How to Make it Big as a Consultant

How to Make it Big as a Consultant

Getting started in consulting can be a tricky prospect.

How much should you charge?

What type of language should exist in the contract?

How can you find clients?

Written by a veteran consultant with hundreds of consulting engagements to his credit, "How to Make it Big as a Consultant" is filled with highly-focused, detailed advice on every aspect of starting up and maintaining a highly lucrative consulting career.

Completely updated and revised throughout, the fourth edition features three new chapters on developing strategies for clients, how to lead consulting teams, and the consulting wisdom of Peter Drucker.

This long-depended-upon guidebook will help any aspiring reader become the kind of outstanding consultant that clients will turn to again and again.

Preface: The World's Foremost Consultant and His Impact on This Book

Drucker's Consulting
How Consultants Get Started
My Initial Ignorance about Consulting
An Academic Course in Consulting
The Information in This Book

1 The Business of Consulting

What Is Consulting?
How Big Is the Consulting Industry?
Types of Consulting Firms
Why Does Anyone Need a Consultant?
Signals Indicating the Need for a Consultant
How Do Potential Clients Analyze Consultants for Hire?
What Makes an Outstanding Consultant?
How Much Money Can You Make as a Consultant?
How Do People Become Consultants?
Summing Up

2 How to Get Clients: Direct Marketing Methods

Direct Methods of Marketing
Direct Mail
Cold Calls
Direct Response Space Advertising
Directory Listings
Yellow Pages Listings
Approaching Former Employers
Brochures
Designing Your Brochure
Summing Up

3 How to Get Clients: Indirect Marketing Methods

The Basic Indirect Methods
Speaking before Groups
Sending out Newsletters
Joining Professional Associations
Joining Social
Organizations
Writing Articles
Writing a Book
Writing Letters to the Editor
Teaching a Course
Giving Seminars
Distributing Publicity Releases
Exchanging Information with Noncompeting Consultants
Summing Up

4 Marketing Consultant Services to the Public Sector

The Government Requires All Sorts of Consulting Services
Consulting for the Government
How Do You Get on the Government Bandwagon?
Federal and State Bidding Portals
Small Business Administration
The Buying Process
The Importance of Preproposal Marketing
The Marketing Sequence for Government Consulting
Locating Potential Clients
Screening
Visiting and Making the Initial Presentation
Maintaining Contact and Gathering Intelligence
Preparing the Proposal
Negotiating the Contract
Summing Up

5 Making the Initial Interview a Success

Looking and Acting Like a Professional
How to Build Empathy with Your Potential Client
Seven Essential Questions
Taking Notes
Holding off on Giving Advice
Interpreting Body Language
Making Use of Listening Techniques
Identifying Emotions from Facial Expressions
What to Do When the Interview Is Over
The Company Audit
Identification of Facial Expressions in Figure 5-1
Summing Up

6 How to Write a Proposal

Why a Written Proposal Is Necessary
How to Write a Good Proposal
The Structure of a Letter Proposal
Opening
Background
Objectives
Study Methods
Potential Problems
Data Flow Charts and Product Development Schedules
The Finished Product
Cost and Payment Information
Converting a Proposal Into a Contract
Summing Up

7 Pricing Your Services

Price Strategies and Some Other Considerations
Three Price Strategies
Other Considerations
Investigate the Marketplace
Methods of Billing
Daily or Hourly Billing
Working on Retainer
Performance Billing
Fixed-Price Billing
Disclosing the Fee
Summing Up

8 What You Must Know About Consulting Contracts

Why a Contract is Necessary
Developing Your Own Contract
If Your Client Has a Standard Contract
Methods of Incurring a Contractual Obligation
Formal Contracts
Letter Contracts
Order Agreements
Purchase Orders
Verbal Contracts
Types of Contracts
The Fixed-Price Contract
The Cost Contract
The Performance Contract
The Incentive Contract
Elements of a Contract
A Sample Contract
Summing Up

9 Planning and Scheduling the Consulting Project

The Project Development Schedule
Developing a PERT Chart
Events and Activities
Earliest Expected Date
Latest Allowable Date
Slack
The Usefulness of PERT
Summing Up

10 Negotiating with Your Client

Six Steps in Contract Negotiation, as Seen by Uncle Sam
Appreciating the Goals and Objectives of the Counterparty
Preparation: The Key to All Contract Negotiations
Be Wary of Telephone Negotiations
The Negotiation Plan
Negotiation Gamesmanship
Making the Other Party Appear Unreasonable
Placing the Other Party on the Defensive
Blaming a Third Party
The Good guy, Bad guy Technique
Giving up on Straw Issues
The Walkout
The Recess
The Time Squeeze
More Negotiation Tactics
Some General Negotiating Hints
Summing Up

11 How to Easily Solve Your Client's Problems

Peter Drucker's Method of Solving Problems with His Ignorance
Defining the Central Problem
Listing Relevant Factors
Listing Alternative Courses of Action
Discussing and Analyzing the Alternatives
Listing Your Conclusions
Making Recommendations
The Charles Benson Problem: A Case Study
The Charles Benson Problem
Solution to the Charles Benson Problem
The Central Problem
The Relevant Factors
Alternative Courses of Action
Discussion and Analysis
Conclusions
Recommendations
Psychological Techniques for Problem Solving
Why the Subconscious Mind Can Help You
How to Help Your Subconscious Solve Your Consulting Problems
Summing Up

12 How to Research

The Two Basic Kinds of Research
Sources of Secondary Research
The Library: Still a Good Bet as a Starting Point
Examples of Simple Primary Research
More Complex Research Problems, and How to Do Them
Personal Interview Surveys
Mail Surveys
Telephone Surveys
Electronic Surveys
You Can Research Anything
Summing Up

13 The Importance of Ethics in Consulting

Business Ethics: Sometimes Not Clear-cut
Ethics versus jobs: The Lockheed Case
The Ethics of Marketing Research
What Washington Researchers Discovered by Surveying Their Seminar Attendees
An Executive Recruiting Story
A Japanese View of Duty
Ethics and the Law are Not the Same thing
Typical Problems Pertaining to Ethics in Consulting
The Institute of Management Consultants (IMC) Code of Ethics
Summing Up

14 Making Professional Presentations

Objectives of Presentations
Five Keys to a Successful presentation
Professionalism
Enthusiasm
Organization
Practice
Visual Aids
Overcoming Stage Fright
Answering Questions
Summing Up

15 How the Computer Has Changed Consulting

Proposals and Desktop Publishing
Need Overhead Transparencies? No Problem!
Managing Your Practice
Direct Marketing—Correcting Your Writing
Naming Products and Services
Making Forecasts and Plans
Evaluating Potential Employees
Marketing
Research
Voice Activated Word Processing Is Here!
Scanning Documents and Photographs into Your Presentations
Instant Communication
Some Reading Suggestions
Summing Up

16 The Internet and Consulting

What Is the Internet?
What Do You Need To Get Online?
Preloaded Connection, Browser, and Portal Services
Internet Connections
Researching on the Internet
How to Use Search Engines
Evaluating and Using Your Results
Marketing on the Internet
The World Wide Web
Once You Have Your Site Developed, Then What?
Selecting an ISP
Selecting a Name
Why Not a Cybermall?
How Should You Market on the World Wide Web?
Publicity: The Number One Secret for Marketing on the Web
Using Banners
Cyberlinks
Giving Information Away
Why Not an E-mail Newsletter?
Books on Internet Marketing
Summing Up

17 How to Run Your Consulting Business Selecting the Legal Structure for Your Consulting Firm

The Sole Proprietorship
The Partnership
The Corporation
Other Legal Necessities
Obtaining a Business License
The Resale Permit
Fictitious Name Registration
Clients' Use of Credit Cards
Stationery and Business Cards
Insurance and Personal Liability
Keeping Overhead Low
The Telephone
Fax Machines
Anticipating Expenses
Necessary Records and Their Maintenance
Tax Obligations
Income Taxes
Excise Taxes
Unemployment Taxes
State and Local Taxes
Minimizing Tax Paperwork
Sources of Additional Information
Summing Up

18 Developing Strategies for Your Client

Why My Recommended Approach to Strategy is Different
Principles, Resources, and Situational Variables
Example: Attacking a Market Leader's Top Product
How Lever Bros. Did It
Integrating the Principles
Looking at Resources
Lever Bros.' Secret Weapon
Enter the Great Depression
The Launch
Apply the Principles Scientifically
Summing Up

19 How to Lead Consulting Teams

Why Teams Work
How Should You Lead a Team of Consultants?
Recognizing Team Stages
Stage 1: Getting Organized
Stage 2: Getting Together
Stage 3: Fighting It Out
Stage 4: Getting the Job Done
Summing Up

20 Personal Consulting: Counseling and Coaching

What Exactly Is Coaching?
Different Kinds of Coaching
How Coaching Got Started
How is Coaching Done?
Learning to Be a Coach
Coaching Fees
Marketing Coaching Services
Summing Up

Epilogue

Appendix A References Useful to Consultants

Appendix B Sample Consultant's Brochure

Appendix C The Consultant's Questionnaire and Audit

Appendix D Associations of Consultants

Index

“The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not turbulence; it is to act with yesterday’s logic”. — Peter Drucker

The shift from manual workers who do as they are being told — either by the task or by the boss — to knowledge workers who have to manage themselves ↓ profoundly challenges social structure …

“Managing Oneself is a REVOLUTION in human affairs.” … “It also requires an almost 180-degree change in the knowledge workers’ thoughts and actions from what most of us—even of the younger generation—still take for granted as the way to think and the way to act.” …

… “Managing Oneself is based on the very opposite realities: Workers are likely to outlive organizations (and therefore, employers can’t be depended on for designing your life), and the knowledge worker has mobility.” ← in a context

These pages are attention directing tools for navigating a world moving toward unimagined futures.

It’s up to you to figure out what to harvest and calendarize
— working something out in time (1915, 1940, 1970 … 2040 … the outer limit of your concern) — nobody is going to do it for you.

It may be a step forward to actively reject something (rather than just passively ignoring) and then figure out a coping plan for what you’ve rejected.

Your future is between your ears and our future is between our collective ears — it can’t be otherwise. A site exploration starting point

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