5 Tips to Help Management Consultant Get Hired More Often
As a freelance management consultant, when one project ends, you have to be on the hunt for another one. It can be both exciting and challenging.
But is there a way to increase the chances of getting hired? The answer to that question is a resounding yes!
Indeed, if you follow certain tips and strategies, you’ll have a better chance of getting hired. And implementing strategies shouldn’t be difficult for you—after all, you’re a consultant. If you can solve other people’s problems, you can easily solve yours, too.
In this article, we’ll discuss the 5 tips to get hired more often by new as well as old clients that will give you a competitive edge.
Invest Time and Energy in Inbound Marketing
Back in the day, it was considered normal to cold-call clients, or straight up knock on their doors, to close sales. Those days are slowly coming to an end. In this day and age, inbound marketing is the way to go. Unlike traditional marketing, which is intrusive and all about approaching the customer first, inbound marketing focuses on attracting customers to you. How do you do that? Well, there are several ways—writing informative blogs, creating problem-solving or entertaining videos, and simply posting a few sentences that provide value to your social media followers, is all part of inbound marketing.
The idea is to give value first and close the sales later. Some of the best freelance management consultants maintain a blog or post videos to stay on the minds of their potential clients. Even if you don’t have an external blog, simply writing LinkedIn articles can do the trick. Flaunting your consultant skills through inbound marketing is the best way to appear as a problem solver and a thought leader in the industry. When your clients start looking for top management consultants next time, you will most certainly be on their radar if you take your inbound marketing seriously.
Build Case Studies and Client Testimonials
“This is what I have achieved so far” is way more attractive to clients as compared to “This is what I can achieve.” For clients, your previous track record of success is more exciting as compared to hypothetical claims that may or may not come true. What makes top management consultants stand out from the rest is the case studies and success stories of previous clients. Not having case studies to prove your success rate is not always a deal-breaker. But remember that the best freelance management consultants usually have case studies to back up their claims.
If not case studies, then you can rely upon the testimonials of previous clients. Sometimes, it’s hard to create case studies without adding a lot of confidential information that your client doesn’t want you to share with others. For example, “I helped them increase their revenue by $1.2 million” might be too much information. But hey, that’s what we have testimonials for. Let the client share whatever they want to share about you in the testimonial. For example, “John helped us increase our revenue by 47% within 3 months” shows exactly what John, as a freelance digital consultant, has achieved.
Maintain Professional Relationships
Whether it’s keeping in touch with old leads or attending networking events to find new ones, building and maintaining business relationships will turn fruitful someday or the other. Couldn’t convert that prospect into a client? It’s okay. You should still wish them a happy birthday on social media. Did an old client just upload a new video update on LinkedIn? Make sure you interact with them by hitting the like button and leaving a nice comment.
Maintaining professional relationships can come in handy at any time. Especially with old clients, because businesses are more likely to do rehire top management consultants they have already hired before. If it took you a lot of time and energy to build that trust, make sure you leverage it by keeping in touch with old clients. The best freelance management consultants not only have exceptional consultant skills, but they also have an extraordinary professional network. Personal relationships and word-of-mouth are here to stay, no matter what new technology comes into the market.
Understand Yourself and Your Clients Better
Investing in a consulting engagement requires time and money. So, how are you going to provide value to your clients? Your strengths and weaknesses? Your unique value proposition? What can you offer your clients that even some of the best freelance management consultants can’t? Awareness of these things will help you present yourself in a way that appeals to potential clients.
Now, when it comes to your clients, dig deeper to understand their pain points. For example, a business does not necessarily need a management consultant. They need to decrease their churn rate and keep the revenue up. A possible solution to this problem is hiring a consultant and implementing their recommendations. Understand that as a management consultant, you’re a potential solution to the problem, not the only solution. To become ‘the only’ solution for your client, you should read the next point in this article carefully.
Sign up With a Freelance Consultant Platform
Freelance consultant platforms help connect businesses with the best freelance management consultants. Just like recruitment agencies connect the best employees with businesses. Cold calling potential clients or relying upon your social network might not always bring you new projects. However, freelance consultant platforms get attention from the business owners who have decided that hiring a consultant is a good solution.
So you can skip the pitching “ why hiring consultants makes sense ” part and straightaway talk about what you have achieved for previous clients and what you can achieve for the potential client (whom you’ve been introduced to by your freelance consultant platform). If you’re really taking your freelance management consultant career seriously, you should, most certainly, and immediately, approach a freelance consultant platform (also known as an online consulting platform) and introduce yourself. This is probably the most important tip to get hired.
on a weekly basis.