3 Strategies to Use the Great Resignation to Create Consulting Clients

Capitalizing on the Great Resignation as an Independent Consultant

As you know, companies are having a hard time filling and retaining full-time roles.

On a daily basis, it’s hard to miss stories about the “Great Resignation” and how hard it is to hire and retain talent. In fact, there are 900k unfilled tech jobs in the US at the time I’m writing this.

Unfortunately, most independent consultants don’t realize this is an opportunity for them. They think it’s an issue with the full-time workforce.

But, for independent consultants, the great resignation creates a wealth of opportunity. It’s the perfect time to center your client acquisition strategy around all of these full-time job openings.

And, to be clear, I don’t mean that you should decide to go back to working full-time as an employee. No, these are strategies that you can use as an independent consultant to use the Great Resignation as a way to create new clients.

Strategy # 1 - Help Potential Corporate Clients Eliminate The Need for Their Open Headcount

The great resignation has created a situation where many companies have an open headcount. And, as I just mentioned, it can be hard to fill some of these roles.

So, one strategy you can use is to help potential clients eliminate the need for their current job openings altogether. To do this, your goal would be to show them that they don’t actually need an employee in the first place and that getting outside experts on a project-by-project basis will work better than trying to hire full-time employees who might not stick around anyway.

Your client acquisition strategy becomes more about helping them realize they don’t have a problem that they need to solve. You’re there to tell them that their great resignation is an opportunity, not a problem.

As a consultant, you may assist your potential clients in recognizing that they have the power to shift how they conduct business. For example, you might suggest initiatives such as:

• Equipping lower-level employees to deliver solutions, thereby eliminating some of the management layers
• Implementing automation
• Streamlining their workflows

Strategy # 2 - Help Potential Corporate Clients Improve HOW They’re Attracting Employees

Another strategy you can use when it comes to the Great Resignation is helping potential corporate clients improve how they attract employees.

One way you could do this is by showing them how your services can help get in front of the right candidates faster and more effectively than their current methods.

Additionally, you could show them how using consultants on a project-by-project basis will give them access to more specialized skillsets than if they were to hire someone full-time.

In other words, you can position yourself as an expert in solving their current employee attraction challenges. Using this strategy, you'll understand and recommend how to make the organization more attractive to job seekers.

For example, you might suggest initiatives such as:

• Upgrading technology architecture, languages and methodologies (e.g. converting and/or improving their use of agile)
• Deep-dive into their recruiting strategy, to develop a gap analysis
• Consulting to uncover and address limitations in their corporate culture and business practices that are turning possible candidates away
• Modernizing their business practices (e.g. digital marketing)

This can be an especially effective strategy for late-adopter companies and industries.

Strategy #3 - Convert A Job Opening Into A Direct Consulting Opportunity For You

The final strategy you can use to leverage the great resignation is to convert a job opening into a direct consulting opportunity for you.

This strategy works great in conjunction with strategies one and two, but it can also be used on its own.

To use this strategy, your goal would be to show potential clients that they don’t need an employee at all, and instead what they really need is someone who has the specialized skillset that you offer.

In other words, rather than going through their formal hiring process and trying to find candidates who match the specific requirements of each open position, your idea would be to simply highlight how much easier it would make things if they were able to bring someone like you onboard as a consultant on a-project-by-project basis.

As a consultant, you may want to consider developing a great resignation focused approach that can be used for this specific purpose.

The goal of this strategy is to convince the potential client that it’s in their best interest to work with you on a consulting basis, as opposed to trying to fill an open job position.

For example, you might suggest initiatives such as:

• Look at job openings to glean the strategy and goals they’re trying to accomplish, and then meet with the hiring manager to discuss recommendations you have to accomplish the same goals through consulting vs. a full-time resources.
• Break their objectives down into an initial strategy work type proposal, so you can help them to define a roadmap and the staffing plan. This will help them make progress while they're continuing to search for full-time resources. In addition, it typically makes sense for you to do follow-on work after defining the strategy, to guide their internal resources.

There's ONE important pitfall to avoid as you implement the strategies

Don’t approach these 3 strategies (especially #3) in a way that creates a JOB for you (unless you truly want one).

Making this strategy work for you as an independent consultant

I want to make sure you're able to implement these three strategies effectively, and don't get stalled like so many independent consultants do.

What creates the stall?

The inner dialogue. Are you thinking things like:

• I don’t have the “right” contacts to make these 3 strategies work
• The strategies could take a long time to bear fruit
• I’ll mess this up

Don’t let this inner dialogue keep you stalled and not implementing these strategies. The key is to shift the questions into:

• How can I meet the “right” contacts to make these 3 strategies work?
• Which of these 3 strategies is the best place for me to start?
• How could I shorten the decisioning lifecycle?

So, that’s it.

To put this into action, choose one of the three strategies and dive into it.

To sum it up....

So there you have it – three strategies for leveraging the great resignation to land more consulting clients:

Propose initiatives to potential consulting clients that will:

1. Eliminate the need to fill the open headcount by solving the problem in a different way (e.g. automation)
2. Make them more attractive and competitive to job seekers
3. Help them get a quick win and create momentum by converting the requirement from a full-time resource to engaging an outside expert (you).

For more

Listen to episode 035 of the Grow Your Independent Consulting Business podcast. Click here to listen.

I hope you find these tips helpful! As always, feel free to reach out if you have any questions or need help getting started. You can book a time at consultMelisa.com. Thanks for reading!