According to Statista, the consulting industry is valued at over a trillion dollars and is projected to grow bigger in the coming years. This statistic only says one thing: the consulting industry is a goldmine. You will make money when you start selling consulting services online.
The consulting industry is vast and lucrative, but just like most lucrative industries, the competition level is on the high side. Don’t allow the mention of competition to discourage you from getting in. The good thing is that it is a very big and profitable industry; this means that you don’t have to dominate the industry to make good money. With a part of the over a trillion-dollar valuation, you will be doing amazing.
The internet has made it possible to offer many services from the comfort of your home or office to clients thousands of miles away. You are no longer limited to your location or have to worry about logistics for moving from one city to another. Selling consulting services online increases your audience reach, number of clients, and how much you can make.
This article will guide you through the process of selling your expertise and consulting services online.
Identify Your Target Audience
You already have expertise in a niche. This could be any niche, as far as people are interested in it. The next thing is to define your target audience.
The fact is not everyone needs your expertise. To avoid wasting time chasing the winds, you have to be clear on who you are targeting.
Knowing what you offer and who will benefit from it helps you find your target audience. For example, if you have experience acquiring high-quality leads through social media advertising, that’s your skill. You may decide to focus on helping technology startups to acquire customers easily and fast.
You don’t want to try rendering your service to everybody because it will make it harder to get noticed by the right audience. After all, you will be everywhere and nowhere.
The target isn’t to be everywhere but to be in the right place, and identifying your target audience is crucial to achieving it.
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Conduct Market Research
You have already identified who you are targeting with your consulting services. Now, you have to conduct market research. No matter the business you are venturing into, it is essential that you understand the market.
Conducting market research gives you insight into what to expect; for example, market research helps you to understand the size of the market and if there are new emerging audiences. It also provides insight into the competition.
For online consulting, you can conduct your market research by using tools like Google, ChatGPT, YouTube, Facebook, etc. You can conduct a survey and ask your social media followers for their honest opinion.
Ensure that you conduct market research at the earliest stage so you can build on the information.
Develop A Unique Value Proposition
Even before conducting market research, you know you already have a competition. The market research will only give clarity to that competition. Having a better understanding of the existing competition, you have to stand out to stand a chance.
The goal isn’t to go after every client in the consulting market but to get a fraction of the high demand. How to do that is to develop a unique selling angle for yourself.
There are many people offering the basic services you would offer, but your experiences, personality, skills, etc., can make a lot of difference. Ensure that you continue to invest in personal development because you have to be ahead of your clients.
Define Your Service Offering
It is about narrowing down enough to serve a specific group. Though you don’t want to niche down too much, you also don’t want to have a broad audience.
Defining your services and being clear about them helps you stay on track. By defining them, you make it easier for you to deliver and for your clients to have the right expectations.
Your services model can be:
- One-off services
- Subscriptions
- Project-based
- Done-for-you
- Done-with-you
Whatever service model you decide to go with, ensure that the clients get value. Talking about offering values, it is better to go with packages than hourly rates. You don’t want to feel the need to speed up the process because you want to cover all within the client’s paid hours. This won’t only make it worn out due to pressure; it will make the clients feel undeserved.
Packages give you enough time to overdeliver on your promises and make the client feel like the priority. It also allows you to charge higher; that is because of the perceived value. Prioritize your client and overdeliver on your promises.
Develop a Business Plan
Though the business of consulting revolves around your skill, experience, methodology, and personality, you need planning. No matter the business, it is always important to plan. To have an effective business plan, you have to factor in your discoveries from the market research you conducted.
While developing a business plan, you should include how you plan to structure and grow the business. Selling consulting services online isn’t something you can achieve without a plan.
In creating a structure for your online business, you would need a good and optimized website and social media pages. You want to be seen as a serious business, and it starts with a website and social media pages.
To grow your business, as a starter, you can start with free publicity. Since you already have a website and social media pages on platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, TikTok, etc. You need to start creating quality content that educates and entertains your targeted audience. The content must relate to your niche because you want to attract only those interested in your niche and services. By doing so, you are advertising and growing your business.
Also, if you want quick results, you can run paid advertisements on social media platforms to reach more people faster.
Another way to grow your business is by networking and partnering with other consultants in your niche. No business survives without people, and as a consultant, you need to have access to like minds. Connect and build relationships with thought leaders in your niche and leverage their platforms and experience.
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Conclusion
One of the amazing things about selling consulting services online is that it is cheap to start. To start this business, you basically need access to a computer or smartphone depending on your niche.
The barrier to entry is low, and the potential reward is high despite the existing competition. You only have to be skilled, experienced, have an attractive personality, and have an effective method.
When starting out, you can leverage the free traffic from platforms such as Pinterest, TikTok, etc., to cut costs. Also, network and build relationships with others in your niche.
There’s no limit to how much you can earn, but a known audience makes it easier. Therefore, narrow down your niche. Ensure that the niche has adequate demand and you are on the track to a successful business.
