David A. Fields Consulting Group Imagine if there were a simple trick you could apply to all of your consulting firm’s marketing efforts to make them far more productive. Such a marketing enhancement does exist.
Implementing this tweak will lead to more inquiries from prospective clients. Better yet, even though the marketing tactic in question is eschewed by most other consulting firms, if you adopt it, it will reduce your stress as a consulting firm leader.
What is this marketing hack?
It can be summed up in two words:
Be prolific.
George Gershwin, unquestionably one of the greatest American composers, wrote an astounding number of hit songs and enduring classics, despite dying at the tender age of 38. Gershwin said he wrote six songs a day so that he could “get the bad ones out of the way.”
Two precious gems glitter in Gershwin’s gambit:
- Success is, at least in part, a volume game. The more you do, the more you try, the more you put your consulting firm out in the world, the more likely you are to achieve your aspirations for your firm.
- Not every marketing piece your firm produces has to be great. Or even good. For many consulting firm leaders, the greatest impediment to ramping up their marketing efforts is their overwhelming desire for excellence or success at every turn. Or, perhaps more importantly, their fear of failure at any turn.
When your internal critic insists every blog or article or podcast has to be Pulitzer Prize material, picking up your keyboard or microphone becomes daunting.
Similarly, if every conversation with a prospect has to wow them with value, you’ll be reluctant to start a dialog. For that matter, if you consider any conversation that doesn’t lead to new business as a failure, then outreach is an understandably scary endeavor.
In contrast, when your entire goal is to be prolific, and you don’t concern yourself with whether the song you’re pounding out at the moment is worthy of praise, you free yourself from the painful shackles of overly high standards.
You eliminate the stress of performance anxiety.
Take Gershwin to heart.
What are some of the ways your consulting firm could be more prolific in your Business Development efforts?
Below are seven thought starters:
Outreach
The core of every growing consulting firm’s business-development efforts is direct outreach.
You’ll enhance this tactic’s effectiveness markedly when you:
- Boost you attempts to engage in conversation by an order of magnitude, and
- Worry less about the outcome of each attempt.
Writing
If blogs, articles, whitepapers, reports and books anchor your consulting firm’s marketing plan, publish more. Much more.
Isaac Asimov, the great Science Fiction writer, comes to mind. He penned or edited over 500 books. Plus hundreds of short stories and over 90,000 postcards and letters.
Speaking
Speak more and don’t be as judicious about the venue, the audience or the quality of your delivery.
Tony Robbins claims he became an excellent public speaker because he booked three gigs a day rather than a typical speaking pro’s once weekly cadence. Was every speech a tour de force? Of course not.
Remember, speeches include podcasts and webinars. Appear more often. In front of your target audience is best, of course; however, in front of any audience can help you build your chops.
Product Ideas
Your consulting firm needn’t nurture every idea to perfection before offering it to the market.
Companies and individuals famed for their innovation are unremitting idea testers.
Titles and Teasers
The two most important parts of any article, blog, speech, or similar consulting marketing vehicle are the title and the teaser.
Rather than writing one title for your marketing effort, write a dozen. Get the bad ones out of the way and find your consulting firm’s Rhapsody in Blue.
Metaphors, Infographics and Instagraphics
Metaphors are the spoonful of sugar that make your consulting advice tasty. Develop new metaphors constantly. Occasionally a chestnut will emerge.
The visual companion to metaphors are infographics and instagraphics. Your consulting firm will develop an A+ portfolio of graphics by generating a vast number and selecting the best.
Research, Polls and Thought Leadership
Become a recognizable voice of authority in your field by turning up the volume on your visibility and credibility. Polls are insanely easy to field and provide fodder for compelling insights.
How often can you poll your target industry? Quarterly? Monthly? Weekly? Daily? Not every poll has to yield fascinating results.
The seven ideas above scratch the surface of where your consulting firm could “write six songs a day.”
Where could you or your firm be more prolific?
Text and images are © 2025 David A. Fields, all rights reserved.
Thanks David! Yes, yes, yes to all you’ve shared here! From experience, what you’ve suggested here works! Thank you sir, as usual!
Thank you for affirming the advice with your experience, Rudy. You’ve been around long enough to know what works and what doesn’t, so your first-hand experience counts for a lot.
I appreciate your adding your voice to the conversation, Rudy!
Love the Gershwin comment of “getting the bad ones out of the way”! Great reminder of the power of elevating brand recognition through reps. Thanks David.
As you wisely point out, Dave, a big part of marketing is simply “Reminder advertising.” Keeping your name relatively top of mind for prospects so that when they do encounter a challenge, your firm pops into their brain.
I’m glad you highlighted that point, Dave!
Being more prolific in my 1:1:1 outreach has already led to additional conversations with past and potential clients.
Outstanding, Zac! Bonus chocolate for combining two concepts: being prolific and 1:1:1 outreach. In fact, that is possibly the most powerful combination possible for a consulting practice, so quadruple chocolate for you!
I’ll piggyback on Zac’s comment that just doing more 1:1:1s has created more conversations. I also really appreciate the reminder that perfection isn’t the goal or focusing on the (immediate) result when marketing. Thanks David!
Outstanding, Bette. Congratulations on creating more conversations. Yes, the 1:1:1 approach works phenomenally well, and increasing the volume of conversations will inevitably increase your volume of projects.
Thank you for adding your experience to the discussion, Bette!