Consultancy creatures - what animal are you?

The question of how to present your business to clients is a perennial problem for consultants - do you aim for a small niche and risk being discounted for projects outside the niche - or opt for a more general approach and risk leaving the customer unsure of what exactly it is that you do?

An exercise that I've found useful in workshops is to visualise your business as an animal, preferably producing a drawing to crystallise your thoughts. People have come up with all kinds of animals and the interesting thing about this exercise is it helps you think in a more creative and personal way about your business. If you also take an objective look at the creature you come up with from a clients point of view it can lead you to changes you need to make in your approach to attract more or better clients.

I've given a few examples from past workshops on the Skillfar blog but I'm sure you'll have some new ones to add to the list!

Clients that come to Skillfair directly often have very specific requests and over the last few months we've seen a distinct increase both in direct requests and in the more obscure areas - from VAT consulancy to cement discharging problems. This week has been no different and there are plenty more opportunities on the site if you want to have a browse around.

Opportunity Independent PC Service Agent, United Kingdom
BizTalk Trainer, East Midlands
IT solutions company seeks non-competitive partners
Direct Client Print Machinery analysis, Southern England
Event and Internet Event Sales
Recruiting new Research Associates
Client Web Site Renewable Energy Study , East Midlands
Production of a Physical Activity DVD ,Yorkshire and Humberside
Consultant For Audience Research, South West
IT Security Penetration Test,Overseas
Business Continuity & Crisis Management Consultancy, London
Video Production for website, Southern England
Client Web Site Mentoring for Micro Businesses, North West England
Microsoft 2007 Training for Staff ,Europe
Managed Workspace Search Consultant, North East England
Online Communications & Development, United Kingdom
Marketing, PR and Design Services , Channel Isles
Arts/Cultural Project Management, London
Client Web Site IT Consultancy Services, East Midlands
OJEU Healthcare Consultancy Services ,Yorkshire and Humberside
OJEU Toxicity Study, Greater London
OJEU Computer Assisted Virtual Reality Platform, East Midlands
OJEU Computer Based Training (CBT) Software for School , South East
OJEU Leadership and Management Development Training, East Midlands

For some of or more obscure projects it seems even the 10,000 consultants on our database can't provide exactly the right help and we have to start searching outside the database to try and help our clients. Obviously we'd rather not do that so if you have contacts who do consultancy - of any kind! - it would be great if you'd let them know about Skillfair. We're particularly interested in getting in touch with more people with technical and engineering backgrounds as these requests tend to require very specific and often hard to find expertise.

That way we have a better chance of satisfying the clients requirements, which in turn will mean they come back next time they need help and provide more opportunities for everyone.

As an extra incentive if your contacts use the links in this newsletter to register we'll know that you referred them and will add an extra month to your membership when you join.

Newsletter - A Brighter Outlook for Consultants?
The response to our quick poll of last week was rather mixed - about 60% of you think the rest of 2010 will be an improvement compared to 23% who are expcting the worst. From the comments I think at least some of the variation is down to the uncertainty over what elements of public spending will be cut and how that might affect the consultancy market. Quite a few optimistic people felt that the cuts will provide more opportunity because public organisations will need help sorting things out.
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Consultants Conference Sponsorship Opportunity
To keep the cost of this year's conference down we're opening the event up to sponsors who are interested in providing services to consultants. Sponsorship is reasonably priced at £400 and includes a stand in the conference area and 2 delegate places.
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