As a consultant, you need to find ways to help your clients succeed and make them happy. Here are the seven lessons I have learned as a consultant with over 20 years of experience.
- Be clear about what outcome is desired.
- Know who your target audience is.
- Write for people, not just keywords.
- Establish metrics before starting work on anything new.
- Listen more than talk.
- Use visuals in presentations.
- Bring potential risks upfront so they can be addressed early.
Consulting is a profession that requires both business and technical knowledge. It’s not just about selling your skills but also about helping others solve problems. If you’re considering starting a consulting company, these seven lessons learned from running one will help you get started on the right foot. I used to manage a consulting firm. However, I don’t do much consulting these days. It was an Internet marketing firm that used search engine optimization and social media marketing to assist minor and major companies, including GM, HP, Samsung, Viacom, and AOL, in increasing their traffic. I did it for almost six years and made a lot of blunders along the way. Running a consulting firm is complex, and it’s much less glamorous than it seems. You can find client proposals, reports, and deliverables in three clicks or fewer.
Things I’ve learned while operating a consulting firm:
Lesson 1: The moment you sign a customer, you begin to lose them.
The turnover rate in consulting firms is significant. Some consultants claim to have never lost a customer, but this is complete nonsense. I consider a customer gone if they do not renew their contract.
You never know how long a customer will stay with you, so do all you can to retain them. Here’s what I used to do to keep customers for as long as possible:
- Set expectations from the start – when you take on a customer, tell them what they can anticipate and when they can expect it. Let them know why they have unreasonable expectations.
- Have a kick-off call — this is a terrific way to guarantee that everything gets off to a good start. Sending your customers cookies or treats in the mail is a unique way to make them feel like they are with you during the kick-off conversation.
- Weekly calls — you should call your customer at least once a week for at least five minutes. Tell them about your week’s activities and ask if they have any questions.
- Send industry updates to your customers — if you’re a design firm, you should be delivering your client’s unique design news. In addition, you should provide marketing information to your marketing agency if you have one. Sending your customers industry-related notice demonstrates that you are up to date and makes them feel unique.
- Monthly reports – you should provide your customers a complete summary of everything you accomplished at the end of each month. It should ideally contain attractive graphs and other visual aids. Then, through the phone or in person, go over the report with the customer.
- Monthly surveys – I suggest sending a simple survey to your customers at the end of each month. Instead of asking general questions like “Are you happy?” the survey should include specific questions that will assist you in enhancing the quality of your job. For example, have questions like “how can we improve the monthly report?” and “how can we improve the monthly report?”
Lesson 2: Clients are always correct unless they are incorrect.
You’ll always have customers telling you what they want. And, although they are paying you, they have no right to tell you what you should be doing. You see, you were employed because you had a skill set that they lack. This is why you should be the one to advise the customer on their best course of action. It makes no difference whether they agree with you or not. As a consultant, your role is to do what is best for the client. Your labor will provide more significant outcomes for their firm if you concentrate on doing what is best for them. You’ll hit hurdles while attempting to do what’s best for your customer. The best approach to preparing for this is to provide them with facts supporting your position and demonstrate that it is the best option.
Lesson 3: Prove that you’re worth every dime.
Clients may sometimes make snide comments about how much they are paying you or that they believe they can perform your work better than you can. Don’t accept no for an answer from customers; instead, prove to them that you’re worth every dime. This may be accomplished by demonstrating their return on investment. We looked at three metrics with my consulting firm: average revenue per transaction, conversion rate, and search engine traffic. We utilized those figures to indicate how much more money we were able to bring in due to our efforts. This demonstrates how important you are as a resource, provided you deliver outcomes. They’ll think twice the next time they consider canning you since they know you bring in more money than you cost.
Lesson 4: You must professionally present yourself.
I said it last week, and I’ll repeat it: you should dress to impress. The greater your consulting fee, the better dressed you are. I looked like a bum when I first began as a consultant, and I couldn’t earn more than $100 an hour. However, I increased my hourly rate to $250 after I began dressing a little better. I could also demand rates in the four-figure range when I dressed up nicely. A great wardrobe will not only show prospective clients that you are prosperous, but it will also help you gain confidence. Clients also want to compensate successful employees because they believe they can succeed in their organization.
Lesson 5: The more you charge, the fewer complaints you’ll get.
One of the first things I learned was that the amount a customer pays you is inversely proportional to the number of times they complain. To put it another way, the more money a customer gives you, the less likely they are to complain. Large paying customers often have a lot more money; therefore, spending isn’t a huge concern. They understand that they must spend money if they want to keep growing. And although things may work out sometimes, they may not at other times, and they must continue to place bets at the end of the day. Smaller clientele, on the other hand, is cash-strapped. So, unlike more significant customers, if they employ you and mess up, they typically don’t have the luxury of hiring someone else. You may have to take on lower-paying customers initially, but your objective should be to move up to higher-paying clients as rapidly as possible.
Lesson 6: Fake it ’til it’s real.
As I indicated in Lesson 5, you should target higher-paying customers. Don’t worry if you don’t have a lot of case studies or years of expertise under your belt. You still have time to bring in the heavy guns. All you need to do now is find out what sets your consulting firm apart from the competition. Big customers usually pay big consulting firms, but if you can demonstrate why you’re better than the more prominent firms, you’ll be able to keep them. For example, clients at my consulting business appreciated the idea that I would work on their projects individually instead of larger companies delegating younger consultants to them. When I discovered this, I told prospective customers that I would individually work on their projects, something they would not receive from the larger businesses.
Lesson 7: It pours when it rains.
You will lose customers, as I already said. It’s just a question of time. As a result, you should aim to save as much money as possible. When things go wrong, you don’t want to terminate individuals; instead, you want to use your reserves.
You may save money in a variety of ways, including:
- Have a low-cost office — mine was low-cost and lacked windows. I didn’t have any lovely furnishings, though, and I made sure my clients didn’t notice by only meeting with them in person at their workplaces.
- Create a flexible pay plan – my staff were highly paid while my firm was doing well. They didn’t do it when it wasn’t. Everyone was paid a minimum basic pay and a portion of the profits.
- Maintain a substantial reserve — I never took a big salary to empty my company bank account. Before I paid myself handsomely, I always had a 6-month to 1-year reserve in the bank.
- Don’t expand too hastily — even if you’re continually gaining new customers, don’t recruit too soon. Before recruiting new staff, consider outsourcing part of your work to a local business. You won’t have to terminate any of your employees if you lose a few customers this way.
- Permanently be closing — even if things seem to be going well, keep in mind that someone else has it better than you. Never stop looking for new customers since it will help your company remain afloat.
Conclusion
It’s not simple to run a consulting firm. It’s a lot of work, and you have a lot of supervisors to deal with (each of your clients is your boss). It may be incredibly lucrative, but it can also be quite stressful. If you want to lessen your stress as a consultant, make sure you learn from your errors and only work with customers for whom you can provide results, since working with a client is similar to being married. You get into it for the wrong reasons sometimes, and it finally catches up with you. So, do yourself a favor and avoid marriage unless you are confident it will work out.
Frequently Asked Questions
What have you learned as a consultant?
A: I learned that my company would be much more successful if they hired better negotiators executives.
What makes a consulting company successful?
A: The key to a successful consulting company is attracting and retaining clients. You should have an established network of potential clients, understand what your target market wants, and offer reasonable rates for the work you do. Additionally, if you are looking for consultants in any given field, you must be able to easily find those individuals through networking or hiring services such as PeoplePerHour.
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