1. Clarifying the Consulting Role

• Understanding the need for consulting services
• Identifying barriers to consulting success
• Exploring various consulting approaches and strategies
• 5-Step Consulting Process
• Guidelines for successful consulting engagements

2. Initiating and Managing Consulting Engagements

• Qualifying client motivation and level of commitment
• Clarifying business issues, potential solutions, and desired outcomes
• Identifying and assessing risk(s)
• Establishing and maintaining credibility
• Managing stakeholder expectations
• Determining strategy and approach
• Identifying milestones and estimating workload, capabilities
• Forming and leading teams
• Writing a research proposal, terms of reference, and business case

3. Understanding and Influencing Client Thinking

• Understanding differences in people’s personalities and styles
• Identifying our own thinking and behavioural tendencies
• Using physiology to expand our communication range
• Narrowing perceived inter-personal gaps to create rapport
• Questioning technique
• Active listening
• Body Language

4. Gathering Information

• Understanding various methods and selection criteria
• Designing surveys
• Planning and conducting interviews
• Facilitating workshops and focus groups
• Document search and other support methods
• Managing discussions and taking notes
• Ethics and legal issues

5. Data Analysis

• Quantitative versus qualitative methods
• Quality issues – reliability, validity, generalisability, and triangulation
• Discerning patterns in data and handling extremes
• Looking for disconfirming evidence
• Distilling findings: issues, causes, impacts, and solutions

6. Information Presentation

• Representing raw data
• Confidentiality
• Report writing
• Audience analysis
• Presentation design, flow strategy, and framing

7. Engagement Close-Out

• Cross-checking back to initial Brief and Proposal (promised deliverables)
• Review of effort versus plan
• Presentation delivery skills
• Objection handling
• Gaining commitment and moving to the next step

8. Generating Opportunities

• Being proactive versus reactive
• Identifying consulting opportunities
• Reviewing the Services ‘sales’ process
• Value propositions
• Differentiation
• Defending rate / charges
• Relationship management
• Phasing and generating re-buy

9. Continuing the Consulting Journey

• Reviewing material covered and relevant reading
• Future advanced skills programs and one-on-one coaching