Client-Getting Solutions: A Live Coaching Call with HR Consultant Hannah Webb

This week's episode is a behind the scenes coaching call with my client, Hannah Webb where you'll discover:

• Why charging for consultation calls is a no-brainer - and every HR Consultant should do it. (Find out how at the 8 minute mark)
• How to build a pipeline of leads and clients and avoid the dreaded feast or famine - FOREVER. 
• Grow your list of leads with this simple LinkedIn tactic (...adds 5+ qualified prospects to your pipeline every week!)
• The single best strategy for getting people onto your mailing list. HINT: This is so SIMPLE you’ll struggle to believe it.
• The BEST place to network your business — most HR Consultants overlook this!

So tune in now to get all this and more.

Timestamps:

00:00 - Introduction: Nick and Hannah kick off the session with updates on their work and projects.
02:00 - Hannah’s lumpy mail strategy: How she followed up via LinkedIn and secured a client call.
05:00 - Structuring proposals: Hannah’s approach to modular pricing for flexibility.
08:00 - Pre-qualifying clients: Nick shares his framework for ensuring potential clients are ready to invest.
11:00 - Managing workload: Hannah discusses balancing large reorganisation projects while keeping a steady pipeline.
14:00 - Lead magnet strategy: Reviewing Hannah’s lead magnet and refining it for better impact.
17:00 - Lead generation tactics: How Hannah is structuring her outreach while ensuring she doesn’t overcommit.
20:00 - Preparing for a manufacturing summit: Hannah’s networking strategy and how she plans to stand out.
23:00 - Event marketing ideas: Discussion on branding, giveaways, and unconventional ways to attract attention.
26:00 - Final thoughts: Nick emphasises strategic networking and quality over quantity when approaching new leads.
28:00 - Next steps: Hannah and Nick plan a follow-up session for deeper brainstorming.

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Transcript

Live Q&As - 2025/02/12 10:59 GMT – Transcript

Attendees

Hannah Webb, Nick Poninski

Transcript

Hannah Webb: Let's join him.

Nick Poninski: I don't have the answer for that. if they're not, then you're very lucky and you've got me all to yourself for an hour. but if they are, then they'll join later, I guess. So, yeah.

Hannah Webb: I'm going to have to drop off at half past for something. But yeah. Are you okay?

Nick Poninski: Yeah, really good. Thank you. making big progress on the book funnel.

Hannah Webb: That's good.

Nick Poninski: Yeah, so very soon. I mean, I wanted it live by the end of the month. I don't know if I'll get there with that. I think that might be a bit of a hard push. The sales page is really f****** long.

Nick Poninski: 30 pages of Google Docs. So, got a lot of copies to write. and then there's the follow-up sequence to make sure that people who buy the book then are presented with the information to understand my services, why they should invest, etc.  so that I get people converting into high ticket buyers. So yeah, that's my world at the moment. It's kind of I put a pause on all sorts of outreach currently. It is what it is. I'm okay with that. Tell me Enough about me. You're not here to listen to me.

Hannah Webb: Yeah.

Hannah Webb: good week or So, had some people come back someone from the Lumpy Mail, like I said, to write a well-being plan for the year, which would be good. so,…

Nick Poninski: Can you talk to me about that process?

Hannah Webb: that would be something more positive to work on, which would be nice. so, I'm just looking at that.

Nick Poninski: So, I understand you've sent them lumpy mail.

Hannah Webb: Yeah. …

Nick Poninski: What happened after that? Talk me through it. Okay.

Hannah Webb: it is someone I know. So, I've worked with them before. so they have a gap in their team for any kind of knowledge in this area. So, they've got kind of people who are reward experts, people who are doing training and stuff, but the business wants to do more in the being space. So they want to create a plan of both kind of subject matter experts and…

Hannah Webb: just different people coming in to do some different topics that are important to them.

Nick Poninski: One second.

Nick Poninski: Rather than what you're going to be delivering, which I'm sure is important to you, that's not what I'm asking you about. let me be clearer. You've sent them lumpy mail.

Hannah Webb: Yeah. All right.

Nick Poninski: What's happened next? So in terms of they responded to you or…

Hannah Webb: So I Yeah.

Nick Poninski: you chase them up.

Hannah Webb: So I contact them mainly through LinkedIn because remember like we were saying with Andrea before, a lot of these people just aren't available in the day. It's only really at night or very early in the morning when they haven't got a meeting that they're available. So mainly it's through  So we just had a dialogue on LinkedIn of let's put a further call in to chat some more and discuss how I can help you. And then we had a call on back end of last week when they were traveling home just to try and download on some of the sort of things that they're struggling with and therefore what their needs are.

Hannah Webb: So, we had the call and I said I'll follow up with some thoughts, not necessarily a full massively long proposal,…

Nick Poninski: Good night.

Hannah Webb: but just in terms of some thoughts on the themes that they can be focusing on and then we said we'll follow up from there in terms of planning out. Now, the problem that they've got is that it's a reactive environment.  Is it gonna probably stick for the whole year? Will the s*** hit the fan and something else crops up? That's highly likely, frankly, because It's a factory and things kick off and then something else diverts to somewhere else. But I think the way I've tried to structure it, Nick, in terms of the proposal is if there's modules, if I get to work on some of them, then great.

Hannah Webb: It kind of chunks up some of the income if you see what I mean. Rather than making it one big massive thing which is all or nothing. I've tried to do it in modules. So that I thought …

Hannah Webb: if some of that comes off I haven't got it.

Nick Poninski: Do you want to share it with me?

00:05:00

Nick Poninski: Have you gone through this with them yet?

Hannah Webb: No I haven't got it on me at the moment cuz I'm on my phone but yeah that's the way I thought it could work quite well. And also if there's times in the year where they're really chaotic and busy then we can always park that bit and then do another bit later on in the year if you see what I mean.

Nick Poninski: Yeah.

Hannah Webb: For example,…

Hannah Webb: International Men's Day would be a big time for them. They've got a very male-dominated workforce. That's the back end of the year. So if that is a time when they really want to focus it, that could be really good to make sure that happens.

Nick Poninski: Okay. Yeah.

Nick Poninski: I Okay.

Nick Poninski: So in my head, you've sent out your lumpy mail, you've followed up with these people in LinkedIn, this one guy has come back to you and said, " let's talk." Is that right? and then you've exchanged a few messages, got on the phone with them to understand their world. Gotcha. Okay.

Hannah Webb: Yes. Talk it through with them. Yeah.

Nick Poninski: And then they've shared where they're at and you're going to go away and create a proposal and present it to them. Yeah, that makes sense.

Nick Poninski: so yeah, I mean this morning's podcast has gone out, but was something that to bring it to life for you. Before getting on a call with someone, ideally, we'd know three things, right? We know that we can help them, that we want to help them, and that they're ready and willing to invest. And that one's always a little bit more difficult. because how do you work that one out? but if they' the way I like to structure that one is when I'm asking them the questions is I'm steering the conversation towards are they going to be on the fast lane formula? Are they going to be on the success squad or is this a bit more of an ad hoc project?

Nick Poninski: If I know that I'm getting the feeling that it's the success squad, I probably won't bother getting on the phone with them. I'll just say there's the page. Go and invest fast lane formula. Definitely want to get on the phone with them to understand their world. If I'm getting the feeling that it's an ad hoc project, then I want them to pay for the call.

Hannah Webb: Yeah. Yeah,…

Nick Poninski: And the reason for that is because if they're not ready and willing to invest, if they're sourcing quotes, if this is something for maybe later on in the year, then it's potentially just a waste of time because if they're not ready and willing to invest, then what's the point in having the call, right?

Hannah Webb: I get that. And I know I've obviously seen that a lot in your game plan and…

Nick Poninski: Excellent.

Hannah Webb: everything. yeah, I guess just moving on from that one, there's a couple of other projects which I'm working on which are potentially quite big reorgs which will take a good chunk of time in the next 5 months. so that could be really good. waiting just to speak with someone later on today about one of them which would also be very time intensive.  So my thinking was that back to that being if I could sort of stagger it whereby some of the work comes later on in the year, it will serve both parties because it spreads their budget because they said some of it isn't available just yet and b it helps me out because it'll be me delivering it later on in the year. So it'd work both ways in that sense.

Hannah Webb: But would I get them to pay for the call? No, because it's an existing contact that I've got who is I think they want to help me as much as I want to help them in that sense. Do you know what I mean? Because they know that my skill set from before. And so I wouldn't want to just say, " by the way, this hour call, it wasn't an hour, but half hour call, I'm going to bill you for it." Because I think that would just probably rub them up the wrong way.

Hannah Webb: Do you know what I mean? In that context.

Nick Poninski: Right. Sure.

Hannah Webb: But I think as I say, it can work both ways because if I stack the quote that it's more work in the back end of the year, it can help in that context as well and help that funnel for later on in the year.

Nick Poninski: Yeah. Yeah. Very clever.

Nick Poninski: I like it. That's good positive news.

Hannah Webb: But yeah,…

Hannah Webb: so hopefully the other one comes off and it's some really solid work until Yes. Yeah. And then I'm just rethinking my lead magnets so that it's something really meaty to download rather than just something that's a bit light touch.

00:10:00

Hannah Webb: So, I was just downloading Andrea's actually just to look at hers and what she offers in terms of her free guide for people. So, I was just looking at that for some inspiration. But yeah, I just need to work on that. So, that's my on my to-do list.

Nick Poninski: Okay. …

Nick Poninski: so just to give you a quick steer, with Andrea, let's ignore Andrea for now. your lead magnet, just make a checklist. Honestly, you just need something that is super valuable for your audience that gives them a quick result that they can consume in two or three minutes.

Nick Poninski: you and they get a quick win. They understand they're over here. There's gaps. You're a potential solution.

Nick Poninski: Does that make sense?

Hannah Webb: Yeah. Yeah.

Hannah Webb: And I had done that and I just thought it looked a bit just a bit brief. the one I'd done was a reorg checklist and how to deal with empathy and make sure you think of some different things, not just your usual stuff. so I've done that one and…

Hannah Webb: I was just thinking is that a bit light touch? But yeah, I could do that obviously. it just looked a bit like it was two pages long and…

Nick Poninski: What do you mean when you say light touch?

Nick Poninski: What are you worried about?

Hannah Webb: yeah, you say, it was quick to digest. I just wondered if it was a bit not meaty enough to kind of attract people.

Nick Poninski: Have you seen my website checklist?

Hannah Webb: Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Poninski: So, there's only 16 points on it, but the start of it is why this is super important, There's a bit of an explanation. There's a bit of a blurb. Then you've got the checklist again, why that stuff is important. Then you've got you're HR. I don't need to tell you this stuff. tell them what you've told Call them to action. So, when you say it's two pages, beef it up a little bit. Why is it important that they do the work in the checklist? Why is this stuff important? Give them the checklist. Tell them what you've told them. Call them to action.

Hannah Webb: Yeah, yeah,…

Nick Poninski: You can say along the lines of, "Listen, if this is something that you're going through when you think you need help, blah blah blah." Does that make sense?

Hannah Webb: yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll reflect on the right wording for it and…

Hannah Webb: I'm a massive reflector as you know, so I'll think about that. Cool.

Nick Poninski: Okay, good.

Hannah Webb: Okay. Yeah.

Nick Poninski: Yeah, superb.

Hannah Webb: So hopefully some good news. Yeah. …

Nick Poninski: What you doing about lead genen this week?

Hannah Webb: I'm going to see what happens about this big reorg. there's two of them actually, but I'm kind of mindful that if they do come off and that's some big meaty work, that will be probably four to five months of solidly working on that. so it's kind of that phasing thing, when a couple of weeks ago we talked with Rachel about kind of having too much clients and stuff. I'm just trying to not phase it.

Hannah Webb: So, for example, I reached out to someone last week and just said, "I'm here. I'm based locally. It's a brewery actually down the road." and blah blah. connected on LinkedIn. And then she came back this week and said, " I really urgently need some recruitment help." and now recruitment help is I'm not a recruiter. So, I just passed her off to someone I know to say, "Look, this person's really good. and I just said to her, if you want help with X, Y, and Zed, I'm your person,…

Hannah Webb: but for recruitment, I can recommend a really good person. So, I've just passed her because I don't want to fob anyone off and just be someone I'm not. so that was good.

Nick Poninski: Perfect.

Hannah Webb: But it's just making connections like that, if it's something else, I can help, but not particularly with recruitment. So, that was just one example. But back to your point,…

Nick Poninski: Okay. Yeah.

Hannah Webb: I was just thinking about how I stagger it so that then if this work comes off, it's then pipelining for kind of the summer really

00:15:00

Nick Poninski: Yeah. So, great question. it's kind of a cross that bridge when we come to it, if you're sending out messages and people are coming back and saying, " yeah, maybe we need some help. Maybe it's further down the line.

Hannah Webb: Yeah. And…

Nick Poninski: …

Hannah Webb: then the other thing I thought is I'd mentioned to you about the insights discovery piece. So I'm getting that sorted now. So once that comes through, which they are painful to chase, frankly. then I'm going to be communicating more about that to say I've got some slots available from the summer etc. So let's plan it in and plan the rest of the year etc. So try and focus on that.

Nick Poninski: I like that. going back to my point there about making sure that you're doing your lead genen, …

Hannah Webb: Mhm. Yeah.

Nick Poninski: I would say don't be worried that you're going to get inundated with work because I know that that's basically what you're telling me. if we look between the lines,…

Hannah Webb: I don't mean I'm gonna be inundated.

Nick Poninski: but yeah.

Hannah Webb: I just mean I don't want to pee people off if they're like,…

Nick Poninski: I mean,…

Hannah Webb: Yeah, I could do with this help now." And then I'm like, "Okay, I've got a few months of I'm solid" kind of thing.

Nick Poninski: worst case scenario, if that happens, we've got a good network of consultants in the success squad. You can white label the work. I'm sure you've got other connections. Again, white label the work. At best case scenario, you can say, "Listen, I'm book solid, for now. Can we do this then?" If they say no, we need it White label it. If not, you've got it scheduled in. Take a deposit. You've got your diaries maxing. but when we talk about those marketing funnels, do you remember there's 2 or 3% of people are ready to buy now. So, at worst, you're going to be contacting people, building up some relationships with them. Maybe you can add them to your mailing list, etc.

Hannah Webb: Yeah. Yeah.

Hannah Webb: Yeah. Definitely. I think when the insight stuff comes through that will be really good to add a different offering as Yeah. And there's been a few people who've inquired about that through other networks. So that would be good. Yeah.

Nick Poninski: Excellent. I like it.

Nick Poninski: I guess what I'm saying is right now while you are quiet building relationships especially if this big reorg doesn't come off have I guess you can share what that piece of work is how that's come about but if that doesn't come off then sitting here and thinking I don't want to do any lead genen just in case this comes off because if it

Hannah Webb: Yeah, they've intimated that it will definitely be happening.

Hannah Webb: Obviously, things can get pulled at the last minute,…

Nick Poninski: Perfect.

Hannah Webb: but that would be a big chupy and redundancy program that would be a chunky piece to work for a certain period. So forecasted four, five months. Yeah. So, I'm just waiting to hear back from them today and then go from there.

Nick Poninski: And have they how's this piece of work coming about? Is this one of your network? Is this someone you've reached out to?

Hannah Webb: This is someone who they referred me on from someone I used to work with. So, it's kind of word of mouth through someone else. so that's come about through an old contact basically. Yeah. that could be really good.

Nick Poninski: Perfect. And then they've what?

Nick Poninski: 'd you, rung you.

Hannah Webb: Yeah,…

Nick Poninski: Yeah, 100%.

Hannah Webb: they emailed me and we set up a call and went through it on Teams and stuff. So, yeah, that could be good.

Nick Poninski: Superb. Okay, sounds promising.

Hannah Webb: So, that would be a good chunk of work. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we're good.

Nick Poninski: Exciting times. 100%. …

Hannah Webb: So, fingers crossed. And then I've also signed up to a manufacturing summit thing, which is, a bit like when you went to the CIPD thing. Obviously, this is for manufacturing people. So, that would be a good place to meet people as well. And it's free to attend. So, that was good. end of the month in Coventry.

00:20:00

Nick Poninski: perfect. When is that?

Nick Poninski: How do we ensure that you walk away from there with bunches of leads and clients? Don't pull it off.

Hannah Webb: I've ordered things like my more merchandising in terms of things like a water bottle and stuff to advertise like my name and things. I thought about what you said about wearing a t-shirt with my branding on. I'm not sure I can pull this off, Nick. Yeah.

Nick Poninski: Put it on.

Hannah Webb: So, I was thinking about that because it could be a way of doing it.

Nick Poninski: So, no t-shirt with a QR code saying something I catch you or whatever.

Nick Poninski: call me.

Hannah Webb: Maybe.

Nick Poninski: Nothing like that.

Hannah Webb: Yeah, maybe. Yeah, something like that.

Nick Poninski: You might feel a little bit awkward, Is that where the unease is coming in? Would you feel more comfortable walking around with a bag of water bottles, handing them out to people after you've spoken to them?

Hannah Webb: 

Hannah Webb: No, I didn't mean that. I meant as in it's just got my branding on. But no, I don't know about handing stuff out. because I think the other thing is unless I'm going to have a stand there, which I'm not, but that presumably cost a fortune anyway.

Nick Poninski: No. Yeah.

Hannah Webb: But yeah, so I was just mainly thinking about just general networking, taking my business cards and things.  What do you think? Yeah.

Nick Poninski: Got you. Okay.

Nick Poninski: I like the idea of taking the business cards. The only problem is everyone else is going to do the exact same thing. So, how does Hannah Webb, self-employed, independent HR consultant, stand out from everyone else who's at this conference?  How does she get attention? Because, we've all been to these conferences. Everyone is after attention. As you said, there's all these stands everywhere. No one wants to be sold to. So, how do we get people to want to contact you to put their eyes on you and say, "Okay, Hannah Webb, let's talk. What have you got for me?

Hannah Webb: Yeah, it is tricky,…

Hannah Webb: isn't it? I don't know. yeah, I signed up recently, so I'm going to give it a bit more thought on how I approach it.

Nick Poninski: Good.

Nick Poninski: Yeah. One suggestion at GPT.

Hannah Webb: Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Poninski: Tell him what you're doing or her.

Nick Poninski: Tell it it's not a person. There's no him or her. It doesn't have a sex. tell it what you're doing, what you want from it. See if it's got any suggestions for you.

Hannah Webb: Mhm. Yeah.

Nick Poninski: But yeah, how do you go about dragging attention? Cuz we're in, everyone's busy, everyone's doing whatever they're doing. So, what is it that you do? because obviously everyone will have their stands there and they'll be giving out sweets and chocolate and donuts and whatever else. So that's something you can do.

Nick Poninski: So yeah, that's where I'm at with the t-shirt idea is just because you can just walk around and if people are interested, people will speak to you.

Hannah Webb: What? Yeah.

Hannah Webb: Or a tote bag, the CIPD have tote bags,…

Hannah Webb: don't they? And stuff. Maybe order one of them.

Nick Poninski: Yeah, that it's not going to be blaringly obvious.

Nick Poninski: You're not going to have one of those t-shirts that does the little light show. You can program What about one of them? I saw them in Thailand. What? 15 years ago or so. You can program them to create any image you want. If we can get one of those. Hello. You'd be uncomfortable wearing it, wouldn't you?

Hannah Webb: Dear.

Hannah Webb: Highly uncomfortable. Yeah. Okay. I love to think.

Nick Poninski: Yeah. I mean, cute cuteness grabs attention.

00:25:00

Nick Poninski: So if you're walking around with a puppy, people would get engaged with you.

Hannah Webb: Yeah, it probably worked. I'll take my dog. She could go mad,…

Nick Poninski: Yeah, do that.

Hannah Webb: 

Hannah Webb: Yeah. No,…

Nick Poninski: Can you take your children into this conference? I'm sure they would love running around handing out your business cards. And you could say to them, "Whoever gives out the most business cards gets a special treat from mommy." They would go crazy handing out business cards, wouldn't they?

Hannah Webb: they wouldn't.

Nick Poninski: Really?

Hannah Webb: They'd be like, "No, mom. Go away." My 14year-old son.

Nick Poninski: Damn it.

Hannah Webb: No. …

Nick Poninski: Yeah. Won't be interested.

Hannah Webb: No, I'll have a think about that.

Nick Poninski: But yeah,…

Hannah Webb: Okay, cool. All right. yeah,…

Nick Poninski: certainly this is a great opportunity for you to get in front of your target audience and…

Hannah Webb: that's what I thought. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Poninski: to get so it's great work that you've signed up that you've found it. how do we monetize it? And one tactic could be to consider rather than aiming for let's get as many people as possible, it could be quality over quantity. You might want to think about, how do I have a conversation with five people? who are the people that I want to to? Really get down into the detail of who it is you want to speak to.

Nick Poninski: Because then you can just wander around and…

Nick Poninski: literally ask someone, are you the factory manager of Kelloggs or whoever it is? I know it's not Kelloggs, but if you've got five,…

Hannah Webb: Yeah. No,…

Hannah Webb: definitely. Yeah.

Nick Poninski: 10 people in mind cuz then it's like having a niche, right? It's having a target market. it makes things less overwhelming. I don't have to speak to everybody. I only need to speak to 5, 10 people.

Hannah Webb: Definitely. Yeah. No, I think it'll be good. I'm just thinking when they registered, I think they do send you a delegate list as well. So, yeah.

Nick Poninski: But amazing. listen, I'm conscious of time. You said you've got 2 minutes until your next whatever it is that you're doing.

Nick Poninski: So in which case, we've got our one-on-one …

Nick Poninski: call. schedule that. Let's go through everything that we've just talked about. Let's make some real plans and, do a bit more brain storming.

Hannah Webb: Yeah. Yeah.

Hannah Webb: Cool. That'd be good.

Nick Poninski: right.

Hannah Webb: Okay, Nick.

Nick Poninski: No problem.

Hannah Webb: Thank you. Have a good rest of the day and catch you soon.

Nick Poninski: Thank You too. Have a great day.

Hannah Webb: See you later.

Nick Poninski: Speak soon.

Hannah Webb: Bye. Bye.

Nick Poninski: See you later. Bye.

Meeting ended after 00:28:21 👋

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