My experience has been that word of mouth is by far the best way to win new clients. It's a warm introduction, everyone involved has some social incentives to behave appropriately, and the lead normally has a rough idea of pricing from the person that referred them.
That being said, this isn't advice. It's an admission that being lucky enough to have a few seed clients land in your lap (and taking that opportunity) is the optimal way to start consulting (imo).
100% word of mouth / referrals. When I was just getting started, I just asked my clients if they knew anyone that I might be of service to. They were happy enough with my work that just asking that question a few times kept me busy for years. Try it - it might surprise you!
This is exactly where we want to end up. It's all about building reputation, you and a couple of others have pointed out that word-of-mouth is by far the most effective way of gaining this. For initial clients, we are just going to have to continue promotion in our own professional network.
I would say that in the end there are only 2 ways:
- network with, or better, befriend potential clients. Knowing your market is crutial.
- make good work to get future referrals and speak about it (blog, forums, public speaking) to get leads.
The optimal percentage of these 2 approaches depends on your personality and the stage of your consultancy (just starting, long time in the market, etc).
As anecdotes, one friend, as an housing architect (and the best seller I ever met) finds his clients always during nightlife. By the other hand, my father, as a tradesman, gets clients only by referrals. After 30y it's more than enough for him. He doesn't even has any online presence.
Polite, personable cold calling, visiting industry conferences/exhibitions, paying for advertising or at least look at the numbers of searches for your key words.
Follow industry experts on twitter, linkedIn.
If applicable, small batch direct mail, advertising in popular niche publications
I've always found if you make it clear you're not selling anything (yet!) and are genuinely interested in solving their issues you can get people to provide feedback quite easily.
Get involved with your local community. Word of mouth is the best referral system when you're getting started.
Try using your personal network to find a local business / organization that is struggling with some piece of software / website. Or donate some work to a non-profit and ask them to spread your name around. Every successful project should bring you at least two more to work on.
One of the ways that sometimes works well is to find big potential client, and then hire (or even partner with) someone that works in their product team. You can use his network. I know it sounds silly. But, that's one of the tactics that many companies use.
I am a huge believer in the word of mouth method. I've been doing web design and programming for over 10 years and have not once cold called or advertised my services.
I think there are two important aspects of "word of mouth" however. First, is you have to get the word out. Don't be shy about telling family, friends, colleagues, people you meet in a bar, etc. about what you do. Depending on your audience, be prepared to "present" your skills in an appropriate way. For people who may not be your direct client but will be acting as the courrier of your message, keep it simple – you probably won't get the business because of what you say to them but because of how they know you out of context from business.
The second important part is to give your clients a great service experience. You don't have to be the best at what you do as long as you find a way to make your clients happy. Clients can then speak to both your product and your service. Client referrals are over 80% of my new business.
I've seen some very successful consultancies going with this tactic as well. You go on their website and it's not just contact us page but a plethora of articles on how to do things.
Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but I'd suggest partnering with someone who already has distribution in an area that's genuinely interesting to you. Distribution could be in the form of an existing social media following, blog, or email list. At a minimum, you will learn a lot, really fast, by building for an existing audience with real problems and iterating with their feedback.
Do: Build your visibility and credibility. Fish where the fish are. Where are your target buyers spending their time and getting their information? Find a way to publish there.
Figure out who are the best connected people in your network or vicinity and talk to them, let them know you're taking on projects and be clear in what kind of projects you can help with. Make it easy for them to refer you.
Build your own community. Go to Linkedin, read the trade press, create a target list of people who look well positioned to opine on your idea. Then reach out to each individual and engage in a live 1:1 phone conversation. You'll find the high-touch, high feel approach is your secret weapon on the pulse of the market.
This is my favorite comment and I totally agree with you and more you talk to different people the more you discover and that discovery leads to some of the best ideas.
Just curious on what’s the best way to do market research for the product
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