If you’re here thinking “I’d like to be a Consultant”, you’ve probably done things already in the workplace that attracts you. So for instance, you may have conducted some internal consulting assignments in the company that you work for or perhaps you like solving problems. If so, then maybe a freelance consulting careerbeckons. However, before you take the plunge and start your own consulting business, what else should you have in your armoury of skills?
Expertise
Importantly, you have to have the technical skills necessary for the area that you’re focusing on. That goes without question. If you’re an IT Consultant, then you should have a comprehensive set of IT skills with a proven track record of solving IT problems.
Credibility
Do you have the experience to be a business consultant? It is often said that a little grey hair can help. However, more important is the ability to prove your experience by the quality of every client engagement. Solving their problems, providing added insight into their situation and drawing upon applicable case studies will strengthen your credibility. Importantly, do you have the natural authority to deliver recommendations at all levels within the client’s organisation?
Intelligence
There are lots of different work environments and organisational cultures. Therefore, your solutions must be tailored to fit in with your client’s situation. Also you’ve got to be quick on your feet. There are all kinds of spoilers where your plan or presentation doesn’t quite go as you expect it to, and you’ve very much got to adapt things as you go along.
Whatever you put in the proposal, the world can change half a dozen times while you’re doing the assignment and so you have to be flexible. Sometimes there is a fundamental change that drastically affects your plan. Don’t just let things drift. You’ve got to hit hit head on and basically sit down with the client and renegotiate a new set of outcomes or change of plan.
Remember; strike the right balance between flexibility and structure or between being adaptable and persistent.
Results Oriented
It could be you’re the sort of person that likes to change assignment on a reasonably frequent basis, and that’s really very much essential for consulting, because life is a whole sequence of different assignments lasting perhaps between two and nine months.
However, no matter how much you like to chop and change, it is important that you leave the client with long lasting successful results. Look at the assignment from the client’s perspective, what do they value? What is measurable? And leave them with the bull’s eye that keeps them coming back for more.
Communication
You’ve got to be good at presentation and you have to be authoritative; you sometimes have to deliver solutions that aren’t going to make them happy and you have to do that with empathy and understanding. It is essential that you not only have good verbal skills but that you can persuasively convey your proposals and recommendations in writing.
Additionally, you might not always get on with the people in the client organisation, so you have to find ways to work the politics or fit in without compromising your authority. You are always seeking their co-operation rather than trying to single-handedly do all the implementation.
Selling Skills
Invariably you will find that you are not in a position to tell the client what to do. Instead, you are selling your ideas and recommendations which will only get taken up if they believe that you are right.
Ironically, selling your business consulting skills is even trickier. Fundamentally, the harder you try and sell, the more you will undermine your credibility. Instead, think of it as positioning your practice as a thought leader in your area of expertise. It is then up to your clients to seek you out, that way you will seem to be more valuable to them.
Of course, there are also the important commercial skills like the ability to agree sensible contracts, set fees and agree project terms and conditions.
Marketing
However good you are at your client assignments, your practice will not develop until you get very good at marketing. Your ability to position your skills and understand your customers will have a direct effect on your earnings.
Finally do people naturally come to you to solve their problems? Have you got the skills required and, probably more important, do you enjoy helping them and getting to grips with their knotty problems. If so, these are all important clues that maybe consulting is your true vocation.
If consulting is still for you, then the surest way to test your suitability is to go out there and win a client. If you enjoy the whole experience, then guess what – You’re a Consultant!
To find out how to win a client click here…
Tags: consultant skills, Consulting Business, Credibility, Freelance Consulting, marketing, Organisational Cultures
Leave A Reply (1 comment So Far)
Anthony Bell
185 days ago
Hi Raglan.
I have just read being cut out as a consultant, as a safety advisor I enjoy challenges though it is going to tough starting out by myself, health and safety is law wether you are a small or large business you should be compliant, with the recession etc, these things are put to the back and businesses cut corners. I am looking forward to the rest of this course if I may call it that.
Regards,
Tony.