Client discussions
Client questions and case studies from the consulting frontline.
Do not get carried away by the chase after new clients. Focus on generating new business from old and existing clients.
A new client told me: “It is so difficult these days to get new clients – the competition is tough!” Yes, I agree. The market is quite saturated with consulting firms. However, if you do your business development right – rooting it in educating your audience – most of these consultancies will not be your competition.
So many consultancies I talk to focus almost exclusively on generating new leads and clients instead of (also) nurturing their relationships with past and current ones.
It is exponentially more expensive to acquire new clients than retain or upsell an existing one (see 'The Inconventient Number' section below in this newsletter). This is a simple data-backed rule in marketing. It makes sense. Your past and current clients know your capabilities and the types of results you can deliver, and they tell their network.
But then why do so many consulting firms put all their focus into acquiring new clients? As soon as they finish a project, that client gets dropped. Many consulting firms talk about new business and lead gen, but never about maintaining their existing relationships with current and former clients.
My opinion? New business development pipelines can be slow, expensive, and unreliable, contrasting with generating work from past and current clients. That’s the new client topic I’d like to dive into today.
Read in detail why your consultancy absolutely must focus on nurturing and retaining past and current clients.
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