Here’s how you can follow the footsteps of highly successful consultants:
1. Know the client. It is not enough that you know your clients’ business and to which industry they belong to. To become more effective on what you do, you need to make time to gain in-depth knowledge about your clients’ goals, history, and missions. You will also need to obtain information about their competitors and stakeholders. Keep in mind that you will be paid to carry out your clients’ objectives and you will not be able to perform this better unless you are equipped with all the relevant information.
2. Active listening. As a consultant, you need to listen actively to your clients so you can accurately assess their problems and offer the most appropriate solutions. What you can do is to encourage them to give you all the details of their problems or goals. Don’t forget to take down notes. Use effective probing questions to easily get a clear picture.
3. Work with key people. The problem with other consultants is that they don’t know how to identify the people that they need to talk to when they are trying to understand or resolve the organizations’ problems. As a consultant, you need to know the function of every people in the organization who can give you the right information and who can help you assess and resolve the existing problems.
4. Tailor-fit your consulting services. Keep in mind that when it comes to people, strategies, processes, and solutions — one size does not fit all. You will need to tailor-fit your services to the needs and demands of your clients to better serve them.