What a meaty conversation! I’m sitting here trying to absorb all I’ve read. I may have to re-read again later to glean all the value. Thank you!

Initially, I’ll just hit on a few high points that struck me or were spawned as a result of your words.
1. I couldn’t agree more with Alicia regarding keys to consulting success — a) something you love; b) people you like; and c) people you can reach. Those have been vital to my 12-year stretch as a business owner.

2. I didn’t know, initially, where my niche lay. In fact, I just knew I LOVE writing; as well, I have certain organizational, process and meeting management skills honed in corporate America that linked business savvy to my writing.

3. After leaping off the cliff and going it on my own, it took me less than 1 year to zero in on my overall niche (resume writing) and another couple of years to sub-niche myself (resume writing is linked with career coaching, and this becomes a BROAD area). I decided words and career positioning documents are my strength; coaching and, specifically, interview coaching, are a micro-niche within that << Karla, not sure if I applied micro-niche in the way you intended, but I liked it, so adapted it to my purposes

4. The part about selling that Jay mentioned is a good subject; selling didn't come naturally to me, but like Alicia mentioned, I built relationships, partnerships and so forth to cultivate my marketing message. Though I plunged into deep water without a life jacket and HAD to learn to sell, I also adapted my selling and marketing strategy to my personality. I'm not naturally a hunter, I'm a relationship and value builder. That has worked for me.

I also enjoyed reading Sharlyn's description of a Consultant Broker. Makes good sense, and though I haven't hired such a broker for my business, I believe some of the referral relationships nurtured over the years have created a pre-sold customer pipeline that has advanced my business many-fold, perhaps akin to the results netted by a consultant broker.

Excellent blog article and conversation!

Alicia mentioned our conversation about consultant brokers. I’ve recently found a few people in my network are finding success in brokering the services of their colleagues. They were very successful sales people and have decided to use their selling skills and contacts to broker. It’s a real win-win for the consultant who wants some additional sales support but can’t afford to bring people on full-time and the sales professional who wants to offer a variety of solutions to their clients.

Consultant brokers could be an option to try when things are not going as well as you’d like (as Trish mentioned.) Even though I’m a small business, I regularly look at where my income comes from and what my clients are asking for. That helps me in terms of allocating resources.

I also pay attention to my sales funnel to make sure I’m converting leads to actual sales. Are you getting calls? Are calls being converted into meetings? Meetings into proposals? Proposals into sales? Frank talked about the idea of being virtual. And, being able to work from anywhere is a definite plus. But I’ve found that clients want to know their consultants and have a connection with them. That means you have to build those relationships.

As an alternative to cold calling, I’ve seen several new consultants hire sales reps who receive a commission on every project or speaking engagement they secure. Sharlyn and I were recently discussing another alternative – Consultant Brokers. I’ll let Sharlyn share her thoughts on that. It’s fascinating!