Cracking Great Leaders Program
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7 ways to identify the best customers for consultants
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Summary
  1. ​Use the power of weak ties and strong ties 
  2. Identify top-performers rather than under-performers
  3. Identify people not organisations
  4. Work with senior managers
  5. Stop selling and start helping
  6. Learn to give and to take
  7. Increase your courage by working for a bigger cause.
Consulting is a peoples business

Successful consultants have strong customer relationships. I always say my customer list is my most important asset: more than my knowledge; more than my experience; more than my products.​

For strong customer relationships you need what network theory calls “strong ties” and “weak ties”. Strong ties are customers with whom you have a really strong relationship. You don’t need all that many but you will not succeed without people who give you repeat business and refer you to their friends and colleagues. I allocate at least two days a month to nurture my strong ties. They are responsible for up to half of my business. I visit them. I try to know their business as well as they know it themselves. I provide them with an external perspective. I share methods and approaches that worked well with others and may work for them. I find articles and material of interest to them and share it. I aim to become their trusted advisor.

You also need to develop weak ties. These are relationships where people know about you and have a generally favourable opinion of you. The theory shows that your new customers come from these people, and you can never know which weak tie will become a strong tie. I develop these weak ties by writing articles that demonstrate my competence in subjects where I work. I then post them on LinkedIn before emailing them and including them on my website. This takes time but I justify it because it reinforces my bigger aim of liberating human energy at work and it definitely builds weak ties. I now have a growing list of over 8000 people on LinkedIn.

In the past I was advised to identify organisations in trouble and approach them because they could benefit from my services most. However, this advice was wrong in two ways. 

First, it was wrong to identify organisations. I have found it is far better to identify people. People are top-performers, not organisations. Relationships and trust are built between people, not organisations.

Second, when it comes to identifying customers, top-performers are better candidates than under-performers. Under-performers typically remain under-performers because they usually do not embrace change, they are often insulated, and they don’t believe in their people; whereas, top-performers are always looking for information to improve, and are more likely to be interested in how you can help. They are consistently seeking an edge, are open to new ways of approaching old problems, they believe in the potential of their people, and generally embrace partnerships and collaboration. All this makes for a great relationship.

Therefore, I have learned to identify top-performing senior managers and work out how to help them become even more successful. Once I have found them, I follow them as they move up the organisation or to another organisation.

The more senior the manager, the more success you will have. Creating a champion high up in an organisation offers a great opportunity to leverage that contact throughout the organisation and beyond.

This sounds great, but if you are like me it may sound scary. I used to think: “Who am I to try to sell to such a senior person?” This also turned out to be wrong in three ways.

First, it was wrong to think about selling anything. I had to learn to stop thinking about selling and start thinking about helping. I learned to listen to the issues (said and unsaid) that were worrying the person and to give as much advice as possible with no thought other than how to help. At the start this didn’t work as well as I thought it would because I also had to learn how to take. If you don’t know how you add value and what you are worth, some people will just continue taking.

Second, it was wrong to think my problem was the seniority of the person. The real problem was thinking I was selling a product (in my case strategy and leadership development) because if the person did not require these products there was nothing to talk about. I had to focus on a much bigger cause than me: “To liberate human energy at work.” Every time I had doubts about approaching someone I would get strength by thinking: “It’s not about me, it’s about the cause.” 

If the person was not interested in the cause then I didn’t waste any more of my time. But if the person was interested in the cause I found we often talked for well over an hour and there was never any reluctance to set the next appointment. When I found these people I asked them who else they know who thinks like they do. Birds of a feather really do flock together!

Third, the more senior the manager the more they need you. Senior managers are often lonely. They have issues they can’t talk to anyone else about other than a trusted confident. The more senior they are the more they need information about developments outside the organisation. They seek out innovative thinking and will engage you in a conversation if you provide value.

Consulting is a people business. No matter how good you are technically relationships will be your main advantage. Good luck on identifying your prospects and developing great relationships.


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Bruce Holland is the Consultants’ consultant, dedicated to removing the pain and time required to move from the commercial world into consulting. 

He is also the author of the book: Cracking Great Leaders Liberate Human Energy at Work and the supporting Program designed for other consultants who don’t have the skills or time to develop their own intellectual property.