It happened again.

It was a hot summer evening, and the monsoon rain was coming down hard against my office window. The phone rang, and the vibration on the table startled me. I pick it up, only to hear the exasperated voice of one of my clients... "Mike, our business can't survive like this anymore. Our clients love us, but nobody else knows we exist" he says.

Ok, I won't quit my day job. I enjoy a good film noire or suspense mystery novel, but not sure being a novelist is in my future.

Here is the real story...

A few months ago, I connected with the founder of a 7 million dollar consulting firm. They've been around for close to ten years and have basically stalled out over the last three. "What's your secret sauce? Why do your clients work with you instead of other firms?" I ask.

She chuckles a bit. "It's funny that you used the word 'secret' because we really are the best-kept secret in the industry. Or at least that's what our clients tell us" she says. It really feels like de ja vu. I've heard this story before. For that matter, I've heard those exact words before. And in most cases they are said with a mix of pride and exasperation.

The pride is because the founder has built a firm that delivers impeccable results for their clients, and does so in a way that's functionally different from most other firms. The exasperation is because the founder has consistently been on the reputation-led sales doom loop. You probably know what I am talking about:

• Founder becomes burned out from being solely responsible for sales
• Founder brings in a business development team to help duplicate their efforts.
• But the necessary sales don't materialize.
• Founder invests in marketing to drive inbound leads to the business development team.
• But the necessary sales still don't materialize.
• Founder fires the business development team and marketing agency, and goes back to selling, and is now burnt out again.

The Solution

If you find yourself in a similar position, where your clients view you as "the best-kept secret", you have one of two options available to you to get out of the doom loop:

1. Stay relatively small, continuously innovate your services, and work on strategic networking and building partner relationships.
2. Stop being the "best-kept secret" and focus on becoming "famous" for your IP (unique point-of-view, frameworks, methodologies, and concepts).

There is absolutely nothing wrong with either of these options, but you need to either embrace being small, or work invest in getting big.

What you can't affort to do is get stuck in no man's land where you are aren't willing to embrace being small yet also are also unwilling to invest in getting big. This is a recipe for being stuck in a feast or famine cycle, low margins, higher employee turnover, and a much lower multiple upon exit - if you are able to sell at all.

So let's break each of these down...

Embrace Being Small

Size is relative, and the definition of small vs big firms also tends to fluctuate. When I ask founders and partners of firms whether they consider their firm a "boutique" firm I get wide ranging answers from firms of all sizes.

I have heard firms of 10 consultants refuse that label because it makes the seem too small, and I have seen firms of 350 consultants embrance that lable because it allows them to differentiate from the Big 4.

Whatever your view on "boutique", if you choose to embrace being small, you need to do just that. Whether you are a 10 person firm or a 300 person firm, you need to commit to staying this size by always keeping supply significantly lower than demand for your services. Doing so, means you always need to keep your pipeline full, while also creating a way to keep the people in that pipeline engaged until you have the capacity to service them.

I recently talked to a very successful consulting firm founder who currently has a 2 years waiting list. That's probably the most extreme I have seen it, but that allows him to be very selective of who his team works with, to keep margins abnormally high, and to be very strategic about growth.

This means strategically investing your time and resources into building key relationships and partnerships and being present at key ecosytem events and publications.

It is hard to maintain this level asymetrical demand vs supply without continuously innovating what and how you are delivering services, because the market will shift, and you will need to stay well ahead of the curve to keep attracting customers.

Invest in Getting Big

Now here is the kicker, to get big, you still need to do the majority of the things that are required to embrace being small, but there are two key differences. First, you don't need to limit supply as much. Doing so will significantly stifly growth, and growth is needed to fuel the investment necessary. Which brings us to the second difference.

The focus must be placed on becoming famous for your IP. You must have an incredibly complelling story to tell about your unique point-of-view on the industry. You must have an empyrically proven methodology and/or framework. You must use all of the above to get your ideal clients and prospects to think differently. Getting people to think differently is what will allow you to get more PR, more speaking engagements, and more industry recognition. This is what will allow you to become a thought leader and famous within your industry.

Becoming famous means being different. Think about the famous music and film stars. Not the one-hit-wonders, but the ones whos fame endured for generations - Madonna, Prince, Al Pachino, Daniel Day Lewis, Robin Williams - they were all incredibly different from everyone else in their field.

But remember, different can seem risky to your prospective clients. It's important to provide the appropriate context for your different.

In Conclusion

Stop wearing being "the best kept secret" like a badge of honor. Stop being reactive. Take control of your firms strategic vision and build the appropriate go-to-market system based on that.

If you are struggling with this decision, please reach out. I am happy to chat.