Industrial Management Consultants – Who Are They and What Do They Do?

Often industrial management consultants are asked what a consultant is and what do they do. This can be tricky if the expert hasn’t actually prepared themselves to answer this specific question. Lets begin with what a consultant is, according to wiki; from the Latin ‘consultare’ means “to discuss” from which we also derive words such as consul and counsel) is a professional who provides advice in a particular area of expertise such as management. Now to me that’s a simple and excellent explanation in regards to what a consultant is.

Essentially they are an expert who offers their advice, because they either have significant experience or expertise that lends to their high level of credibility as an expert. Now as to what a consultant does and how they do it that’s where this conversation spreads like the spokes in a wheel. Begin by thinking of their expertise which we will – just for an illustration – is at the center of a wheel.

Now each expert has several methods in which they deliver there expertise, some deliver it online with webinars. Some deliver it through on site visits, and some deliver it through products such as books and training DVD’s. The most successful consultants utilize several of the methods discussed above, but they usually fall back on the network and delivery methods they used while developing that expertise. For example if they were Technicians whom traveled to many parts of the country to troubleshoot machines.

Then they will likely have built quite a contact list which they would use when they decide to jump into the consulting arena they will likely feel more comfortable traveling to and from sites around the country. Therefore they are likely to offer on-site training classes as a result.

As a matter of fact from a business point of view its probably the best route for the to build their practice, there’s very little learning curve by doing what your already good at in a niche you already have significant experience in.

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Process Consulting – Announcing 4 Amazing and Powerful Methods to Grow Your Consulting Business

Many people feel unaware of what a process consultant does. This business position helps a group accomplish goals by observing how the team works. He does not suggest ideas about how to solve the group’s problems. Instead, a consultant thoroughly understands conflict resolution and how to use it for leadership development and effective group dynamics. The consultant observes group dynamics and notes the various differences in interpersonal relationships that may result in future conflict. Announcing 4 amazing and powerful methods to grow your process consulting.

1. Process consultants have a psychology degree and are trained in small group learning. As a consultant, develop your reputation for being an active listener. People learn that you can help people maneuver and adapt to a specific environment or situation. When people get hung up on being right (even when they are wrong) a consultant can help the conflicted players see things differently so they can move forward instead of being stuck.

2. Focus on helping the involved people change their focus to moving forward instead of staying stuck. Slow business decisions can reduce profits. Adaptability and effective and quick decision making can be the difference between success and business failure.

3. Timely business decision-making requires that people gather and disseminate relevant information for any given decision’s purpose. Training people to take pride in their work, they will gather and disseminate relevant information to achieve goals.

4. Business needs to move forward. Make sure all involved parties understand their job responsibilities. This will improve the situation all the way around.

Avoid Higher Computer Consultant Costs by Using 11 Point Checklist

How well your computer consultant understands your business computer requirements determine your total computer consulting costs by minimizing midstream changes, corrections and additions. Things not fully clarified can get altered or totally omitted, requiring more costly labor to correct or redesign.

Don’t leave it to chance. Here is a checklist that covers the key areas to clarify for yourself and your computer consultant before discussion starts:

A list of the things you need to keep track of in your database and how they relate to each other is a good start but here is a more complete list to make sure nothing is falls between the cracks between you and your computer consultant.

1. What are your major categories of data and what specific data is stored under each category. Listing out your various business processes, and the steps required to accomplish them will help answer this.

2. How will want to filter your data to get a just what you need for a report or a screen view.

3. Any examples of reports or other output you may need or are currently using. (Microsoft Word can be used to illustrate a report design.)

4. Define what data validation or business rules are needed during data entry.

5. Any special requirements involving linking to or importing data from data sources outside of your business software.

6. Any financial accounting requirements or other legal / liability issues requiring additional data storage and output.

7. What kind of hardware system exists and is anyone supporting this.

8. Will data access require any remote access permissions?

9. The level of security access required for various areas of data viewing and editing among the individuals given permissions.

10. Current data entry media and formats currently being used if any exist.

11. Any data migration requirements from existing data sources, such as available formats form these sources

I can tell you that a consultant’s time might not always be billable on that first consultation, but he or she will appreciate the business owner who is prepared and can answer these basic questions.

I have found that it’s rare that a business owner is sufficiently prepared to start a discussion in this area unless these points have been thought out.

If you have had any experiences with computer business consultants that went sour or did not meet expectations, your comments and lessons learned are welcome. We all need to learn more about this vital area and that includes me.

High Priced Consulting – 4 High Impact Secrets to Sell Your High Ticket Consulting Online

The internet is your best ally when selling your high priced consulting services as this remains to be the most effective marketing tool. Here’s how you can sell your consulting online:

1. Talk about your high priced consulting on your home page. Make sure that the first thing that your potential clients will see when they visit your website is your consulting information. Create a bullet list of all the topics that you will discuss and the benefits that you can offer to those people who sign up.

2. Offer free trial. You can entice more people to sign up by offering them free trial. Give them your first couple of sessions for free so they can gauge if they really need your offerings. Your goal here is to impress these people and make them feel that your consulting services are really helpful in reaching their goals.

3. Forums and blogs. Invade blogs and forums that are often visited by your target market. Then, talk about your consulting program without resorting to blatant ads. Make sure that you come back everyday as your prospects might have questions for you.

4. Article marketing. If you don’t have any problem writing articles, this marketing tool will really do wonder for you. Write articles that are closely relevant to your consulting business and submit them online. Through this, you can offer your prospects with free information and you’ll have inbound links for your website. As you know, these are the two elements that can boost your traffic in no time.

The Best Consulting – Consulting Tips

Here are some tips that you need to keep in mind to excel in the field of consulting:

1. Don’t stop learning. Consulting is one of the most competitive fields these days. Thus, you need to have an edge or advantage over your competitors. Don’t get content with what you know. Instead, exert conscious effort to increase your knowledge on your chosen niche. Read relevant books and published materials on a regular basis. You can also do your research online and visit relevant websites, read ebooks, or take advantage of online seminars and trainings.

2. It’s all about your clients. The problem with other consultants is that they make their consulting sessions all about them and about the things they know. If you want to impress your clients, you will need to take another route. Make your consulting sessions all about the people that you are serving. Give them all the time they need when they talk about themselves and their problems. Then, give them all they need and if needed, go out of your way just to make sure that you impress them.

3. Mediums. As you are going up against a lot of consultants, I recommend that you make it hassle-free for your potential clients to enjoy your services. You can do this by using all mediums to reach out to as many people as possible. Aside from doing face-to-face consulting, you can also offer your expert advice through email or through video-based programs. You can also use the internet or your phone to serve those people who want to learn in the comforts of their own home or office.

How to Pick Your Internet Marketing Consultants

Running an internet marketing campaign is more work that it is actually thought out to be. There is more to a marketing campaign done through the internet than just having a website. Oftentimes, business owners do not want to be bothered by the nitty-gritty of running online marketing campaigns. That is why marketing consultants and service providers for businesses with internet presence are fast becoming popular.

Aside from the creative aspect of website design, consultants for internet marketing campaigns offer other services such as search engine optimization, link building, web content generation, and campaign analysis among others. These consultants can be hired to handle most aspects of online marketing campaigns. All the business owner has to do is to give them the general direction of the company as well as provide the budget for the campaigns. These consultants often work in tandem with a company’s marketing and advertising department.

When choosing your internet marketing consultant, make sure that you do your research. There are a lot of providers in the internet and some of them can turn out to me a misfit to your company’s objectives. Choose a consultant that you can trust to implement your campaigns for you. If budget is a consideration, choose one that has low service fees but can deliver innovative ideas for your marketing campaign. Some legitimate sites would even be affiliated with professional associations or have the necessary accreditation from a related industry agency. Choose your consultant wisely as they will serve as an extension of your company. More importantly, their work in your website has a great impact to the way your company is perceived by your general audience.

How to Market Your Independent Telecom Business Consulting Services On-Line

How do you get more paying customers?

This is the single most often asked question of me, hundreds, if not thousands of times over the 35 + years of my telecom career beginning in 1964 in Canada, and USA.

More recently, over the past 5 years while building a full time internet marketing business on line, these are the kinds of questions that have dominated in spite of the information overload of our technological times.

->> How do you effectively implement all the things involved to successfully market your own independent telecom business online.

->> How do you decide when to stop marketing campaigns that are not producing specific profitable results.

->> How do you get more new clients , and keep them

If you have been around telecom, and on line business at all, you already know there are many books and services about marketing available, but you always find lots of disconnected information about the topic when you search for your answers.

Specifically when you search for information about independent telecom consulting, you find little information except sales pitches by “Telecom Consulting Companies” touting their service and often their real business “selling telecom products”

I may be wrong, but it appears that a lot of telecom professionals have ended up trading their corporate career for an affiliation with yet another corporation as a “independent contractor” at some enormous startup or ongoing fee, rather than creating an independent business for themselves.

That is understandable, after all you were running the show, and as an independent telecom consultant found yourself unwilling or unable to gather the necessary support you needed to run any kind of serious marketing program and run your business at the same time.

There were mailings to do, web sites to build, advertising to plan, and presentations to clients to attend to, as well as do the actual technical work that you excel at

Without support, running a profitable consulting business can actually absorb all those hours and days you had dreamed about for leisure time.

What is your most burning question about what it takes to succeed in marketing your own telecom consulting business?

A Different Spin on Consultative Selling

Consultative Selling and its cousin, SPIN selling, are newer generations of the “Needs Selling” of the 1960′s. They have been in vogue with salespeople for almost two decades – with good reason. In today’s business climate, Information Overload isn’t just a buzzword; people are overwhelmed with data. They may welcome assistance in tuning out the noise in order to tune into a viable solution to their problems. A concerned, helpful salesperson may understandably be embraced as an Advisor or Consultant.

The Consultative Selling Process appears well-suited to the needs and challenges of today’s customers. Yet, in my opinion, consultative selling is most often implemented in such a way that it’s merely a new name for the same old manipulative sales games.

Let’s start with nomenclature: A salesperson who refers to her- self as an Advisor or Consultant is essentially misrepresenting her true agenda – to earn a commission. A salesperson’s primary objective is NOT to ‘help’ her clients and customers- she wants to make money. If receiving money for her sales efforts were not possible, she would be doing some other kind of work.

Real consultants and advisors charge a fee for their advice. Good advisors make *their client’s* best interests paramount. How many salespeople frequently advise their clients not to buy their product or service, or to buy from their competitors?

By implication, advising encompasses full disclosure, including warnings about the ‘down’ sides of choosing an option. Most salespeople are very good at explaining the features and benefits of their products and services. How many salespeople disclose the detriments as well – without a prospect’s prompting? Those salespeople say that their job is to emphasize the positives. Some even acknowledge that they are telling “half-truths”. However, it is deceptive and unethical to “lie by omission”. For the typical salesperson, it’s just “part of the game.”

This same old sales game is often dressed up as “Probing for Problems and Solutions” in order to help the prospect. In reality, anything we sell must meet some of the prospect’s needs. It may be an explicit business need, such as reducing the volume of paperwork, or an executive’s implicit want, such as possessing the latest “must-have” gadget. There’s nothing wrong with selling something that someone wants to buy. However, it is deceptively manipulative to “probe for hidden problems” and “identify hidden pain” without disclosing your intentions, which are to *persuade* a prospect that your product or service will alleviate their newly discovered Pain. Furthermore, it is a very difficult and ineffective way to sell.

There is no probing for hidden needs in High Probability Selling. We won’t even give prospects an appointment if they merely know what their needs are, and are “really interested” in meeting with us. In High Probability Selling, we distinguish between Want and Need.

A small portion of the universe of businesses and/or people will need our product/service in the relatively near future. Those that want our product/service- right now- are High Probability Prospects. We will schedule appointments with them now.

Those who will want our product in the future are part of the viable prospect universe. Many of them will become High Probability Prospects in their own time, for their own reasons. The essential difference between Consultative Selling and High Probability Selling is that we don’t attempt to persuade, convince, or manipulate those prospects into Wanting. Selling that way almost always results in low closing averages. Although many may need what we’re selling, most will not buy until they decide they Want It Now. It’s not just semantics- a prospect either wants what we’re selling, or they don’t.

Another distinction between High Probability Selling and “consultative selling’” is Total Disclosure. In HPS, honesty and transparency are core tenets of the sales process. We trust and respect prospects, and require that prospects treat us with trust and respect as well. Practically speaking, we divulge the detriments as well as the benefits of our product/service. In turn, prospects must fully disclose their Wants, or requirements for doing business. At each step of the sales process, the prospect explicitly states their conditions for doing business, and agrees to purchase, if we can meet their requirements.

Ironically, salespeople who implement High Probability Selling usually act as advisors. Like a trusted advisor, High Probability salespeople practice total disclosure, divulging both the strengths and weaknesses of their offerings. Because we never pressure prospects into becoming buying customers, the selling process is relatively stress-free, as dealing with a trusted consultant should be.

What kind of salesperson are you? If you’re still pressuring and manipulating, this is probably reflected in your low closing rate. You may be playing the same old sales game while dressing yourself up as a Consultant. Maybe it’s time for you to get real about who you are and what you do.

Copyright 2006 High Probability Selling

How an SEO Consultant Can Help Your Business With SEO and PPC

An SEO consultant can not only handle your SEO needs but they will often have expertise in PPC advertising as well. Combining both these promotions will help you to increase your profits and get ahead of your competition.

They will help you in optimizing your site in the following ways:

  • Meta tags: Meta tags will help the search engine spiders or bots to index your website. If you do these correctly it will help you to get a better position in the search engines.
  • Optimize content: optimizing content is placing the keyword, or keyword phrase, for your article correctly so that you have from 3% to 4% keyword density in the article. This is acceptable for the search engine spiders to pick them up and will help you to get a better position in the search engines.
  • Keywords: keywords and phrases are important in getting a good position in the search engines. An SEO consultant will help you to choose the best ones for your site.
  • Linking: linking plays a key role in Page Rank and good positioning on the search engines. This is especially true for back links. An SEO consultant can help you to get quality back links to raise your Page Rank and be indexed well in the search engines.

An SEO consultant can help you with PPC in the following ways:

  • Find the correct keywords: keywords are a critical factor in pay per click advertising campaigns. The choice of keywords will determine the success of your campaigns.
  • Set up campaigns: setting up a campaign can be a little tricky and if you hire a consultant to do this you will be assured that it is done correctly. They will write the correct PPC ads for you, based on your main keyword or phrase for the campaign. Added to this they can make multiple ads and split test them to make sure which keyword or phrase is doing well and which ad is pulling the best.
  • Choose correct bids: bidding is sometimes confusing. This will determine the position of your ad. Knowing which keywords are pulling best and bidding on them to adjust their position can be tricky. If this is not done correctly you can lose a lot of money and make only a few sales. An SEO consultant will understand the bidding and adjust it according to keyword performance.
  • Maintain campaigns: it is very important to keep a vigilant eye on your PPC campaigns or you can lose a lot of money. Keyword performance is critical and it is important to keep an eye on your competition to get ahead of them. An SEO consultant is aware of all the parts of the campaign that need to be watched and will be able to take care of this for you.

In order to make the most out of these promotions it is necessary to be careful in your selection of an SEO consultant. Be sure they are reputable and are using white hat tactics to optimize your site. Do your research into their performance. If you can talk to them on a one on one basis about your business’s special needs this will be very good, as every business has unique needs, and the consultant will be able to discuss those needs with you.

How to Find an IT Consulting Company

Whether you need a major Web site overhaul, customized software or networking solutions, finding the right IT consulting company to handle your needs is key to producing the desired results and ultimately positively impacting your bottom line.

Finding a professional that delivers what they promise can sometimes feel like finding a needle in a haystack. If you are considering hiring an IT consulting company, conducting some background research can save you time and money in the long run.

First, it is a good idea to ask the consultant for multiple references and then be sure to call the references and follow up on them. Ask the references about the results they experienced and if the consultant was easy to work with. Also find out if they experienced any problems in dealing with the individual. If they have, ask for specific examples.

In many circumstances, it’s typically safer to work with someone that you sought out as opposed to someone that cold called you. While there are reputable consultants that engage in marketing and cold calling, most good consultants are typically too busy with referral business to cold call for new business.

Take the time to learn exactly what services the IT consultant is offering to you prior to seriously considering hiring them. Review proposals and contracts or agreements carefully, and be sure they spell out what services are included.

Any reputable IT consulting company will either have a consulting services agreement on hand or should not object to signing the contract you produce, once it is reviewed and agreed upon. IT consulting contracts are essential prior to entering into any type of business relationship with the company. This agreement will define the terms of the relationship between you and the consultant.

What it protects

IT consulting contracts and other consulting agreement contracts or statements of work, specifically define the terms of the working agreement and specify the work the contractor is to perform for your company. The contractor’s responsibilities to you are clearly outlined and payment terms are determined. Below are common provisions that are essential components of the contract as well as a general outline for what a statement of work should look like.

Agreement provisions:

* Scope of Services
* Price and Payment Terms
* Term and Termination
* Ownership of Intellectual Property
* Confidential Information
* Warranty and Disclaimer
* Limitation of Remedies
* Limitation of Liability
* Relation of Parties
* Employee Solicitation/Hiring
* Miscellaneous Provisions

General outline for statements of work:

* Preamble
* Project Background
* Scope
* Key Tasks and Milestones
* Project Deliverables
* Time and Cost Estimates
* Price and Payment
a. Invoices
b. Payment
* Project Organization and Personnel Requirements
* Supporting Documentation
* Expenses

Before hiring an IT consultant to provide services to one of the vital components of your business – your computer or your network – be sure to verify their credibility and have a solid contract in place. E-mails, oral agreements and other informal agreements will not provide you protection should the service not be delivered as promised.