As an independent consultant, it can be challenging to stand out from the competition. However, there are several ways to differentiate yourself and establish yourself as a valuable resource for clients. For many years, I have worked as a self-employed consultant, working mainly in the Talent Solutions space. In that time, I have come across lots of other self-employed consultants as well as worked with many highly successful businesspeople and entrepreneurs. Here is what I have learned about what it takes to be a top-quality self-employed consultant and how to build a continuous flow of business coming in.
Niche within a niche
Some fantastic advice that I once received from a very successful consultant was to niche within a niche! The majority of consultants say that they operate in a specific field of expertise e.g. Digital Transformation or Healthcare consultancy but do not go into any more detail than that. This is not niche enough and does not differentiate the consultant or indeed tap into uncrowded markets. Imagine if a consultant said that their area of expertise was ‘Leadership Development within US Technology businesses with headcounts of between 200 – 2000 who have received funding and are now on a growth cycle’. Now doesn’t that sound so much more compelling and shows the consultant as an expert and unique! If a consultant took this approach and concentrated on their niche within a niche, they would become an expert in that area and offer unique insights and solutions for clients.
Build a strong personal brand
Your personal brand is what sets you apart from other consultants. A strong personal brand allows consultants to tap into market segments that are otherwise uncrowded. All too often I see LinkedIn profiles of self-employed consultants that read like a CV, or bios of consultants that give very little information about what they do and how they do it. When working on personal brands, consultants should always think ‘How am I differentiating myself’?
There are lots of different ways to brand yourself. The first one is to create a business name, logo, and website. This is very important as your clients will start to see your logo in lots of different places and remember what it represents. All self-employed consultants should take advantage of their LinkedIn profile page by structuring their opening sentence and the ‘about’ you section, so it reads like they are an expert and not what they do for a job. This message should be very clear and concise so that when someone looks at their LinkedIn page, they know exactly what it is that the consultant does.
Offer a unique value proposition
All too often I see ‘professionals’ entering the freelance/self-employed market without any idea of how they will approach prospective clients, what they offer, and more importantly what results they create. Instead, they sit there and wait for business to come in (which invariably it doesn’t) and then give up on their dreams of being their own boss and fall back into a permanent position that they wanted to get away from in the first place.
It is important for any new-to-market self-employed consultant to first accept that there is a huge amount of sales work involved in generating a client base that is continuously buying your services. As with all sales, a consultant needs to first establish what sort of a consultant they want to be and what they offer their client base. The trick here is for the consultant to first understand their own strengths fully, why their client’s might need them, and what the overall results would be when working with them. Being able to articulate this is very important as it will allow the consultant to carve out a segment of the market that is otherwise untapped.
Provide exceptional customer service
Independent Consultants should be known for providing exceptional customer service to their clients. As a consultant, it is essential to understand that customer service is not just about providing a service, but it is also about building a relationship with the client. Communication is key to good customer service, as consultants should be responsive to their clients’ needs and keep them informed about the progress of their work. Independent Consultants should ensure that they are actively listening to their clients’ needs and concerns, goals, and objectives, and by doing this, clients feel as if they are understood and have a partner working with them.
NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK
The last point here is so obvious but for some reason is never done particularly well, except for the highly successful consultants, and that is networking! A self-employed consultant should be speaking to their network every day, discussing the market, and looking for potential opportunities they can take advantage of. In addition, a successful consultant should be building their network daily with relevant contacts that can lead them to their next piece of work. Personally, I try to connect with at least 20 new relevant connections on LinkedIn every day and then try to form a relationship with them by explaining what I do and how I support my clients. This allows me to get a flow of contacts coming into my inbox that I can speak to about my strengths, brand, and results that I create. From there, those new contacts will also talk to their contacts and so spreading my brand awareness.
Here at Veriex, we are experts in scaling teams of freelance independent consultants in strategy, change, digital, and people transformation across the globe. We work closely with our network of ‘Approved Consultants’ to support them with building their skills and developing their business pipeline by giving them access to some of the most complex transformation projects on offer. For more information about becoming a Veriex Approved Consultant please contact info@veriex.co.uk or check out our opportunities page on our website.
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