The Accepted Authority podcast talks about how to position yourself and your firm as the authority, but that begs the question, "Who are you the authority for?"

In this episode, I highlight the need for focusing on your premium clients to be seen as the authority for them.  Instead of attracting a mixed bag of clients of different types and profiles, why shouldn't you focus your marketing on attracting more clients exactly like the clients that are your best clients now?  To achieve that, you need to know how to identify them, how to connect with them and how to become irresistible to them so they seek you out and make your sales meetings easy and more successful.  Then you end up with better clients, a better business, a more satisfied and motivated team and a better life.

What is the right focus for marketing your consultancy services or consulting firm?

Many people would choose getting more leads as the aim of their marketing.  But is that really the best focus?

In this episode, I discuss the results of a poll I conducted on LinkedIn to identify the current marketing focus for consulting firms.

The results that came in shocked me, even though they weren't that surprising.

They tell us a lot about the marketing approach of consulting firms in general.  However, perhaps this is just an indication of the general lack of marketing skill and capability that exists in consultancy firms.

I believe the focus of marketing consulting services should be diametrically opposite the results that my poll uncovered. In this week's episode of the Accepted Authority, I detail why that is the case.

Selling consultancy services is often a complex process that many consultants are poorly prepared for.  Many lack the understanding of what is required in order to gain an agreement from a prospective client to proceed with providing the solution.

From my experience, I have identified that in order to make a sale, you must first establish 5 mini agreements with  your client.  If any of these mini agreements are not achieved, your chances of making the sale are almost negligible. 

In this podcast episode, I discuss the challenges to making a sale of consultancy services and detail how to achieve each of the 5 essential mini agreements that are necessary in the process.

Most consultants are not born sales people, in fact, they are not fully engaged in a sales function in their roles much at all.  Many struggle with selling and would love to know how to avoid questions and endings to sales meetings like:

• Send me your proposal
• Can I speak to some of your past clients?
• We don't have this in our budget
• Let me think about it.

The real problem for most consultants trying to sell their services is that they try to sell their services.

This learned process of selling that most of us experience before getting into a position where selling our services is a prerequisite, is actually a totally wrong approach, but most of us are tripped up by it.

In this episode, I will detail the successful sales process I use to avoid those questions and having most clients ending the sales meeting with comments like, "When can we get started?"  This process avoids typically selling and sales resistance and is much more user friendly than the typical process where you have to try to overcome objections and convince people to buy.  

I'm sure you will love this effective sales process when you try it.

This week LinkedIn introduced a new feature.  They have introduced an AI function into the content creation/ post creation process.  

In this podcast episode, I discuss the value of using this feature and how to use if effectively to enhance your ability to be seen as the accepted authority.

Most marketing for consultancy firms falls short of systematically attracting new premium clients consistently and predictably, because it fails to answer the critical questions that are in the minds of the clients.  

Most marketing, particularly what we see on consultancy firm websites is flawed and makes some significant mistakes that render the marketing weak and ineffective.  In the podcast, I reveal the three most critical  mistakes I see on consultancy firm websites.  I also reveal the five critical questions your marketing must answer, if it is to penetrate the psychological defences that all buyers have, particularly when a significant investment is required.  When you answer these questions satisfactorily, you will satisfy the concerns of your potential clients and see them approaching you with hope, trust and willingness to engage, in a way that your competitors could barely hope for.

In today's episode, I draw some parallels between two current events: the Tour de France bike race and the current recessionary economy that many are experiencing are are being warned about.

The Tour de France is really a series of events which have many parallels in business.  Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's hard.  But only one rider emerges after all the challenges of the endurance races and uphill battles as the winner.  It's how that winner becomes the winner that we can take note of and use to our advantage in business when times get tough.

Listen to the episode and learn what lessons the Tour de France has for us in succeeding in our consultancy practices.

Many consultancy firms suffer from a lack of differentiation from their competitors, which leads to them being considered as a commodity in their market.  This situation creates stress in the sales process where they often have to present a proposal and sharpen their pencil on pricing to win a new client.

The remedy to this scenario is to be seen as the Accepted Authority in the market.  As an authority you have more power in the relationship with clients and the ability to win more sales on your own terms.  But how do you transition and bridge the gap from commodity to authority?

In this podcast episode, I reveal the quick way I was able to make that transition, and it doesn’t require writing a book.  I also discuss the way many consultants are getting this wrong and what to do to have immediate impact.

In this episode, I discuss the way many consultants are treated like servants in their relationships with clients.  However, that is due to poor positioning and leads to the client being able to dictate the terms of the engagement and often,  being able to demand cheaper pricing than you may normally charge.

Positioning your firm as the saviour, not the servant means changing the dynamics of the relationship you have with clients, putting you in charge and leading to more freedom to deliver the services your way, less demanding clients and more money from each engagement.

Listen to how to make this change in the podcast.

There is a lot said about branding for your consultancy practice, so that buyers can be made aware that you exist when they need you.  You want top-of-mind awareness so that when they have a need, they will come to you.  And that’s a good thing.

Brand awareness is great when our clients have a need for what we do.  We hope all the brand awareness activities we have engaged in will bring those clients to us.

But, one of the biggest mistakes I see owners of consultancy firms making is to focus all their marketing on brand awareness.  What they should be doing instead is focusing on buyer awareness.

Brand awareness activities – focusing on what we do, the services we provide and the name recognition we try to achieve, mostly fall on deaf ears, because they have no relevance to our buyers, even though we know that most of them really need what we do.

Buyer awareness is about being the authority.  As the authority, you influence the buyer’s journey to:
o   Create buyer awareness
-  Show you understand their situation
-  Educate them about their problem and what happens if not attended to
-  Show them your unique solution, based on your knowledge of what is best for them
-  Highlight the outcome they will enjoy as a result.
o   Build connection, trust, value and belief.

Slow down the sale – it’s about a relationship, not a transaction.
o   Selling creates pressure which is responded to with resistance
o   Relationship building creates trust and openness

Build a sales and marketing system that positions your firm as the authority for them, eliminates their resistance and has them trying to sell you on taking them on as a client.