The Irresistible Consultant's Guide to Winning Clients

The Irresistible Consultant's Guide to Winning Clients

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

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

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.


Start Your Own Consulting Business

Start Your Own Consulting Business

Author: Entrepreneur magazine

Publisher: Entrepreneur Press

Published: 2014-05-19

Total Pages: 199

ISBN-13: 1613082673

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Leading entrepreneurs into the multi-billion dollar consulting industry, the experts at Entrepreneur show you how to capitalize on your talents to help others achieve their business goals. Coached by experts, learn to define your market, find and keep clients, obtain licenses, set rates, monitor cash flow, hire staff, prepare contracts, agreements, and reports, and more. Includes new interviews with successful consultants, updated answers to frequently asked questions, and a completely refreshed list of the top 20 consulting businesses.


Consulting Success

Consulting Success

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


Seizing the White Space

Seizing the White Space

Author: Mark W. Johnson

Publisher: Harvard Business Press

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 227

ISBN-13: 1422124819

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Transformational new growth remains the Holy Grail for many organizations. But a deep understanding of how great business models are made can provide the key to unlocking that growth. This text describes how companies can achieve transformational growth in new markets or, simply put, how they can seize the white space.


Name Your Price

Name Your Price

Author: Kate Dixon

Publisher: Oceanside Press

Published: 2021-10-15

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 9781734699227

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Are you running your business, or is your business running you? Too many consultants, freelancers, coaches, and service providers rely on gut feelings and the rumor mill to make pricing and terms decisions for their businesses. If that's you, then you already know those strategies don't work - they can prevent you from earning what you're worth, keep you up at night, and may even get you into situations that can threaten the health of your business. But you can do better. Name Your Price offers clear methods and easily tailored principles so you can focus on what's important to you - running your business with resounding success. In Name Your Price, you'll learn: How to set your core pricing structure based on proven models used by top freelancers and consultants How to identify risks and build them into your pricing model How to set terms and write agreements that benefit you and your clients - and protect your time How and when to negotiate with clients and how to have tough conversations When to adjust your pricing and how to do it smoothly When to say no to clients and how to do it gracefully How to set the tone and teach clients how to treat you How to shift your mindset and get out of your own way And how to put it all together so you can move forward with confidence Discover simple and powerful ways to take the lead in your business to get more growth, more energy, and more satisfaction. Author Kate Dixon's clients use these principles to run profitable and fulfilling businesses - now you can, too. You've done the work. You've built your brand. Now Name Your Price!


Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?

Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?

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.


Value-Based Fees

Value-Based Fees

Author: Alan Weiss

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2008-11-03

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 0470437677

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In this thoroughly revised edition of his classic book, Alan Weiss shows how consulting fees are dependent on only two things: value provided in the perception of the buyer and the intent of the buyer and the consultant to act ethically. Many consultants, however, fail to understand that perceived value is the basis of the fee, or that they must translate the importance of their advice into long-term gains for the client in the client's perception. Still others fail to have the courage and the belief system that support the high value delivered to clients, thereby reducing fees to a level commensurate with the consultant's own low self-esteem. Ultimately, says Weiss, consultants, not clients, are the main cause of low consulting fees.


Never Say Sell

Never Say Sell

Author: Tom McMakin

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2020-10-27

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1119683785

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Learn the secrets of how recurring revenue is driven at expert firms like BCG, KPMG, EY, and more Never Say Sell: How the World's Best Consulting and Professional Services Firms Expand Client Relationships explains how to scale individual engagements into long-term business relationships. Cowritten by Tom McMakin, the coauthor of How Clients Buy and expert in account development, and colleague Jacob Parks, this book provides insights from key rainmakers at firms like Accenture, IBM, and more into how they drive growth from existing relationships. Never Say Sell is a business development guide for professional service providers like consultants, accountants, and lawyers, whether they are sole proprietors or members of account teams tasked with expanding key accounts. Doing good work with existing clients is not enough to have them come back to you again and again. You must do more. This book explores the techniques and methods that leading professional service providers use to add value, cross sell, and drive recurring revenue from existing engagements. Never Say Sell will help you turn one-and-done clients into some of your most exciting and lucrative relationships. It is a must-have for any professional who benefits from repeat business.