What type of marketing do consultants spend the most time on? Which of those delivers the highest ROI? And what is the average project size for consultants?
What type of marketing do consultants spend the most time on? Which of those delivers the highest ROI? And what is the average project size for consultants?
The answers to these questions and many more were recently revealed in a Business Consulting Buzz survey. Over 10,000 consultants from around the world participated.
In the infographic below you will find 10 questions these consultants were asked relating to marketing consulting services and other juicy nuggets about being their consulting business.
Here are 3 highlights from the survey results:
1. Networking and Referrals - these are the two areas of marketing that consultants spend the most time on. And these activities pay dividends, 34% and 36% respectively make consultants the most money compared to other marketing methods.
That doesn't mean that you should go off and focus all your efforts on these. When we look at these findings we can also guess that the most money is being generated in these areas due to the fact that consultants are spending the most time on them. Therefore, potentially, any area of marketing that a consultant focuses on and commits time to could be a successful marketing avenue to explore.
When we dug deeper in the data (not clearly shown in the below infographic) we found that consultants earning between $250,000 and $5M spent less time on networking and referrals. Instead they focused their efforts on presentations, seminars and writing articles or publishing information, because that is what makes them the most money.
2. Clients per year - 46% of consultants work with 6 or less clients each year. And 74% work with 12 or less. We can look at this in two ways. 1) Consultants don't need to work with many clients to make a great living. 2) Many consultants aren't making a good living. When we dive deeper into the data (this calculation isn't shown clearly in the infographic) we find that 43% of consultants earn less than $100,000.
3. Not in it for the money. Only 18% of consultants said they became a consultant for the money. Being ones own boss and having a flexible schedule are more important, at 30% and 19% respectively.
Infographic brought to you by Business Consulting Buzz
Michael Zipursky is an author, consultant and co-founder of www.consulting-business.com, a site dedicated to helping consultants land more clients and become more successful. His work has been featured in FOX Business, Financial Times, HR Executive, Institute of Management Consultants, and several other publications.
