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Successful Consulting: It's All About Professionalism
I have done consulting on and off since 1987. Along the way I've also had the opportunity to hire consulting firms to do tasks for companies I worked for or owned. It seems to me that what distinguishes successful consultants from unsuccessful consultants is simple: it's their Professionalism.
My 10 criteria for Professionalism as a Consultant.
- Do What You Say. If you tell a client that you'll have something ready by Thursday then it should be ready by Thursday. When you tell a client something you are making a committment to them. If you break it then you basically lied to them. (Yes, this is harsh, so is business) Sure there are always problems which leads us to #2.
- Be Upfront and Open about Problems. People are astonishly accepting when you are upfront and say "We have a problem. Here's the issue..." if it's not delivered in full at the last minute. If you are going to miss a deadline or even think you might then it's far, far better to give them a heads up early. Telling them at the last minute and then failing to make the deadline is unfair to your clients.
- Accessibility. In today's world people expect that a consultant is accessible to them. This just goes with the territory and it needs to be understood. We may not like carrying cell phones and pagers but it's a requirement. Or if you're inaccessible you let people know. What is awful for a client is to work with a consultant and just have them seemingly disappear.
- Documentation. Yes we all hate to document our work. Get over it. Documentation is huge for clients. I know they may not read it. That doesn't matter. One of the best things about documentation is that it forces you to think it through. What I've even started doing for new coding is writing the documentation first. If you've seen any of my www.phpbeginner.com articles, this is how I do it. Documentation doesn't have to be really hard either -- just a single text file listing all database tables, fields and script files is a huge time saver.
- Consistency. When a client has to take over a consultant's work (and it always happens sometime even if it's just for a bit) then if you're consistent it makes their life dramatically easier.
- Don't Look Like an Idiot. Here's an example. I was recently working with someone who was consulting for me. I asked him how do I reach you in an emergency. He said "here's my pager address". First time I tried it, it didn't work -- the email bounced. I know that it was right so my conclusion is that he's: Stupid / Lazy / Incompetent. Once again this is harsh -- I found out about it when he had disappeared and this was all I had to reach him.
- Anticipate Problems. When a client hires me I know that he's basically buying my knowledge on a project or ongoing basis. This doesn't just mean doing exactly what the project specs call for but also anticipating problems. Here's a real world example: I just got a new client and I added him into our standard site monitoring system that looks for problems. The client doesn't even know that we're proactively checking for them; it's just the right thing to do and we do it for our own sites so why not?
- Have the Guts to Tell the Client When He's Wrong. Meg wrote a far better essay on this than I could but it boils down to that clients do make mistakes and you need to have the guts to step up and let them know. They may or may not want to follow your advice (and that's fine) but you need to tell them. And be gentle, kind and use small words when you do.
- Never, Ever Make Your Clients Feel Stupid. Computer folk love to do this to people. We all spout techno-weenie jargon seemingly at will. But it really is a different world these days. Everyone is must more computer savvy and your client could well know more than you -- after all, you work for them, don't you? And just remember: "different from you" or "not a programmer" doesn't mean stupid.
- Get Money Up Front When You Start. If either you aren't willing to ask for money when you begin or the client isn't willing to give it them it's just not going to work. I ask for 20% to 25% up front. Even if you only get 1% you need to get something because this establishes it as "real" for both of you.
And the Definition of a Successful Consultant Is...
It's not about money, it's not about power and it's not about fame. It's all about customers that:
- Are willing to make positive comments about you
- Come back for more work
It really is just that simple. Consulting is all about making your customers happy.