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I want more marketing...

...said no consulting business leader ever.  Instead, what I hear them say most is...

"We're the world's best kept secret!"

I’ve lost count of the number of consulting business leaders who say to me, “We’re the world’s best kept secret” as though it’s something to be proud of! It's quite simple - if people don’t know who you are, your growth is going to be severely constrained – mostly by your reliance on repeat business and referrals.

Part of the problem, understandably, is that the vast majority of consultants and consultancies didn't set out to be experts in marketing. And the problem with that is there's no shortage of supposed marketing experts and agencies looking to sell you their services! 

However, the vast majority of marketing agencies don't understand strategy. And they don't understand the nuances of marketing a B2B consulting business.  Don't get me wrong, they're fantastic tacticians, but, as the ancient Chinese military strategist, Sun Tzu said:

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory.
Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.

"Our growth strategy is entirely reliant on repeat business and referrals. Oh, and a good dose of luck!"

When you don't know how to market effectively, you find yourself reliant on repeat business and referrals. 

And these are both fantastic ways in which to get new business. The problem comes when these are your only ways of getting new business. When that's the case they become a problem for two reasons. 

Firstly, they're largely unpredictable. Sure, a renewal does have at least some predictability. But there's still a chance that it doesn't happen. Let's say, for example, your primary sponsor leaves the client organisation - will their replacement be willing to renew the contract?  

Secondly, when you're reliant on repeat business, you're at risk of becoming over-reliant on a very small number of clients. Aside from the risk of lost revenue that would bring if they choose to move on, a more common problem is that they throw all sorts of different work your way. 

And in your eagerness to please (because you need the client and the revenues) you willingly tackle all sorts of different engagements. Whilst this might be intellectually stimulating, it's not actually that helpful to the medium and long-term growth of your firm. You see, the more different client challenges you tackle, the more diluted your core area of expertise becomes. As a result, the more costly and more difficult it becomes to market your firm. 

Marketing a firm with many different services is the prevail of the biggest consultancies only. 

"We're always struggling with feast and famine revenues and we don't know how to break the cycle!"

Feast and famine revenues are a sign of neglected marketing. Often it's a combination of factors, including the team being too busy on paid engagements; limited expertise and therefore interest in marketing; and no-one with overall responsibility. As a result, you experience feast and famine revenues where some months you're rolling in it, and others the till is empty! Usually, in a consulting business like this, revenues drop off a cliff in 3 months time. 

Firms in this situation typically approach marketing in a knee-jerk, inconsistent way. They "do" marketing only when the pipeline is looking empty. And they drop their marketing efforts as soon as things pick up again. The problem with marketing is that it's a bit like an oil tanker. It takes a long time for any inputs to have an effect. And to keep turning it on and off  has very little effect.


A more fundamental problem with feast and famine revenue is that it encourages the use of subcontract resources. The view being that these resources are easy to scale up and down, often at short notice. Whilst that is true, you pay a hefty price for that flexibility. Money that could instead be invested in your business for the long-term - by developing a sustainable marketing approach, and in turn, having greater funds available to invest in more cost effective permanent team members. 

"We've tried a ton of different marketing things, but nothing seems to really work!"

There's a triumvirate of factors that make for successful marketing. They are:

  1. Consistency
  2. Persistency
  3. Patience

In my experience, most consulting businesses "do" marketing reluctantly. It's a necessary evil. As a result, it doesn't feature high enough in their priorities. That means it gets neglected - only to be considered when there's a need to fill the pipeline. The trouble is, marketing takes time to be effective. And it requires continual stoking. 

Yet if you wait until it's too late, you'll be impatient to see results. And if you don't have the expertise and experience, you'll likely be making rash decisions. You'll also be making statements like. "Oh [marketing tactic] doesn't work for our firm." The marketing tactic in question might be Linkedin, or blogging, or exhibitions. It doesn't really matter, they're all at risk of being summarily dismissed due to improper use. 

"We don't want to market and sell. We just want clients to come and buy!"

As consultants we're always proud of what we've achieved. And we're usually pretty damn good at what we do. We feel like we shouldn't have to market or sell anyway. Clients should just come and buy!

I can see consultancies like this a mile away. Their marketing is all about them. Their website focuses solely on themselves - their services, their people, and their history. 

In the old days – and by that, I mean pre-internet - this kind of marketing was more likely to work. Businesses sold secrets. They had a capability that no-one else had. And they kept their knowledge solely for the people who paid for it. 

Now, however, we’re firmly in the information age. There are no secrets anymore. Your prospects can find out how to solve their most pressing challenges with a quick Google search or on YouTube.

To grow a consulting business in today's highly competitive, globalised environment, you must deploy effective marketing. Marketing that positions your firm as experts in helping your ideal clients to overcome their most pressing challenges. To do that, you must become a thought leader.


If only it was that easy! Consultants - or at least, the type of character that a consultant is - are very different to marketers. And the skills are quite different too. Let's look at the contrast:

When consultants are "doing" consultancy, they:

  • Are doing what they're trained to do
  • Are doing what they know how to do
  • Know what to say, and are confident
  • Get feedback, which is nearly always positive
  • Seldom fail, and if they do, they'll do what it takes to turn things around

When consultants are "doing" marketing, they:

  • Are doing things that they're not trained to do
  • Are doing things that mostly have not been asked for
  • Don't know what to say, and often lack confidence
  • Can experience negative feedback
  • Are openly sharing views in front of competitors
  • Must learn to embrace - and expect - frequent failure

As you can see, expecting consultants to pick up marketing like a duck to water is a bit of a tall order. That's why most consultants would rather prospects just come and buy!


Why bother marketing your consulting business anyway?

Look, you don't have to "do" marketing. There are plenty of consultancies that eke out a living through repeat business and referrals alone. It really comes down to whether or not you want to resolve the issues listed above; whether you want to grow your business; and whether or not you choose to seek investment or sale in the future. 

There are many additional benefits to effective marketing, including:

  • Reduced stress as your lead generation becomes more predictable
  • Increased referrals as your audience grows
  • Increased fees as your marketing attracts the right prospects, and your pipeline creates the confidence to charge more
  • Increased scalability as you marketing ensures you attract more clients who need the same thing
  • Increased profitability as you become evermore effective and efficient at solving a distinct set of client challenges
  • The ability to attract high-quality candidates as your firm becomes known as thought leaders
  • Increased interest from potential investors and acquirers

Where to start with marketing your consulting business?

There are 3 main elements to marketing a B2B consultancy:

1. Develop your Marketing Strategy

When it comes to marketing, one of the greatest challenges a consultancy can face is when it's a solution looking for a problem!

What I mean here is that a consulting business exists to help clients to overcome the challenges they face - whether they be positive opportunities, or negative problems. Therefore, marketing a consulting business starts by marketing to the client challenges, rather than your consultancy's services. 

As I always say:

Challenges are for marketing; Services are for selling

So, if you don't know what the specific challenges are that you help clients to solve, and who exactly is facing them, you're going to end up approaching marketing by talking only about your firm. You're a solution looking for a problem. And that's a very challenging way to market consulting in a competitive market. 

Oh, and what many consulting business owners think are differentiators are not. They're the same thing everyone else says i.e. honesty, integrity, research-based, etc. etc. 

On the flip side, another challenge is when your firm aims to help clients by offering too many different services. This is where boutiques and micro-firms make the mistakes of trying to appear like a big player. For example, your team of 20 offers 30 different services on your website! And sure, the big firms do this, but they have the scale to do so, and the accompanying marketing budgets.

When it comes to marketing, you have to make a choice. You have to decide which specific challenges you want your firm to be known for. Otherwise your marketing will be unaffordable. 

That's not to say that you can't help clients to solve additional challenges. As I always say:

You can sell whatever you want to whomever you want, you just can't market that!

You need to decide what you want your firm to be known for, and where you want to invest your limited marketing budget.


There are three core elements to developing a marketing strategy for a consulting firm, as shown in the diagram below:

2. Define your Marketing Plan

If your Marketing Strategy defines your identity, your Marketing Plan determines how your strategy will come about. 

For a consulting business, marketing is really about finding your audience, educating it, and through the selective use of different marketing tactics, channelling your prospects towards you such that they will reach out to you, or they'll be receptive to you contacting them.

The diagram below shows the key elements of a Marketing Plan. 

3. Determine and execute your Marketing Tactical Plans

Your Marketing Strategy defines your identity. Your Marketing Plan determines how you will build an audience, educate it, and draw prospects towards your firm. Your Marketing Tactical Plans determine who is involved in the creation of your marketing content, and the management of its distribution.  


Need help to get your marketing working?

The B2B Marketer exists to help B2B consultancies - from solopreneur to boutique firms  - get to grips with marketing. Our offerings are based upon the size of your firm, as below:

  • Boutique Firm (>£1m)

  • Micro-Firm (<£1m)

  • Solopreneur

Marketing Consultancy

If you have revenues greater than £1m, chances are you already have some marketing support internally. The challenge is that, until you start reaching £5m+, they're likely in a relatively junior role. They won't have the time, expertise or experience to develop a Marketing Strategy and supporting Marketing Plan. That's not to say that they aren't adding huge value to your business! It's to say that they probably need some help.

For the boutique B2B consulting firm we provide help with:

  1. Defining your Marketing Strategy
  2. Developing your Marketing Plan
  3. Designing your Marketing Tactical Plans

If you need help with any one of these, click or tap the button below to schedule a consultation with one of our consultants. We don't employ salespeople, so you can expect to get value from the call, whether we determine to work together or we refer you to somewhere or someone else.