New Job? In Consulting?

This is advice for new management consultants, but those starting off in other jobs might get some value from it too.

To be clear, most of this advice is stuff I didn’t do myself. I was completely clueless for most of my working life, behind the learning curve more than I was ahead of it. But I worked for more than forty-five years after I got out of school and spent the last thirty-seven as a management consultant. I worked for five firms and spent twenty-three years working as an independent consultant. I survived, thrived even, but it was a long painful road.

Here are three orders and five lessons to help you avoid the pain I found doing things the hard way:

Order 1. Get your head on straight, Newbie.

You may hate being called a newbie. I did. Or if the place you work is more “sensitive” and people don’t call you newbie, but smile condescendingly like you are “not quite with it,” you have two choices:

• You can “bristle” and talk about everything you know from your time before consulting. ( I bristled. I can tell you it is less than effective.) or
• You can adopt a learning attitude, be a sponge, soak everything up, do what you are asked to do, and if you see an opportunity to be “helpful,” ask before you “help.” Help is defined by the recipient.

Truth is you know nothing until proven otherwise, so suck it up and soak it up. Ask questions to understand, not to demonstrate how smart you are.

Oh, and by the way, newbies in consulting aren’t just entry-level analysts. Even if you are hired as a “rain-maker” partner, you’re still a newbie. Hopefully your time in the “not quite with it” cell is shorter than the analyst’s, but you’ll do time there and if you are rude about it you will pay. So treat people the way you treat clients, you know, listen and smile a lot.

Order 2. Get your head into the business, Newbie

There are all kinds of consulting firms, with thousands of service offerings. Some offer ‘products, like software, or pre-packaged research or surveys. Some get paid a percentage of the benefit the client receives.

Most are time-based professional services businesses. They make money based upon the mark up on their people’s time. A consulting firm may sell a project based upon time and materials or they may sell a fixed price project, but the price is based upon time, so much time from the partner, so much from the managers, so much time from the people who do the work.

Partner billed fees are usually two to three times what the firm pays the partner. Manager fees are three to four times what the firm pays the manager and analyst and associate fees are four to six times compensation.

Lesson #1: For the firm to make money the work needs to be done by the least paid qualified resource.

 You increase your value to the firm by becoming more capable than others at your compensation level.

Lesson # 2: The whole system is based upon time management.

Track the time you take to do a task and learn to forecast and improve that time. If you take five minutes to track your time hourly you will never be the consultant the project manager chases for time sheets when it’s client invoice time. (I didn’t really internalize this lesson until I worked for myself. Then the link between what I billed to clients and my paycheck was obvious.)

A consulting job changes as you rise. Analysts and associates do the work. Managers do and deliver work, manage the team, and the client. Partners do work, manage the client, and find new projects, i.e., sell.

Lesson # 3; Learn to sell.

Even managers sell extensions (more of the same type of work for the same client) and expansions (A different type of work for the same client or work for a different buying center).

Clients buy consulting to solve a problem.  That may seem obvious, but often the language doesn’t reflect this reality. Consultants say “engaged” by or “serving” a [company name]. Clients often talk about a consulting firm “doing some work.”

Clients hire consultants to:

• Grow revenue, strategy projects, product/service innovation, sales development. market research, etc.
• Grow profit, Operations projects, process improvement, cost reduction, inventory management, logistics, etc.
• People stuff, Organization design projects, staffing, on-boarding, retention, culture change. Many people stuff projects are really revenue or profit projects, but they don’t present that way.)

They hire consultants rather than solve the problem themselves because they perceive the consultant to have knowledge and skill they don’t have (better) or they believe the firm is experienced in this area (faster).Or they don’t have resources and consultants fill the gap without hiring and paying benefits (cheaper).  

One more thing, a client is a person, not a company or a department. While other people in the client system are important, one person makes the decision to hire a consultant and must be satisfied by the result.

Lesson #4: Know the client and what problem they want to solve.

It might be the partner’s or project manager’s job to sell and manage the client, but everyone on the team should know the overarching problem that needs to be solved and why hey are engaged to solve it.

Order 3. Why did we hire You, Newbie?

Find out what on your resume attracted consulting hiring managers. For me, it was  that I was in a weird job before business school. I was a booking agent for celebrity speakers. I consistently downplayed that and changed the subject when it came up.  I now realize that was a mistake. That job taught me to how to talk with powerful people as if they were just people, which turned out to be useful in consulting.

Hiring managers typically look for smart people (to solve problems) who are nice (so clients and colleagues like them) and who are under-confident (so they work hard). Beyond that, they look for people who have something unique about them.

But resume uniqueness is only part of what I am talking about. Self-knowledge is powerful. Knowing what you are good at and less good at will help you succeed.

It should go without saying that you should learn the core capabilities that matter in your firm. If you are in a strategy firm learn industry analysis and innovative solutions to seemingly intractable position. If you are in a process improvement firm learn how to generate and sustain many small gains.

Success in consulting is getting staffed on what you are good at. Consulting firms handle staffing differently. In some partners hire and staff people for their use only. In those firms your relationship with the partner is all that matters. Some firms have staffing departments run by administrators or consultants who have rotated “off the road.” Get to know the people who do staffing and make sure your project manager lets them know your strengths. Avoid getting “typecast” into something you are good at, but hate.

Self-knowledge helps you plan your development. Do you want to be a specialist or a generalist? If you want to be a specialist in a methodology or an industry, get staffed on those projects. Generalists go for variety in staffing. Knowledge and skill – go deep (specialist) or go broad (generalist) – no, you can’t do both. Specialists get staffed more easily earlier; generalists’ value comes with experience. A young generalist must be plug and play in many roles, which requires flexible, quick learners.

Specialists tend to make partner as thought leaders, who design new service offerings and attract clients by writing books. Generalists make partner by direct selling, so maintaining relationships with client stars and learning to sell are critical.

Lesson #5: Manage your own consulting career.

Some people become consultants as a stepping stone to another career. Those who stay in the field, often find a mentor to help them at various stages, but they take an active role planning their progress. Some rise within a firm Some, like me, decide to work for themselves as an independent or start a firm.. It is worth thinking about your career early and often.

OK Newbie, you got this!

• Right attitude – learning focused and manageable.
• Learn the consulting business, track and improve your time use. Remember expenses aren’t a perc – spend the client’s money like your own. Keep focusing on the client and the problem they want to solve.
• Build your uniqueness and a career to capitalize on it.

A consulting career is never easy. You’ll see your family, neighbors and friends only on weekends. You won’t earn like an investment banker or a tech entrepreneur. But you’ll be “comfortable” and do challenging work with smart fun people. You got this, Newbie, stay strong!