Slow Cycle In Your Consulting Business: The 4-Part Solution

Author: Melisa Liberman

Host of the ???Grow Your Independent Consulting Business podcast &?

Creator of the?? IC Business Scalability Scorecard

What happens when you hit a slow sales cycle in your consulting business?

Last week, I shared with you why this might be happening in your consulting business. If you haven’t read that article yet, click here to give it a read.

The reason why your business is slow is because you have an unhealthy pipeline.

The health of your pipeline is a direct reflection of how you're thinking about 4 foundational belief systems in your business.?

So now that you know what causes a slow sales cycle in your business, what can you do about it?

In today’s edition of The Independent, we’re going to cover:

• The 4 foundational belief systems that you need to continually strengthen in your business
• The 4-step process you can use to strengthen these 4 foundational belief systems in your business

What are the 4 foundational belief systems of your consulting business do you need to strengthen to overcome a slow business cycle?

In order to have a healthy pipeline and a successful consulting business, you have to get into the mindset of a successful business owner. To get into the mindset of a successful business owner, you need to focus on strengthening the following 4 foundation belief systems:

• The beliefs you have about yourself
• The beliefs you have about your potential clients
• The beliefs you have about your services/offers
• The beliefs you have about your chosen lead generation process

Now that we know what these 4 belief systems are, let’s go into a little more detail about each one.

Belief System #1: The beliefs you have about yourself.

As with most things, awareness is key. You have to be aware of the default thinking you have about yourself and your abilities.?

If you are like most consultants I know, sales is probably not your favorite activity. Because of this, you start to think that you aren’t good at sales. But that’s the thing…it’s a thought, not a fact.?

If we were to sit down and have a conversation, we would find many instances where you were GREAT at sales. So when you're thinking that you’ve never been good at sales and treat this as a fact and not a thought, you are sending yourself down a very long, hard, and dusty road.?

To strengthen the beliefs you have about yourself, you need to shift your default thinking to intentional thinking.

• Determine what your default thinking is by writing down all the thoughts you have about why your business isn’t successful at this moment.?
• Shift your mindset from default thinking to intentional thinking by countering each default thought with intentional thought.
• Anytime these default thoughts come up for you, take a moment to look at your list and shift your mindset to intentional thinking.

Shifting to intentional thinking can create an emotional state of curiosity or commitment. It is much better to be running your lead generation process from the emotional state of curiosity and commitment vs. frustration because it yields much higher quality results. The way that you do that is that you start thinking differently about yourself.

Belief System #2: The beliefs you have about your potential clients.

I often find that independent consultants will approach a project with potential clients from a tentative place. This happens because of the default thinking that:?

• The client doesn’t want to hire you
• You aren’t good enough to solve the problem they have
• The client doesn’t need help at this time

If you think to yourself, “I'm going to have this meeting with a potential client. They probably don't want my help, but I'll just do it anyway.”, then you're going to be dismissive as you go into the meeting. When you think about it that way, you might even have a little bit of fear as you go into this meeting. This results in you going into the meeting, going through the motions, checking the boxes, and expecting that it won't work.?

Ultimately, you'll never get to the point in the conversation where you find out whether they need help or not, because you've decided on your own that they didn't. That's not how you want to run your healthy business development pipeline development process.

Shifting to intentionally believing the client needs your help to solve the problem will shift the way you approach the conversation.

Shifting your thoughts to “It’s possible they may want my help.” will help shift your mindset from resistance to curiosity. And when you can shift into curiosity, you go into consultant mode. You start:

• Asking a lot of questions
• Creating a relationship with them?
• Demonstrating your expertise

Ultimately, this results in you showing up as helpful. You uncover the help that they need from you, directly or indirectly. The beliefs you have about your prospective clients make all the difference in how you approach the conversations with your leads.

Belief System #3: The beliefs you have about your services/offers.

You need to have unwavering confidence and belief in the services that you provide. That doesn’t mean that there won’t be occasions where you might take a hit to your competence. It’s going to happen from time to time.?

An unwavering belief in your services means that you're in the level of belief about what you do and in the value of it, most of the time. It also means that when something bad happens, you have a way to get back into the confidence without needing something external to come along and get you back into that place where you feel good.

To start building an unwavering belief in your services, you have to cultivate confidence about what you offer.

You can’t rely on external factors such as:

• Having a certain amount of leads in your pipeline
• Gaining a new client
• Praise from others

You have to cultivate confidence about what you do and what you provide all the time in order to create this unwavering belief. It’s more than just confidence in what you do. It’s a confidence that the services you provide bring massive value to your clients. If you are not confident and reliant on external sources to make you feel like you are good enough, then your pipeline is going to continue to suffer.

Belief System #4: The beliefs you have about your chosen lead generation process.

You should have chosen what a lead generation process looks like for you. It’s not something you should be doing off the cuff. The key point I want to make here is that your lead generation process is something that you CHOSE.

For example, your lead generation process could be all about networking. That is how you would make connections with people in your warm network and new people, too. And if you meet 8 people in a month, then one will turn into a client. Those are the numbers you need to have a healthy pipeline.

If you go into this process skeptical about its ability to work, you're going to second guess yourself. You're also going to quickly look for ways to change what you're doing midstream.?

To be confident about a lead generation process and go all in, you have to quit looking for ways to change your approach.

Building a healthy pipeline process off of a solid foundation, where you're thinking intentionally about your chosen lead generation process with high-quality thoughts, creates an emotional state and a set of actions that lead you to the result where you become the person who commits to something until it works. Lead generation is not about the strategy. It’s about the mindset you have behind your lead generation process.

So- how do you put these 4 foundational belief systems together and in action to build a healthy pipeline in your business?

Use this 4-step process to strengthen your belief systems, change your mindset, and create and sustain a healthy pipeline in your independent consulting business.

• Recognize. What are you thinking about those 4 foundational areas that are creating your current results?
• Redirect and recommit. This is you deciding what you're going to do to create a healthy pipeline and sticking with it.
• Reprogram. Once you redirect, make it a point to stay in your high-quality business owner mindset and take action from this mindset.
• Reinforce. This is you repeating the new way of thinking and the new way of seeing yourself until you become that person.

When you do these steps over and over, it's someone you become. Your results become automatic by default and your success becomes inevitable. Then, you can start working on the next goal. This process is all about strengthening the foundation of the way you look at yourself as a business owner.?

Ready to start filling your pipeline in only 26 minutes a day?

Everybody can find 26 minutes in their day to set themselves up for success. It’s about choosing to make the time and make it happen. If you need a little help getting started, check out my RAM Method. This is my proprietary formula for client engagement and conversion that can help you fill your pipeline and gain your next client in as little as 26-minutes a day.