Shaan Rais is a professional speaker and leadership and organizational development consultant.
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Marketing is a massive piece of selling your consulting services and is an area where many consultants struggle. Instead of marketing, they chase clients, compete on prices and water down their services to stay afloat.
If you struggle with this, I want to share a new way of thinking about marketing that can increase your attractiveness to clients.
Imagine your business as a solar system. In the center is you as the sun, and your personal brand creates the gravitational pull that draws clients to you through your brand story and charisma. Clients sense that you are uniquely qualified to solve their problems. Think about personal brands such as Warren Buffet or Oprah Winfrey. Audiences are drawn into their orbit because of their personalities, not just their career accomplishments.
Rounding out your solar system are the planets surrounding you—i.e., your consultation services and programs—created to generate income.
To generate income and bring clients into your solar system, you need Market Gravity. The success of your business depends on the gravitational power of your brand. Your ability to attract clients becomes a natural occurrence when you produce and share assets that solve their problems and move them closer to their goals.
But here is where many consultants lose their way. They don't understand what assets grab attention and move the sales process forward.
Within your solar system are the brandable assets designed to carry a potential client through the buyer's journey, landing on your products and services, moving from awareness, research, evaluation and, finally, the decision to hire you.
A well-designed marketing solar system can:
- Attract consulting clients
- Nurture relationships with ideal clients until they are ready to buy
- Prequalify leads
- Answer their questions and objections while clearing up any misinterpretation
Let's go through the top three brand assets you'll need to support your solar system. I want you to consider these items as the planets that create your solar system.
Lead Magnet
Your lead magnet is your digital calling card; its multifunctional purpose is to solve an issue or answer an essential question for your client. It should also give you data about your client. As data and privacy laws change, consultants won't be able to rely on third-party data for customer demographics.
Once a potential client has your lead magnet, you must pull them in by creating a black hole. A black hole is defined as a space where the gravitational pull is so powerful nothing can escape. Use your marketing assets to create your black hole.
The lead magnet also provides oxygen. It tells your audience that life (the answers to their issues) exists within your solar system. Through the subsequent emails, sales pages, white papers, etc., you can show your audience what life is like on your planet. Once inside the black hole, they can seamlessly move from the awareness stage into the research stage.
You'll know if your ideal client is in the research phase when they start to ask questions such as:
- What are the benefits of working with this consultant?
- Is this consultant credible?
- Do they have any case studies or examples of their work?
- How much does it cost?
Research Stage
During the research stage, your job is to demonstrate your expertise. Show and prove that you understand potential clients and can help them by providing:
- Case studies
- Live Q&A's
- Videos
- Webinars
These elements can hold your potential client's attention and keep you on their radar until they are ready to buy.
The final stage is the decision stage, where your potential client decides to work with you. They bring the client closer to saying yes; you may consider consultations and strategy calls where you get on the phone or meet in person with your potential client.
Lastly, let's briefly discuss expanding your solar system through what I call an Omni Presence. There are three components to creating an Omni Presence:
- SEO (search engine optimization)
- Social media
- Advertising
Your Omni Presence is similar to broadcasting a strong magnetic signal to pull more people into your solar system. SEO increases the magnetic pull of your website and content to rank high in Google search results. Social media is converted to business media and leveraged to build connections with a broader audience and further nurture those that have entered your solar system. The final component is advertising. The goal of an Omni Presence is to make it easy for your ideal client to find, engage and buy from you.
When you redefine how you think about marketing and the assets that support your brand, you can go from being viewed as one of many consultants to someone uniquely qualified to help your clients.
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