If you ask any new consultant what their biggest fear is, they’ll probably all say the same thing: I have no idea how to get consulting clients fast. At the beginning of your career, it can feel impossible to get anyone to choose your business over someone else who’s more well established.
If you’re like most entrepreneurs, your goal is to scale your business as fast as possible. But if you want to earn high paying clients, you must be willing to do things out of the ordinary. The issue is, many new entrepreneurs are not selective with the clients they take. They think that anyone with money is a potential lead for their business.
Here’s the truth, if everyone is your customer, then no one is your customer. Click To Tweet
So what do you need to do to get consulting clients fast?
Is Networking Really the Answer?
Most publications on the internet begin to answer this question by telling you to build your network, get involved in local business communities, and talk to everyone you know. But is this really the smartest way to do this?
Imagine you spend hundreds of hours talking to prospect after prospect just to close your first client. Not only did you waste your time and energy, but your client may not even want to pay you. You might even have to offer some advice or services for free, just so you can earn your first testimonial.
According to Forbes, 58% of freelancers have experienced not getting paid for their work. So you might be thinking to yourself, what’s the harm for working for free for the first couple of clients? After all, you’re trying to build your portfolio. Setting the bar low early on can be a vicious cycle. Do you think you’re worth nothing to the market? And what about your rent, phone bills and electricity? They aren’t going to pay themselves.
Don’t get me wrong, this strategy works perfectly if you’re trying to grow your business slowly. But that’s not why you’re here. You want to learn how to get consulting clients fast. Is there a way to fast forward your results?
Back when I was just entering the market as a freelance copywriter, I was trying to get any client I could. I was all over the place. I would do work for anyone who hired me. However, over time I learned that this strategy did not work. In fact, it was quite demoralizing. I found myself swamped in work, and only being paid a fraction of what I was worth. That is until I started applying the Kingpin strategy to my business. Are you ready to learn how to get consulting clients fast? Let’s get started.
How to Get Consulting Clients Fast – The Kingpin Strategy
Let me ask you a personal question. Who is the one business, or person that if you got, it would change the rest of your career? You see, that’s the key of how to get consulting clients fast. In my first few years struggling as a freelance copywriter, I came across this book called Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson. It’s a very famous book series on small business and marketing.
Jay Levinson is a well-known author who has sold over 20 million books worldwide. At the time, he was one of the most well-known educators in the marketing space. So what do you think I did? I approached Jay.
On his website, Jay was marketing a Guerilla Marketing Association membership. When I visited his website for the first time, I noticed that it could use some work. So I took the initiative upon myself to rewrite the entire page and sent it to the Guerilla Marketing Association.
To my surprise, Jay personally responded to my email. He thanked me for my hard work. So what exactly did I do? I delivered value up front without asking for anything in return. Jay ended up using the material I sent him to generate more sales by running a much more successful marketing campaign. Instead of asking Jay for money, I asked him if he could give me some kind of recommendation and endorsement? He was more than happy to do so.
Why Recommendations Work?
That was my first kingpin client. By getting Jay Conrad Levinson, a well-known marketing guru who has sold over 20 million books in his career, I could approach potential clients and leverage the endorsement Jay gave to me. This reference impressed client after client.
This is how you get consulting clients fast. You see, at the beginning of your career, you’re working on establishing credibility and a reputation in the market. Chasing client after client just won’t cut it. More often than not, they will question your ability to write good copy.
According to Help Scout, it is anywhere from 5 to 25 times more expensive to acquire a new client than it is to keep a current one. That’s why I followed a different route. I invested my time into one person or company that I knew if I could get would change everything. From there, I leveraged their name and brand for the test of my career. Before I knew it, I went from a nobody, to a somebody.
If you were reading carefully, you might have picked up on a few strategies that I used to earn my first kingpin client. Can you name them? Here are three strategies you can use to earn your first kingpin client, and kickstart your freelancing career.
Deliver Value First: The Winning Formula to Get Consulting Clients Fast
If there’s one thing I want you to take away from all of this, it’s the importance of delivering value first. This has to be the sole reason as to why Jay responded back to me in the first place.
Let me ask you this. Let’s say instead of rewriting Jay’s webpage, I emailed him saying, “it looks like your webpage can use some work, let me rewrite it for you”. Do you think Jay would have even read the email, let alone reply?
This is why delivering value first is so crucial. Remember, Jay never asked me to email him, nor was he looking to make his webpage better. That’s why I needed my value proposition to be remarkable, and give Jay a reason to talk about it.
Aaron Scildkroud, CEO of How About We said that, “Everything we do is oriented towards making good on our value propositions. To the extent that we achieve this, we believe our target market will love our product or service and our business will work”. Do you see what I mean? This is how to get consulting clients fast. Here are three reasons why delivering value first can give you an advantage in the market.
- Grabs the attention of your client.
- Gives your client a reason to pick you over your competitors.
- Allows you to show off the quality of your work.
Why does this work?
By delivering value first, I grabbed the attention of Jay’s team. Why? The answer is simple. I provided my expertise without asking for anything in return. I pointed out an area of their business that could be improved and improved it for them at no cost. This simple action gave Jay’s team a reason to talk about me.
Let’s say you are in a crowd filled with 500 people who are all trying to get the attention of one client. Do you think yelling “pick me, pick me” is going to work? Of course not.
When you are establishing your credibility early on, you don’t have a massive portfolio or hundreds of customer testimonials to back you up. But what if you somehow got a mega horn, and was able to overpower everyone else around you. Imagine what that could do for your freelancing career.
That’s exactly what I did. I became the 1% in the market and delivered value first. And look at the result. I got a personalized response from Jay, and afterward got an endorsement.
Create a Compelling Offer No One Can Turn Down
One of the most important steps of how to get more consulting clients is to have a compelling offer. The challenge is, most businesses sound the same to their competitors. They often only differ by offering their products or services for a lower price. These offers are not very compelling.
Let me ask you a question. Do you think the market is oversaturated with freelance writers?
According to Forbes, as of 2019, 35% of U.S. workers are now freelancing the report found. The total number of freelancers in the U.S. has increased to 57 million, up by 4 million since 2014.
Don’t let these statistics discourage you. Instead, let it motivate you. You can be part of the 1% group who take it upon themselves to add value first. So what do you need to do?
You have to stop and think about how you can make your offer as compelling as possible. Think about what your target really wants, and why they would benefit from it. In the early stages of your career, you need to do everything you can to build your portfolio.
Portfolio Building
Let me give you an example. Let’s say you are in the coding freelance business, and you want to get your first Kingpin client.
You look online and find an article about how Google’s firewall was recently breached. So you take it upon yourself to code an updated, more secure firewall and send it to the Google headquarters. You wait patiently. One day passes, two days, a week, a month, you never get a reply. So what now?
The good news is, you have a piece of work in your portfolio to show potential clients. Additionally, Google isn’t the only Kingpin client in the coding world, maybe next month you take a shot trying to earn a response from Facebook.
This is the secret of how to get consulting clients fast. Stay consistent, and continue to build your portfolio. Remember, everyone’s Kingpin client looks different, and you may not even know who yours is until you least expect it.
Make a Memorable First Impression
Making a good first impression can make or break a business. Positive experiences tend to create long-lasting relationships when negative experiences create doubt, uncertainty, and confusion. Studies have shown that once you make a good first impression, people tend to ignore any information that could disprove it.
The key to getting consulting clients fast revolves around this idea. So you might be thinking to yourself, what if I don’t plan to ever see my clients face to face, how can I still make a good first impression?
The answer is simple: take the time to write memorable emails to your clients. A Memorable email is one that drives emotion and encourages action. It’s the first step to building a relationship with your client.
Here are three ways you can write enticing emails that will leave your clients with a great first impression.
1. Personalize your emails.
Marketing Land concluded that US companies send more emails per month than the global average of 1.38 million.
That’s a staggering amount of emails. How do you think you can get your emails to stand out in your clients’ filled inbox? Start off by adding a personalized touch.
Taking into consideration the person’s name, business, and even time zone can significantly improve your reach to them. This removes the idea that you’re sending out emails on an automated basis.
2. Keep it short and use enticing headlines.
Would you open an email with a headline that said, “Open this right now – urgent”. Chances are you would completely disregard it, and treat it as spam.
Your clients are humans too. Avoid giving them a reason to ignore your emails. The second you sound desperate or sound like a robot, you’ll leave a bad first impression.
Focus on using short catchy headlines (5-7 words at most), and keep your emails short. Your call to action should also be clear and concise. This way, you remove any confusion and make it clear why you are emailing them.
3. Delivering unexpected value.
Delivering unexpected value is the equivalent of exceeding your client’s expectations. Don’t get me wrong, businesses send out free webinars, trainings, and videos all day long. What makes this approach any different? It’s because you are providing value that is specific to your clients’ business.
This is why I took the time to understand Jay’s business, and write copy that resonated with his brand. I didn’t just send him some random web page I created, I sent him a webpage he could use today for his business.
Judy Sheindlin, more well known as Judge Judy said, “Number one – and I want you to emblaze this on your brain – you only have one chance to make a first impression”.
Your first impression colours your future interactions. And believe it or not, it’s crucial for your success. This is the key of how to get consulting clients fast at the beginning of your career. And want to know the best part? You can use this advice in both your business and your life. The options are endless.
Summary
So are you ready to apply the Kingpin strategy to your business today? It’s the strategy I used to get consulting clients quickly and fast forward to my results.
Here are the three ways I earned my first Kingpin client:
- Deliver value first
- Create a compelling offer no one can turn turn
- Make a memorable first impression
Once you’ve identified the one person or company that could change everything. Use these strategies to earn their respect and endorsement. From there, you can leverage their name and brand for the rest of your career. This is how to get consulting clients fast at the beginning of your career.
Before you know it, you’ll go from a nobody who was making a couple of hundred dollars a month, to somebody who is earning thousands a month. If you’re someone who is looking to advance their consulting career further, click here to view my High Ticket Influencer Program.
This program is for serious entrepreneurs, influencers, and forward thinkers who want to scale their business to 7-figures and beyond. If you’re hungry and want more, High Ticket Influencer is the answer. We’ll talk soon.
