Having a steady flow of new business is something we all want when we’re running a consultancy.

You know that achieving those results takes an investment of your time. But it’s easy for things to get in the way. Client work, finding the next project to pay the bills, or just the admin that comes with running a business.

In the rush to win new work and everything done, it’s easy to miss the rhythm that lies beneath all consistent results.

Finding your instruments

When it comes to attracting new business, there are quite a few instruments you can use, from networking to advertising.

When you’re a one-man band or a small team, you have to select the instruments that work for your audience and for you.

If you select something that doesn’t match your energy, you’ll struggle to stick with it, and if it’s not right for your audience, it won’t generate the results you need.

Maintenance is more important than getting started

When you haven’t been regularly marketing, the natural focus is on getting started. If your attention is on getting started, it can let you down, because new business generation is very similar to playing a musical instrument; you won’t be great when you’re just getting started.

You get good through regular practice.

This makes maintaining that regular practice a more important goal than getting started, and regular practice is built on rhythm.

Understanding the rhythm

When you have a goal of the new business revenue that you want to generate, you can work back from that goal through a cascade of steps - new clients, the opportunities they convert from, the leads they started as and the activities that generate them.

It’s the rhythm of the activities that’s the rhythm you can directly control.

Part of the art of getting consistent results is aligning your rhythm with your market's rhythm, which is influenced by broader seasonality, holidays, mood, and macroeconomics.

Understanding this comes through regular practice.

Making time for regular practice

To deeply understand your instruments, your rhythm and the rhythm of your market, you have to make time for your practice.

The biggest blocker to maintaining regular practice is losing the love for it. Which is why choosing instruments you enjoy playing is so important.

For example, I enjoy writing this newsletter, which makes writing it every week much easier.

Regular practice allows you to learn what’s working and what isn’t, to identify and test improvements that compound to generate the consistent results you want.

And that’s why, when you want to consistently win new business, you have to focus on establishing a rhythm with instruments you enjoy playing.