How to secure consulting clients in a recession, part 1

Leah Neaderthal0:03

The first thing you might be thinking is that clients don't buy in uncertain economic times, and yes, some clients are really tightened down. Some clients will suffer right now, but clients still can buy, if you know how to help them. Say, Yes. Welcome to the smart gets paid podcast with me. Leah Neaderthal, I help women land higher paying clients in their independent consulting businesses, but I've never been a salesperson. My background is in corporate marketing, and when I started my first consulting business, I learned pretty quickly that it's about 1000 times harder to sell your own stuff than it is to sell someone else's. So I taught myself how to do it, and I created the sales approach that I now share with my clients so they can feel more comfortable in the sales process. Get more of the right clients and get paid way more for every client contract. So whether your client contracts are $5,000 $100,000 or more. If you want to work with more of the clients you love, do more of the work you love, and get paid more than you ever thought you could, then you're in the right place. Let's do it together. Thanks for tuning in, and don't forget to rate, review and share.

Leah Neaderthal1:16

Hey there. Thanks for joining me in this episode. I hope that wherever you are, wherever you're listening to this, I hope you're having a great week, making some good progress in your business, and also taking some time for yourself. So I want to jump right in and talk about something that I've heard from a lot of the women I'm talking to these days. It's sort of, you know, out there in the ether, in the universe. It's on everybody's mind, and that is the economy, specifically the recession. I mean, we can't ignore it, right? We are in a global recession. There's inflation. We're reading stories about layoffs, like, I'm not going to go all coaching, and like, oh, positivity, right? Because this is real. We are in a recession. And a lot of women consultants, naturally are wondering, what does this mean for me? What does it mean for my clients? Are they going to be able to pay me, and what does it mean for my business? And all that is totally natural to think about and to wonder about. But what's concerning to me, and what really prompted me to do this episode, is that I'm also talking to a lot of women, some of the same women, who are, you know, saying some version of like this statement, companies don't hire consultants in a recession, or nobody spends money in a recession, businesses don't spend money, companies don't spend money, etc, some version of that. And it's this like sentiment, this feeling that you've lost before you've even started playing the game. I mean, it's super self defeating, like, how unmotivating to believe that you have something that no one's gonna buy because no one's spending money. And not only is it self defeating, it's also just not true, because clients can say yes, and clients do say yes, and clients do hire consultants, and clients do spend money in a recession, and that's what we're going to start to talk about today, how to do that. Because, yes, people are laid off. Companies tighten their spending in a recession. But here's what also happens in a recession. Clients can't add headcount, so they have to do the same amount of work, and they have to achieve their same targets or their same goals with fewer resources, and they need even more help today and through this time from outside partners than they might have needed in the past, when things were good and flush. So that's one thing they need help to get through. And what also happens in a recession is that a lot of companies see it as a time to grow, because if some of the other players in their space are slowing down, then they see it as a time to speed up and make a move. There are companies that you use every day that started in a recession, like Slack and AirBnB and Uber, Instagram, WhatsApp, all started during a recession. And then there are a lot of companies that didn't start in a recession, but they took the opportunity of the recession to really press the gas pedal. These are companies like Warby, Parker, Netflix, h and r block, Dollar Tree, MailChimp. And you don't have to go after these big companies. You don't even have to change your clients at all, because for every company that's like a household name, a name you know, like Warby Parker or MailChimp, there are hundreds of 1000s more businesses that aren't household names, that are in the mid market, or small businesses, even big companies you've never heard of. And all of them need to achieve their same goals today so that they can get through this time and either stay the course or grow. I've also talked to a lot of women in the past few weeks who said that in a similar environment to today, like back in 2020 they had the best years in their business, like they made more money in 2020 than in 2019 and. Are women in my program who are landing their biggest clients like right now. One of the women I work with in the academy just landed her most profitable contract ever. It's a $60,000 deal for eight weeks of work. Another member signed a $45,000 deal for essentially three weeks of work, and she's in the final contracts to repeat that four more times with the same client, another set of clients who are co founders in their consultancy, they raise their prices on the last clients they signed recently, and now the minimum engagement that they have with any client is like double what it used to be. And these are great, but it's not even just about these specific contracts or these specific engagements. It's that it's possible, once you have the tools and the system to get profitable engagements now, today, in this environment, and every engagement in the future. And in fact, I started my first consulting business in a recession. You're going to hear me talk about that a little later in this episode. So clients do spend money in a recession, but I will tell you they are more discerning, and the sales process may be harder in specific ways that we're going to talk about, and so you may have to think about selling and about your business a little differently, and that's what we're going to spend the rest of our time on in this episode. So I think I just needed to get that out there, because if we're going to talk about how to get consulting clients in a recession. You have to first believe that you can get consulting clients in a recession. We just have to sort of look at that myth that clients don't spend money in a recession, and call it what it is, a myth. So if you're on board with that, and I hope you are, then we can talk about how so as I sat down to write this episode. I was actually having trouble sketching it out. This is totally true. I was like, having deja vu, like, I feel like I have done something like this before. And then I remembered that I actually did back in the beginning of the pandemic, in April 2020, I did a training called How to Secure clients in uncertain economic times. It was the biggest training that I had done. It was packed. We had to, like, close the doors of the zoom. It was huge. And I know it sounds crazy that I would not remember that immediately, like, remember that I had done that, but that was just such a crazy time. Remember, like, April 2020, it was just such a crazy time. So at that time, I was working around the clock, doing all the things, trying to solve everybody else's problems, like talking to every single one of my clients, running two coaching programs at the same time. Meanwhile, just like working myself into the ground, completely exhausted. Oh, by the way, I was a first time mom of a seven month old, and I was losing my hair because of the stress of the pandemic. And we'd also, like, left our home in Brooklyn, which was like a covid hot spot. Oh, and I was living in my in laws, oh, my God. Even like thinking about that time, just like I can feel it in my body, like how stressful that was. So okay, when I remembered that I had actually done this training, I decided to, you know, give myself a pass that I didn't have, just like, immediate recall of that time in my life. And so I went back and I listened to it, and as I was listening to it and reading through my notes that I put together more recently, you know, over the past few weeks, I was like, this is what I'd say now. Like, what's in the training is what I'd say now. And so I want to share that with you here. You're going to hear part of a training that I put together about how to get clients in uncertain economic times. So to look at how to get clients in a recession, we have to look at how clients make decisions in a recession. And there are seven ways that clients make decisions differently in a recession, or, you know, uncertain economic times, and once you know those, you can use them. You can use them to attract the right clients, to lead a sales process and to help clients sign on the dotted line, even in a recession. So in the training you're going to listen to, I go through those seven shifts in how clients make decisions. It starts with, you know, a little context about how I learned some of these shifts, and then we dive in. And I'm splitting it up into two episodes. This is just part one. So, you know, don't worry about being overloaded with everything in this episode. But I will tell you if you're someone who likes to listen to this podcast with a pen and paper so you can take notes, or, you know, take notes on your phone. I know some of you have reached out to me and say that you have to listen to it with a pen and paper.

Leah Neaderthal9:22

Or somebody actually told me that she can't listen to it while she's running because she has to stop and take too many notes, which I guess I'm sorry for that, I think. But anyway, if you're somebody who likes to take notes in these episodes, you're definitely going to want to have that handy, the pen and paper, or some way to take notes for this episode. And if you take notes, especially handwritten notes, which I love, take a picture of them, post them on LinkedIn and tag me with your you know, insights or ahas or what have you, tag me and mention the podcast, and I'll give you a shout out. All right, you're gonna hear me mention that in the presentation. And I just want you to know like that's still a thing. You can still. Do that, and I will give you a shout out. All right, so let's dive into the first part of how to get consulting clients in a recession. Take a listen, and at the end, I'll come back and pull out a lesson that you can apply to your business. Do you have an actual sales process? I'm talking about not a general sense of what you should be doing, but a real process where you know exactly what step comes next, who to follow up with, and when, and you can see at a glance where every potential client stands, if the answer is no, or if yours feels clunky or you're reinventing the wheel every single time I made something for you, it's called roadmap to clients. It's a free 20 minute video course, and in it you'll map out your customized sales process, step by step, from the very first contact with a potential client all the way to a signed proposal. It's the same foundational process we use with every Academy member, and it's completely free. Go to smart gets paid.com/roadmap to get started. All right, so as you are getting settled and grab some paper and a pen or pencil, because I want we're going to go through seven key behaviors, and I want to make sure you get everything all right. And at the end of this training, actually take a picture of your notes. If you post them on LinkedIn and tag me, I will give you a shout out. All right. So I love handwritten notes. If I see a picture of handwritten notes, that makes me so happy. But if you take notes in Google Docs or Evernote or wherever, that is totally fine, too. All right. So again, if you're just jumping on we are here to talk about securing consulting clients in uncertain times. We're going to spend some time talking about how clients make decisions in times of economic uncertainty, kind of like where we are now, and how we can use that to get serve and keep consulting clients right now, all right, so I want to just quickly address what we might all be thinking or feeling, and it might feel weird, a little weird to talk about This right now, because things don't really feel normal, but that is exactly why we need to be talking about this. We're going to get into that in a little bit, and I want to make sure that your best position, not only right now and when things get back to normal. So before I do anything, I like to make sure we agree on goals, and my goal today is to share the seven ways that clients make decisions differently in uncertain times, and how you can adjust. Okay, I'm going to give you a strategy, and several strategies that you can start to use today, and some resources that you can tap into now. All right, so before we get into it, for those of you who I'm meeting for the first time, Hi, thanks for being here. So let's talk about who I am, and why am I teaching you how to do this. So I'm Leah naderthal, and I'm a sales coach for women who run consulting businesses. What does that mean? It means I help women land more of the consulting clients that they want, get more yeses and get paid dramatically more for every contract. Before I started teaching this, I started, grew and sold three companies. The first was a marketing and website design firm. The second was a consultancy to help nonprofits and social enterprises implement what's called Lean startup methodology. And then the third is an organization called lesbians who tech, which is designed to help LGBTQ women and allies get into technology and grow their careers. Before that, I started my career actually in Chicago. We got a lot of Chicago folks in the house. I started my career in Chicago at advertising agencies, ddd and Leo Burnett, and then I went to the client side and worked at a mid sized tech company. Other fun facts, because why not. I'm originally from Nashville, Tennessee, but now I live in Brooklyn, New York, although I'm coming at you, live right now from Long Island. So you might notice that there's one thing that I've never done in that list of career steps. I've never been a salesperson. You know, I've never been a commissioned salesperson. And how does someone who's never done sales become a sales coach for women entrepreneurs. Well, to answer that question, we have to go back to 2010 right?

Leah Neaderthal14:07

So in 2010 I had left my job in in corporate marketing to travel the world with my then girlfriend. And as we were traveling, we were backpacking, we were going super fast. It was such a whirlwind, and we realized that we weren't actually experiencing any of the places that we were seeing. So we decided to slow down, and instead of seeing the world over the course of the year and going back to an office job, we thought, why don't we create a business and a life that would allow us to live anywhere we were really into, like Tim Ferriss at the time for our work week. And anyway, that's what drove this. So that's how the first consulting business was born. And we actually cut our trip short after about eight months of traveling, and we came back to the States to continue to run that business and focus on getting new clients, all right. And by that time, it was 2011 so. You know, my background is in marketing, and I was starting a marketing business, and I thought, you know, how hard could that be? I don't know if you guys have felt that way too. It's like, I mean, I think if you are for everybody here, you're probably, like, chuckling themselves. You know, I was, I felt so looking back, I was like, so naive, because this was what was going on in the country in 2011 this was going on, and that was going on and that was going on. Hey, just popping in for a second, you can't see these graphs I'm showing, but they are graphs of the economy happening around like 2010 2011 2012 and just know that it was showing that everything sucked. Basically, that was 2011 and that is the environment in which I needed to get clients, and that little boy is pretty much how I felt. And getting new clients was so much harder than I imagined it to be. I mean, I've done hard things before, right? Like AP, calc was really hard, but this was different because, you know, I it was something that I thought should be much easier, but I realized that it's about 1000 times harder to sell your own stuff than it is to sell someone else's. You guys discovered that too, or felt that? Tell me in the chat if you're like, yes plus one, just give me a heads up that if you have discovered that it's 1000 times harder to sell your own stuff than it is to sell someone else's all, right, yes, okay, I'm seeing a lot.

Leah Neaderthal16:30

Yes, good. So I wasn't alone so and all of this you know, was because I had never been a salesperson. I had no idea how to sell anything, and so I even actually went back to work for someone else, which was a total mistake. I learned that in about the first two weeks, what a big mistake. That was, because I really did want to work for myself, but I knew that if I had, if I was going to do that, that I needed to learn how to sell, all right, like, and, you know, and not like I had seen sales guys try to sell to me. So I decided to teach myself and and I had to find something that worked for me. You know, I'm a total introvert. I'm not going to, like, shake 1000 hands. I need it. Needed to feel like me. And the thing is, I actually always thought that I was at a disadvantage because I had never, you know, quote, unquote, been a salesperson, right? But actually, it turned out to be a tremendous gift, because I adopted a beginner's mindset. I wanted to soak up and learn everything I could, and I wasn't going off of any old information that maybe things had even that had served me in the past. So what did I do? I read every single book I could get my hands on, which turned into 65 books. And, you know, the books weren't just about selling, although I did read some books about sales. These, you know, this sort of self study class I put myself on. It was books about Behavioral Economics and Psychology and Sociology and linguistics, how people use language, about history and startups and online marketing, and the things that I had learned, and when I tried every strategy with my own clients, you know, everything that felt salesy, I ditched everything that felt comfortable. I kept and I felt I spent four years really testing and learning and trying everything in my own business, and I didn't know it, but I was creating a selling methodology that really felt comfortable for me and for my clients, and it worked. And using that methodology, I have a 92% win rate, and I sold three over $3 million in work. And one of the things that I also did during that time is that I listened and listened to how the questions people were asking again, you know, I had a total beginner's mindset. I was curious about how they were making decisions, and what I learned in that process is what I'm going to share with you today, all right, so, and we'll get into that in a second. So later on, I realized that I, if I had been struggling with about how to get new clients, how to feel comfortable selling other women, were probably struggling with it too. And so now I teach women how to implement this same methodology in their consulting businesses. And you know, I started doing this, actually coaching women one on one. And then two things happened. First, I discovered that nearly every woman was struggling with the same things in her business, whether the business, you know, irrespective of industry, no matter if the business had been around for 20 years or two years, every woman was struggling with the same things in terms of strategies and also mindset and all this other stuff here to learn in order to be successful in this work. So there was a lot of commonality. And the second thing that happened was that in 2016 I had a stroke. I was totally overworked. I had was taking on and really embedding in all of my clients. And I was I basically ran myself into the ground. And. So thankfully, after about 30 days, everything sort of went back to normal. I have no lasting deficits, but it did change the way I decided to help people. I couldn't help everybody I wanted to. You know, my mission is to make it so that no woman has to struggle to land clients the way I did. And so I couldn't do that one by one by one. So if we're going to get into how to land clients in uncertain times, I want to first address a couple things that might be on your mind. Okay, what you might be thinking right now?

Leah Neaderthal20:34

The first thing you might be thinking is that clients don't buy in uncertain economic times, and yes, some clients will really tighten down. Some clients will suffer right now, but clients still can buy if you know how to help them say yes, and we're seeing this in the client groups that I'm in right now. Two of my clients signed really big contracts. Last week, one of my clients signed one of her dream clients. Within the past few weeks, another client does PR. She actually does crisis PR, and she signed a new client, a new PR client. And you think you know, with the crisis, it would have something to do with covid 19, but it actually has nothing to do with that. So clients can buy, and clients will buy, if you know how to help them, say yes. But I want to address something else that might be on your mind right now, and that is that it feels wrong to sell. Does it feel wrong to sell right now? There is a lot of this going around, and, you know, there are a lot of people who are worried about, you know, being sort of, I guess, business shamed, or whatever you want to call it, about selling. The truth is that your clients actually need You more now more than ever. There is so much information out there, but clients need people to make sense of that information, and clients don't have time to try a whole lot of things and see if they work. All right. They need your expertise. This is what you do. You know, anybody can just repeat information, but they need you to make sense of it and to they need you to step up and help them make sense of things and to help them keep going. All right. And the truth is that your clients need help. I over the past week or so, I've had the opportunity to speak with several women who have been running their consulting businesses for a long time. I've been doing these interviews. I'm putting something together that I'm going to share with you guys over the next week or so, and women who have been running their businesses through the last recession, and I asked them for their advice so I could share it with you. And so Dr Amy Clymer echoed, you know what we're talking about right now. She said, think about what you're doing as you're serving people and you're helping people. Don't worry so much about this fear of being seen. And if you focus on being yourself and in service to the people you're working with, then they're going to feel that back, and they're going to want that from you. That's what we're talking about here, because I have to tell you it's okay to make money right now. I think there's this feeling like you, you know, might be feeling bad about making money, or, you know, you might even like need to make money, but you still feel bad about it. And I want to tell you that it's okay to make money, because I know that we're in this collective moment right now, right? And there's this sense that we're all in this together, and that is true to a point, because, yes, participate in the collective understanding, the collective empathy, participate in the collective experience. But that doesn't mean you have to participate in the collective suffering, all right? And you can do more good making money than not making money. First, of course, for your family and all of that. But you can also support local businesses. You can pay your team members. You can donate to causes that you care about, and then you can support the people in the businesses that you want to see in your world. All right, when you're making money, you can do so much good because and the best thing is you, all of us here on this call, all of you us, are in the best position to survive this. You have the skills, you have the processes, you have a business right now, it's just about activating it. There are people right now who, just now today, are asking themselves, for the first time, how can I use my skills and experience to make money or to make more money, or decide start a side hustle? You are so far past that. They're they're starting today what you started years ago. So even though it might not feel like it, you have a tremendous advantage. All right, so let's talk about how to do that. So the rest of this is going to be about how we can do that. So to understand how to secure consulting clients in times like these, we have to understand how clients make decisions in times like these. Okay? And I gotta say, honestly, everything I share. Here is actually also true in normal times. It's just dialed up now, okay, it's just, you know, we take these things, you'll sort of see them, and if you've worked with me, you'll see some familiar concepts here, but it's going to be just sort of dialed up on our client side, all right. So there are seven changes, seven changes in how clients make decisions. We're going to go through all seven, and I'm going to share a strategy that you can use with each one. So before I even dive into this, I know we're going to go through these. We're going to learn a strategy for each of these. I'm going to summarize it at the end, and as we go through I want to encourage you don't feel don't get overwhelmed. I'm going to ask you at the end, just to pick one, okay, just to pick one that you can move forward with. All right, so the seven changes. The first is called pains require painkillers, all right. So to understand pains require painkillers, we have to understand the difference between painkillers and vitamins. Okay, so think about vitamins, right? Everybody should be taking their vitamins. I should be taking my vitamins. But, you know, you go to CVS or target or whatever you you're like, oh, I should get these vitamins. You leave the store without the vitamins, and then you're like, oh, okay, I'll get I'll get it next time. That's fine, as opposed to a painkiller. If you have a pain, you're going to do what you need to do to get that painkiller, like stat, right? So that's the difference between painkillers and vitamins. So and when you think about your business and what your clients need, it's really the same thing. So when we say pains require painkillers, what we mean is clients are going to purchase painkillers, that thing that solves an acute pain and is a must have, not vitamins, things that are should have or nice to have, but that are easily easy to delay buying. All right, so what does this mean for you? It means that if it's not clear how their business, your client's business is different or better as a result of working with you, even in the very first sentence, then your work is a vitamin. So what do I What can we do coming out of that, with that knowledge, position your work as a painkiller? So I talked to people that you know, I'll talk to women, and I'll say, tell me about the value that your work delivers to clients. And sometimes I'll hear back, well, I have 20 years of experience in marketing. I worked at all these companies. Or they'll tell me, Well, I do digital marketing. Or you might say, how you work, right? Like I I know how to be strategic and I can execute, or whatever. So, but that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about finding the pain that your client feels the most, and in positioning your work as a solution to that pain, okay? And again, it's not about your experience. It's not about the services you offer or even how you deliver them. It's only squarely about the benefits of the client to solve their most acute pain. All right, so let's look at a few examples, and I'm going to share some examples from my clients. One client, it does Corporate Social Responsibility consulting, and I want to just say this is not the vitamins. Are not the language that they started with. That's just I came up with that just to contrast, you'll see the difference between a vitamin and a painkiller. Okay, so it's the difference between corporate social responsibility consulting and we turn your corporate responsibility program into your greatest word of mouth tool. All right? That is a killer, well, a killer painkiller. That's from my client, Hannah, another vitamin. We help companies market better, right? Or do better marketing, or we're a digital marketing agency, or what have you, turning that into a painkiller says, I help companies look better, sound better, and sell more online. And that's from my client, Jill, who runs a design agency. And finally, you can say I'm a conversion copywriter, or I'm a copywriter, or B to B copywriter, or something very tactical like that. Turning that into a painkiller says, I help businesses uncover hidden revenue in their email lists. I love this one, and that's from my client, Emily. You guys, these are amazing. I also want to just draw a distinction between you know, you might hear, we help companies thrive or or we help companies grow or accelerate or succeed. A painkiller? What would be a painkiller? Like anything? Anything is better than that. Thrive, grow, accelerate, succeed. All of these are these sort of marketing phrases, but they're empty because they don't help clients envision how you can solve their pain. Okay? So anything, please, anything except that, all right, so that's pains require painkillers. The second change is called green light, red light. You guys remember green light, red light, right? Like when you were a kid, maybe your kids play it now, like, you know, you started a starting line, and then somebody says green light, and you run. And then when they say red light, you stop, right? It's like, stop start, stop start. We're going to see. More of that with sales cycles, it's going to feel like you're playing a game of green light, red light. So what we mean is the sales process is going to start to take longer and experience more stops and starts as projects will be delayed or postponed or canceled. Okay, in normal times, a B to B. Sales process can take anywhere from three months to 18 months to get a signed contract, and that could take even longer now. So what does it mean for you? It means that now, I would encourage you to focus on your pipeline coverage. Pipeline coverage means taking into account all the people, the people and potential clients you're talking to that rep, and then the revenue that is included, you know, the revenue that those projects represent, that's what we consider in your pipeline, right? You're talking to 10 people, and the average deal size is $20,000 well, you have $200,000 in your pipeline. That's what we mean by your pipeline. When we talk about pipeline coverage. What we mean is having enough in your pipeline that you can be covered even if an opportunity goes south or it gets postponed or gets canceled, or what have you. Okay. So in normal times, I encourage people to have between two to three times revenue in their pipeline two to three times pipeline coverage. Okay, what that means is, if you want to make $50,000 in the next six months, then you need more than $50,000 in your current pipeline. You need between $100,000 and $150,000

Leah Neaderthal31:36

which would be, you know, $50,000 times two and $50,000 times three. Okay, that's two or 3x coverage. But in uncertain times, I'm going to encourage you to have three to 5x right, three to five times as much in your pipeline as you hope to make and expect to make in the next six months. Okay, that's just because you know the sales cycles are going to be really volatile. So let's do this together. Okay, let's just take a second, and I want you to write down how much you want to make in the next six months. All right, doesn't have to be perfect. Just pick a number. We're going to do this really quickly. If it's $50,000 or $100,000 or what have you. Okay, first, multiply it by three. That's going to be your lower boundary, your lower amount for pipeline coverage. Okay, then multiply it by five. See, this is pretty fun. This is your higher amount. This is the top of your pipeline coverage. Okay, so the numbers that you're looking at, you're going to want to have between 3x and 5x in your pipeline just to account for the green light, red light, that's going to happen. Okay, so that's number two, green light, red light. The third is, your biggest competitor is invisible. So in most times, in normal times, consultants don't actually lose opportunities to a competitor. They lose to no decision. And you know, 20 to 60% of opportunities in general are lost to no decision. People, your clients, just don't decide at all, or they decide to stay with the status quo, even if the status quo sucks. This is going to go up in times of economic uncertainty, because making a decision can feel like a risk. All right. So what does this mean for it means that your biggest competitor is invisible. Most of your client opportunities won't be lost to a competitor. They'll be lost to no decision. Okay, so what can we do with that? What do we do with that information? It means that the way to guard against no decision is by really focusing on the value that your clients need and putting that value front and center in every interaction. All right, every interaction. Here's an example of that so and we're contrasting value from things like tactics, right? Like so a tactic would be, I do email marketing, for example. So as an example, when we talk about putting it front and center, it's like using it, almost like a shining light that you can keep holding up as what's possible in our work together. It's a difference between saying I wanted to follow up on, you know, this proposal, or I wanted to follow up on our email marketing project or whatever, versus, I want to follow up on how we can find the hidden revenue in your email list. It's always saying, hey, remember that this is important to you, not important to me, right, important to you, all right. So that's what we do for your biggest competitor is invisible. And I know we're going through these pretty quickly at the end. I don't want you to get too overwhelmed at the end. I'm just going to invite you to choose one that you can move forward with right now. Okay, so we went over a lot

Leah Neaderthal34:52

in this episode, and what I want you to sort of come away with here is that the things that you heard me say today in this episode, and what you're going to hear in part. Too. They're not just like things to do, right? It's not like these seven ways that clients make decisions in their recession, like put that on your to do list, because now you have more on your to do list, right? These are shifts in thinking, shifts in how to approach getting consulting clients right. Now. It's a shift from tactics to value by talking about your work in terms of the value that you provide and having a great painkiller statement. It's a shift to start putting that value front and center in every communication. And it's a shift from hope as a business strategy to being prepared by having enough in your pipeline. These shifts and the ones I'm going to talk about in the next episode. It's these shifts that will make you best positioned to not only survive this time, but really continue to grow, continue to make money, continue to serve the clients you love and also the clients you really need your help. So here's what I really want you to take away from this episode. Part One, you might be hearing or reading everything about the recession, and it's causing you to feel a certain way. You might be feeling nervous, or you might be in this kind of like wait and see mode, or feeling kind of paralyzed. You might be waiting to see what your clients do so you know whether you're going to be, you know, able to continue on with them, or you're going to need to replace a client or two. And the reception might be causing you to sort of hold back, or just kind of stay put, but waiting and seeing, you know, just stay there and see what your clients are going to do. I got to tell you that that worries me for you, because if you need to replace a client, let's say, even if you had a great conversation with a potential client tomorrow, it's going to take anywhere from three to 18 months, which is a typical B to B sales process, it's going to take anywhere from three to 18 months to get a client and get paid. You know, a little while ago, I posted something on LinkedIn. It was like question and answer, right? Question, how do you get a client today? Answer, get leads three months ago. And I said it kind of ingest, you know, maybe a little feisty or whatever, but it's totally true. So if you're waiting, if you're holding your breath right now, then you're kind of already positioning yourself to get caught flat footed instead be out there planting seeds having conversations today. So I'm getting to my real point. What I want you to take away from this first episode is this, don't use the recession as a crutch. Don't use it as an excuse, not to get out there, to not be seen, to not be visible, to not have conversations with potential clients. Don't tell yourself the game's lost before you even start to play, because I have to tell you, if you think you can't get clients in a recession, or you think you can get clients in a recession, you're right either way. Okay, so that's part one of how to get consulting clients in a recession, if you've taken notes, or even if you've just had an aha or an insight coming from this episode, I'd love to hear it. Post it on LinkedIn and tag me and mention the podcast, and I'll give you a shout out. And my one request for you in this episode is everyone is going through this every woman business owner, every woman consultant, is living in this economic environment with us. So if you're in a group with women business owners, or if you're in an online community, or if you just want to share it on social media, please share this episode with the people in your world, your audience, your community, your groups. Share it so that they're in a good position to weather and grow during this time too. All right, that's how we do this together. Thanks. All right, thanks for being here, and I'll be back in two weeks for part two of how to get consulting clients in a recession. Be sure to click Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss it. See you then, hey, everything we're talking about in this episode is part of the system women like you are learning in the academy. In the Academy, we help women consultants install the two systems every B to B consultant needs a marketing system to consistently attract the right clients and a sales system to lead a sales process to a yes and get paid more for every contract. So even if you've only gotten clients through referrals or word of mouth, in the academy, you'll learn how to attract and sign clients outside your network, how to lead a sales process with confidence and how to get paid for your value, not your time, and there's no cold calling or cold emailing involved, no changing your services or making a course, and you won't use any pushy sales tactics. That's just not our vibe. So if you like what you've heard here, the academy may be your right next step to learn how you can get these two systems in your consulting business and make progress faster and with fewer roadblocks. Head to smart gets paid.com/academy and apply, and we can chat about next steps. All right, see you over there. Transcribed by https://otter.ai