Business development strategies for consulting firms

Key quotes:

• "One of the keys to standing out in the crowded world of consulting is to present and communicate a distinct point of view or set of beliefs about how results are achieved."
• "By developing a unique point of view, and basing all of your communication and processes on it, you can change the context of how your audience views what you do in relation to your competition."
• "For example my marketing consulting firm has point of views of approaching “marketing as a process”, “diagnosis before prescription”, “installing marketing”, and when you do, you can generate visibility, build relationships, gain control, demonstrate expertise and win clients."

Transcript: Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of the management consulting podcast series where we discuss the business of running a consulting firm so in today's episode I want to talk about probably the route behind the creation of most boutique firms even offices of larger firms and it's usually if example KPMG wants to open up an office in a new territory it's going to bring in a consultant with either worked at KPMG or a consultant who has expertise in that local region from a rival firm if you're launching your own business the odds are very high you have already worked at Deloitte a McKinsey Accenture even at a tech firm in fact you've worked somewhere and you bring those skills into your new organisation what we're going to talk about today is one of the biggest challenges I think you're gonna face if that is the way your business is created and the reason why is because usually when you set up your business this way you are taking an idea concept toolkit or some kind of intellectual property but it's usually a set of frameworks a very narrow set and you are going to be... See more →

Transcript: Hi it's my visitor ski from consulting success calm and welcome back to the consulting corner we're consultants learn how to consistently attract their ideal clients and significantly increase their fees in this episode let's talk about models let's talk about what is the right type of business model for you to use in your own consulting business these days I see advertisements all over the web and even in workshops and in seminars of people talking about the best model that you should be selling high ticket offers or you should be doing products or setting up passive income streams or jumping on webinars or podcasts or Instagram or Pinterest all these latest ideas and models that people are presenting to you that oftentimes these marketers are actually marketing really effectively to you can get a consultant quite confused right you can feel overwhelmed one ring is this the right model and because they often do such a good job of marketing the idea to you get excited about it but I want to offer you the idea respectfully that you should just take a minute and step back right cool off because it's really important that you ensure... See more →

Key quotes:

• "Many small to medium sized search firms still depend on recruiters to do both business development (find your own job orders) as well as make placements."
• "But most large firms have separate sales and business development and recruiting teams."
• "Businesses, hiring managers and Human Resources professionals want to make certain that their recruiting firm partners share the same core values, credos and “take” on people services and communication practices."
• "Ask yourself this question when putting together your sales and marketing materials, pitches and campaigns: “How can we best illustrate our staffing company’s success and proven track record with candidates, clients, employees and the community as a whole?” 3."
• "Does your sales staff have a sales strategy with clear cut business development requirements, i.e."

Key quotes:

• "According to Raef Lawson, business development is the fastest way to grow your company."
• "A lot of business development tactics available which can exploit on the commercial basis."
• "In reality, business development is the link between all the internal segments (like sales, customer service, and advertising) and external (client’s relation and new corporate opportunities) too."
• "A business developer plays a crucial role in implementing the different corporate strategy for the success of any organization."
• "The business manager’s job is to comprehend the client’s perspective, issues, problem and type of work done."
• "Hence, they have to be an active listener if they want to develop their business."

Key quotes:

• "At least, that’s how futurist and veteran of the technology game, Tim O’Reilly, put it in his latest bestseller, WTF: What’s The Future and Why It’s Up To Us."
• "Unlike technology companies that are more predisposed to living these values, professional services firms still rely mostly on people to create and deliver value to their clients."
• "Upon reflecting on my time at large professional services firms, and how we do things differently at Collective Campus, the following efficiency drivers become apparent."
• "Large consulting firms tend to engage in long-term engagements, where the effective daily rate of work decreases significantly."
• "In our case, by optimizing for shorter term projects, we’re forced to apply 80/20, or 64/4, and deliver the most amount of value in the least amount of time, whilst satisfying client needs, and keeping our employee efficiency healthy."
• "Building on the last point, we believe in the value of our work at Collective Campus."

Key quotes:

• "Regular blogging will help you generate lots of consulting leads because your blog will receive traffic from search engines and social media daily."
• "Tools like Mention.com, SocialMention.com, and Hootsuite will help you monitor what people are saying about your consulting business on social media."
• "Social media can produce big results for your consulting business when you connect and develop meaningful relationships with relevant influencers."
• "For example, if you’re in the marketing niche, developing a relationship with an influencer like Michaela will spread your name on LinkedIn."
• "A “Like” from an influencer will make thousands of people aware of your business."
• "For example, in the marketing niche, there are other relevant platforms like GrowthHackers, Inbound.org, Quora, Warrior Forum, and related Facebook groups."