#11: Self-Awareness

When establishing the overall framework for a successful sole practitioner consultancy, we cited three key success factors for people to consider when setting up as a consultant, namely Self-Awareness, Clarity of Purpose, and Price Integrity. Today we will consider the first of these in greater detail.

There are some very strong links between understanding yourself better, setting personal goals, and creating your personal brand. Only then can you come up with a coherent and consistent social media and networking strategy. In addition, if you can heighten your appreciation of your own self-awareness, you are in a better position to heighten your awareness of others, thereby relating better to them as a consultant.

I have been using PRISM for some years now, and I have found it to be a very simple and pragmatic way of improving business performance.

So what is PRISM and PRISM Brain Mapping?  It is a unique way of identifying people’s behaviour preferences based on brain activity. Unlike traditional psychometric instruments, PRISM approaches human behaviour from the perspective of neuroscience, rather than psychological theory. This exciting online tool takes advantage of some of the most up-to-date neuroscience discoveries to provide users with a series of ‘maps’, which are representations of how their brain prefers to work.

PRISM’s reports

• Show not only people’s natural or instinctive behaviour preference, but also the extent and the way in which they modify or adapt their preference on occasions to respond to what you see as the demands of specific situations e.g. their job.
• The reports also indicate where individuals may be overdoing or not making full use of their preferences. This insight also helps them to understand more about their true potential, as well as what may be hindering them from achieving even higher performance.
• The remarkable complexity of the brain has shown that human beings cannot credibly be divided up into a fixed number of types or groups of people who are unable to act outside of their preferences. PRISM does not, therefore, label people or fit them into ‘boxes’, nor does it have ‘scores’, or right or wrong answers. Instead, it provides users with a powerful, graphic explanation for why they approach situations and individuals in different ways.

The brain is the source of all human behaviour. It stores our memories, enables us to feel emotions, gives us our personalities and produces the behaviours that enable us to survive and achieve success – in short; it makes us who we are.

Although genes set boundaries for human behaviour, within these boundaries there is immense room for individual variation. Now, thanks to great advances in brain imaging technology, scientists can watch the brain at work and in great detail and are uncovering many of its secrets.

For all of us, that discovery is really good news. The adult brain can and does, adapt, develop and change even into old age. This means that education, learning and development take on a whole new level of importance. Neuroscience has also shown us that people tend to be most motivated and successful when they use, and are rewarded for using, their own natural, preferred behaviour.

This highlights the importance of matching people with the right jobs – doing those things they enjoy and do best. In simple terms, the better the fit between the person and the job, the better the performance. The best recruitment results from paying attention to three factors:

• What the person likes to do most
• What the person does best
• What adds greatest value to the organisation

I have used it for a range of activities with my clients:

• Recruitment
• 360 degree reviews
• Leadership development
• Building high performance teams
• Practising adaptive selling techniques

One of the great benefits is helping people improve their self-awareness, which in turn helps them relate better to others, both within their businesses and outside.

If you would like to know more, take a look at the website or drop me a line. I love talking about PRISM!

#10: The trusted advisor

We have recently looked at two potential business models you can adopt, namely Subject Matter Expert and Change Agent. The third option, which may be somewhat aspirational, is Trusted Advisor.

My good friend Cliff Ferguson of Rainmakers first brought this whole concept to my attention, when he showcased the thoughts of James A. Alexander on this topic in one of his newsletters. So, in brief, what were the key points?

Firstly, that trusted advisors are more valued than technical experts; their technical expertise is taken as a given. A trusted advisor can build deeper client relationships, provide more complete solutions, and accelerate business development.

Secondly, you can recognise them via a number of characteristics:

• Clients ask for them by name
• They are sought out for advice that goes beyond their described expertise
• They maintain relationships that go beyond the technical experts
• Importantly for today’s world, they have a well developed personal brand

Finally, in addition to their technical excellence – as we already covered, this is taken as a “given” – they are first-rate communicators, who are good at seizing the initiative. They always put their client first, and in their dealings display both confidence and courage. Their business acumen, and their ability to see the big picture, are also strong.

If this is a role to which you seriously aspire, then do not despair if you consider that you fall short of the “Trusted Advisor” standard today. These behaviours, and associated skills, can be worked on and developed over time, so a commitment to personal development makes achieving Trusted Advisor status a real possibility.

#9: The change agent

Last month we looked at the first of the potential business models you can adopt, namely Subject Matter Expert.

This month we will look at the second one – Change Agent.

Organisations are usually well served with people who can “run” operations, often using established processes and procedures. However, they are not necessarily blessed with people who can bring about effective change, if that is what is required to take the organisation forward. This is where the Change Agent comes in.

Quite often, he or she is operating in a “nether world” between consultancy and contractor, as it is necessary to come up with a plan and then make it happen.

There are 5 main aspects to the role encountered by the Change Agent:

• Helping management to identify the required action – what is the business, where does it need to be, and what needs to happen to bring about the change and create a successful outcome.

• Helping to create a coherent change plan that will lead to the successful outcome.

• Taking a lead role in the management of implementation risk – i.e. how do we deal with all the issues which could be roadblocks, to be encountered and surmounted on the way.

• Helping with stakeholder management – the number and variety of stakeholders (with varying agendas) will need to be assessed, anticipated and handled.

• Finally, and most importantly, transferring knowledge in the process – can the change project be managed in a way that you can leave some form of “legacy” with the client, as to how they could do something similar themselves next time based on what they had learned by doing? This could be a valuable differentiator when you are pitching for a change project.

Next time we will look at the role of the Trusted Advisor. For a more detailed analysis of the Change Agent, please refer to From Crew to Captain.  

#8: The subject matter expert

We have now looked at the three Key Challenges – Credibility, Behaviours and Attributes and Lead Generation. We can now move on to look at the first of the potential business models you can adopt, namely Subject Matter Expert.

There is an understandable suspicion and mistrust of the “Jack of all trades”. One way of countering this is coming up with a single product or service, which can be flexibly applied and cleverly promoted. This in itself can permit a range of approaches:

• Do you want to establish yourself as an “industry guru” who can help a particular sector? I know consultants who have focused their efforts on lawyers, accountants, retail, IT, insurance and so on.
• Do you want to be perceived as an expert practitioner in a single discipline? Again, I know consultants who have focused on business development/sales, branding-building, purchasing, finance etc.
• Or do you want to combine the two e.g. help accountants with business development?

All three of these approaches can be successful. The advantage of creating a “niche” market is that whilst smaller, you can usually command higher fees. If you opt for a more generalist approach, you naturally have a much bigger market to exploit, but will probably have to settle for lower fees.

I will leave you with three ideas to reflect on, based on what I have observed over the last ten years or so:

1. You need to make it easy for your prospects to “get it” – how clearly articulated is your message?, as any confusion in the mind of the prospect increases the risk of no sale. I heard a great quote at a leadership workshop – “if there’s mist in the pulpit there’s fog in the pews” (Thank you Mark Fritz)

2. To what extent are your skills portable across industries/sectors? That might determine which approach you take.

3. Will you be 100% advisory (i.e. pure consultant), 100% operational, or a hybrid of the two?

Next time we will look at the role of the Change Agent.

#7: Generating business leads

Last time we looked at the second key challenge – Behaviours and Attributes. This time we will look at the third one – Lead Generation.

It is very important that you can identify and then work to develop the ingredients necessary to generate the number of leads you will need to achieve your financial targets.

The first of the key ingredients relates to your Sales Process. Do you have a process that quite simply will turn strangers into cash in the bank? You will need to be able to qualify in the business you want and qualify out the business you do not want. Otherwise you run the risk that you expend too much time and energy on potential timewasters and potential bad debts.

One additional benefit is that the qualification process should remove all the reasons for not doing the deal, and so asking for the business is a less scary prospect. We will return to consider this in more detail in a later article.

The second ingredient is Routes to Market. How many do you have? You will certainly have more than one. They could include:

• Direct – i.e. you make the contact yourself
• Indirect – someone refers the business to you (probably in the hope that he or she would then feel motivated to return the favour)
• Introducer – someone refers the business to you and you pay them some form of finder’s or introducer’s fee
• Partner – you team up with someone else so that together you can win business neither of you could win on your own.
• Networking – you build relationships either at formal networking events or trade fairs/seminars/conferences where you have an opportunity to network

The third ingredient is Networking itself. How much do you do? Is it the right events and with the right people? Can you create your own network rather than relying on those created by others? Again, we will revisit this in a subsequent article.

So, give some thought to where your leads are going to come from, as you may need more than you think to hit an acceptable conversion ratio from lead to client.

#6: Behaviours and attributes

We have looked in earlier articles at an overall framework for building a successful sole practitioner consultancy practice, which included 3 key aspects of the consultancy role, the first of which was Key Challenges. Last time, we looked at the first challenge – Credibility. This time we will look at Behaviours and Attributes.

I am indebted to Alan Weiss, who explores this topic in some depth in his excellent Book “Getting Started in Consulting”.

He highlights a number of crucial attributes:

• Humour – can you use it to retain perspective and objectivity?
• Influence – can you command a room and persuade individuals?
• Confidence – can you be seen as a credible peer, as opposed to a vendor?
• Fearlessness – can you stand your ground and turn work down?
• Rapid Framing – can you summarise key issues very quickly so the prospect knows that you have listened well and understand his/her problem?
• Value Generation – can you add value very quickly so that the prospect can appreciate your potential?
• Intellect – powerful people love powerful people, so can you come over as powerful?
• Active Listening – can you live out the doctrine of “two ears, one mouth, use in that proportion”?
• Instantiation – can you work at the prospect’s “ground level”, rather than hovering at 35,000 feet?
• Responsiveness – how fast can you respond to prospect, even if just with an acknowledgement; can you make them feel special?

If you can apply most, if not all, of these attributes, then you can put the odds in your favour that the prospect sees your value and can appreciate the potential benefit of an association with you. If you would like to talk about the qualities, please contact me.

#5: Credibility

At David Mellor Mentoring we have looked in earlier articles at an overall framework for building a successful sole practitioner consultancy practice. We will now begin to look at the different component parts of the framework in a little more detail.

We began by looking at the 3 constituent elements of the framework:

• The Consultant Role
• Selling Consultancy Services
• Delivering Consultancy Services

We then considered the 3 key aspects of the consultancy role:

• Key Challenges
• Business Models
• Success Factors

Drilling down to the next level 3 Key Challenges were identified:

• Credibility
• Behaviour
• Lead Generation

In this article we will consider the first of these – Credibility.

First comes Sector Knowledge – can you establish your credibility around your knowledge of an industry sector, be it in the public, private or third sector e.g. health, education, biotech, insurance?

Second there is Product or Service Knowledge – do you have specialist knowledge around a product, service, topic, process?

Third aspect is Publishing – have you had any research, articles or books published?

Fourthly there is Commentating – are you asked to comment on issues or situations, or do you choose to by way of social media output and interaction?

Finally there is Presenting – are you invited to speak at networking events, trade fairs, seminars and so on? Or perhaps you are invited to sit on panels.

So, how do you score overall, and are there areas here where you could increase your involvement and thereby enhance your “expert” status?

Next time we will look at behaviours. In the meantime work on your credibility! Quite a lot to think about, but do feel free to contact me if you would like to know more.

#4: Part Four: Delivering consultancy services

In the previous article I outlined the second of the 3 constituent components of the consultancy framework, namely Selling Consultancy Services. This time I will do the same for the third constituent component, namely Delivering Consultancy Services.

In terms of Delivering Consultancy Services, you will recall that you would firstly concentrate on retaining high value clients; you would then move on to consider the importance of personal branding; and finally you would review some of the main “do’s and don’ts” of the consultancy game.

Retaining high value clients is the easiest way to create a stable, predictable baseline cash flow.

• Your first issue would be ensuring that you follow a delivery process that creates happy clients; this in turn would increase the likelihood that they come back for more, and refer other potential clients to you.
• The second issue is building trusted relationships; in many ways you are selling trust, which when allied to your relationship-building skills becomes a very powerful tool.
• The third issue is having an appropriate bag of tools – toolkits, frameworks, methodologies that enable you to continue to demonstrate that you are adding value (clients have a habit of forgetting the difference you have made).

The advent of social media has made it very important that you work on your personal branding. The coherence of your image, wherever you are encountered in the real or virtual world, is critical to your success.  And this needs to be reflected in your approach to sales (and the attributes of a good salesperson) and to networking (which is about building relationships and promoting your business, not selling!).

Finally, in terms off “do’s and don’ts”, it is helpful to keep in mind some of the practical tips and hints that will be value builders in your business as opposed to value destroyers. Spend some time identifying the top habits of people you consider to be successful consultants. Also keep an eye out for strategies that clearly look disastrous. And finally retain a hunger for collecting time management tips, which will help you work smarter not harder.

As we continue to build our consultancy framework we will expand on all of these initiatives. For more information or answers to any questions you may have on this, feel free to contact me.

#3: Part Three: Building your business as an independent consultant

In the previous article I outlined the first of the 3 constituent components of the framework, namely The Consultant Role. This time I will do the same for the second constituent component, namely Selling Consultancy Services.

In terms of Selling Consultancy Services, you will recall that you would firstly reflect on your routes to market; you would then move on to consider the sales process which you would adopt; and finally you would look at tendering for competitive bids.

You almost certainly have more than one route to market. I suspect there are 6 main ones. You will have “route 1” or the direct route, i.e. you selling direct to the prospect. You will also have an indirect route which is reciprocal i.e. you find potential work for others, and they will be more motivated to look out for potential work for you. You may find “sales agents” who would be prepared to identify work for you, but who would expect some form of payment i.e they might only do this on a retainer and/or success fee basis. There might be other consultants with whom you could collaborate to win work you could not win individually; you could enter into formal strategic alliances or joint ventures; and finally there are networks you can join to build you relationships and promote your business.

If we move on to consider the sales process, we would start with sales qualification – how are you going to turn complete strangers in to cash in the bank, weeding out potential timewasters and bad debts along the way. We would also look at sales pipeline – how will you manage the various targets and prospects who are at different stages of evolution in terms of whether they are going to hire you or not. And then we would look at the sales meeting – how you would handle the conversation and ask for the business without feeling awkward about it.

The third aspect of sales is tendering and competitive bids. This has greater relevance if you are pitching for large contracts and/or pitching as part of a consortium alongside other consultants. We would start by looking at what is often called the “Path to Assent” – how you play to the mindset of the economic buyer i.e understanding the prospect and his/her world. We would then look at writing a bid, and make sure that due attention is paid to bid process requirements and criteria. The third aspect would be considering the presentation of the bid – how to make best use of the limited time available to reinforce the key aspects of the bid.

These three aspects of sales will be developed in future articles.

#2: Part Two: The consultant role

The consultant role is one of the three constituent components of the building your consultancy business framework.

In terms of the consultant role, you should firstly reflect on the key challenges which you would face as a Consultant; you would then move on to consider the different consultancy models which you could follow (e.g. subject matter expert, sector expert, change agent…), and decide which is the best one for you; and finally you would look at the key success factors which would determine whether you were going to prosper or merely survive.

Key Startup Challenges

The key challenges revolve around you going into consultancy with your eyes wide open, so that you really appreciate what you are getting yourself into.

– One set of challenges revolve around credibility; what is it about you and what you know that would induce someone else to hire you? Remember, you want people to see you as an investment, and not a cost, so how do you position yourself to achieve this.

– Then there are behaviours and attributes; what are the aspects of your behaviour which will help you to be accepted as a source of valuable input.

– And finally there is lead generation – do you have a process to turn strangers into customers.

Consultancy Models

The different consultancy models again fall in to three basic categories.

1. Firstly there is subject matter expert, which helps to address the suspicion of the “Jack of all Trades”. Furthermore, a single product or service cleverly promoted and flexibly applied is likely to command higher fees.
2. Secondly there is change agent, where the consultant has the ability to facilitate either macro or micro change.
3. Thirdly there is trusted adviser, where the consultant has built sufficient rapport with the client that he becomes the client’s “go-to” person on all manner of matters. One of the fundamental questions you need to address is whether you see your role as 100% advisory, 100% operational, or a mix of the two.

Key Success Factors for Consultancies

The third component is key success factors – what are some of the main areas that you are going to have to focus on if you are going to be successful.

One of the areas is self-awareness. How well do you understand yourself? How well do you understand others? Can you adapt your behaviour in order to relate better to others?

Another area is clarity of purpose. Are you crystal clear in all your internal planning and all your interaction with the marketplace? What exactly is it that you are offering and is it a compelling proposition?

A third area would be price integrity. Are you genuinely creating the perception that investing in you is a worthwhile decision for the prospect? As a result are you commanding the fees that you deserve? Or, operating as a “registered charity”?

We will consider each of these components in future articles.