Same Same or Different in 2023?

As we rapidly head towards the end of another year, I thought I'd ask you about your "go to market" intentions in the new year and, at the same time, share with you some of the challenges we have helped clients with over the last 12 months.

We worked with a wide range of consulting firms, but most of their challenges and frustrations are the same.

Here's a quick snapshot that you might find relatable;

• Reliance on networks and referrals for new business with very few direct clients.
• Lack of a visible and predictable pipeline of work.
• Working with clients that have incorrectly self-diagnosed their problem or the root cause and find it challenging to shift to what you know they should be doing.
• Still taking on work and clients they aren't, let's say, totally enthused about because they know there's a better way to approach it, but it's hard to say no, and they have to put food on the table.
• Too often engaged by the technical and not the economic buyer (C-Suite)
• Understandable scepticism driven by underwhelming results from past marketing efforts but like how we managed to attract and engage them as clients.?

At the end of the day, these challenges result from positioning yourself to what the market thinks they want, which in turn puts you in a weak marketable position.

It means that the market forces you to conform, resulting in you looking the same as everyone else and offering the same list of "services" with little room to differentiate.

This, in turn, gives the client more lookalikes to choose from and makes it difficult for them to decide who is the best fit.

The irony is that neither of you is really helping the other, but that's not the client's fault; only you can change it up.

How? By not conforming and being different and difference creates value. Please let me know if this resonates; I'd love to know.

And if you'd like to explore further how and what doing things differently could look like for your consulting firm, please feel free to reach out to me for a conversation.

If it works for you, you can book a 1st quarter 2023?Kickstarter Workshop?– we only do one a week, so slots are filling fast.

And have a wonderful and safe Festive Season.