A straightforward tutorial on how small consulting firms can build their businesses using strategic marketing and sales techniques at a low cost.

1. Building Your
Consulting Practice
eTutorial
From
Buzzfile.com
Copyright © 2013 Buzzfile. All rights reserved.

2. Building Your Consulting Practice
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One of the most difficult things for individual
consultants or small consulting practices to do is
find the time and money to market their services.
You know the problem – you’re so busy serving
your existing clients that you don’t know where to
find the time to get new clients.
This e-tutorial is designed to help you analyze your
business, target your market, and find quality
leads. We’ll also provide some helpful hints about
how to network and promote yourself. It’s all easy
and designed to help you build your business like a
marketing pro.
 Analyze your customer base
 Identify your universe of potential customers
 Sale & marketing techniques
Table of Contents

3. Building Your Consulting Practice: Analyze Your Customer Base
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Let’s start by using an example of a consultant in
Albuquerque, NM. Neal has one large client in the
specialty construction business. He has several other
clients that are small accounting firms.
Let’s take a look at his largest client first, and figure
out, exactly, what industry they are in so that he can
see if there are similar businesses in his area.
We’ll start with using Buzzfile – a free business
database with over 21 Million U.S. companies in over
18,000 industries.
Begin by entering
the name of the
customer, then
put in the city and
state so that you
can narrow your
search quickly.
You’ll “Add” each criteria into your Search Criteria box. Then
Click on “Get results” from that box to go to the Company
Page.
The first step for Neal is to look at
these customer bases and see
where his opportunities may lie.

4. Building Your Consulting Practice: Analyze Your Customer Base
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The Sector, Category and Industry that the customer is
displayed so that we can look for similar companies in the
same categories.
Businesses are labelled by Sector
(the highest level), then Category,
and finally Industry. You can click on
any level and find similar businesses.
Starting at the Industry level will give
more precise results, and moving up
to a higher level will give similar, but
not as exact matches.
COMPANY PAGE
The estimated revenue and number of employees are
important indicators when searching for likely prospects.
SEARCH RESULTS
To make things easier, companies in similar categories that
are nearby are listed as well..

5. Building Your Consulting Practice: Identify Potential Customers
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Analyzing your customer base
allows you to understand what
kind of customers are most likely
to use your services based on
who has engaged you in the past.
Some types of businesses that
You can put in
your city, county
or state to find
businesses near
you in the industry
you’ve identified.
You also have the option you put in some criteria to narrow down
your results based on revenue or number of employees.
Select the Sector,
Category and
Industry you’ve
identified
you are servicing now represent a much larger
opportunity for growth, others may just provide a few
additional leads. This analysis will help you decide
what new companies may simply lead to making
some sales calls, and which may be large enough to
consider a more structured marketing effort.
Start this process by using what you learned about
the Industry , Revenues and Number of Employees
your current customers have.
Let’s continue with the example of the glass and
glazing company that our consultant in Albuquerque
NM has as a current customer and see if there are
similar companies to target.
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In some cases,
information about the
demographics of the
neighborhood that a
business resides in is of value and that could be entered as well.
However, for Neal, that is not relevant to his target market.

6. Building Your Consulting Practice: Identify Potential Customers
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SEARCH RESULTS
There is only one company in Albuquerque that is the same size as Neal’s
customer. This may be an individual sales prospect but it’s clear that this
industry doesn’t represent a large market in his area. So, let’s drill down and
analyze more of his customer base and see what kind of results we get.
Accounting FirmsGlass & Glazing
Customer
Prospect

7. Building Your Consulting Practice: Identify Potential Customers
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Think about your customers and their needs when
searching for new prospects. If you are a consultant, a
very small business may not have the money or desire
for extra services. A very large company may have the
resources to hire someone with your skill set full time.
7
You can put in
your city or state
to find businesses
near you in the
industry you’ve
identified.
Select the Sector,
Category and
Industry you’ve
identified.
In this case, the
Category was
specific enough,
and refining the
search further by
Industry didn’t
seem necessary.
A prior search of all “Accounting,
auditing an bookkeeping” companies
indicated that a minimum of 5
employee through a maximum of 25
employees would create a good
universe of prospects.
$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $
REVENUES
EMPLOYEES
The first search of “Accounting, auditing and
bookkeeping” in Albuquerque NM returned 434
results. 371 of these companies had less than 5
employees and 12 had more than 25 employees.
A best guess of “not too small” and “not too big”
set the search criteria at 5 – 25 employees returning
a universe of 51 results.
EXAMPLE
Let’s see
the results

8. Building Your Consulting Practice: Identify Potential Customers
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45 companies is a great result – enough to create an
effective, but manageable sales & marketing program.
SEARCH RESULTS

9. Building Your Consulting Practice: Identify Potential Customers
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To further analyze and refine your results, sort on any field by clicking on the column header. Click a second time to
reverse the order of the sort results.
Buzzfile search results always indicate if a company is
a “Single” location, a Branch” of a larger company, or
the “Headquarters” for multi-location companies.
If a company is listed as a “Branch,” when you make
your initial sales call, ask if decisions are made locally
or the “Headquarters” level – this will allow you to
adjust your sales plan and make the selling process
more effective.
HQ
Branch
Branch
Branch
or
Single
Location

10. Building Your Consulting Practice: Sales & Marketing Techniques
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Sales doesn’t always come easy for consultants.
Being an expert in technology, payroll or another skill
set doesn’t necessarily extend to being a top sales
person. In addition, many people have a hard time
selling themselves.
The good news is that effective sales is about
developing a relationship by listening to the needs of
others. Your responses should show your expertise and
build confidence in your abilities. This approach is
called “consultative selling” and it is the approach that
the best sales pros use.
Getting introductions to potential clients is one of the
best ways to get your foot in the door so don’t be shy
about telling others you are looking to expand your
business.
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also shows that you don’t take getting a referral for
granted. If you get a new customer through a referral,
don’t forget to let your client know and thank them
with a small gift or a note.
Talk to your existing clients. Tell them that you want to
build your consulting practice and you want to make
sure that they are satisfied with your service before
you ask them to recommend them to others. This
approach will give you some constructive feedback if
there are any reservations about providing a referral. It
ASK FOR REFERRALS
START NETWORKING
Let friends and business colleagues know that you are
looking for contacts to build your practice. If you aren’t
yet using LinkedIn, set up a profile and connect with
people who have worked with or for in the past.
Check out their recent and past employment history,
you may find that they have worked in an industry you
want to target. Make sure you can give a 1 minute
overview of what you do and can name the types of
customers you are looking for. This will let others know
what you need and if they can help you. And don’t
make assumptions about who could be of most value.
There is an old adage called “the power of weak
connections” where someone who knows someone
who knows you can give you a great lead.

11. Building Your Consulting Practice: Sales & Marketing Techniques
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Marketing allows you to reach many prospects
with one message. One or more methods can be used,
and a combination of approaches is usually the most
effective:
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 Simple letter (on letterhead stationery) with a 1-
page sales sheet
OR
 Postcard introducing your services.
You can print out a letterhead and your letter on a
good home office printer and print envelopes directly
with your return address and the prospect’s address.
If you don’t have graphic design skills, look through the
templates for Word; you can easily create a sales sheet
that looks professional. A local copy shop can print out
a color page on nice paper for low cost.
DIRECT MAIL
If you want to standout, and increase your open rate,
pick out an interesting envelope.
Postcards can be printed inexpensively though online
digital printers like PrintingForLess.com and designed
using a Word template. Office supply stores have
postcard-weight paper if you want to print yourself.
A 5 ½ “ x 8 ½ “ postcard is a nice size – big enough to
get your message across and to get the reader’s
attention.
Follow up your mailing about 7– 10 days later with a
phone call if you have a manageable size list. You don’t
need to send out all mail pieces at once. If you have a
list of 300, you can send out 30 / week over 10 weeks
and set aside a specific time to go through and call. Put
your call time in your calendar and make it part of your
routine.

12. Building Your Consulting Practice: Sales & Marketing Techniques
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Consultants typically have an area of expertise that the
companies they want to service lack. Free seminars or
training sessions are a great draw.
First, if you are targeting a specific industry, see if they
have a local association in your area. They may offer
monthly meetings or other opportunities for speakers.
If so, work though them. If there isn’t a specific
industry associations, there may be some small
business organizations that will have an audience that
meets your needs.
If there isn’t an organization to work through, consider
finding a venue and setting up your own seminar.
Often restaurants or hotels will have a meeting room.
IN-PERSON MARKETING
Look for companies that lease shared office spaces and
ask if they would rent a conference room for a few
hours.
A 5 ½ “ x 8 ½ “ postcard is a nice size – big enough to
get your message across and to get the reader’s
attention.
Follow up your mailing about 7– 10 days later with a
phone call if you have a manageable size list. You don’t
need to send out all mail pieces at once. If you have a
list of 300, you can send out 30 / week over 10 weeks
and set aside a specific time to go through and call. Put
your call time in your calendar and make it part of your
routine.