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.
I do quite a bit of discovery calls with consultants who are interested in working with me. They always ask me - understandably - to explain my point of view with regards to ‘standing out in a crowded consulting market’. Or in other words, what is my approach to help them stand out? This time, I developed an infographic instead of a long text. Feel free to download it here.
Next Big Q: I published my recent blog about productizing consulting services and received several questions about it. I will go a little deeper in my next newsletter with my ideal approach, a step-by-step process, the key success principles, pitfalls to watch out for, and a long list of examples from other consultants. Stay tuned!
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 consulting-related advice on Linkedin to start the new week.
This advice reflects years of my passionate thinking about the consulting profession and spans almost 2 years of writing. I've mixed my own quotes/advice with carefully selected expertise 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 23-8-2021: Help! They ask my rate card!
If prospects ask for your rate card or hourly/day rates, you are not yet recognized as an expert or an authority in your expertise domain. The prospect/client wants you to follow their instructions and processes instead of being in the power position as an authority.
As a result, procurement will be playing an important role in deal-making, and they are treating you like the masses, comparing your rates with ‘the market average’. And your prospect/client is not going the extra mile to protect you from sometimes disrespectful and frustrating negotiations with procurement.
Experts with a strong reputation will get shelter from the prospect/client, ensuring they safely pass the procurement process. Strong authority = better prospect/client shelter = reduced gatekeeper impact (e.g. procurement).
Topic 30-8-2021: Stop using useless, goofy consulting language.
As a consultant, you need to tell PROBLEM RESOLUTION STORIES of your other clients, how they have solved their pains, what lessons they learned your prospects could learn from.
Use business language. No wacky consulting nonsense. Explain how your audience (in business language) can speed up, de-complex, improve processes, lower costs, improve revenue, reduce risk, retain clients, protect skills, gather critical data, etc.
Inspire them about the transformational potential, picture them ‘The Promised Land’, help them think differently about their problems or challenges. They don’t want to hear what they already know about their problems.
That's how you will make a difference as a consultant.
The Irresistible Content
I write a lot. Here's the update from the past 2 weeks.
I’ve interacted with hundreds of consultants over the years – dozens of them were my clients, with others I had in-depth conversations to better understand their pain points, goals, business models, and mindsets.
This has allowed me to take a step back and look at the macro image – the paths that different consultants take and the decisions that significantly improve their chances of success to grow their consulting business.
In one of my earlier articles, I wrote about the things my highly successful clients started doing, and today, I’d like to elaborate on one particular aspect: standardizing and productizing your consulting services.
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.
I am reading between 30-50 books per year. Here's my latest recommendation:
All right, this is the last summertime newsletter where I don't offer a book review but provide other useful content sources. I'm going to pretend just for a couple of more days that it's still summer.
Here you go:
The Chase Jarvis LIVE Show. I love Chase Jarvis’s podcast. First, a few words about the host. Chase Jarvis is a highly accomplished photographer and entrepreneur. In 2014, he was named one of the most influential photographers by the Huffington Post. I love Jarvis’s style of interviews. He’s empathetic, warm, insightful, and raises thought-provoking questions.
I especially recommend this episode with author Mel Robbins, CNN commentator, and television host. They discuss Robbins’ research around the science of habit, self-doubt, and confidence, offering fantastic tips on how to turn our creative ideas and passions into action.
I want to encourage you to check out Mel Robbins’ book, ‘The 5 Second Rule’.
It’s impossible to do her book justice in a matter of 1-2 paragraphs, but here’s the incredible rule that she encourages her readers to follow: If you have an impulse to act on a goal, you must physically move within 5 seconds or your brain will kill the idea.
I have started applying this rule, and it really works!
The Inconvenient Number
Evidence-based learning for consultants.
Thought leadership wins
Do you know your website’s conversion rate? Say you are a small consultancy, and you get 1,000 unique visitors per day. How many of these visitors perform a desired action? For example, fill out a form, subscribe to your newsletter, download something, contact you for more information, etc.
1? 10? 100? Do you know? I guess you don't 🤕.
Conversion rate is one of the most important metrics. It indicates the impactfulness of your website. First, you get relevant users onto your website. Then you get them to perform an action, turn them into a lead, then into a prospect, and then, hopefully, into a new client.
Well, the numbers are in.
Website conversion rate is nearly 6x higher for content marketing adopters than non-adopters - 2.9% vs. 0.5%.
Of course, you can’t generalize these numbers. It greatly varies along with the quality, relevancy, originality, and frequency of content. However, it does make you think.
A sneak peek behind the curtains of my business. Luk's lab.
I keep writing all the time: “Educate your buyers/clients, share best practices with them, tell them what to look out for, give them valuable tips on how to achieve success, demonstrate how you’ve helped others in their shoes, inform them about the latest trends and evolutions in their market(s)”.
About these trends: it was and still is my obsession with spotting them and with sharing them with my audience. It’s what I’ve done the past decade, and when I started again in 2020, that was the first thing on my list: keeping track of new evolutions in the consulting space.
I have an ‘always open’ google doc where I drop everything I find. At the end of 2021, I will summarize and share. It’s what I did in December 2020: sharing all that stuff.
And guess what!
● It’s my #1 website traffic generator
● It’s my #1 lead generator (off- and online)
● New prospects who contact me always talk about it. They seem to love it
● I got 3 podcast/conference invitations via the article
● Readers stay >3’ on average on that blog, which is great
● If you search ‘Trends in Consulting’, I am almost always on page #1 in Google search
Here’s my advice: keep track of the main new trends in your expertise domain and share them with your clients, e.g., once a year in December (or more often in smaller badges). It can easily become your #1 trust builder within your client network.
And don’t tell me you don’t have time to monitor trends. If you don’t, you don’t get it. That’s what consultants do: studying the trends in their expertise domain. Heck.
If you don’t HAVE time, it means you don’t MAKE time. Read my article about ‘having time’ and reflect on it.
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.
