Episode 38: The proactive growth system for HR consultants

In today's podcast episode, I want to introduce you to drum roll... 

The Proactive Growth System for HR Consultants. 

This system is the journey you need to take to stop relying on referrals, take back control and start proactively growing your consultancy with intent. 

Book appts / convert into happy clients. 

Okay, so there are currently 5 steps to this system. 

The first is to Prepare for Growth. 

95% of consultants I know have grown through word of mouth and referrals. 

In other words, they've grown reactively. 

And because of this, they haven't had to think about, or put the essential business foundations they need in place to start proactively growing. 

For me, this includes 4 things. 

The first is defining a target company types and identifying the segment of those company types that have the right employee numbers to target. 

Most consultants think that doing this is a restrictive thing because they can work with anyone. 

But for me, it's a HUGE marketing accelerator. 

And how you can grow your consultancy proactively is a completely different ball game to how you've grown to date via referrals. 

So you 100% need this focus. 

The second is a standout brand, powerful USP and clear messaging that resonates with the business owners you're wanting to target. 

A lot of consultants struggle to articulate and demonstrate the awesome value that they provide. 

For any type of lead generation activities to work, your messaging has to be highly relevant, powerful and compelling. 

The third is packages that focus on recurring revenue. 

When I speak to consultants they tell me they really need more recurring revenue. 

But they haven't created packages to that focus on this type of income. 

Nor have they thought about entry-level packages either. 

How you package up and sell HR IS your business and it's an essential part of getting new clients on board. 

And finally, the fourth foundation most consultants are missing is growth infrastructure. 

They don't have a CRM, both for marketing and client delivery. 

Everything is managed via their inbox. 

And it's completely unscalable. 

So to summarise, there are 4 essential foundations you need in place to start proactively growing your consultancy. 

They are: 

1: Target company types and segments. 
2: Compelling brand messaging. 
3: Packages that focus on recurring revenue. 
And 4: Growth infrastructure so you can scale without the headaches. 

So to help you put these foundations in place and actually "build the business behind your consultancy" I created the Prepare to Grow Mastermind. 

We're 3 weeks into the current cohort and I'm LOVING delivering it. 

The conversations we're having have been amazing and the consultants are really enjoying the process so far which is fab. 

I'm running another cohort in September so let me know if you're interested and we can have a chat to see if it's right for you. 

***

Okay, so that's Prepare for Growth. 

The next step is to generate leads. 

This is how you feed your "funnel" with leads. 

To do this, you'll need to set up some sort of outreach campaign. 

The easiest thing to do would be to use software to connect with your target business owners on LinkedIn in an automated way and send a couple of DMs to them. 

The idea is to get them to opt in to your email marketing list, by giving them some sort of lead magnet. 

Or to start a consultancy-style conversation, to get an initial call booked in the diary. 

To help you do this step, I've created a lead generation set-up, training and managed service. 

So there's a package just for LinkedIn. 

And there's another package for LinkedIn and cold email outreach. 

I can set up the campaign for you and train you on it, so you can manage it yourself going forward. 

OR, we have a managed-for-you option so we can look after it for you and book some lovely appointments in the diary for you. 

***

The next step of The Proactive Growth System is to nurture leads. 

So now that they're in your funnel it could be tomorrow, next week, next month or next year that they're going to be ready to buy. 

It's your job to be consistently seen and heard so when they are ready to buy, you'll be the first people they come to. 

To do this, you just need to put as much content as you can out there and to offer as much value as you can during this time. 

To help you do this, we have the HR Marketing Box and VA service. 

As a member of the HR Marketing Box, we'll help you set up and optimise all of your marketing channels. 

Then in the HR Marketing Box, there's loads of content you can use including newsletters, educational guides and social media content. 

To help you improve your SEO, we're also providing a weekly personalised SEO blog and Google Business post. 

So this is bespoke content, just for you, to help you increase your SEO. 

And the monthly price is incredibly affordable. 

***

So now you're feeding your funnel and keeping in touch with everyone that's in there, it's now time for our 4th step and that's to convert your leads into happy clients. 

This is where your entry-level packages come into play. 

And the idea is to reach out to your hottest leads and ask them if there's anything you can help with. 

You can do this in lots of different ways, like webinars, campaigns, and by just getting in contact and saying "Hey, is it time your contracts were updated? We can help. 

To help you get everything set up and to become a confident sales whizz, I'm starting another new mastermind in September. 

We're going to go through each step of the sales process and make sure you have everything in place to support you. 

We're talking pre-discovery questionnaires. 
How to conduct a discovery call. 
How to educate business owners on the world of HR. 
How to position your services in the right way. 
How to send a proposal so you don't get ghosted. 
How to follow up and get them to say yes. 

And everything else that goes into converting hot leads into happy clients. 

So again, let me know if this is something you'd like to work on. 

***

And then the final step of the Proactive Growth System is to prepare to exit. 

Now what this means to you will be very different to another consultant. 

And while you may have loosely thought about your exit plan, the actual "how" is very hazy. 

There's loads of things to talk about here. 

Your life vision, financial plan, how much your business is worth and what you need to retire on. 

Maybe you want to exit in the next year, 5 or 10. 

Maybe you just want to step back and let someone else run it for you, whether that's an MD, member of your team, or member of your family. 

Or maybe you want to build something big, sell it for loads of money and go live in the Caribbean. 

How I want to help you here is by helping you know, firstly, what your options are. 

Then help you clarify your life vision and financial plan. 

Then help you create a business vision and plan that supports your personal goals, whatever they may be and whatever that looks like. 

There's loads of things that I'm planning here in the pipeline and I'm very excited to share them with you in due course. 

***

Okay so that brings us to the end of this week's podcast episode all about The Proactive Growth System for HR consultants. 

Step 1: Prepare for growth 
Step 2: Generate leads 
Step 3: Nurture leads 
Step 4: Convert leads 
Step 5: Prepare to exit

And you can use these steps to manage your own proactive growth journey. 

If you would like to speak with me about proactively growing your consultancy, please get in touch, we'll jump on a relaxed discovery call and have a good old chat.