Management Consulting Quick Start Guide

Introduction

You want to become a highly-paid, sought-after consultant in your own field.

You have a few years of experience under you belt, and you know for sure that you can help potential clients as a consultant.

But where do you start?

Getting started is always the most confusing, anxiety-producing, and daunting part! I know - I've been there...

So, here's a no-nonsense, quick-start guide that will help you:

1. Start your management consulting practice,
2. Get the consulting skills you need (this one is critical!),
3. Land your first consulting engagement,
4. Deliver exceptional consulting work,

These, by the way, are the same basic steps all top management consultants have followed at some point to get started -- no matter which industry they consult in.

So, let's get started!

Step #1: Start Your Management Consulting Practice

This step isn't necessarily the most important one at this point, but it is a step that you should complete for your own sake.

Starting your management consulting practice can be as simple as creating a legal entity (a corporation, LLC, LLP) to "house" your consultancy.

What form of entity you choose does have certain tax ramifications down the line (at least here in the U.S.), but they are far less important to your survival and success than what most people make them out to be.

A 30-minute discussion with any CPA should put you on the right path here... and that's all the time I recommend you spend in deciding what legal entity to form.

The key is to move on to Step #2 as quickly as possible... So, don't labor on this too much.

So here's what you should do:

1. Pick whichever entity type your CPA recommends (normally, what is quickest and cheapest to set up for your state/region should do fine to start),

2. Choose a name for your consulting practice,

3. File the right paperwork with your state and city/township,

4. Get a federal ID number for your business (in the U.S., that's called an "EIN"),

5. Open a bank account,

6. Get the right city/state licenses, and

7. Move on to Step #2.

Step #2: Get the Consulting Skills You Need

Let me ask you a simple question... I want you to answer with the first thing that comes to your mind... don't think about it too much.

What is the most important thing you have to offer to potential clients?

If you answered "my experience in my field", you're only partially right!

The fact is that your clients hire you not just for the work you do for them, but for the quality of your management consulting skills.

In other words, how well you consult is just as important -- if not more important -- as the work experience you bring to the table.

So if you want to succeed as a consultant, you must make sure that your consulting skills are up to par.

Consulting Skills

Your consulting skills are a critical part of what sets you apart from every other business consultant your clients hire.

These are the "soft skills" that are hard to pinpoint. For example:

• The way you initially approach the client
• How you present yourself, your management consulting practice, and your skills
• How you communicate verbally and in writing, especially in letters and emails.
• How you present your proposal for a project
• How much attention you pay to the details in your deliverables (e.g., formatting, spelling, grammar, etc.)
• How you manage your client's expectations, seek feedback, and accept criticism.

The best way to sharpen your consulting skills is to commit to spending a few hours each week to getting the right management consulting skills and training.

Step #3: Land Your First Consulting Engagement

This is where the rubber meets the road... and where you must focus most of your attention at the beginning.

Let's face it. You are not really a consultant until you find someone who is willing to pay for your consulting services!

The best way to land your first consulting engagement is to exploit your professional network. By contacting your network of friends, colleagues, and former employers, you could put the word out that you are available for consulting projects.

That's not a very difficult process...

But let's assume for a moment that you have no professional network to exploit. What then?

The easiest way to land your first consulting engagement without a professional network is to use an agency that specializes in contractor positions.

These agencies are sometimes refer to as "head hunters" or "contractor farms". Note that these are not "temp agencies", which typically specialize in finding work for lower-skilled individuals.

Although using agencies is easier, it does put you in a position where you are being "leveraged" by the agencies: they retain a (sometimes very large) percentage of your hourly rate as their fees.

But, if you have no professional network, then an agency may be your best option to get started.

I don't recommend you post your resume on internet job boards like Monster.com, Dice.com, or CareerBuilder.com.

Doing so will turn you into one-of-a-million other job seekers -- completely unremarkable.

I'll leave it to your imagination to figure out what that does to your ability to ask for a decent fee...

The Consulting Sales Process

Now assume that you have found a potential prospect, either through your professional network or through an agency.

How do you sell your consulting services to the prospect?

Well, this is not a simple question to answer. In fact, that have been many books written on the subject.

But the long and short of it is as follows:

1. Generate interest in the prospect about your management consulting services
2. Meet with the prospect to discuss your services
3. Propose a consulting engagement, and get a written agreement
4. Deliver exceptional results to your client
5. Exceed your client's expectations and sell them on your services

Note that you must implement all of these steps, in order, to sell your management consulting services with any degree of success.

Skip a step, and you may lose in the long run.

Step #4: Deliver Exceptional Work

This step is where you must roll up your sleeves and do whatever is necessary to deliver what your client is paying you for... and then give them even more.

There are at least two critical components to this:

1. The work you complete
2. How you present the results to your client

One of the major mistakes inexperienced consultants make is to ignore the second part.

But you won't make that mistake, because you're reading this right now... so let me repeat it one more time to make sure you got it:

How you present the results of your work to your client is just as important as the work you've completed.

Let's say your client hires you to do a cost-benefit analysis of making a particular investment (in a product, service, business process, etc.). And let's say you do a stellar job in conducting the analysis.

What do you think would impress your client more?

• You deliver your results as a plain spreadsheet, print-outs of web pages with the data you collected, and a one-page summary that tells your client to make (or not make) the investment.
• You deliver a wire-bound booklet with a transparent cover over a full-color cover sheet that is nicely typeset. The report itself is nicely typed and formatted, and includes graphs, projections, and comparative charts to illustrate the points you're trying to make.

OK.... so the answer is painfully obvious!

But I hope that this (admittedly silly) example drives the point home.

If you don't know how to create impressive deliverables, then you have two choices:

1. You hire someone to do the work for you (over and over again)
2. You learn how to do it yourself (so you can generate the deliverables quickly when you're pressed for time -- and you will be!)

Next Steps

Assuming you've done everything I've mentioned above, and you have delivered exceptional consulting work to your clients, the next step should be easy:

Ask for and explore follow-on consulting engagement possibilities with your client.

You client already knows and trusts you... He/she already likes your consulting work. All they need is a reason to hire you again for another consulting project.

So go ahead... Repeat the consulting sales process I've outlined above! And when you're done, rinse and repeat!!

Congratulations... you're on your way to becoming a successful management consultant!