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Luk’s Bi-Weekly 'Think Piece' For Consultants

Edition #27 - June 23, 2021

Dear reader,

Here's the latest Edition of 'The Authority', helping consultants grow their revenue by sharing intriguing educational stories.

It’s my ultimate aspiration to create a bubble of calmness with this bi-weekly ‘think piece’, a place of stillness in the face of everyday stress. A chance to reflect on what really matters in your consulting work.

The Big Question

Questions I get from consultants. And my answers.

Got this question from a reader (great question, thanks!):

“Luk, what would be an ideal win rate when pitching as a consultancy?”

Let me be straightforward with you. If you don’t hit 80% at least, maybe even 90%, you are not considered an expert yet and most likely there’s something wrong with your positioning as a consultant or consultancy. I am almost sure you are positioned too broadly, too generic and your value proposition doesn’t really resonate enough (read my blog on developing a consulting value proposition).

My pitch success rate in the past decade was close to 90% and in certain project domains, it was 100%, even when pitching against the big 4 consultancy firms as a rather small consultancy in the early years.

I see a lot of consultants having pitch success rates from around 20-25%. That is way too low and such a low rate should be a big and loud wake-up call to you as a consultant. If your pitch success rate is that low, it also means you are under a lot of time pressure to prepare all those proposals again and again and this will burn you out in the long run. Writing proposals all the time will eat your lunch. It’s such a waste of time, energy, motivation, joy, and quality of life.

For those who know me, I have a huge distaste of ‘hanging out’ in - what I always call - the toxic default consulting model (check out my article on the toxic model) and a low pitch success rate is a (very) strong symptom of that vicious model. I can almost guarantee you: the more you narrowly focus on a specific audience with a specific pain or problem, the more laser-sharp your expert positioning, the more upstream your value proposition, the higher your win rate will become as a subject matter expert.

Depending on the research sources, between 60 and 80% of the prospects’ decision was already made before getting in touch with you as a consultant. So, when a prospect asks you to prepare a proposal, he/she will have done this because you've been considered - based on their homework - as an attractive subject matter expert and you got their trust to solve their problem. Pitching becomes a conversation to review future collaboration.

I keep repeating: marketing in consulting is about building visibility and grow trust in your (narrow) subject matter expertise. So, you’d better get visible with your ‘trust-building stuff’: solid social proof, a profound body of work with ‘lessons learned’ (in the prospects ‘problem zone’), and a laser-sharp (upstream) value proposition.

Your laser-sharp positioning is the best possible pre-qualification tool you have. Without positioning-driven pre-qualification, you will have to deal with all kinds of non-ideal proposal requests and pitches and you will inevitably lower your win chances. That's not rocket science.

Your win rate is a direct outcome of laser-sharp positioning: specific audience, specific problem, specific problem resolution, specific outcome.

Would you like to send a question for one of the following newsletter editions? Please send it to me here.

The Disturbing Truth

Unsettling revelations from experts I admire. And from myself.

Every Monday morning, I am sharing a consulting-related advice on Linkedin to start the new week.

These advices reflect years of my passionate thinking about the consulting profession and span one year of writing. I've mixed my own quotes with carefully selected quotes from experts I admire and you may never have heard of.

Here are the quotes from the past 2 weeks. Let the inspiration be with you (if you let it).

Topic 14-6-2021: The counterculture of committers: FOCUS!

I consider myself as a member of the ‘counterculture of committers’ (a term coined by Pete Davis) who have made it to ‘the other side’: focusing on ONE single expertise domain for a longer period of time (maybe forever), going all the way, building the deepest possible knowledge, mastering and loving my craft.

Topic 21-6-2021: Do your clients allow you to be an expert?

If you are withholding your straightforward feedback as a consultant because you are afraid your client will get upset, it’s a clear sign you haven’t earned their trust and you are not perceived as an expert yet.

The Irresistible Content

I write a lot. Here's the update from the past 2 weeks.

🅾️ My newest blog: Consulting USPs need to die a brutal death. Here’s why.

The marketers are telling us, consultants, we need a USP, a Unique Selling Proposition. I get that. With a distinctive positioning as consultants, we can stand out in our crowded markets.

Unfortunately, I deeply struggle with the way 95% of all consultants develop such a USP. I am going to be tough on you.

🅾️ Webinars: All past webinars summarized here

I regularly update this page with the recording and numerous other resources that I share with the participants. If you haven't had a chance to attend one of my webinars yet, make sure to check it out.

🅾️ Other content from the past weeks:

TVA blog: There Are Two Ways Of Doing Consulting, One Is Toxic

LinkedIn post: The biggest temptation in consulting? Keeping all the options open.

LinkedIn post: The 3 biggest bottlenecks to specialize in consulting

LinkedIn post: Finding the time to get visible as a consultant, is NOT BY THE CLOCK!

The Authority, previous edition: Edition #26

The Inspiring Reading

I read a lot. Here's what I am reading right now.

I am reading between 30-50 books per year. Here's my latest recommendation:

‘Skip the Line’ by James Altucher

At this point, you probably recognize the name – James Altucher. This is the third book by this best-selling author that I recommend to my audience. What can I say, after reading his 'Reinvent Yourself' and 'The Power of No', I was hooked.

Once again, Altucher brilliantly deconstructs the mindset that holds us back in life and in our professional careers. “Straight, clear-cut career trajectories no longer exist. Industries disappear, job descriptions change, and people’s interests and passions evolve,” he explains. The way to navigate this significantly less stable landscape is to learn how to approach change and crisis.

In this book, Altucher offers tools to help easily execute ideas, become an expert negotiator, attract the attention of those around you, scale promising ideas, and improve leadership. These skills will take your career to new heights “at a speed that everyone will tell you is impossible.”

What you can learn from this book as a consultant:

In summary, these are the 4 big messages from the book:

1. We need to learn to experiment fast (to develop new skills)
2. We can learn a lot from other fields (e.g I learned analytics from the retailers)
3. Rapid idea generation is crucial and (great techniques in the book)
4. We need to reduce our fear of failure (we won’t get there when we are afraid to fail)

I’ve always been surprised (and sometimes shocked) by the slow (or even nonexistent) learning capacity of both corporate people (e.g. the incredibly slow development of people analytics) and consultants (e.g. poor to no understanding at all of developing their online footprint). That’s why Altuchers’ book could maybe help y’all: shortcutting techniques for your fast (and much needed) continuous development.

The Inconvenient Number

Evidence-based learning for consultants.

Thought leadership is not a self-awarded title

Did you know that there are over 1 million people who have the words “thought leader” somewhere in their LinkedIn profile? However, being a “thought leader” is not something you can assign to yourself. It’s how others perceive you. Sure, you can add this “title” to your LinkedIn, resume, every pitch and presentation, but it’s just empty words without the thought leadership content.

Without an awe-inspiring body of work, with the objective to add value to the challenges of your clients and prospects, you’d better rethink the use of such a title.

70% of professionals agree that it’s educational content that counts as thought leadership.

This is what I’ve been saying all along. Teach your audience. Be generous with your knowledge. Create content that’s relevant because it goes to the heart of your audience’s pain points. THAT’s how you earn the title of a thought leader.

Source: SurveyMonkey

The Secret Backstage

A sneak peek behind the curtains of my business. Luk's lab.

My new clients often ask me what I focused on when I started my new consulting business in March 2020. That’s a rather easy question to answer. Here’s what I focused on, big time.

1. Laser-sharp positioning: focus on a specific (minimum viable) audience, with specific problems & challenges (standing out in a crowded market to grow an organic pipeline of projects) and an upstream, packaged, fixed priced problem resolution approach.

2. Validation of problem resolution approach: I commissioned an external agency to research a substantial group of ideal clients to test & validate my service value proposition. The 2 main reasons: 1) rapid iterations to adjust my value proposition, 2) avoiding uncertainty and risk in year 1. Get growing fast and reliable.

3. Fast development of a body of work (thought leadership) with the objective:
● to build my visibility and grow the trust in my expertise quickly
● to deepen my expertise (writing is learning) and develop ‘my voice’ (not developing my voice quickly enough is one of my learnings from the past, see my article about my past mistakes)
● to start building the best possible pre-qualification content: clarifying my prospects what my expertise is and what I can do for them (to avoid non-ideal prospect eating my time, or my lunch)

4. Build and grow my new mailing list. As I always say: the ROI of thought leadership is in the growth of your subscribers' list. Your entire network should be in your mailing list and you should nurture your network with your unparalleled thought leadership in a consistent way.

The Inevitable Learning

The programs I am teaching. To become a better consultant.

🅾️ Free webinar (September 8) at 2:00 PM CET

Ditch your useless USP. Here's how to create a killer Value Proposition as a consultant

I will be resuming my webinar series in September but you can go ahead and sign up already! This is the topic that I've been discussing increasingly with other consultants. I'll be revealing all my secrets when it comes to crafting a UVP that will resonate with your target audience and deliver measurable results. You can find out more and register here.

🅾️ My private training program, limited slots for 2021

I have A LIMITED NUMBER OF SLOTS in 2021 for senior consultants eager to attract their ideal customers and grow their consulting business consistently.

This individual training program starts with a full audit of your market positioning and covers the necessary advice for long-term improvements and quick wins. The number of participants for this 1-2-1 virtual training is limited. Access on a first-come-first-served basis.

Here's the link to the info page with the program content. You can book a call on this info page to discuss your participation.

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Previous 'The Authority' edition: Edition #26

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