How to Get Clients for Consulting Business? 7 Exclusive Strategies

Consulting is a rewarding career.

As a consultant, you work with diverse clients across various industries, tackling complex problems and providing strategic solutions.

The global consulting market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.6% until 2025.

However, with this fierce growth comes daunting competition, which requires you to stay on top of things to attract new business.

You know the struggle, don’t you? Well, do not worry! 

We’ve done the legwork for you!

In this blog, we’ve discussed 7 business-winning strategies that can help you attract more clients for your consulting business.

The best is yet to come, so keep scrolling…

Before You Start Finding Clients for Your Consulting Business, Do This!

Before we discuss strategies for landing clients, it’s crucial that we get a clear understanding of your ICP and how to create a stellar pitch that will convince them to call you the very next moment!

(i) Know your ICP

Firstly, it is very important to identify people who can benefit from your expertise. The biggest mistake you can make to harm your consulting business is trying to serve everyone with everything! 

You can be an IT, management, or insurance consultant, but if you don’t know what companies you want to target, such as their business size, revenue size, etc., you won’t be able to run a stable business.

ICPs are people who are genuinely interested in buying from your business. Knowing your ICP lets you quickly identify what is working and what isn’t, enabling you to pivot toward outreach strategies that drive the most revenue.

Once you identify who you will serve, you can start identifying ICPs. To make the process of determining your ICP easier, you can answer the following questions: 

• What is their business size? 
• What marketing channels do they spend most of their time on? 
• Where are they located? 
• What are their challenges and struggles? 
• Do you want to work with individuals or agencies?
• Their job title and revenue size. 

(ii) Create an Elevator Pitch 

Now that you know who your  ICPs are, it’s time to showcase them the benefits of hiring you!

Create an enticing elevator pitch to introduce yourself that they can’t refuse, and they’ll come on a call with you soon! 

However, make sure you don’t over-promise your services in the pitch and mention what you have done and can do to help them achieve their business goals.

When creating an elevator pitch for your prospective client, consider these points: 

• Address their specific challenges. 
• Mention your USPs. 
• Attach your portfolio.
• Share a case study or instance where you delivered positive results.
• Make sure it is personalized and not another generic message that gets ignored.
• Do not forget to end the pitch with a CTA. 
• Engage emotionally with your audience by telling a compelling story or illustrating the impact of your solution on real people or businesses.

Still with me? Good, because it only gets better from here… as in the next section, we will show you exactly how to get consulting clients.

How to Get Clients for Consulting Business?

Finally, you have laid the groundwork and laid the foundation to execute a successful lead generation process.

In this section, we have mentioned the top 7 strategies to get clients for your consulting business.

1. Secure More Consulting Clients with Cold Email Outreach
2. Don’t Forget to Leverage LinkedIn to Win More Consulting Clients
3. Find Consulting Clients Via Cold Calling
4. Adopt a Multi-Channel Approach to Gain Online Visibility
5. Create Engaging & Informative Content
6. Try Asking for Referrals
7. Attend Networking Events to Build Relationships

These strategies have been sourced after talking to successful consultants working with clients worth big dollars.

Let’s begin! 

1. Secure More Consulting Clients with Cold Email Outreach 

Cold emailing is the best and most affordable way to get consulting clients for your agency.

It allows you to convert outreach into business opportunities and position yourself as a thought leader in your industry. 

However, your cold emails need to be well-crafted and personalized to stand out in a crowded inbox. 

Enter: Saleshandy

Saleshandy is the best cold email tool for automating, personalizing, and scaling your cold email outreach to close deals and book more meetings.

It will enable you to scale your lead generation process and double down your outreach efforts by sending emails that mimic human-like behavior to establish a strong sender reputation with ESPs.

Moreover, it has advanced features like 

• Dedicated agency portal 
• B2B lead finder
• Email sequence automation 
• Hyper-personalization 
• Unified inbox

That can help you scale your cold email outreach and drive conversions

You can check out Saleshandy’s pricing plans.  

2. Don’t Forget to Leverage LinkedIn to Win More Consulting Clients

LinkedIn can be the next effective way you can utilize to directly reach out to decision-makers and drive 40% of high-quality prospects who may need your consulting services. 

It drives business decisions, making it a potent lead-generation tool if you use it right. 

To win more consulting clients with LinkedIn, you should:

(i) Send personalized messages

You can send a personalized connection request or message to directly connect with your prospect on LinkedIn to initiate a conversation. However, make sure that you directly don’t start by selling your services. Start by talking about their challenges, and then smoothly pitch your expertise and the value you will be providing. 

(ii) Optimize your LinkedIn profile

Don’t forget to mention your experience, certifications, portfolio, social proof, and professional headshot for the most prized outcomes. 

(iii) Personalize your profile URL

LinkedIn allows you to personalize the URL for your profile. Leverage it by adding targeted keywords to gain maximum visibility. 

(iv) Join community groups

Be an active part of industry conversations by joining LinkedIn groups and sharing your expertise to build brand authority. 

(v) Ask for recommendations

Recommendations on LinkedIn work as social proof to build trust and demonstrate how you have benefited businesses and helped them to achieve their goals. Therefore, don’t shy away from asking for a LinkedIn recommendation from your current clients.

Overall,  with consistent and strategic efforts on LinkedIn, you can directly place yourself in front of your target audience, demonstrate your value, and ultimately win more consulting clients for your business.

3. Find Consulting Clients Via Cold Calling 

We know what you might be thinking, “Cold calling… Seriously?”

 But Yes! Cold calling is still one of the sure-shot ways to generate leads and can help you acquire consulting clients. 

However, before you start creating your cold-calling strategy:

• Make sure your targeted audience entertains cold calling.
• Create a unique and personalized pitch that mentions the pain points & solutions of your targeted ICP. 
• Try to keep it short 
• Avoid the “we are the best, try us” approach. 

Also, if you plan to keep cold calling as your primary marketing tactic, we suggest buying cold-calling software with advanced features. 

Also Read: Cold Call vs Cold Email: Which one is better?

4. Adopt a Multi-Channel Approach to Gain Online Visibility  

While LinkedIn and cold calling can be effective channels to drive business opportunities, they somehow limit your visibility to a single channel, and when that approach fails for an individual customer, it becomes the end of any further interaction. 

To maximize audience reach, you should go for a multi-channel approach and make your business omnipresent. 

Here is how you can adopt a multi-channel approach to gain online visibility  

(i) Create a profile on Google My Business

You should never miss an opportunity to get ranked by Google. Your GMB details will show up when a prospective client searches for consulting services like yours. Later, you can ask your satisfied customers to leave positive feedback on Google to build credibility. 

(ii) Build a website

Creating a website has become more of a necessity than a luxury. You need to have a website and follow best SEO practices to ensure you show up on SERP results. 

(iii) Run targeted ads

Running targeted ads can help you get in front of your potential customers on various platforms and help them push down your marketing funnel. Make sure to optimize your ads with optimal keywords, content, and aesthetic images to ensure your customers click on the CTA. 

(iv) Social media marketing

Your social media accounts should strongly promote your expertise and services, as this will boost your brand visibility.

5. Create Engaging & Informative Content 

“Content is the king.” Period.

Once a solid online presence is established, it’s time to claim your clan and demonstrate yourself as an expert by creating high-quality content.

Simply put, the key here is to provide value through your content and demonstrate the value proposition you bring to the table. This way, your target audience can see for themselves why they should hire you rather than you telling them why to hire you.

Here is how you can find consulting clients by creating value-providing content: 

• Write blogs on problems and misconceptions that your clients commonly experience
• Case-studies
• E-books   
• Podcasts
• Industry-specific infographics  
• White papers
• Give an unbiased review of a tool that has benefited you through a creative Instagram reel
• Explaining your views on industry trends by making a YouTube video.

6. Try Asking for Referrals

People still trust recommendations from friends and near ones when buying a product/service. 

Hence, referrals are the easiest way to find new consulting clients and help you achieve a closing rate of 80%. 

Here is what you can do to get consulting clients through referrals: 

• Giving out small commissions on referrals that bring in business.
• By giving them your new feature for free in exchange for a referral.
• Partner with other consultancy firms 

However, make sure that you remind your clients about your referral program regularly. 

This is especially true when you are closing a project with them, as this is the perfect time for you to remind your client of the value you have brought to their business, hence propelling them to share a referral so that it becomes a win-win situation for both of you.  

7. Attend Networking Events to Build Relationships

Ultimately, your ICPs are human beings like you and us— who would prioritize in-person interactions over digital meetings. 

Hence, you should attend networking events where you can meet your prospective clients in person and build a credible relationship with them. 

You can  get more consulting clients by networking in: 

•  Industry-specific conferences and meetups 
•  Local events organized by business associations 
• Fundraising events & Seminars 
• Speaking events where you can share your expertise and connect with attendees.
• Conventions and exhibitions  

Bring it all together to get consulting clients for your business 

These were the business-winning strategies to find more consulting clients for your agency and business.  

At the core of all these marketing strategies is the value you provide to your clients through your work and help them achieve their business goals; hence, providing value should be your priority. 

While you may need to lay some groundwork to get the ball rolling, most of these strategies are enough to get prospective leads for your business. 

However, as a consulting agency that needs to get results fast and scale the lead generation process, cold email outreach emerges as the promising marketing channel. 

Cold email outreach can help you get consulting clients and build a continuous stream of leads to keep the business flowing. 

FAQs 

1. How do you find high-ticket consulting clients?

To find high-ticket consulting clients, you should

• Do cold email outreach 
• Network rigorously
• Get referrals from past clients
• Speak at industry events
• Create an impressive online presence 

2. Can I combine these strategies, or should I focus on one at a time? 

Yes, you can combine these strategies, but initially, you should focus on one or two strategies to get clients for your consulting for your business. Once you start getting positive results, you can double down on your efforts. 

3. Do I need a large budget to execute these strategies?

Not all strategies need large marketing budgets; some of them, like cold email outreach, taking referrals, and LinkedIn outreach, do not require a significant budget and are also very effective in generating leads.