Every industry is being impacted by the global COVID-19 pandemic, but one industry, in particular, is now confronted with enormous challenges and enormous opportunity: the consulting industry. Our world’s coaches, consultants, and business experts are in an unprecedented situation that will make or break their business for years to come.
You might be struggling to find out how exactly to consult for the new normal, but you can and will thrive right now with the proper training. Now more than ever, businesses need someone to take on the wise advisor role, to guide organizations and teams of all sizes through the current crisis.
Do you need some guidance yourself before you’re ready to take on that role? You’re in good company. That’s why we’re launching Odyssey, a 4-part training program that takes you from an Independent Consultant to a Master Practitioner.
If you’re wondering what the benefits of additional training are, you’re in the right place. Here are 3 ways that training can make you a better consultant.
Training for Consultants Improves Your Awareness
As a consultant, you’re a pro at getting a snapshot of an organization and jumping in, feet first, to help. Your insight guides your clients’ staffing, culture, and financial decisions. Before you do any of this, you need to make sure those elements of your own organization are airtight.
Training helps you improve your awareness of your own growth opportunities. Module 1 of Odyssey helps you acknowledge strengths but also hone in on weaker areas. That’s a good thing. The only way you can improve is by that acknowledgment. By recognizing ways to improve your skill and consultative delivery today, you will take your practice to the next level. Start asking yourself things like:
- Is your consultant firm sustainable as a business?
- Do you have the resources you need to support your findings for clients?
- Is your team optimized to reach clients?
“The best thing about training is that it helps you think about your own performance in new ways,” says Sandy Stoner, curriculum coordinator at TTI SI. “It helps you confront exactly what is holding you back. It’s difficult to do, but training gives that support to you.”
Training Helps Consultants Build Relationships the Right Way
You can be the top of your field, with insider knowledge and cutting-edge methods, but if you don’t have meaningful relationships with your clients, none of that matters.
According to Stacy Axon, coach and business development consultant at TTI SI, “Our job as a coach is to be able to communicate in such a way that we honor someone yet also help them to have deeper insight and seek solutions.”
Are you targeting your ideal client? You need to be. When we ask new coaches “Who is your ideal client?”, they often tell us, “The world is my ideal client!” This point of view, while optimistic, is a mistake. The truth is that your style of coaching is best suited to a specific demographic. Maybe you used to work in a specific field, like retail, or you’re passionate about something, like education. Your interest and experience would be a huge benefit to managers or teachers.
Odyssey does that by helping you identify your niche: who you want to work with, where to find them, and how to help them find you.
Training also helps you learn the right language to connect more effectively with your target audience. If you know their industry lingo, you’re more likely to make the connection you need to move forward.
“Odyssey is a 'success formula' for consulting”
Training Will Increase Your Revenue
Training builds the skills listed above that will help you increase profits, but it has an additional benefit. The Odyssey training program provides you with essential pricing knowledge so you’re charging the right amount for your services.
20% of consultants earned 80% of the revenue in the field, according to the Odyssey handbook. More likely than not, you’re not in that 20%.
How do you get there? Learn how to value your own time! Your experience and input is crucial to the success of your clients, and you need to make sure you are keeping that in mind as you set your prices. Consulting.com says that price is nothing more than a number agreed upon by two parties.
Training gives you a tangible way to reference your experience. This allows you to increase prices while explaining the worth of your time concretely to clients.
You are your own advocate! No one is ever going to tell you to charge more, but you’re likely undercharging for your time.
Invest In Yourself, Invest In Your Consulting Business
You have an unforeseen opportunity and challenge right now as a coach. Reach your highest potential by investing in your future and yourself with training.
Imelda Butler, the developer and co-creator of Odyssey, says, "Odyssey is a 'success formula' for consulting. By following the Odyssey concepts and process, one is equipped with a proven success methodology and system that works and professionalizes your business of consulting. Many of the most successful consultants in TTISI worldwide have applied the Odyssey framework with outstanding success results both personally and in their client businesses."
