By Luke Bencie
Let’s cut right to the chase. You have a deep desire to be your own boss, and your goal is to make a million dollars over the next twelve months… and why shouldn’t you? Your impressive resume includes decades’ worth of professional experience in the field of security. You probably were – or maybe still are – someone people looked up to. You have been either a senior officer, executive, and/or a recognised expert on a particular security subject. You no doubt have given countless speeches, written numerous articles, and have frequently been interviewed by the media due to your insightfulness. Your education is unmatched, possessing advanced degrees from respected institutions of higher learning. You speak more than one foreign language.
Finally, after all this time, you are ready to dive into the entrepreneurial pool and open your own consultancy. You will put all your fancy titles, awards, and influential Rolodex contacts to good use, in an effort to become an immensely successful global security consultant. Perhaps you will land a few Fortune 500 clients? Maybe you will be granted a fat government contract? Better still, you might become a trusted advisor for a wealthy royal family from the Middle East. However, after the first twelve months of operations, rather than swimming in piles of cash and satisfied clients, you find yourself frustrated with a lack of business and drowning under a mound of debt. This is the harsh reality faced by thousands of security professionals each year.
So why is it that ambitious men and women, most of whom have recently left successful careers in the military, law enforcement, private security, or the intelligence community, struggle in the global consulting world? Despite enthusiasm and hard work, these professionals quickly discover why 95% of ANY solo-practitioner or boutique consulting firms never even makes one million dollars in GROSS sales per year. The reason is simple… running your own business is tough.
Unfortunately, many who come from the public sector never have been taught how to build a thriving business. If you fall into this category, don’t feel bad. Many in the private sector – even recent graduates from International MBA programs – have never learned the necessary skills either. Plus, there is a big difference between academic theory and real-world practice. If it was easy, more than just 5% of all consultants would be bringing in over a million per year.
Therefore, as someone who has been through the ups-and-downs of running my own global security consulting firm (and have year-after-year earned over $1 million in annual sales), allow me to provide you with some of the hard-and-fast rules for achieving success. Per my own experiences, as well as shared insights from other successful peers in the global security consulting industry, here are the “four pillars of success” necessary to close over a million dollars in annual revenue:
- Ask for Referrals. Referrals are the most effective way to grow your global security consulting business. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, most consultants never ask their clients for a lead… let alone multiple ones. How hard is it to ask a client, “If you are satisfied with my work, would you mind providing me with a few names of others who you believe could also benefit from my services?” What’s the worst they could say? No? Referrals are the life-blood of the consulting industry. It goes without saying that in business if you can’t sell, you can’t eat! You should be asking everyone you know for a referral. If you think you have too much pride to do such a thing, it may mean that you don’t believe in the quality of your deliverables. Ask ten of your past or present clients for a referral this week and see what happens.
- Learn to Become an Expert Marketer. Let me let you in on a little secret. You are not in the security consulting business… you are in the security marketing business. There are probably 500 people, within 500 miles of you right now, who are advertising your exact same security consulting services. If they are winning business over you, it is probably not because of talent. It is probably because they have stronger marketing skills. Even if you hate the whole idea of social media, you must nevertheless embrace it. In today’s hyper-connected world, content is king. You must be publishing fresh, useful content every day. This means you need to be writing articles, blogs, tweets, white papers, etc. every day. You should be delivering podcasts, webinars, videos, interviews, etc., every week. Remember, marketing is not a one-time event. It is ongoing. Your marketing campaigns should be like a stack of dominos – each one immediately follows the one the before.
- Write a commercially published book. In the consulting world, you must strive to find a way to separate yourself from the herd. It’s seldom about who has the best price. No client wants to say that they hired the “cheapest” security consultant. Rather, consultants are hired based upon their bona fides. If you are the author of a commercially published book – not a self-published or “vanity” book – you now have a calling card on steroids! Additionally, being an author also opens up doors for you to become a public speaker, as well as establishes your credibility in your security field.
- Utilize a mentor or coach. No Olympian ever won a gold medal without a coach. Similarly, no great entrepreneur built his/her fortune without a little sound advice from a mentor. Whether you are a novice security consultant or a thirty-year veteran of the trade, it’s never too late to incorporate a second opinion from a trusted source. Even the smartest consultants can find themselves getting too close to an engagement at times, which can, unfortunately, result in clouded judgement. Find a mentor and learn from their successes and failures.
In today’s hostile security environment, consultants must constantly be evolving to stay up with the ever-changing threats facing their clients. Effectively utilizing the four pillars of success will help you protect your clients’, as well as help your firm close over a million dollars worth of annual revenue.