“I have 25 years of experience” is credible.
It is not a reason to hire you.
Technical professionals often describe their consulting services by listing their qualifications, years of experience, specialist knowledge and previous projects.
All of these establish credibility. But they do not constitute an offer.
A client is rarely looking to purchase 25 years of experience. The client is trying to resolve a problem, make a difficult decision, reduce a risk or achieve a result.
Your experience matters because it improves your ability to help them do that.
This is the distinction between describing yourself and describing your value.
“I am a civil engineer with 25 years of experience in infrastructure planning” tells the client who you are.
“I help government agencies turn complex infrastructure problems into clear, defensible investment decisions” tells the client why your expertise matters.
A credible consulting offer should answer four questions:
- Who do you help?
- What problem do you help them solve?
- What result do you help them achieve?
- Why should they trust you to do it?
Your qualifications and experience largely answer the fourth question. Many technical consultants stop there.
That leaves prospective clients to work out the first three for themselves. Most will not.
This does not mean squeezing everything you know into a narrow box. It means giving people a clear entry point into your expertise. Your experience is the foundation.
Your offer connects that experience to a problem someone is prepared to pay to solve.
Try completing this sentence: “I help [type of client] address [specific problem] so they can [valuable result].”
If that sentence is difficult to complete, you may have considerable expertise but not yet have a clear consulting offer.
The Confident Consultant, practical observations for technical professionals building independent consulting practices.