The Irresistible Consultant's Guide to Winning Clients

The Irresistible Consultant's Guide to Winning Clients PDF

Author: David A. Fields

Publisher: Morgan James Publishing

Published: 2017-03-21

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1683501659

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This deeply insightful guide to understanding what clients really want is “an indispensable resource for consultants” (Keith Ferrazzi, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Never Eat Alone). Independent consulting is a potentially lucrative enterprise—but the reality seldom matches the dream. Most solo consultants and boutique consulting firms are perpetually within six months of bankruptcy due to the sputtering unreliability of their new business engines. The problem, according to international consulting expert David A. Fields, is twofold: 1) lack of a consistent, proven plan, and 2) fundamental misunderstanding about what clients want in a consultant. Fields, who has helped hundreds of consultants and boutique firms worldwide build profitable, sustainable practices, replaces the typical consultant’s mindset of emphasizing expertise and differentiated processes with a focus on building relationships, engendering trust, and solving clients’ existing problems. In The Irresistible Consultant’s Guide to Winning Clients, Fields synthesizes his decades of experience into a step-by-step approach to winning more projects from more clients at higher fees. From nuts-and-bolts business advice and tactics to a deeply insightful breakdown of the human side of a very human profession, Fields, named one of Advertising Age magazine’s “Marketing Top 100,” delivers a comprehensive guidebook that is at once highly approachable and satisfyingly detailed. “If I could have just one book on client strategy, this book would be it.” —Marshall Goldsmith, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Triggers

The Executive’s Guide to Consultants: How to Find, Hire and Get Great Results from Outside Experts

The Executive’s Guide to Consultants: How to Find, Hire and Get Great Results from Outside Experts PDF

Author: David Fields

Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional

Published: 2012-11-23

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 0071801936

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Maximize Your Return on Expertise Research shows a high proportion of consultants fail to deliver results on time, on budget, and on target. Rare is the project that exceeds your expectations. But help is here. The Executive's Guide to Consultants explains how to ensure that every project delivers measurable benefits every time. This book will help you find experts, invest wisely, accelerate change, and achieve your most important goals by tapping into the genius of others. The Executive's Guide to Consultants contains breakthrough ideas covered by no other book, including: Sophisticated new contract structures that maximize your ROI Essential methods for reducing project risk Cutting-edge techniques for making change stick after the consultant leaves You will also learn to: Spot "chameleons" and other low-quality consultants who peddle tired ideas and deliver disappointing outcomes Get better results faster, while lowering fees Find the ideal consultant, coach, agency, or advisor for your precise situation Enforce accountability with outside experts and your own internal team Imagine if you could collect the wisdom of dozens of the country's top CEOs, combine it with the experience of a hall-of-fame consultant, and add a bucketful of unconventional thinking. You'd have The Executive's Guide to Consultants. Easy to read and packed with examples, checklists, templates, and guidelines, this book is the ultimate toolkit for maximizing your ROI from outside experts. Get extraordinary results from every consultant you hire "An extraordinary book. Clear, comprehensive, and eminently readable, it is THE book on how you can extract true business value from outside experts." -- Scott Cotherman, Chairman, TBWA\WorldHealth, subsidiary of Omnicom Group, Inc. "This is the Master Class for those who are smart, innovative, ahead of the pack, and who intend to stay that way. If you're not yet in that league, you should read this book twice." -- Alan Weiss, author, Million Dollar Consulting and The Consulting Bible "A terrific guidebook, with much of the advice equally applicable in managing your organization's internal talent. It's an easy, engaging read with a wealth of insights and detailed action steps--I highly recommend it." -- Brian Walker, President and CEO, Herman Miller, Inc. "A powerful antidote to the strained relationship between consultants and clients." -- Garry Ridge, CEO, WD-40 Company "This book shows you how to make your consultants' work stick. No more major investments in experts or programs that evaporate after only a few months or years." -- De Lyle Bloomquist, President, Tata Global Chemicals "Fields's messages are delivered in the way that all executives would like our outside resources to do it: capably, with straight talk and incredible insight." -- Ralph Scozzafava, Chairman and CEO, Furniture Brands

How Clients Buy

How Clients Buy PDF

Author: Tom McMakin

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2018-03-13

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 111943470X

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The real-world guide to selling your services and bringing in business How Clients Buy is the much-needed guide to selling your services. If you're one of the millions of people whose skills are the 'product,' you know that you cannot be successful unless you bring in clients. The problem is, you're trained to do your job—not sell it. No matter how great you may be at your actual role, you likely feel a bit lost, hesitant, or 'behind' when it comes to courting clients, an unfamiliar territory where you're never quite sure of the line between under- and over-selling. This book comes to the rescue with real, practical advice for selling what you do. You'll have to unlearn everything you know about sales, but then you'll learn new skills that will help you make connections, develop rapport, create interest, earn trust, and turn prospects into clients. Business development is critical to your personal success, and your skills in this area will dictate the course of your career. This invaluable guide gives you a set of real-world best practices that can help you become the rainmaker you want to be. Get the word out and make productive connections Drop the fear of self-promotion and advertise your accomplishments Earn potential clients' trust to build a lasting relationship Scrap the sales pitch in favor of honesty, positivity, and value Working in the consulting and professional services fields comes with difficulties not encountered by those who sell tangible products. Services are often under-valued, and become among the first things to go when budgets get tight. It is now harder than ever to sell professional services, so your game must be on-point if you hope to out-compete the field. How Clients Buy shows you how to level up and start winning the client list of your dreams.

The Consulting Bible

The Consulting Bible PDF

Author: Alan Weiss

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2021-06-22

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 1119776872

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The new edition of bestselling real-world guide to consultancy success, from the “Rock Star of Consulting” Alan Weiss The second edition of The Consulting Bible: Everything You Need to Know to Create and Expand a Seven-Figure Consulting Practice remains the most comprehensive and practical guide to the consulting profession, from launch to high growth, from marketing to implementation. Legendary consultant, speaker, and bestselling author Alan Weiss shows you how to create an independent or boutique consulting practice and take it to seven-figure success. Step-by-step, this invaluable resource guides you through attracting clients, maximizing your value, and achieving your career goals. In the decade since the first publication of The Consulting Bible, an array of significant developments has dramatically impacted the consulting profession: shifts in social consciousness, the Covid-19 pandemic, tele-consulting and virtual meetings, the globalization of the economy, the growth of social media, and many more. This exhaustively revised new edition provides specific approaches and techniques for mastering the new consulting environment and turning volatility and disruption into unlimited opportunities. Designed to help you become the authority and expert that organizations turn to again and again, this book is your one-stop resource for: Building a strong global brand that draws people to you Marketing remotely to reduce costs and allow for higher fees Mastering the latest implementation techniques Forging strong relationships with the buyers of a new generation Selecting the consulting methodology that best fits your requirements Writing proposals and creating testimonials and references Using advanced technology to sell and deliver your services Written for newcomers and veterans alike, The Consulting Bible: Everything You Need to Know to Create and Expand a Seven-Figure Consulting Practice, Second Edition, is essential reading for every solo consultant, entrepreneur, and principal of a small consulting firm.

Emotional Business

Emotional Business PDF

Author: Ravi Rao

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2012-06-27

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 9781475926194

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If youve ever felt ignored as a customer, humiliated by a teammate, drained by workplace politics, or painfully isolated in a big company, then youve experienced the business effects of emotional disconnection. In todays knowledge-driven and service centered economy, emotional excellence isnt idealism. It is a practical necessity for growth and retaining superior talent. The Industrial Revolution is over, and the Emotional Revolution has now begun. Recognizing that emotion is part of the fabric of human biology, the hundred billion neurons in every brain can be emotionally engaged to: Evoke intense customer passion to boost sales Eliminate the financial self-destruction of infighting Excite employees to care for each other to ensure effectiveness Written for anyone from the small business employee to the corporate CEO, this step-by step guidebook contains dozens of practical checklists and examples to immediately create connection with customers and colleagues. If you get the emotions right, you get the business right.

Consulting Success

Consulting Success PDF

Author: Michael Zipursky

Publisher: Consulting Success

Published: 2018-10-16

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 9781775041115

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How can you take your skills and expertise and package and present it to become a successful consultant? There are proven time-tested principles, strategies, tactics and best-practices the most successful consultants use to start, run and grow their consulting business. Consulting Success teaches you what they are. In this book you'll learn: - How to position yourself as a leading expert and authority in your marketplace - Effective marketing and branding materials that get the attention of your ideal clients - Strategies to increase your fees and earn more with every project - The proposal template that has generated millions of dollars in consulting engagements - How to develop a pipeline of business and attract ideal clients - Productivity secrets for consultants including how to get more done in one week than most people do in a month - And much, much more

Cracked it!

Cracked it! PDF

Author: Bernard Garrette

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-06-08

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 3319893750

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Solving complex problems and selling their solutions is critical for personal and organizational success. For most of us, however, it doesn’t come naturally and we haven’t been taught how to do it well. Research shows a host of pitfalls trips us up when we try: We’re quick to believe we understand a situation and jump to a flawed solution. We seek to confirm our hypotheses and ignore conflicting evidence. We view challenges incompletely through the frameworks we know instead of with a fresh pair of eyes. And when we communicate our recommendations, we forget our reasoning isn’t obvious to our audience. How can we do it better? In Cracked It!, seasoned strategy professors and consultants Bernard Garrette, Corey Phelps and Olivier Sibony present a rigorous and practical four-step approach to overcome these pitfalls. Building on tried-and-tested (but rarely revealed) methods of top strategy consultants, research in cognitive psychology, and the latest advances in design thinking, they provide a step-by-step process and toolkit that will help readers tackle any challenging business problem. Using compelling stories and detailed case examples, the authors guide readers through each step in the process: from how to state, structure and then solve problems to how to sell the solutions. Written in an engaging style by a trio of experts with decades of experience researching, teaching and consulting on complex business problems, this book will be an indispensable manual for anyone interested in creating value by helping their organizations crack the problems that matter most.

Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?

Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? PDF

Author: Louis V. Gerstner

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2003-12-16

Total Pages: 310

ISBN-13: 0060523808

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Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? sums up Lou Gerstner's historic business achievement, bringing IBM back from the brink of insolvency to lead the computer business once again.Offering a unique case study drawn from decades of experience at some of America's top companies -- McKinsey, American Express, RJR Nabisco -- Gerstner's insights into management and leadership are applicable to any business, at any level. Ranging from strategy to public relations, from finance to organization, Gerstner reveals the lessons of a lifetime running highly successful companies.

First Among Equals

First Among Equals PDF

Author: Patrick J. McKenna

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2012-12-11

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 1471108694

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Managing people when you're not their boss is a challenge, particularly in professional service firms where, increasingly, top professionals are being tapped to lead their peers. Now Patrick McKenna and David Maister provide a 'play book' for professionals trying to be both a team member and coach. In industies ranging from banking and insurance to law and engineering, as well as in research labs and software companies, management responsibility is increasingly delegated - ususally without guidance - to those who head up smaller teams of professionals. FIRST AMONG EQUALS speaks directly to those who have gone from focusing on their own performance to being a group manager in charge of leading others. From understanding the group leader role to setting terms of reference and effectively dealing with talented prima donnas, McKenna and Maister present a thorough introduction to managing and orchestrating talent.

Irresistible! Markets, Models, and Meta-Value in Consumer Electronics

Irresistible! Markets, Models, and Meta-Value in Consumer Electronics PDF

Author: George Bailey

Publisher: Pearson Education

Published: 2011-06-01

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 0132704331

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The consumer electronics industry is entering an era of extraordinary growth. The industry’s best companies will ride that wave to unprecedented success. But, today, many CE companies are struggling with business models that are simply untenable. They must change to survive: they must change even more dramatically to win. In this book, two world-renowned consultants preview the industry’s future—from online gaming to telehealthcare, and beyond. Next, they present a powerful new blueprint, offering indispensable guidance on everything from technology platforms to user interface design, branding to channel strategies. You’ll discover how to uncover new sources of value, design better models for doing business, and fuel growth by reaching new geographical markets. Whatever your role in the industry, this book will help you: · Make better decisions, find your differentiators, and focus on your key success drivers · Tap into the emergent “meta-value” that arises when technologies, devices, services, and content come together · Reach tomorrow’s smart, service-sensitive shopper: not just the “technology-hungry” customers · Widen margins by adding value consumers will pay for · Transform cost structures to support rapid growth and nonstop change · Sell into China, India, and other fast-growing emerging markets · Preview “telehealthcare”: the surprising application for the living room · Gain new insights into online gaming, smart home technology, and more · Discover the immense power of IBM’s Cell Broadband Engine processor—and the business opportunities it enables · Leverage embedded Linux to build more affordable, profitable, consumer-centric products · Develop higher-value software for connected consumer electronics · Differentiate products through state-of-the-art design and user interfaces · Discover what the industry’s “winners” will look like in five years—and how to be one of them The consumer electronics industry continues to grow at breakneck speed: from MP3 players to home healthcare devices, consumers are adopting new technologies faster than ever before. But most consumer electronics companies are struggling with razor-thin margins, or even losses. Their traditional business models simply aren’t working anymore. In Irresistible! Markets, Models, and Meta-Value in Consumer Electronics, IBM’s leading consumer electronic industry consultants reveal powerful new opportunities to profit—and offer realistic advice for leveraging them. Drawing on their experience working with innovators from Helsinki to Osaka, the authors and contributors introduce revolutionary On Demand Business models for improving profitability, and identify tomorrow’s most profitable CE opportunities. They cover every element of success: technology, design, service, branding, channel strategies, and much more. Whether you’re an executive or engineer, strategist or entrepreneur, this book will help you find your differentiators, focus on your key success drivers—and become one of this industry’s big long-term winners!