What do you do if your consulting business in Product Innovation is struggling to take off?

Identify and emphasize key differentiators that set your product innovation expertise apart from competitors. Highlight aspects such as proprietary technology, industry partnerships, or a proven track record of successful implementations to reinforce your value proposition.

Treat your own service as you would treat your customer's product. Be honest about the value it provides. Start by having a very clear definition of who your customer is, and what is the problem you are helping them solve. Naturally, whatever product innovation consulting you offer will not be right for everybody, and not for all situations. Is it more relevant for enterprises with large product teams? Or maybe it's for scale-ups that need to establish better product innovation practices? If you are tempted to answer "for everyone", I would suggest you go back and ask yourself what would you tell a customer that would give you the same answer...

Find a niche in the problem that you are solving for a particular set of clients - for example, are you looking at enterprises in some geography or of a particular size, or a specific industry or maturity level. Identify those problems in that space and exactly how you have previously solved them. Then ask your clients, even former ones, why they like working with you. They may shed light on things you have not considered yet - and use that to refine your messaging.

Position yourself as a thought leader by providing valuable content that addresses key challenges and trends. Proactively share insights and knowledge related to your chosen niche through thought leadership platforms such as webinars, industry conferences, or published articles.

Finding your niche takes time and thoughtful experimentation. Ask a few questions when starting your research: - What types of companies would benefit from product innovation? - Are there industries you have particular expertise in that are buying product innovation services? - What does a typical product innovation project look like for these companies? If you have a company you’ve delivered product innovation services for, spend time learning how they find and buy these services.

Narrow down to a specific strategy and seek advice from experts. Do thorough market research and from an informed process relaunch your product from what you know then expand as you grow.

Place a strong emphasis on understanding the needs, pain points, and preferences of your target audience. Tailor your marketing strategy to resonate with their specific challenges and aspirations.

Your marketing strategy should take into account the fact that not everyone interprets “product innovation” language the same way. You may need to refine your messaging with keywords such as “new product development”, “business model innovation, and “process innovation”. These words relay outcomes your target audience likely needs and understands.

Consider partnerships as a strong way to go-to-market. There will be other firms tha offer complementing services than your niche and together all can be a stronger force as well as each can leverage on the others networks.

Start using templates and frameworks that you know work well. In some cases where we have too early a idea, I like to use the Lean Startup Canvas to sit down and discuss with a client on what they are thinking about and some pieces they need to think about. Ensure that you document as many interactions with your clients as possible, while feeding into a project tracking tool like Jira or Trello. Then maintain gates of ideas, and validate Hard at each step of the way.

Keep yourself updated by going back to books about innovation and learn from others mistakes (and success). Lean Startup, Hard Things about Hard Things are great reads. Ensure that each project has a retrospective and document - What should we continue doing - What should we start doing - What should we stop doing And revisit these on regular basis. Learn from your history and keep refining your narrative to the public as well.

Remember that words have power and the language you are using to sell your services, “product innovation”, may be unclear to your target audience. What types of services are included in product innovation? What kinds of outcomes can a client expect during a product innovation engagement? Explaining your approach to the work is just as important as the work itself.