How Your Price Attracts New Consulting Clients

I had an interesting conversation with a friend over the holidays

. She lamented that her lead generation efforts were not yielding the quality of clients she wanted. Since this had never been a problem in the past, I asked her if anything had changed about how she was presenting her services.

What she said was interesting and indicative of the problems that consultants often make. Specifically she mentioned that she had been promoting a number of free ebooks on her website. While there is nothing wrong with that, she also was offering a free 30 minute consultation to everyone who purchased the ebook. Therein lay the problem.

Her target market was (and is) small business owners. Not surprisingly most of these fledgling entrepreneurs have little capital for their new businesses. Thus they are eager to get all the free advice they can. The idea of offering the ebook is wonderful. It enables prospects to raise their hands and self identify themselves about having an interest in her services. In fact the ebook has been responsible for 3-5 new opt-ins every day.

However, when these new prospects go to the next step and take advantage of the free consultation, then things get a bit muddled. Sarah (not her real name) finds that she is spending between 1-3 hours a day "trying to be helpful" to those who take her up on her offer.

The challenge is that any offer of free information is going to attract two very distinct, and different, groups of prospects. The first are those who either can't afford or are unwilling to invest in your paid services. The second group however are those with the means to invest in your services who are using your free offer as a test of your knowledge and quality. The second group is prized. The first can be an enormous drag on your time.

Thus the question becomes, how do we differentiate between the two groups? How can we insure that we are spending time with those who are most likely to actually buy our services? Here's one method that works.

Many consultants and coaches simply offer a free consultation to one and all. As I mentioned, that's often a mistake. However, phrasing your offer with criteria for who is a good candidate for the session is a simple step that pays remarkably positive benefits.

For example by saying, "Here's an offer, but I'll admit there is a catch" in the subject line of a follow-up email sets the tone for the offer you are about to make. Then in the body of the email put in the following qualifying language: "This offer will be most appropriate for owners of small businesses earning at least $500,000 (or whatever amount you feel represents the minimum qualification your clients must have)."

A wise individual once told me that the type of client we attract is determined in a large part by what we charge. Offering free information as a hook to attract the initial prospects is a sound strategy. However, it is important to realize that among the 100 prospects that are attracted, only a small handful realistically should be able to afford your services. You need to separate the gold from the silt early on in the process.

by: Mark Satterfield

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