“How do I get started in consulting?” a retired CEO and newly minted business book author recently asked me.
“The first thing you need to do,” I told him, “is buy two books by Alan Weiss: Million Dollar Consulting and Getting Started in Consulting.”
In fact, I told him, Weiss has just released a revised edition of the classic Getting Started in Consulting, a book he originally wrote in 2000.
“In these ensuing years we’ve seen 3-D printing, the retirement of the 747 jumbo jet, Donald Trump elected president against all predictions, Global Entry speeding the immigration process, strategies formerly taking six months to formulate and covering five years obsolete, the iPhone X, Tesla, kale as a routine food offering, the admonition that health-care workers must wash their hands to prevent the spread of illness, a huge recession and an unprecedented economic recovery, and the New England Patriots playing in three more Super Bowls and winning two of them,” wrote Weiss in the introduction to the book’s fourth edition.
There are four types of information a book can contain: new information, more information, better information, or different information. I have always admired the Weiss approach of being a contrarian, of offering different information. While I have enjoyed other books on consulting, the Weiss approach has helped me have impact and influence and put money in my bank account.
If you have heard Weiss speak or attended one of his workshops, as I have on several occasions, you know he can be provocative. That’s part of his contrarian brand, I reckon. I have found he is generous in advice, and his books prove this out.
He is the real deal when it comes to business consulting and professional speaking. He demonstrates everything he teaches. His consulting firm, Summit Consulting Group, Inc., has attracted clients such as Merck, Hewlett-Packard, GE, Mercedes-Benz, State Street Corporation, the Times Mirror Company, the Federal Reserve, the New York Times Company, and over 400 other leading organizations.
His speaking typically includes 20 keynotes a year at major conferences (I have booked him myself), and he has been a visiting faculty member at many universities. He has held an appointment as adjunct professor in the College of Business at the University of Rhode Island, where he taught courses on advanced management and consulting skills.
To make it in business consulting, Weiss offers that mindset will determine your success. You are not selling services, you are marketing the fact that you offer value to businesses. Your mindset must be about the value you bring to the ideal economic buyers of the consulting.
What’s an ideal economic buyer? According to Weiss, it is a business executive that you want to work for who can sign or authorize a check to pay for your value—as opposed to lower-level people (gatekeepers) who can say “no” but cannot say “yes.”
An ideal buyer, says Weiss, is an “economic buyer who is most likely to appreciate your particular value more than all other buyers.”
Just understanding that nugget alone can make the difference between success and failure when you are getting started in consulting.
