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Casual Articles - Eight Skills of Highly Successful Consultants
All businesses need feedback from their customers, potential future clients, employees and vendors. But how do you go about getting this feedback or soliciting these questions to insure you get the input you need to run an on-going successful business? Recently I noticed a non-profit group soliciting ideas and questions. And their headline was; Donate Your Question.Well in considering this I remembered a few years back the company I built and how many times people would not comment; good, bad or otherwise. Well some would say that; No News is Good News right?Yet as an entrepreneur I knew I had to get into the minds of the customer to better my products and services. I also knew that I needed to be one with my vendors and their knowledge was paramount to streamlining my operation and being able to
Designing “It”
This is our technical expertise. This is the “stuff” we learn in classes and through experie
What's the problem with customer service? Everywhere you look, customer-facing employees are surly and undertrained. It's not even their fault, half the time: they're underpaid and unsupervised, more often than not.And companies vow to change the situation, and commit themselves to service. They spend millions on ad campaigns to convince customers to give them another chance. And they miss, regrettably often, a basic piece of the puzzle that would make a difference for their customer support staff AND for their customers.The magic bullet is this: managers need to teach customer service people that saying I'm Sorry isn't the same as saying any of these things:1) I made a mistake. 2) Our company is responsible. 3) You're getting your money back. 4) I am incompetent, or even 5) You are right.Sure, it would be nice if the cust
One way to look at your total skill set as a consultant (internal or external), is to consider your relative strengths in the three major portions of our work: designing “it”, delivering “it”, and selling “it”. These three skills represent the complete package for a consultant, regardless of what your expertise (your “it”) is.
The Complete Package:
Designing “It”
This is our technical expertise. This is the “stuff” we learn in classes and through experie
Identifying prospects has come a long way since the days of simple list buying. With the hype flying fast and furious, sometimes it’s difficult to sort out truth from fiction and to put things in the proper perspective. Without worshipping buzzwords, however, two of the most important developments in recent years have been the rise of statistics and databases. These have allowed companies to create more accurate profiles of their prospects, even giving rise to the term “prospect modeling” itself. Let’s see how these two developments have helped shape prospect modeling.TypesWith the creation of commercial databases of Census data in the late 1970’s, the first easily-available customer demographics were born. Using these statistics allowed companies a high-level view of customers and their behavior. Coupling this with statistical analysees of that data, upd
One way to look at your total skill set as a consultant (internal or external), is to consider your relative strengths in the three major portions of our work: designing “it”, delivering “it”, and selling “it”. These three skills represent the complete package for a consultant, regardless of what your expertise (your “it”) is.
The Complete Package:
Designing “It”
This is our technical expertise. This is the “stuff” we learn in classes and through experie
There are a number of descriptions of the administrative function but quite often it is the oil that keeps a business ticking over efficiently. Without a workable administrative system amazing things can happen in a business.Recently I heard of a new accountant rummaging around in his new role to discover a shoe box of pre Euro European currency notes totaling ?300 in value but no longer legal tender. Another story was about the directors’ 288 returns (8 of them) sitting neatly in a file – but not sent into Companies House over the past two years.Some of the usual problems have to do with lost papers, lost vat returns, Inland Revenue dates missed and general muddle. What is worse is to discover that work has not been invoiced or records about jobs are lost or inaccurate.There is many an MD who is well aware that administration is not his strong point
One way to look at your total skill set as a consultant (internal or external), is to consider your relative strengths in the three major portions of our work: designing “it”, delivering “it”, and selling “it”. These three skills represent the complete package for a consultant, regardless of what your expertise (your “it”) is.
The Complete Package:
Designing “It”
This is our technical expertise. This is the “stuff” we learn in classes and through experie
“Silent Career Killers” are the things that nobody comes right out and tells you about in professional circles. If you know about them, you can keep from making serious mistakes in your career. But if you don’t address them, they will absolutely prevent you from advancing.If you use these insider tips to your advantage every single day, you will join the top 10% of professionals in America. The top 10% make all the money and they never have to worry about job security. So can you. Read on…Career Killer #1: ExecutionAt the end of the day, it’s all about getting the job done. Our professional network of employers and recruiters tell us that most candidates and employees look like they’ve been aimlessly floating around corporate America and through life. Are you one of those people? Be honest with yourself.Become very focused on r
The Complete Package:
Designing “It”
This is our technical expertise. This is the “stuff” we learn in classes and through experie
When you look at entrepreneurialism purely from the standpoint of statistics it’s easy to come to the conclusion that becoming an entrepreneur may not be for you.For instance the Small Business Administration reports, “The lack of business experience and expertise is the cause of 95% of business failures.”So if you lack experience does that automatically disqualify you from pursuing a dream of owning your own business? Rick Lobosco is quoted as saying; “Your chance of lasting in business for two years is less than 50%.”It would seem the only way to pursue business ownership is to be born in a family that has already established themselves as entrepreneurs. Bernard F. Lentz and David N. Laband write, “Roughly 50 percent of self-employed proprietors are second-generation proprietors. These individuals acquire informal business experience while growing
Designing “It”
This is our technical expertise. This is the “stuff” we learn in classes and through experience and practice. It is the front end of our work in most cases. While we cannot underestimate the importance of these skills (and the need to continue to upgrade them), we also can’t be content if these skills are top-notch. They are not enough.
Delivering “It”
This is the other mega-skill that many of us are very comfortable with. Once we’ve designed our “product”, we have to be able to deliver it. This is the skill set that is often most evident to our clients, or is what we tell people we do when they ask us our profession. Again, this skill set is critical, but alone it isn’t enough.
Selling “It”
This skill, in my experience, i
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