How do YOU get new consulting clients?
Do you have a system in place for winning consulting projects?
Do you have a consulting marketing strategy? Or are you simply hoping that new clients will land at your doorstep??
If you run a consulting business, you’re in the business of marketing. You may not view yourself as a marketer. But if you don’t market and promote yourself and your services effectively, people won’t know that you and your expertise exist.
To get consulting clients, you need to generate conversations with the right prospects.
Marketing is how you generate these conversations.
Without marketing, you don’t have clients. And without clients, you don’t have a consulting business.
At Consulting Success®, helping consultants master their marketing to get more clients is our forté. That’s a big part of what we do in our Clarity Coaching Program.
We study and help you apply what works — and avoid what doesn’t.
And in this post, we’re sharing what we learned from a survey that we sent to over 50,000 consultants on our list (updated for 2023).
Let’s dive in.
If you want to learn what’s working (and what’s not) in terms of marketing for consultants, read on.
Marketing For Consultants: Jump To Section
- Key Findings
- Consulting Marketing Statistics
- Consultant Marketing Preferences
- Consulting Sales Statistics
- Consulting Business Statistics
- Consulting Demographics
- Marketing for Consultants Action Plan
- Conclusion
Summary Of Our Key Findings On Marketing For Consultants (2023 Study)
- Making direct outreach phone calls gets consultants the most clients. However, it’s also the most disliked marketing method.
- In 2023, consultants plan to spend more time on networking, events, online advertising, and email marketing over other marketing methods.
- Consultants who are making $300K-$3M+ annually per year tend to invest more in their business, market their business more frequently, win more proposals, and rely less on referrals.
- Consultants struggle more with sales (converting prospective buyers into clients) than marketing (generating conversations with prospective buyers). In our previous study marketing took the lead. We’ll expand on why this is the case in the details of the study below.
- 40% of consultants invest $5K or less in their marketing each year. Consultants that invest more in their business are the ones who have bigger revenues.
- Nearly 70% of consultants have a proposal win rate of less than 60%.
- For over half of consultants, 60% of their business comes via referral.
- Women consultants tend to struggle more with sales than marketing, and are more motivated by a flexible schedule than income potential. On other survey questions, they were similar to men.
- Over 70% of consultants are generating 8 calls or less per month (that’s 2 calls or less per week with ideal clients).
- Only 25% of consultants market their business daily.
- Consultants 50 years old and above tend to struggle more with marketing over sales, dislike making calls for marketing, and get most of their clients via referrals.
- Consultants who generate more calls than average tend to market their business daily.
Below, you’ll find a comprehensive look at the survey data.
Consulting Marketing Statistics
We started the survey by asking consultants general questions about their approach to marketing.
What type of marketing for consultants gets the most clients?
Not all marketing methods are created equal.
The most effective form of marketing for consultants is making phone calls (16%).
The second most are direct mail/print advertising (15%), and the third is networking & events (14%).
Here’s the full breakdown:
- Making phone calls (follow-ups, cold calling, etc): 16%
- Direct Mail and Print Advertising: 15%
- Networking and Events: 14%
- Joint Ventures: 12%
- Online Advertising: 8%
- Referrals: 8%
- : 7%
- Speaking/Presentations: 4%
- Email Marketing: 4%
- LinkedIn Outreach: 4%
- Social Media: 4%
- Publicity/Media: 3%
- Writing Articles/Reports: less than 1%
- Other: less than 1%
Here’s the data from the 2019 study:
In 2019, referrals make consultants the most money — with 38% of consultants choosing referrals as their highest income-earning marketing method. Next was networking and events at 18%. In third was making phone calls at 7%.
What type of marketing do consultants spend the most time on?
Consultants spend their time on a variety of different marketing methods.
The top-rated answer was making phone calls at 14%.
Networking & events was 2nd (12%), and online advertising was third (12%).
Here’s the full breakdown:
- Making phone calls: 14%
- Networking and Events: 12%
- Online Advertising: 12%
- Email Marketing: 11%
- Direct Mail and Print Advertising: 11%
- Joint Ventures: 11%
- LinkedIn Outreach: 7%
- Speaking/Presentations: 6%
- Social Media: 5%
- Blogging: 4%
- Publicity/Media: 4%
- Referrals: 2%
- Writing Articles/Reports: 1%
- Other: less than 1%
What area of marketing are consultants planning to improve/work on most in 2023?
Consultants are planning to improve various aspects of their marketing in 2023.
The most voted answer was Networking and events (14%).
Digital marketing is a focus for consultants in 2023. The second most-voted answer was online advertising (13%), and the second most was email marketing (12%).
How often do consultants spend time marketing their business?
At Consulting Success®, we recommend consultants market their business daily — that it becomes a “habit.” That’s what is correlated with the best results.
However, only 25% of consultants market their business daily.
39% market their business weekly, and 24% market their business monthly.
9% of consultants only market their business when they need a client, and 3% don’t market their business at all.
Consultants who market their business daily tend to have more sales calls and rely less on referrals to generate business.
How much money do consultants spend on marketing their business each YEAR?
Do you treat marketing like an expense or an investment?
An expense is something that costs you money, and doesn’t generate a return.
An investment is something that generates a return.
Consultants are investing more in their marketing. In 2018, 40% invested less than $1000 per year. In 2022, only 11% invested less than $1000 per year.
- 30% of consultants invest $1000-$5000 per year on their marketing.
- 29% of consultants invest $5000-$25K per year on their marketing.
- 20% of consultants invest $25K-$50K per year on their marketing.
- 11% of consultants invest less than $1K per year on their marketing.
- 7% of consultants invest $50K-$100K per year on their marketing.
- And 3% of consultants invest $100K+ per year on their marketing.
Consultants who spend $5K-$25K+ on marketing tend to have a higher annual income than those who spend less than $5000.
Consultant Marketing Preferences
We then asked consultants about their personal preferences for marketing.
What type of marketing do consultants enjoy the most?
The type of marketing that was rated most enjoyable was Networking and Events. 16% of consultants said this was the type of marketing they enjoy most.
In 2nd were direct mail and print advertising at 12%. The third was online advertising at 11%.
Here’s the full breakdown:
- Networking and Events: 16%
- Direct Mail and Print Advertising: 12%
- Online Advertising: 11%
- Joint Ventures: 10%
- Speaking/Presentations: 10%
- Making phone calls: 10%
- Email Marketing: 8%
- LinkedIn Outreach: 6%
- Publicity/Media: 5%
- Social Media: 4%
- Blogging: 4%
- Referrals: 3%
- Writing Articles/Reports: 2%
- Other: 0%
What’s the main reason consultants selected the marketing method they enjoy the most?
60% of consultants chose their favorite marketing method because they believe it will work best.
30% said it was easiest for them to do.
And 10% said it was the least time-consuming.
What type of marketing do consultants dislike the most?
Despite its effectiveness, “making phone calls” was the most-voted answer for disliked marketing methods at 16%.
Email marketing was 2nd at 13%. And online advertising was third at 12%.
Here’s the full breakdown:
- Making phone calls: 16%
- Email Marketing: 13%
- Online Advertising: 12%
- Direct Mail and Print Advertising: 12%
- Networking and Events: 10%
- Joint Ventures: 9%
- Speaking/Presentations: 6%
- Blogging: 6%
- LinkedIn Outreach: 4%
- Writing Articles/Reports: 4%
- Social Media: 3%
- Publicity/Media: 3%
- Referrals: 2%
- Other: 0%
Making phone calls was the most disliked marketing method for both 2022 and 2019. Some consultants love it, some hate it. However, it does work well for many consultants.
What’s the main reason consultants selected the marketing method they dislike the most?
51% of consultants voted for their most disliked marketing method because they don’t believe it will work.
31% said it was the hardest for them to do, and 19% said it was the most time-consuming.
Consulting Sales Statistics
Marketing and sales are closely related. For the first time ever, we asked sales-specific questions on our survey. The results are below.
What do consultants struggle more with?
42% of consultants said they struggle the most with sales: converting prospective buyers into clients.
31% of consultants struggle more with marketing: generating conversations with prospective buyers.
19% struggle with both equally. And 8% don’t struggle with either.
In 2018, more consultants voted “marketing” as their #1 struggle. In 2022, more consultants voted “sales” as their #1 struggle.
In our new Consulting in 2023: The Definitive Guide To Consulting Businesses, we have an entire section dedicated to helping you dial in your marketing and sales.
How many sales conversations with qualified buyers do consultants have per month?
37% of consultants have 4-8 sales calls per month.
34% of consultants have 1-4 sales calls per month.
15% of consultants have 9-14 sales calls per month.
10% have 15+ calls per month, and 4% have 0 calls per month.
Consultants in the top 10% percentile of calls (15+) tend to generate higher levels of revenue than those in the average range.
How many calls should you be having? And how do you generate more calls?
Check out our article on the Magic # Exercise to learn the Consulting Success® approach for generating meaningful conversations with your ideal clients.
When consultants have a sales conversation with a qualified lead, what % of them do they send proposals to (or present the proposals on a call)?
31% of consultants send proposals to 40%-60% of the buyers they have calls with.
28% of consultants send proposals to 20%-40% of buyers they have calls with.
21% of consultants send proposals to 60%-80% of buyers they have calls with.
8% of consultants send proposals to 80%-95% of buyers they have calls with — and 8% also send proposals to 0%-20% of buyers.
5% of consultants send proposals to a whopping 95% of buyers they have calls with.
You should be sending consulting proposals to as many ideal clients as possible — provided they are a fit for your offer and they have agreed to explore next steps together.
What % of proposals that consultants send to clients turn into paid engagements?
The % of consulting proposals that you send (or present) that are accepted is your closing rate.
33% of consultants close between 40-60% of their proposals.
26% of consultants close between 20-40% of their proposals.
21% of consultants close between 60-80% of their proposals.
9% of consultants close between 0%-20% of their proposals.
8% of consultants close between 80%-95% of their proposals.
And 2% of consultants close 95% of their proposals.
Rank order your level of confidence in your sales systems, from most to least:
Here’s the breakdown of how consultants rank their confidence in the various steps of the sales process — from most confident to least confident:
- Pre-sales
- Customer relationship management (CRM)
- Sales conversations
- Proposals
- Follow up
- Closing
What percentage of consulting business comes from referrals?
31% of consultants get 60-80% of their business from referrals.
29% of consultants get 40-60% of their business from referrals.
19% of consultants get 80-95% of their business from referrals.
11% of consultants get 20-40% of their business from referrals.
7% of consultants get 95%+ of their business from referrals.
And 4% get 0-20% of their business from referrals.
Referrals are one of the most common and powerful ways for consultants to generate clients. However, many consultants don’t consider it a marketing method — it’s merely a passive way they generate new business. There are ways to make referrals more systematic.
That being said, you don’t want to be over-reliant on them. In 2022, consultants are relying less on referrals compared to 2018.
Consulting Business Statistics
We then asked some more general questions about consultants and their consulting businesses.
What is your annual income from consulting?
Note that our survey includes both consulting business owners and those who are consulting on the side.
27% of the consultants we polled are earning between $80K-$150K per year.
26% are earning between $25K and $80K per year.
18% are earning between $150K-$300K per year.
15% are earning between $5K-$25K per year.
7% are earning between $300K-$1M per year.
5% are earning less than $5K per year.
2% are earning $1M-$3M per year. And 1% are earning $3M+.
What type of consultant would you consider yourself?
Here are the different types of consultants that took our survey:
- Operations consultant: 14%
- Marketing consultant: 14%
- Strategy consultant: 12%
- IT/Tech consultant: 11%
- Financial advisory consultant: 11%
- Management consultant: 9%
- Sales consultant: 9%
- HR consultant: 8%
- Design/branding consultant: 5%
- Other: 2%
- HR consultant: 2%
- Non-profit consultant: 1%
- Science/pharma consultant: 1%
- eCommerce consultant: 0%
How many years have you been a consultant?
38% of consultants we polled have been consulting for 3-5 years.
21% have been consulting for 5-10 years.
19% have been consulting for 1-3 years.
12% have been consulting for 10-15 years.
6% have been consulting 15+ years.
And 4% just started consulting, and have been doing it for less than a year.
What is the #1 reason you become a consultant?
People decide to start a consulting business for many different reasons.
For 31% of consultants, unlimited income potential was the #1 reason.
For 27% of consultants, a flexible schedule was the #1 reason.
For 14% of consultants, realizing their potential was the #1 reason.
For another 14% of consultants, to be their own boss was the #1 reason.
For 13% of consultants, getting laid off from their job was the #1 reason.
And 2% of consultants had a different motivation for starting their consulting business.
In 2018, the highest-voted answer for why people become consultants was “realize my potential.” In 2022, the highest-voted answer was “unlimited income potential.”
How many clients do consultants work with each year?
30% of consultants work with between 6-12 clients per year.
24% work with between 3-6 clients per year.
21% work with between 12-20 clients per year.
11% work with between 20-40 clients per year.
9% work with between 1-3 clients per year.
5% work with 40+ clients per year.
Consultants are working with more clients in 2022 compared to 2019. Here are the numbers from the 2019 study:
In 2019, the most popular answer was 3-6 (34%). “6-12 clients” was the second most chosen answer (29%), and 1-3 was the third (21%).
The good thing about consulting is that you can have a very profitable and successful business working within many different ranges. This is especially true if you are using value-based pricing and strategic offers.
How many full-time employees do consultants have?
In 2022, consultants work with more full-time employees and contractors compared to 2018.
22% of the consulting business owners work with between 5-10 full-time employees.
20% employ 3-5 people.
17% employ 10-25 people.
13% employ nobody.
11% employ 1-3 people.
10% employ 25-50 people.
And 6% employ more than 50 people.
How many part-time employees or contractors do consultants work with each year?
25% of consultants work with between 3-5 contractors per year.
24% work with between 5-10 per year.
17% work with between 1-3 per year.
16% work with between 10-25 per year.
8% work with between 25-50 per year.
7% work with no contractors.
And 4% work with more than 50 contractors per year.
Consulting Demographics
We ended the survey by asking about the demographics of our audience.
Consulting Gender Demographics
More women are getting into consulting. In 2019, 75% of survey respondents were men, and 25% were women.
In 2022, 59% were men, and 39% were women.
2% preferred not to answer.
Where Consultants Live
Here’s a breakdown of where consulting business owners live:
- North America: 45%
- Eastern Europe: 17%
- South America: 16%
- Western Europe: 14%
- Africa: 4%
- Asia: 3%
- Australia/NZ: 1%
Age Of Consulting Business Owners
Consultants are getting younger. In 2018, most consultants were 40-60. In 2022, the top answer was 30-40 years old.
45% of the consultants who took our survey are between 30-40 years old.
24% are between 20-30 years old.
21% are between 40-50 years old.
6% are between 50-60 years old.
3% are 60+.
Marketing For Consultants: Action Plan To Get More Clients
So, how can you use the results from this survey to take meaningful action?
In our new Consulting in 2023: The Definitive Guide To Consulting Businesses, we have an entire chapter to help you implement the best practices for marketing your consulting business and getting clients.
Check those out at the links below. Read them in order for the best results.
- The Four Stages of Marketing Maturity For Consultants
- Don’t Focus on Leads For Your Consulting Business (Until You’ve Done This)
- 5-Step Consulting Marketing Strategy To Get Clients Consistently
- Personal Branding For Consultants: Be Authentic To Get More Clients
- 7 Consulting Marketplaces For Finding New Clients
- Email Outreach For Consultants: Don’t Use Marketing Automation (Do This Instead)
- Be Vulnerable: A Consultant’s Perspective On The Power of Vulnerability
- Thought Leadership Marketing For Consultants: Quick-Start Guide
We also have a free “marketing crash course” for consultants: an 8-part email course to help you start marketing your consulting business the right way.
If you struggle to implement this yourself, the BEST thing you can do to improve your marketing is to sign up for coaching.
In our Clarity Coaching Program, we 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 setup your marketing engine and lead generation system to consistently attract ideal clients.
Sure, the data is neat. But we want to empower you to use this data and create tangible results for your consulting business.
Marketing For Consultants Study: Conclusion
Now that you’ve seen the data…
How does your consulting business stack up when it comes to marketing?
Are you one of the many consultants who struggle with it?
Leave a comment below with your thoughts and join the discussion.
And if you’d like help with creating a marketing system that helps you generate consistent calls with your ideal client, reach out to us for a free growth session. We’ll talk about you, your business, and find the biggest opportunities for growth in your consulting business.
NOTE: We are using new software to power our surveys, and we can create filters to analyze the data using different segments. Let us know how you’d like us to analyze the data.
