Consultant market research—Or, “Is this really a thing?”
In the last assignment you made a short list of the services you can offer: things that somebody has actually paid you to do (as an employee), that you enjoy (or at least that don’t suck more than 20% of the time.) From here on in, we’re going to do a bit of consultant market research on who else is doing it, and how much they charge for it.
First, describe those skills in two words
Can you find some keywords in your short list? Pull them out. Just two words or so. “Human resources”. “Network administration”. “Search engine optimization”. The kind of thing you say when somebody at a party asks what you do.
OK got one or two? Now, add the word “advisor”, “consultant”, “strategist”, “analyst”, “specialist”, or “planner” after them. I realize that sounds simplistic. But look at this:
- Software procurement advisor
- Social media strategist
- Land reclamation consultant
- Visitor experience advisor (that’s meeee)
- Web strategist
- Public safety analyst
- Medical hardware advisor
- Recycling systems specialist
- Network systems consultant
- Human resources advisor
- Procurement analyst
See? Doesn’t it sound sweet?
No? It sounds absolutely terrifying? You’re not really that person? You can’t possibly call yourself one of those things?
Chill. You’ve just had your first episode of imposter syndrome. It’s ok. It’s natural. We will do some work on dealing with that in a future lesson. For now, take a deep breath, remember that somebody has already paid you to do that thing (or something close to it), and you did a good job of it.
Paging Mr. Google
So sit down at your computer, take a minute and do some googling. You might have to do some re-combining of those keywords; it might take you a while to get your search terms right. But here’s what you’re going to do: find consultants who are doing the thing that you just identified.
When you find somebody, copy and their name and their website or LinkedIn profile. (Do some searching inside LinkedIn, too.) You’re going to make a grid or a matrix; an Excel sheet is fine. This is consultant market research.
It’s ok if you can’t find anyone easily; it probably means that you haven’t found the keywords yet. It’s also possible that what you’re researching is quite a small niche, and there won’t be hundreds of search results. (I believe my entire success as a consultant is that I am one of a small handful of people in the nation who do what I do.)
Build a profile for each.
Now while you’re making notes on these consultants, you need to try to answer these questions:
- Where are they located?
- Who are their customers? Can you tell who they’re promoting themselves to? Is it business-to-business or business-to-customer?
- How do they position or brand themselves? Take notes on their look and feel, their style, their choice of terms, their imagery, all that.
- How much are they charging? (This is quite easy to figure out in some businesses, and really tough in others. Generally, consultants keep their rates pretty close to their chests. Don’t worry too much if you don’t get far here.)
This table of data you’re putting together is a fundamental step in making a marketing plan. You’re putting together the start of a competitor analysis.
You’re probably going to have to come back to this research project; it’s exhausting to try to get it all done in one sitting. It’s also pretty daunting to see others’ beautiful websites and professional sounding copy and all the rest.
For now, you’re really just doing this to confirm the most important thing: That thing you do? It’s really a thing. A viable thing. People make a living doing it as freelance consultants. And that means you can too.
Next we’re going to do some work on finding the things that set you apart from those competitors out there.
This is gonna be fun. Trust me.