140+ Pieces of Advice I Shared with Consultancies on LinkedIn in 2022

2022 was an insightful, productive year. I had a chance to restart traveling, having hosted workshops for clients in Europe and the US.

I spoke to hundreds of consultancies from firms, small and large. I developed new programs and offerings. As I documented all my learnings, I uncovered new patterns and insights – many summarized in the 2023 edition of the 10 trends consultancies must be aware of. 

While the more in-depth analysis and recommendations I tend to post here, on my blog, I also make it a point to regularly share advice through LinkedIn – bite-sized observations and tips, if you will. 

I decided to aggregate all the posts where I take a closer look at individual pain points in the consulting space and make suggestions on overcoming them. And here it is – a library of 140+ pieces of advice I shared on LinkedIn this year.

1. Business development in consulting has changed forever!
2. Improving your authority as a consultant?
3. Your biggest enemy in consulting?
4. When do people admire you as a consultant?
5. Consultancies are often fooling themselves. 
6. Losing a pitch: a true story from the consultancy trenches.
7. What is ‘The Promised Land’ in consulting?
8. Too many consultants share stuff on LinkedIn like a desperate. 
9. The biggest blunder that consultants can make in 2022?
10. Do you really understand your consulting clients? 
11. Do you get invited as a consultancy by prospective clients? 
12. When we lose a pitch, we tend to look at the competition.
13. Are you struggling with imposter as a consultant?
14. Consultancies don’t know what to write about.
15. Prospects evaluate your expertise before they decide to hire you.
16. Dear consultant, are you a baker, or an eater?
17. We are in the golden era of specialized consultancies!
18. One of the most toxic consulting behaviors?
19. A fantastic example of a visible authority! 
20. Do you have a poor reputation as a consultant?
21. Can you say yes to these 5 authority questions?
22. A sneak peek at how I develop my Linkedin content.
23. I couldn’t say NO and it backfired on me!
24. The future of consulting: ‘Less Shiny, More Substance’.
25. Are you always in a helping mindset as a consultant?
26. The defining difference between ordinary and successful consultancy? 
27. I turned down a prospect and here’s why.
28. Most consultants dislike LinkedIn. They are wrong!
29. We live in the era of the ‘leveraged individual’.
30. Do your prospects have a budget for the problem you solve?
31. If I’d start a consulting business from scratch…
32. A large number of consultants suffer from imposter. 
33. When someone says: "He/she's a great consultant"
34. Consultancies say: we are client-centric!
35. I've built a business on the back of a blog.
36. Your ego is your biggest enemy in consulting.
37. Are you a service provider or an expert?
    
38. What separates top consultants from the rest?
39. Look at this horrible picture…
40. 99% of consultants have nothing to say.
41. What consultants can learn from a Hotel case study.
42. How to explain what you do as a consultant?
43. Without authority in consulting, you will have to compete on price.
44. What exactly is ‘a niche’ in consulting?
45. "Luk, I don't have time to educate my audience".
46. Most consulting firms suffer from ‘service-laundry-list-thinking’.
47. Why are most consulting bio’s so extremely boring?
48. Consultants get max. 3’ to convince.
49. Do you have at least 70% referenceable clients?
50. During the first lockdown in 2020, I got +/- 30 urgency calls.
51. Most consulting firms are hopelessly old school.
52. There is an insane amount of opportunities for specialized consulting!
53. Consulting firms should stop saying ‘Here’s what we do’.
54. Openly sharing your expertise is gold!
55. Experts can explain the hidden cost of inaction to clients.
56. Consultancies, stop using incomprehensible language.
57. Clients in consulting pay for expertise.
58. Key voices are absent in most consulting firms.
59. Why YOUR story is more important than you think.
60. The 4 superpowers in consulting.
61. I write on LinkedIn almost every day.
62. The 4 primary pain points of consulting growth success.
63. A consulting firm told me: “It’s extremely difficult to differentiate us”.
64. Most consultancies sell vitamins.
65. Stop writing your ‘About’ in the 3rd person.
66. Is your consulting firm offering a laundry list of à la carte services?
67. Are you afraid of consulting competitors?
68. Prospects don’t care about your consulting services.
69. Lack of clarity in consulting is revenue hell.
70. Should we start a podcast, Luk?
71. The ultimate business development goal in consulting?
72. Are you nurturing your former consulting clients?
73. Dear consulting leader, how does your thought leadership content stack up?
74. Expertise is one of the most crucial differentiators in consulting.
75. Consulting leaders, where’s your signature voice?
76. I always struggle with the highly diversified consulting firm.
77. Is your consulting firm concerned of the current economic challenges?
78. Are you nurturing your former consulting clients?
79. A consulting firm leader told me recently they dodge specialization.
80. My 6 most powerful mindset and skill changes from the past decade?
81. The biggest enemy of a well-managed consulting firm?
82. Why you should delete your long consulting service catalog.
83. Want to make more money in your consulting firm?
84. What is the number one reason why consulting firms fail?
85. Say YES to all kinds of (unfocused) client requests in consulting: nobody really cares.
86. Too many consulting firms are selling ‘availability’ at too low rates.
87. Buyers of consulting expertise need to know three things.
88. With a fluffy positioning as a consulting firm, you are up for a wild ride.
89. “We were so bad at consulting business development”.
90. Consultancy leader: “Luk, why should we share all our expertise?”
91. You are at a conference and a prospect asks you what your consultancy does.
92. Poorly positioned consulting firms have no choice but to compete on pricing.
93. Do you want to build a repeatable business development capacity as a consulting firm?
94. I see a lot of consultancies hungry for new clients.
95. Creating a laser-sharp positioning might be the most crucial decision consulting leaders must make (and maintain).
96. “Luk, I am exhausted”, a consulting partner told me recently after a meeting.
97. Success in consulting is a side effect.
    
98. Keeping all options open in consulting is toxic.
99. A niche in consulting might not be what you think it is.
100. We live in the era of the ‘leveraged individual’.
101. The #1 secret to success in consulting?
102. Is your consultancy educating its target audience?
103. Consulting firms excel at telling horrible abracadabra language.
104. Poorly positioned consulting firms have no choice but to compete on pricing.
105. Do you really understand your consulting clients?
106. Expertise is THE most crucial differentiator in consulting.
107. I’ve always been obsessed with providing value in my consulting work.
108. Stop saying ‘here’s what we do’, as a consultancy!
109. Most consultancy’s positioning sucks!
110. Pricing is a translation of the depth of the consultancy’s expertise.
111. If a consultancy leader can’t explain prototypical outcomes of the work, it’s not a leading consultancy.
112. Every consulting leader should ask these 4 questions at least once a quarter.
113. Recession looming? Time to review the consultancy’s positioning.
114. What is the number one reason why consulting firms fail?
115. Here’s the most important question to ask a new prospect, every time again…
116. I always get shocked by consulting leaders’ answers to this simple question…
117. In consulting, a niche is not a niche.
118. Why a recession can be a source of consulting business opportunities…
119. Consultancies must stop comparing themselves with competition.
120. “Luk, we are creating a lot of content but nothing really happens”.
121. I hope you don’t talk like this to your consulting prospects.
122. Why should we hire your consultancy? Here’s a 5-step framework to answer the prospect.
123. Stop comparing your consultancy with the competition all the time.
124. Show me a consulting P&L, and I will explain the quality of the consultancy’s positioning, focus and specialisation.
125. Business development in consulting is rooted in educating the target audience. But in 3 different ways.
126. Protect the consultancy’s expertise reputation!
127. One of the biggest mistakes in consulting: offering a Royal Buffet.
128. The difference between ordinary consultancies and the high-in-demand go-to expert consultancies in 9 simple statements.
129. One of my biggest learnings in a decade of consulting work: early disqualification.
130. I was reading this tagline on a website: ‘We are consulting at the intersection of strategy, organization, data, and AI’.
131. One of the key characteristics of the highly profitable consultancy?
132. Are you nurturing your former consulting clients?
133. Key voices from consulting leaders are totally absent in most consulting firms.
134. Positioning in consulting is either driving growth or slowing it down.
135. Most consulting leaders hate social media and they are totally wrong!
136. I see a lot of consultancies hungry for new clients.
137. Poor reputational footprint as a consultancy = poor buyer interest.
138. Consultancy owners, with their great emotional commitment, often are the bottleneck for disciplined positioning.
139. The consultancy’s service offering is NOT what the consultancy DOES, or what clients GET.
140. Deliberately withholding information? Consultancies are fooling themselves.
141. Say YES to all kinds of non-ideal client requests in consulting: nobody really cares.
142. Consultancy owner: “We were so bad at consulting business development”.
143. What mistake do consultancies make when trying to create more focus?
144. Good news! The need to update a consultancy’s positioning is often a sign of growth.
145. A big challenge in consultancies: internal alignment amongst owners/partners on target audience’s pain points.

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