October, 2017

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How to Win the 1st Project with a New Consulting Client

David A Fields

Capturing follow-on business from current clients is relatively easy. But how does your consulting firm win that crucial, first project at a new client? By offering an irresistible PIE. The most powerful force in any type of employment, whether contract (i.e., outsourcing or hiring a consulting firm), part-time or full-time, is the trust cycle.

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Selling to Government: Understand the basic rules of engagement

Jacq Hackett Consulting

For new consultants, getting your foot in the door with government organisations can seem challenging. But understanding some of the rules of engagement will help you to win business.

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The Key to Developing Clarity On Your Ideal Clients

Consulting Success

Transcript. Let’s talk about ideal clients for a moment and the importance of honing in and being clear as to who your ideal client is. You want to set up a very clear and specific set of criteria. The most effective marketing is marketing that polarizes. You don’t want to and shouldn’t want to try and attract the majority of the market place.

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Networking for Consulting Internships

Management Consulted

Networking. For many people, it’s the most dreaded part of applying for consulting internships (or really just any role inside of a consulting firm). But if you think networking is a sleazy, exaggerated sales job pulled off only by the … Continued. The post Networking for Consulting Internships appeared first on Management Consulted.

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PowerPoint Best Practices for Creating Stellar Presentations

Mastering data visualization in PowerPoint will help accelerate your career because it positions you as someone who can present data that drives business decisions forward. think-cell's PowerPoint Best Practices eBook was created specifically for professionals aiming to master the art and science of data-driven storytelling. What’s inside: Practical Insights: Uncover valuable tips for crafting engaging and persuasive presentations.

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Don’t Forget the Heart

Markovitz Consulting

Three days at the AME Conference in Boston showed me that there’s no shortage of skilled, knowledgeable, continuous improvement professionals who can teach their colleagues the intricacies of lean. Three days at the AME Conference also showed me that we should spend less time focusing on lean tools and techniques, and more time telling stories that reach the heart.

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10 Tips to Write the Perfect, Client-Attracting White Paper for Your Consulting Firm

David A Fields

You’ve decided to write a white paper because you’re a serious, deep-thinking, knowledgeable consultant. How do you make that effort yield eager clients lining up to work with your consulting firm? You know you can attract clients to your consulting firm with well placed, pithy articles.

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Are you struggling with scope creep?

Jacq Hackett Consulting

Managing project scope is one of those tricky issues that tends to keep consultants up at night. Here are five tips to manage your client’s expectations about project scope.

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Mindset Mistake of Established Consultants

Consulting Success

Transcript. Today I want to talk with you about a mindset that is incredibly important for established consultants. The mindset is what I call Foot on the Pedal. It becomes very important when your consulting business is taking off, when things are going well, when you have plenty of clients and plenty of opportunities surrounding you. The foot on the pedal mindset is essential.

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The Promise and Peril of Big Data

Tom Spencer

‘Big data’ is a term that describes the vast amounts information being collected and processed as the world’s technological prowess grows at an astonishing rate. What differentiates big data from regular old data is the three v’s, velocity, variety, and volume. Velocity describes the speed at which the information is initially received, transferred, and processed into a usable form for analysis.

Data 68
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How to Stay Competitive in the Evolving State of Martech

Marketing technology is essential for B2B marketers to stay competitive in a rapidly changing digital landscape — and with 53% of marketers experiencing legacy technology issues and limitations, they’re researching innovations to expand and refine their technology stacks. To help practitioners keep up with the rapidly evolving martech landscape, this special report will discuss: How practitioners are integrating technologies and systems to encourage information-sharing between departments and pr

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Are Companies Following "2 Second Lean" Really Doing Lean?

Markovitz Consulting

A reader questioned my post about the lean conference I recently attended where everyone was a rabid adherent of Paul Akers’s 2 Second Lean philosophy. He wondered whether these companies are truly practicing lean, or just kaizen. In fact, he argued that perhaps Paul should be calling it “2 Second Kaizen” rather than “2 Second Lean.” He has a point.

Company 113
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Replacing A to B with ABC for More Successful Initiatives

SchellingPoint

Follow. ( 5 Followers ). X. Follow. E-mail : *. Follow. Unfollow. The post Replacing A to B with ABC for More Successful Initiatives appeared first on SchellingPoint Website.

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Step-by-Step Directions for a Low-Stress, High-Margin Consulting Firm

David A Fields

You want a consulting firm that funnels more profit into your pockets with less time and stress. One key to that happy result is easy, in theory, but the details may be a bit murky. This article provides more clarity and direction. In case you didn’t hear, we lost one of America’s sales geniuses recently.

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Don’t do everything yourself

Jacq Hackett Consulting

Being a solo consultant doesn’t mean you have to do everything yourself. In fact, you shouldn’t. Of course, you need to take responsibility for all the core consulting tasks – those tasks that require your high-level expertise, your thinking, your credibility. But for a host of other things, get help. When I first started out as a consultant eighteen years ago, the options for outsourcing were so limited that I had no choice but to do almost everything myself.

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Savings Consultants Are Needed in Today's Market More Than Ever

Savings Consultants are needed in today’s market more than ever. With an increase in expenses, businesses are looking for opportunities to save. Often unknown to businesses are savings in expense reduction, specialized tax savings, specialized savings including medical underpayments, health benefits cost reduction, zero cost processing, and more. Blue Coast Savings, with over 20 years in business, assists Savings Consultants in helping these companies move toward more profitable businesses.

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Diversify and Create Multiple Income Streams as a Consultant with Dorie Clark: Podcast #11

Consulting Success

Multiply and protect your income streams by expanding your skills, expertise, and presence in the consulting world. Description: Dorie Clark has transformed herself from a grad school reject to an expert in her field. She is a marketing strategy consultant, professional speaker, and frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review. The New York Times described her as an “expert at self-reinvention and helping others make changes in their lives.

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3 Essentials For Getting Your Company To Embrace The Future

Clarity Consultants

There is one thing that consistently holds companies back in their efforts to achieve goals and grow. That thing is an unwillingness to let the past be the past, and to openly embrace the future. The world is changing very rapidly, from a changing workforce to changing customer expectations. What led to business success years ago will no longer do the trick.

Company 67
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Going Gray: When did my hair become part of my resume?

Women in Consulting

:: I wrote this blog in the spring, but only had the nerve to post it after reading an article on the same topic in yesterday’s New York Times. Author and age activist Ashton Applewhite’s call to action is the same as mine: “Rather than hiding from age, supposing women embraced it by not trying to look younger than their years. That might help remove the stigma of aging.” I remember the day I decided enough is enough…my hair dresser politely suggested that I needed to start c

Resumes 59
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How to Cultivate Leadership That Is Honed to Solve Problems

Strategy+Business

When you have a wicked problem, where there is no obvious solution, challenge-driven leadership may work. The approach, pioneered at technology-oriented institutions such as MIT, brings together people with deep expertise, without the trappings of leadership, to handle challenges they find interesting.

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TOOLS and METHODOLOGIES for developing DECISION SUPPORT PACKAGES

This White Paper targets opportunities for Management to develop proficiency in the Decision Framing and Analyses element of input to Decision, & Risk Analyses for Major Project Funding Decisions.

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Why It’s Good You Didn’t Review Your Consulting Firm’s Goals Today

David A Fields

Maybe you scanned your business bucket list this morning, or maybe you glanced at your consulting firm’s annual goals last Monday… or maybe not. Does it matter? Of course. Let’s talk about the right time to review your goals. Is there a right time to be responsive to your clients? Yes: any time you’re working.

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Are you struggling with scope creep?

Jacq Hackett Consulting

If your small business is a consultancy practice, then you’ll very likely be working in a project-based environment – pitching for and conducting short-medium term projects. You need to really hone your project management skills if you’re going to make a success of it. Managing project scope is one of those tricky issues that tends to keep consultants up at night.

Course 136
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Landing Your Next Six-Figure Project with Adam Cooper: Podcast #12

Consulting Success

Pricing projects based on the value they deliver — instead of the time you spend on them — will allow you to increase your fees. Description: Adam started out as an electrical apprentice while in college pursuing an electrical engineering degree. After 20 years in construction management, he decided to make the leap to consulting, as a way to give back to the construction and contracting community.

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Consulting rule #1: no surprises!

Killer Consultant

As promised – in this video, I talk about consulting rule #1: no surprises. If you are interested, I can share the slides that I show in the video, as well. Just hit me up in the comments!

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Why You Need to Use Case Studies in Sales and Marketing (and How to Start Now)

Case studies are proof of successful client relations and a verifiable product or service. They persuade buyers by highlighting your customers' experiences with your company and its solution. In sales, case studies are crucial pieces of content that can be tailored to prospects' pain points and used throughout the buyer's journey. In marketing, case studies are versatile assets for generating business, providing reusable elements for ad and social media content, website material, and marketing c

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This Week’s To Do List – WIC Silent Auction

Women in Consulting

:: Don’t forget the WIC October general meeting this Thursday the 19th where you can learn how to make more money and spend some at the same time. A panel discussion about scaling your consulting practice based upon the annual WIC survey grounds the evening, but there’s plenty of fun with a silent auction as well. Check out the catalog of cool auction items that address the needs of the mind, body and soul and, of course, jewelry and bags too.

Survey 54
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The Real Value of Your Company

Strategy+Business

Executives pay too much attention to something they can't directly control: their company's share price. But they do control the decisions -- the inputs to business performance -- that affect the intrinsic value of the company. Make the right decisions to increase intrinsic value and your share price will follow. You can do this by focusing your attention on three factors: investor expectations (embedded in your current share price), how value is created and consumed in your industry, and your o

Company 65
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A 5-Step Plan to Get More Leads for Your Consulting Firm

David A Fields

In consulting, the size of your network matters. Whether you’re making rain for a $40k startup or a $40m boutique consulting firm, one of your challenges is increasing your pool of prospects—contacts who could become lucrative, long-term clients.

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Don’t do everything yourself

Jacq Hackett Consulting

Being a solo consultant doesn't mean you have to do everything yourself. In fact, you shouldn't.

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The Art of Remote Collaboration: How to Successfully Whiteboard with Remote Teams

Just because we're working with a distributed team doesn't mean we have to abandon time-tested tools and methods like whiteboarding. Digital look-alikes often cramp creativity and all but eliminate the humanity of shared interactions. Hardware solutions are also limiting and, of course, expensive and immobile. In an increasingly digital and remote-first world, it’s important for us to select tools and processes that allow us to mitigate if not eliminate the above problems.