How to Impress Your Clients (And Sell Follow On Work)

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Hi team!

As a consultant, you constantly think about ways to use data to help clients.

For this newsletter, you are my client. I’m here to help you!

It’s why I asked you this question last week: to figure out how best to help you!

Here’s what is fascinating though!

Over 80% of poll respondents picked the answer in red….. big consulting fans!

BUT, 90% of emailed feedback I got said they liked the balance between consulting and real estate.

So, I’m a bit stuck :)

For now, the solution is going to focus on consulting tips and tricks, with a slightly shorter real estate section. Please feel free to keep the feedback coming though!

So, today we’re talking about:

1. My favorite way to impress consulting clients (and sell follow on work)

2. A real example with a Loom video

3. A (short) investment property of the week

Here we go!

1. My Favorite Way To Impress Consulting Clients

Let’s talk research:

When you land a new client, it’s always a good idea to do a ton of research.

You want to:

• Understand the recent news about your client

• Gather recent research reports

• Gather relevant data sources

This information will be worth you skimming. It will make you better at your job as a consultant.

That’s probably obvious though: you might be doing this already.

What you might not be doing: organizing this into a nice Drive folder at the end of the project and giving clients access to it.

Today, I intentionally save every document that is even slightly relevant. I want to hand over 500+ research documents at the end of the project.

It’s the equivalent of the “thud factor”, where you have so much work done that when you put a print out of it on a desk, it “thuds.”

This is a grand slam for you as a consultant:

• It should be easy for you to do this (since you likely have the information yourself already)

• It gives the client a visible reminder of how much you worked (check out all of the data you had gathered!)

• It helps you sell follow on work

How does it help you sell follow on work?

I’ve been doing this strategy for years. I constantly get Google requests to approve access to someone else in the client’s organization.

Meaning, the person I worked for at the client is trying to forward the link to the Drive to someone new at the company. As Drive owner, I need to grant them access.

That means:

• The Drive is still useful if they’re sharing it around => I’m delivering value years after the project ended

• My name is still getting talked about at the client => my old client contact is literally marketing me by sharing the Drive around

I’ve sold projects from this exact fact. I approve a request for “Joe Smith” to access the drive, and a few weeks later, Joe emails me about a potential project.

I highly recommend doing this!

2. A Real Example (Loom video attached!)

Let’s make this tangible.

Here’s a short Loom video with a real example for you to see:

(Short) Interesting Property of the Week

We’re going to keep the real estate section brief this time with a really interesting property in Chicago. This is a duplex asking $1.1M

When I say Chicago, I mean literally across the street from Wrigley field.

It’s also an absolute colossal dump inside this duplex. Here’s what $1.1M can get you

This is a covered-land play. Meaning, the land itself will always have a ton of value. That’s what being across the street from Wrigley gets you.

If it were me, this is what I would do:

1. Make a serious low-ball cash offer to property. If I get it, move on to step 2

2. Invest the bare minimum to get the property livable. Lots of 22-25 year old recent college grads live in Wrigley. They tend to want functional, not fancy

   1. Goal to spend: ~$50K

3. Rent each unit for $3K a month, $6K total

4. Research every developer who signed for a build permit in Wrigleyville in the past 5 years

5. Every six months, send each developer a reminder email that you would sell at the right price

My guess is you would:

• Collect moderate rent for 5-10 years

• Sell the land to a developer at a solid gain in 5-10 years

This is actually inspired by a Twitter friend of mine who is doing exactly this right by Wrigley 🙂 

How can I help?

If you reply to this email, it will come directly to me & I’ll respond.

I don’t have any formalized training to help people get started consulting, but will next year. My goal is to make people $350M in consulting (more on that here)

This email comes out on Friday’s so I’ll likely get back to you next Monday or Tuesday!