7 Factors That Make An Effective Consultant in Today's Digital Era

by TJ Pingitore

Founder, UpstartGarden (Consultancy & Community) - Host, The Student Success Podcast.

If you look at the very busy schedules of anyone that owns their own business in many cases having a consultant is sometimes daunting for a business owner because it requires you to think about something else with more things now on your plate to consider or execute on. Every business is different. Every owner or founder is different. And the timing in every business is different as to when it's right to bring on a consultant.

HERE ARE 7 FACTORS THAT MAKE AN EFFECTIVE CONSULTANT IN TODAY'S DIGITAL ERA:

1) CHALLENGER WITH A POSITIVE VOICE: They recognize and challenge bad habits very soon after a plan is set but do it in a way that is all progress driven so the client knows with great clarity why it's happening: to save them time, money, and stress.

2) EFFICIENCY WITH TECH SOLUTIONS: They understand how to use technology and enable simple solutions that make a client more efficient in terms of time saving hours. This means they open up 5-10-20 hours per month for a client to spend on growing their business so they do not have to manually manage it.

3) IMMEDIATE IMPACT: The client is able within 1 week of the new relationship to take away new things to apply which creates a sticky factor of immediate impact. This helps add immediate value to how a consultant prices out their by project or by time payment agreement.

4) CONSTANT FOCUS: They bring a clear process that is highlighted, updated, and reviewed often with clear outcomes and benchmarks. This is your goals with a short plan and reasons tied to them so the client is reminded WHY they are important consistently. Nothing really new there.

5) KEEP MOMENTUM GOING: They know the 2 Hour - 12 hour - 24 hour - 48 hour recap rules. The normal brain retention after a meeting dwindles gradually of these timeframes in terms of recall. With that, a great consultant recaps a meeting and workshop well to keep momentum for the next and they do it within 2-8 hours of that encounter back to the client.

6) CONVICTION: They take on clients they are excited themselves to work with and see a true success and growth path for.

7) EMPATHY & PRICE MODEL:  Any consultant knows what it's like to run a business so a great consultant will keep those factors and mindset in mind as they work with, price out, and add value to the overall relationship. The consultant must know their worth but understand client needs with time to execute in mind as they build out by project or by hour time blocks with their pricing. They must be reasonable, flexible, and even creative with pricing. Maybe even some barter against time value to knock a little off the price if it gets the partnership going.

Overall, any solid consulting partnership will involve open and consistent lines of communication that is forward thinking and focused to the goals and benchmarks at hand. Making sure the client knows and is reminded that if they as the consultant do a great job, they want to be referred. This gives a client a final reason to know why the consultant is going to work hard for them; not just the money. It creates a sticky factor with multiple reasons to execute for the client. 

WHAT IS 1 OR 2 THINGS YOU WOULD ADD BELOW THAT YOU FEEL MAKES A GREAT CONSULTANT? Open forum here...

If you would like to work with someone who will quickly strategize, organize, and scale your business, feel free to inbox me privately: [email protected] and even come to one of our innovation think tanks in Central NJ.