily agree with all of this advice. Yes giving talks, having a blog, etc. help but they are a medium to long-term play and you have to wait for leads to discover you or be referred to you. You don't have much control over when this happens, which is what causes a lot of the feast and famine cycles. I have had success just directly reaching out to companies I wanted to work with. This meant I was at lea…

> 2. Focus on smaller to mid-size companies (large corporations likely have the tech team and contractors to cover almost of their needs) Another aspect of this is that large corporations have pretty byzantine processes for hiring/vetting vendors. A freelancer acting as a sole proprietor or single-member llc raises risk factors with being classified as an employee, and will likely have to get routed through a third-p…

If a decision-maker at a large corp wants to work with you, they'll find a way to cut through the red tape.

When I consulted for a multi-national telecom company, the "paperwork" was easier to go through than for some startups. I filled out one form, sent my W-9, and configured auto-invoices to go to a designated email address.

As the scope grew and my invoices reached a certain number, they asked me to fill out one more form. That's all.

Re: How to Find Consulting Clients

#60

Post by rpeden »

JamesBarney wrote: post #54
rpeden wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, if you're selling ERP systems. If you're selling ERP consulting where you go in and help clients figure out what they actually need, client #2 would be a better prospect because client #1 doesn't need your services. :)

That's definitely true that you want to be selling what your client is buying :). But even in that circumstance I'd rather approach a lead that says "We need a consultant to come for a week look over our processes, and help us decide between these three ERP based on this criteria" :).

That's fair, and your scenario is probably a good fit for a solo consultant.

Companies who have no clue what to do but have a pile of money to burn tend to bring in big blue-chip consulting firms.

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