Lew Sauder - Consulting 101: 101 Tips for Success in Consulting

Consulting 101

101 Tips for Success in Consulting

By Lew Sauder

Copyright 2010 Lew Sauder

ISBN 978-0-9830266-1-7

LCCN 2010916158

All rights reserved. No part of thispublication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, ortransmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of theauthor.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personalenjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away toother people. If you would like to share this book with anotherperson, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Ifyoure reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was notpurchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.comand purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard workof this author.

Contact Lew Sauder at:

Lew@Consulting101Book.com

http://www.Consulting101Book.com

Dedicated to my family:

Emily, Sam, Holly and Heather

Like Ive always told you, if you put yourmind to it, you can accomplish anything. - George McFly

Acknowledgments:

The stories and advice in this book are thedirect result of my association with many gifted and intelligentpeople. Over the years I have had the privilege to work withincredible individuals who taught me effective consultingtechniques. I would like to thank the following people for theirleadership and mentoring throughout my career: Michael Curran andLeslie Ottavi, my first consulting managers, for giving me my startand helping me to develop the tools and confidence to work in aconsulting environment; Richard Gibbs Vandercook for his guidanceand leadership. His war chest of great stories and even betteradvice are present throughout this book; Robert Simplott, Presidentof RCG Information Technology, for teaching me that strongmanagement and great leadership can be attained without sacrificingbeing a decent and down to earth person. I also give thanks to BobMcAndrews, Steve McDonough and Neil Huse for the leadership andadvice they shared with me and for having my back over theyears.

Thank you to my wife Heather for her manyhours of proofreading and advice in the creation of this book, andher many years of support throughout my career. Thanks also to myfriend Dr. Mark A. Jewell, PhD, president of EPI-Q, for being asounding board as we discussed consulting sales and deliverythroughout the years. And finally, thanks to my mother, HelenSauder, for her unshakable confidence and support throughout mylife and to my late father, Lee Sauder, for teaching me thatanything worth doing, is worth doing right. You were right,dad.

Table OfContents

Early in my consulting career the firm thatI worked for asked me to drive three and a half hours from Chicagoto Indianapolis to meet with a client. We were to discussdevelopment of an imaging system. I had just recently been trainedon the imaging package and had written only a few applications forone other client.

I walked into a conference room of about ahalf-dozen people and I was introduced as an expert in imagingsystems. They said I was there to help them develop an imagingapplication to interface with their Accounts Payable system.

The inflated introduction was a bitintimidatingI knew even less about AP systems than imagingsystems. It stroked my ego enough to try my best to live up to thelabel. I reached back into my memories of my training and my loneclient experience. I started asking questions about their workflow. I took them through the who, what, where and when of theirpayment processing to understand their current process. I drew adiagram on the white board to regurgitate what they had just toldme in a pictorial form and used another color to insert scanningstations to input invoices and purchase orders to the imagingsystem. Next I added terminals at key points to represent points inthe process where users could view the images on-screen. It was asimple future-state design and they were thrilled with what theexpert had done in one short meeting.

Most people dream of being an expert atsomething. Having an expertise in a specific area lends acombination of prestige, credibility and acceptance to onesbranding. To be an expert in a specific area of business translatesinto being successful and in demand. Much like a homeowner mighthire a plumber or building contractor for a home project,businesses turn to consultants as experts to provide advice andservices for which they either dont have the expertise or thestaffing to perform themselves.

Having a depth of knowledge in a subjectmatter, however, does not necessarily translate into success in theconsulting world. In most cases, a successful consultant is aprofessional with a combination of many skills that provide valueto their clients.

Ego enhancement is not a reason to pursue acareer in consulting. Consulting is a demanding and competitivecareer that requires long hours, hard work and the ability to dealwith difficult people. It is also a rewarding endeavor that paysabove average and provides experience and opportunities that arenot available in many other occupations.

In addition to some business or technicalknow-how, consulting requires a multitude of additional skills. Youneed to have the ability to think on your feet and utilizediplomacy for resolving conflict. A consultant must also balancebeing customer-centered while keeping the firms interests athand.

Throughout my career, as I moved intomanagement positions in consulting, Ive worked with many newemployees. They were either newbies out of college or experiencedworkers who had never worked in consulting. I found it to befrustrating at times. Although they had the business and technicalskills to do assigned tasks, they lacked the softer skills that areso important to successful consulting. There was often a lack ofawareness that the client was the paying customer and should betreated differently than a peer. They treated the project in atransactional approach, rather than establishing a relationshipwith the client to improve our chances of acquiring additionalwork. In meetings there were times where the consultants exposedsome of the firms dirty laundry to the client.

Id meet with my peers over lunch and wewould share war stories of how our consultants werent providedproper training of the basic blocking and tackling skills. Thoseskills are critical because they help teach the professionalbehavior that every reputable consultant needs. That is why thisbook was created - to provide a primer to anyone who is consideringjoining a consulting firm, starting their own firm, or simplyworking as an independent consultant. Many of the tips include casestudies of real world examples of mistakes Ive witnessed over theyears (some that Ive made myself).

As I wrote this book, I started with a muchlarger list and pared it down to what I thought were the mostimportant issues to address. Even then, I found a lot of the adviceto be basicalmost common sense. If its such common sense, thenwhy did I see these tips violated nearly every day? Much of theadvice in this book is guidance in professionalism that canandshouldbe used by anyone joining the business world. In mostcompanies, this is nice-to-have advice. In consulting, it isimperative business behavior for success. In order to establishcredibility and legitimacy with a paying client, there are certainguidelines that must be followed.

One final note: I was once at a week-longfirm outing in which spouses were invited. One evening a group offolks ended up in the hotels bar. One younger consultant who was abit over-served was using foul language and cursing at everyopportunity. Thankfully there were no clients present, but the wifeof the firms president was in the group.

The next morning at breakfast, a seniormanager who had been with them in the bar pulled the youngconsultant aside and advised him about how inappropriate hislanguage was in the presence of the presidents wife. The hung-overconsultant apologized saying it wouldnt happen again and thankedthe manager for his advice. As they headed for their table, thepresidents wife came up to him and said, There you are you son ofa bitch, how are you feeling this morning?