What do the most successful consulting businesses do to build their business?

I built a consulting company from 0 to 30+ employees in 4 years, so I got pretty good at this. A few ways that worked for us were (listed in no particular order):

1) Google Adwords to a free piece of content (ebook, webinar, etc)
2) Speaking at conferences, and being religious with "following up"
3) Leveraging our current customers for referrals early in our project (early is better then after)
4) Teaching our team how to identify opportunities when they were working with a customer to feed that to our account managers.
5) Blogging.
6) Create simple free apps that help your customers, it creates qualified leads for consulting.

Above all, do great work. If you're awesome and you can show your customers that you can scale that - without effecting their projects - then they will talk about you to everyone.

It takes many years to build a successful consulting business. I'm in my fifth year and I am now just at the point that I can cherry pick the clients I am most passionate and excited about helping. Here's how I gained traction....

1. Books - I've written three books plus numerous training manuals. A book is, in my humble opinion, the number one way for someone to get inside your head before they hire you. A book is like a brochure on steroids. In most instances my clients hired me because they read one of my books and then reached out OR I used the book to seal a deal that I was negotiating.

2. Speaking - I speak at lots of conferences and often make great connections by doing so. My team follows up to get appointments and then I use the appointments as an opportunity to see if my services are a good fit for helping them increase the productivity of their sales teams and/or for boosting office morale. I never take a client that I am not 100% sure I can help....I've turned down clients that are looking for services that I am not an expert at. Also, I often get hired to speak for large or mid-sized organizations. Keynote speeches are great for motivating a team for a week or even a month, but long-term results requires ongoing consultation and coaching so I always create a customized on-going consulting solution for any company that hires me for a keynote. Many of the firms take me up on it because they see that the keynote creates a spark in their team and they want to turn that spark into a flame.

3. Blogging - This goes hand in hand with writing books, but I give out tons of free content on my blogs. I have picked up clients from all around the world simply from the articles I've written.

4. Testimonials - How does a potential client know that you are worth your weight in gold? Testimonials from past clients. I do my best to collect those testimonials even though it's easy to forget to ask. Usually consultants are so focused on creating the results that the client needs that they forget to remember that the validation offered by past clients is often times the gas that fuels their ongoing business.

5. NSA - The National Speakers Association has been a huge asset to me in building my business. They have local chapters. I belong to their New England Chapter. Once a month the group meets to share ideas, insight, and more. The room is packed with others who have built awesome consulting businesses and from them I have learned the ropes and because of them I feel inclined to share what I have learned with others.

Good luck with your consulting business. Reach out if you need any additional advice or have more questions.

Most of the successful consulting business that I know of start their marketing efforts by building trust and being acknowledged as reference on their fields. They do lectures, participate and organize events and write articles to newspapers, magazines and respected websites/blogs.

At any time most of the income will be generated by 20% of the contracts and 20% of the contracts will consume most of the time the consultants have. The big secret is to align both 20% (to have the most of the income generated by the 20% that consumes most of the time) so that you don't waste most of your time on the clients that generate least results.

The charges usually will be using one of this three models:
* Per hour rates (sometimes with different rates for each kind of work/skill)
* Per result rates (an amount of the result increase or the result economy/decrease, depending on the type of the action)
* Per action rates (fixed amounts for specific actions/efforts)

If you want more examples, call me.

Some of the best clients I have from over the years came to me through some sort of course, article or blog I wrote. Building goodwill and trust with others pays off. When it comes to how much I give away vs. how much information I charge for, I use the 80/20 rule. I give away 80% of what I know for free and charge for the 20% that I feel sets me apart from my competition.

I agree with what Dan mentioned. Ask for referrals from existing customers, take speaking engagements to position yourself as an expert and blog. I'm going to try the Google Adwords.

Typically, I ask the client near the end of the relationship once I have produced an ROI. However, if you have a good relationship (client likes you) and have produced small wins, I'm sure the client would refer you prior to completion of the engagement.

Also, plant the seed mid way through the engagement/project to let your client know that you have identified other areas to work together which will increase client retention.

@michelfalcon

My business partner and I co-founded a marketing and business consulting company that is on track for our 3rd year as an Oregon Fastest Growing Company. Some things that have worked for us to grow:

1) Setting up good SEO on our site.
2) Writing regular blog posts.
3) Asking our customers and business network for referrals
4) Gathering great testimonials.
5) Getting regular endorsements on LinkedIn.
6) Helping our clients reach their goals (i.e. being good at what we do).
7) Establishing relationships with the local media.
8) Guest posting.
9) Developing strong relationships with people who are "connectors" in our target communities.
10) Attending important local events.
11) Hiring people who have connections in the community.