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To Serve Clients: It’s NOT a Cookbook!

By on December 14, 2011 | Category: Link

Allison Shields has a great post up at Lawyerist about client service. While directed at attorneys, the same advice applies to consultants and other professional service providers, in my opinion.

Client service means adequately addressing the needs of your clients. Or as Alan Weiss puts it, “improving your clients’ situation.”

In my experience, many lawyers confuse ‘serving clients’ with billing hours on client files. Just because you are working on a client’s file and billing hours does not necessarily mean that you are providing high quality client service or satisfying your clients.

…

What clients do see and understand is client service. Most of the time, that has nothing to do with your legal education or your technical legal skill. The only thing that matters is the client’s experience with your firm. Service is about how you make the client feel. Do your clients get the impression that you care about them and you take care of them?

via lawyerist.com (Thanks to construction lawyer, Christopher G. Hill for sharing this)


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The Job of a Consultant is to Produce Content of Value

By on December 2, 2011 | Category: Article

Note: This was originally published on 14 June 2011.

What the Experts Say

  • According to The Consulting Bible (Alan Weiss), the work of a consultant is marketing.
  • Scott Stratten says to throw out everything we’ve come to associate with marketing in his book, Unmarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging.
  • C.C. Chapman and Ann Handley’s book, Content Rules, illustrates that the most effective way to engage clients and prospects is through creating consistent content of value.

My Take

Consultants can effectively market their business by demonstrating their expertise through a constant effort to produce quality content. 140 characters in a tweet isn’t going to connect you with a large contract, most likely. Being accessible in a variety of contexts to the preferences of your audience (clients, prospects, peers, competitors), fosters the trust building process. Consultants are experts in their fields, and social media (blogging, participating in various social networks, etc.) lowers the possible barriers of entry to that expertise.

Therefore, produce content about the subjects that interest you. Do so with the intent of engaging others by demonstrating value. Don’t tell people how smart you are, show them. Consistently.


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To Bill, Or Not To Bill (by the hour): That is the Question.

By on May 31, 2011 | Category: Article

Alternate Title: If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!

Last week, I published a post about Alan Weiss’ new book, The Consulting Bible (link goes to that post). The reaction I got, wasn’t necessarily what I anticipated.

I took some poetic license in that post. See, I’ve worked with quite a few consultants, particularly in the areas of construction, law, and technology. I have many friends (and even family) that work as consultants. I have a personal interest in seeing those people succeed. Most consultants that I’ve known struggle, however, at least financially. Reading Alan Weiss’ books has offered an insight into the business of consulting for me. A lot of what Weiss advocates directly conflicts with the standards of practice that many consultants I know operate under. There is a reason that Weiss refers to himself as the “contrarian consultant.”

I’d like to stage an intervention for some of the consultants I know. The Consulting Bible would be the basis for that intervention. But not everyone responds well to the idea that the way they’ve been doing things is wrong. I know – I’ve offended a LOT of people for speaking my mind and offering suggestions for improvement. For that reason, I decided to take a more indirect approach in writing about the new book that Mr. Weiss wrote.

So let’s just clear some things up. When it comes to hourly-based fees vs. value-based fees, here is exactly what I wrote:

The person billing by the hour gets paid more, the longer they take. What motivation is there to improve processes, increase efficiency, save the client time, if you’re charging by the hour? The irony here is that many consultants are hired precisely to improve processes, increase efficiency and save time – yet to do so in their own business would reduce billable hours.

Fees based on value mean that your income as a consultant isn’t tied to the number of hours you work, or by the rates you charge per unit of time. The more value you provide, through improving your clients’ situations, the more you command for your fees. This means you can take vacations and spend time the way you choose, rather than viewing non-working time as lost revenue, as so many consultants and small business owners do.

I’m sorry if you disagree with that statement. Most of the people I work with bill by the hour. I think that from a business perspective, it makes better sense for a consultant to bill based on results, value, or some other tangible factor that is directly related to the benefit to the client. In other words, charging for your time puts the focus on you (and your time). Charging based on value or results puts the focus on the client, and the ultimate outcome for them. Which do you think your client would prefer?

So there you have it. If your consulting practice provides real value to your clients (i.e., proven track record of successful outcomes), focus on that. If you are looking to become “the low price leader” in your niche, go for it. But in my opinion, that is just a race to the bottom.


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Whatever You Do, Don’t Buy The Consulting Bible By Alan Weiss [Updated]

By on May 27, 2011 | Category: Article

Update: See this post – To Bill, Or Not To Bill (by the hour): That is the Question. And in case there are any further questions, see my review for the book on Amazon.

Whatever you do, don’t buy The Consulting Bible by Alan Weiss. I’m not kidding. You are probably not going to like it. In fact, you might even find it offensive.

The new book by Mr. Million Dollar Consultant, Alan Weiss, is called The Consulting Bible: Everything You Need to Know to Create and Expand a Seven-Figure Consulting Practice. The title sounds promising. What consulting firm wouldn’t want to know how to expand a seven-figure practice? What corporate refugee wouldn’t want to rocket to consulting superstar success just by reading a book?

Here is why you’re probably not going to want to read this book: Weiss single-handedly debunks nearly every sacred cow that so many “consultants” hold dear.

Example 1: The Role of a Consultant

According to Wikipedia, a “consultant is a professional who provides professional or expert advice in a particular area…”

Here is Weiss’ comment on page 3 of the new book:

The role of a consultant is to improve the client’s condition.

Notice the difference? It is easy to miss. The general consensus regarding what a consultant does is to provide advice. That isn’t qualified in any way, such as to provide good advice. Nope, it just says advice. Alan Weiss gets right to the heart of it: improving the client’s condition. Is the client better off after using you?

Example 2: IT Consultants

Weiss indicates that a good number of people in the U.S. that identify themselves as consultants, are Information Technology (IT) consultants. What do most IT consultants do?

Most IT resources are simply doing – writing code, fixing bugs, testing new relationships. They are not bringing their own intellectual capital or serving as partners and advisors to the chief information officer or chief technology officer (who should be their buyers).

According to the author, most so-called IT consultants are in fact, “just paid help without the benefits.” Which leads into another topic many people will find offensive…

Example 3: Consultants vs. Contractors

Using the aforementioned definition of a consultant as one who improves the client’s condition, how does Weiss define all those other people that refer to themselves as consultants? As contractors or subcontractors.

A contractor is, in fact, a temporary employee, and is almost always paid by the time unit, usually hourly… They bring no unique intellectual capital in most cases, nor is that what the buyer is paying for.

In other words, “we’re not paying you to think.” Most people I know that serve as construction consultants fall into this realm. They are hired to perform a specific task, at the discretion of the client, and usually based on an hourly rate. They are not practicing the type of interventions/engagements that Weiss has written so many books on. In most situations, the client isn’t asking for a consultant to provide a solution to a problem. They are looking for someone to perform an activity, regardless of whether it is the right solution. If the predetermined solution isn’t effective, does it mean the consultant failed, or the client failed, or both?

Example 4: Damning the Blessed Billable Hour

If anything above hasn’t gotten your blood boiling, perhaps the following will. Why should you just avoid this book altogether? Alan Weiss hates billable hours.

There you go. Nearly every consulting firm I know of lives and dies by billable units of time. Without billing by some arbitrary unit of time, how does Mr. Weiss propose that consultants receive compensation?

Value.

You will never be successful in this business charging by a time unit. And that is because it is unfair to the client and inequitable for you.

Fees are based on value.

Why are billable hours “unfair to the client?” The person billing by the hour gets paid more, the longer they take. What motivation is there to improve processes, increase efficiency, save the client time, if you’re charging by the hour? The irony here is that many consultants are hired precisely to improve processes, increase efficiency and save time – yet to do so in their own business would reduce billable hours.

Fees based on value mean that your income as a consultant isn’t tied to the number of hours you work, or by the rates you charge per unit of time. The more value you provide, through improving your clients’ situations, the more you command for your fees. This means you can take vacations and spend time the way you choose, rather than viewing non-working time as lost revenue, as so many consultants and small business owners do.

So how does one charge fees based on value, instead of based on units of time? Read the book. But as I’ve warned, you are probably not going to like this book. It may not be for you.

I’ve just begun to scratch the surface here and I’m not nearly as eloquent as Weiss. Oh, there’s another thing you should know before deciding to purchase this book: the “secret” to growing a seven-figure consulting practice doesn’t involve hiring more (or any) employees.

If you do want to purchase the book, here is a link to Amazon where you can get either the paperback version or the Kindle version (which I purchased):


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Alan Weiss on Selling Professional Services

By on May 25, 2011 | Category: Link

Alan Weiss, author of numerous books regarding consulting, points out that many times, providers of professional services approach selling in an adversarial manner. It is almost as if there is a battle taking place: the provider “wins” if the buyer agrees to purchase services, therefore becoming the “loser.” Who wants to do business that way?

The marketing and sales processes are collegial. They are intended, in their correct form, for both parties to “win.” You receive tremendous value, and I receive equitable compensation. Easy as that.

But your mindset must be: “I have tremendous value to provide, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t attempt to provide it for all appropriate parties,” and not, “I need to make my quota, and I know I’m imposing on this person in an attempt to take their money.”


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