Speaker 1: Are you trying to start off your career as a project management consultant but just don't know how to get your first clients? Well tune in because in this video I'm going to share with you my best techniques I use in order to get those first clients. And stick around to the very end because I have something really special for you. Six basic things you need to ensure that are in your project so they're successful not only for you but for your clients and they're really gonna be excited about it. I'm gonna tell you how to get your hands on that at the end of this video. Hi if you're new here welcome my name is Adriana Girdler and I happen to be a project management consultant and you have landed on the best project management, practical project management channel out there in YouTube world and I'm so glad that you're here. If you are here please like this video, subscribe it tells YouTube we're doing a good job and very much appreciated. Now on that note let's talk about how to get your first clients. Establish what you're offering. Now if you are a project management consultant and you are trying to get your first client it is really important that you as a project management consultant understand what your services are. There is a lot project management consultants do. They can do strategies, they can help other project managers within organizations create project plans, they can actually run projects to help out organizations, they can help senior executives with their whole planning cycle, they can help create PMOs, they can oversee PMOs. There's so much that you can do it is a question of what is your expertise, what is your expertise, what is your expertise, what have you done in the past, and what do you want to build off of. Because you need to take that information that you feel is going to represent you, get clear on it so you can sell it to your client. Here's the thing with consultancy work, it is not just about the work that you're doing but it's how are you going to sell your services to someone so that they hire you. So you have two hats on, not only your project management hat as a consultant but your sales hat is how are you going to get those clients. So it becomes very important you understand what your services are, the needs of your clients potentially, so that they can match and you can be really clear with your message that you're trying to come across as to how you can be of service. Search your network and look at help wanted ads. So let's start with the search your network. I promise you this from a sales perspective, I actually am blessed because before I became a project management consultant I actually was in sales and that was the greatest gift because it allowed for me to really understand how to get my first clients. And one of the things that were always taught in sales is there's cold calls, and warm calls, and you want to focus on warm calls. These are people that you know they're in your network and you want to reach out to them to see a can they help you out, can they recommend any buddy that you can call, do they have any projects that they need help with, is there any suggestions they can provide to you. That becomes really important and if you to really get your clients because they may know of someone and even better is if you worked in an organization and you left it to become a project management consultant, maybe there's some work in your past organization that you can help with, again they know you. It's so much easier to get that first client or your first couple of clients through the warm calls, through introductions or your network generally speaking. Now what if you're like Adriana my network is not even budging, they're giving me nothing. That's okay don't worry about it, I want you to think a little bit differently. Go to the help wanted ads, go take a look at what's out there and if someone is looking for a project manager, Think of it this way, don't look to get that job as a project manager within that organization where you're now an employee. Present yourself as another option instead of an employee, how you can be of service where they don't have to take you on as an employee, but just take you on as a consultant over a certain period of time. Sometimes that's a really good selling feature and an organization didn't think about that. So do your network or look at the help wanted ads, both together is actually a great way to find your first client. Optimize your LinkedIn. It's an amazing networking platform and this is the first place you should go because we all expect on LinkedIn to be talking professionally to other professionals and what a great opportunity to meet your first client. So what are some of the things you should be looking at when it comes to optimizing LinkedIn? The first thing is your profile. Really take a look at it and ensure that it is explaining who you are, what you're doing. Remember I told you in the first tip. It is really ensuring, being very clear with what your services and offerings are. Well that becomes really important in LinkedIn. And the good news is there's so many blogs out there that you can go search and find some information on how to best optimize your actual profile itself on LinkedIn. So definitely I would highly recommend do some research along that. There's some really good stuff that you can find. Another thing you want to consider is you definitely want to put some posts out announcing what you're doing. You're now consulting. And that becomes important too because some people who may not know you see that if you do the right keywords and hashtags and things of that nature to get yourself out there and get on people's feeds. Another thing you want to consider too is also reaching out to your network, giving some private messages to those that you're already connected with saying, hey, by the way, don't know if you know, I've actually started my own company. Again, that whole warm calling, cold calling, cold calling, warm calls that you want to do within LinkedIn. And you also want to take a look at who they may recommend that you can start connecting with because it's all about those connections. Remember, it's all about networking and don't be afraid to do it because that is what LinkedIn is all about. It's a networking platform. So take advantage of this for your business. Provide value. So what do I mean by this when trying to get your first client? Here's the thing when you're new to the consulting world, you maybe don't have a lot of clients. Maybe you have none. You're just trying to lock that down. You don't have that reputation yet where people are constantly coming to you for business. You're constantly going to them to try to get business. So if you're going to do that, you need to have trust. And the best way to get trust is to build your relationships. And the best way to build your relationships is when you're speaking to your potential client, an individual, when you're doing some warm calls with or warm leads you have with is to really provide them value when you're listening to what it is that they have an issue with and they're potentially maybe engaging with you on. So what do I mean by giving the value when you're listening to them? So a lot of times when I'm in conversations with my clients, maybe ones that I'm at a point now where they connect, call me, but when we connect, I don't make the assumption that they're going to come on board. I really listen. And as I'm listening, I will give them a really good solid ideas, high level mind you, not the detail. Don't hire me for the detail on how to execute things of that nature, but I will start brainstorming with them to give them really good direction. Sometimes things, in fact, a lot of times things I never even thought about. So now the value that I bring to the table is, wow, not only does she know her stuff, but she's even given us some different thought processes and directions that we didn't even think about. Whether they use me or not doesn't matter, but I provided that value, some additional really good ideas for them that they can walk away with. Why to make what they're doing better or to fix the problem in a more root cause fashion, which is just going to ensure success in the organization. That's value. And I have people who come back to me who may not have used me the first time around for whatever reason, but they'll come back, you know, Adriana, you know what? I really appreciate you helping me out. You gave us great direction. I have this other project I want you to work on, or can we gauge you on this? That is gold. You cannot buy that. That is just something that you develop. And that's why providing value and giving a little way for free, and I'm careful with that terminology because people say, give it away for free, but you have to be careful with how much you give away, kind of similar to what I do on this channel. I give a lot of free content away, but I'm hoping that you think it's extremely valuable and you keep on coming back and subscribing. So on that note, really providing the value is going to distinguish you from others because you're in it for the long haul. You're not in it just to secure that client and make it a checklist and walk away. You want to build the relationships because it's all about that repeat business. So ensure you're providing value. Be active in online communities. We're in an age where we're very blessed actually to have a much larger market from a professional standpoint to reach, that we can now be working with people globally because the markets, the social media, the networking, the online communities that are out there allow us to reach a much greater audience. And because of all the virtual work you do, you can do a lot of things virtually. So you want to reach out to those online communities. You want to partake. This is part of your, you know, networking in a different way, not on LinkedIn, but outside of LinkedIn. And it's just going to help you out tremendously. You want to partake in questions and comments. And if there's forums, you also want to put out posts just to get yourself out there as a thought leader in the chosen consulting work that you want to do, because people will then start seeing you in that light and want to hire you. Okay. Now that you know how to get your first client, oh, I'm so excited for you, by the way. And when you get your first client, let me know in the comments below, like say, Hey, Adriana, your tips work. Go here. It's free. Get it, get it, get it. If you want to know how to help your clients, you got to know this. It's just going to, again, give you additional value to them because you're going to help guide them in their success. The link is below this video. Check it out. So on that note, I will see you later and at the next video.