How to grow a consulting business? | Consulting Business Lead Generation
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What Does “How to grow a consulting business? | Consulting Business Lead Generation” Talk About?
This episode of the James Dooley Podcast features James Dooley and Kasra Dash discussing actionable strategies for growing a consulting business. The conversation begins with the critical importance of niche positioning, emphasizing that consultants need to clearly define their area of expertise before investing in any marketing strategy. From there, the hosts cover a wide range of lead generation channels, including traditional advertising (which they largely dismiss as costly and hard to measure), social media presence, content marketing, SEO, and paid social ads with a particular focus on LinkedIn as the top platform for reaching business owners and decision-makers by job title.
A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to explaining why SEO is a powerful long-term asset for consulting businesses. Kasra and James outline three key benefits of ranking your own website: a consistent and predictable flow of inbound inquiries, a higher business valuation when it comes time to sell, and protection against being suddenly cut off from a third-party lead platform. They reference a real-world example of a business being blacklisted from Bark without warning, losing their primary inquiry source overnight. The hosts also introduce FatRank's performance-based lead generation model, where consultants only pay for converted jobs rather than upfront for leads.
The episode closes with a practical tip about the importance of case studies, video testimonials, and five-star reviews. Kasra compares a consultant to a personal trainer, noting that strong before-and-after results are what separate consultants who convert leads from those who do not. Both hosts stress that having a solid digital presence and proven results is a prerequisite for scaling lead generation efforts effectively.
“One of the main things that we actually ask you is have you got any case studies like what's your digital presence looking like have you got any five star reviews have you got any video testimonials if you can get all of your ducks in a line yeah and get everything set up then they are going to be a lot more FatRank's basically going to work with them a lot with a higher success rate.”
— Kasra Dash
Who Are the Guests on “How to grow a consulting business? | Consulting Business Lead Generation”?
James Dooley is a seasoned SEO expert and digital entrepreneur who co-founded FatRank, a lead generation company that has worked with consultants and businesses across numerous industries for over a decade. He is a strong advocate for building organic search presence as a long-term business asset, and in this episode he draws on real client experiences to illustrate how SEO improves both lead volume and business valuation for consulting firms.
Kasra Dash is a co-founder at FatRank and brings a broad perspective on digital marketing strategy for consulting businesses. He is experienced in performance-based lead generation and understands the risks of relying on a single platform for business inquiries. Kasra speaks from direct experience working with a wide variety of consultants, from sports pitch consultants to online business mentors, and shares practical frameworks for setting up a consulting business to attract and convert leads consistently.
What Are the Key Takeaways From “How to grow a consulting business? | Consulting Business Lead Generation”?
Here are the key points discussed in this episode:
- Consultants must narrow their niche before investing in marketing, because clear specialization makes messaging more compelling and positions them as the top authority in their specific area.
- SEO is a long-term asset rather than a short-term tactic, and once a consulting website ranks for relevant search terms it tends to hold that position and generate ongoing inquiries with minimal additional cost.
- Relying on a single lead source such as Bark or any third-party platform is a significant business risk, as consultants can be removed or blacklisted without warning and lose all incoming inquiries overnight.
- A website that consistently generates its own inbound leads becomes a measurable business asset that increases valuation and makes the business far more attractive to potential buyers.
- Strong case studies, video testimonials, and five-star reviews are essential prerequisites for converting leads effectively, and without them even a high volume of inbound inquiries will fail to generate revenue.
“When you do an SEO the valuation of your business is worth a lot more if you can generate your own leads.”
— Kasra Dash
Is “How to grow a consulting business? | Consulting Business Lead Generation” Worth Listening To?
This episode is worth listening to because it cuts through vague marketing advice and delivers a concrete, prioritized roadmap for consulting business growth. Rather than simply listing channels, James and Kasra explain the reasoning behind each recommendation, including why LinkedIn outperforms other social platforms for consultants, why SEO compounds in value over time while PPC does not, and why diversifying lead sources is a risk management strategy as much as a growth strategy. The real-world example of a business being wiped from Bark overnight makes the abstract concept of platform dependency immediately tangible.
What makes this episode especially valuable is the frank conversation about conversion readiness. The hosts do not just tell you how to get more leads — they challenge you to ask whether your business is actually ready to handle and convert leads before you invest in generating them. The analogy between a consultant and a personal trainer with strong before-and-after case studies is both memorable and immediately actionable. Whether you are just starting a consulting practice or looking to reduce dependence on one lead channel, this episode delivers practical steps you can begin implementing right away.
Who Should Listen to “How to grow a consulting business? | Consulting Business Lead Generation”?
This episode is ideal for:
- Independent consultants and coaches who want to build a more reliable and diversified pipeline of inbound leads beyond referrals or one platform.
- Small business owners considering selling their company who want to understand how SEO and digital assets can significantly increase their business valuation.
- Marketing managers at consulting firms who need a practical framework for allocating budget and effort across SEO, social media, and paid advertising channels.
- Entrepreneurs evaluating performance-based lead generation partnerships who want to understand what providers look for before agreeing to work with a consulting business.
Where Can You Listen to James Dooley Podcast?
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What Are Listeners Saying About This Episode?
“The part about being blacklisted from Bark was a wake-up call for me. I had no idea how exposed I was by relying on one platform for almost all my inquiries. This episode gave me a clear plan for building my own SEO presence alongside using lead gen services.”
“Really appreciated the breakdown of why SEO takes time but pays off so much more in the long run compared to PPC. Kasra and James explain it in a way that finally made it click for me, especially the point about it adding to your business valuation.”
“The tip about case studies and video testimonials before you even try to scale your leads was something I had completely overlooked. I went straight to working on my reviews page after listening to this. Practical, no-nonsense advice from people who clearly work with consultants regularly.”
James Dooley: If I've got a consulting business how would I look to grow it what would you do
Kasra Dash: So if you're looking to grow a consulting business then there's lots of different plays first and foremost the first thing I would do is I'd want to dig deeper and understand what am I being a consultant for because there's lots of different consultants are you a business mentor are you an entrepreneur kind of business mentor are you giving financial advice like what are you consulting in. I think this is the biggest part that people don't do enough of they need to sit down initially and work out oh I'm a consultant for everything no right what you good at because when you focus on what you're good at and you can niche down in that consulting arm and subtopic that's when then you can start getting everything set up the messaging the content marketing strategies of what you're doing to be I am the best in this lane here of what I do. So there's different methods of growing your consultant business so you could do traditional methods like billboard advertising TV advertising radio advertising and magazines I don't think it works in consulting business I'm sure people have used those strategies and it's worked pretty well I think it's quite costly and I don't think you can check the KPIs of what return of investment that you get. I think social media is a great way it's free at always be active on social media if you can be just getting information out doing a few like quotes that's relevant to what you're doing and maybe say again reels reels getting some videos getting yourself in front of the camera even if you're an introvert just start getting yourself in front of a camera giving you that little bit of information away that then people go wow he knows what he's talking about I need some more advice on whatever it is that you're consulting in. You've then got SEO for your website I think that's a big play in this I think you need to be making certain from a consulting point of view you need to be making certain that you've either won some awards and you're shouting about it or you've got lots of testimonials and lots of case studies showing of how you have grown or helped a business that you've consulted with so I think trying to get that information out there and getting it on your website and that content marketing strategy for your website right is key any blog posts that you do you should be sharing on the social media. You could then even be running social media ads so like Facebook ads Twitter ads I think LinkedIn's your place here if I'm being honest with you I think LinkedIn's probably your number one place for consultants I know a lot of different online business mentors or online consultants that hang around on LinkedIn quite a lot because they can specifically target business owners or marketing managers or whoever it is that they want to target via the job title they can specifically go after and target those people so I'd say LinkedIn's a great place. But then also at FatRank so I founded FatRank and we done a lot of lead generation for over a decade we've worked with a lot of consultants many different consultants whether it's like a sports pitch consultant a ground surveying consultant an online business mentor consultant whatever it is that you you could again you could be consulting in we've helped businesses grow massively and over at FatRank.com if you fill in the contact form and give exactly the name of the business and what it is that you do and what it is you're looking for leads for at present there's a strategy of what we have where we completely de-risk it for consultants so we will do all the work that we think works best whether it's social media whether it's SEO or whether it's PPC we'll generate you the leads you pay nothing for the leads you only pay on converted jobs so the offer at present is literally we will send you everything and you just pay out of the winnings of the profits of what you have so fill in a form at FatRank.com that's definitely one way of growing your consultancy business. But for doing it yourself obviously you are a big advocate of the SEO
James Dooley: Yeah
Kasra Dash: And obviously if they was to go down the route of and I'm completely in agreement here with what Kaz is going to say with regards to you don't just want to throw all your eggs into let's say FatRank to generate you leads you want to be trying to generate your own leads as well so with regards to SEO can you give certain like reasons obviously I'll give a big reason man when you do an SEO the valuation of your business is worth a lot more if you can generate your own leads can you give some sort of examples where some companies have done SEO and they've been so surprised with one the volume of leads that they've been able to generate but two they didn't realise that actually the multiplier if they ever look to sell is worth that much more or the other benefits of not having your all your eggs into one basket
Kazra Dash: Yeah so obviously when when we speak about SEO a lot of business owners think of it of how how much I've spent $2,000 July 9th how much am I going to get back into the pot by July 30th or whenever by the end of the month it's not like that especially if it's a new website unfortunately it's not like it's not like PPC where you just press a button and you start getting getting leads the same day with SEO it's much more of a long term play but again once once you've started ranking there's not really much cost like unless you want to go and build like a second or third website or you want to start ranking in various different locations once you you start ranking for let's say finance consultant in Manchester or business coach in London for example you're typically going to stay there right. So there is obviously that benefit the second benefit is obviously the fact that if you are looking to sell your business it does add an actual additional valuation it's your website becomes an asset at that point because it's generating new inquiries every day or every month and it's a direct source of income for your business that so that's benefit number two. Benefit number three is we were both speaking to a business recently and they got completely vanished off Bark like they just got blacklisted basically no reason why and that was their direct source of inquiries. So again with with your website that can't realistically happen because you're generating your own inquiries so again it's kind of like you're not just relying on a lead provider you're not just relying on FatRank you're also in the back you're generating your own inquiries which again it's very lucrative when when people are are looking to potentially buy a business
James Dooley: Yeah for sure so if you are a consultancy business looking to grow the three major players in my opinion is doing SEO for your own website it obviously increases your own consulting business valuation social media be on the present be seen everywhere so not just on Twitter but on Facebook but on LinkedIn but on Instagram but on Pinterest every single place that you can be seen try to be seen be in the heads of your potential customers and then FatRank.com fill in an inquiry form there and check to see whether your consulting business can be accepted for generating inquiries that you'll only pay on converted jobs they're in my opinion the best ways of growing a consulting business anything else to add to that
Kasra Dash: One added tip as well with consulting I kind of almost see it as like a personal trainer right personal trainers the good ones have a lot of case studies before and afters so if you are looking to scale up even if it is with FatRank one of the main things that we actually ask you is have you got any case studies like what's your digital presence looking like have you got any five star reviews have you got any video testimonials if you can get all of your ducks in a line yeah and get everything set up then they are going to be a lot more FatRank's basically going to work with them a lot with a higher success rate I think that's one of the biggest things that we look for to be fair is how good is this consulting company going to be at converting the leads that we're going to generate if they can't convert the leads that we're going to generate neither one of us make any money so it's pointless us in doing this partnership
James Dooley: Yeah so if you're a consulting company and you've watched this video and you like it make sure and you give it a like and hopefully you will be growing your consultancy business online
Creators & Guests
Host
James Dooley is a UK entrepreneur.