There are plenty of reasons why clients remain loyal to one brand over another, not the least of which is their experience as a consumer. Entrepreneur Network partner Patrick Bet-David reports that a strong client experience boils down to five key differentiators.

• Speed: Clients like instant service. No matter what type of consultancy you run, when clients are able to connect, interact and receive practical advice quickly, they’re more likely to become repeat clients.

• Quality: Top consultants know the latest regulations, educate their clients on cutting-edge industry tips, and develop detailed plans to overcome challenges and meet goals. The Tempkin Group found that 87% of clients who had a great experience were likely to repurchase from the same company.

• Price: Although consumers are often willing to pay more for quality, price does still have an impact on buying decisions. The key is to find that sweet spot where you can offer better service than the competition at the best possible price.

• Luxury: We’re not talking about high-ticket items when we talk about luxury. Instead, “luxury” can be exemplified by the way you treat clients. It’s the little things that matter, and when you make each client feel like they’re your one and only or most important client, it’s no surprise they’ll return to you time and again. In fact, research shows that clients may be willing to pay a premium price of up to 18% for this type of luxury treatment.

• Digital user-friendliness: Successful consultants know they need to put their best digital foot forward. That means offering a user-friendly website and recommending easy-to-use apps to help your clients streamline their processes. Consultants who understand and meet their clients’ needs at every touchpoint will stand out from the crowd and win repeat business.

Client service vs. client experience

Client service is exactly what it sounds like — it’s the way in which you serve your clients. For example, a potential client visits your website, finds your contact page and sends you a message. Then they wait for your response to their inquiry. It’s a practical and simple enough process, but there’s certainly nothing memorable (or pleasurable) about the experience.

Of course, providing basic client service is a prerequisite for doing business. However, those who go above and beyond to deliver an enjoyable client experience will quickly rise to the top. Consider the following facts:

• Forbes magazine says 89% of today’s companies compete primarily on the basis of client experience — up from just 36% in 2010.

• A Walker study found that by 2020, client experience will overtake product and price as the key differentiator.

• In a 2015 presentation at the Callidus Client Conference in Las Vegas, the principal and founder of ThinkJar, an advisory and research think tank focused on client strategies, revealed that 72% of people who love your service will talk about you to at least six other people.

As mentioned earlier, client service is mainly reactive. It’s transactional, leaving no lasting impression. A great client experience, on the other hand, is proactive and, in the digital space, often interactive. This experience is all about the finer details.

Providing a memorable, enjoyable client experience is well worth the investment. When your clients are satisfied, they become loyal brand advocates, which helps your business thrive.

Your clients as partners

As a consultant, you have a unique relationship with your clients.

In many instances, you’re part of their organization. Sometimes you’re in the room for discussions — financial, strategic or issues management — that most of their employees do not have access to.

At the same time, you are an independent business, and your client is your customer.

It’s one thing to deliver excellent “client experiences,” but the truth is that the consulting world offers a special opportunity to establish true partnerships. These are relationships where your priorities are truly aligned with your client’s organizational priorities.

When you’ve gone the extra mile to establish yourself as a trusted partner, then everything you do is, by definition, a superior client experience — simply because everything you do is in your partner’s best interest.

Building lasting client relationships with Method CRM

Offering a great client experience begins with having the right tools on hand to help you run your practice effectively. Method:CRM is a client relationship management (CRM) solution that offers plenty of benefits to consultants, including:

• Two-way, real-time integration with QuickBooks: This ensures that essential client data is always accessible in your CRM and in your accounting software, so you never miss a beat.

• A complete suite of lead and client management tools: From integrated web to lead forms to scheduled follow-ups to 360-degree views of transactions and interactions, Method helps you deliver a seamless end-to-end client experience.
  

• Client portals: Clients will appreciate the ease and convenience of viewing and paying invoices through self-service portals linked to your CRM.

Try Method free to discover how the right consulting CRM can help you deliver superior client experiences.

The post Why Client Experience is a Key Differentiator for Consultants appeared first on Method.

Higher client expectations

Among the challenges facing consulting firms, there’s one overarching challenge standing above the rest. In many ways, it’s the single factor defining the others.

It’s the main thing staring every consultant in the face — client expectations.

Surveys over the past couple of years have found that consulting leaders consistently list client expectations as their top business pressure. Ask the long-time consultants in your firm about the changes they’ve seen in their careers — they’ll tell you that today’s clients expect faster responses, tighter timelines and greater deliverables. Meanwhile, consulting fees are not necessarily higher, but they are more tied to results.

Every piece of the shifting business landscape translates into a change in the client’s expectations. It’s only natural. The good news for consultants is that it’s within their power to rise to the occasion. As a result, many consulting leaders have acknowledged that they must expand or adjust their service offerings to meet their clients’ needs.

The main disruptive forces driving changing client expectations are as follows.

Digitization and automation

The business environment is becoming increasingly digitized, with information and transactions moving faster and manual tasks becoming automated.

This digital transformation affects every part of the consultant’s work, changing the nature of competition, proposals, contracts, and deliverables. Client companies expect consultants to be digitally savvy. Projects will need to embrace artificial intelligence and analytics to really take the client’s business to the next level.

But embracing digitization and automation is about more than just using technology. It’s also a mindset. Software engineers introduced us to the “Agile” (or “Lean”) methodology, driven by the Agile Manifesto that prioritizes individuals over processes, collaboration over negotiation, and responding to change over following a plan.

The Lean approach, which has influenced sectors such as consulting, often emphasizes the importance of “failing early and failing often.” But it’s not your traditional definition of “failure.” These failures are nothing to be ashamed of. On the contrary, this version of “failure” is more akin to sharpening the blade by constantly re-evaluating your product and discarding any inefficiencies.

It’s a fast-moving, deliberate process: strategize, create, evaluate, adjust, next iteration, repeat! Your clients will appreciate this efficient, results-oriented approach to project management.

Increased competition

A key impact of increased digitization is allowing other players with different business models and strategies to enter the marketplace. With new freelancer websites, virtual networks, and specialist teams popping up all the time, there are just more options for clients to choose from.

Everyone feels the pressure. Larger firms face competition from smaller firms. Smaller firms face pressures from independent contractors and informal specialist networks. And even those independent contractors feel pressure from offshore talent moving to get into the game.

Tighter timelines

Consultants are facing tighter timelines, right from the initial contract through to the project and deliverables.

Let’s think about the selection process. In the “old days,” client companies issued a Request for Proposal (RFP). Then, the weeks went by as the consulting world spotted the notice, discussed whether to pitch the work, and created and submitted their proposals.

This process is now condensed. The moment the call comes, you must be ready to respond with your product offerings and value proposition. You’re off to a quick start, and those time pressures will continue. The successful consultant must be ready to present their project concept in the short term, and work quickly in order to produce deliverables in the medium term.  

Multi-sourcing

Have you ever gone to a project meeting, only to get in the room and discover you’re not the only consultant on the job? It happens.

Client companies are often employing multiple providers on projects. Sometimes they’re seeking specific skill sets; other times they want different perspectives on the way forward.

And then there are still other times — and this is where it gets tricky — where companies “double-book” consultants for a single project. They’ll look at two project concepts, then choose one group to put their plan into action. This can be frustrating, but it’s part of the game nowadays.

Rise of the gig economy

Whether you call it “Uberization” or the “gig economy,” company managers are becoming accustomed to ordering precisely what they need, and only for short periods. Long-term relationships are becoming less common, and most consultants are depending more on short-term appointments rather than longer contracts. It feels more precarious, but it’s the trend.

Performance-based projects

As companies seek more value for their money, they’re paying consultants based on performance. It’s no longer a flat fee — your compensation will be awarded depending on some measure of whether you hit the performance goals. The upside is the potential for great work and significant reward. The downside is that the pressure to deliver is on.

How consultants can stay competitive going forward

With all of these challenges in mind, how can an innovative consultant successfully adapt to these changing landscapes?

Stay lean

This may be tough, depending on your experience. However, if you’ve been part of a consulting group that had to close its doors and turn out the lights, then you likely already understand the importance of staying lean. Maintain your team as a small group of energetic principals, then employ highly-focused specialists according to the needs of each project.

Emphasize results and outcomes

Going forward, successful consultants will prioritize outcomes over the day-to-day work, per diems or hourly billing rates. Your way forward depends on being able to point to obstacles overcome, problems solved, or innovative solutions implemented.

Of course you should still pay attention to the timesheets, because those matter. However, your real value will come from your “success sheets.”

Invest in the right tools

Building your team of principals, specialists, contractors, and freelancers is the starting point. The next step in investing in shared technology that:

• Creates better collaboration through streamlined workflow management
• Drives more contracts through improved lead management
• Facilitates superior client relationships, and
• Is customizable enough to adapt to your consultancy’s specific business model or areas of focus.

With the right mindset and the right tools on hand, consulting professionals will be well-equipped to tackle the challenges of the modern business landscape.

The post Disruption in the Consulting Industry: Challenges and Changes in a Transforming Sector appeared first on Method.

So, what’s next?

For many, the next step is striking out on your own: hanging out your shingle and launching your own consulting practice. It’s a natural progression — selling that experience and expertise you’ve built by helping companies tackle their pressing problems.

It’s a rewarding career path, but there are some things you must know to make your consulting practice work. Above all, the best way to build a successful consulting practice is to plan for it. Start with these important insights.

Balance your activities

Understand from the beginning that consulting is multiple jobs. Sure, it’s about the work and tackling the client’s problems, but it’s also about the responsibilities of running a business:

• Budgeting and managing finances  
• Managing client relationships
• Building your team

And while you’re focused on today’s project, you must also be planning tomorrow’s project. It’s something you probably didn’t think about in your corporate career because the company always handed you your next assignment. Now you are the company. How is your consultancy going to continue working? It’s up to you.

Here’s a tip we can offer you right away: implement an effective accounting solution like QuickBooks to take care of your financial management responsibilities.

Relationships are everything

You’ve probably always sensed this, and if you’re serious about growing a successful consulting practice, then you know it already. Your project calendar and your day-to-day work rest on maintaining positive relationships with clients, partners, freelancers, and other consultants. Plus, all those contacts you made during your corporate career are potential projects. Keep them positive and fresh with coffee meetings, lunch dates, and phone calls.

Keep stakeholders informed

Don’t just keep the project plans on your desk. Take the extra effort to communicate clearly and make sure everyone hears you describe the way forward. It’s the key to making sure everyone is on the same page.

Clear communication applies to both your client and team relationships. On the client side, be upfront about expectations and deliverables, and give clear updates on progress. Don’t leave anyone wondering what you’re up to.

When it comes to your team, you will often be relying on remote freelancers (especially in the beginning), so it’s essential to use reliable communications practices. A sophisticated communication platform like Slack will go a long way towards keeping those channels open and productive.

Know your niche

Companies hire consultants to solve problems. More specifically, they hire consultants to tackle problems they cannot solve themselves. If they just wanted another pair of hands, they would have hired an employee.

That expertise, energy, and experience is your value. Put it first and foremost.

In the initial stages of your consulting business, your clients may come from a range of industries and business models. As you grow, however, you’ll find the area you excel in and want to specialize in.  Embrace that opportunity. You may be surprised by the area of specialization you eventually land in — sometimes your expertise finds you!

Never stop learning

Real experts are continuous learners. They study their craft. They instinctively integrate research, career experience, and best practices into frameworks for analyzing problems. Build the positive habits of:

• Staying abreast of the latest trends
• Drilling deep on your area of expertise
• Subscribing to discussion groups in your sector
• Reading trade publications and industry research

And here’s the most important trick: ask questions. It sounds obvious, but when you get in the habit, you’ll notice how much you gain from constantly learning. Be curious about everything.

Track everything and show results

Too many consulting practices race out of the gate and use all their frantic energy just doing anything and everything. But what have they accomplished? Where are their efforts going?

Track your progress on everything, including:

• Timesheets
• Employee activities
• Milestones reached
• Budgets

Tracking your progress helps on a couple of important fronts. It shows clients the progress you’ve made on their projects. At the same time, it shows you the progress you’ve made, because with all the activity and chaos, even you will lose track of how much you’ve done. 

At the same time, your value isn’t just your hours worked on a project. It’s much more than that. A good consultant shows its clients how processes were improved, problems were overcome, and the stage was set for future performance.

A good digital solution will help you turn all of that activity into a clear picture of how far you’ve come and what you’ve accomplished.

Optimize billing and forecasting

The key to efficiency and successful growth is optimization. What is optimization? Let’s put it this way: if you have too much work, then you can’t meet your deliverables. If you have too little, you can’t pay your employees. Finding that sweet spot is optimization.

How do you get there? You get the right data from tracking your activities, and you forecast your workload appropriately.

Automate your tasks

Many administrative tasks can take away from your day-to-day focus. These include:

• Tracking expenses
• Organizing receipts
• Creating invoices
• Turning timesheets into reports

Once again, investing in a reliable accounting solution like QuickBooks makes it much simpler to handle your accounting and invoicing.

Implement a CRM for consulting practices

We’ve already discussed how relationships are at the center of every successful consulting practice. To ensure those relationships receive the attention they deserve, you’ll want to implement a client relationship management (CRM) system right from the get-go.

Method CRM gives new consulting practices the extra push they need to overcome growing pains and emerge as smoothly operating businesses. CRM features can help in several key areas, including:

• Integrated project and transaction management: Method integrates seamlessly with QuickBooks, giving you one powerful view of projects and transactions in the CRM.
• Administrative efficiencies: Method CRM removes the hidden costs of manual processing and double data entry.
• Client management: Users can add unlimited contacts and track all client relationships. Team members can see previous interactions, schedule follow-ups, and make sure client calls are personal, informed and helpful.
• Team collaboration: The CRM platform gives team members access to centralized client data and a shared calendar.

Method CRM is a valuable addition to any consultancy’s toolkit. To learn more about how Method can help your business succeed, contact us today.

The post How to Build a Successful Consulting Practice appeared first on Method.

In fact, there’s a good chance that you are one of those specialists. You may have called yourself a “consultant” because you needed a way to explain your profession to an accountant or a party guest. But really, we’re talking about being one of those specialized professionals — legal specialists, graphic designers, management experts, communications advisors, and many others – that growing businesses count on for work that cannot be done in-house. In every industry, consultants are part of keeping organizations lean, efficient and competitive.

The independent consultant’s life is often characterized by:

• Working in different locations, such as client sites, co-working spaces or a home office
• Holding information in multiple places, including your own systems and/or the client’s systems, and
• Walking the fine line between being a business owner for your own practice and being a team member on your client’s team.

Not surprisingly, it takes a sophisticated solution to keep all of these moving parts connected and to keep you on top of your game.

Consultants Providing Expertise

Let’s look at some examples of consultants and see if you recognize anyone.   

Zac, Graphic Designer

As a freelance graphic designer, Zac creates advertising and marketing campaigns. The companies that put their trust in Zac rely on him to come up with original ideas quickly. He works hard to keep his creative juices flowing — jotting down notes, developing concepts, and polishing his latest designs.

At the same time, Zac runs his own business, so he must also manage invoices, accounting, and business development. When Zac needs help, he hires other designers, making him an employer too. Yes, Zac certainly has a lot on his plate.

Jennifer, Tax Advisor

Jennifer is an accountant running her own tax consultancy. She uses QuickBooks for her clients’ accounting files. Every year as tax season closes, she swears she won’t take any more clients — but when the next year rolls around, she always takes on more.

Jennifer has a great handle on the accounting data — both her own and her clients’ — and she never misses a detail. However, she struggles to keep up with client communications and follow-ups. She needs a tool that integrates seamlessly with QuickBooks while giving her greater connectivity to her clients.

Alan, Placement Specialist

Alan is a placement specialist, which means he helps growing organizations find the right talent for their future needs. Alan will tell you that human resources and talent acquisition are about much more than just administration or confirming the candidate’s skills and training. Doing it right means aligning many factors: fit, aspirations, career stage, philosophy, and salary needs.

Alan meets people constantly, and while not every interaction results in a positive match, he never dismisses anyone. Each contact is part of his growing network of employers and employees that he’ll rely on for future assignments. With so many relationships to keep track of, Alan needs a sophisticated tool for managing all of his contacts.

Annie, Communications Advisor

Last but not least is Annie, a communications advisor. While communications professionals practice in many areas, including media relations, writing, and website development, Annie’s specialty is crisis communications — acting fast to develop productive responses to events and stories that could hurt a client’s reputation.

Annie has successfully managed the crisis response plans for some high-profile stories, and also for some that didn’t make the news (yes, that’s how good she is). Now, Annie wants to develop a marketing campaign for her practice. She can’t personally handle all the crises out there, so she wants to share her insights and best practices with a broader audience through email campaigns. She needs an organized system for managing her mailing lists and outreach.

Different Consultants, Different Needs

While Zac, Alan, Jennifer, and Annie have different areas of expertise, they have certain needs in common. As independent consultants, each of them needs greater integration between their accounting and client relations, better communication with clients, and the ability to do creative, meaningful work on the move.

Method CRM for Consulting Practices

Method CRM is the perfect solution for a growing consulting practice. Leveraging your use of QuickBooks, Method’s customer relationship management features help you take your work to the next level through innovation, automation, and mobility.

The best integration with QuickBooks

Consultants using QuickBooks are likely already tracking some data on their client accounts. But as your practice and client list grow, it’s time to take your administrative setup to the next level.

The good news is that Method CRM has a seamless integration with QuickBooks. The moment you sign up, your QuickBooks data automatically syncs to Method. Moving forward, the connection provides a real-time, two-way sync. This seamless integration gives you a 360-degree view of each client account, including transactions, communications, and scheduled follow-ups.

Meanwhile, Method is also a great solution for tracking data that doesn’t belong in QuickBooks. For instance, you can maintain detailed notes on all billing and non-billing contacts, or create unlimited custom fields to track data specific to your consulting practice.

The best part is that sole proprietors can set up Method CRM on their own, without needing an IT specialist. After all, whether you’re a financial advisor, accountant, graphic designer or another type of consultant, you have priorities other than software administration.

Enhance your outreach campaigns

For consultants like Annie who are looking for a tool to help with marketing, Method CRM offers additional benefits. Method integrates with Mailchimp, allowing you to create lists of CRM contacts for email campaigns. And with Method’s QuickBooks integration, your marketing will be based on real customer insights. Filter your CRM contacts based on preferences, purchase history or past interactions to build targeted mailing lists for specific campaigns.

Greater mobility for consultants on the move

Consultants are always moving. Why? Because they’re working in other people’s workplaces and on other people’s schedules. Consulting is an on-the-go profession, which means consultants need a tool that can go with them.

The good news is that Method CRM has a mobile app for iOS and Android. Whether you’re at a client site, at a coffee shop, or at the airport, the app gives you access to your essential CRM features, including client notes, contact information, and QuickBooks transactions.

Are you a consultant? What is your experience?

Do you recognize your own experience among those of Zac, Alan, Jennifer or Annie?

If you’re looking for a modern CRM solution to streamline your consulting practice, give Method CRM a try with a free trial.

Image Credit: Writix

The post Benefits of CRM Software for Independent Consultants appeared first on Method.