Consultants can play the role of experts.
This requires him to have more knowledge than his clients, that is to say, he should focus on small-scale research, otherwise those experienced clients can become experts.
A consultant is also a consultant in the decision-making process. This requires him to become a psychologist.
The most typical consultant is to exercise the function of a supernumerary assistant.
This does not conflict with the above two points, but it does require you to change your focus. All companies have their own employees. But no company has the ability to hire enough backup personnel to deal with all the problems. This is actually the reason why consultants exist: they can complete tasks that the company's internal strength is not enough to complete. Through this definition, we can find that consultants are the most helpful when unconventional and unfamiliar problems occur. In fact, consultants from outside the company can effectively deal with problems that insiders cannot identify and solve. The most essential function of consultants is to calm people's anxiety and uncertainty when problems arise.
Prerequisites for a successful consultant.
The final result of a successful consulting project is not a single product. It should be a brand-new view for customers, and at the same time require customers to promise to take necessary measures to practice this view. Equally important, the consultant should be keenly aware of the new problems and opportunities in the customer's acceptance of new ideas.
It is worth noting that if the client can't act according to the new viewpoint, the consultant will fail.
The performance of a consultant depends largely on the extent to which he can influence the views and decisions of customers. This is not professional knowledge and skills. On the contrary, it believes that there are quite a few factors influencing each other in the process of cooperation with customers. It is not enough to realize this. You need to have the ability to quantify the degree of interaction between various factors, so as to predict what results can be obtained by changing the relationship with customers.
Consultants need to deal with various relationships rather than technology in their work, so they have unique conditions to develop their own ideas and concepts. Mastering this concept is perhaps the most important quality of professional performance.
Consultants' analytical thinking must be clear and powerful, otherwise they will fall into meaningless actions. No matter what other strengths he has, he should effectively deal with difficult and complicated team activities and gain some authority. If you don't succeed at this point, the role of experts obviously can't be brought into play.
To sum up, a successful consultant must be able to:
Identify the main problems of customers;
Persuade customers to start solving problems by studying them;
Organize a team that can complete various tasks of the company and coordinate the activities of team members; ? Make full use of resources within the customer organization; ? Maximize the ability of its project team;
Successfully communicate your findings to customers and ensure that these findings are implemented; ? Constantly discover existing problems and maintain the relationship with customers; ?
Meet customers' expectations of the consulting team;
First, the passion to create new ideas.
Consulting firms do not produce tangible products. You can't eat or wear it. Its product is a theory, a suggestion and a way of thinking. So in the final analysis, the consulting company is a pure pool of human resources. This means that their most important asset is useful ideas generated through accurate thinking and careful research. Therefore, consulting companies like the best and most talented students in business schools. In the consulting industry, intellectual factors are obviously very important. An excellent consultant must be an excellent and passionate thinker. He must like to create new ideas, and he must like to discover, analyze and solve problems. Of course, academic background does not guarantee a person's success. For this reason, the MBA degree itself is unnecessary. Many companies also employ people with other academic backgrounds. Diplomas are only diplomas, and many undergraduates can also enter the consulting field.
Second, the enthusiasm for customer service.
Because the salary of consulting companies is very high now, many people enter consulting companies to make money, not for consulting work. Anyway, consulting is a service industry after all. As a consultant, you must try your best to meet the requirements of customers. You will always be committed to helping others. Your ability to serve customers will determine the success of your career and the future of the company. A senior former McKinsey consultant wrote: "Only when individuals get a sense of accomplishment can this profession become really interesting. Those who show outstanding talents gain some personal control early in their careers. They want to have multiple choices at any time. They usually become department managers soon and decide the workflow of the team. Through the coordination and leadership shown in their work, they won the respect of customers, bosses and team members. Some unfriendly clients gradually become open-minded and serious when listening to the conversations of successful consultants, because those consultants have made extraordinary achievements. Those who perform well are often very satisfied with themselves, and consulting experience can be regarded as a road to success. For them, the economic reward is only the secondary reason for taking consultation as the first choice. The real reason lies in the pursuit of the highest achievements in their careers. "
Third, enthusiasm for people.
A consultant once told me that some of his best friends in life are his clients. This is not to say that he doesn't cherish his wife and family, but because he has established lifelong and lasting cooperative relations with many customers through repeated cooperation and his own work achievements. With this relationship, he feels that even if he spends more time at work and encounters some setbacks, it is worthwhile. Generally speaking, people who like to talk with others are more likely to become excellent consultants, because sociable people will get along well with their team members and clients. In other words, you must be an extrovert, you must like and understand your customers, and people must be willing to associate with you, whether you are charming, humorous, good at listening or hard working. You should probably understand by now that consulting companies have many requirements for people: smart, likable and helpful people are what consulting companies want. Of course, the recruitment process of different companies may be very different. Many companies are looking for people with truly unique abilities. Other requirements include knowing some specific business problems, being able to endure overtime for a long time, mastering information technology, having a good personal image, being able to handle a large amount of information quickly, having strong logical thinking ability, written expression ability and language expression ability, and being willing to travel frequently. In fact, the consulting industry has a set of specific qualities-consulting skill set-the basic qualities that a consultant should have.