The structural weakness of every solo or small-team practice isn't execution — it's that business development stops the moment a project starts. We build the outbound pipeline system that runs in the background while you're delivering, so the next engagement is already in motion before the current one ends.
Ex-MBB, ex-Big 4, and ex-corporate strategy consultants who go independent typically have no shortage of credibility or capability. What they don't have is a consistent origination motion. In the first year or two, the alumni network carries them: former colleagues move into VP and C-suite roles, refer each other, and keep the calendar full. But referral velocity tapers. Contacts move companies. Your former McKinsey engagement manager becomes a COO and then leaves the company entirely. And the network that felt inexhaustible at year one starts showing its ceiling at year three. Meanwhile, every hour you spend on business development is an hour you're not billing — and the math of a solo practice means that dead time is expensive. So most independent consultants unconsciously choose delivery over BD, run the engagement down to the wire, and then scramble. The pattern repeats.
The specific challenge of outbound for solo consultants is positioning. A firm can have a brand that does the credibility work for them; an individual cannot. Cold outreach that leads with credentials — "I'm a former McKinsey principal with 12 years in financial services" — gets ignored, because every other independent consultant is sending the same note. What gets responses is outreach that leads with a specific, recognisable problem the prospect is likely living right now — a margin compression issue, a post-acquisition integration that's stalled, a CFO turnover that's left the FP&A function exposed — and positions you as someone who has solved exactly that problem before. That requires real understanding of the buyer's context, precise targeting, and writing that reads like a peer observation, not a service pitch.
We work with you to identify the 2–3 specific, high-stakes problems you solve best — framed in the language of the economic buyer, not the language of consulting. Not "organizational transformation" but "you've just completed an acquisition and the integration is 6 months behind plan." This becomes the foundation for all outreach messaging.
We build a target list of the specific title and company profile most likely to have your problem right now: industry, company size, recent trigger events (M&A activity, leadership transitions, earnings pressure, regulatory changes, headcount reductions). Every name on the list is a plausible buyer, not a spray-and-pray contact.
We write and run multi-touch LinkedIn + email sequences that open with a specific, relevant observation about the prospect's situation — a recent earnings miss, a public strategic announcement, a sector-level shift — and connect it directly to the problem you solve. The ask is always a 20-minute conversation, framed as an exchange of perspective, not a sales call.
Once the system is running, it operates continuously — reaching new prospects every week, following up on warm signals, and surfacing interested contacts even when you're heads-down on a current engagement. You receive a weekly summary of who responded, what they said, and which conversations need your attention.
Strategy, finance, operations, and technology consultants operating solo or in practices of 2–5 people, billing $5K–$50K per month per engagement. Particularly effective for ex-MBB, ex-Big 4, and ex-corporate strategy professionals who have deep domain expertise but no BD infrastructure. If you're currently billing at 70–100% utilization and terrified of what happens when the current engagement ends, or if you've already experienced the revenue cliff that follows a referral dry spell, this is built for exactly your situation.
Book a 20-minute call and we'll map out a prospecting approach that fits how you work.
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