Chapter 5: The Business Behind Consulting (6/6)

122 ◾ Odyssey—The Business of Consulting

and Young before that. And when I started out, it was great. I made a lot of

money, I loved my clients, and I loved what I was doing.

In the US, people were having a hard time ﬁnding the right candidates

for the right roles. But what started happening with me is that I ended up

giving away a lot of services for free. You don’t know what you don’t know,

right? There was so much I didn’t know about building a business, about the

ﬁnancial side. I just loved what I was doing, and I wanted to help people as

much as possible.

The thing is, you’re providing a huge amount of value. They know it, so

they’re taking advantage of you in a sense because you’re not smart enough

to recognize that you should really change your pricing. For some clients,

Iwas basically doing the HR job and not getting paid for it.

So I went to Odyssey in 2011. The program helped me to realize that

I was providing more value than I was being paid for. We know that all

business is not good business, and while it’s not fun to lose a client, you

can’t waste your time on somebody that doesn’t really get your value, some-

one who’s thinking, “I’m getting a whole lot and she’s not smart enough to

know to charge me more …”

I always remember John Butler in the marketing webinar saying, “When

you quote your price, the test is going to come.” I thought that was interest-

ing at the time, but I didn’t really understand it until I came home and actu-

ally put it to the test.

After Odyssey, I got my ducks together. I had the fee conversation, the

one John set so much store by, with two different companies. Was it uncom-

fortable? Yes, it was. I got sick to my stomach. But the one thing that I real-

ized, and the one thing that continues to hold true today is this: I know that

I provide tremendous value to my Ideal Clients.

One client just didn’t get it. I told them that I could no longer work with

them as I had in the past. But they didn’t want to pay the money, so I said,

“Well that’s okay,” and I walked away.

The other client was a consulting ﬁrm in the healthcare sector. The proj-

ect involved taking their recruiting process and completely reorganizing it.

At ﬁrst, they balked at the fee. They were like, “Wow. Really? That seems to

be a lot of money.”

I just said, “Well … no. At the end of the year, you’ll see whether or not

this makes ﬁnancial sense, and if it doesn’t, I’ll give you your money back.”

They had been in a massive, ongoing struggle to ﬁnd and retain the right

people. But by the end of the project, their turnover rate was down to 10%.

The Business Behind Consulting ◾ 123

For the consulting industry—where the turnover rate frequently hits 50%—

this was a real result.

At the end of the year, we were able to show them how their retention

ﬁgures had changed as a result of our work. They said, “Yeah we knew that

things were going a lot smoother and we were getting a lot more people

hired. We didn’t realize how well it was going until we actually stopped and

really focused on it.”

I was able to demonstrate that we had saved them $54,800. My fee for

was $12,500. As John Butler used to say, “It was a drop in the bucket.”

Chapter Summary

In this chapter, we examined the six proﬁt drivers collectively responsible

for the success of a consulting business. We looked at how Odyssey consul-

tants differentiate themselves by setting fees based on talent rather than the

time spent on a consulting assignment, and we outlined the art and science

of fee setting and the four basic fee setting options.

We then introduced the three essential components of results-based con-

sulting: the economic buyer, the consultative relationship, and the value/fees

proposition. Value-based consulting continued this theme by examining the

metrics on which the Odyssey consultant must remain focused when lay-

ing the groundwork for Levels 3 and 4 client relationships. We then looked

at how talent-driven consulting differs from time-driven, activity-orientated

consulting. Promoting your practice as an Odyssey consultant requires a

more sophisticated and personalized PCP approach. Finally, we examined

the value of being a hybrid of specialist and generalist consultant in driving

your business growth.

Calls to Action

1. Assess your proﬁt drivers. Identify your strong and weak links. What

corrective measures will you take?

______________________________________________________________

124 ◾ Odyssey—The Business of Consulting

______________________________________________________________

2. How do you currently set client fees. How will you integrate a value-

based billing strategy into your client assignments?

______________________________________________________________

3. How comfortable are you in connecting appropriately with key decision

makers and understanding their metrics? Describe how you will raise

your comfort level.

______________________________________________________________

4. What market segment(s) does your practice favor? How do you differen-

tiate your expertise and your practice methodology? Be speciﬁc.

______________________________________________________________

The Business Behind Consulting ◾ 125

5. Think about your current principal consultant presence (PCP). Deﬁne

the changes you could make to make it more powerful.

______________________________________________________________

Bibliography

Collins, J. (2001). Good to Great. New York: HarperCollins.

Collins, J. (2002). Built to Last. New York: HarperCollins.

Coyle, D. (2013). The Green Platform. Bray, Ireland: Ballpoint Press.

Hedges, K. (2011). The Power of Presence: Unlock Your Potential to Inﬂuence and

Engage Others. New York: AMACON Publishing.

Heweltt, S. A. (2014). Executive Presence: The Missing Link between Merit and

Success. New York: HarperCollins.

Malloy, J. T. (1996). New Women’s Dress for Success. New York: Hatchet Book

Group.

Malloy, J. T. (2008). New Dress for Success. New York: Hatchet Book Group.

McChesney, C., Covey, S., & Huling, J. (2012). The 4 Disciples of Execution. New

York: Simon & Schuster.

Weiss, A. (2002). Value-Based Fees: How to Charge—and Get—What You’re Worth.

San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer.

Table of Contents for Chapter 5: The Business Behind Consulting (6/6)

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Table of Contents for
Chapter 5: The Business Behind Consulting (6/6)