I would like to start my own consulting or coaching business within the HR sphere. How does one build their credibility initially to build clientele?
You must do your SWOT Analysis first. if you provide quality product/service at affordable price, people will really appreciate that and then you will realize the power of Word of mouth marketing. Best wishes.
Building your clients is a very important step in the business world. To do this, you need to work on your product or service and make sure that it is good enough for the customers to be satisfied.
The first thing you need to do is market yourself and start getting reviews from people who have used your product or service before. There are many ways of doing this but I would suggest using these three:
- Write testimonials on the products/services you offer - Have a free trial period where you allow customers to try out your product or service - Give away some freebies as an incentive for them to write reviews about your product/service.
After having gained some experience in marketing, create content that will help you build a brand name and build trust with potential clients. This can be done by creating blog posts, videos, or articles where they talk about why they chose your company over others. In my opinion if you are able to develop good content then social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter will also help you gain more followers which will eventually lead to more clients because of word of mouth marketing.
I hope this answer helped! Thankyou! :)
Through word of mouth and recommendations. Ask your network. Offer free consultations in exchange for referrals.
I'm going through a similar process at the moment with one of my business.
The quickest and simplest way I've found is by offering your service for free to a handful or people in your existing network.
Explain to them that you are starting out with your coaching + consultancy business, explain the value and the help that you are able to provide with your service and that you are happy to provide this service to them for free for a period of time in exchange for them providing you with a testimonial at the end of this period of time with feedback on their experience of your service.
These testimonials can then be used in your marketing for paid clients and you will also gain hands-on experience while you are providing free advice, which means you can test ideas, strategies, tactics, tools etc, and be able to offer a better service to paying clients - which feeds the cycle of testimonials and social proof, which will benefit your business and service in the long run.
Making the investment in time and effort upfront will pay off in the long run and you have to be patient with this approach. The good thing is, because you are offering a service for free to your existing network should present you with plenty of opportunities to develop your service offering for paid clients and find willing takers for your free service.
Hope you find this useful and if you want to talk through specific strategies and tactics that you can use I'd be happy to jump on a call and help.
Good luck!
Clients through your extensive prospect list and funneling to the ones that need your service right now. Reviews through offering at least an above average service. Reputation through your actions and consistency.
1. Online: Start a YouTube channel based on your business. Create a FAQ list from the most common concerns/issues/ challenges facing your target market. Make videos that address those challenges. Use the videos to demonstrate your expertise thru case studies etc. Views and subscribers creates social proof that you can add value to your clients.
2: Offline: create and host a meetup group that serves your target market. Speak on topics from the above FAQ list. Invite other speakers to lead the discussion about 50% of the time. Research meetup.com for more info
3. Use texting software to send review links to clients and networking partners. Asking for reviews on Google, LinkedIn, and other platforms will generate more social proof that you are an expert in your field thus worthy of hiring and paying top dollar.
I have used these techniques in my business and they kept my phone ringing off the hook before, during, and after the COVID lockdown. Feel free to setup a call with me if you want more specific action steps.
Offer your products or services for free or for highly subsidized prices for a short while.
Get the clients and communicate to them that the offer is because you want them to try your service or product and offer their valuable reviews and feedback.
This is how you get your initial reviews and reputation.
