THE dEFINITIVE gUIdE To ATTRAcTINg ANd RETAININg YoUR IdEAL TARgET cLIENTS

Every consultancy dreams of landing the perfect clients – the ones who value its expertise and invest a pretty penny in long-term engagements. 

In reality, attracting and retaining ideal clients is often an uphill battle. It’s not only about standing out in a crowded market but also about being the right fit to the right prospects at the right time. 

Yet, as challenging as consultancies may find the process of attracting and retaining ideal clients, the alternative is bleak. Targeting the wrong clients or failing to retain great ones inevitably leads to wasted resources, poor ROI, demotivated employees and high client churn.

Mastering client attraction and retention is as important to consultancy growth as Robert Downey Jr. to the success of Marvel.

And we are here to tell you that there is a surefire way to consistently attract and retain ideal clients.

In this guide, we outline actionable steps that you can implement right away to increase the volume of ideal clients in your pipeline. 

Defining an ideal target client

In the immortal lyrics of Rodgers and Hammerstein sung by Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music, “Let’s start at the very beginning. A very good place to start.”

What makes an ideal target client? Here is a list of attributes to consider when pondering this question:

• What is their industry and company size? 
• What area of business do they work in?
• What are they looking to achieve in their role? 
• What pain points prevent them from achieving these goals?
• What topics do they find themselves researching for hours on end?

Throughout this exercise, make sure to check the alignment of this fictional character’s attributes with your consultancy’s expertise and capabilities. Your ideal client might be a CIO of a Fortune 500 company, but does your consultancy have the expertise and capabilities to execute a multi-regional cloud modernisation project that will take two years and involve 100+ stakeholders? 

Sure, there is always the fake-it-till-you-make-it approach, but it’s unlikely to take your consultancy far. Mismatched expectations and difficulty in delivering results will eventually catch up with your business.

Crafting messaging that resonates with your ideal target client 

Mapping out the characteristics of the ideal target client will serve as the foundation for creating the right messaging. 

There are examples of ideal target audience-centred messaging all around you if you pay attention. The “Red Bull Gives You Wings” messaging is all about pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. Nike aims to inspire its audience, urging them to put their fears and doubts aside and “Just Do It”. 

What messaging will resonate with your audience? How do you inspire your ideal clients to take action?

Talk to your past clients who fit the criteria of an ideal target client. See what specifically convinced them to go with your consultancy, what pain points you helped them resolve, how that improved their business in the long term and so on. Take note of both larger themes that they touch upon and specific terminology that they use. 

The goal of this analysis is to help you craft messages that catch the attention of your ideal target clients, make them curious to learn more and, ultimately, take some form of action – download a lead magnet, for example. Carefully designed messaging is the fuel that powers your client acquisition engine and consultancy growth.

Positioning – the foundation for client attraction

Positioning is the process of designing and continuously strengthening your consultancy’s identity in the market. It’s a lens through which your ideal target audience will see your value proposition.

Strong positioning utilises everything at a consultancy’s disposal to create a distinct, memorable and appealing identity. It communicates not just what a consultancy does but how it does it, who it offers value to and what makes it unique. 

Let’s look at some real-world examples.

Great Place To Work® specialises in helping employers quantify their corporate culture. They are positioned as a “global authority on workplace culture” – a bold claim that they back up with a set of custom methodologies. 

Is this brand perceived as a global authority on workplace culture? Log into your LinkedIn account around the time when one of its Best Lists gets published and observe the flood of company and personal pages proudly displaying the Great Place To Work® badge.

Here is another example: Singularitee – a managed IT service provider and a client of ours. We helped them refine their positioning by telling prospects that they shouldn’t settle for the status quo. “Expect More From IT Support”.

This claim is supported by transparency in the outcomes that clients can expect to achieve:

There are a few different ways to go about carving out your niche. See what works best for your offering.

What makes positioning irresistible? What magic formula brings clients knocking? 

• It’s relevant. The positioning is aligned with market dynamics.
• It’s memorable. The positioning breaks through the generic messaging of countless other consultancies.
• It’s targeted. The positioning is not trying to appeal to everyone – it caters to a specific audience.

• It’s motivating. Whether the positioning aims to remove risk, invalidate alternatives or aspire to greater heights, it motivates action.

• It’s credible. There is a difference between being confident about the ability to deliver on impressive promises and simply making unfounded claims.
  
  

Crafting a magnetic value proposition  

Alright, now that you’ve determined your consultancy’s identity and ideal client persona, how do you connect the two?

Through strategic messaging that communicates your unique value. 

Your value proposition is a statement that clearly articulates what transformation you offer, the tangible outcomes you can successfully achieve, and who would benefit the most. 

Let’s get straight to the examples that illustrate the power of a value proposition.

Prospectus. is a strategy advisory firm. They positioned themselves as “the world’s only strategic certainty consultancy”. Their value proposition centres around their ability to deliver strategic and operational clarity within 90 days.

“90 days? How?” These are the questions that the prospects start wondering, prompting them to take action.

Another example is HubSpot. It offers software “that’s powerful, not overpowering” – a subtle statement with a massive appeal. It addresses the problem that so many businesses face when integrating new software in their tech stacks – they feel overwhelmed. 

Communicating the value proposition

How do you communicate your value proposition? Loudly! 

Also, directly and indirectly. 

• Your website, marketing PDFs and event banners are the perfect opportunities to directly place your value proposition.
• Indirectly communicate your value proposition through everything else: 
  • Blog articles that discuss themes that are narrowly aligned with your value proposition,
  • Guest appearances in podcasts where your consultants demonstrate their profound understanding of the ideal target clients’ pain points and the consultancy’s approach to solving them,
  • LinkedIn posts that offer insights into the state of the industry.

The spirit of your consultancy’s value proposition should underpin every outgoing piece of communication.

Appealing and authentic – striking the balance 

If value propositions are so mighty, why are so many consultancies failing to realise their full potential?

Most likely, it’s because the value propositions do not resonate.

1. They are full of clichés. These are the types that use a whole lot of buzzwords to say a whole lot of nothing. “Oh, you are a leader that offers high-quality solutions perfectly tailored to the needs of your clients?” You don’t say!
   
   
2. They are not aligned with the ideal clients’ needs. You can have the most creative value proposition that you communicate through fancy paid ads, informative blog posts and beautifully designed banners. If your value proposition fails to address the ideal target clients’ most urgent issues or transform the way they look at what appears to be a minor problem on the surface, you are wasting your time.
   
   
3. They communicate what the consultancy thinks prospects want to hear and lack authenticity. Value propositions should be based on a thorough understanding of the ideal customer. However, they shouldn’t pander to them. Isn’t that the very reason the consulting industry exists as a whole? Because consultancies presumably know better than the clients?

Attracting your ideal clients: tactics to add to your toolbox

Let’s look at the specific tactics that will help you reach and engage your ideal target clients.

1. Tap into your existing network

You don’t need to start from scratch. Chances are that unless you’ve lived under a rock for the last 10 years, you already have connections and avenues to get your message out there.

• Peer networks: It could be a LinkedIn group, an informal network, a conference you were a part of or an accelerator of some sort where you launched your consultancy years ago. Utilise these networks to identify partnership opportunities – e.g., is there a consultancy that offers different yet complementary services? Arrange a mutually beneficial collaboration where you would refer clients to each other.
  
  
• Industry events: It’s not only about the immediate results. It’s also about leaving a lasting impression. You want people you meet at these events to become your advocates. If they come across the right opportunity, you want them to say “Hey, talk to these guys! I met them and they seem like they would be a great fit!”
  
  

2. Create content that talks directly to your ideal target clients

You can’t rely solely on referrals to fuel your client acquisition. You want to be discoverable by prospects. 

Remember the conversations you’ve had with your past clients to understand what made them pick your consultancy? Well, let’s hope you were taking notes and came out with a list of relevant themes and topics. This will be the foundation of your content strategy – blog articles, lead magnets, social media posts, guest posts, podcast episodes, webinars, etc.

Create content regularly, post thoughtfully and promote diligently.

3. Design a personalised, high-quality outbound strategy

Successful marketing combines inbound and outbound strategies. It’s allbound. 

Don’t go down the rabbit hole though, downloading lists from Zoominfo and launching cold email campaigns that will sink your email domain’s reputation. You are better than that. 

Instead, focus on high-value outreach. Initiate meaningful conversations with prospects. Send an insightful article to a relevant contact you connected with on LinkedIn. Drop a message with a summary of the research your consultancy conducted to a past client. 

It’s quality over quantity!

And remember: marketing tactics that lack the foundation of clearly defined positioning are a waste of time. To be effective, marketing efforts need to be focused. They need to utilise a language that appeals to a very specific segment. Without such precision, you may as well go fishing by throwing pebbles in an ocean.

Optimising your sales pipeline for consultancy growth

The next step is to review your sales pipeline to make sure it doesn’t hinder your client acquisition efforts. Audit your sales process for hidden flaws. You may find issues that are costing you clients or bottlenecks that unnecessarily lengthen the sales cycle. 

Be scientific about it: collect data, analyse it, identify bugs, design fixes, test the new approach and measure the results.

A LAPS dashboard is an effective way to track leads, appointments, proposals and consultancy sales:

• It will help you visualise each stage of your funnel and calculate conversion rates between each stage.
• It will help you understand how well each team is performing.
• You will gain a better understanding of which stages in your funnel present bottlenecks. 

Based on these insights, design and implement fixes. These fixes might be incremental yet make a world of a difference. 

For instance, are you receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback on your lead magnet but not enough people download it in the first place? Try updating your long form with progressive profiling. 

Other examples of simple tweaks that can help you improve lead qualification and increase conversion rates:

• Replace generic or technical language and buzzwords with your observations on your target audience’s pain points.
• Place your lead magnets on pages that generate the highest amount of traffic.
• Make the terms of your proposal easier for prospects to understand to reduce the amount of time it takes to close a deal.
• Change the content or frequency of your lead magnet follow-up emails.

In most cases, consultancies don’t need to reinvent the wheel. They already have systems in place that will enable them to scale their business. It’s just a matter of optimising them.

Retaining the clients you want

In the age of limitless options, client loyalty is a privilege. It needs to be earned and continuously reinforced. 

Client experience is all-encompassing. Your consultancy is being evaluated by clients based on the results it can achieve, how it is perceived in the market, how well your consultants understand specific pain points and needs, how responsive the consultancy is to the client’s requests and so on.

There are very few instances where these facets of client experience don’t matter because clients have no other choice. 

Proven strategies to keep clients engaged and satisfied

Clients want to feel important, heard and appreciated.

• Schedule regular check-ins. Don’t wait to schedule a call when you need something from your client or if there is a problem. Ask for feedback. Run ideas past them. Send them resources they may find useful.
  
  
• Be honest and transparent. Nobody likes being lied to, and most of the time, people can see through BS. Earn your clients’ trust by being honest with them about setbacks. Communicate the reasons and explain what mechanisms you’re putting in place to prevent it from happening in the future.
  
  
• Be proactive. Are you noticing a market trend that has the potential to impact your clients? Reach out with your analysis of the situation and propose a solution.
  
  
• Create case studies. Discuss with your clients your past engagements. Strive to understand at a deeper level how your contribution impacted the responsibilities of their role.
  
  
• Deliver value unprompted. Not every interaction with your clients needs to be transactional. For instance, your contact mentioned that their marketing team is struggling to identify an automation solution in an earlier discussion. Came across a solution that receives outstanding reviews in your network? Send it as a helpful tip to your contact. 

Client experience is not a one-and-done exercise. It’s a collection of small and large interactions.

Establishing long-term relationships through value delivery and trust

At the centre of your relationships with clients is value delivery. It’s what your clients pay for. You should be able to demonstrate how your consultancy can deliver value regularly.

The second foundation of successful client engagement is trust. No long-term relationship can survive without it. It’s true in our personal lives, and it’s true in business.

Trust is earned through honesty, transparency and accountability. Celebrate successes and own up to mistakes. Encourage your clients to be open about their experience with your consultancy. Don’t be afraid to point out when roadblocks are the direct result of the client’s lack of commitment (in a tactful manner, obviously).

Adjusting your pricing for sustainable client retention and consultancy growth

“Are you mad? We can’t raise prices! We risk losing our clients.”

If you find yourself thinking that way, you are probably experiencing one of two problems:

1. You don’t think the value your services provide justifies the price increase.
2. You are catering to the wrong clients.

There are many reasons consultancies may want to increase their prices over time:

• inflation, d'oh!
• increased complexity of services,
• stronger value provided by the services (e.g., a consultancy developed a proprietary framework or tool),
• increased scope due to the client’s company’s growth,
• keeping pricing on par with competitors.

Price renegotiations are an opportunity for sustainable client retention and consultancy growth. It’s a chance to strengthen relationships with some clients by engaging in a meaningful discussion about the value your consultancy delivers. It’s also an opportunity to free up space in your pipeline for ideal clients by letting non-ideal clients drop off as a result of a price increase.

Scaling your consultancy sustainably

Client retention is vital to maintaining a healthy pipeline of work and revenue. However, you need new clients to grow. 

Strive to find a balance between the two without compromising on the quality of either. Create a system to make sure nothing falls through the cracks. For example:

• Create a schedule for check-ins with existing clients.
• Assign a key account manager to each client.
• Create editorial calendars ahead of time and plan out content creation deadlines.
• Identify industry conferences and networking events you want your consultancy to attend and determine your priorities at each.

Periodically assess your services to make sure they still align with your ideal clients’ needs. Market conditions can change overnight. You don’t want your consultancy to be left in the dust of irrelevancy. 

At the same time, pay attention to the changing needs of clients to identify service evolution opportunities. 

As you scale your business, audit your positioning and value proposition. Are you diluting either by launching a new service? Should you pivot your positioning now that your services offer greater value? Stay on top of these critical business parameters. 

Finally, measure your performance. Metrics like retention rates, customer lifetime value and net promoter score will help you assess your clients’ satisfaction. Metrics like conversion rates, tolerable cost per acquisition and returning visitor sessions will give you an idea of how effective your client acquisition strategies are.

Position, differentiate, deliver value

Positioning and differentiation are not feel-good concepts taught in marketing classes. They are frameworks that can make or break a business.

Without strong positioning, prospects will not understand what your brand is about. They will not relate to your messaging.

Without differentiation, you will be just one of the many consultancies pushing the same uninspiring messages.

Be different, bold, authentic and precise about the value your consultancy can deliver to ensure long-term client attraction and retention.

And if you want to audit your positioning, download our checklist to ensure it wins both mindshare and market share. Download: The 11-step positioning template for "Boring" consultancies.