If you’ve been in business for some time, you might have made some mistakes in the past that make you cringe when you recall them. These are my pick of the seven most extensive consulting business blunders to avoid.
Nowadays, we’re told to accept our mistakes, embrace our mistakes, and even celebrate that we’re making lots of mistakes. Besieged with countless memes quoting famous folk, they educate us to view our blunders as learning and growth opportunities.
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Common Mistakes Consultants Make and How to Avoid Them
The term consultant refers to a professional who provides expert advice in an area of specialisation, e.g. marketing consultant, management consultant, etc.
Now a bit of a fun fact. Did you know that Mauco Enterprises started as an internet consultant before transforming into a consulting business, i.e. marketing consultants? Well, now, you know 🙂
Don’t get confused if you see articles or directory listings that still address us as internet consultants. Either way, we are still a consulting business.
What separates the top consultants from the others? Below I share the seven big mistakes that consultants and business owners typically make and how avoiding these can help rapidly speed up any consulting career.
At the beginning stages of a consulting engagement, there are ample opportunities to make mistakes. Unfortunately, errors at such an early stage in a project can often become magnified later in the process and lead to disastrous results.
Since no one is perfect, I have committed some of these consulting blunders at one point or the other in my career or a project. But I try to learn from my mistakes and move on. Therefore, I’m motivated to write this article so you, too, can learn from my mistakes and not repeat them.
Promising What You Can’t Deliver
Your business needs clients to survive. So as a business owner, it is not unusual for you to go overboard and promise anything to attract or keep a customer.
But this is a huge mistake. If you over-promise and under-deliver, you will lose your customer when you cannot deliver as promised. This is a simple fact that you don’t need to go to Harvard Business School to understand.
So it is better and a lot safer to under-promise and over-deliver. Under-promising allows you to provide something ‘extra’.
This ‘extra’ is something the customer is not expecting. It will help to create goodwill with your customer.
It may also translate to the customer speaking well about you to others, i.e. client relationship. They may refer new customers to you, leading to business growth.
Avoid the temptation to give a quote without knowing the entire project scope. Click To TweetNot Knowing the Project Scope
When a customer calls you to make inquiries, they are often most interested in your prices. Avoid the temptation to give a quote without knowing the entire project scope. Instead of allowing the customer to lure you straight into discussing price, ask yourself, are you selling value or price?
Focus the customer’s attention on the value that they will derive from doing business with you. To get expert knowledge of the project scope, put a system in place.
If possible, let the customer give a detailed written document of their objectives and the project scope. Don’t give a quote or talk about cost without knowing the project scope.
Understanding the project scope will help you prepare a proper quote for the project since you will learn details of administrative costs, legal costs, and more.
Arguing With Your Client
As much as possible, avoid arguing with your client during client meetings. Do as much as you can to accommodate your client’s terms and requests. But don’t compromise any of your principles.
But if the client’s requests prove too much for you to bear, it is better to part ways in peace than argue. Arguing is not professional.
If possible, let the customer give a detailed written document of their objectives and the project scope. Click To TweetUsing the Wrong Employee or Technology
After you understand the project scope well, you can assign resources to the project. It will also help you know the technology to deploy to make your job easier and better delivered. For instance, as a marketing consultant, I have to keep abreast of all the latest tools and technology. It helps me know which tool would be the right fit for a particular project.
Not Seeking Expert Advice
You might be an expert in your field, but that does not mean that you know everything. So, there’s nothing wrong if you seek your colleagues’ advice or advice from mentors in the business.
It will help you avoid potential pitfalls that you might not have known. It is good to have a crop of friends, colleagues, and mentors that you can turn to for advice.
Taking on The Wrong Client or Project
As mentioned earlier, you need customers to stay in business. But this does not mean that every customer or every project will be the right fit for you. Sometimes you have to know when to call it quits with a project or client. It doesn’t sound nice, I know, but it’s for the best.
Have a clear image in mind of the customer or project you feel comfortable taking on. Stick close to that image. Don’t take on all clients and all projects or be a jack of all trades.
Focus on a particular niche and specialise in perfecting your solutions to your niche market needs.
After you understand the project scope well, you can assign resources to the project. Click To TweetBeing Arrogant and Overconfident
Avoid being arrogant and overconfident. Portraying confidence in front of your client is essential. This quality will help to make them trust you with their business.
But this does not mean that you should go overboard and become arrogant or overconfident. Doing so will lead to you losing clients.
Some of these mistakes mentioned in this article stem from arrogance! If you’re arrogant, you’re bound to ignore the fact that potential clients always have multiple options available to them. So instead of being arrogant, listen to what they have to say and learn about them–instead of just focusing on the next buck–you will have a more successful consulting business than you ever imagined.
Additional Mistakes
Though I’ve labelled the blunders below as “additional” mistakes, they are equally crucial to those mentioned above.
No Contract
Do not fail to have a written contract in place, which explains the scope of the project. Many freelance consultants are eager to take on clients. And those in developing countries are afraid of losing potential clients by asking them to sign a contract. But it’s critical to learn to stick to the agreed-upon project contract. Not having a contract sets you up for problems later on during the project. Your contract should stipulate things like a 30-days payment period, unpaid invoices and any penalties for late payment.
Make clear what type of client or project you are comfortable taking on. Click To TweetNo Insurance Coverage
If practised in your country, it is good to have professional liability insurance, also known as errors and omissions insurance, to protect you and your assets from mistakes, claims of negligence or errors made regarding your consulting services. According to this article, professional liability insurance and other types of insurance coverage will determine who pays in the event of a claim or legal action.
Conclusion
With decades of experience, I’ve seen some terrible practices with how consultants work with clients. Running a consulting company is tough, and sadly it’s a lot less sexy than it seems.
Being new to the consulting game/consulting industry can be a challenge–especially if you’re going it alone as an independent consultant.
You do not always know things, from a new industry, geography, functions to new people to work with, etc. And the other consultants in the firm are just as competent as you are.
Avoid the growing pains of self-employment by learning about common mistakes and what you can do to avoid them.
Don't take on all clients and all projects or be a jack of all trades. Click To TweetWith the pandemic and more companies entering the marketplace, the need to attract and keep customers will increase.
Remember that mistakes by your team members are not to be punished but learned from! Keep encouraging your team to do their best.
These are my seven biggest consulting blunders. If you are a marketing consultant, try to steer clear of making these blunders.
I hope that you’ve found this post of some value. If so, please share it with your friends and colleagues using any share buttons on this page.
What about you? What would you say are the most significant blunders that you’ve made? Comment on our Twitter or LinkedIn page and let me know.
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