Was tun Sie, wenn Sie als selbstständiger Nachhaltigkeitsexperte Schwierigkeiten haben, Kunden zu finden?

People still do business with people - get out in front of your target market face-to-face at events and put yourself out there to get noticed and demonstrate credibility.

To attract clients as a self-employed sustainability professional, craft a compelling online presence with a polished website and engaging social media content. Share success stories and insights to showcase your expertise. Network actively within the industry and attend events to expand your connections. Offer incentives for early clients and seek referrals to grow your reputation. Consistently deliver exceptional service to build trust and loyalty with clients.

Step 1 : Make 'sustainability' relatable It is crucial to bridge the gap between the broad concept of sustainability & its specific relevance to your clients' lives & businesses. By making sustainability relatable, we can inspire greater interest and engagement. When people can see how sustainability directly affects them and their business operations, they're more likely to understand its importance and seek ways to incorporate sustainable practices. With a personalized approach we can help connect sustainability with their challenges. When we demonstrate the practical benefits & tangible outcomes of sustainability, clients are more likely to embrace your expertise and collaborate on strategies to make their businesses more sustainable.

A "sustainability professional" is much too vague. One should be known for something specific, otherwise running the risk of not being competitive for any tasks.

Keep in mind that sustainability is a REALLY broad field. I like to joke that my biggest goal is to write myself out of a niche. Saying you'll write for ANY sustainable business after the first couple of years you're in business will make you a master of none. Try to niche down, either in what services you offer or in what type of sustainable businesses you work with.

To effectively engage potential clients, it's crucial to provide a clear and relatable visual perspective on your services. Start by illustrating how you would work with a specific client, using real-world examples to demonstrate both positive and negative impacts. Tailor your language to ensure it's easily understood by your audience—avoid jargon & focus on clarity. Remember, your goal is to ensure the client understands precisely what you offer and why it's valuable to them. This is fundamental to effective sales: the client needs to grasp the value proposition to feel confident about investing in your services. By presenting a clear, industry-specific perspective, you increase the chances of engaging potential clients & closing the deal.

In today's digital world, social media can rapidly elevate your business's visibility or steadily grow a dedicated following over time. Either way, social media offers tremendous potential for expansion & attracting new clients. You need clear, targeted communication along with consistent content. Maintaining this level of consistency as a one-person team can be challenging, but planning & scheduling posts in advance can help. By creating a content calendar & using social media management tools, you can ensure a steady flow of content across various platforms without becoming overwhelmed. This allows you to stay engaged with your audience and maintain a consistent online presence, ultimately building a stronger brand and client base.

Help create shared value: Collaborating with local businesses offers significant benefits for a new sustainability consultant. It helps build a local presence, allowing you to connect with a broader community & gain referrals. This type of partnership also enhances your reputation by demonstrating real-world impact, which can lead to word-of-mouth marketing. By starting local, you position yourself as a positive force for change, boosting your brand credibility & attract more clients. Collaborating with well-known businesses can also increase social media exposure and brand visibility. Ultimately, you foster long-term relationships & encourage local economic growth, all of which can contribute to the success of your consulting business.

Collaborate with other providers in the space who complement your skills - think collaboration, not competition. Be ready to add value also to your collaborators.

Keep learning about regulations that will trigger demand and talk to practitioners to understand the challenges they are faced with currently.

Failure to win clients could trace back to a multitude of issues such as lack of communication and visibility, broken business model, erroneous pricing, questionable competitive positioning, and misalignment with clients needs among other issues. Accordingly, there is no one-size fits all solution. Only by understanding and fixing the underlying cause will you be able to regain the initiative. For example, investing more in marketing, content creation, and branding won't yield results if your pricing model is broken. As such, you need to spend as much time, if not more time, diagnosing the problem before fix it. Analyzing metrics such as reach, lead generation and conversion rate could offer clues as to the nature of the problem.

Seek out or notice and consider perspectives you might not like - external feedback that does not align with your own thinking can be beneficial to critically review your own strategic thinking. For example, if you have professionally ended up in a sustainability eco chamber, seek views from outside of that, for a more accurate reality check.

It's crucial to focus on what clients need rather than pushing your own agenda. Listen to your clients' challenges & tailor your services to address them. Building credibility involves demonstrating a clear grasp of industry practices & showing how your solutions align with current sustainability goals. Once you've gained your clients' trust, you'll have the freedom to propose more ambitious sustainability initiatives. In essence, the key to success is aligning with your clients' immediate needs while also positioning yourself as a forward-thinking expert in sustainability. This approach lays the groundwork for becoming a recognized leader in the field, with limitless opportunities to influence and drive sustainable practices.

Consulting is an arena where things can move quickly and there’s a lot of variety. But sustainability consulting takes this to another level. The field is still in development — new methodologies, processes, standards and initiatives crop up almost daily. That means consultants need to not only stay on top of what's going on, and continuously build their network, but also to be flexible and able to adapt quickly. A willingness to stay curious and keep learning is imperative. To support clients effectively, we have to stay 3 steps ahead of them, always anticipating what’s to come. Consultants need to go beyond simply staying on top of what’s happening and focus on collaborating or partnering with the organisations.