So You Want to Be A Consultant? Whaddya Got?
When we played poker as kids, on the final “call” we’d say, “Okay, whaddya got?”
More and more people are coming to me now wanting my guidance to enter consulting, or to revive moribund consulting practices. I can help people to grow exponentially, to become less of a “best kept secret” and more of the “go-to” person.
But first, I need to find out what you got. And there are some people who don’t got much.
No one is going to hire a consultant who obviously knows less than they do; who can’t use the language as well; who knows virtually nothing about business and whose knowledge base doesn’t extend past surfing to Wikipedia.
If you don’t have the following traits and behaviors, I’d suggest you find a different line of work:
1. Business Acumen: You need to understand how business operates. If you don’t know what a balance sheet is, or can’t define ROE, or P/E ratio, or product commercialization, maybe you’re just too lazy to read the newspapers and business periodicals. But it would be like trying to drive a car and not understanding what traffic lights do.
2. Common Sense: If a prospect says, “Lower your price by $15,000 and we have a deal,” you can’t panic or ask to use one of your lifelines. You have to have the native intelligence to respond, “What would you do if one of your customers asked you to do that? If you wouldn’t do it, why should I? If you would do it, that’s why you need me now!”
3. Self-Esteem: You have to believe that you have value that other people need and should pay for, not that you’re entering an adversarial contest where either the buyer wins (no sale) or you do (sale). If you’re asking yourself, “Why would anyone listen to me?” then the answer is, “Beats me.”
4. Discipline: The world is filled with “I’ll get to that later.” The Tools for Change:1% Solution® says that if you improve by 1% a day, in 70 days you’re twice as good. It’s astounding how few people get anything out of a day at all. Talk is cheap. Show me that you’ve actually written something, called on someone, researched an approach. Only the gifted few can wing it. And unlike definitions tossed about in the public schools, trust me, there are very few gifted few.
5. Perspective: I’m weary of people tossing their press clippings at me. So the audience gave you a 4.8, highest of the conference, so what? So someone at an airport in Topeka told you that your web site was the best she had ever seen, so what? Get into huge oceans and swim with major fish. It’s better to be excellent among top people than to be great in one person’s mind (especially your own).
You got it?
© Alan Weiss 2008. All rights reserved.
