Speaking can be a good lead generator, as long as you are in front of the right audience. The secret is to identify your ideal clients, so you don’t waste your time in front of the wrong groups. Focus on your target niches — specialty, geography, industry, and type of business (B2B, B2C, B2G)

Speaking (like writing articles) is something you can do prior to launching your consulting firm. If you speak about your existing specialty, it likely won’t be seen as a threat to your employer.  In fact, it may enhance your perceived value.

Keep the topics simple and tutorial. Like magazine articles, you are not trying to impress your peers — you are trying to show potential clients how you might help. Here are a couple of examples of focused yet practical topics – both professional and business:

• Professional -An accountant talking about estate planning

• Business – A marketer talking about LinkedIn for lead generation

OK, you’ve convinced me. Where can I speak?

• Professional groups – Local society chapters are always looking for speakers, and are a good place to start. Symposiums are also good, but focus on the “tutorial tracks.” Leave the advance topics to the academics.

• Business groups – For business topics, local organizations like the LIONS, Rotary, and Chamber of Commerce are also hungry for speakers.  Once again, focus on helping those who might actually need and buy your services.

Your talks (professional or business) must be informative and entertaining. Make your talks interesting. Whatever you do, don’t make them salesy.  A good test is to ask yourself, “Even if we never do business, has the talk been helpful?”

If you are really good and enjoy this, it might even lead professional speaking. Many leading consultants make thousands of dollars a year as speakers, doing keynote addresses, etc. Don’t expect to achieve that overnight – you need to earn your stripes. But even if you never make it to the paid speaker ranks, the business you bring in can make it worthwhile.

What to talk about?  Something of interest to both you and your audience.

• Keep it basic. Think tutorial — you’re not doing a college lecture.

• Keep it short. 20 -30 minutes for a lunch meeting.  30 minutes to an hour for a professional meeting. If an hour, make sure there is some technical meat in it.

• Keep it simple. Three things to…  Top five problems…  Four ways to approach… New regulatory impact of …  How to avoid… Understanding the mysteries of …

• Recycle. Did you write a  magazine article or publish a paper? Turn it into a talk. Add some overheads and you are good to go.  Don’t overdo it, though — we all know about “Death by Powerpoint.”

Your first talk.. Here are some last minute thoughts..

• Practice, don’t wing it. Have a friend (or better yet, a group of friends) critique it. Time it to make sure it doesn’t run too long. Then practice it again until you feel confident.

• Going live. If you are like most of us, there may still be butterflies.  Perfectly normal, don’t worry about it. In fact, I get worried if there are not butterflies — that is when thing usually turn sour.

• Prepare an introduction for your host. Type it out, but keep it brief. No life history. Should be deliverable in about 30 seconds.

Unsure of your skills? Try Toastmasters. Although not a Toastmaster alum myself, several colleagues have praised the organization. I developed my “platform skills” through in-house presentations and teaching technical classes. We’ll talk about the latter in a future post.  Like sports, the more you practice, the better you get.

My own experience. Although I’ve now done hundreds of talks (and taught over 200 technical  classes), I did not start out as a natural speaker. In fact, I took a speech class in college and absolutely hated it!

Later, I discovered that  when I was interested in a topic, I could easily talk about it.  It wasn’t a speech — rather, it was a conversation with a friend or group of friends. The goal was not to impress, but rather to convey information. It does get easier with time — I promise.

A favorite talk was for the Society of Women Engineers many years ago as a sales engineer.  As the only man in the room, it was an eerie feeling to say the least.  Remember, engineering is still a male dominated profession.  (But I am delighted to see that is finally changing a bit..)

So, I began my talk with “I’ve been trying to figure out why I feel so different here. Then it dawned on me — I’m the only person in the room with no hair… “ They roared. A little self deprecating humor can go a long way. For several years, I would run into attendees at that meeting. One even became a client after I launched the consulting practice.

In closing — speaking can be a very effective way to and generate leads and business, and can  generate new friends as well. Both have happened to me.

Comments or questions?

© 2011 – 2019, https:. All rights reserved.

Will writing a book help your consulting practice?

In my experience, yes! But it is a lot of work, and not something I recommend to those just starting out. Unless you have materials already (such as class notes or a bunch of research), better to start small and consider a full blown book when better established.

Still, there is no doubt that a published book is a huge marketing asset. Alan Weiss, author of Million Dollar Consulting (plus 31 other books ) calls a book the gold standard for credibility. I agree. When our first book hit the streets almost 20 years ago, we immediately went from a local consulting firm to one with nationwide recognition.

Before beginning a book, you need to decide if you seeking profit or seeking visibility.  Unless you are a NY Times Best Seller, you will unlikely achieve both. Ask any author — most books never make enough money themselves to justify the time and effort. The real payoff for consultants is in the additional business.

Three ways to publish: Prior to the Internet, virtually all books were printed and sold through bookstores or catalogues. Although you might be the author, you still needed a publisher to print and distribute your work. Today, of course, that has all changed.  Here are three popular avenues:

• Print – Commercially published –  Generally confers the most status (with a recognized publisher) with the least direct profit. It also likely involves the most work (rewrites, proofing, indexing, etc.) with the longest time to market. Since this is the most complex, you may want to engage a literary agent. Ask existing authors for recommendations.

• If you can pull this off, it can vault you to the top. Although usually a poor strategy when starting out, it often makes sense after a few years in business. On the other hand, an engineering colleague wrote a comprehensive technical book while employed. When he retired, this quickly launched his successful consulting practice and his book is still his main marketing vehicle.

• Print – Self Published – Provides medium to low status but more direct profit. Still a lot of work with a medium time to market. A word of caution — beware of the “vanity publishers” that prey on hopeful authors. For self published books, you don’t need a literary agent, but proofreaders and other support may be helpful.

• If you are already well known, this may be a good approach. Thanks to “print on demand” and Amazon, you can even handle your own production and distribution. I know a successful business consultant who uses this approach. He sells his book on his web site, and also on Amazon. He prints them as he needs them, usually a dozen or so at a time.

• E-Book – Self Published – Provides the lowest status but potentially the most direct profit. It has the lowest status (anybody can do this — no vetting by a recognized publisher) but can provide the fastest time to market.

• This is a good approach when just starting out. An added advantage is that E-books are not expected to be as comprehensive as a printed book. As such, you can turn out an E-book pretty fast. Many bloggers supplement their content with a series of E-books. Most are pretty basic, but sell well at low cost and high profit.

Sources of materials: So you’ve decided to write a book. Where do you get the materials? With a 200 page book, you may be looking at upwards of 100,000 words, but even a shorter E-book could be 20,000+ words. Recycle! If you are considering a book, you have probably written other materials that can be reused.

Using existing materials makes a lot of sense. Just be sure they are your materials and you are free to use them. Whatever you do, don’t plagiarize! Here are several sources:

• Articles and white papers — These can be excellent book resources. You’ll probably need to expand certain areas, and you’ll need to tie everything together in an organized manner. We used this approach in a specialized book for the medical design community, based on an earlier series of magazine articles.

• One caveat. In order to repurpose magazine articles, you’ll need to either obtain a copyright release, or retain the subsequent publication rights in the first place. With white papers, that is not an issue since you are the original publisher, unless you have assigned the copyright.

• Blogs and newsletters – These are also excellent resources for a book. Since blog posts and newsletter articles are generally shorter than magazine articles or white papers, they may require additional work to incorporate into a book.

• On the other hand, even leading authors today often publish collections of their blog postings. Just organize them into sections, and add an introduction. Once again, if you own the copyright, you are free to repurpose your materials. Many readers appreciate having these collections all in one place.

• Class materials – If you have taught a class on a subject, you already have notes (and most of the words in your head.) You also have the benefit of past questions, so you know your reader’s likely concerns.

• You could even record a class, and have your lectures transcribed. You would still need to polish things, but much of the original work would already be done.

Personal experience –  My business partner and I currently have three books under our belts. One was commercially published, one was first published as a magazine supplement, and one was a series of columns turned into a book.  Both self published books were later turned into an E-books. People were asking for digital copies, so why not?

Our books were based on class notes, magazine articles, our newsletter, and a column for a specialty newsletter. The self-published books are for sale on our web site, while the commercial book is available from a publisher specializing in technical books.

All three books have been very helpful in establishing both our credibility and visibility. They didn’t happen overnight, so don’t feel you need to do everything at once.

Publishing books is more a marathon than a sprint — stay with it for the long haul. Comments or Questions?

© 2011 – 2016, https:. All rights reserved.

Do you need a  website, particularly if you are just starting out in consulting?

YES! Just like you need business cards, letterhead, envelopes, and some sort of brochure. Not only does a web site (and other simple collateral) provide information, but it shows that you are serious about being in business.

Think of your web site as your on-line ambassador, spreading good will about your practice.  Although passive, web sites are often combined with a blog and newsletter to make them more active marketing tools. All three can increase your visibility/credibility.

One important caveat. Make sure your web site (and blog/newsletter) appear professional. A sloppy or poorly maintained site can do more harm than good.

If you don’t feel comfortable doing this yourself, hire a web/blog designer. Thanks to advanced technology, web designers are relatively inexpensive. Your time is valuable, and you probably already use other professionals like a lawyer and accountant.

I hired a web designer for both this blog and our engineering consulting website (www.emiguru.com), and I’m glad I did. He saved me much time and frustration, and the final product was much better than I would have produced anyway. (Thanks, Sunil!)

Another caveat. Don’t count on your web site to get the phone ringing off the hook. A web site alone is passive. You still need to pursue active marketing, such as articles, networking, speaking, direct mail, and more.

As mentioned in an earlier post (20 Ways to Attract Clients), getting leads is like fishing — the more lines you have in the water, the more bites you will get.

Finally, don’t worry about the numbers. For many web sites (and blogs,) counts become a matter of pride. Am I getting more traffic than yesterday? More than my competition? But as a consultant, do you really care?

You are not an on-line marketer hawking the latest gimmick —  rather, you are a professional making your presence known to those who might benefit from your expertise. You are a niche player, not a jack-of-all trades.

Getting started. Here are some suggestions for your web site:

• Register your own domain. Yes, it may cost a few dollars over using a free site, but your own domain makes you look serious and professional. While you are at it, register the same name with similar extensions (.net, .org,  .info, etc.) This prevents squatters from setting up a similar site. Had this happen some years ago,  and it was expensive to resolve (lawyers and all…)

• Provide contact information. One of my pet peeves is having to hunt for address, phone, or e-mail information on a web site. On every page, you should have either a Contact button or your full contact information. You also need a Contact tab at the top of the page with full contact information (including an e-mail form). Make it easy for your visitors to contact you!

• Make the site easy to navigate. I prefer tabs across the top of the page, with a few simple sidebars. A simple site map can be helpful. For an initial web site, you only need a few tabs, such as Home, About, Services, and Contact. I like to augment those with Welcome, FAQ, and Resource tabs. The latter provide both a personal touch and additional information. However, don’t get too carried away — keep it simple.

• Consider a combined blog/website. With static pages and a blog platform, you can have both.  If you don’t want to blog right away, just make all the pages static. You can easily add a blog later, and all the tools will be there. This site uses WordPress (with a custom theme), and I am very pleased. WordPress is widely  popular, and has an almost endless variety of “plug-ins” for future expansion and features. (See my earlier post on Blogs.)

• Consider adding a newsletter. Building a client list is crucial to building your business. We’ll cover this in more detail in a future post, but adding a newsletter to your web site is a quick way to start gathering names. You can purchase “plug-ins” or use external services (AWeber or Mail Chimp) to facilitate this. I must confess that I haven’t done much with a newsletter on this site (plans are brewing), but have found a list to be very effective on our engineering consulting website.  (See my earlier post on Newsletters.)

As your business grows, you’ll likely want to add other features to your web site. The possibilities are almost endless, but make sure anything you add is useful to your clients. Don’t do it just because it is the latest “cool” thing to do.

For example, here are some extra features we added to  www.emiguru.com when we updated last year. This represents the current status, but as a “work in progress”, more updates are coming.

Incidentally, the consulting web site runs on Joomla rather than WordPress, as it is a bit more complex.  (As an aside, I’ve found both Joomla and WordPress easy to maintain.)

• On-line Store – Three books, and a software product we developed. One of the books was out of print, so we offer it as an E-Book. Linked to Paypal and e-junkie for payment and fulfillment.

• On-Line Registration – Allows sign-up and payment (Paypal) for our public seminars and webinars. Works well, and has simplified business.

• Blog – Short technical articles of interest to our readers.  The blog postings are now mirrored on an industry publication, giving us wider exposure.

• Resources – Past newsletters (20 years worth) and a detailed technical bibliography of publications, web sites, and other resources unique to our niche. Considering more stuff in the future. The goals — help our clients, and keep them coming back.

So, make a web site a high priority if you are considering a JumpToConsulting. You can start out simple, and grow it as needed. Finally, get some professional help — don’t try to do it all yourself.  After all, as a  consultant, that is what you are advising your clients to do.

Comments or questions? I’d love to hear from you.

© 2011 – 2016, https:. All rights reserved.