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Nicolas Verweyen is the founder of VerDigital. Together with his team in Munich he works with consultants from all over Europe to get their business to the next level. In this interview Nicolas talks about his perception of the consulting market and what businesses need to do nowadays if they want to become leaders in their market segment.
Getting new customers consistently – this is one of the biggest challenges for most business owners. Generating a consistent revenue stream every month with a business model that is very often focused on daily rates is hard. It means that every month a consistent number of projects and clients needs to be attracted. In order to find those clients, businesses need to invest a lot of time, money and effort in marketing and sales.
“The increasing pressure forces consultants into accepting discounts, the wrong customers and disproportionate personal time commitments.” Nicolas Verweyen, the self-claimed business consultant for consultants, describes the current situation of many businesses. “Many times I am very much surprised by the unpredictability that business owners run their operations on. There is no clear strategy for lead generation, no sales process and most importantly no precise focus when it comes to the offer to their market.”
Nicolas Verweyen has founded VerDigital in order to change that. He has developed the Consulting Growth System(c) for consultants to build a profitable business around their expertise. “When consulting new clients for the first time, I always realize that the foundation of their business is not optimal. For me an optimal foundation is a deep understanding of your target audience, their problems and the solution that you can offer to solve those problems. Without these fundamental insights, it is impossible to be in front of the right customers with a relevant message consistently.”
According to his approach, the most important aspect is a precise focus towards one type of customer. “Choosing a specific niche is quite crucial. Without it, you have no idea which people are potential candidates for becoming your next client. Your niche should consist of people with a shared set of problems and a common channel through which you can access them. Being industry-specific for example makes a lot of sense in many cases. Once the niche is identified, we need to get in contact with them. We need to talk to them, understand their problems, understand their desires and most importantly win them as our clients.”
He also detects that consultants often give in when it comes to closing deals. “One of my clients once told me perceives salespeople as magicians. They are able to convince people to make decisions in their favor. When he got a no from a potential client, it used to stay that way. Now we have implemented a standardized sales process in his business that takes care of that: Convincing the right people to work together with him. He understood that it’s not about being a magician, rather about being prepared.”
Getting a number of clients is only the first step. “First you need to get clients within your niche manually. Once my customers have achieved consistent revenue, I work with them on becoming omnipresent in their market segment and being able to handle all of the new clients by building the right processes. That is the next step when it comes to scaling the business. With today’s options of digital marketing, we have access to a measurable process of achieving omnipresence. Through this process all of your potential customers will get to know you and what you can do for them. Once they are ready to solve their problems, they have already built up trust and will buy from you.”
“If you want to grow big, you need homogenous clients!”
Nicolas Verweyen does not only help with getting more customers. He and his team also help with implementing internal processes to be able to handle all of the new customers. “Many consultants get two to three big projects per year and they have zero time to work on their own business. Some of my clients onboard dozens of new customers per week without running into an issue with capacities. What is the difference between those two types of consultants? Having big one-time projects demands solving new problems for the first time. This takes a lot of time and energy. The alternative: If you only take on clients that are similar, there is no need to invest too much time on figuring out new solutions to new problems. My clients always solve the same problems and are therefore able to build processes to standardize, optimize and automate their customer fulfillment. This enables them to focus on the work on their own business instead of their clients’ businesses. We have proven that this approach works in many different areas: IT, marketing, HR, coaching, sales, management and processes.”
If you want to know more about the work of Nicolas Verweyen and VerDigital, you can apply for a free strategy session on their website. In this 90 minute session, you will learn how the consulting growth system can be implemented into your business and how it applies to your specific situation. Visit www.verdigital.eu to apply now.
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