Mission accomplished: let’s say you’ve clearly established how you uniquely add value to a specifically defined audience. You’ve launched a website, printed letterhead and business cards, and told all of your colleagues about your services.
Now what?
The first important step is to realize that your network (and, by extension, your professional reputation) is your most important business asset. As a solo consultant, you’re going to get most of your business from your network. Your marketing job, therefore, revolves around activities that are associated with either expanding, or solidifying, that network.
Here are five things that you must do to grow and strengthen your network:
#1: Give away value. Ultimately, as a consultant, it’s what’s inyour head-or what you know how to do-that really counts. You must create regular demonstrations of your thought leadership or skill-set and spread them freely. By doing so, you give your network a meaningful opportunity to introduce your value to others. Examples include articles, white papers, and free webinars.
#2: Actively ask for referrals. Your business operates on some type of cycle. The cycle might be project-based, or calendar oriented or budgetary. In any case, you generally know with any given client where you are in that cycle. At the end of the cycle there is a natural opportunity for you to check in with your client and receive feedback about your performance. This is the time to inform your client that you are always seeking new business and to ask if they have suggestions for people in their network that you should contact. (And if you’ve created a demonstration of your value as suggested in #1 above this will be easier.)
#3. Speak publicly. Pick your audiences carefully and be sure to limit them to those that would either engage you directly or have extensive networks of their own that could potentially engage you. This is an opportunity to demonstrate your competence, force you to keep fresh on key industry issues, establish yourself as an expert, and, most importantly, to add new qualified contributors to your network.
#4: Participate in the blogosphere. OK, so no-one is getting rich writing a blog and I must confess I can’t yet point to a consultant who has closed a new client specifically because of their blog. However, the potential of a blog posting to be widely distributed and read among a very defined target is clearly valuable and compelling. And it’s not necessarily a mandate to have your own blog either-there’s major value to commenting thoughtfully and intelligently throughout the blogosphere on the writings of others who are also being read by your target.
#5: Nurture your network. Look for opportunities to provide useful help and information to your network-a one-line email with a link to a blog post or article of interest can go a long way toward maintaining a relationship. Actively respond to requests that come into your inbox as well, such as job postings, available candidates, or requests for informational interviews. Never mass email your network (that’s what blogs are for :-)) unless they have already opted-in to your mailing.
So, ask yourself: what have you done in the last 30 days to:
add value to those in your network grow your base of contacts; or actively nurture your existing business relationships?Some consultants that I know set aside one day per month or more for self-education, sending out invoices, and thinking about plans for their business. Consider adding one more item to the agenda: evaluating how well you’ve been feeding your network.
Liz Greer is principal of Going Solo Consulting, a marketing consultancy specializing in helping high tech executives successfully launch and market one-person consulting practices, by selecting the right target market, determining the most effective value proposition and service structure, developing cohesive messaging, and leveraging professional network resources. Liz has extensive corporate as well as tech start-up experience and has been a successful independent marketing consultant in the tech world for 14 years.
Reach her at -
415-383-2504
http://www.goingsoloconsulting.com
lizg@goingsoloconsulting.com
Tags: audiences, budgetary, business asset, business cards, colleagues, contact, demonstration, demonstrations, free webinars, freely, letterhead, marketing job, meaningful opportunity, mission accomplished, new business, professional reputation, referrals, skill set, solo consultant, thought leadership