Betting it all on black

At some point, early in your journey of running a consulting business, you'll receive a call that goes something like this:

"Hi [your-name-here], this is Sidney from the Mobilesphere 3.0 [Conference/Magazine/Tradeshow], and we're running a promotion rate on [booths/ad space/paid speaking spot]. For $10k, you'll get [booth/cheese-tray sponsorship/etc]. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to showcase your brand in front of exactly the right set of buyers. What do you think?"

You, who is just starting to market your practice in earnest: "Umm, that's a half of my yearly marketing budget"

Sidney the Sales Guy: "Sure, but Mobilesphere 3.0 brings everyone in the industry together. Who would you most like to meet? If you were to meet them, what would that be worth to you? What's the value of just one contract for you? Do you think you'd be able to close just one deal if you were to meet the right person? The $10k is going to seem like a small investment".

And now you're starting to think "yeah, maybe he's right. $10k isn't that much when we're selling $100k projects. We just need to start getting our name out there".

I'd like to think I'm the only one that made this mistake (ok... early on, I made it more than once), but every time I go to a trade show I see dozens of lonely looking consultants standing at booths, and every time I open a trade rag I see adverts for a number of services firms, and don't even get me started about the airport billboards ("all of your clients fly often, don't they?")

Unfortunately, the odds of one of your customers, a VP or C-level executive, wandering around a trade show, who just happens to have a problem that needs solving, looking for someone exactly like you, with a 6 or 7 figure budget burning a hole in their pocket, bumping into you and hitting it off is... low. Lower than low, in fact.

Unlike a product, which you can usually try before you buy, engaging a consulting firm is a high-stakes game. Typically your clients aren't coming to you until the shit has really hit the fan, they've exhausted other options, or they are in a crunch. And your client's reputation is on the line in hiring you. Marketing your practice is a process of building trust, and of giving before you get. There's no one magic trade show, or ad, or neon billboard on [101/405/i-95] that is going to send people knocking to your door.

They say that your prospective clients need to hear about you seven times before it registers, and I believe that you need to be giving them something of value - something that reinforces you as a go-to firm - at every one of those seven steps, and they all need to connect. The blog you write leads people to a more detailed white paper, which leads to a webinar, which brings an audience to a live seminar, then to a no-strings-attached consultation. That means taking the time to develop a marketing strategy where each tactic connects and builds on one another, and positions you as an expert who's ready when they need you.