Boutique Consulting Club - When Nobody Is Buying

Question from a reader:

"Hi Danilo. What to do when no one is buying? You will probably need to assess our current situation here, but what's the most common problem?"

Thank you for the question. Of course, you can't prescribe without diagnosing. There are hundreds of reasons why a consultancy might be struggling to win new projects and engagements. A formal assessment by an external specialist will be able to correctly identify what are the most critical issues that need to be solved.

Now, let's get to the second part of the question. When nobody is buying, what's the most common problem? It really depends on the stage of the consultancy.

Freelance consultants or solo advisors under 6-digit revenues and with no team have all sorts of fundamental problems. Their target market is not well defined, the problem they solve is not potent nor urgent. Their offering is poorly structured, and they have no marketing capabilities. You need to quickly fix all of those things while investing time in sales otherwise growth can't be sustained.

For those who have been in the game for a while, most fundamentals are already in place. Their offering and positioning might be strong. There are just not enough people seeing them.

When nobody is buying, it is almost always due to a dry sales pipeline. Solving any problem requires you to invest in getting more exposure and visibility. Think like a plumber: To find the cracks and holes, you need to fill the tubes up first.

Keep your marketing engine running, get in front of more people, and iterate slowly with the feedback you get. The results will follow.