The problem with waiting for people to just "come and buy" is that it means your business growth is limited to repeat business and referrals. And, whilst they are incredibly important, they're difficult to predict.

This means your risk your business growth being stagnant, or worse, shrinking! 

You have to implement effective marketing. And what I don't mean by that is that you attend the occasional networking event, or do the odd exhibition here of there. 

That’s not strategic marketing. In fact, that’s not even tactical marketing. At best it’s hope marketing.

The other thing I see with firms who don't take marketing seriously is a combination of: 1) relying on out of date marketing tactics, and 2) getting their consultants to "do" marketing. I can tell you for a fact that if this is your approach, you're leaving a lot of food on the table. 

This is where the difficulty begins. Marketing is such a big, complex topic. And over recent years the pace of change has been fierce!

Much of what’s been shown, taught and implemented in the past fails in today's world.

A world where digital and traditional channels have combined.

A world where, just because something works for one firm, there's no guarantee that it will work for yours.

A world where you can no longer rely on a single marketing channel - you must be omnichannel. Serving your prospects and clients wherever they are, however they want.

Few people understand the nuance of marketing a consultancy.

Instead, they try to implement the same strategies and tactics that work for product sales and online-only businesses.

That's when you hear people talking about marketing funnels. But marketing a consulting firms is about building trust, not funnels. 

The challenge is to identify which marketing channels you can deploy to affordably build trust, get engagement with prospects, and to do so both predictably and in the shortest time possible.

And for any channel to work, you must commit to being consistent, persistent, and patient. You’re too intelligent to believe that you can simply do these things once and expect positive results. Building trust takes times. You can't shortcut it.

What you can do, however, is gather and analyse data.

Data that will enable you to accurately identify what’s working and what’s not. And in response, adapt your marketing strategy and tactics.