How to succeed as an independent consultant - Top Tips

You have a glittering career in corporate life behind you. You have decided to jump ship and cash in on your expertise. But how do you develop a successful new career and an independent consultant? Business development consultant Richard White gives his top tips on how to increase the likelihood of finding projects, and how to have a successful and fulfilling career in the world of consultancy.

Tip 1 – Sell your experience and not your knowledge

A common mistake made by aspiring independent consultants is to assume that potential clients are interested in their knowledge. This leads people who are very knowledgeable on a particular subject to gravitate towards a career as a consultant and yet struggle to find work.

The classic example is the MBA graduate who has learnt a lot of theories but has little experience of applying that knowledge to solve problems. If you want to be a consultant rather than a temporary employee, you need to focus on using your expertise to solve problems.

The larger the business, the bigger the personal risk for the decision maker and therefore making it more likely that they will go for someone tried and tested. People who profess their expertise but cannot back it up with project experience will just lose all credibility.

It is much better to start off in an area where you can add value and seek to develop your experience in other areas as you proceed. The other route is to develop your expertise with smaller businesses who may be more willing to take a chance.

Tip 2 - Be a specialist

In my experience, consultants that are prepared to specialise find it easier to find a regular flow of work. This is especially important when starting out. You need to become a recognised expert for something.

People who are generalists typically find it harder to be remembered for anything specific. If you had an important project, would you prefer to hire someone who had a proven track record matching your specific needs, or a generalist who understands your problem but has no previous successes to point to?

One way of specialising is sector experience. For example, if you have experience working in the travel industry you are more likely to get more work in the travel industry if you market yourself as a travel industry specialist.

The other area is a functional specialisation. For example, rather than being a consultant in CRM you market yourself as a specialist in SalesForce.com. You can even specialise in specific areas of SalesForce.com such as data migration or user adoption. If you combine more than one type of specialisation then you really make it easier on yourself to win work and also it enables you to charge higher fees.

Tip 3 – Price higher than average

People tend to think that competing on price will help to get work. In consulting it has the opposite effect unless you want to work with businesses who have no money and are desperate! Its generally unrewarding to work with clients like these and you end up with little money yourself.

Just like Stella Artois beer, ‘you should be reassuringly expensive’. At the very least your pricing should be no lower than average. I usually advise you to be in the upper quartile. The more you specialise, the more you should price yourself above average.

Tip 4 - Be Professional

People that are buying consulting services want to be reassured that you know for definite that the consultant is a professional and knows their onions. People will make judgements about your abilities based on things as subtle as the way you dress, the contents of your finger nails, or whether you arrive early or late.

In order to have a long career as an independent consultant you need to act more like a professional and less like an employee. As a professional, you are more likely to be recommended and used again. For example, a professional does not string out projects or spend chargeable time surfing the internet.

Tip 5 - Develop a reputation

They say that the best jobs are never advertised and the same applies to consulting too. People that require expertise normally go to a trusted source in order to find the right advice. Trusted advisers rarely recommend anyone unless they are confident that the person will deliver. Part of that confidence will come from the fact that you are a specialist rather than a generalist.

The other factor that will make a difference is whether they know, like, and trust you as an individual. Getting to know other independent consultants is a good way to find potential work. You will probably need to meet many in order to find the few where there is good potential for you to be able to help each other.

If you follow the above tips then you can be sure a rewarding career as an independent consultant, both financially and in terms of job satisfaction.

About the Author

Richard White is managing director of Pro-Excellence, a company providing inspirational business development coaching and mentoring for business owners, reluctant sales people, and non-sales staff. For more information visit www.pro-excellence.com