Consulting

1. CONSULTING OVERVIEW
Sayed Ahmed
President/CEO/Chief Architect/Lead
Developer
Justetc (Just et cetera) Technologies
http://www.justetc.net
http://sayed.justetc.net

2. WHAT IS CONSULTING
 Just providing services or advices to other
businesses
 Not as an employee
 But as an independent person or as an
independent company
 All industries can have consultants
 IT, Management, Engineering

3. WHY CONSULTANTS ANYWAY?
 The need for personnel
 The need for fresh ideas
 Government regulations
 The need for maximum efficiency
 The need to diagnose problems and find
solutions
 The need to train employees
 The need for a complete turnaround

4. WHY CONSULTANTS ANYWAY?
 Company politics
 The need for increased sales
 The need for capital

5. HOW CONSULTANTS ARE ANALYZED
 Can he add something to the output
 Can he save time and money for the
company?
 Does he have the skills, can he do the job
 With the budget, can he accomplish the goal

6. WHAT MAKES AN OUTSTANDING CONSULTANT
 Beside manner
 The ability to diagnose problems
 The ability to find solutions
 Technical expertise and knowledge
 Communication skills
 Marketing and selling ability
 Management skills

7. HOW TO GET CLIENTS
 Direct mail
 Cold calls
 Direct response space advertising
 Directory listings
 Yellow pages listings
 Former employers
 Online marketing
 Networking with other professionals in the same
or different field

8. HOW TO GET CLIENTS
 Indirect methods of marketing
 Speaking before groups
 Sending out newsletters
 Joining and being active in professional
organizations
 Joining and being active in social organizations
 Writing articles
 Writing a book
 Writing letters to the editor
 Teaching a course

9. INDIRECT METHODS OF MARKETING
 Giving seminars
 Distributing publicity releases
 Exchanging information leads and referrals
with noncompeting consultants

10. MARKETING SEQUENCE
 Marketing to the government
 Locate potential clients
 Screen
 Visit and make presentations
 Maintain contact and gather intelligence
 Prepare the proposal
 Negotiate the contract

11. MAKE THE INITIAL INTERVIEW SUCCESSFUL
 Looking and acting like a professional
 Essential questions
 What problem needs solving
 Exactly what the client wants you to do
 How will you know if the objectives have been
met?
 Are there any particular sensitive issues that you
should watch out for?
 Main point of contact
 Any backup contacts

12. MAKE THE INITIAL INTERVIEW SUCCESSFUL
 What authority does each player have?
 Taking notes
 Holding off on giving advice
 Interpreting body language
 Making use of listening techniques
 Identifying emotions from facial expressions

13. WHAT TO DO WHEN THE INTERVIEW IS OVER
 If positive and offered the position
 Negotiate
 Rate
 Time
 Duration
 Vacation
 Health
 Leave business card
 Pay thanks
 Decide on request for proposal

14. PRICING YOUR SERVICES
 Low price strategy
 High price strategy
 Meet the competition price strategy

15. PRICING
 Other considerations
 Industry pricing
 Client price adjustment

16. CONSULTING RATE CALCULATION
 Yearly salary: $47,000, hourly $23.50 for 2000 hours
 Consulting overhead
 Clerical support - $5000
 Office rent -8000
 Telephone – 3400
 Automobile – 8000
 Insurance – 6000
 Marketing expense – 20,000
 Entertainment – 2000
 Professional dues and subscriptions – 1000
 Accounting and legal fees – 3000
 Miscellaneous – 2600
 Total Overhead: $59,000
 So you need to charge = $47,000 + $59,000 = $106,000
 $53.00 per hour

17. HOURLY RATE CALCULATION

18. METHODS OF BILLING
 Daily or hourly
 Working on retainer
 Performance billing
 Fixed price billing
 Consider the details
 Overestimate a bit
 Control costs closely
 Specify the requirements in detail
 Put the changes in writing

19. DISCLOSING THE FEE
 The client may like one particular method of
billing over others
 So determine your price in all possible ways
 Government wants full disclosure

20. CONSULTING CONTRACTS
 Why a contract is necessary
 To understand the terms clearly
 It will help you get paid
 You can develop your own contract
 Using the standard client contract
 Incurring a contractual agreement
 Formal contract
 The letter contract
 Order agreements
 Purchase orders
 Verbal contracts

21. TYPES OF CONTRACTS
 Fixed contracts
 Cost contracts
 Performance contracts
 Incentive contracts
 Elements of a contract
 Who: the consultant and client
 What: services?
 Where? Addresses of both parties. Where the services
will be provided
 When? When services to be performed and when paid
 How much: how much pay

22. ELEMENTS OF A CONTRACT
 Elements of a contract
 Competitive restrictions
 Patent rights
 Insurance coverage
 Confidentiality

23. PLANNING AND SCHEDULING THE PROJECT
 PERT Model
 Agile methodology
 Waterfall methodology

24. NEGOTIATING WITH YOUR CLIENT
 Six steps by government
 Evaluate and rank
 Identify offers within competitive range
 Eliminate unacceptable offers
 Written and oral discussions
 Notification of a cut off date
 Award the project

25. FOR SUCCESS
 Preparation: the key to all contract
negotiations
 Being wary of telephone negotiations
 The negotiation plan

26. NEGOTIATION GAMESMANSHIP
 Making the other party unreasonable
 Placing the other party on the defensive
 Blaming a third party
 The good guy and bad guy technique
 Straw issues
 The walkout
 The recess
 The time squeeze

27. HINTS FOR NEGOTIATION
 Use humor in tensed situations
 Do not insult anyone
 Do not try to make anyone bad
 Be reasonable
 Try to find the best for both parties
 Talk and listen
 Never assume that the other party is 100%
accurate

28. HINTS FOR NEGOTIATION
 Explain all the advantages that you are
offering
 If you are not prepared for a topic, defer it
 Accept a good offer
 You probably is in a very good situation and
the client may be in a very bad situation. So
work on getting what you deserve in the
market

29. HINTS FOR NEGOTIATION
 Fight for what are important to you; may give
up small advantages

30. SOLVING CLIENT PROBLEM
 Step by step
 Central problem
 Relevant factors
 Alternative courses of action
 Discussion and analysis of alternatives
 Conclusions
 recommendations

31. PSYCHOLOGICAL TECHNIQUES FOR PROBLEM SOLVING
 Psychological techniques for problem
solving.
 Why absent mind decides better sometimes
 No pressure
 Distractions
 False knowledge
 Use your subconscious to solve problems

32. IMPORTANCE OF ETIHCS IN CONSULTING
 Business ethics: not clear cut
 Typical ethical problems in consulting
 Client already knows the solution
 Client wants you to omit information from your
reports
 Client wants the proprietary information that you
learned in another place as employed
 Client wants you to lie to his boss
 Client wants you to bill for more or less hours

33. REFERENCES
 How to Make it Big as a Consultant: William
A. Cohen