Acquiring and nurturing your statistical consulting client base

Melissa Kovacs, PStat®, is the founder of data analytics, program evaluation, and litigation support firm FirstEval, LLC. She is also a part-time associate director at Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy.

If you’re a statistical consultant or you want to be a statistical consultant, how will you build and maintain a client base?

The Answer
Word-of-mouth. While some consultants advertise, specifically in niche areas to niche audiences, most of us get clients because someone recommended us.

How to Make It Happen
I have six thoughts about your obvious next question: How can I be personally recommended for statistical consulting work? My thoughts here span from the origination of your business cycle to your work with clients. Here we go:

1. Network.

Don’t let this word lead to a pit in the stomach of your introverted statistical self. This isn’t as bad as it sounds. Networking is as simple as telling everyone you know that you are a statistical consultant. Speak it into existence. Announce it on LinkedIn; tell your friends; tell your family; and tell your professional colleagues you are looking for projects. You’d be surprised whose colleague’s roommate’s girlfriend’s colleague is looking for a statistician for a project. If you’re bold, join a networking group in a particular area—maybe one for women, tech in your city, or data visualization lovers.

2. Market yourself.

Think of marketing as being relentlessly helpful and working to actively solve people’s problems. You don’t have to think of it as placing ads on Google, but do educate yourself about what it is. As a statistical consultant, marketing will encompass talking to others about what you do (see #1) and providing helpful ideas to solve business problems using statistics.

3. Treat your consulting like a business, because that’s what it is.

All those biostatistics, applied econometrics, and statistical theory courses will only help you with your actual client work, not with building and maintaining a client base. You are officially in the business world now, so immerse yourself in it and embrace it. I recommend not assuming you can just “figure it out” without some help and education. Attend a business boot camp. Take classes for entrepreneurs at your local library. Read some Seth Godin books. Steer your podcasts toward advice for business owners and entrepreneurs. Join a business founders’ meetup group. You don’t need to get an MBA; the information and help is out there for free, in your community and online.

4. Consider your brand.

As a statistical consultant, you do have a brand. What is your brand? Give this some serious thought. What do you do that signals your brand to your client? Is it high-quality statistical consulting? (Well, that should be a given). Is it the professional data visualizations and graphics you deliver with your end product? Is it your witty repartee on Twitter? Is it your go-to blog posts? Is it your friendliness and ease when doing business? Is it your helpful monthly newsletters? Is it your nerdiness with a touch of humor? Is it your blunt honesty when delivering results? Is it your community ties? Is it your trustworthiness or remarkable attention to detail? All these elements are a brand. Are they your brand? Consider what you want to be known for and how you’ll impart your brand to your potential clients.

5. Listen.

This is the most important item on this list. Once a client engagement originates, a statistical consultant should be in listening mode until the finish. From that first phone call and initial client meeting, the consultant should be listening carefully to understand and recognize the unique situation and story of each client. Remember that this is part of marketing—listening to actively find and solve people’s problems and the problems in their organizations (using statistics, of course). Recognizing people’s problems and their organization’s needs requires empathy, which requires listening. Your clients may not know what they need, but if you listen long enough, you’ll know. Or, they may think they know what they need, but after careful listening, you may be able to offer a better solution to their problem.

6.Maintain your integrity.

After careful listening, you may realize you are not the right consultant for a client. Their project may be too much of a stretch for you, you may not have time to deliver a high-quality product, or the topic isn’t in a space for which you feel comfortable providing advice. It is alright to decline a project for these reasons, or in any situation you don’t feel you can deliver high-quality work. Be honest and be yourself. Even if you lose income in the short term, you’ll maintain your integrity and gain respect in the long term.

All these factors, combined with your rock-solid knowledge of applied statistics, sum to an incredible statistical consultant—one who will be asked to return for more work and be recommended by past clients to new clients.