Three tools you can use today to get consulting clients

Leah Neaderthal 0:02

When most people think about, like, I need clients, all they're thinking about is this, people to sell to. I need to do more LinkedIn. I need to post more or, you know, get a feature, or something like that, right? Like they're really, actually only thinking about people to sell to, but the way you land a client is here, how to land them. If you can do this, people to sell to, but you can't do this, how to land them. You don't have a client.

Leah Neaderthal 0:35

Welcome to the Smart Gets Paid Podcast with me, Leah Neaderthal, I help women land hire paying clients in their independent consulting businesses, but I've never been a salesperson. My background is in corporate marketing, and when I started my first consulting business, I learned pretty quickly that it's about 1000 times harder to sell your own stuff than it is to sell someone else's. So I taught myself how to do it, and I created the sales approach that I now share with my clients so they can feel more comfortable in the sales process, get more of the right clients and get paid way more for every client contract. So whether your client contracts are $5,000 $100,000 or more, if you want to work with more of the clients you love, do more of the work you love, and get paid more than you ever thought you could, then you're in the right place. Let's do it together. Thanks for tuning in, and don't forget to rate, review and share.

Leah Neaderthal 1:28

Hey there, Leah here, and thanks for tuning in. I hope that wherever you're listening to this, wherever you are right now, I hope you're having a great week, making some good progress on your business and taking some time for you. So sometimes on this podcast, we talk about things at a high level, and sometimes we get down to brass tacks, and we talk about specific things that you can do right now. And this episode is the latter. We're really getting down to business, and you're gonna learn some tools that you can use today, like right away. So a while back, I led a training for a well known group of communications and marketing consultants on how to attract and land clients that value your expertise. It was a great group, great session. Everyone was really engaged, and like, the energy was so high. And so afterwards, I asked them if I could share the training with you, and they said, Yes, I don't mean to be cagey on the name of the group, but they're going through an acquisition, so I can't name them, but if you're listening, you know who you are.

Leah Neaderthal 2:30

So in the training, I shared three tools that you can use to help you attract the right clients and land those clients in your consulting business. And so sometimes in these episodes, people tell me that they listen to the episodes with a pen and paper so they can take notes. And if you're one of those people, first, I love that you're doing that. I love lifelong learners. I see you. And if you're one of those people, then you're definitely going to want to have a pen and paper for this episode, because you're going to learn our signed clients framework and what you actually need to get clients. You're gonna learn a strategy to know how much you need in your client pipeline and how much marketing you have to do. You're gonna learn how to communicate your value and position your work as a painkiller, and you're gonna learn how to give clients an offer that they can say yes to. And these are things you can start to use today.

Leah Neaderthal 3:19

So I'm so excited for you to listen to this episode as a heads up. Since this was in a training that I was leading live on Zoom, I was drawing on my iPad as I was walking through, you know, the framework and these tools and so just picture, you know, even though you can't see it here, of course, just picture that I'm drawing a pyramid, okay, like an equilateral triangle. So just have that image in your mind as you listen and take notes, all right, so take a listen, and at the end, I'll come back and share a lesson that you can apply to your business. And you know, just as a side note, I've been doing more trainings like this for large groups on things like how to get clients into your consulting business, how to sell without being salesy, how to get B to B clients, and lots of other topics. And I love doing it. So if you lead a group of women consultants or women business owners or women service providers or freelancers, and you'd like to give them some great programming on how to get B to B clients, consulting, pricing, all of that and some of the other topics I mentioned, drop us a line at team at Smart gets paid.com and let's chat. All right, so take a listen, and at the end, I'll come back and share a lesson that you can apply to your business right after this.

Leah Neaderthal 4:34

So my goal here is to give you some key tools to land more of the clients that you truly want to work with, and the clients that really value your expertise as communications people, it's often hard to communicate, right? Isn't that ironic, but it's to communicate the value of what we do, and to help clients say yes. So give you some tools to do that. So I want to just admit that in the run up to this, I was like, what do you what you know, what would be helpful for me to talk about? And he, you know, listed, you know, several bullet points, probably, of things that you guys had, had talked about in your conversations, like building your pipeline, and how do you do proposals, and how do you do pricing, and how do you do you know confidence, and how do you you know, all these things that are part of the process. And I said, Don't each of those is, you know, a whole canon of like knowledge, but let's see what we can do here today.

Leah Neaderthal 5:23

So my goal here is to give you some just tools that you can run with. All right? What does that mean? We're going to talk about the role of sales, right? Quote, unquote, sales, even if you don't think of yourself as selling. We're going to talk about knowing how much you actually need in your client pipeline, which can form how much marketing you need to do and help you prevent being caught flat footed with one project's end, we're going to talk about how to position your work for value and really communicate your value. And how do we give clients something that they can say yes to easily, not because inexpensive, it's because the value is so clear. Okay, so I'm going to be drawing, and I would encourage you if you could grab a sheet of paper and a pen or pencil. And with that, let's turn to the signed clients framework. So where we are starting with this is really getting a sense of what do we mean by selling, right? What do we need to sell? And when we think about, you know, what we're actually going for is signed clients. And really a system to get signed clients, right? Tell me in the chat if you have gotten all or most of your clients referrals in the past, tell me in the chat. Just type referrals in the chat, so I'm seeing all most referrals, right? I'm seeing 100% through referral, which I prefer. I love referrals. Referrals are the best type of client.

Leah Neaderthal 6:50

The problem that a lot of independent consultants run into is that you can find yourself just sort of like waiting for referrals, right, or hoping for referrals or trusting the universe for referrals. And the problem is that trusting the universe is not a strategy, right? And so we want to actually take more control of how we get a client, right? So let's talk about signed clients. Is it fair to say that to get signed clients, you need two things. You need people to sell to, and you need to know how to land them. When most people think about like, I need clients, all they're thinking about is this, right people to sell to. I need to do more LinkedIn. I need to, you know, post more, or, you know, get a feature, or something like that, right? Like they're really, actually only thinking about people to sell to. But the way you land a client is here, right ahead of land them. If you can do this, people to sell to, but you can't do this ahead of land them, you don't have a client,

Leah Neaderthal 8:02

right? You guys with me on that? And so you need two things, people to sell to, and you need to know how to land them. Before we even do that, we have to know a few really important things. First, we need to know who are the best clients for us. You know, everybody sort of gets a little antsy around the idea of like niching down, for example, and you can say yes to any client anytime, right? But we need to know who are the actual best clients for us, the clients that we can be the most successful with, and they can be the most successful with what we are we're are offering. We also have to know what we are selling and how much does it cost, right? Have anybody, has anybody ever thought or sort of said it feels like my pricing is all over the map, right? That you need to know what you're selling and how much it costs, and we need to know, how do we communicate our value? So once we have this, then it makes it a lot easier to do these things, right? But there are, there are a few problems, though.

Leah Neaderthal 9:06

So when you think about like, who are the best clients? For me, a lot of people are selling to anyone, just anyone you know within a range, but people who sort of come to you or find you and need the help when it comes to what you're offering and how much it costs, a lot of people find that it can feel a little random. How much do I price this thing for? How much do I price that that project for? And with the value, it can be unclear, right? It's really hard, especially as communication people to communicate your own stuff, right? In terms of people to sell to, a lot of consultants find that they have no real marketing strategy, right? Maybe it's some random acts of marketing here and there, but without a real marketing strategy, then they're essentially invisible. And with in terms of how to land them, there's no sales strategy, and it can feel like fingers crossed sell. Thing, will they say? Yes, we don't know. Will they ghost? We're not sure. How do we keep them engaged? Right? Fingers crossed.

Leah Neaderthal 10:06

So what we want to do, and the purpose of this work, is to solve these problems. When you solve the problems of, who am I selling to, what am I selling, and how much does it cost, and what is the value, then we get clarity and control. We can be in control of our business because we know who we want to work with and how we're going to get them. In terms of people to sell to, instead of no marketing strategy, we want an authentic marketing strategy, and then in terms of how to land them, instead of no strategy, no sales strategy, we want effortless selling. Not that there's no effort required. It's that it feels easier because you know what to do at each stage. Okay, so my goal here today is to give you one tool for each of these sides.

Leah Neaderthal 10:56

So what we're going to do today is we're going to talk about, how do you fill your pipeline, and how much do you need in your pipeline? We're on the people to sell to side. We're going to talk about, how do you position yourself for value, using our painkiller statement framework. And how do we give your clients something that they can say yes to, called the Etsy offer, okay? And we'll have something for for each thing. So let's talk about your pipeline. Okay, the problem that a lot of consultants face is that you have, like, just a light pipeline. You don't have enough in your pipeline so that if a client ends their engagement or something gets pushed or delayed. I mean, who's seeing like, some contracts getting pushed out or delayed, or just some like, twists and turns in the sales process these days. Maybe a budget got cut, maybe your main client got laid off or changed jobs, exactly, delayed into 2025, totally. So, so we have to have a healthy pipeline to to accommodate for those inevitable twists and turns right and delays. And another problem is that you just don't know where your next contract is going to come from right like the next client. It's you have very little control over that, or it feels like you have very little control. So what we want to do, we want to take control of our pipeline, starting with our consulting pipeline calculator. And it's a very simple equation, but you'll see how impactful it can be.

Leah Neaderthal 12:32

So to have a full pipeline you need, we call it two to 3x you need between two and three times the amount in your pipeline that you hope to make in the next six months. Okay, so let's say, let's say you want to make in the next six months. You want to make $100,000 let's just use some round numbers. You want to make $100,000 in the next six months, right? Obviously, I mean, any one of us would know that if you have $50,000 or contracts equaling the total value of $50,000 in your pipeline, you're not going to make it. Obviously, that would be like we would all assume that. But if you have contracts totaling $100,000 in your pipeline, you're also probably not going to make it because of those inevitable twists and turns, delays and whatnot. So to have a healthy pipeline, if you want to make $100,000 you can't have $100,000 in your pipeline. You need between 203 100 in your pipeline, the number of contracts, sort of totaling that value in your pipeline. When you can do that, you can be protected for inevitable delays and the twists and turns. You can be ready with contracts when a project ends or a retainer ends, and you can, you can be more in control. And you know how much marketing to do, right? If you have, if you're right here, you should probably be doing a lot of marketing right? If you're here, then you can probably coast.

Leah Neaderthal 14:15

So I want you to just really quick on your piece of paper, write down. Let's just do the math. How much if you you know, would you like to make in the next six months? You could take your annual goal and you can divide it in half. What have you I mean, whatever number works for you, and then multiply it by two and then three, and that's your pipeline goal. I'm just curious, what is your when you see this number for you, what does it tell you? What's your first sort of initial reaction? Do you feel clear and relieved? Are you feeling like, oh, shit, I don't have that much in my pipeline. Tell me in the chat. E. Like, oh shit, both it feels big, yeah, of course. Because the thing is that most entrepreneurs, most consultants, don't have enough in their pipeline, and so they are pouring tequila. They don't have enough in their pipeline, and so they're they're stuck having to take anything that comes their way, not being able to charge what they want, because they're afraid of getting of getting a no.

Leah Neaderthal 15:24

And I mean, you can, you can actually have a lot in your pipeline these days, especially with the economy like you can have a lot in your pipeline, and you can go broke just waiting for things to close, right? And so having a healthy pipeline is your protection for your business. Okay? So we've done the first strategy. I've given you a strategy for the people to sell to side, right? Let's talk about a strategy for the bottom, the foundation of your pyramid. The problem with the types of businesses that that I come from, and that you are running, is that sometimes communications is seen as a nice to have, right? Does it sound familiar? Tell me, in the chat, does that sound familiar? Feels like a nice to have, right? Which is like, infuriating, right? Because you're like, No, this is actually seriously important. And you know, you will find out how important it is if you don't have it, right? So hard validate on that. And our job is to communicate the value and make what we do position it as the solution to their number one problem, right? And I just want to call out really quick, like, I think that some of us who come from communications were saying, like, Oh, it's so it's frustrating that the client sees this as a nice to have. But I often find that because of the way we sort of grow up in this industry, and it's taught, you know, we like it's in the water, sometimes we don't know that it's a must have, right? It's like, and I've heard consultants that I've worked with say My thing is a nice to have. It's like, listen, the first sale is to yourself. Only if you know and believe that it's a must have, like, believe it deeply. Then we can talk about, how can we get the client to see it? The first sale is to yourself. So what we're going to do here, and what we need to do is we have to position your work for value using what we call the painkiller statement.

Leah Neaderthal 17:27

So this is our value based messaging pyramid. So there are three ways that we can talk about our work. We can talk about our work in terms of the tactics, what we actually what we do, right? We can talk about our work in terms of the outcomes, like when we do, what we do, what are the good things that happen for a business? And we can talk about our work according to the value. So tactics are things like, you know, I'll I write a communication strategy. We develop a content plan. I do all the writing so that you don't have to. And one thing I want to call out here is that something that's really popular these days, right? There's like this trend when we call ourselves like a fractional CMO, or fractional Chief Content Officer, or what have you. Fractional CMO is actually a tactic, because it talks about what you do your function. Okay? So you know, as the kids would say, it's not the flex that you think it is right, but, but really, and I say that facetiously, the reason why it's not as effective is because it is a tactic, and it's really hard for clients to understand where to put the tactics and why they should pay you handsomely for the tactics.

Leah Neaderthal 18:45

Okay, when we think about the outcomes, outcomes are when, again, when you do the tactics, what will the client be able to do that they can't currently do, or what negative things is the client on track to, you know, run into that your work will help them avoid right? An outcome could be, you know, driving more website traffic. An outcome could be having a great strategy so that the outcome is avoiding getting canceled. Right? That would be an example of something negative that your work helps them do. So the challenge also is that a lot of consultants are talking about their work in terms of the tactics and the outcomes, when what we want to be doing is focusing up here the value. So if we can do all the tactics, you know, yay, and all of these good outcomes happen or not, maybe not even all, even, you know, a subset of these good outcomes. What is the actual value to the client? How will the client be different as a result of our work? And that's where we really want to play.

Leah Neaderthal 19:52

And so the reason why we bring this up here is because if we can, you know, notice where how we've been talking. The work so far, and we can eliminate talking about it in tactics and talking about it in outcomes, then we can focus on talking about it in terms of the value. And I won't say it's easy, the painkiller statement is actually like one of the hardest things that you can work on in your business. When I work with my clients, it's it's frustrating. There are tears, you know, especially those of my clients who come from a communications background, because it's hardest for us to do it for ourselves. Okay, is this making sense? Tell me in the chat if this is making sense around tactics, outcomes and value. Okay, awesome. And we, when we think about the value, what we are looking for is the end state. How will they again? How will they be different or better as a result of our work? Okay, all right, so now we've done a strategy for the base of the pyramid to give you more clarity and control in how you, you know, go to go to market for your business.

Leah Neaderthal 21:06

And the last thing we want to talk about is another problem around sometimes it's can get it can be hard to get clients to say, Yes, right? Has anybody been in like, just a long sales process for a client, it can take months your work is it's not something people buy with a credit card. You know you're selling, you know, business changing programs worth 10s or hundreds of 1000s of dollars. And when you sell it inside of a company, it's not like they just swipe and you know, and it's done. And so the sales process can take a long time. And in fact, the B to B sales process can take anywhere from three to 18 months. And even that number is like a crazy, ridiculous range, but it just speaks to this. You know what? The reality that it can take a long time. One of my clients just had the the year anniversary of talking to a client, right? Of talking to a client, and they hadn't even said Yes, right? But the year anniversary of being in a sales process with this one client, so the sales processing process can take a long time, and it can be hard to help clients say yes. And one reason is because oftentimes, even though we don't realize it, we're actually a lot of consultants, make it hard for clients to say yes to the work, if you have an hourly rate, or if you have a retainer. That sounds like it's a flat rate, but it's actually based on hours, that actually makes it really hard for clients to say yes. So what we've done in my program is we've developed the Etsy offer, and Etsy stands for easy to say yes.

Leah Neaderthal 22:44

So let's talk about what an Etsy is and why it works. When I say easy to say yes, it doesn't. It's not easy to say yes because it's cheap. It's easy to say yes because the value is exceptionally clear. Okay, so what do clients when it really comes down to it, like when it really boils down to it. What do clients want to know? They want to know. What will it do for me? Just think, how will it make me different, right? Which is not unlike the outcomes section or the value section of our value based messaging pyramid. But what will this do for me? They want to know how it works, like, what does this look like? And they want to know how much it costs. Like, we can have our slide deck with our methodology and our four principles and, you know, our workflows and whatnot, but this is, like, really what it boils down to, okay? Because this is also how they are going to sell it in inside the company, right? We talk about, in my work, we talk about how every client has a client. So you might be talking to the, you know, VP of Communications, or what have you, but every client has a client. Every client has to sell it into somebody. Even if you're selling to the CEO. They have their own client. So if they want to know, what will it do for me, how it works and what's the price, then that's how we structure our offer, right? What will it do for me? And what we do is we use value based naming.

Leah Neaderthal 24:15

So instead of calling what we do, you know, communications program or retainer, or, you know, strategy, content strategy, right? We call it according to the thing they want from it, which that can differ from client to client, right? You know, from one client, they might want to be seen as a thought leader in their industry, right? Another client might want to, you know, tap into reach a new set of consumers. So when we call our program or package or whatever, when we call our services a name, we call it that name, right, the reach Gen Z consumers. Program, or the, what did I say before the Oh, my God, completely forgot what I just said. But whatever the name for the first one, thought leadership. Thank you, Roberto, the you know, be seen as a thought leader program, right? So we're always teaching the client how to think about our work, and we do that even in the name, so that if they send it to somebody else, or whatever, if that person, even if that person has never heard of us, they know that the what this work is designed to do. So we call it by what it what it's going to do, how it works. That's it's a defined engagement. It's very hard for clients to say yes to something that's like, I will just come in and do the things until you tell me to stop, which is how a lot of retainers are actually structured, right? I will come in and do the things until we decide it's not working and you're going to pay me X amount per month.

Leah Neaderthal 25:52

The beauty of an Etsy is that it's a defined engagement. I come in, I do a thing, and then I leave. Now that's not to say that we can't use this as a platform to sell in like a longer engagement, but the client knows this isn't going to be forever. I'm not moving in, right? So defined engagement is what distinguishes an Etsy offer. So I come in, I do a thing, and I leave, and the thing can be, you know, an assessment. It can be coaching. It can be, you produce something. It can be a workshop. It can be, it doesn't have to be even like a day thing. It could be a six week thing, you know, two month thing, three month thing, right? It's the clarity, because if we can answer these questions, and, more importantly, give them the tools to socialize it and sell it in, then we can make this easier to say, yes. Okay, you guys with me. Awesome. So now we've covered something on the right side of the pyramid. I know that was a lot. I feel like I threw a whole lot at you. How are you feeling right now?

Leah Neaderthal 26:56

Are you feeling empowered? Are you feeling overwhelmed? Are you feeling curious? Tell me. Tell me in the chat how you are feeling. All right. Curious, creative. Start to renaming some of my offers. Okay, amazing. Enlightened, Oh, I like that. And I have work to do. This is, this is the work, right? This is the work. It feels like a lot, right, but it's, it's really not as complicated as you might think, we have to, you know, answer some questions and focus on two things, people to sell to and how to land them. So just make sure that once you do this, then you don't only focus here. You focus here as well. All right, I had so much fun leading that session. And even though there was so much you can take from it, like actual things, you can start to use today, I want to just zoom out and just put a fine point on what we talked about and give you a way of thinking about what you heard today. And it really goes back to what I share at the very end. The two things you need to get consulting clients, people to sell to, and you have to know how to land them.

Leah Neaderthal 28:03

So when we think about getting people to sell to, this is where we're thinking about marketing and how to fill your pipeline, you know, things like doing shoulder taps to start conversations. This is where LinkedIn comes in, and other things you'll do to fill your pipeline, whether it's referrals or speaking or whatnot. And just whenever you see something like get clients on LinkedIn or whatever, they're really only talking about the people to sell to part. They're really only talking about the leads. And all of these things that we do in the getting clients to talk to part, all of those comprise one half of our system, the marketing system in the academy. And of course, it's really important to have a way to get people to sell to, but you also need to know how to land the clients in your pipeline.

Leah Neaderthal 28:47

This is what comprises the sales process, and it's where we're thinking about how to lead great conversations that move the ball forward. It's where we're thinking about how to put together your pricing in our proposal tools like the winning proposal blueprint and proposal and an email. This is where we're also thinking about how to do what we call navigate the jungle and help clients sell you in and how to negotiate to protect your price. And all of these and more comprise the other half of the system, the sales system and the Academy, and you need both. And I gotta say, you know, if you've gotten all or most of your clients through referrals, it can almost feel like, you know, there's been no sales process at all, because you've been selling to people who are really warm already. So it can feel like you don't really have to sell at all. And that's because, you know, if you could picture like a bullseye with a few concentric circles, you're selling to that, like inner circle, the center circle of the bullseye to people who are already super warm, or people who know you've already like, whenever I hear someone say to me, you know, once I get on the phone with someone, they basically say yes, like, whenever I hear that, I know that they're only selling to that inner circle.

Leah Neaderthal 29:56

And what I see is that it's a really easy trap to find. Fall into, to be lulled into this like false sense of security that the selling part, the sales part of the triangle, is easy, because it's easy when you're selling to that inner circle, but when you come to the end of those people, or those opportunities dry up, then, by necessity, have to go to the other rings, some of those outer rings of the bullseye, people who don't already know you or didn't work with you 10 years ago, right? And then that's when you have to know how to sell. You have to get the you know how to land them side the sales system dialed in. And you can either get ahead of that and be prepared and know how to do it, or you can be behind and be stuck wondering why when you're trying to sell to those people, why it suddenly feels harder to get a yes. So that's why we need both sides of the pyramid, and that's why we need both halves of this system, the marketing system and the sales system. Because when you know how to get potential clients into your pipeline, and you know how to turn those potential clients into paying clients, then the sky's the limit on your business and your revenue. You.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai