"We absolutely do that!"
"Business is business"
"Let me bring in a strategic team"
"Buffet's a great guy..."
"That's gonna' take a year..."
"Scale it then flip it! "
"We can triple your revenue!"
"Sure, I play golf! "
"Off-Shore is the way to go"
"Been there, done that!"
"Harvard, Wharton, Yale..."
When It Comes To Consulting,
There are 2 Huge Stereotypes.
"Messing With Unrealistic Expectations"
The first blunder is the result of consultants making ridiculous claims. They talk about doubling or tripling your business practically overnight. Or they tout that they have a solution that no one else can provide or implement as well as they can.
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It gets worse when the client is virgin to working with outside ‘specialists’ and innocently puts their full trust in their all mighty consultant. They go to work doing what they sell as a ‘great job’ and the client happy, at first. Not long after though the client comes to realize that what the consultant helped them do, has actually put them in a bigger mess than they started out in. Not all projects can show instant results, so by this time the consultant is long gone cash in pocket.
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"Results Take Time, Don’t Worry!"
Clearly you can’t always show your client instant ROI, but too many consultants don’t show any results. They keep telling their clients not to worry and when they’re done, the client has no idea what has happened ‘behind the scenes’. If the client is with it they’ll demand some form of due diligence to ensure the work has been properly completed, but more often than not, this is minimal and the consultant slips away without completing much of anything.
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Remember this is from the clients perspective. Once you understand what your clients’ concerns are you’ll not only have better relations with them, you’ll also encounter less resistance as you continue working together – and that means a more successful consulting business.