Be confident When you meet with customers, make sure that you are not insecure in the answers to their questions. Specifically, when talking about sensitive issues for your customers, present yourself as confidently as possible and avoid giving a confusing or insecure answer. For me, effective consulting means convincing a client to take action. But that's the tip of the iceberg.
What supports this idea is to establish a sufficient agreement within the organization for the action to make sense, that is, not only to get the client to move, but to get enough support for the movement to succeed. To do this, a consultant needs excellent problem solving techniques and the ability to persuade the client through the logic of their analysis. In addition, enough key players, each with an interest in the solution, must be involved for the solution to succeed. Therefore, the consultant needs to develop a process by which he can identify who is important to involve and how to interest them.
The idea that consulting success depends solely on analytical expertise and the ability to present convincing reports is losing ground, in part because there are now more people in organizations with the necessary analytical techniques than in the boom years of “strategic consulting”. If consulting is an area you're interested in, keep in mind that regardless of discipline, it's a people-oriented business and, if you have and develop key characteristics, you can have a long, rewarding, and successful career.
