How do you sell services, instead of a product?

I have built more than one consultancy successfully and the core sales/marketing methods were networking, referrals and brand exposure. Cold calling can work, but the numbers are just 99.99% against you. Direct marketing and ads is a way we experimented but found that they were more a way to promote things we did to gain exposure then to get new work. Consultancy can be a weird/hard thing to start. When you start you have no clients so nothing to point to and the thing you need to get new clients is a success to point to generally. Chicken/egg. Hence this is where the networking comes into play, or past employers etc. Get out, meet people (digitally is fine) and use existing clients as springboards.

My general rule was when you close a deal, setup a quick schedule to deliver 3-4 things as fast as possible but with as much quality as possible, then immediately ask for recommendations/referrals to other clients. Push this until you get a few referrals/names etc but don't be a pain point -- even if they just say well Jim over at Widget corp is starting a new project, that's good enough. The key is if you wait till a project is done (or accept that excuse from a client) the chances drastically go down that you'll get a referral for a variety of reasons. You can nail a project and get new work from the client and then they don't want to refer you because they are trying to lock you up for themselves, or they worry if you expand their project will suffer etc. It can be a success paradox when you are small and starting. Of course, small clients aren't as likely to do that so those you can sometimes wait till near the end and get some referrals. But either way, it is so important to get public statements (things you can advertise) and referrals during the contract and as early as possible.

Social media is good for running ads for exposure, but it won't pull in clients generally, at least not at a cost worth paying. So networking and referrals are the best. Referrals can be from existing clients but also from friends, past associates etc that you pay for the referral.

Marketing for consulting is about exposing company/yourself online, use blog posts, guest posts, forums, speaking engagements etc. Then use social media and ads to expose your blog, speaking engagements etc, this gets you exposure, branding and then everything becomes easier.

I wrote a bit about it in a Twitter thread[0]. Context is machine learning projects for enterprise in the mid six figure range that can be tackled with one or two people. Contract, problem statement, dealing with people, and abstracting into a product.

It may be relevant to you. Questions are welcome.

- [0]: https://mobile.twitter.com/jugurthahadjar/status/13106682933...