90 Days to Success in Consulting - Softcover

McKnight, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1435454421 ISBN 13: 9781435454422

Publisher: Cengage Learning PTR, 2009

Synopsis

Interested in entering the consulting business? Already have a consulting practice but want to take its profits to the next level? 90 Days to Success in Consulting provides an action plan for success in the ultra-competitive consulting industry. The book is designed to logically take you through the major consulting topics and provide action items to be done in the next 90 days for immediate business functions, as well as for planning the future phases of your consulting journey. The book covers the various opportunities available, including the traps and pitfalls to avoid, ensuring a successful career as a consultant.

About this title

Review:

From the Author: Top Mistakes Consultants Make...

In Developing the Business

1. Failing to mind the business side of the practice, whatever that may be
2. Letting your personal image decline
3. Failing to stay educated in your field and letting the clients get ahead of you
4. Not updating your skills
5. Failing to create intellectual property and reasons/cover for clients to hire you
6. Creating a high cost structure for the business
7. Not monitoring company and service messaging by your sales channels
8. Spending too long on fruitless activity
9. Failing to see the signs of business decline and time for adjustment
10. Working too much and failing to balance your life

In Selling the Services

1. Always overtly angling the client for more work
2. Caving on client rate and price demands without negotiating reduced scope
3. Acting subservient (or superior) to the prospective hiring manager
4. Not reading contracts thoroughly or making them detailed enough
5. For fixed-price work, not tightening up acceptance/completion criteria

In Engagements

1. Bringing out the same hammer to solve every client problem
2. Doing great work, but ultimately failing due to poor interpersonal relationships
3. Burying issues in hopes they go away instead of proactively solving them
4. Assuming the client is on board with your industry terminology
5. Staying at the "consultant speak" level and not forging real solutions
6. Adopting an employee mindset with the client in terms of work culture
7. Always angling for personal credit in situations instead of giving credit

About the Author:

William is President of McKnight Consulting Group. William and his teams have been a key part of numerous end client successes. His clients range from $100M companies to numerous companies in the Fortune 50. Many end clients have gone public with their success story. His team's implementations from both information technology and consultant positions have won Best Practices awards. William is an Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist, a frequent best practices judge in his field, and an expert witness. He has been a part of 100 client programs worldwide and has over 300 articles, white papers and tips in publication. William is also a popular speaker who has given numerous keynote presentations at major conferences internationally and at online trade shows and has given over 150 public seminars and webinars. He is widely quoted in the press. William writes pragmatically from his experience starting from scratch and taking his company to placement on the Inc. 500, the Dallas 100, the Collin (county) 60 to seller of a multi-million dollar consulting firm, as well as executive roles in public and boutique consultancies. He relates to each level of consulting growth and is a passionate communicator and motivator. William is a former information technology vice president of a Fortune company and holds an MBA.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cengage Learning PTR
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1435454421
• ISBN 13: 9781435454422
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 235