I am either "in the groove" or "in a rut" with my consulting, depending on the day. I am really successful at what I do but have been doing it for many years. What are some ideas for exploring other industries or disciplines?

Two ideas come to mind, one about doing and the other about thinking your way to a "new groove." First, talk to colleagues about teaming as a way to experience new areas and types of consulting. Use your industry experience to team with colleagues who bring other disciplines to bear. The combination of, say, your finance skills with a colleague's marketing expertise will expand your perspective and skills in the same industry. A few of these experiences of leveraging your skills can lead to a more interesting consulting practice. Alternatively, work with others with expertise in the same discipline who work in other industries. You may find that your "rut" is really boredom with the same industry, not with your particular discipline.

Second, dedicate some time to working on case studies. These provide a way to quickly take a broader view of different disciplines or industries without working through individual engagements.

Tip: Even if you are not in a rut, pick up a few books with cases studies to go through. Fiona Czerniawska and Paul May's Management Consulting in Practice: A Casebook of International Best Practice provides two dozen short cases, a few in each of human resources, operations, etc. Another source is in The Strategy Process: Concepts, Context and Cases (3rd Edition) provides several strategy related cases of large companies, whose effectiveness you can probably see (the cases are drawn from the 1990's).

© 2009 Institute of Management Consultants USA

On long engagements, I always worry that increasingly familiarity leads to clients no longer highly valuing my services. Even if I am not "going native," how do I assure clients continue to value my services?

For those not familiar with the term, "going native" means spending so much time at a client site you become considered one of the staff. For example, if you are asked to be a member of the committee to plan the annual picnic, you have long ago gone native. Every consultant wants to provide high quality, relevant and timely services. Doing so will mean that your services maintains their ""wow" factor and leads to client appreciation of their value. What can happen, however, is that your highest value services are delivered at the beginning of the engagement and later services are seen as less valuable.

At some point, management and staff start to see your services as something that they can provide. One way this can happen is that the capabilities of the client organization improve so much that they truly can conduct activities originally thought to be only possible by the consultant. You may have underestimated their improvement, or overestimated their need for your expertise. Either way, when your services lose value in the eyes of the client, it is time to reset your engagement plan. Ultimately, the client gets to choose when your services are in demand.

Tip: Florence Nightingale once said about nursing, "Nursing is… an honorable calling. I must not crave for the patient to be always recognizing my service. In the contrary—the best service I can give is that the patient shall recognize my presence MOST by recognizing that he has NO wants." Have you done such a good job that clients no longer need your services?

© 2009 Institute of Management Consultants USA

I would like to find some way to differentiate my consulting company. We have nice collateral, both design and content, but it seems many others do as well. How do I separate myself from the consulting marketing noise?

In any competition for mind share, the key word is memorable. To stand out from the clutter, your few seconds in front of a client must be high quality, relevant to the prospect's needs, and have an element of intrigue. There are legendary stories of product sales pitches for which a demonstration was vivid and relevant and became the new standard for that industry (usually until the creator of that novel pitch came up with something even more memorable).

It is important is to weave your service value into a story. An archetypal story with a setting (in this case, the business environment), protagonists (your prospects and their competitors), conflict (the "unsolvable" problem or opportunity they face) and resolution (that would be your services) is a powerful weapon to get them to consider your firm. This is more than a case study, which appeals to the intellect. Create a narrative that appeals to their emotion - it is likely to be the only one they hear.

Tip: Also consider format. Most consultants know the "Shift Happens" or "Did You Know" videos. Consider the impact (as evidenced by the number of viewings on YouTube) these messages have. Rather than putting your "corporate capabilities" into a folder of slick sheets, what if you created a 3-4 minute presentation that got right to the point about the pain your solutions could reduce? Because it is about the client and not the consultant it is more emotionally engaging. The unique and fast pace of the format makes it more intriguing and easy to absorb. The fact that the structure leads directly from their problem to your solution makes it effective. Finally, if you host it on your site, if allows people to look around for other services they might need. If it is really good like the Did You Know videos, it might just go viral!

© 2009 Institute of Management Consultants USA