Let’s talk about whale clients.
You know the ones I’m referring to — those game-changing accounts that can skyrocket your consulting business to new heights.
These aren’t your run-of-the-mill clients; we’re talking about industry titans with employee rosters longer than your arm and revenues that make other businesses blush.
But what really sets these whales apart?
It’s simple: they’re the heavyweight champions of your revenue stream, often accounting for a significant chunk of your firm’s income.
For example, if you’re a strategy consultant and you sign a Fortune-500 company that sends you a ton of work — and their contract takes up 65% of your bandwidth — that’s a whale client.
Our Clarity Coaching Program has guided countless consultants through the thrilling, yet treacherous waters of managing whale clients.
While these colossal accounts can propel your business to new heights, they also carry the potential to capsize your entire operation.
It’s a high-stakes game where the rewards are immense, but so are the risks.
In this article I’m going to cover both the pros and cons of having a whale client.
It’s all about learning how to make the most of these engagements — and working on them in a strategic way that sets you up for future success.
These aren’t your run-of-the-mill clients; we’re talking about industry titans with employee rosters longer than your arm and revenues that make other businesses blush.
Pros & Cons Of Signing A Whale Client
What are the pros & cons of signing a whale client?
Pros Of Signing A Whale Client
- You get a big injection of revenue. This revenue is often quite steady and can increase fast.
- A whale client can put you on the map. If you land a big-name client, it signals to the market that you must be good at what you do.
- It can feed the growth of your business. Many of our Clarity Coaching clients built their business off their first whale client. This client becomes the catalyst for them to make additional hires and build systems to support and fulfill the whale client project(s).
Cons Of Signing A Whale Client
- Whale clients create revenue concentration. It’s risky to have 40% of your revenue coming from one client, nevermind the danger of 60% or more. If you’ve built up your business to serve this client (like hiring team members) and the mighty whale decides to freeze the project, cut budget or make an unexpected change, it can put you out of business if you’re not prepared.
How To Make The Most Of A Whale Client Signing
So, how should you deal with a whale client?
Remember: a whale client isn’t a bad thing. They can be amazing clients for your business.
Here are some strategies to navigate a whale client:
1. Use that time to invest wisely
When you have a big cash injection from a whale client, you’ll want to invest in the right things to set your business up for future success.
For example, if you sign a whale client, use it as an opportunity to hire great people.
This is the perfect opportunity for you to say: “Hey, we have this amazing client. We need your help with them, and that’s why we’re hiring.”
Use the money and the allure of the client to help attract A-players (whether they’re contractors, part-time, or full-time).
Hiring people is just one example. You can also invest in things that will help you grow the business beyond your whale client, like:
2. Build up a cash cushion
Although you do want to invest the money from your whale client into things that will grow the business, you don’t want to invest ALL of it.
If your whale client is paying you $250K for a 6-month engagement, save 10% of that ($25K) and put it into a high-interest savings account. Build this account up over time.
Having some extra money stashed away for rainy days will help you feel more secure and confident that you can weather storms.
3. Diversify your client base
Even though you have a whale client, don’t get too comfortable and reliant on them.
Don’t get trapped into thinking that you’re “too busy” to market your business and get more clients as you work with your whale client.
Think long-term.
As you’re working to deliver amazing results for your whale client, spend some time each day to continue your marketing and build your marketing engine.
You should always be building your brand and your pipeline. There’s no guarantee that you’ll be working with your whale client forever (or even as long as the contract says).
But what if you personally don’t have time to do your marketing?
When you sign a whale client, you could invest some of that money to hire marketing talent. They run your marketing engine and bring in new clients while you serve your whale client.
I’ll share more examples of how to diversify your client base and build your pipeline in the next section.
How to Build Your Marketing Engine & Diversify Your Consulting Client Base
Here are practical activities to help you kick-start your marketing engine and diversify your client base.
Magic # Exercise
People who write down their goals are much more likely to achieve them.
If you know…
- your monthly revenue target,
- how much your average project is worth,
- and how many conversations with ideal clients it takes to win a project,
…you can be VERY specific on what it would take to reach your monthly goals.
For example, let’s say you want to make $50K per month in your consulting business.
Your average project is worth $25K.
And 1 out of every 4 conversations with an ideal client leads to a project.
That means you need to win 2 projects per month.
That’s 8 conversations with ideal clients per month — or, 2 conversations per week.
Now, the question is…
What are you doing TODAY to have 8 conversations this month?
We’ve created a simple spreadsheet for you to do this exercise and plug in your numbers:
(Click File > Make a copy to save a copy of the spreadsheet for yourself so you can adjust the numbers)
This exercise makes it crystal clear as to what you need to be doing to reach your monthly revenue target.
It’s all about having more meaningful conversations with your ideal clients.
Now, how do you actually reach that number of conversations?
When you have a big cash injection from a whale client, you’ll want to invest in the right things to set your business up for future success.
Big 3 Marketing Activities
Here are 3 proven marketing activities that create conversations with potential buyers.
1. Outreach: reaching out directly to start having meaningful conversations with your ideal clients.
For example, a direct LinkedIn message or email sharing valuable content with an ideal client to add value to their lives — and to get them interested in what you offer.
2. Follow-up: following up with ideal clients and adding more value.
For example, sending a direct mail to them — something they would find interesting, meaningful, unique (like a case study or white paper), and prompts them to reach out to you to learn more.
3. Authority-building: Publishing content to position yourself as an authority and to support your outreach/follow-up efforts.
For example, using your consulting website to publish articles that help your ideal clients.
If you combine outreach, follow-up, and authority-building, your marketing will be effective and fulfill its purpose: to build relationships with your ideal clients and to create conversations with them.
Putting It All Together
You need a plan — a daily list of activities — that will help you create X number of conversations with your ideal clients.
Remember your three key marketing activities: Outreach, Follow-Up, and Authority-Building.
You should be doing Outreach, Follow-Up, and Authority-Building daily.
Early-stage consultants will spend more time reaching out to clients and following up with them.
Writing content to build authority is a longer-term strategy, whereas outreach and follow-up can create conversations very quickly.
You need to wake up each day and know exactly what to do every day in order to hit your numbers.
Doug Nelson, one of our Clarity Coaching clients, put his magic # everywhere around his home.
His day wasn’t finished until he had his required number of conversations with ideal clients.
As a result, he grew his consulting business to over $2M dollars.
Here’s a sample daily plan you can use to start your Marketing Engine:
- 8:00 AM: Start your Marketing Engine outreach in the morning
- 8:30 AM: Follow up with any potential clients from the previous day
- 9:00 AM: Make warm follow-up calls
- 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM: Client work
- 2:00 PM: Marketing Engine conversations/Authority Building
- 3:00 PM: Client calls and meetings
- 4:00 PM: Daily review (focus on the most direct path and stage of your marketing maturity)
If you follow this plan, you’ll be reaching out to ideal clients, following up with ideal clients, and creating content for your ideal clients — every day.
This is what it takes to reach your magic # and hit your revenue goals.
With your marketing engine up and running, ideal clients will start scheduling calls with you.
And you’ll have the ability to sign multiple clients so you no longer have to rely on a single whale client.
Success Story: How Chris Bilich Went From 1 Whale Client To 5 High-Paying Clients
Chris Bilich, an expert in helping engineering firms win lucrative government contracts, faced a risky situation.
Despite his firm’s financial stability was undermined by a reliance on hourly fees and a single major “whale” client.
During slow periods, his income plummeted, and the loss of his sole client would have devastated his business.
After years of unpredictable income, Chris realized he needed a more stable foundation.
Chris enrolled in our Clarity Coaching Program, where he was paired with coach Patrick. Patrick helped Chris work strategically with his whale client, attract more clients, and shift his pricing model from hourly to value pricing.
He diversified his client base from one to five major clients, reducing the risk of dependence on a single source of income.
This diversification not only stabilized his revenue, but also enabled him to increase his fees by as much as 40% on some contracts. Additionally, he implemented a performance-based bonus structure, further rewarding the outstanding results he achieved for his clients.
This strategic shift paid off.
Chris secured long-term contracts, providing a strong foundation for his business. His success continued with a significant contract win with CDM Smith, closing out 2023 on a high note and setting a promising trajectory for 2024.
Chris’s journey from financial instability to business success highlights the importance of diversifying your client base — and pricing based on value instead of time.
For consultants reliant on a single “whale client,” Chris’s story underscores the power of B2B coaching for consultants.
By diversifying his client base and charging based on the value he created, Chris built a thriving, stable consulting business. His experience with the Clarity Coaching program shows how investing in the right coaching program can lead to tremendous growth.
With your marketing engine up and running, ideal clients will start scheduling calls with you. And you’ll have the ability to sign multiple clients so you no longer have to rely on a single whale client.
Get Help Learning How To Find Whale Clients & Diversify Your Client Base
Do you want to learn how to find big-name whale clients to jumpstart your consulting business?
Or are you hoping to learn how to navigate your current whale client to better position your firm for success?
Both signing whale clients and diversifying your client base is easier said than done.
It requires you to have strong positioning, a clear value proposition, and strong execution of the correct marketing tactics.
If you’d like help implementing everything you read in this article, we can help.
In our Clarity Coaching program, our coaches have helped over 1000 consultants to build a more strategic, profitable, and scalable, consulting business.
Learn More About Clarity Coaching
We’ll work hands-on with you to develop a strategic plan and then dive deep and work through your ideal client clarity, strategic messaging, consulting offers, fees and pricing, business model optimization, and help you to set up your marketing engine and lead generation system to consistently attract ideal clients.
You’ll learn how to generate more profit with every project you take on — and how to land more clients than ever before. Learn more about Clarity Coaching and get in touch to talk about your situation and goals.