Do you have a well-developed network? Are you self-directed? Do you have an impressive portfolio filled with client success stories? Yous might be ready to become a consultant, merely it can be difficult to know where to first.

Download Now: Free Consultant's Success Kit

Companies hire consultants to:

  • Become an objective, outsider opinion on processes or systems
  • Solve for internal blindspots
  • Receive expert guidance on solving a problem or implementing a solution
  • Fill a temporary staffing gap in a scalable manner
  • Go access to expertise that is difficult to source and hire for (such as for a niche engineering science or other use case)

What are the qualifications to be a consultant?

Considering consultants work on a contract basis, at that place are no set qualifications to be a consultant. Ultimately, it comes downwardly to what the organisation needs and how well you tin sell what you're able to provide.

However, because a consultant provides adept-level advice, information technology's typical to have a great deal of feel in the niche the consultant is working in. Information technology also helps to be able to betoken to concrete results or outcomes that were attained for other clients. If you provide a proven track record that potential clients tin trust and encounter themselves in, yous'll be amend able to close consulting contracts.

What education is needed to get a consultant?

Similarly, consultant instruction requirements are subjective and flexible, taking into account that it really comes down to the buyer's perception of value. Nevertheless, because consultants are experts in their field, it's typical to have a bachelor's caste (often in addition to an advanced degree).

An MBA (Master of Business Administration) is particularly helpful for many consulting careers, as are professional certifications such as a CMC (Certified Management Consultant) or PMP (Project Management Professional person).

Types of Consultants

Here are some of the most mutual types of consultants:

Sales Consultant

A sales professional person who helps develop an organisation's sales process, identifies ways to improve sales operation, and provides sales grooming to reps.

Sales Consultant Job Description

The ideal candidate for the sales consultant role is a data-driven private who can deliver results that can be seen in the bottom line. In this role, the sales consultant will be responsible for developing well-researched strategies to increase sales and generate additional acquirement.

Concern Consultant

An advisor who helps identify improvements to an organization's operational efficiency and performance. "Business consulting" can use to a wide diverseness of solutions.

Business Consultant Chore Description

Qualified business consultants will take demonstrated concern acumen and experience optimizing company strategy. This role is responsible for generating new business, pitching strategies to clients, overseeing the implementation of customer strategies, and working with executive clients to develop sound business plans.

Marketing Consultant

A marketing specialist who helps organizations create and implement marketing strategies to increase brand awareness and generate leads for the business.

Marketing Consultant Job Description

A marketing consultant is responsible for working alongside a client'south marketing organization to develop and integrate effective marketing tactics and strategies into the client'due south operating rhythm. In this role, the marketing consultant will be responsible for conducting in-depth inquiry and competitive analysis, using their findings to craft an effective marketing program, and identify tactics to marketplace the product to its intended audition.

Accounting Consultant

An counselor who analyzes a business concern's financials and helps the leadership team make proficient fiscal decisions.

Accounting Consultant Chore Description

The right candidate for the accounting consultant role has all-encompassing experience working in loftier-performing accounting and finance organizations. This individual will be tasked with working alongside the client'south accounting squad to oversee and propose on necessary changes to the company's accounting procedures. They will work with their clients to identify areas of improvement in their business processes and volition oversee the implementation of viable, compliant solutions.

Engineering science Consultant

An expert who helps organizations implement and/or utilize applied science solutions in a way that improves the operations and performance of the business.

Engineering science Consultant Job Description

A technology consultant (also known equally an It consultant), will clarify the client's technology systems to ensure the visitor is on track to run across its goals and objectives. Later analyzing the client's applied science systems and company infrastructure, the technology consultant will propose any necessary changes to support information security and business operations and will assist with creating and onboarding necessary changes.

Legal Consultant

A lawyer or legal professional who advises a business on legal matters.

Legal Consultant Job Description

In this function, a qualified legal consultant will use their legal expertise to support the client's legal compliance, profitability, and run a risk mitigation. In improver to conducting the necessary research, this individual volition also be responsible for drafting contracts, reviewing briefs, and conducting negotiations on the client's behalf.

Public Relations Consultant

A specialist who improves communications betwixt a concern and the public.

Public Relations Consultant Job Description

The PR consultant who fulfills this part will manage the human relationship between their clients and the full general public. The ideal candidate is an experienced communications professional who can proficiently typhoon printing releases on behalf of the client, manage the client's media relationships and contacts, and write and edit communications collateral to promote the business and offerings of the customer.

What does a consultant practise?

A consultant may human activity in an advisory and/or implementation office.

In other words, depending on what the client needs, the consultant may simply exist there to provide knowledge, information, and advice as the organization itself makes changes every bit a result of the consultant's guidance.

For other arrangements, a consultant may take on some or all of the implementation themselves. This may fifty-fifty include building/revamping processes and training team members. Ultimately, it comes down to what the system needs.

Regardless of the niche the consultant works in or the specific arrangement they've made with the customer, there are a few things a consultant must practice well:

  • Work with stakeholders to identify objectives of the relationship.
  • Learn the existing processes and systems in an organisation.
  • Perform analysis and diagnose issues.
  • Translate data into concrete action items.
  • Communicate effectively to multiple stakeholders.
  • Oversee and monitor results.
  • Exist able to convey impact.

Practise you have an expanse of expertise to advise on? Follow these steps closely and y'all'll build a strong foundation for time to come work, repeat clients, and expanding your reach and reputation.

Featured Resources: Free Templates for Consultants

consulting templates

Serious about coming a consultant? These eight consulting templates will assistance you pitch your services to potential clients. The kit includes a management consulting plan template, a new client onboarding checklist, a consulting plan presentation template, and more than.

1. Identify your area of expertise.

Exist honest near where your strengths and expertise prevarication -- and consider strengths outside your nine-to-5 focus. Perchance you accept a landscaping side hustle with plenty client demand to have it full time. Or perhaps you're good at endmost hard deals in the medical sales industry -- so good that your colleagues are always asking for aid.

Inquire yourself three questions to place your niche:

  1. "Practise I have a unique indicate of view?"
  2. "Do I have the experience necessary to be authoritative in this field?"
  3. "Is there demand for this service?"

Being a consultant requires you to be organized, self-motivated, and skilful at purlieus setting. Before launching your website and accepting your first client, consider your ability to encounter these demands. You might identify the perfect niche, but if yous can't run into independent deadlines or manage a billing bicycle, you might non exist prepare to go a consultant.

To find your consulting specialty, consider areas y'all excel in at piece of work, projects you've gotten high marks on in performance reviews, or hobbies y'all've mastered outside the office. You should besides factor in what you relish -- if you're doing this full-time, it needs to be an activity you're passionate most.

2. Prepare goals.

Setting goals helps you know what you lot're working towards. Exercise you want this to stay a nights-and-weekends project? Practise you promise to turn it into a full-fourth dimension business? Do you want to hire employees someday? Reply these questions and programme accordingly.

Once y'all've identified broad goals for your business, narrow your focus to more immediate needs. To do this, make sure your goals are SMART:

  • Specific: Conspicuously define what you lot want to achieve
  • Measurable: Identify targets and milestones to track progress
  • Attainable: Go on goals realistic and manageable
  • Relevant: Set goals that fit with your business organisation model
  • Time-Based: Identify deadlines for your goals

Here'south an example of SMART goals for a consultant who coaches sales teams to exist ameliorate at common cold outreach:

  • Specific: I will double-decker SMB sales teams on how to make better calls, send higher quality emails, and follow upwards in an effective style. The result volition exist more qualified opportunities for reps resulting in more airtight business and college acquirement for the organization.
  • Measurable: Success will be measured by increased client pipeline and per centum of client deals closed as well as referrals for my business.
  • Attainable: I have three clients already and bring in an average of one new referral every month. I know in that location is demand for my service, and this cadence is manageable for my workload and operating budget right now.
  • Relevant: This business model fits my skill gear up and allows me to do good from my success with sales outreach equally identified by myself, my coworkers, and my supervisors.
  • Fourth dimension-Based:
    • Nov 15: Website goes live
    • December 1: Review previous month's work and ask for at least 1 referral
    • December 5: Ship customer bills for the previous month's work
    • December 15: Take all coaching sessions scheduled before this date in anticipation for holiday schedules

As your consultancy grows, and so will your plans. Revisit your SMART goals on a monthly or quarterly basis and adjust them as needed.

Maria Marshall, an associate professor at Purdue University, researches pocket-sized and family unit-endemic businesses. She recommends including visionary goals for your business as well. Marshall outlines 4 main areas of focus for visionary goals:

  • Service: How can you lot meliorate customer satisfaction and memory?
  • Social: How can yous requite back to the community through philanthropy or volunteering?
  • Profit: How can y'all increase profits past 10 per centum?
  • Growth: How can yous expand your company (i.e., new employees, more than clients, part space)?

3. Make a website.

Recall y'all tin can get by without a website? Think again. A recent Local Search Association report finds that 63% of consumers utilise websites to find or engage with businesses, and 30% of those consumers won't consider a business without a website.

Likewise, if yous have a site, Google gives your business more than authority in local rankings. Creating a Google My Business concern contour isn't enough. A website that'southward optimized with backlinks, domain authorisation, and views will encourage Google to display your website in relevant searches.

Don't think website creation is in your wheelhouse? Services like WordPress and Squarespace arrive like shooting fish in a barrel to build a website, and GoDaddy allows you to lock downwards a domain proper noun.

And if y'all want a tool that'll help you do everything from tracking incoming leads to booking meetings and volition grow with your business, try HubSpot. Your website is the first impression of your concern. Invest time hither and see the returns for years to come.

iv. Get certified.

As a consultant, it's crucial to remain cut edge and competitive in your niche, and certifications are a concrete way to demonstrate your bulldoze.

For example, if you lot're a consultant for medical sales professionals, consider pursuing accreditation in one of HIDA's Medical Sales programs. If your specialty is coaching teams to be better at outreach, consider getting an Inbound Sales Certification from HubSpot.

Whether software, skills, or subject field affair-specific certifications, discover out what qualifications are important in your industry and invest in expanding your knowledge base.

five. Cull a target market place.

Once you've identified your niche, exist articulate about who your target audience is. For example, if you help startup sales teams navigate early-stage scaleup, hone in on your target market by answering these five questions:

  1. "Where is my target audience located?" (Will you serve local clients but? Volition you lot have national or regional clients? Will you exclude international clients?)
  2. "What are their biggest pain points?" (What has driven them to search for your help? What are their daily roadblocks to propose? What are their scaling challenges?)
  3. "Who is competing for their concern?" (Who are your biggest competitors and how practise your services mensurate upwardly? What sets yous apart?)
  4. "Am I targeting startups themselves the individual sales managers?" (Will you reach out to businesses or network to individuals through local meetups or LinkedIn outreach?)
  5. "What motivates my target audition?" (What is your audience's cease goal past choosing your services? What practice they hope to attain for their team and for themselves?)

Getting specific about who your customer is and what's important to them allows you to provide superior service and reach clients who are the perfect match.

6. Determine where you lot'll work.

You probably won't demand a designated workplace while getting your consultancy off the ground. But if y'all're becoming a full-time consultant, it might exist helpful to take an office. Before you get-go booking office tours, ask yourself a few questions:

  1. "Can I afford role space, and if so, how much tin can I beget?"
  2. "Volition a workplace enhance my business or aid it grow?"
  3. "Why do I need this space?" (i.e., do I meet with clients? Am I hiring some office-time help?)

Once you lot've decided that office infinite volition truly benefit your business, consider what kind of space is correct for your needs. Coworking spaces like We Work and Galvanize are staples of many urban environments.

They requite yous access to shared or small workspaces, as well equally meeting rooms and amenities, at a lower monthly rate than traditional office spaces. They likewise give yous another way to network and do good from those around you.

7. Create your offerings.

How will you be providing your consulting services? What kind of delivery models will y'all utilise? Will yous be traveling to them and providing your services on-site, or will y'all provide your services virtually? Will yous be performing actual piece of work for them, or will y'all simply be guiding them to practice the work themselves?

Hither are some pop consulting models:

  • Done For You
  • Washed With You
  • Coaching (One-on-One)
  • Group Coaching (One-to-Many)
  • Online Program (On-Demand)

Even though it's the least scalable, information technology'due south often advisable to being with the "Done For You" type of model so that you have proven experience and success stories to amend sell the other types of products.

8. Prepare your rates.

Deciding how much you'll charge clients can be the hardest part of starting a consultancy. It's tempting to charge less than you're worth because you haven't proven your results still.

Research what comparative consultants are charging in your expanse (sites like Glassdoor.com are groovy for this). And decide which of these common types of consultant pricing would almost fairly compensate you for the work yous're doing.

9. Network with people.

Speaking of networking … Referrals are a crucial style to abound your business, but they aren't the just way. Unlike at a large visitor, you probably don't have a marketing team whose whole job it is to promote your business. Instead, selling the value of your consultancy often falls to y'all and you lonely.

Bring together LinkedIn and Facebook groups your audience frequents, write and share weblog posts highlighting your expertise, and nourish meetups or conferences in your area. Be everywhere and talk to anybody who's a proficient fit for your offering. No i's going to sell yous as well as you, so brush off that elevator pitch and get set to sell yourself anything but short.

ten. Know when to say "no."

In the starting time, it'due south easy to say "yep" to every client and every request. Now more than e'er, you lot want your piece of work to exist high quality, organized, and manageable. coming in at a manageable charge per unit.

If proverb aye to a new customer means your current customer piece of work will suffer, say, "I'd love to serve your needs, but with my current workload, I don't think I can give yous the attention you deserve. I should have more availability adjacent quarter. Can I reach out to you then to see if this is still a need?"

Prospective customers volition appreciate your honesty, and y'all'll be able to maintain high-quality work at a cadency that doesn't threaten your sanity or existing client satisfaction.

It'due south also difficult to turn downward clients that aren't a expert fit. Be honest when you lot can't meet a prospective client's needs, and be proactive about introducing them to someone who can. They'll benefit from a meliorate match, and your business won't lose sight of what it does best.

11. Build a repeatable organisation for getting and selling clients.

Once you accept your business set up, y'all tin't only hope for your clients to knock on your door saying, "I'grand here and ready to pay!"

You'll need to clarify your niche and examine your existing network as you strategize how to find consulting clients. From at that place, you lot need to get into the concern of marketing your consulting services and understanding exactly how to sell to prospects.

How much should you charge as a consultant?

  1. Double/triple your current hourly wage
  2. Set a daily rate
  3. Set fees by project
  4. Set up fees by functioning
  5. Set fees using information from previous client work
  6. Set solution-based fees

Once y'all've decided what to charge, consider how you'll nib clients and accept payment. In that location are many free and fee-based platforms -- like Invoicely, Freshbooks, and Due -- that permit you to automate billing cycles, runway and manage invoices and payments, and run reports on weekly, quarterly, or yearly earnings.

And don't forget to consult with an accountant during tax season. If you lot're not having taxes taken out of your payments, you'll need to budget for those when taxes are due. An accountant can offer guidance on how to make this less of a headache.

Need help attracting the right clients? Here's how you can get-go:

one. Identify your ideal customer.

You won't exist able to attract, engage, or shut new customers if you don't know who they are. Existence able to understand your audience is critical to crafting your marketing and sales strategy (too every bit your messaging).

Consider spending fourth dimension making the buyer persona of your ideal client. Who are they? What industry are they in? What type of services are they looking for? Why?

ii. Find out where they hang out online.

One time you know who they are, do enquiry to notice out where they spend their time online. Chances are, the web will be a big acquisition channel for y'all, and then you want to ensure that y'all can exist found where your customers are. Which websites and social media are they active on?

It can also requite yous more insights into your persona that you lot tin apply to sympathise them. Let's say you find a large community of your target customers on Facebook. Seeing what they post can give you insight into what they retrieve virtually and what they experience.

iii. Learn what motivates them.

People don't wake upward i day and make up one's mind to purchase something. Chances are, they experience a pain or a triggering event that causes them to be open to solutions, including your solution.

4. Size up your competition.

What are your competitors offering and what are the toll points? What makes them attractive to buyers?

5. Decide what sets y'all apart.

What additional value does your piece of work add that other consultancies don't? If you can provide more value, a differentiating experience, a more than accessible price point, or unique offerings, y'all'll be able to stand out from your contest and position yourself as a leader in the space.

These unique differentiators make upwardly your value proposition, and your value proposition is going to assistance your buyers choose yous over the competition.

6. Develop an outreach strategy.

At present that you know where your prospects hang out online and what matters to them, you can make up one's mind how to attract them to you lot. What channels volition you exist focusing on? What will be your primary tools for communicating (e.g., email, telephone calls, social media)?

7. Be clear in communicating your unique value proposition.

As you communicate on whatsoever channel you decide and with whichever tool you choose, be sure that you're conveying your unique value proposition. In other words, yous know you're good... let your prospects know too. And prove it.

Your value must be articulate in all your messaging whether it'southward on your website, in your emails, on marketing materials, or in your pitches.

Last Thoughts

Becoming a consultant is an exciting way to abound your career. By focusing on key skills, and building relationships with the correct clients, y'all tin create a rewarding career in the field. Be honest about your readiness and niche, organized in your approach, and clear in defining, coming together, and addressing your goals. The above steps are the perfect way to start. Good luck!

Editor'south note: This post was originally published in March 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

consulting templates

consulting

Originally published Aug 6, 2021 5:00:00 PM, updated August 06 2021