{"id":6918,"date":"2017-04-05T07:32:59","date_gmt":"2017-04-05T07:32:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/multiacademstg.wpengine.com\/20000academy\/?p=6918"},"modified":"2026-03-23T15:03:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T15:03:17","slug":"how-to-find-clients-for-your-itil-iso-20000-consultancy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/blog\/2017\/04\/05\/how-to-find-clients-for-your-itil-iso-20000-consultancy\/","title":{"rendered":"How to find clients for your ITIL\/ISO 20000 consultancy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Although some people have excellent expert knowledge in the ITIL or ISO 20000 areas, that doesn\u2019t guarantee that they will be successful in business. Why? It\u2019s because if they don\u2019t know how to sell those skills \u2013 i.e., find clients \u2013 what\u2019s the point? There will be someone with more sales and marketing capabilities, maybe less expert knowledge, but he will be, usually, more successful at selling <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/what-is-itil\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ITIL<\/a>\u00a0and\/or <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/what-is-iso-20000\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ISO 20000<\/a>\u00a0consultancy jobs.<\/p>\n<p>So, expert knowledge is important \u2013 that\u2019s not questionable. But, there are some other things that are needed if you\u2019d like to sell ITIL\/ISO 20000 consultancy services and acquire new customers.<\/p>\n<h2>The requirements<\/h2>\n<p>To better understand how to approach a potential customer (as a consultant), let\u2019s find out why a company might require someone from the outside. Here are a few of the most relevant reasons:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Knowledge and experience<\/strong> \u2013 if the company doesn\u2019t possess enough know-how and experience in ITIL\/ISO 20000, they will need to look for it on the market.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Time pressure<\/strong> \u2013 companies usually set targets for implementation. That could be an internal decision, but usually comes from outside the company (their customers, competitors, regulators &#8230;). To gain enough knowledge about ITIL\/ISO 20000 in a short period of time &#8230; well, it\u2019s hard to expect that. Even if you do that (e.g., by taking extensive trainings), experience is one of the important factors for successful implementation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Overload<\/strong> \u2013 it happens that companies are overcrowded with daily (or project) jobs. ITIL\/ISO 20000 implementation requires someone to devote a significant amount of time to finish the job, so it\u2019s hard to combine extensive daily activities and the implementation project.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These are, also from my experience, the most prevailing reasons why a company would hire an external consultant.<br \/>\n<div id=\"middle-banner\" class=\"banner-shortcode\"><\/div><script>loadMiddleBanner();<\/script><br \/>\n<div id=\"side-banner-trigger\" class=\"banner-shortcode\"><\/div><\/p>\n<h2>What kind of person are they looking for?<\/h2>\n<p>Before we go into deeper discussion about sales techniques and how to gain customers in your ITSM (IT Service Management) consultancy, let\u2019s see what characteristics an ITSM consultant should have. Here are a few of the most important characteristics that an ITIL\/ISO 20000 consultant needs to have:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Expertise<\/strong> \u2013 of course, if the company has expertise within its own employees, it wouldn\u2019t look for a consultant. But, that means that expertise in ITIL\/ISO 20000, including extensive experience, is must-have for a consultancy job.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Reputation<\/strong> \u2013 potential clients will try to search for information to evaluate your work. If you are a newbie in the business, that could be a big issue for you. Otherwise, quotes from previous customers, or their contacts, is something that proves your previous work (and the potential client knows what they can expect).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Business approach<\/strong> \u2013 someone who claims to already know, without going into details of the customer\u2019s business, what to do and how to implement is selling copy\/paste documentation. And that\u2019s all the customer will get: i.e., nothing usable. What a consultant needs to do is assess the customer\u2019s organization, understand what they are doing and how (from business point of view), and then approach the ITSM assessment and suggest what to do.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Once you are clear on the customer\u2019s needs and what\u2019s required from you, the hardest part can start \u2013 finding a client. Read the article <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/blog\/2016\/02\/02\/who-is-your-ideal-project-manager-for-itiliso-20000-implementation\/\">Who is your ideal project manager for ITIL\/ISO 20000 implementation?<\/a> to learn more about the ITIL project manager\u2019s capabilities.<\/p>\n<h2>And &#8230; sales?<\/h2>\n<p>That\u2019s where the real work begins. You know what (potential) customers require, you know your capabilities, and now \u2013 you \u201cjust\u201d need to sell your services. If you have already been on the market for some time, then you know your targeted market segment. Issues arise if you are beginner. Well, if later is the case, look around you. Analyze your previous experience or contacts you have, and that will open opportunities. But, here are a few tips on how to find potential customers:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Use a salesman approach<\/strong> \u2013 that doesn\u2019t include only marketing activities (like, e.g., preparing marketing materials, sending targeted emails, or using online marketing tools and techniques), but you also need to look at your business as a salesman \u2013 e.g., define your market (global, only in your country, or regional), whether you will work alone or in partnership with someone, define target customers, etc.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Go public<\/strong> \u2013 this includes speaking at conferences or conducting trainings (classroom-based or virtual). You will get noticed \u2013 that\u2019s how you can stand out from the crowd. Trainings and conferences bring a lot of direct, topic-related contacts. Or try social media \u2013 you can participate in discussions in expert groups, and people will notice your expert knowledge.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Analyze contacts, including social networks<\/strong> \u2013 that\u2019s not valid if you just finished your education. But, that\u2019s rarely the case in a consultancy business. Generally, people spend many years in a certain industry and then start a consultancy business. And they have a lot of contacts. So, sort them by relevance or importance, and there you have potential customers.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Publish articles or white papers<\/strong> \u2013 you have to offer something in order to gain something back (like, being engaged as a consultant). People like to read well-written and up-to-date articles. Once they realize that your expertise and experience are what they are looking for \u2013 then the \u201csky is the limit.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Add value<\/strong> \u2013 don\u2019t fight by lowering your price \u2013 my experience is that customers don\u2019t necessarily appreciate that. Instead, try to add value, that is, some bonus that will mean something to them. For example, if you are offering consultancy, offer some training (included in the price) as well.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Don\u2019t waste your chance<\/h2>\n<p>No matter how you get a new client, once you have them, try to keep them as satisfied with your work as possible. Yes, that could mean you have to go a few \u201cextra miles\u201d (like go a bit out of the scope, be at the customer\u2019s disposal even when you don\u2019t really have to, etc.), but there is no better thing (in business) then a happy customer.<\/p>\n<p>Once you finish the project, you will leave that customer with (besides an invoice to pay) new experience and knowledge. And that\u2019s hard to express in monetary value. Your previous work is your best marketing tool. So, be careful!<\/p>\n<p><em>To implement ISO 20000 easily and efficiently, use our<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/iso-20000-documentation-toolkit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ISO 20000 Documentation Toolkit<\/a> <em>that provides step-by-step guidance for full ISO 20000 compliance.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although some people have excellent expert knowledge in the ITIL or ISO 20000 areas, that doesn\u2019t guarantee that they will be successful in business. Why? It\u2019s because if they don\u2019t know how to sell those skills \u2013 i.e., find clients \u2013 what\u2019s the point? There will be someone with more sales and marketing capabilities, maybe &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":6920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[581,533,400,366,344,582],"class_list":["post-6918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-consulting","tag-customers","tag-implementation","tag-iso-20000","tag-itil","tag-sales"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6918"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18715,"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6918\/revisions\/18715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}