Are you giving away your sniff-test?

If you’re a consultant, this is an important question: Are you giving away your sniff-test?
 
Huh? 
 
Where’s this going? 
 
We’ll tell you. It’s inspired by one of our clients, who definitely does give away their sniff-test. It’s a brilliant idea, and one you should emulate, in case you aren’t already. 
 
We’ll give you all the details—answer all your questions—in a minute. 
 
Start with what you know
 
This article, be advised, is all about landing new business. (Pretty much all of our consultant-focused articles are.) So this is about helping you cross The Great Divide between clients you have, and clients you’d like to have. 
 
Your existing clients, we’ll assume, love you. They value your expertise, experience, and service. They know you. 
 
In other words, they don’t need to learn about you.
 
In the beginning of your relationship with them, this wasn’t the case. You might have started with a toe-in-the-water engagement, delicately dancing around who-trusts-whom. Once you earned your credibility with this client, they became less cautious, less cagey, and entrusted you with more and more work, assignments, and responsibility. 
 
That’s a fairly natural progression. 
 
But all of the work, from a business-development standpoint, was at the beginning. Your old client, back when they were a new client, didn’t appreciate you. To be fair, you didn’t understand them as well as you do now, either. There was a learning curve for both of you to climb. 
 
This gets back to the ongoing, thorny problem of enticing new clients to trust you with their business. It gets straight back to the sniff-test. 
 
What’s it smell like?
 
Just in case the phrase “sniff-test” is unfamiliar to you, we’ll give you our broad, street-level definition of it. Think of someone (more specifically, a single guy, because knowing that will make this more realistic, if not funny) who’s dashing out the door to go someplace important, such as a job interview or a first date. Of course, the laundry’s piling up, it hasn’t been washed in far too long, and there’s that perfect shirt that the guy wants to wear. Just sitting there. 
 
Was it washed recently? Not sure. Can’t remember. 
 
Thus, the sniff-test. He buries his nose in the thing, inhales deeply, and braces for the worst. If it’s got an airy scent of fabric softener, it’s a “go.” If it just smells neutral and not bad, it’s still passable. If it reeks like day-old roadkill, it failed the sniff-test. 
 
See where this is going? 
 
Nose it, gratis
 
This other client of ours has years and years of deep, focused experience in their area of expertise. Importantly, what takes others hours, or even days, to discover, often leaps out quickly for this client, from even a cursory review of input from a potential client.
 
This quality—this Spidey Sense, if you will—surfaced during a conversation we’d had with this client one day. “Can you really just tell when something looks wrong, or doesn’t feel right, amid mountains of arcane input?” we’d asked. 
 
“Usually,” was the reply. 
 
“Wow,” was our rejoinder. 
 
And thus, it became a business outreach strategy. We branded it (with a name we won’t share here, to protect our client) and used it as an offer in all outreach materials to prospective clients-of-our-client: “Call now to book your free sniff-test.” 
 
Think about the beauty of this: 

• It’s a wonderfully simple and concise call-to-action: “Send us your input materials. (We’ll even sign your NDA in advance, if you like.) We’ll give you, say, 30 minutes of our time, gratis, to review them. And we’ll give you the no-punches-pulled assessment. If you’d like to proceed with us afterward, by all means, do so. If not, there’s no obligation. We think it’s worth the 30-minute risk on our side.” 

 

• It helps the consultant and the new prospective client to rapidly climb the familiarity/expertise-comfort-level learning-curve. If you can provide that much insight, that quickly, for free... well, just imagine how much more you could deliver if you were actually paid? 

 

• It’s instinctive. We honestly doubt that any prospects (or you, for that matter), really needs to read our parable about “the origins of the term ‘sniff-test,’” above. “Send us your stuff. We’ll give it a free sniff-test.” It’s a simple, even visceral, message. When properly branded (as was the case here), it’s even more streamlined, elegant, powerful, and motivational. 

 

• It puts the toe in the water immediately. No dancing around “what will that first project be?” You both know it from the get-go. 

 

• It provides instant credibility. You don’t need to go proving yourself if you just delivered a brutal sniff-test to that prospect. (Note how we’ve not-too-subtly segued from “our client” to “you,” since our client already does this, and you will be soon, if you aren’t already.) 

 

• It provides instant value. Not just in terms of “My time is worth X dollars per hour; I’m giving you a half hour for free.” But rather in terms of “Even if you don’t engage with me, you’ve gotten something of value, that you can use immediately.” This is the antithesis of the “Services” page of your website or other such brochure; it’s the apotheosis of the gateway offer. 

 
Start sniffing!
 
As far as promulgating this offer goes, that’s a challenge unto itself. (Did we really just use “promulgating” and “unto” in the same sentence... a mere sentence after we’d slung “apotheosis” your way? Blame the caffeine!)
 
Still, it’s a straightforward challenge. The gateway offer of the free sniff-test, properly applied, is brilliant. And business-building. 
 
Need help crafting the details of your free sniff-test, or telling the world about it? Contact us. We’d be delighted to help! 

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