| I’ve been a management consultant for over
two decades, and I’ve been training
consultants since the publication
of my book, SIX-FIGURE CONSULTING,
in 1997.
There have always been problems
with traditional consulting, and
the training that is often performed
as part of it.
Here are a few:
(1) Incessant traveling.
My professor, Peter F. Drucker,
himself an internationally coveted
advisor, once remarked to me that
the chief problem a consultant
faces is that “The work is always
where you, aren’t.” Generally,
you have to fly to get there,
which means you have to work,
once there, for a period of days,
to recover the investment you’ve
made in traveling!
Check an ad for consultants at
Careerbuilder.com or at Monster.com
and under the “travel required”
portion, it can actually read,
“100% travel.” They’re not kidding!
(2) Your billable units are large.
I alluded to this above. You can’t
bill by the hour for a speech
that you’re going to deliver several
continents away. Believe me, it
doesn’t pencil out. So, again,
you charge, minimally by the day,
or by the project, or on a retainer.
And this leads to my next point.
(3) Your client list must stay
small.
If you spend a lot of time with
individual clients, how many can
you add? Not many! Therefore,
your range of experiences will
be fairly narrow, and your prospects
for profitability become limited,
as well.
(4) Your risk, when a client concludes
its work with you, is relatively
high.
What if, for some reason, a calamity
befalls one of your few clients?
This can utterly destabilize your
income.
(5) You always face a feast-or-famine
problem.
I note this prominently in my
seminars that I run for consultants,
at UCLA Extension, and elsewhere.
With full slate of clients, when
will you find the time to market
for new ones? And when you need
to market, actually bringing clients
aboard competes with marketing!
Coaching is a happy alternative
for road weary, road warriors.
For the most part, coaching is
done locally, and this is a huge
plus, and its impact is systemic.
Because it’s local, you can sell
your time in smaller units, making
your help affordable to a much
larger audience.
You can always reserve at least
some of your time for marketing,
if only that usually uncompensated
time driving to and from airports,
sitting in terminals and on planes,
and checking in and out of hotels.
Your energy reserves are higher
because you can work out, consistently
at your home gym, or at local
clubs and courts and tracks. You’re
sleeping in your bed, with your
pillow!
And, replacing clients and adding
them are really no big deal.
Finally, you can grow your coaching
practice because you are in town.
Your trainees will be here, and
they can tag along to client sites
with you, learning faster and
more cheaply than you could ever
do it by having to travel.
In future articles I’ll explore
more of the differences between
the consulting and coaching models,
and their relative advantages.
Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President
of Customersatisfaction.com, is
a popular keynote speaker, management
consultant, and seminar leader
and the best-selling author of
12 books, including Reach Out
& Sell Someone® and Monitoring,
Measuring & Managing Customer
Service. He is a frequent guest
on radio and television, worldwide.
A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School,
Gary offers programs through UCLA
Extension and numerous universities,
trade associations, and other
organizations in the United States
and abroad. He is headquartered
in Glendale, California, and he
can be reached at (818) 243-7338
or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.
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