• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

Kevin C. Whelan

Marketing Strategy Advisor and Mentor

  • About
  • Blog
  • Services
  • Community
  • Contact

January 12, 2021

The emotional nature of consulting

Business is an emotional game. You might not think so, but it is.

You’ve heard the idea that we buy on emotion and justify with logic. It’s true.

But we also keep buying based on how we feel, which is often more important than the initial purchase.

Your job as a marketing advisor is to maintain relationships with your clients and stakeholders in addition to getting good results.

That includes the buyer, their staff, suppliers, and anyone else you encounter along the way.

A consultant’s work is fraught with niggly details, technical challenges, creative solutions, and elements of uncertainty.

Things go wrong, there are ups and downs, and at times, there are uncomfortable conversations. All of which can put a strain on your client relationships.

As a consultant, it’s your job to maintain emotional ease during your engagement, not your clients’.

So how do you maintain emotional equilibrium in your engagements?

Here are a few ideas:

  • Do what you promised
  • Empathize with your client
  • Be candid yet respectful
  • Speak in plain language
  • Be transparent about everything
  • Proactively discuss progress, results, and value
  • Ask for feedback on what’s working or not
  • Check in often to see if you’re still focused on the right things
  • Acknowledge hard topics if it helps prompt helpful conversations
  • Admit your mistakes when you make them
  • Go above and beyond when needed
  • Act in their best interest—even if it goes against yours
  • Be genuine with your interactions

These are just a few of the ways you can maintain your client relationships.

The main thing to remember is that you’re paid to help clients make change. And change can be hard.

Be the guide, empathize, and focus on their best interests at all times.

Do that, and the relationship will take care of itself.

January 11, 2021

Be known for one specific thing

If you had to be known for one thing, what would it be?

What would you be the best in the world at, if you could be? What are you best at now?

What riles you up? What tires you out?

For independent marketing consultants, the answer to these questions point to where your positioning should be.

Sure, you can chase opportunities. It doesn’t have to be something you’ll be known for forever.

But if your positioning is night and day different from the first question, you’re in trouble.

Be known for one very specific thing, if you can.

January 10, 2021

How to listen to any article

I don’t have time to read every good article I come across. Nobody does.

I might skim them from my phone in a spare moment, but unless it’s highly captivating, I just don’t set a lot of time aside.

And that means a lot of good stuff goes unread. So, I’ve started sending articles to Instapaper, then have it read it to me while I do other things.

Instapaper has a premium option for $29.99/year that reads out articles at a speed you prefer. It’s like iPhone’s “Speak” function, but you can set it to a much slower pace so you can actually digest what’s being read.

The voice sounds robotic, yes. It’s not a world-class feature. But I find I’m able to “read” a lot more articles I would otherwise have no time for this way.

Now I send articles I find to Instapaper and set up a list to listen to while I clean dishes or go walking.

Give it a try if you find yourself in a similar situation.

Big fan.

 

 

January 9, 2021

What to do when your consulting work dries up

I was speaking with someone recently who has been a marketing consultant for a few years but has seen their advisory work drop off recently.

When you lose most of your clients, you definitely begin to panic.

After all, it’s not a quick and easy process to get advisory clients. You need to be marketing yourself continually to keep opportunities available for when you need them.

So what do you do when your advisory work dries up?

To me, this is an opportunity to do a few things.

1. Go back to your core skills

Being a marketing advisor or fractional CMO requires knowledge of a wide range of marketing strategies and tactics.

Most marketing consultants (all) are somewhat T-Shaped. We are deep experts in one or two areas and have a wide range of knowledge on the rest.

When the opportunities are not around, it might be time to go back to the things you do best and cut the rest, focusing the what you offer so that you are clear about where you add the most value.

This will help reframe you as the ideal candidate for someone who needs exactly what you offer.

2. Start doing implementation work

If I lost all my clients tomorrow and noticed I was having difficulty getting new ones, I’d probably go back to making websites and build back up from there.

It’s a lot easier to sell implementation than it is to sell advisory work. Rebuild from your core skills, do the implementation work people need, then layer in advisory options in your proposals until people start to buy them again.

For me, I went from doing freelancing, to running an agency, to a “fractional CMO” role with a project management piece, to eventually pure advisory work.

Getting back into implementation work can be the quickest way to get your business going again.

Keep offering advisory work as well until people start buying it again.

3. Use your implementation skills as a sub-contractor

The most important thing you can do if you’re not earning enough money is to find some kind of work.

You have a responsibility to yourself and your family to keep getting paid—otherwise you’ll find yourself in a job quicker than you can say “CLIENT”.

When I was just starting out on my own, I did a lot of sub-contractor work for other agencies. Design agencies, IT companies,  digital marketing agencies all needed things like web development and content marketing to fill their gaps. I had those skills and more.

Sub-contracting is not a place you want to live forever. But if you have no other choice, one or two agency relationships can bring a bunch of client work if you stick to the things you do best.

4. Consider broadening your positioning

Another thing you can do, which is not what I would normally recommend, is go back to a more generalist positioning.

If you’re doing implementation work, and you focus on your narrow area of specialty (i.e. design or SEO), you’re bound to run into people who need a talented individual at that thing.

This is called horizontal positioning. It means you’re not focused as much on who you serve but what you offer. Keep it broad and/or mention several industries of expertise.

This isn’t a long term strategy, but sometimes you need to broaden yourself to make yourself more appealing to your general network, then build a tighter positioning on the side again.

But definitely build that tighter positioning on the side ASAP so you can get back to running a proper advisory business,

5. Ramp up content marketing efforts

I’ve succeeded primarily through content marketing.

It’s why I blog daily and will continue to put out as much content as I can. If things aren’t working, try ramping up your blog and social media presence.

Broaden your surface area.

You may also want to start a podcast and invite your ideal target market onto it as a guest. I know a few people doing this and they seem to rave about how effective it is.

It helps to have a niche, though.

6. Talk to people 

The next and final step I’d recommend is to simply talk to people in your network and let them know you’re looking to take on X type of implementation work or even do sub-contracting if they wanted to mark up your time.

If you have relationships, this can go a long way towards getting money in the door to let you build your advisory practice back up in a niche where you can be effective.

I’d also talk to people in your ideal target market. See what they are working on, add value for free if you can, and be first to come to mind when work becomes available.

In closing 

If your consulting work dries up and isn’t showing signs of improvement, go back a few steps in the ladder and build things back up the way you did the first time. Try some of the ideas I mentioned, too.

Usually, if you’re not selling advisory work, it means there is an awareness, positioning, or trust problem.

Go back to the basics, do whatever work you can to stay in the game, and rebuild your business again from scratch, tightening your focus as you go.

 

P.S. If you’re a marketing professional and need help with your consulting or freelance business, definitely join Mindshare, a private podcast and community with resources that will help you do great work for better clients.

January 8, 2021

The tricky part of calculating customer lifetime value

The only way to know the ROI of your marketing is to know two things: customer acquisition cost and lifetime value.

Your acquisition costs are relatively easy to determine. It’s ultimately the total amount spent on marketing divided by the number of new customers you signed up.

Where it gets tricky is the lifetime value.

As a marketing consultant, you need to know this stuff for your clients. So let’s let into it.

There are several ways to calculate lifetime value. It varies depending on whether you have a recurring revenue business, sporadic repeat purchases, one-time purchases, or several other factors.

Your goal is to create a fair estimate at the total amount your clients or customers will net your company over the lifetime of their relationship with your business.

That is your lifetime value.

But most people stop the calculation at the expected lifetime revenue or profit of that new customer. They don’t account for referrals. 

Referrals are a funny thing. One customer may refer you to two people over the lifetime of their relationship with you.

And then one of those two people may refer you to two more people over the lifetime of your relationship with them.

You get the picture.

Suddenly, the lifetime value is not anything near the original revenue- and profit-based models.

Each client has their own lifetime value, and the initial referrer has a much higher one.

The real question is, should you calculate those into your lifetime value calculations?

Maybe, but I’d rather not put it into any spreadsheet or budget calculations, personally.

I’d rather aim for a positive return on investment scenario even if nobody ever refers anybody.

Why? Because then it gives buffer if things go wrong or you miscalculate. 

Referrals are an extremely valuable and important source of new customers, regardless of who you are.

You should absolutely know how many of your new clients come from referrals, and if it’s a lot, you might justify adjusting your customer lifetime value accordingly.

But for the most part, I like to plan ROI scenarios conservatively and treat referrals as a bonus.

That might just be

January 7, 2021

How to create stuff people want to buy

The more marketing you do, the bigger your surface area becomes, and the more people will likely find you.

But there’s another half to the equation that is equally important. And that’s selling something people actually want.

It doesn’t matter how broad your surface area is, if what you’re offering isn’t compelling to the people who discover you, you don’t have a business.

And while positioning is very important, it takes more than good positioning to attract clients and customers.

You need to also have a compelling product or service. 

Luckily, there’s a straightforward approach to creating products and services people want to buy.

Here’s how it works, in very specific order:

  1. Get clear on who you want to serve
  2. Learn everything you can about them
  3. Create solutions to their problems
  4. Evolve your offerings and/or adjust your target market (if needed) based on what works best

A lot of people skip to the part where they create solutions and then look for people who have problems they can solve.

That’s a recipe for failure, and yet it’s our first instincts as entrepreneurs.

As Seth Godin says, and I’m paraphrasing, ‘don’t make a key then look for a lock that fits’.

Pick your ideal target marketing, get to know them extremely well, create solutions they want or ask for, and then iterate forever in a continuous loop. 

That’s what customer centric means.

January 6, 2021

Own it and move on

There will come times when things won’t go your way.

Your work won’t land or you won’t get the results you intended.

The best thing to do is take responsibility, own the outcome, seek to make it right if you can, then move on when it’s time.

Leadership isn’t about always winning. It isn’t about always being right, either.

It’s about making choices and owning the consequences. Even when you feel like it’s not your fault, it’s still your responsibility. That’s the role leaders play.

Sometimes, it’s about accepting a defeat and moving on.

Own your losses and move on.

January 5, 2021

Be oddly specific

I was looking for a camera lens the other day for my Zoom calls and webinars. Something to up my video game a bit.

After all, I get paid to talk on Zoom all day—I might as well make it the highest possible quality!

So, I took my search to YouTube to investigate the best lens for this situation.

The videos were endless. But the ones I was constantly drawn to were oddly specific about the use case (Zoom calls), the hook/core topic (i.e comparison), and the technology they were highlighting.

For context, my camera is a Sony a6400. I wanted either a Sigma 30mm lens or a zoom lens, like a Sigma 24-70mm.

None of these are affiliate links, btw. 😉

The ones that drew me in had titles like, “The best Zoom setup for your home office”, “My HIGH QUALITY Live Stream Setup!!”, “Sigma 30mm 1.4 lens review”, etc.

The videos were circling around my specific area of interest. But nothing was as exact as I was looking for.

Then I found one: “How to get the absolute best telework setup – Elgato Camlink 4k + Sony A7R4 + Sigma 30mm“.

Now, I have a different camera but it’s the same brand and not too dissimilar.

I also have an Elgato Camlink 4k (lets you plug in your DSLR camera to your computer) and I have been thinking about purchasing the 30mm Sigma lens for some time.

The point is, the title was almost written for my exact question. It was oddly specific around what I was looking for.

And that’s how you want to position your services. Especially if you’re able to serve a global audience.

The world is full of options that look the same.

At the same time, the Internet has brought all of those options to the forefront, making it harder and harder to stand out.

The good news is, you get to be oddly specific, too.

The best things for sale are the ones that fit like a glove. If we can’t find it, we will settle for less-than-ideal.

But we always want the thing that feels like it was made precisely for us.

Marketing consultants are everywhere. Be oddly specific what what you do and/or who you do it for. Everything gets easier when you do.

The hardest part is taking the leap and trying it out.

January 4, 2021

What happens when you aren’t charging enough

My last accountant charged way too little.

She charged a fixed fee, but my business was growing quickly so I outgrew it within a few months.

As my workload grew, her price remained the same. But she didn’t address it by asking for more. It eventually became a problem.

After a while, it took longer and longer to get responses from her. My books were taking longer to be reconciled and the quality of her work went way down.

I could tell I became a “second class citizen” in her client world. I even offered to pay more a few times, of which she accepted once.

There’s a lesson here.

By not charging your clients enough to do the work AND make a profit, you’ll eventually run into a few scenarios—none of which are good.

  1. You’ll get better clients and make them the priority
  2. You’ll stop doing good work for your lower-priced clients
  3. You’ll start de-prioritizing their work
  4. You’ll start to resent them
  5. They’ll start to notice
  6. They’ll start to resent you
  7. They’ll replace you with someone who makes them a priority
  8. They’ll never work with you again
  9. They’ll tell people about their negative experience

I’m not looking for low-cost suppliers in my business. Most businesses aren’t.

Instead, I want professional-quality work from people who charge enough to make time for me and do good work.

It might be tempting to keep old clients around who are paying old rates because they represent “safe” and “predictable” revenue. But what ends up happening is they become after-thoughts when you get better clients.

You’ll get busy to make up for lost revenue potential, and with that, your relationship will eventually deteriorate along with the quality of your services.

Some people want the cheapest rate possible. Don’t work with people like that.

Instead, charge a rate that gets you excited and then do good work for them!

Don’t justify poor-quality service because you’re not charging enough. That’s on you to fix.

Either charge enough to get you excited to work with them, or refer them to someone who can do the job instead.

January 3, 2021

Where do you find your clients?

The secret to finding more clients is analyzing how your past clients found and came to trust you, then doing more of that.

Where did your last client come from?

And how did you attract the five clients before them?

What activities did you do which led to them finding you in the first place?

Where did they first see you?

When did they subscribe or join your ecosystem?

How long did it take for them to reach out?

What happened that led to trust being built enough for them to reach out?

Do more of that. Build on it, but don’t complicate it.

Do what works and repeat the cycle.

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to page 4
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 14
  • Go to Next Page »

Copyright © 2021 · Kevin C. Whelan

 

See a bug or typo? Let me know!
All prices in USD.