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Snag Your First Paying Client as an Independent Consultant – Part 1   You’re taking the bold leap to independent consulting and solopreneurship. You have amazing ideas that you can’t wait to publicize. You know it’s risky, you know it’s hard work, you know it creates flexible options, and you know it can be fulfilling… BUT the scariest idea is getting that FIRST paying client.   Who are they and where will they come from? How will they find you and how do they reach the decision to pay?   First, you have to see the big picture of how you will interact with aRead More →

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Low-Pressure Ways to Respectfully Ask Your Network for Referrals – Part 7   Deploying your referral campaign requires some proactive content development and strategizing. In the previous Briefs, you prepared to engage. The next few Briefs focus on how to optimize The Asks you plan to deploy. Get ready to punch up the content of your outreach.   Ask Option #1: Ask for Feedback on Your Business Idea You absolutely NEED feedback on your product and business processes in order to build value. Not everyone is a good informant, so you have to identify 1) people who have tried similar projects before and 2) peopleRead More →

In: Client Acquisition
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Low-Pressure Ways to Respectfully Ask Your Network for Referrals – Part 1   Now that you know how critical referrals are for finding paying clients, do you feel comfortable asking your network for business? No? That’s ok, you’re in the right place! You don’t have to be an aggressive salesperson to get clients, but you do need to create a sales process that fits your personality and values. The first batch of clients for a solopreneur consultancy should come from referrals. Those referrals will come from your network so you’ll need a strategy for delivering the ask in a referral campaign.   I created thisRead More →

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Low-Pressure Ways to Respectfully Ask Your Network for Referrals – Part 6   Deploying your referral campaign requires some proactive content development and strategizing. In the previous Briefs, you prepared to engage. The next few Briefs focus on how to optimize The Asks you plan to deploy. Get ready to punch up the content of your outreach.   Boosting the Ask: Reduce Pressure You read this series of Briefs to discover low-pressure tactics that you feel comfortable applying. You also want people to respond honestly and pressure is a barrier to that goal. When people feel pressured, they are more likely to respond without thinkingRead More →

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Low-Pressure Ways to Respectfully Ask Your Network for Referrals – Part 5   Deploying your referral campaign requires some proactive content development and strategizing. In the previous Briefs, you prepared to engage. The next few Briefs focus on how to optimize The Asks you plan to deploy. Get ready to punch up the content of your outreach.   Boosting the Ask: Express Gratitude Even with no-pressure asks, requesting referrals from your support network is soliciting a favor. Before you create ways to ask for this favor, develop and record ways you can thank people. Being thoughtful and considerate is the right thing to do. FullRead More →

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Low-Pressure Ways to Respectfully Ask Your Network for Referrals – Part 4   Deploying your referral campaign requires some proactive content development and strategizing. In the previous Briefs, you prepared to engage. The next few Briefs focus on how to optimize The Asks you plan to deploy. Get ready to punch up the content of your outreach.   Boosting the Ask: Target the Ask Based on Relationship Type and Proximity Sending individualized messages is time consuming, especially if you have a large network. While personalization yields higher quality outcomes, you always want to balance the amount of time and resources spent on personalization based onRead More →

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Low-Pressure Ways to Respectfully Ask Your Network for Referrals – Part 3   Before you actually deploy a referral campaign, you need to setup some basic structure for what you expect to happen and how to respond.   Before the Ask: Identify Members of Network to Contact Your business is a serious matter, so approaching client acquisition with an organized, systematic process is critical. First, it helps to consider your network as a pool of potential supporters for your business (ie. your support network). Keeping records of them and how they choose to support you is just as critical as tracking your clients.   ConsiderRead More →

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Low-Pressure Ways to Respectfully Ask Your Network for Referrals – Part 2   Before you actually deploy a referral campaign, you need to setup some basic structure for what you expect to happen and how to respond.   Before the Ask: Prepare for Engagement with Referrals When someone wants to send you a referral, what steps should they take? How should they contact you or tell people to reach you? You’re requesting help with your business from people who are not part of that business. As you compose The Ask, consider the fastest way for people to send you referrals. Make it simple, clear, andRead More →

In: Client Acquisition
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Snag Your First Paying Client as an Independent Consultant – Part 4   Beyond referrals, you will need to demonstrate your product’s relevance as a solution to people who require more rapport-building. This step in the Client Journey begins inviting potential clients that don’t have the benefit of a warm introduction.    First Clients Strategy #3 Get Leads from Fresh Outreach At some point, you will exhaust all your referrals and will need to seek out and qualify other leads. Cold outreach can seem scary – that’s why I call it Fresh Outreach instead – but can be amazing if executed well. The key isRead More →

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Snag Your First Paying Client as an Independent Consultant – Part 5   Building on the initial engagements in Parts 2 to 4, we now look at steps in the Client Journey that progress toward conversion. When you have successfully generated curiosity about your product, potential clients want to dive into your work to develop confidence in your expertise. A beautiful relationship is now forming based on the interactions between you and the potential client. You can help this relationship bloom with meaningful content that adds context to your basic pitch.    First Clients Strategy #4 Engage Leads with Meaningful Content Potential clients want evidenceRead More →