Warning: Lack of consulting prospects could be fatal

Most consultants I know (and this could just be because we tend to hang out with people like ourselves) don't enjoy the business development part of running their own business. They often don't know how to do it in a way that feels authentic, so they dance around it, and hope they get a timely referral.

If and when that referral comes, they apply the Indiana Jones technique and hope for the best, often leading to perilous situations.

Instead of poison arrows and giant boulders, there are other dangers that come with relying too much on one prospect (or a tiny number).

• Providing too much free consulting.
• Dropping prices.
• Trying to make possible clients fit, even if they (and you) would be more successful if they went to a better-suited specialist
• The message, sometime subconscious, that business development is supposed to be like this, leading to more avoidance and a vicious cycle

So many consultants are "busy" doing "business development" that leads to few opportunities, most of which are low-level, commodified projects.

This often leads to the unfortunate tendency to try to broaden your target market. Unfortunately, this has the opposite of the intended effect. Instead of bringing more prospects, it makes sales and marketing harder.

If you're in the (non-commodity) consulting business, you're in a relationship business, which means you're in a conversation business.

This means you have a 2-step sales process.

1. Figure out exactly who you want to talk to.
2. Talk to them.

Everything else-- posting on LinkedIn, YouTube, your email newsletter, your website, lead magnets, Slack channels, etc-- should feed into this process and support it-- not replace it.

And the best way to do step number 1 is to do step number 2. The best way to get amazing content for the "everything else" category, is, you guessed it, step number 2.

When you do these two steps, you don't have a single golden idol to chase, but a tribe of like-minded people that you have relationships with, some of whom need your help at any given time.

Your surgeon (hopefully) is not thinking, "I've only got 4 patients this week, I have to 'convert' two of them into surgical operations this week." The surgeon has a waiting room (and probably a waiting list) of people who need help with their shoulders (or whatever speciality), and can spend time diagnosing, discussing, and proscribing the right course of action for each one. Most of the time, it will not be "let's wheel you back to the OR". (Although the more focused your positioning, the more likely that your prospects needs your services now.)

How are you doing at these 2 steps? How much time do you have in your calendar for them this week?