The number one complaint I hear from solo consultants is that they need more leads– whether from their website, referrals, ads, speaking, etc.
Who wouldn’t want more leads?
The problem with focusing on quantity is that you create more (unpaid) work that you don’t really want to do (scheduling meetings, having meetings, following up, creating proposals, following up, etc) without necessarily generating more business (paid work that you hopefully enjoy).
For example, imagine you get a great referral. You meet once, discuss the project, send the proposal, and the prospect accepts. That’s what we want, right?
And we can’t assume that this will happen every time, no matter how well we position ourselves, but that’s the goal.
Imagine an orthopedic surgeon who fixes shoulders. (I’m picturing the doctor who fixed up my shoulder decades ago.) This guy loves fixing shoulders. Loves talking to people about shoulders. All day, he’s dealing with folks who have shoulder issues. Some need surgery, like I did. Some need rehab. Some just need rest. But all the conversations are interesting, and a good chunk of folks need surgery.
What if this surgeon had a waiting room full of all the patients– not just folks with shoulder issues. First, very few people need shoulder surgery. Most people don’t even want to talk about shoulders, even if they have shoulder issues, they have some other, more pressing problem. Conversations are frustrating. With the overhead looming, it may be tempting to work on wrists or knees or hips. Complications go up and patient satisfaction goes down. Fewer people refer shoulder patients. The viscous cycle continues.
That scenario seems absurd, but so many consultants function like a “doctor”, rather than a specialized surgeon.
Compare that ideal scenario to getting 100 leads from a speaking event. You now need to follow up with them, schedule (and reschedule) perhaps dozens of meetings. Then have those meetings. Then answer lots of follow up questions. Then, if you’re lucky, write a bunch of proposals, etc.
It’s quite possible that those 100 leads include 1, 3, 10, or more of your truly ideal clients– like the one perfect referral referenced above. Why wouldn’t you want that, plus a bunch of other potential clients?
Let’s say that each lead requires 1 qualification meeting. And that meeting never gets cancelled or rescheduled. Now we’ve got to do 100 qualification meetings.
Let’s say 25 or those require proposals, with another 25 proposal review meetings.
Now we’ve got a huge backlog of unpaid work. (Let’s say we can do those qualification meetings in half an hour, even though an hour is probably more likely. That’s 50 hours, plus another 50 hours, generously, for proposals and review. That’s 100 hours before we get into rescheduling anything, follow-up questions, proposal negotiations, etc.)
There’s a good chance that the need to crunch though this volume means that we pay less personalized attention to the folks who really are great prospects, and we may lose some deals that we would actually win.
So we’re working harder, for worse results, driven by the lure that we can convert some small percentage of the less-than-ideal prospects. (And if we do, then we actually have to do the less-than-ideal projects.)
What if we have 10 great prospects?
Now we have much less work to do. It seems manageable, perhaps even inviting. We can pay close attention, spend an hour with each one. We only have to write 5 proposals, but we win 4 of them, and have 4 great projects. Two of the other prospects aren’t actually the right fit, but we leave a good impression and they connect us to people who need our help. One comes back several months later when timing is right.
Because all the overhead of serving those other folks means it’s more likely that you miss a follow-up with the ideal prospect, that you’re distracted and overwhelmed and can’t bring your attention to bear properly, etc.
Ideally, you have processes in place (and a follow-up focused CRM– ahem!) to handle lots of leads without losing your mind. But even then, quality is more important than quantity.
Think through your current “pipeline”. How many folks are ideal prospects? How many are ideal prospects, but “not now”? (These are great folks to nurture, like a doctor scheduling an exam 6 months out. Much easier than trying to get timing exactly right, but don’t treat them the same way as someone who needs surgery tomorrow.) How many are happy to talk to you, pick your brain for ideas, but are unlikely to ever become clients (and perhaps if they did, you might regret it?)?
Simplify your pipeline, your business, and your life, by focusing on quality, not quantity.
After all, if you’re in a relationship business, you’re in a conversation business.
And you have a finite capacity for conversations. Despite what automation and AI gurus might tell you, nothing (yet) replaces real conversation.
So follow the 2-step sales process:
- figure out exactly who you want to talk to (ideal client and partner profiles)
- talk to them
If you’re wishy-washy on step 1, step 2 gets out of hand, logistically, psychologically, and financially. The engine burns a ton of fuel and doesn’t get you very far.
Make sure you’ve laid out exactly who makes an ideal client.
Then block off some time and flip through those conversations, like a doctor following up with patients.
Before you go for more leads, make sure you shouldn’t be going for fewer (better) leads.