Client-Breakthrough-Final · approaches and lead generation tactics will work for you. How to nurture leads so they’re ready to buy, how to close sales, and how to manage all this

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WHO IS THIS FOR? AND WHY?

Let’s get straight to the point.

This report is for consultants and coaches who want to get

more clients.

If you want to escape from the constant worry in the pit of your

stomach over where your next client is coming from - then

you’re in the right place.

If you want to build a thriving consulting or coaching practice

where you’re able to relax, knowing your “marketing machine”

will bring in a regular flow of high quality leads - then you’re in

the right place.

If you want to attract and win the kind of high-end clients that

allow you to do interesting, innovative, high margin work - then

you’re in the right place.

Most consultants and coaches are great at what they do. They

deliver real value to clients, and establish highly productive and

mutually beneficial relationships with them.

But when it comes to marketing and selling ourselves, most of us feel uncomfortable.

We’re not really sure which marketing strategies actually work

for our specific niche and services.

We’re not consistent in our marketing and business

development. We flit from networking to direct mail to doing presentations. And we stop completely when we have client

work on. As a result we live in a constant “boom-bust” cycle.

While we’re often great at building relationships with our paying

clients - we’re poor at nurturing those relationships after we’ve

finished our work with them. And we’re even worse at building relationships with prospects who aren’t ready to buy quite yet.

And although we’re great at discussing clients’ problems and

solutions with them - when it comes to closing sales we feel

neither confident, nor competent.

Above all, what we’re lacking is a system. A clear set of processes and methods to tell us what to do and when to succeed at

marketing and business development.

Questions? Feedback? Email me on [email protected] Ian Brodie

http://www.clientbreakthrough.com


mailto:[email protected]


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The Client Breakthrough System will give you that.

It’ll teach you how to identify and target your ideal, high paying

clients.

It’ll show you how to find them. How to communicate and

engage with them. How to nurture your relationship with them

so that they’re ready to buy.

And, of course, how to close the deals to bring them on as

clients.

Most importantly: it’ll show you how to do this in a systematic,

repeatable way. A system you can work day-in, day-out. Week-in,

week-out. A system that will give you confidence, knowing you have a steady stream of prospects and clients flowing in to your

business.

How to use this report

This report and the accompanying video series will take you

through a structured approach to to developing and

implementing effective marketing and sales principles for a consulting or coaching business.

It’ll show you how to build a deep understanding and

connection with your ideal target clients. Which marketing

approaches and lead generation tactics will work for you. How

to nurture leads so they’re ready to buy, how to close sales, and how to manage all this week-in, week-out

Ultimately it will show you the steps to getting more clients,

more quickly.

Of course, no book, system or course can cover everything and

every situation. But it will give most consultants and coaches what they need to set them firmly on the growth track.

But a report or training course alone can’t grow your business

for you.

You will need to put the lessons from the report into place. And

that will require three things:






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1. You will need to set aside time to properly digest and work

through each section of the report. You’ll need to gather

information, to complete the exercises thoughtfully, and to

reflect on your answers and in many cases keep coming back to

them until you fully “crack” the right strategies and actions for

you.

My suggestion is that you print out a copy of the report and

keep it with you. Make notes in the margins, re-read important

sections regularly and keep working at the exercises.

2. You’ll need to actually put the strategies and actions you

develop into practice. None of the approaches in the report will

require significant expenditure: but many will require significant

effort. Some will also require you to adopt new thoughts, new

ideas, and new ways of working. And this will feel uncomfortable

at first. But always remember, if you keep doing the same things

as you’re doing today, you’re going to keep getting the same

results as you’re getting today.

3. Finally, you’ll need to keep “sharpening the saw”, to keep looking

at and improving the way you market and sell your services.

Your clients will continue to change and evolve. Your

competitors will continue to change and evolve - and so must

you. It doesn’t need to be every day, but at least quarterly you

must review whether your selected marketing and sales

approaches are still working or whether you need to revisit and

update them.

Why did I develop the Client Breakthrough System?

Well, primarily, it’s because I’ve been there myself.

Although I make my living today helping other professionals

grow their marketing and business development skills - I’m far from a natural salesperson myself.

When I first became a consultant in the early 90s I was a fresh-

faced MBA whose experience of business had all been in

technical roles. I knew that I wanted to do high end strategy

work for the biggest and best names in the business - and I was sure I had the skills to do it.

But what I had no idea about was marketing and selling. It came

as a huge shock to me to find out that if I wanted to progress

and do the kind of work I was interested in I would have to sell.






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Luckily, through study, experience, and having some of the best “rainmakers” in the field as my mentors, I learned what it takes

for even the most reluctant of professionals to become highly

effective at selling.

I had a similar shock when I first set up my own business over

three years ago. I discovered that marketing and selling for a sole practitioner with no brand name or support team to rely on is a

whole new ball game. Once again, I had to learn “what works”

for my new situation.

So believe me, if you’re currently feeling uncomfortable or even

overwhelmed by the challenge of bringing in new clients - I’ve been there.

And partly the reason for creating the Client Breakthrough

System is that I'm confident that for every reader of the report

a certain percentage will decide they need my help to progress

even faster, even further in growing their business.

If, after reading the report and working through the planning and

preparation you decide you're one of them, then you can

contact me in the UK on 0161 408 0984 or email [email protected]. You can also find out more about my

consulting and coaching services here.

But that's more than enough about me – let's get on to figuring

out how to get you more clients.

Ian Brodie




http://www.ianbrodie.com/coaching/






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N e w s l e t t e r

CONTENTS 1. Who is this for? And why?

2. Contents

3. The Client Breakthrough System

4. Business Development Strategy

5. Core Business Development Processes

6. Management Systems

7. Taking Action

8. Who am I, and how can I help?






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N e w s l e t t e r

THE CLIENT BREAKTHROUGH SYSTEM

Above all else, the Client Breakthrough System is simple.

Simplicity works.

A simple system is a system that gets used. And the key to winning clients is not clever tactics or complex procedures. It’s

doing the simple things that work. Doing them consistently well.

Doing them week-in, week-out.

There are only 3 components to the Client Breakthrough

System.

Figure 1: The Client Breakthrough System Core Components

The first is your Business Development Strategy.

For consultants and coaches, your business development strategy is about your choices in three primary areas:

1. Which clients you focus on.

2. Your value proposition to those clients.






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N e w s l e t t e r

3. How you position yourself in the marketplace.

Your Business Development Strategy is the thinking component

of the Client Breakthrough System. You typically revise this on an

annual basis. After that, the key is execution.

The second component is your set of Core Business

Development Processes: Lead Generation, Lead Nurturing and Selling.

These are the day-in, day-out processes that win you clients.

Your lead generation approaches (for example: getting referrals,

direct mail, using the web) are the methods you use to bring you

into initial contact with high potential prospects.

Your lead nurturing approaches (for example an email

newsletter) will keep you front of mind with those prospects not

ready to buy yet - so that when the time is right, you’re the first

person they turn to.

And your sales approaches (for example an initial diagnostic meeting) are the way you turn prospects who are ready to buy

into paying clients.

The final component of the Client Breakthrough System is your

Management System. It’s the way you track progress and ensure

you’re doing the right things every week to maximise your

chances of winning clients. It’s where you plan in the next week’s activities to make sure you’ve got the right balance of Lead

Generation, Lead Nurturing and Selling.

That’s it. Three simple components.

But if you get them right. If you focus on the right clients, with

the right value proposition. If you pick the right business development approaches and execute them well. If you manage

tightly and keep on track.

Then you’ll have more clients than you can handle.

Let’s look at each component in turn.






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BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

Strategy in business - as it is in war - is the art of concentrating

your forces where they will have the most impact.

This ability to focus is even more important for consultants and

coaches where your most precious resource is your time. Since

most professionals have to deliver client work and often manage

the firm in parallel with winning new business, it’s crucial that

every business development activity is high payoff.

The most important factor in ensuring this high payoff is to focus

your efforts on a “hungry market” - clients with a high

propensity to buy.

This means identifying and targeting clients with a strong need for what you have to offer, the money to pay for it, and the

desire to make improvements.

Without those elements, you’ll be “banging your head against a

brick wall”.

So how do you find those hungry clients? The key is to know what they look like. And that means focusing your efforts.

FOCUS YOUR APPROACH

Only the very largest firms can afford to position themselves as

being "all things to all men". Smaller firms and sole practitioners

need to be much more focused in their approach if they want their marketing and business development efforts to have bite.

This is an area where many consultants, and coaches struggle.

Many have a very general market position. They provide a broad

range of services to a broad range of clients. They fear that by

being "too specific" in their marketing and lead generation they






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will miss out on potential business from prospects outside the narrow specifications.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

CLEAR FOCUS STRENGTHENS YOUR MARKETING

The reality is that by being too generic, you significantly weaken

the impact of your marketing efforts.

Our clients are bombarded with marketing messages from all

angles – and they filter most of them out. To get through those

filters your marketing needs to grab their attention. But that

doesn't mean you should be using the aggressive, shouting

headlines so beloved of low-end copywriters. Instead your marketing needs to resonate with the issues and concerns of

your clients.

The primarily filter clients use to decide what to pay attention to

is: “is this relevant to me?”

If your marketing messages focus on their particular industry niche, or on the specific problems or opportunities they face –

then they'll listen.

Not only that, but specialisation implies expertise. Who would

you rather have as your accountant, for example: a generalist, or

someone who specialises in working with consulting firms? Most of us would prefer to deal with a specialist. We assume that they

will better understand the specific of our business – the

economics of consulting firms, the typical forecasting horizons,

etc.

And we're not the only ones. In Raintoday.com's How Clients Buy study, "experience in my industry/business" and "experience

in my specific area of need" were the first and third most listed

factors when buyers of consulting and other professional

services were asked what most influenced their selection of

service provider.

That's not to say the generalist can never win. But the specialist

has the advantage.






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Figure 2: Most nominated highly influential factors in selecting a professional service

provider – Source How Clients Buy Survey 2009 from Raintoday.com

Think it through from your own experience. At the last chamber

of commerce meeting or networking event you went to, how

many marketing consultants or business coaches were there?

Probably quite a few.

And while each would argue that once clients got to know them, they would see how they were different and better, the

reality is that clients don't have the time to get that deep into a relationship with all the potential service providers they meet.

They filter early, and only get into deep interactions with

consultants whose focus resonates with their needs.

Sales training, for example, is a commodity. Sales training for non-

salespeople, sales training for the complex sale, sales training for financial advisers – these are all niches which tell potential clients

that you understand them and have something specific for them.

FOCUS SPURS ACTION AND HELPS BUILD YOUR BRAND

In addition, specialising simplifies planning and spurs action. In my

many years in marketing & sales consulting I've worked with a number of different industries. But once I started specialising in

working with consulting and other professional firms I found it

much easier to focus my efforts, to develop high value tailored

services and thought leadership, and to quickly identify target

clients to pursue.

A further advantage of specialisation is that it allows even small

firms to build strong brand reputations. When I was managing a


Experience in my industry/ business

Overall cost

Experience in my specific area of need

Overall Value

Variety of Services Offered

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

47%

59%

68%

74%

75%

% of Buyers Ranking Factor as a Top Influencer





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major multinational client account for consulting giant Capgemini, we lost a huge piece of supply chain work to a tiny

outfit called JCIT (now DemandPoint).

Despite the fact that we had about ten times the number of

supply chain and lean manufacturing experts as JCIT, it was only

one of many areas we covered – whereas it was their entire focus. As a result, they had built up a powerful reputation based

on investment in a unique methodology, a published book, and

an appearance on the front of Fortune magazine. All driven by

their specialisation in one specific area which they became

famous for.

Within my own niche of business growth for consulting and

other professional firms, I've been able to use a blog and regular

newsletter to build an international reputation. More locally,

because of my specialisation, I get asked to speak and run

seminars by professional groups who wouldn't dream of inviting more general marketing & sales consultants. This raises my

profile with potential clients and gives me a significant head start

when it comes to winning business.

HOW TO IDENTIFY YOUR NICHE

How you narrow your focus is

dependent on the clients you

primarily serve and the services

you deliver. Typical specialisations

might include:

‣ Industries or client types: financial services firms, female

executives

‣ A functional area: finance, procurement, online marketing

‣ A specific client situation: new start-ups, post-merger situations,

companies approaching bankruptcy

‣ The sorts of problems you help clients solve: dysfunctional

teams, turnaround situations, cost reduction

‣ New trends, technologies and "hot topics": social media, RFID,

visualisation technologies

In fact, most professionals will focus on a combination of these

areas – procurement cost reduction for manufacturing firms; RFID implementation for retailers, for example.






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The area you specialise in then determines many of the other components of your business development: the services you

offer, how you position them, the messages you use to

communicate with clients, and which lead generation approaches

you use to reach and engage with them.

Of course, it doesn't mean you'll never do work outside that specialist area. It's quite common for clients to ask specialists

who they know and trust from working in one area to help

them out in areas outside the specialism. Especially if, once

engaged with the client, you demonstrate your broader business

knowledge. However, it does mean that you'll focus your pro-active marketing efforts to new clients in your specialist area.

It's also possible to do "temporary specialisation". Focusing on

one specific niche for a period of time before moving on to

marketing efforts for other niches.

A colleague of mine who's a successful business coach found he was able to generate many, many more referrals using this

temporary specialisation than he ever got as a generic coach for

small businesses. One month he'd announce to his networking

group he was running a seminar for therapists and he'd get multiple referrals. A few months later he was running a campaign

for financial advisors and again, the referrals flooded in. But back

when he'd been running events for the more general category

of small businesses, he'd struggled to get even one or two

referrals. Small businesses were simply too broad a category. Members of his networking group knew literally hundreds of

small businesses – but they couldn't feasibly pass on all the

names. Without any way of discerning who the event was

particularly appropriate for, they referred him to no one.

This clear, specialist focus will form the heart of your approach – so you need to invest time to get it right.

When deciding on your area(s) of focus, it's important to

consider not only which areas are potentially the most profitable

or in-demand from clients, and which you have the most

expertise in; but also which areas you are most interested in and have the most passion for..






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If you're going to invest in building a reputation, developing thought leadership and tailored service offers it absolutely must

be an area for which you have a passion.

Your selected niche(s) will form the foundation of your business

development system. But they're not cast in stone. As you get

out in the field and actively market your firm you'll find out what works and what doesn't. And you'll get feedback which will allow

you to refine your niche.

DEVELOPING PEN PICTURES

Effective marketing requires you to really understand the needs,

wants, motivations and situation of your target clients. The better you understand your target clients, the better you’ll know how

to connect with them and how to communicate with impact.

One of the best ways of doing that is to develop "pen pictures"

of typical client profiles.

Take each of your target segments and try to visualise a typical potential client in each segment.

In my case, rather than marketing to "owners of medium sized consulting firms" I think of Barry.

Barry is 45, and married with two

children. He runs a 15 person

consulting firm based in the

Midlands, specialised in manufacturing process

improvements. He founded the

firm 5 years ago, and it's grown

reasonably well based on repeat business and recommendations

from satisfied clients.

But Barry is now beginning to think of the future – and he

knows he needs to grow the business much faster to get where

he wants to be (and to be able to retire comfortably in 10 years

time). He's read lots of material on marketing and spoken to

many people who all advise him to do different things. He's not really sure what will work for his business and doesn't want to

risk a lot of time and money until he is clear what is going to

have the biggest impact on growth.






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By drawing this pen picture (and the full one is a lot more detailed) I'm able to really "get inside the head" of my potential

clients. To understand their hopes and fears in a way that "owner

of a medium sized consulting firm" just can't do.

And that lets me do more compelling marketing. When I write, it

resonates with them. When I talk to them I'm able to speak in language that's meaningful to them and hits the right buttons.

For your business you'll probably have to develop 3 or 4 pen

pictures for the typical clients you serve. You can even base them

on existing clients.

Don’t get overwhelmed. Start with one profile. You’ll quickly see how much richer your marketing will become as a result.

BUILDING A POWERFUL VALUE PROPOSITION

In marketing, circles you’ll often hear heated

discussions about the importance of having a

USP - a Unique Selling Proposition.

In my experience, this search for

uniqueness is misguided.

It starts from the wrong point.

Proponents of the USP approach

agonise over how to position their business as being unique -

completely different from any other business.

But do your clients care if you’re unique?

Your clients primarily care about whether you’re bringing them

value. Whether you’re solving their critical problems or helping

them achieve their greatest ambitions.

Whether you’re the only person who can do that is very much

secondary. It means you’ll have no competition when it comes to selection time.






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But you know what? I rarely have much competition anyway. By the time I’m speaking to a potential client, their choices are

usually to hire me, to try to do it themselves, or to do nothing.

it’s rarely a head to head battle with another consultant or

coach.

I bet it’s very similar for you too.

My experience is that if you focus intensely on the value you can

create for your clients, and if you have a tightly defined niche -

then you rarely have to worry about what makes you unique.

A great way of clarifying this value is to create a Value

Proposition.

Now creating a value proposition is not about wordsmithing. It’s

not a cleverly polished statement you use in your external

marketing. A value proposition is simply a concise statement of

why a client should hire you.

It’s used to clarify your own thinking and guide your marketing. Not as a sort of “mission statement” you frame and hang on the

wall.

A powerful value proposition is one which resonates. It

addresses the big issues which your clients worry about.

And it’s also one with proof.

The nature of consulting and coaching work is that anyone can

make bold claims about how great they are and how much value

they bring to their clients. Effective marketing for consultants

and coaches is about demonstrating and proving - not just

claiming.

So you must understand how you can prove your value in

advance. Through thought leadership, testimonials and

guarantees, for example.

To develop your value proposition, start with the pen picture

you’ve developed of your ideal client. Then review their critical business issues, needs, challenges.

Flesh out the value, benefits, and end results they’ll get from

addressing those issues (for example, having a more profitable

business may result in more financial stability for them and their

family).






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Now describe your solutions and capabilities which deliver those results - and elaborate on how specifically they deliver them.

Finally, collect the evidence to “prove” you can deliver.

Pull those together. Review and rework. Read it from your ideal

client’s perspective. Rework it again until the real value that your

client will feel in their gut jumps out from the page at you.

Then you’ll have a powerful value proposition.

Here’s a worked example for a procurement consultant:

Target Clients • UK based manufacturing companies with a turnover of >5m and an estimated spend on indirect procurement of >500K

• Limited in-house indirect procurement expertise (likely to be

focusing on raw/direct materials)

Business Issues • Excessive spend on purchased overheads (travel, stationery, printing, etc.)

• Costs fluctuating, unpredictable and feeling out of control

• Feeling at mercy of suppliers - unable to negotiate effectively• Not wanting to divert energy from core business to

overheads

Benefits • Significant cost reduction - up to 40% in printing, 25% in freight, etc.

• More control, more predictability

• Visibility and knowledge of competitiveness of supplier pricing• No disruption or extra work needed from core business

Solutions and Capabilities

• Initial assessment, analysis and recommendations• Supplier consolidation and renegotiations• Ongoing management of contract

Proof • Examples/testimonials from previous clients• Case studies/benchmarking results• Previous “Poacher” and “gamekeeper” experience

• Pre-existing relationships with suppliers• Results of initial assessment

POSITION YOURSELF AS AN AUTHORITY

Now we’ve identified our target clients, understood their needs

and clarified the value we’ll deliver to them we can decide how

to position ourselves so that we’re seen as a highly attractive

partner to work with.

There are many viable market positions you can take - being a

low-cost provider, the strength of your relationships, the quality

of your service delivery..






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But in my experience, the most effective position you can take is

to establish yourself as as the expert or authority in your field.

As the authority in your field you’re the natural choice for the

big, important issues your clients have to deal with. It’s those big,

important issues that clients are prepared to pay a premium to

address.

Becoming an authority takes work. But you don’t need to

become the world’s leading authority. Just the authority in your world. In other words, with the clients you target, and in

comparison with the competitors you come up against.

Becoming an authority requires you to invest in developing your

thought leadership - and in making that available to potential

clients. And it means that your marketing and lead generation activities should be biased towards those that establish your

reputation.

CORE BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES

Now you’ve established your client needs, value proposition and

ideal market positioning, you can select the business development approaches which will turn prospects into clients.

There are three main steps in acquiring clients for consultants

and coaches.

Firstly, you must generate leads. In other words you must make

initial contact with prospects to bring them into your “pipeline”.

The output of your lead generation activities will usually be face

to face meetings or telephone calls with potential clients. If

you’re taking a heavily online approach to business






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development, it could also be that a lead is a potential client who signs up for your newsletter and automated business

development emails. Or perhaps even someone connecting with

you on Linkedin.

In every case though, you will have established permission to

actively communicate with them (either in the meeting/call and follow up - or via email or Linkedin).

This is absolutely crucial. I can’t stress it enough:

The goal of your lead generation activities is not only to make

contact with high potential clients - it’s to get permission to

proactively communicate with them.

Why am I putting so much emphasis on this?

The nature of consulting and coaching services is that they’re

almost always costly, complex, intangible and high impact.

In other words - it’s a big deal when clients hire a consultant or

coach.

It’s rare that they’ll make that decision after just one interaction with you. It usually takes multiple interactions over time before

they gain the trust and confidence in your capabilities needed to

feel comfortable hiring you.

In addition, because most consulting and coaching services are

discretionary and aren’t needed all the time - with most lead generation approaches you can’t be sure that you’ve contacted a

client at a time when they have that need.

Depending on your type of service, it’s typical that between 70

to 90% of the time, when you initially contact a potential client -

even one who otherwise is highly qualified - the time won’t be right for them to hire you right now.

But the majority of them will hire someone like you in the next

few years.

What that means is that in order to be top of mind when they

are ready to buy., and in order to ensure they’ve built the necessary confidence and trust in you by that time - you must

communicate with them on a regular basis.






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And that’s why I say it’s crucial to get permission to communicate proactively at that first contact point. Because if

you don’t, you’re relying on luck to get that regular

communication.

You have to hope they come to your next presentation.. Or that

you see them again when you’re out networking. Or that they remember to come back to your website.

But if you get permission to proactively communicate, you can

call them, write to them or email them to keep in touch and

nurture that relationship.

Then your relationship is in your hands.

LEAD GENERATION

My advice to clients is always to

use a portfolio of lead generation

approaches.

By that I mean three things:

‣ Firstly, different clients respond

to different types of approaches.

‣ Secondly, some clients are inherently more valuable than

others. With higher value clients you can use more time-

intensive approaches.

‣ Finally, some lead generation approaches work well to broaden

your circle of contacts - others work well to convert existing

contacts into leads.

You need to select lead generation approaches that meet three key criteria:






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1. They have a high probability of connecting with your target clients. It’s no use going networking to events that you’re

clients don’t attend, for example.

2. They allow you to demonstrate you meet the criteria clients

will use when hiring a consultant or coach. More on this in a

second.

3. They’re methods you’ll be able to do well. It may be that

running seminars and doing presentations would be the

perfect method to attract your ideal clients - but if you shrink

in fear from the very thought of speaking in public, it’s unlikely

to be a method that will work for you right now.

In terms of demonstrating you meet the criteria clients use

when hiring - the exact details will depend on your clients and

your pen pictures are the best guide to this.

But generically, clients are looking for three things when hiring a

consultant or coach:

4. They want to be sure that you understand them and the issues

or challenges they face.

5. They need to know you have the capabilities and experience to

help them address those issues.

6. They must be sure they can trust you and that they (or their

team) will be able to work with you effectively.

Now these factors aren’t easy to prove in a short interaction. That’s why it will usually require multiple contacts over time to

nurture your relationship.

And in terms of your lead generation approaches - the initial

contacts you have with a potential client - the most effective

methods are usually the “face to face” methods which allow you to get these factors across.

Survey after survey has show that the approaches clients prefer

to use, and that consultants report work best for gaining new

business are these face-to-face, personal approaches. For

example:

‣ Previous work with, or personal reputation of the consultants

‣ Referrals from people clients trust

‣ Seeing the consultants in action at a presentation or seminar






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It's those personal interactions (or personal recommendations) that allow clients to make a judgement on whether the

consultant will understand their problem, have the capabilities to

solve it, and whether they will be able to work well with them.

For any consultant or coach, developing relationships and

expanding business with existing clients, pro-actively getting more referrals to target clients, and using speaking engagements

and seminars must be at the top of the list their lead generation

approaches.

However, although these approaches have the highest impact,

they are also amongst the most time-intensive. They also have a lower reach: developing relationships with clients and referral

partners happens one client or partner at a time. In-person

seminars and presentations reach only as many people as are in

the room.

So for a balanced portfolio of approaches, you also need to put more "scalable" tactics into the mix.

Websites, articles, sales letters and cold calls may not have as high a hit rate as the in-person tactics – but they can reach more

people, and they do not require so much face-to-face time. In

addition, they can often be great approaches to lead-in to more

face-to-face activities. After all, how does a potential client get to

know of a seminar the consultant is running? Often by direct mail or email, promotion on a website, or good old-fashioned

PR.

Following is a list of potential lead generation approaches.

Review each approach and score them on a simple High,

Medium and Low basis on how likely each is to allow you to reach your target clients, how much each one will allow you

demonstrate the capabilities your clients are looking for, and on

how competent you are at each approach.






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P a g e 23

P a g e 23

ApproachAbility to

reach targets

(H/M/L)

Demonstrate

capabilities

(H/M/L)

Competence

(H/M/L)

Existing Client

Development

Referrals

Networking

Public Speaking &

Seminars

Direct Mail

Cold Calling

Hospitality/

Sponsorship

Traditional

Advertising

Articles

Research Project

ApproachAbility to

reach targets

(H/M/L)

Demonstrate

capabilities

(H/M/L)

Competence

(H/M/L)

Website

Social Media

Other: __________

Other: __________

Other: __________

Make sure you document the logic behind each choice too.

In video 3 of the free video training series you get with this

report I’ll be giving tips on when each approach is most

appropriate ing through each approach in more detail - highlighting the pros and cons and how to make each one work.

But for now, base your initial assessment on what you already

know.






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P a g e 24

For most sole practitioners, you’ll want to have 3 or 5 approaches in your portfolio. Larger firms can afford to do more

- but be wary of spreading your message and your expertise too

thinly across approaches.

Once you’ve selected the best approaches, the secret is to

execute them consistently. We’ll cover that in the Management System section of the report.

LEAD NURTURING

As we’ve already said, almost no

one buys high value consulting or

coaching services after their first interaction. You need to have

multiple interactions with them

over time to build their trust and

perception of your capabilities.

If you don’t do this, you’ll end up in the trap that many consultants and coaches find themselves in. They focus only on

short-term leads. Potential clients not likely to buy in the next

few months are "qualified out of the pipeline". And qualified out means dropped – usually with no further attempt to follow-up

or keep in contact.

The end result is that the consultant or coach finds themselves

constantly hunting for fresh leads with urgent needs. Whereas if

they’d nurtured their "not so hot" leads over time, they’d not only have hot leads – but would have been able to build their

credibility and trust over time to position themselves more

effectively for a win.

Lead nurturing is all about turning a one-off interaction into an

ongoing relationship. And in particular, a relationship which grows deepen and stronger over time.

It needs to be a planned, systematic activity. Some of the things

you will do will be one-off, specifically tailored activities for high

value potential clients. But mostly, you will be executing pre-

planned nurture strategies.

LEAD NURTURING IN PRACTICE

In practice, there are two phases of lead nurturing.






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P a g e 25

Immediate Follow-Up

The first is the immediate follow-up phase. For each of your

selected lead generation approaches think through what a

natural follow-up would be that could initiate an ongoing

communication between you and the potential client.

For example, if you use seminars and presentations as one of your main tactics then rather than simply giving out copies of

your slides at the event or getting the organiser to send them

out; write a more detailed report and ask for people to give you

their business card if they want you to send them a copy.

By the way: a quick tip here. If you want more people to give you their business card, ask in the workshop “I have a detailed

report available with more information and practical tips on this

subject. Raise your hands if you’d like a copy. OK, drop me your

business card at the end and I’ll email you a copy”. Most people

raise their hand – and by raising their hand, they’re more likely to give you their business card at the end.

Once you’ve started the dialogue by sending the report, you can then either keep communicating with them via manual emails

(perhaps sending further thoughts, asking for feedback, etc.) or (if

you ask for permission) subscribe them to your email newsletter.

One of the simplest follow-up tactics is via email – but it's so

easy to get this wrong. Frequently after meeting someone at a networking event I'll get a standard "Nice to meet you, if you

ever need our services…." email. Not surprisingly, I tend to hit

the delete button pretty quickly.

But what would happen instead if someone took the time to

think about what we spoke about at the event and refer to it? Or maybe suggest a useful link or resource for me. Or at least

say they'll keep a look out for whatever I said I was interested

in. Then I may well email them back and begin a relationship.

Personally, after every event, I type the details of the interesting

people I met into my contact management system myself. When I do that, I recall what we talked about, and I think about what I

might be able to do to help them. And I then drop them a short

email with something relevant in. it's a good habit to get into.






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P a g e 26

P a g e 26

You need to figure out what the right follow up to each of your main lead generation activities is. After that initial follow-up, you

bring the potential client into the second phase of lead

nurturing: your ongoing relationship building programme.

Ongoing Relationship Building

Your ongoing relationship building programme is a planned sequence of activities you carry out with potential (and existing)

clients over time to strengthen and deepen your relationship

with them. The objective is to build the client's perception of

your capabilities so that when a need for your services arises,

you're the first on their mind.

It could be as simple as a regular email newsletter. And some

consultants are masters at keeping in touch and furthering

relationships with a simple phone call.

In other cases it can be more elaborate. Personally, I keep a list

of my top current and target clients (whom I've initiated contact with). I classify them into A/B/C depending on their potential for

long term, profitable business relationships.

Every week I review that list and think through: is there something I can do for them this week that will deepen our

relationship? I might be able to source a useful article for them,

or put them in touch with someone useful or invite them to an

event that would be valuable to them.

Simply reading the list and actively thinking about them is enough to put them in the front of my mind so that if something

relevant to them pops up during the week I'll notice it. For my A

clients and prospects I'll try to make sure I'm contacting them in

some form at least every 2-3 weeks. For my B clients and

prospects it's 4-8 weeks. And for the C category it's every quarter.

More sophisticated still: you can pre-plan a whole sequence of

"nurture funnel" activities designed to gradually build your

relationship. In the online world, this is often done with email

autoresponders. After a potential clients signs up (for example to download a free report) a sequence of timed emails is initiated.

The first may thank them for subscribing. The second might ask

for feedback or highlight a section of the report you recommend






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P a g e 27

they study thoroughly. The third might showcase a case study of work you’ve done with a recent client - and gently suggest the

prospect gets in touch to discuss further. The fifth might run

through a specific coaching service you provide in the area

covered by the report.

But while these planned sequences are mainly found online, there's no reason why they can't be done offline too. After

attending your seminar, you might send a potential client a copy

of a related article you've written one week. Maybe then a call

to see if they found it useful. Perhaps you follow that with a

guest invitation to a networking event you regularly attend which they might find useful. Maybe the next step is to post them

clippings of useful articles in their field. And then maybe a letter

or call to ask if they'd like to meet up to see how you could help

them.

Both offline and online nurture funnels share three key characteristics:

They're time independent. Whenever you make a new contact

you can start the sequence with them and it will work "on

autopilot" – you don't need to think of the next step at every stage, it's pre-planned.

They build the relationship by adding value over time.

They culminate in an offer. In other words, you’re not just

developing the relationship to make friends, you have a clear

business objective in mind.

In practice, the sequences could be shorter – or much longer.

And they are likely to continue well beyond the initial offer.

The key is that they deliberately develop a relationship in a

sequence of small steps – rather than trying to jump

immediately from an initial meeting to a sales offer in one go.

Automation

Smart business developers have always nurtured client

relationships – whether formally planned, or just something they

did naturally.






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P a g e 28

However, nurturing activities have traditionally been reserved for the very highest potential clients. It requires a big investment of

time to do all these activities manually and tailored them to each

specific client.

Thanks to the internet, and the increasing capabilities of contact

management and CRM products, nurturing can now be extended to even more clients.

Semi-automation – is where sequences of activities are

automatically planned once a potential client is flagged in your

system. For example, a task to call the client or mail an article

will be sequenced and appear in the consultant's to-do-list a

certain number of days after the client has been entered as a new contact in the system. Some of the activities (usually emails)

may be done automatically by the system, while manual tasks

appear as to-do items for the relevant team member at the right

time.

Full automation – is where the relationship begins online (for

example when a potential client signs up for a free report) and a sequence of emails is initiated via an autoresponder service.

Semi-automation increases the efficiency of traditional lead nurturing and because of this allows you to do it for perhaps

double the number of potential clients as before.

Full automation means that you can nurture almost all potential

clients since it's happening automatically. Of course, you can only

do it when the client opts-in to the approach – so you need an incentive for that. And it's not as effective for very high potential

clients as when you tailor your nurturing activities to the specific

client.

But it works. Surprisingly well.

Sophisticated clients realise it's a pre-planned automated sequence. But as long as each message is adding value and

building the relationship it works anyway. With email, somehow

we forget. We read it and if it's well written, we respond like we

would to a human being.

Some consultants have said to me "I don't want to send a standard sequence – I want to uniquely tailor and personalise it".






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P a g e 29

P a g e 29

And that's great – a personally tailored interaction will have more impact than a standard sequence.

But you can only personalise for a small number of potential

clients. So they'd better be your best ones.

The real choice for the remaining clients is not between a

standard sequence and personalised messages – it's between a standard sequence and no messages at all.

SELLING

Most consultants and coaches feel

uncomfortable in sales situations.

And it's no wonder; the dominant stereotype we have of salespeople

is of aggressive extroverts. Pushy,

manipulative Ricky Roma types.

But that type of selling just doesn't work for consulting or

coaching services. You can't push or manipulate someone into buying a highly expensive service which is likely to impact some

of the most critical areas of their business. Before they buy they'll need a high degree of confidence that their challenge is worth

addressing, that you understand it, that you know what you’re

doing, and that they'll be able to work with you.

That confidence won't come from the pushy tactics of the

typical salesperson.

It will only come from a constructive dialogue with a

knowledgeable professional who puts the client's best interests

at heart.

But that doesn't mean you need to become a "pushover". An

effective professional is a peer level partner to their client. And that's the role you need to adopt when selling. You will need to

set the agenda and challenge your client when needed.

Clients will make major judgements about what it will be like to

work with a consultant or coach based on their experience of

them during the sales process. They want someone who will act as a trusted advisor and partner to them, and so you must

behave in that way right from your initial meeting.






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P a g e 30

P a g e 30

In my experience, most consultants and coaches need to work in three areas to improve their sales capabilities:

1. They must develop a positive mindset towards sales.

2. They need to develop their “intelligent questioning” skills.

3. They need to grow the confidence and capability to close.

DEVELOPING A POSITIVE MINDSET

Many consultants and coaches view selling as manipulative, and

they're uncomfortable doing it.

For them, a little mental exercise can help overcome this. I

sometimes ask people who express this view to play a little

game:

"Pretend for a moment you don't get paid for consulting. You're an

expert in your area, but you make money some other way.

Let's say you meet a business person and you talk about his

business. If you spot an area where he could significantly improve his

business – would you feel OK highlighting it to him?"

Often the answer is not only Yes, but the consultant or coach often insists it would be their duty to point it out.

"And if they didn't really understand, or see it as a big problem –

would you feel it was OK to discuss it with them and demonstrate to

them how important it was?"

Again, they almost always say it would be their duty to do so.

"And if you knew someone who could help them fix that problem –

would you see it as wrong or unethical to recommend that person?"

"Of course not" is always the answer.

"So why is it a problem if the person who can help them fix the

problem is you?"

It's not an infallible method. And for consultants or coaches with

a deeply ingrained dislike for selling it takes a bit more to

persuade them.






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P a g e 31

P a g e 31

But a simple conversation like this can begin to get them thinking about their attitude to selling and whether it's really helping

them.

There are other negative attitudes to selling, of course. Some

view selling as somehow "beneath them". They worry about their

image as a professional and what others (including clients) will think of them if they engage in sales activities. Others fear the

inherent rejection that comes with sales.

Some of these beliefs are harder to shift than others. But almost

always, it's possible to work with the consultant to help them

overcome their particular mindset issue.

INTELLIGENT QUESTIONING

Without doubt, the key to selling for consultants and coaches is

questioning.

Through smart questions, the professional learns about the

client's problem or opportunity, is able to clarify the size of the issue, and finds out enough to propose a compelling solution to

the problem.

But questioning is about much more than finding out information:

‣ Smart questions which focus in on the key topics establish a

consultant's knowledge and credibility much more than any

claims or monologues could.

‣ A question-based approach shows the client you are interested

in them and their issues. It shows you'll try to understand them,

and develop solutions tailored to their needs rather than

shoehorn in canned answers. The number one complaint clients'

have of consultants and coaches is that they just don't listen to

them.

‣ Asking good questions brings new insight to the client. It

shouldn't feel like a grilling. They should come out of the

meeting with you inspired with new ideas and fresh thinking. In

essence, you're giving them a free sample of what it would be

like to work with you.

Perhaps the most important thing questioning does from a sales

perspective is motivate the client to buy.






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P a g e 32

For most consultants and coaches, their #1 competitor is not another consulting firm. It's simply the client not doing anything,

or trying to muddle through themselves.

Why do they do this? Because although they know they have a

problem or opportunity, they're not convinced it's big enough to

warrant hiring an expensive consultant or coach to address it.

Typically this happens because as soon as the professional hears

the client talk about their problem or opportunity they jump

straight to the solution they can provide. It's an almost Pavlovian

reaction. Talking about their solutions, their methodologies and

their results is comfortable and safe ground for consultants and coaches. And it feels like they're adding value and demonstrating

their expertise.

But if they do this before they've explored with the client the full

scale of the impact of their problem or opportunity then the

chances are that the client won't see just how big it is. And that means they simply won't buy.

When you’re planning for a sales meeting (and yes, you must plan every sales meeting!) you need to develop a series of

questions to ask which will allow you and your potential client to

jointly discover:

‣ The priority issues they have

‣ The full business impact of those issues

‣ What a potential solution might look like

‣ The potential barriers to a solution

‣ The reasons why they need you to help

In addition, for larger, more complex sales, you need to ask

questions to help you understand how to navigate the client’s

buying/decision-making process.

GROW THE CONFIDENCE AND CAPABILITY TO CLOSE

Most salespeople try to close too early, too often, and too hard.

They've read too many "27 Surefire Closing Secrets" type books

and have come to believe that by using clever language or






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P a g e 33

manipulative methods and attempting to close at least 5 times in a call they can somehow win more business.

In fact, for anything other than small sales, trying to manipulate

people into signing-up backfires. If people aren't yet convinced

that they really need a product or service, and they're not sure

that your particular one is right for them; then using closing techniques like asking if they'd like delivery on Tuesday or

Thursday will push them further away.

The evidence on closing is clear. The optimum number of closes

per meeting you should use is 1.

However, for consultants and coaches, the challenge is a different one.

Where product salespeople try to close too often, most

consultants don't even attempt to close once. Some get so tied

up in the client's business problems that the meeting overruns

and they end weekly. Others feel that asking for the sale or next step would come across as pushy. Others simply don't know

what to say to progress to their target next step.

Effective closing is much more than something you tag at the end of a sales meeting. To close effectively at the end, you need

to make sure that through your whole sales discussion, the client

is building confidence that their problem needs a solution

urgently, that you understand them, that you know what you're

doing, and that they will be able to work with you.

I advise consultants and coaches to follow three-phase process

for closing:

1. Set the stage for a positive close through the whole sales

process:

‣ Confirming agreements through the discussion.

‣ Addressing client concerns as they arise rather than

"steamrollering" through to the next point.

‣ Ensuring you drill for impact – it's understanding the full

implications of the issue which will motivate the client to buy.

2. Close first at the Concept level (i.e. first get agreement on

what the client wants to achieve):






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P a g e 34

P a g e 34

‣ Summarising the client's priority needs, the impact of the issue

and the outline of what they are looking for.

‣ Reviewing your solution - what you propose to address their

needs and how it will deliver the outcomes they’re looking for.

‣ Checking for any outstanding concerns – and addressing them.

‣ Proposing the next step – usually to move on to agreeing the

practical details.

3. Then move on to Close at the Practical level (i.e. get

agreement on what you will do). This may need a second

meeting and some further work from you to prepare an

outline plan. But it's crucial that you and your potential client work together to finalise the scope and plan.

‣ Jointly discussing and designing the approach to the project/

engagement – but remembering that you are the expert.

‣ Checking for any outstanding concerns – and addressing them.

‣ Proposing moving forward together.

Of course, that's a simplified representation – more complex

sales situations require a more complex, multi-stage sales

process. And if there's an RFP or formal presentation stage you won't close in the meeting. But the key phases leading up to that

still apply.

At the end of the day, selling is simply building a relationship with

a potential client. It’s working with them to identify their

potential issues and challenges, to figure out the impact of those challenges and whether it’s worth fixing them, and agreeing a

path forward together.

Relax, and treat it just as you would if you’d already been hired

and you were just figuring out how to best help them.






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P a g e 35

MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Right at the start – a whopping 30 or so pages ago – I said that

the underlying issue for a great many consultants and coaches is the lack of a clear and rigorous system for developing new

business.

So far, we've looked at the components of such a system. The

strategies and processes that will deliver a consistent stream of

new clients and sales for your business.

The greatest trap you can fall into now is to treat this as a one-

off exercise. To launch a programme, focus your approach, beef

up your lead generation, nurturing and sales – and then step

back and expect it all to work.

The truth is that the first time you try out your new strategies and tactics, some of it will work and some of it won't. And some

of it you just won't be able to tell for a good while.

In order to keep momentum and to adjust the approaches that

aren't working, you need to put in place the final piece of the

jigsaw – a robust management system.

Like many things in the Client Breakthrough System, I advise

simplicity.

Firstly, you need to create plans to implement any “startup”

activities you need to do to get the system up and running.

For Lead Generation, these might be to investigate high potential networking events, or to create the material you need to do a

series of presentations or seminars. Or to update your website

and produce thought leadership for it.

For Lead Nurturing you might need to review your recent

contacts and create a high potential prospect nurturing list. Or to buy and set up an email marketing system.






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P a g e 36

P a g e 36

And for Selling, you may need to put thought into the structure of a typical initial sales meeting and the questions you;re going to

ask.

Create actions plans for each startup task. Then do them. Don’t

overcomplicate and aim to create perfection - just get some

basic processes up and running in each of the three areas.

Once these plans are underway and you’re beginning to

implement your Lead Generation, Lead Nurturing and Selling

processes you need to move into steady state management.

I recommend a simply weekly planning and review session,

focusing on:

1. Reviewing progress with your recent activities:

‣ Progress vs your action plans (e.g. have you developed

your seminar material? Have you run as many seminars as

planned? Did you get as many attendees as targeted? Was

the feedback good?)

‣ Progress vs Lead Generation targets (e.g. how many sales meetings have you booked?)

‣ Progress with Lead Nurturing (e.g. how many contacts did

you make with your A/B/C clients and prospects - and

what was the outcome?)

‣ Progress with Sales (e.g. how many sales meetings did you have? What was the outcome of the meetings? How much

business did you close?)

‣ Identifying any shortfalls and gaps in your pipeline - do you

need more lead generation? Or to convert more leads

into sales meetings?

2. Planning for the upcoming week’s activities:

‣ What are the key Lead Generation activities you need to

perform?

‣ Looking at your A/B/C clients and prospects and planning

in activities to nurture the relationships.






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P a g e 37

P a g e 37

‣ Confirming timing of sales meetings and planning in preparation time.

Rigorous implementation of this simple management system is

the key to the Client Breakthrough System. Even a weak initial

plan and faltering execution can be corrected by a good

management process.

But lacking that process, even the best start will come off the

rails.






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P a g e 38

TIME FOR ACTION

We've concentrated so far on strategising and planning. But now

you need to take action.

As consulting guru Alan Weiss is fond of saying:

"Imperfect action beats perfect conceptualisation."

Your first step is to go through the system step by step and take

notes. Print it out and don't be afraid to scribble ideas in the

relevant sections.

Then sleep on it.

Come back to it a day or so later and review again. This time prioritise and highlight the areas you need to focus on.

Over the next few days I’ll be sending you a series of short

training videos going into some of the key areas in more detail.

If you follow the steps in this report and in the videos you'll be

up and running in a few weeks.

And you should be able to see a significant difference in your

business within a few months.

I promise you: implement this system and you will see results.

If you want to go faster, or you need someone to coach you

through setting up the system then I provide consulting and coaching services to help you and your business. You can read

more on the next page.






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P a g e 39

WHO AM I, AND HOW CAN I HELP?

My name is Ian Brodie, and I specialise in helping consultants, coaches and other professionals to attract more clients and win

more new business.

For the last 16 years, I’ve been working with some of the world’s

leading corporations to help them with their marketing and sales

challenges. For the last 3 years I’ve focused exclusively on helping small and independent consultants, coaches and other

professionals.

I wrote the chapter on “Selling for Independent Professionals” in

the recent Amazon bestseller Mastering the World of Selling

(published by John Wiley).

And my website at www.ianbrodie.com was recently named as

one of the Resources of the Decade for professional services

marketing and sales by Raintoday.com.

If you’ve enjoyed this report and found it useful - then please

drop me an email - it’s always great to get feedback.

And if you feel you need a little more hands-on help

implementing the ideas you’ve

read, then do get in touch. I

provide face to face and

telephone coaching services to help consultants, coaches and

other professionals get more

clients - fast.

If you get in touch, we can have

a brief chat to see whether working together would be a good fit. There’ll be no pressure, and no hard sell. Just an exploration

of your needs.

You can call me in the UK on 0161 408 0984, email

[email protected] - or click here for details of my services.

Best of luck!


http://www.ianbrodie.com

http://www.ianbrodie.com









Documents

Client-Breakthrough-Final · approaches and lead generation tactics will work for you. How to nurture leads so they’re ready to buy, how to close sales, and how to manage all this