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Attracting customers and building a client base is the most challenging part of any business endeavor. New consulting practices are no different. During economic down-turns, many new consulting practices spring up, created by professionals with a unique knowledge of a given field who have found themselves out of work. Selling a new consulting service is a difficult task, but the success of the venture will depend upon the ability of the consultant to not only provide a valuable service, but to reach and convince prospective clients to contract with him/her.

Personal sales ability includes the willingness of the new consultant to go into the field and call on potential clients. Although personal sales ability is key to winning new business, many on-line techniques – including Low Cost SEO – are available to reach many more prospective customers. Achieving profitability in one’s consulting practice then requires both the ability to make cold calls as well as the ability to reach out via the internet to establish a relationship with those likely to need the consultant’s services.

Personal selling ability and on-line efforts should work together. Personal outreach via phone, direct mail or personal visits will never be an outdated business skill. Nothing can illustrate the value of a service better than the one providing it. Still, on-line marketing programs allow the consultant to cover much more ground and reach out to individuals that may have a need for the service at the point in time the prospective client needs it.

Competing for new business over the internet requires the ability and skill to of course deliver the service, but it also requires developing a web page or presence that the common search engines such as Google will recognize and provide to internet users searching for help. There are three ‘keys’ for a successful on-line marketing campaign; Service Differentiation, Niche Identification and Active Positioning via website and direct mail.

Differentiation is simply the part of the service that makes one different or better than competitors. Why one service is unique or better than another is to establish superior value. A new consultant must articulate the reasons she/he provides a more valuable service. This is the core of the consultant’s value proposition.

Niche Identification involves choosing a target market perhaps from within a larger market area where particular business types are more likely to need the exact experience provided. This is more difficult that it may sound initially because prospective clients within the niche should have both the need for the service as well as the ability to pay for it. Many new businesses need marketing services for instance, but so many of these are undercapitalized and cannot afford to tell their target market.

Active Positioning: This is the process of taking the value proposition and reaching out to the identified target niche market using both personal sales effort and by configuring the consultant’s web page to reach this market.

Web pages may be developed using keywords that are central to the value proposition or describe the need facing client prospects when they need a consultant’s services. For instance, a web page could be constructed around something like “Water Rate Consulting” for those water utility providers that need help controlling costs and keeping their customers happy with the fee structure. Building a web page around this term would then require the page to contain keyword phrases, page titles and headlines that contained the phrase “water rate consultants.”

Geographic identifiers can also be helpful in positioning a service on an internet web page. Many consultants specialize in a service within a specific area or region, so a geographic identifier might be an important part of niche identification. Services to improve one’s golf swing might be provided by a sports consultant only in – say – Dallas and wouldn’t be practically available elsewhere.

A well positioned web page can help a new consulting practice attract new customers and clients. Still, the essence of closing a sale requires the consultant to personally convince the prospect that he/she can deliver the promised value. Most consultants are quite capable of this, though and only need to reach out to more organizations needing their services.

Matthew Stone provides Low Cost SEO and Search Engine Marketing services to businesses across the country. Assisting business organizations of all sizes compete for new revenue and sales using the internet search engines, Matt’s company drives new business to client web environments. Visit the Uber Article Directory to get a totally unique version of this article for reprint.