• Host – Michele Heyward, Founder, PositiveHire
• Guest – Lekisha Middleton, Founder, The Good Success Network

I’m pretty sure you have checked Consulting 101. Here’s the session two of the becoming a consultant and as an independent consultant, not an internal consultant to our organization. 

Lekisha Tackles 5 Lessons in working at a consulting firm taught her how to run a business and how to run a successful consulting business. It was an intense and yet rewarding experience. 

Lesson 1

How to build Quality, Authentic Relationships?

Your network is composed of various groups of people. It could be people that you work with previously. You’re constantly working on nurturing and building your relationships such as clients, previous clients, and or potential clients. You want to think creatively about how you establish your network. 

Even realizing people through your relationship, a lot of times, we don’t post on Facebook, because it’s mostly family and friends, but you never know who knows who. It’s always good that people know what you do so that they can recommend you. And if they have a need, they may even hire you.  Invest in your relationships.

Lesson 2

Be solution givers.

The client is mature enough to know what the symptom is, but not the root cause. It is up to you to go in, ask the right questions to the client, and try to figure out what the root cause is. 

But really, it’s it is about seeing beyond what the client is asking you to solve the right problem, not just a problem that they’re telling you that they’re having and analyzing that situation to make sure that you’re giving them the right solution, and that both of you aren’t going down the rabbit hole. 

Lesson 3

How to think Strategically?

Strategic thinking can be somewhat of a buzzword, but all it is, is being able to think with the end in mind. Being a consultant in general,you have a certain level of expertise and enough different scenarios where you can come in and assess their situation so that you can tell them how they may fix it for their particular situation, so you’re tailoring a solution for them. 

You have to be able to think beyond the current, think not just fixing the leak.

Knowing your value and knowing what you bring to the table and being able to think this way can help you to land your next opportunity. And it’ll help you to become a great consultant.

Lesson 4

How to Sell without being Salesy?

How do you take all of your skills and meet a need that’s currently in the market? A good way to even know that is Google. Right? A lot of people want to be a consultant but don’t know where to start, don’t know what would they offer.  

Google and see what are the hot topics people are talking about. Definitely, if you’re going to be any business owner, you are your product, you are the face of your company. 

When you’re selling something that your client needs, you don’t have to sell. Plus, once you deliver for that client, they will keep wanting to do work with you, because they can trust you, they can trust your product or your services. When people know what you do it’s easy to sell. 

Lesson 5 

How to Communicate Effectively.

Communication seems to be a lost art. If you can’t talk to your clients, if you can’t ask the right questions, If you can’t listen well to what they’re saying and what they’re not saying, you’re not going to be a good consultant. Communicating effectively is something that we all need, and we can all improve on. 

So communication skills, especially in a digital age, I think you have to be more intentional about how you communicate and just be mindful of that as well.

Watch the full video to catch up on the Q&A  to know more about consulting…