From the course: Consulting Foundations: Client Management and Relationships

Positioning yourself

From the course: Consulting Foundations: Client Management and Relationships

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Positioning yourself

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- How many times has someone asked, what do you do, and you respond with, I'm a consultant. And then there's kind of an awkward silence before the other person says, oh, cool. It happens all the time because just saying consultant is kind of vague. No one knows what it means. Positioning yourself as a consultant could mean anything from I have a seven figure solo practice to I do a little social media advising on the side. To be successful in the world of consulting you'll need to position yourself as more than just a consultant. A lot of consultants believe that positioning yourself means highlighting an area of expertise, like I'm a marketing consultant or I'm a sales consultant. And while that's better than a generic consultant, in order to truly differentiate you'll need to position yourself in terms of the impact you have or would like to have on your clients. The more specificity here the better. Your positioning gives you a chance to highlight what makes you unique as a consultant. For example, if you're an IT consultant, do you help companies adapt technology faster or do you help them use technology more creatively or do you help them avoid some costly breaches? If you're tempted to say all of the above you're thinking too generally and you're not going to appear differentiated to your buyer. Take yourself out of your consulting shoes for a minute and pretend you're in the middle seat of an airplane. You ask the person on your left, what do you do? And they answer with, well, I'm a consultant. The person on your right answers with, I'm an IT consultant and I help companies use technology to connect with their customers online. Which person is more interesting? Yeah, the person on your right. Being specific about the impact you have quickly paints that picture of what consultant actually means. So how do you position yourself after you've answered the what do you do question? You can incorporate specific positioning from your website or the way you word your bio on LinkedIn, or client testimonials, or case studies that highlight some of your results. Once you have developed your specific positioning you can also use it to kick off projects or ask for referrals. There are tons of consultants out there. The more clear and specific you can be on what makes you unique, the more differentiated you'll become.

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