Consulting is the act of delivering outcomes.
One part science, one part art, whole part action.
All in the effort of supporting infinitely complex organisations who are barraged with a never-ending list of “best practices” that they simply don’t have the time to execute on.
Exactly the opportunity for you & your merry band of consultants.
As you combine the clear lens of an outsider with the cross-functional expertise of a diverse team to deliver highly tailored solutions to their very specific problems.
The exact scope of a consulting project can differ greatly.
From a 10-year HS2 infrastructure project to a 3 month HR training programme to a 4 week strategy review, there’s a lot of variation.
But, regardless of their size or scope…
Each consulting project has a start & end date, a clear project goal and follows this lifecycle of activities:
Initiation - Learn everything about the scope of the project
Planning - Define the timeline, budget & responsibilities.
Execution - Allocate and manage the project resources.
Control - Track effort & cost to ensure adherence to plan.
Close - Handover deliverables & document learnings.
Which you, like a train driver transporting passengers the length of the country, need to start, maintain and slow as the project leaves the station.
All of which will be daunting to the first timer.
But, will be infinitely easier once you realise it’s mostly about being organised, leading a team & delivering as close to what you planned.
So, here’s everything I’ve learnt from delivering 4, 5 & 6-figure projects across Big Pharma, Software & Agencies.
#1: Prepare for Success 🧭
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe” - Abraham Lincoln
Consulting projects don’t appear out of thin air.
They take a skilled listener building meaningful relationships with decision makers over a long period of time before the opportunity presents itself.
So, like with anything worth doing, patience is paramount.
But, that doesn’t mean twiddling your thumbs while waiting for random luck to come knocking on your door in the night.
It means taking consistent actions like these…
1) Nurture Long-term Relationships
Complex consulting projects can take months to land.
For the moment often has to be perfect. Requiring just enough budget, time and energy across multiple stakeholders to get the green light.
But, it doesn’t mean you have sit there like a lemon in between.
Be proactive by building a personal relationship with senior decision makers who have the influence to approve resource allocation.
And then find a way to work together on a small project first.
Prove you can be trusted and the bigger projects will become easier for the decision maker to sponsor you on.
2) Identify the Opportunity
Once you hear them mention a problem, ask for a meeting to discuss it.
Offer some quick win advice, ask for some feedback on how you believe you can help organisations like them & drill down into the detail of their problem.
Just make sure you listen more than you talk.
And that you accurately capture their A(mbitions) S(ituation) P(roblems) R(isks) I(mplications) N(eeds) - which you’ll be able use later.
If you need more info, here’s everything you'll need on negotiation.
3) Create the Project Overview
If everything goes well, they’re going to ask for a proposal.
Unless it’s a complex project you’ve run before or a simple solution you can draft up quickly, don’t commit the time to one just yet.
Instead, build a project overview with the following:
Project Background - 1-2 sentences on each aspect of the ASPRIN
Project Goals - What outcomes will this project create for the client?
Deliverables - Specifically what will be delivered by this project?
Resources - How much budget, time & people are you estimating?
Risks - What assumptions are you making? How can these be mitigated?
Then send it across to the client and get it approved.
Only after you’re aligned do you invest the time into the proposal.
#2: Deliver the Project 🎯
“Management is, above all, a practice where art, science and craft meet” - Henry Mintzberg
Fail to plan and you’ll plan to fail.
Delivering the project is all about turning that half-baked project overview into a proposal that you can actually deliver.
And then navigating changes as they arise.
So that you can stay one step ahead of any risks that have the potential to entirely derail yourself and the team.
To get there you need to…
1) Plan the Proposal
Both you and the prospect have agreed on the project.
You’re aligned on the outcomes, deliverables and budget to get the results that are required, but now you need the details.
In particular, you’ll going to need to build a GANTT chart like this one…
Which you can create by:
Identifying all the activities needed to deliver the project.
Grouping them under progress towards a deliverable.
Estimating each activity’s time & cost required.
Sequencing them all onto a logical timeline.
Deciding on the critical activities & milestones.
If it’s your first time delivering the project, ask potential team members how long they believe it will take to complete activities. Use their estimates and add a 30% margin for error. This will save you later down the line.
To get your budget multiply activity time by team member’s hourly rate
Plus any additional overheads, fixed costs and software and “hey presto” you’ve got yourself a proposal.
Now share it with the client & get it approved in writing.
2) Execute the Agreement
Once you have the thumbs up, it’s GO time.
Expect to be scrambling to act on the approved plan and get ready for the most stressful period of every single project you’ll face.
Find your team members, assign them to activities and agree on how many hours they can expect on a weekly basis. Ensure you’re all aligned on commitments, build the team culture and bring everyone up to speed.
Then host a kick-off to go through the overview & proposal together before introducing the team to the client.
And then it’s over to you and the team to deliver.
3) Control the Outcome
Even the best plans face difficult moments.
When a team member gets ill, a workstream takes twice as long as expected or you’re sat waiting on client approval for days on end.
This is where you, as the project manager, need to leverage your leadership skills to bring everyone together and navigate the change.
Which you can do by:
Tracking the completion of tasks in a software like Clickup.
Constantly reviewing & updating the project schedule.
Holding team stand-ups between 1-5x per week.
Pushing clients for approval and responses.
All with one clear goal: To ensure high-quality deliverables in the time-frame outlined and within the budget agreed.
#3: Determine the Next Steps 🚀
“Great salespeople are relationship builders who provide value and help their customers win.” - Jeffrey Gitomer
Project executed = job done right? Not quite.
In fact, the closing steps are often the most important yet overlooked. Requiring you to retain focus while everyone else is preparing to celebrate.
Resist the urge to rush through everything.
Instead, be as meticulous as you were in the planning phase, ensuring you have all your resources in order and approved by the client before signing off.
Here’s how you get there…
1) Close the Project
So, you’ve done the hard work.
Now it’s time to wrap up the project in a nice bowtie that everyone can call a success regardless of their perspective.
To do this, you’ll need to:
Present the deliverables to the client team.
Obtain approval on your submission.
Host a celebration with your team.
Collate all documents on the project.
Conduct a retrospective on lessons learnt.
Don’t rush it.
For the final handover will be what everyone remembers from the project when it’s all in the past. So, make it memorable.
2) Monitor the Progress
Now the project is over, it doesn’t mean the project goals are.
So, rather than ghosting the client once the final invoice has been paid, embed yourself into tracking the impact of your project on their goals.
Not only will this provide you with a great case study…
It will also enable you to maintain a strong client relationship that can create further opportunities later down the line.
3) Upsell the Implementation
A standard deliverable includes recommendations.
Which can often be mapped to internal & external stakeholders to own with clear actions for them on get started.
But, these next steps also serve a dual purpose.
They can be catalyst for your next project.
For if the stakeholders you recommend don’t have the time or expertise available, you can kindly offer your already well-demonstrated support.
Which after one project already together is infinitely easier to agree to.
And then you can sit back and start the process all over again.
Because the end of one project is often the start of the next one.
The Summary
Let’s recap: To master consulting you’ll need to prepare for success, deliver the project and determine the next steps.
There’s your 5 minutes, now take action:
🎤 Recommended Talk: Stop Managing, Start Leading - Hamza explains the importance of social skills, emotional intelligence and leadership as fundamentally more important than simple management in projects.
📹 Recommended Explainer: What is a Project Manager? - A 2 minute video that breaks down who a project manager is, their role and how they lead teams through complex engagements.
💎 Recommended Resource: Google Project Management Course - A 6 month course on all the technical terms you’ll need to deliver an exceptional project. It gave me all the foundations I’ve ever needed. And only £28p/m.