Struggling to build your consulting sales funnel and land clients?
Many inexperienced consultants are “reactive” with their sales pipeline.
They manage opportunities as they come, and often wait for them to appear out of thin air…
But if you want to ramp up your business and take it to the next level — and create more consistency — you need to add structure to your consulting sales.
That’s where your consulting sales funnel comes in.
Think of your consulting sales process as a clear, straightforward pipeline.
At the top, you pour in potential clients, and at the bottom, out come the ones ready to work with you.
It’s not about complex strategies or confusing tactics. It’s about guiding prospects through a series of clear stages.
In this post, we’re breaking down the consulting sales funnel into five easy-to-follow stages.
These stages will help you attract the right clients, build strong relationships, and smoothly guide them to the finish line.
When you use a structured consulting sales funnel with specific stages, you’re able to diagnose problems and quickly see what is working and what isn’t.
And this will enable you to identify where you should make improvements.
Consulting sales doesn’t have to be complicated: it’s about creating a clear path that leads your clients directly to your door.
Stage 1: Lead
The first step in your consulting sales funnel is identifying and reaching out to potential clients. These are your “leads.”
This stage is all about setting the foundation for a possible business relationship.
Imagine you’re a manufacturing consultant specializing in improving operational efficiency for your clients. You’ve done your research and identified several mid-sized companies that would benefit from your expertise.
This is the stage where you make contact with those leads. Your method could be through a cold email, a referral, or even a networking event.
Your goal at this stage is to introduce yourself and your services in a way that piques their interest enough to want to have a conversation with you.
Keep your initial outreach simple. Highlight a specific pain point they have and how your expertise can solve it.
For example, in your outreach email, you might mention how you’ve helped similar companies reduce production costs by 20%. At the end of the email, you ask if they’d be open to a quick chat to explore if there’s a fit.
By framing the conversation around them and their needs, you’re positioning yourself as someone who’s looking to help instead of just promoting yourself.
Stage 2: Conversation
Once you’ve secured a conversation with your prospective client, this is your opportunity to deepen the relationship and understand their specific needs.
This stage is about listening more than talking.
Let’s continue with our example. You’ve scheduled a meeting with the operations manager of the manufacturing company.
During this conversation, your focus should be on uncovering their challenges and goals.
Ask open-ended, meaningful questions like, “What’s the biggest operational challenge you’re facing right now?” or “How do you measure success in your production process?”
Listen carefully to their responses. Look for opportunities to offer examples of how you’ve helped former clients with the same issues.
For example, if they mention that bottlenecks in production are causing delays, you could share a brief case story about how you’ve helped a previous client streamline their operations.
The key here is to establish trust and demonstrate that you understand their business — and can offer your expertise to help them achieve the results they seek.
By the end of this conversation, you should have a clear understanding of their needs and whether there’s a good fit for your services.
If there is, it’s time to move on to the next step: presenting your consulting proposal.
Stage 3: Proposal
After your conversation, it’s time to formalize your ideas and recommendations into a consulting proposal.
This step is where you outline how you’ll help the client, what they’ll get out of the engagement, and their investment options.
In our example, you’ve identified that the manufacturing company needs help reducing production bottlenecks.
Your proposal should clearly detail the steps you’ll take to achieve this, the timeline, the outcomes your client can expect, and the investment required.
A strong proposal is tailored to the client’s specific needs and is easy to understand.
Break down your services into clear phases, with each phase addressing a specific challenge you discussed during your conversation.
For example…
- Phase 1 could be a thorough audit of their production line;
- Phase 2 could involve implementing new processes;
- And phase 3 could be ongoing support and optimization.
If you’re able, add a section that highlights the potential return on investment, such as, “By implementing these changes, we anticipate reducing your production delays by 25% within the first six months.”
This not only reassures the client of the value you’re offering but also helps them understand the tangible benefits of working with you.
And remember this: if you present your proposal on a call instead of sending it through email, you’ll have a higher chance of closing their business.
This is how the most successful consultants in our Clarity Coaching Program “send” their proposals.
Stage 4: Win/Loss
The Win/Loss stage is the moment of truth: did the client accept your proposal or not?
If they did, congratulations, you’ve won the business. It’s time to move forward with the project as outlined in your proposal.
However, if they declined, view their rejection as a learning opportunity rather than a failure.
In our example, let’s say the manufacturing company decided that they aren’t ready to make the investment in a consultant to solve their problem.
Instead of closing the door, you could ask for feedback to understand why they decided not to move forward. This feedback, although uncomfortable, is invaluable for refining your future proposals and sales conversations.
If you won the business, this is also a good time to confirm next steps and ensure both parties are aligned on expectations.
If you didn’t, thank them for their consideration and keep the lines of communication open.
Remember, a loss now doesn’t mean a loss forever.
That brings us to the final step: nurturing your leads.
Stage 5: Nurture
Not every prospect is ready to buy immediately, and even those who say “No” today might become clients down the road. We’ve seen this happen in our Clarity Coaching program many times.
The “Nurture” stage is about staying top of mind with these prospects. And when they’re ready to make a decision, they think of you first.
Continuing with our example.
Even though the manufacturing company didn’t move forward with you after your proposal, you keep the relationship warm. You periodically send them valuable content like case studies or industry insights that relate to their business.
This shows that you’re still thinking about their needs and are committed to helping them succeed.
For instance, you could send a quarterly email update with tips on optimizing production efficiency or invite them to a webinar you’re hosting on the latest trends in manufacturing.
By staying in touch and providing ongoing value, you increase the chances that they’ll turn to you when they’re ready to make the investment and solve their challenges.
Nurturing isn’t about being pushy. It’s about being present and helpful.
Over time, this approach will turn cold leads into warm ones — and eventually, paying clients.
How To Optimize Your Consulting Sales Funnel
1. Get Clear On Your Ideal Client
Before you start generating leads and starting your consulting sales funnel, there’s one foundational step you need to take: getting crystal clear on your ideal client.
In our article “Don’t Focus on Leads For Your Consulting Business (Until You’ve Done This),” we dive into why this is so essential for consultants.
The reason? All effective marketing and sales begins with a clear understanding of who you serve best.
This isn’t just about picking a niche. It’s about deeply understanding your ideal client.
- What is their job title and company size?
- What challenges are they facing?
- What is their desired future state?
Knowing these details allows you to tailor your approach specifically to them.
That’s why the first lesson in our Clarity Coaching program focuses on helping you define your ideal client.
To get started, gather basic information like industry, company size, location, seniority, and job title.
But don’t stop there.
Dig deeper into qualitative insights:
- What challenges are they grappling with?
- What does solving these challenges mean for them and their organization?
- How can you help them achieve their desired outcomes?
By clearly defining your ideal client, you gain the clarity needed to create an effective marketing strategy. This understanding becomes the foundation for every action you take to fill your sales funnel.
2. Use A Consulting CRM
Once you begin your daily marketing activities, you’ll start to build your consulting pipeline. You’ll use customer relationship management (CRM) software to make that easy.
CRM software helps you manage your relationships with your clients.
You use this software to track your sales funnel and ensure you don’t miss out on opportunities.
We’ve written an in-depth article on CRMs for consultants.
Among our favorites is Hubspot, which we use ourselves. They have a generous free plan which is great for newer consultants.
The tool isn’t as important as the fact that you choose and stick with one you’ll use consistently.
The easiest way to use your CRM to create your pipeline is to customize it, setting up the 5 stages we’ve outlined in this article:
- Stage 1: Lead
- Stage 2: Conversation
- Stage 3: Proposal
- Stage 4: Win/Loss
- Stage 5: Nurture
Every prospective client of yours will go through this same funnel. Update it consistently in real-time to stay on top of your sales.
By using your CRM in this way, you’ll avoid a chaotic marketing “mess” full of unknowns into a simple, streamlined system.
Your CRM is not an address book. It’s a pipeline with a clear start and finish.
3. Review Your Pipeline Weekly
Setting up your sales funnel is crucial because it lets you keep a close eye on your business and pinpoint where to focus your efforts.
And when your pipeline is organized in a CRM, it’s even easier to get a quick snapshot of your progress.
In our Clarity Coaching Program, we advise consultants to review their pipeline weekly.
A simple 25-minute review every Friday morning can make a massive difference.
During this review, identify any weak spots. For instance:
- Sending proposals, but closing a low percentage? If you’re sending out lots of proposals but not closing engagements, it’s a sign that your sales and/or proposals need work. Maybe you’re not addressing key client concerns before the proposal, or perhaps your proposals aren’t highlighting the ROI for the client to make it a no-brainer.
- Conversations, but not presenting proposals? If you’re having plenty of conversations but not moving leads to the proposal stage, something’s off in your initial conversations. You might not be clearly transitioning from discussion to making an offer.
- Leads, but no conversations? If you have a list of leads but aren’t turning them into conversations, your outreach strategy or marketing engine is lacking. Lack of outreach, networking, and not publishing thought leadership to draw interest from your market is likely to blame.
Use this weekly review to plan your marketing and business development activities for the coming week. Focus on the stage where you are weakest.
By monitoring these numbers and focusing on the areas that need improvement, you’ll find it easier to stay on track.
This is a key area that we focus on with the consultants in our Clarity Coaching Program.
Take Lindsey Krazter, for example.
After a few months of the program – working with her coach and with the community — she was able to win three new clients: including $20K monthly consulting retainers contracts.
How? By focusing on her weak point: her proposals.
By working through our proposal module and using our template, she was able to close a much higher percentage of her proposals.
And that means more business for her.
Not only do we deeply understand the optimal consulting sales funnel, but we can bring the same structure to your consulting business — like we’ve done with our hundreds of other clients.
Get Help Building Your Consulting Sales Funnel
Building your consulting sales funnel is easier said than done.
It requires you to have strong positioning, a clear value proposition, and strong execution of the correct marketing tactics.
If you’d like help implementing everything you read in this article, we can help.
From high-level consulting sales strategy to proven scripts and templates, we help consultants build thriving pipelines in our Clarity Coaching Program.
In our Clarity Coaching program, we’ve helped over 1000 consultants to build a more strategic, profitable, and scalable, consulting business.
And we’ve helped many of them become leaders of their consulting businesses — growing from independent consultants to consulting firm owners.
We’ll work hands-on with you to develop a strategic plan and then dive deep and work through your ideal client clarity, strategic messaging, consulting offers, fees and pricing, business model optimization, and help you to set up your marketing engine and lead generation system to consistently attract ideal clients.
You’ll learn how to make more money with every project you take on — and how to land more clients than ever before. Learn more about Clarity Coaching and get in touch to talk about your situation and goals.
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