How To Sell Consulting Services Online

When you first started selling consulting services, yous probably had high expectations. Afterward all, you already had industry noesis, professional skills, and valuable contacts.

And, since the consulting market amounted to virtually $seventy billion in the U.s.a. in 2019, getting a lilliputian slice of that lucrative pie should be easy, correct?

Only at that place was 1 variable you didn't count on: Actually selling yourself as a consultant.

Sales doesn't come naturally to nigh people, and information technology being a 'salesperson' for your consulting business may have been an unexpected addition to your job description.

Plus, as the consulting industry continues to abound, the contest is getting violent: In i survey by Deltek, 55% of consulting firms listed 'addressing the increasing contest' as a major business priority.

You might exist wondering: How tin I sell myself as a consultant? How can I stand out when there is so much competition?

Thankfully, many pro sales methods play into the skills you've already adult as a consultant. On meridian of that, new methods for the digital age can take you one pace ahead of your competitors.

Let'southward dive into 12 skilful methods yous can start using today to boost your consulting sales:

i. Utilize the skills you already have to sell consulting services

With your experience as a consultant, you already have valuable skills that can exist applied to selling.

For example, you've learned how to enquire the right questions to reveal their business needs.

Request questions is a valuable skill that will assist you sell professional services. Selling any kind of service is based on having a articulate understanding of what your prospects need, and you can use questions to accomplish that.

In fact, a report by Gong institute that salespeople who ask betwixt 11 and 14 questions during a call with prospects have an average 74% success charge per unit.

The same report found that the blazon of questions is also important: Top sellers focus on questions related to the prospect'southward concern issues, goals, challenges, and concerns.

Here are some examples of questions you could ask when selling consulting services:

What are the acme challenges your company is currently facing?
What bug would you like to solve, and what do you recall caused these problems?
What results are you looking to achieve, and why?
When practice you lot want to attain those results?
What motivated you to await for a solution now?
What volition happen if you don't address these problems at present?
Who else is involved in the decision-making procedure?

Pro tip: Want to ask better questions? Download our free resource, 42 B2B Sales Questions, and learn the summit questions you should be asking your prospects.

Also, use open-concluded questions to get your prospects to explain their current situation improve. For example, start your questions with phrases like:

Can you lot help me understand…
Can you walk me through…
Talk to me about…

Questions like these encourage your prospect to respond thoroughly, giving you a amend idea of what'southward really going on.

Another skill you've learned every bit a consultant is to keep the client'due south best interests in mind. Past focusing on helping, not selling, you'll naturally avoid sleazy or pushy sales tactics while selling your consulting services.

This helps build a improve reputation for your consulting business and builds trust in your clients.

2. Set up a clear sales process

Whether yous're a solo concern consultant or part of a consulting firm, you need to accept a clearly defined sales process.

This is the procedure you lot employ to sell your consulting services and should pb y'all step-past-step from the moment you discover new prospects to the moment you get paid and deliver your services.

It's easy to go caught up in conveying out the services yous've been hired to do, but having a clear sales process in place will remind you to keep selling.

To succeed as a consultant, as much time must be devoted to acquiring new business as performing assigned tasks. I've establish that the average time from initial contact to engagement tin can sit between six to 36 weeks, and close rates hover betwixt x percent and 20 pct. Any downtime should be reinvested into business organization evolution.

— Scott Steinberg, CEO of Techsavvy Global

Then, how can you gear up a sales process for your consulting business concern?

First, start by writing down everything you lot do to get a sale. For case, where practise you detect new prospects? How practice people go aware of your consulting business organisation? What steps do you have from the first touch to getting a sale? How many meetings or calls does it accept to shut a deal on boilerplate?

Once you sympathize your electric current procedure, look for places to improve your sales metrics. Can y'all cut down the number of meetings it takes to close the deal? Can yous overcome common objections before in the process? Can yous simplify the negotiation stage?

Finally, optimize your sales process by defining your targets and goals. Start with your revenue goal per month, and work backward: How many sales practise you demand to meet that goal? How many prospects practise you need to make that many sales?

By organizing the numbers alee of time, you'll be able to prepare specific goals for your sales tasks per calendar week or month. Past prioritizing those tasks, you'll piece of work smarter to reach your revenue goals.

iii. Prioritize leads that fit the right profile

An essential part of whatsoever sales process is knowing who you're selling to.

So, who are you trying to sell your consulting services to?

To define your platonic customer profile, start past looking at your virtually successful customers. Take the tiptop 10 clients you've worked with successfully, and endeavor to understand what they all have in common.

Ask questions like:

Are they all in a specific manufacture?
Did y'all solve ane common problem for all of them?
Are they all similarly-sized businesses?
What convinced them to work with you?
Do they share a common goal?
Did they all go through similar events or changes to their businesses, such as restructuring, taking on new hires, or acquiring another business organization?

Your platonic customer profile will likewise depend on the type of consulting services you offer. For case, if you specialize in leadership coaching for newly appointed directors, your platonic customer may be a young company with leaders who lack feel and need training to succeed.

In one case yous have a articulate view of who your ideal clients are, you can set up pb scoring. This assigns a specific value to each new lead based on how well they fit the profile y'all've created. Lead scoring helps you prioritize your efforts past focusing on the leads that all-time fit your consultancy.

4. Be prepared to turn down work that doesn't fit

It's exciting when people come to you looking for help. Simply sometimes, while y'all're talking to a prospect, you realize that they're not a good fit for your business. Maybe they're non your ideal customer, maybe they're showing signs of existence a bad customer, or mayhap they're but not set to buy right now.

Don't waste your valuable time trying to sell to a prospect that won't buy or doesn't fit what you offering.

Here'due south what sales behaviorist and business concern coach Liston Witherill says:

For example, I exercise sales training and coaching for consultants and one of the problems people come to me with that I could solve just it'due south not cadre to my business is lead generation and marketing. For those cases, I have people I tin can refer my clients to. The same goes for other areas considering there are many other people who could work with my clients that solve bug that I don't solve and those are the type of referral partners that I want. If they have a problem that you don't solve, just refer them to someone else.

By having a few referral partners established, you can refer these leads to the people that tin can actually solve their problems. This is another way to focus on helping your clients: Even though it won't get you any acquirement right at present, your helpful attitude could win a auction downwardly the road.

In fact, at Shut, when nosotros talk with a prospect and discover that our CRM is not the right solution for their needs, we recommend them alternative solutions—we're basically sending business to our competitors. This might seem foolish, but in the long run it's the right thing to practice. We aim to help everyone who we engage with, even if they're not a skilful fit right at present. Many times, this leaves such an impression on people that they later refer others to the states who are a expert fit, or they might get a skillful fit a few years later and then become a happy, successful customer of Shut.

5. Learn how to notice the decision-maker

When y'all find a lead that's a perfect fit for your business, it'south not enough to contact 'someone' at the visitor: You demand to know how to find the person who makes the decisions.

Start past looking at the buying process of your current clients. Who was the person who championed your services within the company? Who else had to sign off on the purchase? Who benefited about from your services?

By looking historically at the decision-makers you've dealt with previously, you'll accept a ameliorate view of who the decision-maker is at your new lead's visitor.

For example, does the decision-maker commonly hold a specific role in the company? Are they the director of a certain team?

When you know who you're looking for, yous can do more than effective prospecting. For example, you tin use LinkedIn in your sales process to search for people with a specific job title in a particular industry, and add together those people to your lead listing.

6. Add a digital touch to your sales path

Even if you sell your consulting services locally, adding a digital touch on can boost your sales process and brand information technology fifty-fifty easier for clients to contact or buy your consulting services.

Merely as someone selling a product over the web needs to make a seamless transition between their sales copy and their lodge grade, you need to make a seamless transition between your sales re-create and the point of contact.

— Derek Gehl, Entrepreneur

For example, y'all can use a tool like Calendly to make it easier for people to fix up a meeting with y'all. Add your Calendly link to your website, or even include it in your cold emails to prospects:

Then, instead of back-and-forth emails to schedule an appointment, your new leads can only select the time in your schedule that works best for them.

Yous tin can even integrate Calendly with your CRM then new leads tin can be added to your CRM when someone schedules a meeting.

Another way to add together a digital touch on to your sales path is by using video sales calls. This can open up you up to new opportunities during this time of crisis simply also broadens your horizons across the clients nearly your physical location.

Pro tip: Did you know Close CRM integrates natively with Zoom? This means y'all can run your video meetings directly from your CRM, and salvage those video recordings right to the lead. Try your free 14-24-hour interval trial of Close to see how this dynamic integration tin boost your sales procedure.

Why limit yourself to your immediate area? With the right solution, you can hold online conferences and pitches to augment your consumer base beyond the country. Video tools enable face-to-face and personal bear on without the expense of driving out to see prospects and customers. Yous can even let your customers and prospects know, this is a fashion to reduce the cost of services.

— Tim Myers, Production Manager

Want to chief video sales calls? Download our costless resource and get our best tips for selling via video.

DOWNLOAD THE EXPERT GUIDE Gratis →

7. Base your pricing on the value they'll receive

Your consulting services volition cost your clients some serious cash. If they're not convinced of the value of your consulting services before y'all talk price, you'll be at a serious disadvantage when it comes to endmost the deal.

Then, as you discuss the problems they're having and the challenges they want to solve, assist them meet the value of working with y'all. For case, enquire questions like:

What would be the consequences of not dealing with these issues?
How much would it cost yous Not to set up these problems?

When you sympathise the projection at manus, what kind of consulting services yous'll be providing, and how much existent ROI your prospects will get from working with y'all, y'all can and so base your price on value rather than pricing past the hour.

Cost past the hour and you'll exist viewed as a commodity. Instead, go along clients laser-focused on the lasting value you create, and pecker based on the scope of work and finish results. Never discuss whether your firm volition exist used, but rather how, and provide a range of possible cost scenarios and value-adds, starting with your baseline requirements.

— Scott Steinberg, CEO of Techsavvy Global

If yous're not billing by the hour, consider value-based pricing—where yous're deciding your overall rate including what you lot call up your services are worth and how information technology competes with others. Many consultants provide iii ranges of prices to enable more client control over what works for them. Also, it's skilful marketing—a low, medium, and higher-priced option enables pick.

— Tim Myers, Product Manager

8. Use cold e-mail templates to maximize the fourth dimension you spend selling consulting services

If you're reaching out to new leads with cold emails, it can take a lot of time and energy to write out each individual e-mail.

If you desire to heave productivity, endeavor using cold e-mail templates that you can personalize and send to each lead you detect.

In Close, it's like shooting fish in a barrel to set up new templates and add together personalization features that automatically introduce details such as the atomic number 82's name, company, industry, and more.

As you utilize your cold email templates, make certain to run through each one and add together some details that testify y'all've done your homework. Explain why yous think they'd be a good fit for your consulting services and briefly draw how you could benefit them.

Want even more than tips on constructive cold emails? Download our free resource, Cold Email Hacks 2.0.

DOWNLOAD COLD E-mail HACKS 2.0 →

Selling consulting services is based on trust. In that location's nix tangible to bear witness your prospects, and so how tin can they trust that y'all'll evangelize on what yous hope?

Two words: Social proof.

When prospects can hear from or read well-nigh other companies who have seen success with your consulting services, they'll exist more than willing to trust you.

How tin can y'all become this social proof for your consulting business concern?

For case, if you're a solo consultant, you can ask happy customers to add a recommendation to your LinkedIn profile. These recommendations add weight to your claims and boost your professional profile.

For both solo consultants and consulting agencies, case studies are a great fashion to add social proof to your website. This brings the power of storytelling to your sales procedure and lets you dig deeper into the results your clients have seen.

Reviews and testimonials are another powerful tool for your consultancy. For case, why not ask happy customers to add a review to your Google My Business concern profile? Or, ask for a quick testimonial from your happy customers and add these to your website, include them in common cold emails, and mention them in your sales conversations.

Since we don't sell actual products, we have to piece of work hard to put our customers at ease. On our website, nosotros have testimonials from previous customers who take used our services. This shows our prospects that we can deliver on our promises.

— Tony Pour, founder of SellMax

10. Have a smashing sales script

If you have a powerful sales script that sparks interest in your prospects, you lot can hit the phones and commencement closing deals right away.

I know this works because I've done it before.

Before launching Shut, we started ElasticSales, an on-demand sales company. We hit the phones before nosotros fifty-fifty had a make or a reputation and started cold-calling startups in the area.

With an constructive cold call script, we landed 7 paying customers in just 14 days.

How can yous implement this for your consultancy?

Include these essential elements of a sales phone call script:

Raise marvel: Tell them who you are, who you help, and give them a reason to care with your opening lines.
Give context: Add together a one-sentence elevator pitch that is articulate and cursory.
Ask for permission to proceed: Giving your prospect the ability to say no tin can actually assist keep them engaged and open the way to go on the chat.
Authorize: Ask questions to learn about their needs and define if they're a fit for your consultancy.
Test close: Discover their decision timeline, full general purchase procedure, and whatsoever price sensitivity.
Schedule next steps: Know beforehand how you'll continue the procedure, and set up a specific time to follow up before yous end the phone call.

Also, make sure your sales script includes ways to handle common objections on your sales calls.

With a powerful script, y'all'll be able to cold-call potential clients with confidence and shut more deals.

Want to become a head start on creating your own script? Download your gratis sales script template.

11. Build relationships now to sell consulting services later

While it's of import to prioritize sales tasks that will go yous new consulting clients now, don't forget to build the foundation for hereafter sales.

Since consulting is such a trust-based business organization, the relationships you develop now will be essential to your success in the future. Peculiarly for a new consulting business organization, information technology'southward important to network with businesses that could become clients in the hereafter, even if they're not set up to purchase right now.

For case, you can continue your consultancy superlative of mind by attending meetups and networking events (whether in-person or near), and sharing your expertise with the people you run across.

Past purposely not selling, you'll be building a more stable network of potential clients who will no longer be cold leads when you accomplish out to them in the futurity.

If you intend to exist a consultant forever, the only implication that makes sense is to play a long-term game knowing that even if someone doesn't buy from you now, they might do information technology in the hereafter.

— Liston Witherill, Sales Behaviorist

12. Always, e'er enquire for referrals

Leads that come up to you on the recommendation of a trusted friend will be much more than valuable to you than cold leads you've found yourself.

Why?

For two reasons:

Referrals already start off with a higher level of trust in you, since someone they trust recommended you
Referrals will be more than likely to fit your ideal customer contour, since the person who recommended them knows both their situation and what you lot offer

But to become referral sales, yous first need to exist fix to ask for referrals.

After all, your happy customers are probably willing to refer new customers to you, but they're unlikely to do then unless you lot ask them.

So, whenever you close a deal, make sure to inquire for a referral.

Here's how to ask:

"I'thousand and then happy that we've been able to accomplish XYZ together. Tin you remember of anyone else you know that's facing [trouble] and could benefit from working with our consultancy?"

Attempt to push for at least one name from every client, and y'all'll see a significant heave to your consulting sales.

Keep selling consulting services using these proven methods

While it may be a bit harder to get a slice of the pie than you originally idea, that doesn't mean it's incommunicable.

In the terminate, to go along selling your consulting services successfully, you lot'll need to put sales tasks in their proper place.

The methods nosotros've discussed above accept been proven to work for consultants simply like you. More than that, sharpening your sales skills tin assistance ready y'all apart from the growing competition.

So, keep selling. Build a procedure that works, and keep to fine-melody it until your consultancy is a selling machine.

Got a tip or question about selling consulting services? Let me know on LinkedIn, I'd love to hear from you!

Need help keeping your sales efforts organized? Want to get one step ahead of the competition? Commencement your free 14-day trial of Shut today and meet how a CRM can simplify your process, save you time, and maximize your consulting sales.

Irresolute our CRM to Close is one of the best decisions nosotros made. The platform receives new updates all the time and really shines compared to every other CRM.

— Mike Corradini, CEO & Cofounder of IdeaPros