“Jeff, you’ve been working with us for six months. You know us. We would like to continue this relationship.”
Isn’t that a great note to receive? It just came in this morning, and now we are discussing the next piece of work.
Many of you are internal or external consultants, but even if you are an employee, we all want a reputation that keeps people coming back for more, and that propels us from success to success. How does that happen?
When you are getting started, it’s challenging to line up your expertise and limited experience with the needs of a business. I have taught many hours teaching new professionals how to talk the language of value and impact, re-casting their work history in terms of strategy, returns, and growth. Only then can you convince leaders how much they need you.
It’s for that reason I’m developing a course to teach the basic consulting skills every professional needs to succeed and build a magnetic reputation (more info here).
Managed right, your experience is a flywheel for success called PER.
I was helping my son update his resume for an IT position. Factually, it was perfect, but it lacked any zing. I added one line at the very top: “I love technology.” Now it had some character! It was personal. How many of you add love and passion to your pitch? I sincerely love what I do, so I sprinkle those words in my customer conversations. Because my prospects want to feel the same way about their work, it’s a powerful magnet that draws us together. Savvy clients know that passionate people care more and do more for their customers.
What are you really good at? If we don’t boldly proclaim our expertise, our prospects won’t know how we can help them. While my main focus is leading change, I advertise a number of related skills (strategy development, coaching, facilitation, process simplification) because it illustrates how customers have trusted me to do more. They do that because I get results.
I was reading the resume of another consultant and the experience included the typical set of tasks I see on every resume. Blah, blah, blah. I asked:
- How many people were affected by what you did? How many did you train?
- What was the size of the budget for the project you worked on? 1 million? Ten?
- What results were achieved in the first sixty days post go-live?
Results drive returns. Your boss wants returns. Your clients want returns. Save time, save money, reduce frustration, boost the brand, raise performance. There are many ways to describe results that impact and protect the bottom line.
I’ve been working with Bethany Care Society since 2016. We are on our seventh project. Quest Software has been a client since 2018. I’ll be speaking at their sales kickoff for the second year in a row. They keep coming back because I deliver.
We all want to move from success to success. When you exhibit contagious passion, demonstrate expertise, and generate results, people will call you – repeatedly. If not, take the course!
