“…

• It’s designed specifically to improve performance
• It can be repeated a lot
• Feedback on results is continuously available
• It’s highly demanding mentally
• It isn’t much fun

…”

This simple yet demanding pattern can be successfully applied to consulting. Here is how.

Improve performance

As a consultant you are constantly measured for performance, mainly for two key metrics: customer satisfaction and revenue. To achieve outstanding results you should focus improving performance for these two metrics. Consider the following.

To improve customer satisfaction:

• Figure out who the key stakeholders are. You are evaluated for satisfaction directly by those folks. Understand what they value the most and design your execution around their values.
• Figure out who the real customer is. Your service end result is probably not targeted to key stakeholders but to end users. Understand what they value, although they won’t directly evaluate you on satisfaction but they have a voice with the key stakeholders and they may have significantly influence.
• Nail key scenarios for these two audiences and give it the highest priorities.

To improve revenue:

• Reduce you bench time. Manage your backlog and the pipeline – make sure you always have something in the pipe, otherwise work with your sales and marketing to make sure you have gigs lined up for you. This especially helpful if you are in hourly rate gigs.
• Move to fixed fee. Fixed fee gigs are the riskiest but most rewarding. Focus on specific niches and become an expert, or better off create your own niche and be the first one in it. Make sure the niche is about customer’s pains/pleasures otherwise no one would buy your services.

Repeatability and feedback loop

Here is the summary of the recommendations from the previous paragraph:

• Figure out who the key stakeholders are.
• Figure out who’s the real customer.
• Reduce you bench time.
• Move to fixed fee.

The first two should be repeated in the beginning of each gig. Use it as a checkpoint. If you have not identified key folks in the beginning then you won’t know how to achieve results, let alone outstanding results. The other two are great during execution and between the gigs. Test yourself repeatedly for shortening your bench time and how many fixed fee gigs your delivered vs. hourly rate ones. It’s easy to repeat and measure. It’s way harder to implement though. That’s why it’s mentally demanding.

Demanding mentally, no fun

So you are consultant and you are called onsite to solve customer’s problem – make something broken work or make it work better. Effectively you are in charge of improving customer’s performance. But to make it so you must repeatedly gauge your own performance. So you need to have controls to monitor and measure both. The question is How? How to do it the way so it’s simple, less time consuming, effective, and not mentally demanding? There is no simple straightforward answer which only proves this whole thing is mentally demanding, but here are few resources that can help. And if you deliberately practice improving each and everyone of them, or at least those that hurt your performance the most, chances you will get results that will turn your customers into raving fans. It’s no fun but it’s rewarding and it works.

Related

• Consultant Solves Problems Fast
• Making Money As Consultant

image by SaudaminiN

Goals

Consultant’s goals:

• Utilization
• Customer Satisfaction
• Growth

Read more about consultant’s goals and how to set them in Consultant’s Goals, Risks, and Constraints – Part I.

Constraints

Consultant’s constraints:

• Manager
• Time
• Pipeline/Backlog
• Influence
• Knowledge

Read more about consultant’s constraints and how to maximize them in Consultant’s Goals, Risks, and Constraints – Part II.

Risks

• Knowledge lag
• Burn out
• Failure to grow network
• Sitting on the bench
• Missing utilization goal
• Loss of trust
• Project failure
• Unsatisfying job

Read more about consultant’s risks and how to mitigate them in Consultant’s Goals, Risks, and Constraints – Part III.

Resources

• Consulting Skills
• Books by category

image by Xurble