Someone once promulgated a theory of how consultants are made. It goes something like this: “If you cannot ‘cut-it’ in the world, if you have a hard time doing ‘it’, go study it … become a student. If you’re not a very good student, then teach. If you cannot teach, consult.” The tough part of this view is that many of your potential consulting clients believe that’s how you got to the place you are, and it’s your job to convince them otherwise. Here are some positive things to do that can turn you from a serial consultant (one job at a time) into a master!

If you are in a sole-proprietor consulting business, or even a two or three person consultancy, your challenge is to keep busy enough to pay the bills and make a reasonable profit. When you reach the end of a project you know you’ve done an excellent job, and you know you can have a still greater impact on their firm; but you have to cover your expenses by going out and getting another client. What you would really like to do is expand your business … keep the old client and add a new one! What seems to happen is that every time you complete a job, you lose the client. Getting new clients is expensive. You review your services every time someone leaves to try to keep it from happening to the next client relationships, but mostly it doesn't work. What can you do? Begin by realizing that in general, clients think in one ‘box’ at a time. They want to solve ‘this one’ before moving on. When another problem arises, the look for another consulting firm, and if you’re not right there, you lose!

ASK THE RIGHT PERSON
So if you’re examining what you might have done to get that next job, you are asking the wrong person. You’re asking yourself. You may think you have a good "feel" for the factors of client satisfaction, but you are wrong. If you were right, your clients would stay with you, and they are not. Try asking your clients instead of relying on your perceptions. And don't just ask the clients who leave, ask those who stay with you why they stay. Items you consider very important in your relationship may be totally unimportant to your clients, and you may not even be addressing those items they feel are most important. Ask, ask, and ask again. The information you gather should be recorded in a ‘client profile’ report and used to recruit and develop new clients. Finally, you need to develop a new and different approach to obtaining and retaining clients. Here are four factors to include in this new approach.

TEAM APPROACH
You need a team. One great place to find team members is your local college where you can hire graduate students part-time at entry-level pay. This gives them real-world training, and it gives you a team. Assign one or two of these budding experts to a consultant team for each client. You and the team should meet periodically with the client even though only you may work directly on the project. Your client will appreciate the multi-talent input.

RESEARCH FOR TRUE NEEDS
This is a great task for students. Have them do the basic research on the challenges your client is trying to solve. The results should be an in-depth study that ends-up with a problem-solving picture of your client's needs. To make this work, check the questions verify the results with the client before you begin, and certainly before you suggest an action plan. A ‘needs-study’ not only pinpoints a current problem; but it sets the stage for follow-up consulting in other areas. Don’t forget to get signed confidentiality agreements from your student help.

SUGGEST SPECIFIC CLIENT SERVICES
Your student-generated profile report will tell you the factors important to your clients, now it's up to you as the consultant to turn those factors into suggested solutions. Don’t just lay a wad of paper on their desk; build your proposal one step at a time. Your task is to do more than discover the problem, your task is to outline a program that will solve the problem in a manner acceptable to the client; and of course, your firm will be the obvious one to guide or implement that solution.

PROSPECT COMMUNICATION
Both your clients and future prospects want to know if you’re on top of things in their industry. Get busy. Produce a regular monthly newsletter (hard copy, not e-mail), Include industry-generated reports when possible, and annotate them by hand. A ‘Hey Sam, here’s something you might want to implement in your business’ could land you a new contract! A personal note from you on any business-related topic is always appreciated. For current clients, regular weekly up-date phone calls will keep them informed and happy. For both current and past customers, birthday and anniversary cards tell him or her you recognize them as individuals, not just part of a corporation. Cut out and mail all references to your clients from newspaper or magazine articles to let him or her know you recognize their activities. Send these even if you know your client bought a stack of newspapers for their own use; your thoughtfulness will be noted and appreciated. Remember, firms don’t hire you, people do!

(NOTE TO EDITORS: PLEASE INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING.) Paul Tulenko is a Business Success Consultant based in New Mexico. Additional tips and suggestions are available at www.tulenko.com or call (toll-free) 1-866-TULENKO.