One of my clients, an independent consultant generating mid-6 figures in annual sales, came to me with a pressing problem.
He wanted to refine his ideal client profile because his vision for the business had changed.
He had a marketing channel that worked, but without clarity about his target client, he couldn’t create a demand generation plan and this was costing him dearly.
So I took him through the process of identifying and defining his ideal client. It turned out that some of his existing clients were ideal and he wanted more such clients.
But this created a new problem.
When I asked him about why these ideal clients hired him as a consultant, he simply couldn’t articulate his clients’ problems and choices clearly enough.
So here’s what I suggested: customer interviews. 🗣️ 💬
It’s obvious, but most of us don’t do it.
I gave my client a list of 10 questions and suggested he have 30-min conversations with his ideal clients and ask them these questions.
Here are the questions (I’ve used some from Ryan Paul Gibson‘s list of 150 questions he shared at one of my past summits on consulting growth:
1. What was the problem you wanted to solve when you decided to hire me?
2. How was the problem affecting your day to day operations?
3. How was the problem affecting your long-term business goals?
4. What were you doing to solve the problem before you hired me?
5. What was the tipping point that caused you to start looking to hire someone with my expertise?
6. What kept you from moving forward sooner?
7. What other options (internal or external) did you consider?
8. How would you describe my services to a peer?
9. How is your situation different now that you’ve hired me?
10. What do you like best about my services?
These questions are designed to understand the customer’s pains, current solutions, buying inflection points and options prior to hiring a consultant (my client). It’s also designed to understand what the customer finds meaningful in the consultant’s services.
You can’t begin to generate new demand for your consulting business without customer insights.
If you’d like to create new demand for your consulting business to land better clients, bigger deals and have steady income, start talking to customers.
Hope this helps you in your path to growth and more success. 💪
Ready to add $100k-$500k revenue to your consulting business in 12 months or less without burning out? Schedule a call and let me show you how.
Image credit: Dalle-3
