Strategies for Consultants: Win-Win Partnership

What is essential for establishing a win-win client consultant partnership? As a management consultant, or actually any type of consultant for that matter, ask your clients these questions:

1. “Have you clearly defined your plan to achieve your business objectives?
2. Have you mapped out the strategic direction to attain your plan?
3. Have you envisioned your market and know how to position your business to acquire it?
4. Do you have that “entrepreneurial flame” that caused you to spend nearly every wakening minute working “on” your business or have you succumbed to the daily chores of working “in” your business?

How these questions are answered will provide you with the critical information on assessing the current status and position of your business client, followed by guiding you on the appropriate management consulting and business coaching service offering or offerings focused on meeting your client needs.

The Field of Opportunity

Let me offer an analogy which most of us can readily identify with. A business leader, executive and/or owner who can see the field of opportunity is much like the PGA Professional who “sees the field” when he stands in the tee-box and looks down the fairway to the flag stick. He envisions the best approach to the green, determines the strategic direction to get there, and focuses all his efforts on attaining the goal of getting to the green and setting up a short birdie putt. The result is success, and if continuously repeated, will lead to a very strong finish.  The great Bobby Jones was said to be the best at this. The present day version is Tiger Woods. In business, I believe we can achieve the same ‘vision’ as Tiger and Bobby if you can “see the field” of opportunity. Put yourself in the shoes of Tiger and Bobby, and envision the field as your client’s proxy.

To see the field of opportunity, in my opinion, involves spending the requisite time to properly prepare and plan how to attain goals, envision the market, and determine the strategic direction to achieve them. It has been my experience as a business and management consultant, that for any market segment or industry, be it biotech, telecommunications, software, medical, manufacturing, or even golf, preparation involves and includes sound strategic planning, market analysis, profitability assessment, and finally optimizing market options and business positioning to meet customer needs, increase market penetration, and achieve revenue goals.

Setting Goals

A critical step in succeeding in consulting is establishing goals, and in particular working with you clients to set goals. In my mind goals are milestones you set to attain an objective, where goals are made up of tasks. Better yet, goals are the cornerstones of achievement. They can be anything you need to accomplish, achieve and attain an objective. For example:
• Identify and optimize core competencies,
• Determine the appropriate economic driver,
• Increase gross margins,
• Reduce operation expenses,
• Hire the right executive team,
• Identify and meet client needs,
• Improve market share,
• Create positive Free Cash Flow, or
• Increase EBIT or net revenue.

Be SMART

One of the most common guides to goal setting is the SMART goals model you probably have encountered in your trails through business and personal life. I am not going to belabor these other than to list them since they have direct relevance to our discussion on goals. SMART is actually an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely goals. What is interesting about the SMART goal approach is that it aligns well with the idea that goals are milestones, which can be measured by some type of metric. For instance, goals can be measured by the length of time it takes to reach a milestone. Certainly milestones must be specific, attainable, realistic and timely, as well as measurable.

Consulting, no matter the type, is first and foremost about meeting the needs of clients. How you help your clients to see their field of opportunity, develop a plan to achieve it, then work with them to attain goals will provide a win-win partnership for both you and your client.