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Have you noticed there seem to be a whole lot of on-line discussions lately amongst B2B consultants who haven’t been signing new clients…
Is it the economy? Is it my industry? Is my specialty just not in demand right now?
It’s kind of a pointless discussion because you’ll probably never know for sure if the problem is way bigger than you or something you can fix.
So why not take a closer look at the factors you can control?
Most client acquisition problems fall into one of these categories:
- A positioning/messaging problem: your niching and language isn’t tight and compelling enough for your ideal clients to act.
- A marketing problem: you haven’t built a repeatable system to drive your ideal clients to you.
- A numbers problem: you aren’t getting enough quality leads from your marketing.
- An offer problem: something about your offer—the price, options, outcome, delivery or your credibility—isn’t resonating.
Yes, it can be hard to see which of these might be tripping you up since it’s hard to see the label when you’re inside your own bottle.
But.
If you look an awful lot like others in your specialty (or your ideal clients can’t tell who they are), it makes sense to dig deeper to differentiate.
If you don’t have a repeatable marketing system that pulls in and nurtures your ideal people until they’re ready to buy—you want to start experimenting right now.
If you aren’t getting enough quality leads from that system, then you darn well better figure out how to get your message in front of more ideal clients.
If you’re good until you have a sales discovery call with an ideal prospect and then go down in flames, start testing new offers and getting comfortable facilitating sales conversations. (Pro tip: don’t assume your price is too high—it may just be too low to be credible 
.)
All of these challenges can be overcome with thoughtful action, an open mind and some experimentation.
The “trick” is to get started.
Related: The Three Financial Stages of a Successful Soloist Business