If You Want To Earn Seven Figures In The Consulting Business
• Be specific about the value you provide, your ideal buyer, and what influences that person.
• Speak and write, speak and write, speak and write.
• Peer-to-peer referrals are the platinum standard, a commercially-published book the gold standard.
• Converse with enthusiasm, volume, and confidence.
• Hang out with people more successful and smarter than you are.
• Develop a powerful brand or brands, culminating in the recognition of your name as an expert.
• Laugh-off unsolicited feedback, negative reviews, and setbacks.
• Watch for patterns of success and failure.
• Build on your strengths, stop trying to correct weaknesses (most self-help books assume you’re somehow damaged).
• Ask penetrating questions and listen carefully to the answers, and stop jumping to a solution or cause right away.
• Generate intellectual property frequently and move to monetize it.
• Pursue highly successful firms which have a lot of money, and for whom $100,000 isn’t even a gnat on the windshield.
• Never spend time nor develop a relationship with a non-buyer, with the exception of being introduced to the true buyer.
• Stop worrying about being liked. Popularity doesn’t create impressive results and won’t pay your mortgage.
• Create a positive support system around you, preferably at home.
• Focus on outcomes and results, not tasks and deliverables.
• Remember what business you’re in. Not all projects are good projects, not all prospects will be good clients.
• If you’re charging by the hour, disregard all of the above, you’re an amateur and none of this will help you.
© Alan Weiss 2013
Dale Penn
I have purchased and inhaled a couple of your fine books. Getting Started In Consulting was my most recent purchase. I followed your guidance and drafted a prospect proposal, made the journey through the project life-cycle and …voila!
Alan, thanks for making this seem so do-able. Yes, I landed a new client!
Dale Penn
http://www.dalepenn.com
Twitter:@dalepenn
Dennis
Alan I am curious: If you had to pick one (I know, I know) but if you had to: which one would you say is the most impactful?
Mustapha B. Mugisa
Fantastic insights Alan as usual. When you decide to stand for an elective office (Presidency), consider me as one of your support structures.
Alan Weiss
I don’t have the behaviors to run for office!
Most important: self-esteem
Mark@ Make Them Click
Hallelujah to all that.