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The Consulting Revolution: Creating Value Through Expertise
Alan Weiss's "Getting Started in Consulting" has transformed countless careers since its first publication in 2000. Now in its fourth edition, this essential guide has become the consulting industry's bible, embraced by newcomers and veterans alike. What makes this work particularly remarkable is how it has maintained relevance despite dramatic shifts in business and technology over two decades. The book has achieved cult status among professional service providers, with many successful consultants attributing their seven-figure incomes directly to Weiss's methodologies. As the founder of Summit Consulting Group with clients including Merck, GE, and the Federal Reserve, Weiss brings unparalleled credibility to his advice. Beyond his consulting success, he's been inducted into the Professional Speaking Hall of Fame and authored over 45 books translated into multiple languages. Despite his impressive credentials, Weiss maintains his trademark directness and humor throughout, even sharing his humbling appearance on Jeopardy! where he "lost badly in the first round to a dancing waiter from Iowa."
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The Mindset That Determines Success or Failure
Consulting isn't primarily about methodology or sales-it's fundamentally a marketing business centered on providing value. This distinction represents the first critical mindset shift required for success. Every morning, consultants face a choice: approach the day thinking "Another great day to offer people my value" or "Another long, slow crawl through enemy territory." This mindset difference separates thriving consultants from struggling ones.
True marketing involves creating need rather than simply meeting wants. When consultants present unique solutions clients haven't considered, they transcend price sensitivity. The greater the "value distance" between what buyers think they want and what consultants determine they actually need, the higher the potential fee. This perspective transforms how consultants approach prospects-giving value versus taking money.
Beyond personal mindset, supportive relationships prove essential. An unsupportive spouse or partner can doom your venture through financial fears, doubts about competing against larger firms, or concerns about increased travel. If single, create a support network of non-competing consultants, colleagues, community leaders, and understanding friends who provide objective feedback and keep you centered. This support maintains emotional health by balancing self-esteem with efficacy, preventing both "impostor syndrome" (high skill but low self-worth) and "empty suit" syndrome (high confidence but low skill).
The physical requirements for consulting are surprisingly minimal. A home office saves substantial money-Weiss saved $450,000 over 16 years compared to renting space. Your workspace needs only a door, desk, chair, and Wi-Fi, though it should be comfortable and professional. The key requirement is privacy and freedom from distractions. Professional support is equally essential: hire an attorney for incorporation and contracts, an insurance broker for liability coverage, and a bookkeeper to manage finances rather than attempting to do it yourself.
When starting out, implement eight momentum-building strategies: explore consulting opportunities with your former employer; categorize everyone you know by their potential as buyers or recommenders; meet successful consultants willing to share experiences; prepare your family for the new work arrangement; join associations where prospects gather; study the craft through recommended books; save six months of expenses; and create business bank accounts with merchant capabilities. Remember that business acquisition progresses through shared values, relationship building, conceptual agreement, proposal acceptance, implementation, and results.
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Creating Marketing Gravity to Attract Clients
Consulting has virtually no barriers to entry-there's more licensing required to be a palm reader than a consultant. Success requires entering the profession boldly rather than timidly, employing the concept of "marketing gravity" that allows prospects to find you rather than constantly seeking them.
Marketing gravity offers numerous ways to attract prospects. Position papers provide value that prompts follow-up. Radio interviews showcase expertise and can be done from home. For TV appearances, network with local producers in smaller markets rather than paying for exposure. Targeted advertising works in industry publications but not general media. Passive listings in organizations, speaking engagements (even free ones with buyers present), simple websites, and electronic newsletters all create gravity. Word of mouth remains the most powerful tool, as executives make decisions based on peer references.
To rapidly generate referrals, make a comprehensive list of everyone you know and categorize them based on their potential as buyers or recommenders. Call category A contacts personally, requesting just 20 minutes to discuss your "exciting new venture." For category B contacts, send personalized emails with the same request. This disciplined approach, done weekly, can generate business within 30 days.
Pro bono work can be strategically valuable when starting out. Never work free for for-profit companies, but offer professional services to nonprofits with boards of directors, major donors, and community stature. Keep projects to 60-90 days with clear objectives. This approach increases visibility, introduces you to potential buyers, and generates testimonials. One consultant's YMCA project led to national work, while another's free lunch-and-learn session at HBO resulted in a finance department project.
Effective networking isn't about collecting business cards but starting relationships with key buyers and recommenders. Follow five principles: "distance power" (networking with strangers who don't have preconceptions about you), "the unique multiplier" (finding non-buyers who know many buyers), "the nexus person" (someone who knows one true buyer), "reciprocity" (giving value to get value), and "the contextual connection" (leveraging shared context). After any networking meeting, always establish a specific follow-up date-never accept vague commitments. The key is assertiveness and confidence, believing you're providing value as you enter the consulting business.
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The Accelerant Curve: A Strategic Marketing Framework
Marketing creates and accentuates need for your ideal customers, allowing you to provide products and services that fulfill that need. It includes both strategic elements that build your brand and tactical elements that focus on actual sales. The accelerant curve represents a marketing sequence that attracts prospects and moves them through increasingly valuable, higher-fee, and lower-labor offerings.
The curve has four zones: "competitive" (left side with free/low-cost offerings like newsletters and podcasts), "distinctive" (middle with coaching and workshops), "breakthrough" (right side with complex consulting projects and strategy sessions), and finally the "vault" (uniquely you offerings like trusted advisor services). "Bounce factors" can propel clients faster down the curve, while "parachute business" occurs when someone enters directly at the vault level due to your strong brand. Even as a beginner, you should identify at least two potential offerings for each section of the curve.
Public speaking represents one of the best ways to impress buyers and market yourself simultaneously. Begin by speaking for free at service clubs, chambers of commerce, charities, and lunch-and-learn sessions. This improves visibility, hones skills in low-pressure environments, allows networking with audiences, and connects you with organizers and board members. As you gain comfort and reputation, develop a fee schedule (starting around $5,000 for keynotes), increasing rates as your reputation grows.
In consulting, "wholesale" refers to corporate markets where a single buyer makes purchasing decisions for an organization, while "retail" means individual purchases for personal use. Corporate markets offer larger projects, multiple buyers within organizations, prestigious references, and strong repeat business potential, but come with challenges like hard-to-reach buyers and procurement hurdles. SME (small-to-medium enterprise) markets provide easier buyer access and faster decisions but tend to be price-sensitive with emotional decision-making.
Passive income-money earned without active participation-typically represents vault items on the accelerant curve. Examples include books, subscriptions, manuals, downloadable content, and recorded materials. These not only generate revenue while you sleep but also attract people to your other services. Weiss personally defines passive income more broadly to include work performed without leaving home (phone/video coaching) or at venues very close to home. This "no, low, or local labor" approach maximizes discretionary time-which he defines as "real wealth."
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Technology as Tool, Not Solution
In consulting, technology serves as an augmentation rather than the solution itself. The consultant's primary role is to improve client conditions through expertise and advice, not by doing the client's work. Those who simply provide technical labor are contractors or temporary employees, not true consultants. As Weiss states: "A contractor provides a pair of hands. A consultant provides a brain."
Weiss debunks five major technology myths: First, SEO matters little because ideal buyers don't use search engines to find consultants. Second, websites are credibility statements, not sales tools. Third, social media platforms have limited marketing value despite their social utility. Fourth, generational differences don't significantly affect technology usage for business purposes. Fifth, consultants should only adopt technology that works for them, focusing on the 20% of functionality that delivers 98% effectiveness.
Your website serves primarily as a credibility statement. The ideal site should include a home page with your professional photo, typical client results expressed as business outcomes, your value proposition, and rotating testimonials. Inside pages should contain complete contact information, case studies following a situation-intervention-resolution format, a client list (once you have 20+ clients), and position papers expressing your provocative viewpoints on industry topics. Few visitors explore beyond your home page, so focus your efforts there.
Social media platforms are primarily social rather than business-focused, filled with a chaotic mix of opinions and personal content. Despite these limitations, they offer value for building a body of work, creating cost-free exposure, generating word-of-mouth, connecting with recommenders, forming private groups, utilizing multimedia capabilities, repurposing content, creating series that attract followers, and learning from valuable connections. However, social media can be massive time sinks that steal productivity, requiring discipline to use effectively.
Technology should augment your consulting business without becoming your primary focus. Simplify your backup systems-one good cloud or external drive backup is sufficient. Don't use email as a storage system-create organized electronic files for important documents while ruthlessly deleting trivial messages. Use appropriate communication vehicles based on this priority sequence: in-person meetings first, video conferencing second, phone calls third, and email only as a last resort. Email is easily discarded, impersonal, vulnerable to security issues, and has low influence among hundreds of daily messages.
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Finding and Engaging the Economic Buyer
Weiss transitions from foundational aspects of consulting to the critical business of obtaining clients. Positive attitudes and good administrative systems won't pay the bills-only actual client work will. The chapter opens by noting that Saint Paul, through his extensive writings that comprise about half the New Testament, was essentially history's first "virtual marketer," spreading ideas far beyond his physical presence. Paul's ability to create exponential growth through viral marketing offers a powerful lesson: consultants must focus on spreading their message to those who can actually buy their services.
Wasting time with non-economic buyers is perhaps the most critical mistake consultants make. Once executives see you as a peer of subordinates, you'll never be considered their peer. Non-economic buyers lack passion in representing you, focus on deliverables rather than outcomes, obsess over bureaucracy, have no real budgets, and lack credibility with line executives. HR and related functions are particularly problematic-they're accessible and will meet endlessly, but these meetings lead nowhere.
When encountering gatekeepers who prevent access to decision-makers, apply three escalating approaches: First, suggest how you and the gatekeeper can jointly approach the real buyer, with them getting implementation credit (works 15% of the time). Second, state you "ethically must meet the person with fiduciary responsibility" (works another 15%). Finally, directly state you'll contact the buyer directly, asking if you should mention your conversation with the gatekeeper (necessary for the remaining 70%).
To achieve "peerage" with clients, consultants must see themselves as equals of their buyers. Despite impressive titles and offices of potential clients, consultants bring valuable expertise, intellectual property, and fresh perspectives. This peer mindset requires becoming a true businessperson by reading extensively-the Wall Street Journal daily, local newspapers, and business publications. Develop observational skills to understand business environments by examining retail spaces, observing staff interactions, and noticing office setups. Listen effectively, understanding what's not being said as much as what is. Develop sensitivity to organizational atmosphere-is the buyer energetic or cynical? Does the workplace feel collaborative or tyrannical? These reading, seeing, hearing, and feeling techniques should become second nature.
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The Buyer's Office: Creating Trust and Value
First impressions with buyers are critical. The consulting business is built on relationships founded on trust, and consultants must establish themselves as peers who can provide value. A successful buyer meeting follows a disciplined timeline: establishing trust (10-15 minutes), finding issues (10-15 minutes), gaining conceptual agreement (10-15 minutes), and "pouring concrete" (10-15 minutes).
Trust-the firm belief in someone's reliability without hesitation-forms the foundation of consulting relationships. To establish trust in the first 10-15 minutes: arrive well-groomed and on time; travel light without luggage or computers; use firm handshakes and formal address until invited otherwise; refuse drinks to avoid spills; speak conversationally; answer questions briefly before turning conversations back to the buyer; and talk less than 25% of the time. Trust indicators include the buyer preventing interruptions, sharing confidential information, using humor, asking for advice, and not watching the clock.
Dynamic capture means creating a solution basket that encompasses client needs as they're discussed in real time. Rather than hoping client needs fit into your pre-existing offerings, you craft a comprehensive solution on the spot. For example, "strong leadership that retains talent, fosters innovation, and anticipates and exploits change" could be your dynamic capture of multiple client priorities.
Conceptual agreement means you and the buyer align on what's to be accomplished-the key element for creating high-fee proposals. The three vital components are objectives, measures of success, and value. Objectives must be business outcomes, not merely internal goals. "Creating a happier workforce" is worthless unless it translates to happier customers spending more money and raising profitability. A proposal should contain three to six objectives that determine project success.
Measures of success (metrics) are indicators showing progress and completion. These can be empirical (weekly sales reports) or anecdotal (buyer reporting fewer conflicts). Metrics should be agreed upon upfront so it's clear that your intervention is driving progress.
Value represents the impact of meeting objectives-what higher profits, lower expenses, or reduced attrition actually enable the client to achieve. For example, higher profits might allow debt reduction, facility expansion, higher bonuses, or increased R&D investment. The secret: develop three value statements for each objective, with at least half monetized (showing specific financial improvement).
In the final 10-15 minutes of your meeting, "pour concrete" to solidify the foundation you've built. This means confirming agreement on objectives, metrics, and especially value before crafting your proposal. Always end by establishing a specific action, time, and date for follow-up.
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From Proposal to Payment: Closing Business and Setting Fees
A consulting proposal is a summation of previously established conceptual agreement, not a negotiating document. When done properly, proposals have an extremely high acceptance rate-over 80% in Weiss's experience. Create a concise 2.5-page proposal with nine key segments. Begin with a Situation Appraisal that focuses on the specific challenge. Include Objectives, Measures of Success, and Value directly from your conceptual agreement discussions. Present three options in escalating value, each meeting all objectives but with additional benefits. Include timing estimates using ranges rather than fixed dates. Clearly outline Joint Accountabilities-yours, the client's, and mutual responsibilities. Present your fees only after establishing value. Offer payment options with a courtesy discount for full payment.
When buyers disappear after receiving proposals, it's usually because: you weren't dealing with a true economic buyer; trust wasn't properly established; you misread their eagerness for a proposal as interest; your objectives weren't tied to business outcomes; your ROI was weak; you failed to position yourself as a high priority; you didn't secure a specific follow-up appointment; you took too long to submit the proposal; or you didn't solidify agreement before leaving the meeting.
Every client engagement offers three revenue opportunities: the immediate project, referral business from delighted clients, and expansion business through additional projects with the same buyer. To generate referrals, ask two-thirds through a project when progress is evident and client interaction is frequent. Always request specific people or positions, never vaguely ask "who do you know." For expansion business, avoid "scope creep" (client requesting extra work at no charge) and "scope seep" (voluntarily doing extra work to be helpful). Instead, position yourself as an objective observer who notices additional issues.
Establishing proper fees is critical to consulting success. Charging by the hour or day is amateur practice that leaves six figures on the table annually. Value-based fees, pioneered by Weiss in the late 1980s, provide both dramatic ROI for clients and equitable compensation for consultants. Time-based billing creates an inherent ethical conflict: clients are best served by speedy resolution while consultants charging by time are rewarded for lengthy work. Fees should be based on value provided, both tangible (profit, reduced attrition) and intangible (better workplace, reputation). Show a conservative 10:1 return on investment and never negotiate fees once set in a proposal.
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Building a Sustainable Consulting Practice
Career ascent in consulting can be either "rapid and thrilling" or "tortuous and frustrating." Unless consultants are climbing, they're not growing. Weiss illustrates growth using an S-curve model, where startups experience dramatic growth that eventually plateaus. The key insight is to leap to the next growth curve while still experiencing momentum, not after plateauing (what he calls "success traps"). This might mean expanding into new markets, developing additional service offerings, or targeting higher-level clients while current business is strong.
He introduces the concept of "watertight doors" representing four progression stages: survive (taking any business to pay bills), alive (sustaining ongoing business with regular clients), arrive (acquiring selective business aligned with expertise), and thrive (business comes to you through reputation). Each stage builds upon the previous one, creating increasingly stable foundations. The critical challenge is developing an abundance mentality rather than remaining stuck in a poverty/scarcity mindset. This includes valuing time over money (turning down low-value work), engaging in non-work activities (taking real vacations), making impulse purchases without guilt, focusing on value not cost (investing in professional development), and not feeling guilty about success. Consultants must learn to charge based on value delivered rather than time spent.
Weiss strongly argues against the traditional corporate mindset that equates success with managing many people. He describes the freedom of working without employees or supervisors, noting that many consultants who leave large organizations to work independently often become their own toughest bosses, imposing unnecessary restrictions on themselves. Instead of hiring staff, he recommends outsourcing situational help: bookkeeping (quarterly financial management), graphics (project-specific design work), printing (as-needed basis), travel arrangements (through specialized agents), tax preparation (annual service), and program delivery through carefully selected subcontractors. He warns that hiring employees creates multiple complications: fixed financial obligations, complex tax requirements, mandatory benefit packages, intellectual property ownership issues, potential quality control problems, and time-consuming personal issues that distract from core consulting work.
Global consulting work is now accessible to solo practitioners from the start, not just after establishing a strong domestic brand. This accessibility stems from three key factors: the dominance of English in international business, the dollar's status as global currency, and high regard for American business expertise and methodology. Techniques for developing international business include: expanding services from current multinational clients to their overseas operations; proactively informing clients when traveling internationally to arrange meetings; writing for foreign publications in your expertise area; contributing articles to publications with international readership like Harvard Business Review; offering speaking engagements at international conferences; and leveraging connections with friends, colleagues or alumni who have settled overseas. Success in global consulting requires cultural sensitivity, flexibility in communication styles, and awareness of local business practices.
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Creating Your Consulting Legacy
Successful people prepare not only for setbacks but also for success. Strong personal branding leads to new and repeat business with virtually no acquisition cost, making it one of the most profitable benefits consultants can create. Weiss presents a "brand pyramid" showing the progression from brand creation to brand equity, where at the highest level, one's name itself has value. Strategies for building a personal brand include: attaching your name to everything relevant; associating yourself with strong peers; staying in touch with clients and recommenders between projects; maximizing your unique internet presence; and continually elevating your brand by expanding your expertise.
Advisory work represents the pinnacle of consulting-providing insights, advice and suggestions to clients, either proactively or as a sounding board. This work is typically paid through retainers-lump sums paid periodically for access to the consultant's expertise. For large organizations, fees should be at least $7,500-$10,000 monthly with a three-month minimum paid upfront. For smaller businesses, $5,000-$7,500 monthly is appropriate. Value comes from responsiveness, not frequency of contact, like fire insurance-you pay for protection whether you use it or not.
Intellectual property (IP) consists of unique ideas, statements, models, and visuals that distinguish you in the marketplace. Creating IP should be a weekly habit, disseminated through blogs, newsletters, articles, speeches and videos. When consistently producing and sharing valuable IP, consultants can aspire to thought leadership in their field-becoming recognized authorities like Marshall Goldsmith in executive coaching or Seth Godin in creative thinking.
A fulfilling consulting career comprises two essential elements: what you're passionate about and what you excel at doing-"carve away everything else and you'll have a career that is a work of art." Using a quadrant model, Weiss illustrates how passion without ability leads to frustration, while ability without passion creates boredom. The "Michelangelo principle" suggests consultants should remove what doesn't fit their career rather than adding elements just because others use them. Consulting is a career, not merely a job, focused on improving clients' conditions by offering value. Consultants should position themselves as solutions to priorities, not additional priorities themselves-as unique assets rather than commodities, paid by value rather than time.
