5 Shifts Data Consultancy Founders Need to Adopt for Selling Globally

One of the big problems many data consultancies have faced in the last few months has been the shrinking of opportunities in their local stomping grounds.

If you're a Data Analytics consultancy based in London, for example, much of your traditional prospecting probably started to slow down at the start of the lockdown.

• No more trade shows or conferences where you can present and pitch
• No more brown-bag breakfast mornings and seminars to woo prospects
• No more 'let's meet for coffee' hookups or client-site discovery meetings

For many data firms, it wasn't just service delivery that became impacted by the lockdown - it was the acquisition and conversion of new prospects upstream that became problematic.

And of course, that lack of in-person engagement triggered a significant uptick in online activity.

I suddenly had to start removing a lot more of the 'Sign up for our free webinar on how to do data discipline xyz...' discussion posts submitted in my LinkedIn group for example.

However, for a lot of data consultancy owners and principals, they soon found that without a system and proper training, online marketing can be quite a challenge, particularly when the competition and noise level goes up.

But make no mistake. The potential for growing your data business online is enormous for one simple reason - you're no longer constrained by geographical barriers.

Many of my clients are pleasantly surprised when they start booking sales meetings with overseas clients. We've seen an increase in that activity in the last few months, but in reality, it's something that has been happening for many years.

The New Normal (That Isn't Really That New)

Back in 2007, when I launched Data Quality Pro to help boost sales in my previous data consultancy, I was soon advising clients in Australia and South America on what data quality strategies, roadmaps and technologies they should adopt. 

We then launched another online offering with the first Virtual Data Quality and Data Governance Summit. We soon sold licenses to companies all over the globe, again proving that expertise does indeed travel well via an online business model.

So the remote business model for data-related advisory and training has always been there, it's just that a lot more end-client type organisations are now realising the benefits of accessing other forms of consulting remotely too.

And when that happens - the World is your oyster. 

(But only if you make some fundamental shifts).

Shift #1: Tighten Your Positioning

Most of the sales problems I help data firms solve in the myDataBrand program I teach are rooted not in poor sales technique, but further upstream in their poor positioning.

Put simply, your messaging and services are too bland and generic.

If clients ask what "So what makes your firm unique?" many data consultancies trot out the tired old mantras of:

"Quality! Service! Our tech stack! Our team! Our focus on the customer! Our data-driven mindset!"

True positioning, i.e. identifying an unmet need in the marketplace and obsessing over how your firm can own a distinctive approach to solving that need, is rarely communicated.

Instead, too many firms look like clones of every other firm out there offering 'Digital Transformation' or every slice of the DAMA wheel.

Part of the reason you've never tightened your messaging around a specific problem and vertical industry is that you consider the idea of specialisation too limiting. 

You looked at all those big firms with their generic positioning and thought, well it works for Accenture, let's widen the net and create more opportunity. 

"Let's be a data consultancy that can do everything".

Bigger Net. Less Opportunity.

The problem is you create far less opportunity when you widen your net of offerings because your message doesn't cut through the noise. 

You're effectively saying: "We do data management".

Which is, let's face it, a very dull positioning statement.

But now you're not limited to only fishing in the local pond, something magical happens.

You can swap generalism for specialism.

Just as I train data firms in Sydney and Seattle how to win more consulting clients overseas, you too can sharpen your positioning to attract an international audience because your 'Accessible ICPs' are now boundless.

Note: An ICP is your Ideal Client Profile, but for many data firms that means 'any senior manager with influencer authority'!

With a global reach, you can start to tighten your messaging so that even if you restrict the volume of accessible ICPs, it's still in the thousands, which can be more than enough to hit your revenue targets,

That specificity around your positioning has a huge benefit to your messaging because you can now get super-targeted about the problem you solve and the person most likely to benefit from your service.

Instead of saying: "We do data migration services in the UK, basically for anybody with a lot of data".

You can now say, "We help high-volume fashion eCommerce retail operations directors oversee a rapid shift of their outdated onsite customer databases onto a modern cloud architecture."

Your marketing will suddenly resonate with your target audience, because instead of talking about 'generic data migration', you're talking about topics your ICP is desperate to learn.

Traditionally, you couldn't do that because there was likely not enough "high-volume fashion eCommerce retail operations directors" who needed to "oversee a rapid shift of their ageing onsite customer databases onto a modern cloud architecture" in your local area and at a specific stage in their journey that you could help.

But if your 'local area' is the World?

Game on.

Shift #2: Transition Your Service Delivery

Delivering services via the web is different; there's no getting around that.

It won't suit all consulting operations. 

Gone are the days you can 'back up the bus' and have an army of freshly minted Ivy League graduates pouring into a clients building, charging extortionate fees as they wave their management consulting cookie-cutter methodologies around.

Instead, the 'New Normal' model of consulting will favour the smaller, boutique specialists, who have a specific expertise that solves a specific problem, ideally in a specific industry.

And a number of my clients have quickly embraced that shift to delivering 'real' consulting remotely, as well as the more remote-friendly coaching and training they'd already figured out,

Yes, there are new tools and techniques to learn. New ways to work and deliver great service.

But clients and consultants are adaptable. 

It is now possible to deliver many of the traditional workshops, discovery and advisory services that are common to traditional consultancies.

Shift #3: Package Your Offering

You'll likely have to reset your expectations around selling the 'Big Ticket' consulting gigs that you've traditionally enjoyed.

With remote consulting offerings, you have to start small and build rapport and credibility gradually because you do lose some of the personalised trust-building that comes naturally in a live, in-person setting.

So, I recommend what I call 'Trojan Horse' offers. 

Create a consulting offer that is big enough to get you into an organisation, but small enough to fly under the procurement radar.

I've had managers buy my consulting via their training budget or a company credit card, for example. Once you're under the fence, you can start to explore further opportunities.

Another strategy I teach in my training is the importance of a Solution Ladder - starting with your primary offer, or Trojan Horse offer, then adding 'rungs' of value as you help the client move up the ladder and solve bigger problems.

Shift #4: Master the Art of Socratic Selling in Remote Situations

Selling by the telephone or Zoom is more challenging than in-person. There are less visual cues, such as noticing shifts in body language and energy in the room.

One of the biggest differentiators of my training that helps to overcome the drawback of remote selling is a focus on teaching my data consulting clients how to get their prospects to open up in a remote sales discovery session.

It involves a lot of asking Socratic, open-ended questions, then keeping quiet with active listening.

It's about giving the prospect space to think about the problems they've inherited, and the aspirational identity they want to attain.

You need to learn 'trigger words' that the prospect uses to subtly indicate where the pain is in their situation that they want to move away from and the ideal states they want to move towards.

For many data consultants, active listening doesn't come easy. You just want to dive in and consult. You're a consultant, after all, damn it.

But resist that urge to chime in and provide solutions. Get all the problems unpacked first.

If you've done your content marketing the right way, you don't need to show off your expertise. Your webinars and articles have already done that.

Online selling requires you to sell less, ironically, and listen more. 

But when the lockdown lifts and the in-person meetings come back, Socratic questioning is a technique that will serve you equally well in traditional settings so it's not a wasted investment.

Shift #5: Double-Down on Insight Marketing

On a coaching call this week, a fresh client in the myDataBrand program expressed a concern that posting a status update on LinkedIn 3 times a week could be 'crowding their audience'.

You may think there is a cacophony of crap online now, so why add to it?

And you'd be right, the vast majority of data-related content marketing is just noise, of little value to your ICP.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The vast majority of your network won't see your LinkedIn posts and articles for example.

They'll miss that weekly newsletter (that you never send).

I guarantee you're barely scratching the surface when it comes to the amount of content you need to produce to be successful when attracting new clients online.

What's more, chances are you're not doing a whole bunch of other stuff that will dictate your online sales success.

For example, I frequently speak to data consultancy founders who openly lambast LinkedIn for being a crappy sales channel for getting leads from their content.

A glance at their presence quickly highlights the problem...

Generic positioning, to a small network, mostly of data professionals like them, posting non-useful content that talks about the same stuff the rest of the datarati are churning out.

Stop thinking of 'Content Marketing' as just another reason to regurgitate another formulaic article on 'Data Quality Dimensions' or 'Data Maturity'.

Ask yourself:

• Does my audience really give a shit about the stuff I'm writing?
• Is my content actually solving problems and moving them forward
• Do I even have an Ideal Client Profile in my mind's eye when I'm writing this stuff?
• Do I really know what's going on with my Ideal Client Profile right now?

Creating great content is not an art; it's a process that can be learned and mastered.

When I look at my client base, the consultancies who are most successful are those that show up every week posting content that shifts perceptions and drives real insights into the minds of their clearly defined ICP.

They've done the hard work, and now they're reaping the awards in this new global economy that has suddenly, and sadly, been thrust upon us.

If you're still seeing LinkedIn as a sales channel where you can expect to practice the tired old strategy of "Connect 'n Pitch", while skipping insight marketing and trust building - it's time to rethink your client acquisition strategy.

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Do any of these ideas resonate? Want to learn how to adapt your positioning, marketing and sales approach to attract a global audience?

Book a free Breakthrough Call today to learn how other data consultancies are adapting to attract clients across the globe (slots are limited):

https://mydatabrand.com/breakthrough