SECTION 1
Why It Matters
How you position yourself is the foundation of your independent consulting practice. It shapes how clients perceive your value, determines which projects you’re competitive for, and ultimately impacts your ability to win work. A strong, focused positioning helps clients quickly understand what you do and how you can help, making it far more likely that they’ll reach out, start a conversation, and bring you into their business. Without it, even experienced consultants can struggle to get traction.
The decisions you make on how you position yourself will shape your consulting practice, and it can be hard to pivot once you’ve built a reputation. So take the time to get it right from the start.
SECTION 2
Framing Your Experience
Consider experience from a quantitative and qualitative standpoint, particularly where the two intersect. Often, clients want to understand how many years of experience you have, either in total as a working professional or in a specific subject matter, industry, or field. You also want to convey the deep expertise you have gained through your career.
Take AI, for example—it’s one of the hottest topics in business right now, but it’s also a relatively new field. Someone with just two years of experience in AI might still be one of the most experienced consultants available.
By contrast, in more established disciplines like procurement strategy, expertise is typically measured in decades. You’d likely need 20+ years of experience to be seen as a true authority in that space.
Be honest with yourself about how deep your expertise really is. Often, age can be a helpful signal here: a client might expect to see a 26-year-old AI expert but would be surprised to meet a 24-year-old procurement strategist.
Pro Tip: Frame your experience in terms of years and areas of expertise, and consider what clients might expect as a baseline for qualification.
SECTION 3
Assessing Client Demand
Next, consider client demand. How does your experience align to what clients want and need? If you have a niche area of expertise with a large pool of potential clients—great! Lean into that niche.
The challenge comes when your niche is highly specific and the client pool is small.
Let’s say, for example, you position yourself solely as a procurement expert for aerospace and defense Tier 2 suppliers serving major Primes (e.g., Lockheed, Northrop Grumman, etc.).
That’s a narrow niche—and there probably aren’t many companies that fit that description. To succeed in that market, you’d need a high conversion rate from prospect to client and likely a strong network of existing relationships to land work.
If you don’t have that kind of access or track record, it might be smart to “level up” your experience and broaden your positioning to attract more clients.
In this case, you might consider:
- “Procurement expert for companies below $100M in revenue”
- “Aerospace procurement expert”
Both framings significantly widen your aperture of prospective clients.
Pro Tip: If you specialize in a very niche area, consider positioning yourself a little more broadly.
SECTION 4
Weighing Personal Interest
Finally, your own interest in the work matters—and ideally aligns with the other two factors.
If you have strong experience, a deep interest in the subject, and a healthy market of potential clients, you’ve found the sweet spot.
But it doesn’t always work out that cleanly. Many consultants have to strategically craft their positioning to increase their marketability.
Let’s go back to the aerospace procurement consultant example from before and the two positionings we framed up:
- “Procurement expert for companies below $100M in revenue”
- “Aerospace procurement expert”
The first positioning likely involves working across multiple industries and engaging with younger or less mature procurement organizations.
The second keeps you in the aerospace sector but spans a wider variety of clients—from small suppliers to billion-dollar Primes.
Each path offers a different kind of day-to-day work and set of challenges. Be thoughtful about which direction is more interesting to you.
Pro Tip: What you want to work on matters. Position yourself in a way that aligns interests, experience, and expertise.
SECTION 5
Bringing It All Together In Your Pitch
Now that you’ve developed strong, focused positioning that helps clients quickly understand what you do and how you can help, you’re ready to pitch clients for work. Your initial pitch to a client is critical—but not in the way you might think. This isn’t about first impressions in the traditional sense. It’s about attention.
You should not try and “out-resume” the competition. Consider how most independent consultants approach a pitch when approaching a client for the first time or engaging in a competitive bid project:
“My name is Bob Jones. I worked at McKinsey in their industrial goods practice. I’ve worked with large OEMs across the construction industry and have a strong understanding of their dealer network dynamics and parts strategy. I have an MBA from Stanford Business School.”
Here’s the truth: your education, past firm, and even your resume won’t impress most senior executives.
Why? Because they’ve likely gone to similar schools. They’ve worked at or hired people from the same firms. They’re already surrounded by smart, credentialed people. Unless your background is truly exceptional—think “Global Head of Medical Devices at Bain”—your resume alone is not a differentiator.
Pro Tip: Your edge isn’t your resume, it’s your relevance. Showing you truly understand the client’s problem is your differentiator.
What makes you stand out is your ability to show that you understand the specific problem the client is facing. That understanding signals credibility and immediately increases your chances of landing the project.
Let’s look at two examples. Which pitch stands out more?
Pitch #1
“My name is Bob Jones and I worked at McKinsey in the industrial goods practice. I’ve worked with large OEMs across the construction industry and have a strong understanding of their dealer network dynamics and parts strategy. I graduated from Stanford Business School.”
Pitch #2
“It appears you are currently seeing a decline in OEM parts sales through your dealer network. That’s a major revenue driver, so I imagine you’ve already talked with your dealer council and are trying to figure out what’s changed. Based on what I’ve seen in the field, the increase in Re-Man parts is likely playing a role and will need to be considered as you develop your strategy for the next year.”
When a busy senior executive scans their inbox, the first pitch gets deleted and the second pitch gets a reply back.
This style of pitch only works if your insight is specific and accurate. You can’t send generic messages like “I help companies grow revenue” or “I know how to hire better talent.” That’s not a pitch—it’s noise.
To break through, you need to do the work to effectively position yourself and then do your homework to demonstrate a real understanding of the client’s situation. If you can do those things, you and your pitch will stand out—and you’ll be one step closer to winning the work.
SECTION 6
Catalant Tips
Effectively positioning yourself on Catalant involves many of the same considerations as doing so outside of the platform, but there are nuances and other factors to keep in mind. For specific guidance on how to position yourself well on Catalant, jump to: