10 tips for newbies in the Consulting business to maximize their productivity
Estrategya ME
We are driven to deliver practical solutions to our clients—custom solutions that are holistic and sustainable.
Gone are the days where a new consultant would just show up at an office and find themselves feeling lost. With so many different options for whom to work with, getting started can be tricky. The following are some tips to help get you on your way. When taking over a project, it is important to understand your new client’s requirements. If you are not sure of what the client is looking for, make sure to ask. You will want to make sure that you are on the same page before you start working. Breaking down a project into milestones can be a great way to get started. We found that we were able to get a lot of work done in a shorter amount of time.
One of the most important aspects of any project is to get started on time.
To that end, here's a quick list of actions to help get you started on a new project. Follow the 10 steps listed below and you’ll be a management maven in no time:
1. Set up Google Alerts for your client and its competitors
Utilize Google Alerts to make sure you are in tune with what your client and its competitors are doing.
You can set up alerts for your client and its competitors to make sure you see the best work first. Use the filters to create alerts for keywords, and you’ll be able to make sure you stay on top of new projects with ease.
This is an absolute must. Google Alerts feed you the latest online information (collected primarily from news sites and blogs) related to?keywords that you specify.
Set up these alerts for your client and its top 3 competitors.
This will help you stay current on client and industry developments, which will come in handy through the project. Many people are too preoccupied to do this regularly, and it’s a?quick win?for new consultants to add value.
2. Know basic financial data for your client and its competitors.
Analyzing the financial data for your client and its competitors will help you understand the company’s budget, financial goals and overall business strategy. This understanding will help you work with your client and its competitors on aligning the project with the company’s strategy.
I can’t tell you the number of times basic questions like “What’s Client X’s total annual revenue?” have come up in internal discussions.
You want to be the one that can provide an accurate answer, as opposed to “Oh, I think it’s something like $10-20 billion…let me check.”
Some key numbers include:
Memorizing them doesn’t take long. It will come in handy.
3. Familiarize yourself with the client CEO and senior management
In my experience, being able to connect with a client CEO or senior management is key to getting projects done as quickly as possible.
The more you know about them, the easier it will be to pitch ideas and work collaboratively. It’s also a good idea to get some biographical info on them: job description, key achievements, what they enjoy about their job, etc.
These things are simply a bonus, but I’ve seen the best consultants get the most out of doing the least work. There are tons of other things you can do to get familiar with the client, but these things are the most important. Keep them in mind, and you can start to build a strong network of relationships with the most important people in your client’s company. 4. Know your client’s business and bottom line
Here’s a quick cheat sheet. While it’s not comprehensive, it should get you started on the right track.
There are many stories of newbie consultants having a casual conversation with an employee in the company cafeteria, only to realize a week later that it was an Executive VP. Don’t let this happen to you.
You can find most executive profiles on the?client website. Read them thoroughly and become familiar with the faces. Not only will it prevent foul-ups like the above, but it will also help you understand and?manage client relationships.
4. Familiarize yourself with the competitors
After all, being a consultant is about helping your client. You want to keep a clear head and not be distracted by the competition.
What you want to do is familiarize yourself with the company’s top competitors and understand what they are doing well and not so well. You’ll also want to know what the company’s strategic and financial plans are. Being at the right place, at the right time with the right product to the right customer is the key to success.
This shouldn’t take more than a few hours. Simply have a grasp on the following:
-Who are the?top 5-10 competitors
–Relative sizes?(eg, number of employees, overall revenues)
–Key products/services?(especially what differentiates each competitor from the client)
-General grasp of their strengths and weaknesses
Good ways to get a quick handle on this include:
-Internal firm research reports (if available)
-Analyst reports (eg, JP Morgan, Credit Suisse, etc)
-Yahoo! Finance
Periodically review this information to make sure you’re fresh. While it’s important to know this info, it’s even more important that you don’t confuse one competitor with another.
Don’t ignore the?small, innovative guys. The best way to identify them is to scour?Google?and?Techcrunch?for your client’s name and industry-related keywords. Staying current on innovative practices is one way to be a thought leader
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5. Store the contact information for all people on your team, especially partners
You will need their contact information at a moment’s notice, which is why it’s important to have it in a?database.
Available through your firm intranet/database. Program the following into your smartphone for all involved parties, from interns to senior partners:
-Cellphone number
-Office number (if available)
-Email address
-Secretary email and direct line (if applicable)
Some of you may think this is overdoing it. But on every 2-month project, there will be at least 2 times where a client meeting is about to start, the partner can’t be found, and no one has immediate laptop access. This is when having all those numbers programmed into your phone?comes in very handy.
It’s especially likely when you have multiple partners, visiting “experts”, and rotating teams.
6. Thoroughly review previous client-related work
How much of their work is good? How much of it is bad? Will it impact your reputation with them? Will it impact your reputation with your firm? Will it be a hassle to fix?
Most consulting firms have internal “knowledge libraries” that store information about past projects and the firm’s latest thinking.
When you’re starting a project, you should mine that library for information related to your client, its competitors, and even functionally similar projects (eg, if this is your first cost-reduction case, you’ll find plenty of?introductory material?on running a cost-reduction project including examples of analyses, suggest output, etc).
Pay very close attention to the work that’s been done before – this will help your team avoid re-creating the wheel (which can happen surprisingly often).
You should also review the “sales documents” that led to the project, including the project proposal and preliminary research
7. Know a few good places for team events and dinners
Partners and clients both need to go out for dinner sometimes, and if one of them has a group of friends, you can’t afford to miss out. As the newbie consultant, the responsibility of?planning team events?(such as dinners, team-bonding activities, etc) will fall on you.
Take the opportunity to demonstrate your diligence and attention to detail. It helps if you have an idea – particularly in unfamiliar cities – of the fun/popular things to do. Ask your friends and do internet research. The more familiar you are, the better prepared you’ll be.
While a poorly planned team dinner at the city steakhouse won’t kill your performance review, people will notice. It’s not your fault that the food wasn’t amazing, but it is your fault that the taxis arrived late, you didn’t invite the partners, and forgot to make the reservation.
8. Build a knowledge hub of client/project-related documents
You have access to a lot of information about your client and its projects, and this is generally a good thing.
Sometimes this will already be started by your manager/teammates. If not,?take the lead?and create a shared hub for project-related documents. Things to put in it:
-Annual reports and 10-Ks
-Analyst reports for client and competitors
-Documents and presentations from previous client-related work
-Primers on the industry and function
This will be an invaluable resource. Organize it well.?Continually update?as the project progresses with new reports, presentations, and so forth.
9. Proofread all client-ready documents
You've been going through the project briefs, emails, and client presentations. Everything was fine right? Wrong. The client is running their own version of the client presentation, and you missed one small detail.
What are the chances that you are the only person who will use this project? Chances are, you are. There's no reason to wait until the last minute; start looking for errors early, and find someone to proofread your work.
Do this?even if you’re not asked. The day/night before a client meeting, review the final version of the documents carefully.
You’re looking for small mistakes like misspellings, syntax errors, and misaligned charts. Do a quick sanity check on the analyses.
Partners and clients can become unreasonably focused on typos and other nits. You want the discussion to be about the synthesis,?not the syntax.
10. Build a strong working relationship with the team assistant
It’s a well-known fact that the best communication (and problem-solving) is when you use your own voice and opinions, so don't worry about being the smartest person in the room. However, your clients (and coworkers) will appreciate it if you do your best to set expectations and work towards a clear scope.
During the project, you may be asked to do “errands” for your team supervisor. You’ll need to abide by this request. However, you should be able to recognize when it’s time to step out of the way.
At the start of each engagement, introduce yourself to the team assistant. This person is absolutely crucial to a high-performing team.
Not only do they coordinate the frenetic schedules of all parties involved, they often help with things like proofreading and basic research.
As the new consultant on the team, you may interface with them frequently. Earning their respect is important to?getting things done promptly. After all, team assistants have busy calendars too. You want your requests to have top priority.