Consulting services exist to help people who need to solve a problem, but don’t have enough knowledge on the matter to do it themselves.
They can be hired by an individual or by companies and there are several areas of action that can benefit from the work of a consultant.
Today, the search for this type of professional is great, because people want fast and efficient solutions. Therefore, they are increasingly willing to hire someone who has enough authority to help them achieve the desired results.
Faced with this demand, the professionals who dreamed of began to use their knowledge to provide consulting services.
Do you have knowledge in a specific area and are you willing to share what you know? Then you can also work in this area and earn money by helping your clients achieve their goals.
Don’t worry if you identified with the profession, but don’t know where to start. In this text we are going to show you everything you need to do to .
1. Choose your area of action
Before you start, try to identify what you do best.
If you trained in a higher or technical course, want to work in the area and have more autonomy in your career, you can use this knowledge to build a consulting service.
However, it is not mandatory to have diplomas or specific training to become a consultant, as there is a demand for professionals who work with all kinds of knowledge.
If you know everything about the organization of environments, you have experience with sales, marketing, finance, fashion or people management, for example, you can transform this knowledge into teachings and sell them to your clients. And these are just some of the possibilities.
Think of all the skills you have that can be used to develop people, whether in professional or personal life.
Also discover if your consulting service is more recommended for companies or individuals.
A sales consultancy, for example, can be a great solution for an organization that is facing issues with its industry team or needs to implement a new program to drive sales.
A fashion consultancy can be efficient to help clients individually or in small groups, since it is a more specialized service, which needs to consider very personal characteristics.
2. Study your market
After deciding the area in which you are going to act, it is time to know everything about the market.
To prospect or attract clients to your consulting services, you will need to know what they are looking for, what their pains are, and what type of service you have to offer to stand out from the competition. That is, in addition to identifying all the characteristics of these people, you need to know how to please them.
To do this, it is not enough to just define a target audience. You will need to identify a very detailed profile of the ideal client of your business.
This definition is known as and takes into consideration all types of data related to the people you want to reach, such as:
- Personal (age, gender, name);
- Geographic (where you were born, where you currently live);
- Professionals (profession, areas of activity, job satisfaction);
- Financial (current situation, purchasing power);
- Behavioral (hobbies, religion, political positioning);
- Educational (level of schooling, topics that have affinity), among others.
Try to gather as much information as possible, because this will help you develop more assertive actions and with the appropriate language to approach the public, and converse with customers.
Also, observe and study your competition so you can identify what is working and what can be improved.
You do not need, nor should you, copy what other professionals are doing, but you have to know them to offer a service that can compete in the market.
Doing this analysis will help you build a differentiated service and prepare to absorb customer demands that are not yet being properly met.
If you want to know more about how to define your buyer persona, don’t miss this Tips where Rosario shares the best advice:
3. Define the format of your consulting services
If you prefer, you can provide consulting services in person.
However, if you are looking for something more dynamic and with scalability to obtain benefits, the best option is online consulting.
When the professional decides to do face-to-face sessions, they reach a smaller audience, in addition to having to travel, organize the agenda to serve all clients and repeat the content whenever they are hired.
In the case of online consulting, the professional manages to serve a greater number of people with the same material and, best of all, at the same time and without having to leave home. Thus, a single initial investment generates recurring benefits.
To work as a consultant on the Internet it is possible to consult, which can be done in various formats, such as video classes, ebooks or podcasts.
To choose the best format, take into account the type of content that your person consumes the most and also evaluate what is best for you.
If you are one of those people who gets stuck when it comes to speaking on camera, offering video consulting services may not be the best option.
If your difficulty is with written communication, it may be better to avoid ebooks.
After defining whether the consultancy will be face-to-face or online and choosing the format, make a script to organize the content well and do not forget any important information.
Define how many modules the consultancy is going to have, the activities that you are going to propose to clients, the duration, among other relevant details.
Next, provide and separate the instruments you will need, such as camera, microphone, audio or text, environment to record the classes and everything you need to produce your material.
4. Promote your business
As much as your consultancy is excellent, clients are not going to appear out of nowhere.
You need to invest in it so that people know who you are, what you do and what kind of advantages you can offer them.
There are several ways to make your service reach the public.
Once again, you need to think about your buyer persona and direct marketing actions to the channels where the possibility of attracting customers is greater.
You can create profiles on Facebook and Instagram, maintain a blog, or even make videos to share on your YouTube channel.
The most important thing, regardless of the place, is that your strategy is not just to make direct advertisements for your service.
Remember that you need to conquer people, show your authority on the subject and make them interested in your work.
To make sure this happens, focus on sharing relevant content that makes your buyer persona identify a problem and see that they have all the necessary tools to solve it.
By betting on this type of strategy, you increase the chances of attracting people who are really interested in your consulting services and, therefore, have the potential to become your clients.
5. Build a good relationship with your customers
Not investing in customer relationships is a mistake that many entrepreneurs and companies still make.
Normally, this happens because people do not know the potential that a client has to continue generating profits, .
Imagine the following situation:
You need to hire a service, but you are still in doubt about which option you should choose. Searching for more about each one, you discover that one of the companies has many positive comments and even a person you know or admire is a client and really likes the services provided.
We are sure that the possibility of relying more on this option increases a lot. In the end, there is no better advertising than a positive comment from someone who has already made a purchase and was satisfied with what they bought, right?
Mainly on the Internet, where we find thousands of options for everything we are looking for, good feedback helps a lot to highlight a product or service.
Therefore, value your client and make them see your consulting services as a complete experience that really solves their pain and adds value to their personal or professional life.
This way you will have more possibilities to recommend what you do to other clients or hire other services in the future.
BONUS: Use the Affiliate program
Now that you have seen what you need to do to dedicate yourself to providing consulting services, it is time to transform your ideas into a real business.
If you have the necessary experience to create your content, but you still don’t know how to sell, how about knowing the Affiliate program?
This type of service links people who create digital products (you can be one of them!) to others who use the Internet to promote their product in exchange for commissions on sales made.
To learn more about this service and how it can help you, check out this .
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