What’s keeping them from hiring you

When consulting firm owners tell me they're having a harder time bringing in clients, one of the first things I hear is that they need more leads.

Sometimes they do.

But there’s a bunch of stuff that has to happen between someone becoming aware of you and deciding to hire you. And if you don't know where things are breaking down, generating more leads may not help much.

I've been thinking about this from the buyer's point of view. What needs to be true for someone to hire you?

I came up with five things.

1. Do enough of the right people know you exist?

Obviously, people can't hire you if they don't know you exist. But I’ve found the real question is often whether that's really your problem.

Established consulting firms generally have a lot of people who already know them. Past clients. Former colleagues. Referral sources. People they've met over the years who might become clients.

If you already have enough of the right people who know who you are, focusing your efforts on getting in front of new people isn't likely to fix what's keeping them from hiring you.

2. Do they understand what you do and why it matters to them?

Knowing you exist isn't the same as understanding what you do.

I look at a lot of consulting firm websites and marketing content where - after reading all the polished language -I still have no idea what the firm actually helps its clients do.

That clarity is only part of it. Prospective clients aren't looking for consulting services because they want to buy consulting services. Something is going on in their business that they want to change.

Can they make the connection between what you do and what they care about?

3. Does the problem matter enough to act on?

This one has two parts.

First, is the problem you solve important enough that companies are willing to spend money to solve it? I sometimes see consultants focused on legitimate problems that just aren't big enough to get much attention or budget.

Second is the individual client. A problem that's important to one company may not be important enough to another company right now.

This is an especially big deal when there's a lot of uncertainty. Companies tend to become more cautious about spending and more selective about what really needs to be done. A problem can be real and worth solving, but still not important enough to make the cut right now.

4. Do they have a reason to choose you?

Let's say they've decided the problem needs to be solved and they need outside help. Now they have choices. Lots of them.

Consultants tend to lean heavily on their experience here. The problem is you know your 20 years of experience is different from another consultant's 20 years, but buyers often can't tell the difference.

To them, you're both highly experienced.

5. Do they trust your ability and your intentions?

This goes beyond believing you have the expertise to solve the problem. Can you actually get the work done inside their company, with all the personalities, competing priorities and internal complications that come with it?

And do they trust you to make recommendations based on what's best for them?

The person hiring you is putting their own reputation on the line. They need to believe you'll tell them when you think they should take a different approach, do less, wait, or perhaps not hire you at all.

They need to trust that you're not going to let them down.

Buyers are still buying and consulting firms are still doing well.

That doesn't mean it's easy to bring in clients right now. Buyers are more cautious, decisions are taking longer and there's a lot more for them to sort through.

Which makes it even more important to understand them. Is one of the five things I mentioned keeping them from hiring you?