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Let’s try an experiment.
For just a few moments, visualize your very best client projects and relationships. The ones where you’ve done your most game-changing work. Where you’ve moved the needle—significantly—toward getting your clients what they most want.
Got the picture?
Now open up a clean page, grab a timer and set it for ten minutes.
Then write down as many of your top projects/engagements as you can recall. No need to get fancy, just capture the gist of each one. And when the timer goes off, stop.
Now, take your list and head over to your website. Your task? To find each one of those stories on your website.
Maybe they’re front and center on your services or testimonials page or buried in blog posts. Perhaps they’re built into product offerings or marketing emails.
Dig them all up and keep a running tally by client story. Your best bits might be in multiple places—a testimonial, several blog posts, a few marketing emails, a guest podcast.
If you’ve found multiple hits, you’re in good shape. The more you build those stories into your digital real estate, the easier it is for future clients to bond with you, to join your tribe.
But what if you have the opposite experience: when your client stories—your single biggest asset as a consultant or advisor—are nowhere to be found?
In that case, it’s time to start tapping into your client stories to demonstrate your value in concrete terms.
Start small: pick your best client story and flesh it out, just for yourself at this point. Who was the client? What was the presenting issue? Was that the problem you solved or was that just a symptom of something deeper?
As you work on this, you’ll want to encapsulate the result into a sentence. Don’t worry about how you’ll jazz it up in marketing-speak, just get the results clear. For example:
Took an under-performing team to a superbly-functioning one in eight months, almost doubling their productivity.
Improved portfolio returns by 10% in six months.
Coached a new technology VP from just barely functioning as a leader to confidently leading his team to launch a $30 million new product.
Sourced ten media mentions and two cable interviews over an eight-week campaign for a new healthcare product.
You get the idea.
Once you’ve got one story, take a close look across your marketing to find the right spot for it. It could be the subject of your first “case study” or a blog post or even a series of articles or a video.
What’s the best platform to share the story? Hint: multiple platforms are often the optimal solution.
As you get comfortable sharing, start keeping a short record of your projects and stories (including asking for testimonials when you’ve completed work you’re especially proud of).
Because there’s another value in this exercise beyond attracting new clients.
It’s fuel for you.
It’s a potent reminder of the power of your work to change the lives of those you serve.
And when you can connect all of those dots for your future clients to see, everybody wins.