There are a number of ways to get more consulting clients depending on whether you have existing clients or not. I will cover both options.

If you have existing clients that you’ve provided consulting for then I would recommend testimonials and word of mouth.

Ask your clients for testimonials as social proof that you can provide great consulting advice. You can then use this in your marketing to attract other clients. Ideally, you want video testimonials as they are more authentic. Ask your clients to give examples of tangible proof i.e ‘with John’s consulting I grew my business from £X to £X within X months’. You don’t want ‘X is a great guy and helped me’ as these testimonials are meaningless.

Next, word of mouth is a very powerful way to get new consulting clients as you have been vouched for by another client and have been recommended as an authority to consult on your chosen subject. You can encourage existing clients to recommend you by offering them a referral fee for every new client they send your way.

What if you don’t have any existing clients?

Then I would recommend offering a free trial consultation. A free consultation allows you to build a relationship with your prospect, allows you both to see if you’re a good fit to work together and takes any risk away from the prospect that your consulting advice is worth paying for.

Focus on creating a strategy that solves your prospects biggest problem, then outline a solution by submitting a written proposal with a series of steps to take in order to achieve the desired solution. You can charge for future consultations and assuming you’re able to help your prospect they shouldn’t be too hard to close and convert into a paying client.