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How to Grow a Consulting Business

Last month, I invited Brad Farris on The Recognized Authority podcast and we had a fantastic conversation about how consulting businesses grow and scale. This is not just about how to grow a business, it’s about how to grow one that is better. By better I mean that it’s more

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Why Selling Consulting Services Is Harder

It’s not just your imagination – selling consulting services is more difficult than selling other products and services. Here’s why that’s the case – and some suggestions for what you can do about it. You are selling the invisible. You aren’t selling a physical product that your clients can touch.

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Trust and Lead Generation for Consultants

The main reason that consultants rely so heavily on referrals for business development is because there is a requirement for trust. The client needs to trust the consultant because the project will often be expensive and high-risk. Referrals do a great job of passing trust because it’s a personal recommendation.

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When Referrals Don’t Work

  “I would be terrified if my sales depended on referrals” – Philip Morgan In the consulting and professional services space, the vast, vast majority of business is generated through referrals – that is word of mouth recommendations. In my research project, referrals and networking were the number one source

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Content First?

TL;DR summary: Every weekday for November I’ll be doing a live stream at 3pm Dublin/London, 10am Eastern, 7am Pacific  Topics related to B2B marketing, lead generation, websites and inbound marketing for consultants. You can vote for topics. See bottom for links. Yes, this terrifies me. But I need to do

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Lead Generation Strategies for Consultants

One thing I wanted to achieve with my research project was to identify the best way to do lead generation for consultants. I looked at the different lead generation strategies and channels that could be used to acquire new business. Selling in the professional services space is very different from

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Do you have a clear call to action?

In order to have the best chance of winning prospective clients or even just getting another social media follower, it’s crucial that your message is very clear. Your call to action is a few simple words that can make or break the process. A call to action is a clear

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Practical Business Ideas During Market Uncertainty

Published: 13th March 2020 Last updated: 16th March 2020 “These are strange times.” – I’ve heard this said quite a few times today, and it sure feels appropriate. I’m taking a few minutes here to share some thoughts on dealing with the business impact of this ongoing situation. I think

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[Research] Marketing Best Practices for Consulting Firms

How do consulting firms find new clients? How should they find new clients?  These are crucial questions at the best of times, and even moreso in the economic downturn that we’re likely to experience due to COVID-19. I sought to answer these questions, and more, by surveying over 1,000 consultants.

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Where Does Your Ideal Target Audience Hang Out?

Now that you’ve got some educational or thought-leadership type content planned, the next step is to get it in front of your target audience. Have a Profile Everywhere I recommend that you have a business profile on all of the major networks that looks professional and contains your positioning statement

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Positioning Yourself as an Authority

How do you position yourself as a thought leader and authority? Content Marketing One approach is to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise by creating “content”. I’m sure you’ve heard about content marketing. I love the idea, but I’m not so crazy about the name “content marketing”. It feels very generic, and

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The Problem with Building Your Own Website

In my last article, I wrote about why your website sucks and your web designer hates you: https://marketingforconsultants.com/why-your-website-sucks/ On LinkedIn, Philip asked me: If I’m my own web designer, does this still apply? 😉 Yes. Yes, it does! Why Is It so Difficult to Self-build an Effective Website? Apart from

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Why Your Website Sucks and Your Web Designer Hates You!

Many web design trends and technologies have come and gone since I started building websites in the dark ages of 1996. But one crucial issue hasn’t changed much since day one: “Web design” is not really about “design” at all. If you’ve spoken to many business owners, you’ve probably heard

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Crafting Your Positioning Statement

For me, the single most important thing you must have clarity on in your business is your “positioning statement”. Your positioning statement defines your brand position, identifies your ideal customer and the problem you solve for them. A quick note on terminology: positioning statement can also be referred to as

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Who – Specifically – Do You Serve?

A fundamental element of a marketing strategy for a consulting business is to have a specific target market. You can probably help a whole range of different clients, and you might be tempted to keep your target market as broad as possible, particularly when times are tough and the economy

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Trust is the currency of professional services

Marketing in the world of consulting may not be easy, but it is quite simple. It’s all about understanding trust. Trust is more valuable than cash. Trust is the currency of professional services The purchase of consulting services is very different from other types of purchases, which is why so

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Lead Generation Tactics for Your Website

I’m going to outline four simple lead generation tactics that you can use to generate leads for your business from your website. These tactics are sometimes called “funnels” or “sales funnels”. Here are the four tactics we’ll cover in this article: Contact Form Call Booking Call Application Email Opt-in But

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