MARX I SAS Consulting HOW TO BECOME A CONSULTANT MSSR …

MARX I SAS Consulting

HOW TO BECOME A CONSULTANT

Tom Marx MSSR Inc.

The "Should I Become a Consultant?" Quiz

1. Have you mastered your craft? 2. Do your colleagues at work come to you for help? 3. Do you like working with others? 4. Are you willing to hold your tongue if others get credit for your accomplisments? 5. Can you listen clearly? G. Can you teach? 7. Are you willing and able to endure less employment and income than you would

prefer? 8. Can you tolerate large swings in your income? 9. Would you become a consultant if you knew that your income would not in

crease? 10. Are you willing to sell your services to strangers to whom you haven't been

referred? 11. Are you willing to take on the full range of tasks that go with running a consult

ing business, including long-range planning, marketing, scheduling, account ing, bookkeeping and selling? 12. Can you still do your best work, though the task is difficult and the deadline looms 13. If you gave consulting your best shot, and it didn't work out for you, would you keep your serenity?

If your answers to most of these questions are "yes," I think you might succeed in consulting. A "yes" answer on the first question is essential.

II Decisions to Make Before You Offer Your Services

1. What services am I selling? 2. To whom am I selling? 3. What price will I put on an hour of my consulting? 4. Do I prefer to charge by the hour or by the job? 5. How will I describe my experience and training?

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Ill Selling Advice

1. Sell in person, not on the phone. Use the phone or a visit to make an appoint ment with a prospect.

2. Ask questions to find out all you can about the prospect's needs. 3. Usten to the prospect with your complete attention. 4. Have backup information about yourself or your services ready, but do not offer

this unless requested to do so. 5. Try to reach agreement about what you will do, when you will do it, how much

you will be paid, and when you will be paid. 6. Establish rapport through a shared personal interest or common acquaintances

if that seems appropriate. 7. Don't get discouraged if the prospect does not hire you. Most interviews do not

end in a deal. 8. Your best prospects are current clients. Your next best prospects are past

clients.

IV The Running Start

Before resigning your job and on your own time:

1. Try to line up consulting work with present and past employers. 2. Solicit work from people you know in other organizations. 3. Get leads on work from people in your network, and follow up these leads by

mail and phone. 4. Call consulting companies about the possibility of subcontracting with them or

working for them as an outside consultant. 5. Call companies that place contract programmers and interview with them.

V Building Your Consulting Practice

1. Take a good sales course and practice what you are taught. 2. Be alert for new consulting opportunities with current clients. 3. Stay in touch with clients for whom you're not currently working. 4. Ask people in your network for leads and referrals. 5. Follow up leads without delay. 6. Be sensitive to situations that might yield new work. 7. Contribute your energy to professional associations with which you are affili

ated. 8. Stay out of your clients' office politics. 9. Do your best work always.

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