Marketing, Sales, And Operational Insights From My Last 2 Year Trials
A Twilio ex-colleague and mentor recently asked about my takeaways from consulting.
Q: What are your top 2-3 insights from your solo consulting experience?
In 2024, I transitioned from solo marketing consulting to a startup Product Manager. Here are my insights on making a solo consulting business feasible—or determining if it's unlikely to succeed.
I spend 1 hour 39 minutes writing this blog. You need 3 minutes to read this.
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Challenges: What Was Missing In My Product-Market Fit?
Given my background, establishing a consulting business presented challenges.
My situation:
10 years of total experience,
4 years in a full-time PM, all in 1 company,
No people management roles,
No senior roles across companies.
Many professionals advised me that these weren’t deal-breakers for consulting. I enjoyed my time as a consultant talking to dozens of businesses. However, I found the market generally values consultants with:
20+ years of experience
People leadership (VP/Director roles)
Demonstrated impact at 2+ companies
Businesses prefer consultants who have led significant projects, managed teams, and driven impact across multiple organizations.
Examples of successful consultant profiles:
Leadership in expanding 2 U.S.-based SaaS B2B companies into Europe, specifically in marketing or product roles.
Growth leadership at 2 B2B SaaS companies. The person is featured in podcasts/blogs or taught Growth courses.
Director of Product Management experience at 2 companies, contributing to recognizable products.
If you meet these criteria, the next sections share what you should prioritize in Sales, Marketing, and Operations.
Sales Insights
1 - Sales Pipeline and Referrals
Track pipeline metrics thoroughly and actively seek referrals. If you don’t to use a full CRM (Salesforce, Zoho, Hubspot), use a mini-CRM or spreadsheet to stay organized.
Track outreach:
How many people did you contact this week?
How many responded?
What were the outcomes?
How many action items from calls did you get? And complete?
How long does it take you for each outreach message?
2 - Track your action items
Create a process to manage referrals efficiently. For instance, if an ex-colleague suggests contacting B, C, and D, ensure you reach out to each person—even if some feel less relevant.
3 - Target Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
Define your ideal customer profile (ICP).
4 - Optimize Outreach Time and Quantity
Start with 20 minutes per message but aim to reduce it to 5 minutes.
If you’re not working on a current project, aim to connect with 2-3 ICP contacts daily, which may mean reaching out to 10-15 people weekly.
Marketing Insights
1 - Online Presence
How can clients find your case studies? Build your online presence. This helps you share your resources and case studies to demonstrate expertise to a prospective client. Use a Wix or Squarespace website or a blog platform like Substack or YouTube.
2 - LinkedIn posts
Stay top of mind with your network. Begin with a weekly 150-word post on LinkedIn.
Consider:
Which other social networks to post on publicly?
How frequently to post?
What content to share?
3 - Case Studies
To build a strong portfolio, consider starting with low-cost or pro-bono projects for case studies, which will help convert future prospects into clients. I wrote more here: Free Consulting Projects For “Exposure”.
Operational Insights
1 - Reflect on Client Questions
Note down questions from prospective clients or allies. Set aside time to review these and prepare your answers. Brainstorm responses with a friend, mentor, or AI assistant.
This helps refine your approach and prepares you for FAQs.
2 - Reflection Process
Step 1 - Note down questions from Zoom or coffee chats. Note down during or immediately after the conversation (Keep 30 mins buffer after meeting).
Step 2 - Review those questions when you send your thank you message.
Step 3 - Brainstorm responses.
3 - Write down your answers
For example, I wrote down answers to why I moved out of California or why I started consulting. This approach helps in creating an "objection-handling" document.
4 - Operational retrospection
Efficacy: Did I do my best to set clear goals today?
OR What helped me prioritize the right tasks this week?
Efficiency: Did I do my best to make progress toward my goals today?
OR What kept me focused and fast in completing my work?
For daily retrospection tips, see: Three Daily Journaling Experiments.
Macro Trend Insights
Speaking with other consultants revealed a shift – Companies are less willing to pay for product, marketing, engineering, or go-to-market consulting. Much of this shift is due to decreased funding, especially outside AI. More solo consultants are now considering returning to full-time roles after seeking consulting for flexibility.
See this post on consulting learnings for further insights on why people start consulting.
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