How to Find Consulting Clients If You Have a Small Network
In this episode, Ray Rood, founder and Senior Consultant at The Genysys Group and Chief Learner at The Consultant School, shares his thoughts on how to find consulting clients if you have a small network.
Be intentional about developing your network.
Ray started consulting through a connection in a graduate program he created. He suggests in addition to developing relationships in the areas you want to work, consider teaching classes, or doing webinars or workshops.
Look at the body of knowledge you have that you’ve developed your consulting around and package it so you’re sharing something of value with people. This can serve the dual purpose of highlighting your expertise and providing you with a marketing base from which to develop business.
You can also consider networking groups, school or neighborhood groups, churches – be on the lookout for one or two key people, who know and can influence people.
It’s about quality not quantity because that network grows one relationship really at a time, through those connectors.
This is an organic and authentic way to grow your network. Focus on building those relationships – meet with them, tell them what’s happening with you, find out about their world and how you can help, and find out who they know that you should talk to.
The key is that whichever route you choose to try to build your network, be intentional about it, have a strategy for building relationships, and be clear about what you’re doing.
If this is a new venture for you, be open and willing to share with people what you’re working on and ask if they know anyone who could use this. This gives people clear and specific ways they can help you so that they know exactly what to do for you, as opposed to just building the network for the sake of building the network.
Consider these conversations as research as well.
Before you get into “Who do you know?” questions, find out what the needs are, what their hearing from their network about the biggest challenges they’re facing. This opens up conversation and helps you understand what’s happening in the marketplace you want to serve.
A good consultant is researching all the time, looking at trends and trying to understand what’s really happening in the lives of their clients and prospects.
A good consultant is an educator as well. They help their clients understand what things mean and how they’re not alone but are part of a larger story.
Approaching these relationships this way makes your network deeper, richer, and more active.
A small network is not a hindrance to growing your consulting business if you are intentional and strategic about how you develop the relationships you have.
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