I often talk about how as a consultant, coach, or independent expert, you get to choose the corporate clients you work with.
You don’t have to work with the ones that don’t respect people.
You don’t have to work with the ones that have toxic work environments.
And you don’t have to work with the ones that are only interested in things like wellness, DEI, communication, leadership, etc because they want to go through a tick-box exercise of being *seen* to do the right things.
But how do you identify the wrong ones?
A common misconception
It seems that many people forget that when they have an initial conversation with a prospect, it’s not just the prospect interviewing them.
It’s also YOU, the expert, interviewing the prospect!
Yes, that’s right – this all comes back to CHOICE
And just like they will try to evaluate if you are a good fit for their needs, YOU should also evaluate if they are a good fit for you as a client.
My criteria when choosing the right clients for me
For example, I don’t work with clients who believe a one-off workshop will solve their deep-seated employee engagement challenges.
Therefore I insist that even if they hire me for a short session/one-off workshop, we have some form of follow-up sessions to ensure they implement what we agreed.
I also don’t want to work with people who as leaders set themselves apart from their people. So I insist that any workshops I run with them include a range of their people – not just the senior ones.
Plus, I talk A LOT about the values that I hold (transparency, wholeness, respect) so that they are in no doubt about my expectations.
These steps mean that the prospects who are not a good fit generally self-select themselves OUT from working with me automatically.
Of course, this method is not 100% but over the last 8 years, I have only had 1 – 1/2 clients that were not a perfect fit (the 1/2 was still a good client, but the work did not light me up).
So ask yourself: what are the values that are important in your business and how will you interview your prospects to ensure they’re a good fit?
Contact me
If you’re ready to make corporate clients a feature in your business, let’s have a chat to assess if one of my mentorship programs is right for you.
Send me a DM or email at miriam@impactfulnesslab.com for a no-pressure conversation!
