Practical ideas for running a smarter solo consulting practice. Every other Tuesday.
Welcome to the first issue.
Every other Tuesday, I’ll send one practical idea for running a smarter solo practice — client acquisition, positioning, admin systems, business development. One idea, clearly explained, with a single action you can take this week.
This week: referrals.
Stop waiting for referrals. Engineer them instead.
If you’ve been consulting for more than a year, you already know referrals are your best leads.
They close faster. They trust you before the first call. They’re far less likely to negotiate on price — because someone they trust already vouched for you.
You probably also know that “just ask your clients to refer you” is advice that sounds simple and works badly.
Most consultants don’t ask because it feels transactional. And when they do ask, the referrals usually go nowhere — because a client saying “my consultant is really good” is too vague to convert.
The actual problem: your clients don’t know what to say
A happy client wants to refer you. But when they try, they don’t have the words. “She’s really good” doesn’t tell someone who to hire you for, what problem you solve, or what to expect.
The fix isn’t asking more often. It’s making it easy to refer you accurately.
The positioning brief
Write one paragraph your best clients could copy and paste into a message:
“I’ve been working with [your name] for [X months] on [problem area]. If you’re a [role] trying to [outcome], they’d be worth 30 minutes. They’re particularly good at [specific strength]. Happy to make the intro if you’d like.”
Send it to your three most satisfied clients — not as a request, but as a resource:
“I wrote this so that if you ever want to introduce me to someone, you have something accurate to share. Use it or ignore it — either is fine.”
Why this works:
Clients who were thinking about referring you now have zero friction to do it
The specificity filters for the right prospects — fewer “can you do some consulting?” cold calls
You stop sounding generic, even through a secondhand recommendation
Update the brief every six months as your positioning sharpens. The version you write today will be more accurate than whatever you’d improvise next time.
This week’s action: Draft your positioning brief. Send it to three clients.
If you want shorter consultant-growth ideas between newsletter issues, follow @getConsultKit on X. That is where we post practical takes on positioning, proof, referrals, and practice growth.