The Ultimate Consultant

The Ultimate Consultant--the first book in a series written for experienced practitioners--is filled with helpful interviews and vignettes from an array of successful consultants from around the world, and offers the templates, examples, information, and tools you need to transform your business.

This essential, hands-on resource includes:
* Forty tips that can increase your fees--tomorrow
* Ten tested techniques for springboarding to potential clients
* Information on how you can make money while you sleep with newsletters, audio and video, commercial and self-publishing
* Ten-criteria to test peer-level collaborators
* The simplest, most effective time management tool ever
* 50 techniques to enhance life balance

With this indispensable resource as your guide you can learn how to become an ultimate consultant and take your business to new heights! Introduction.

Acknowledgments.

Chapter 1. Acquiring Fortune 1000 Clients: Why Size Doesn't Matter.

Establishing Relationships with Major Buyers: Rainmaking.

Ten Techniques to Build High-Level Buyer Relationships: Making Rain.

Why Size Doesn't Matter.

Using the Springboard to Other Potential Clients.

Ten Techniques for Springboard Marketing.

The Ultimate Rules.

Chapter 2. Value-Based Fees: If You're Charging by the Hour or Day, You're an Amateur.

The Concept of Value-Based Fees.

The Key to High Fees Is Not to Mention Fees.

Thirty-Eight Ways to Increase Your Fees, Beginning Tomorrow.

The Ultimate Rules.

Chapter 3. Marketing and Publicity: Creating Gravitational Pull.

Creating a Strong Gravitational Field.

Pro Bono Work.

Commercial Publishing.

Position Papers.

Radio and Television Interviews.

Advertising and Passive Listings.

Speaking Engagements.

Websites and Electronic Newsletters.

Word of Mouth, Referrals, and Third-Party Endorsements.

Trade Association Leadership.

Classroom Teaching.

Alliances and Networking.

The Ultimate Rules.

Chapter 4. Branding and Celebrity: A Brand in the Hand Beats Feet on the Street.

What Is a Brand and Why Do It?

How Do You Attain a Brand Without Pulling a Muscle?

The Fine Art of Contrarianism.

Capitalizing on Your Brand.

Testing and Protecting Your Brand.

Obtaining Celebrity Status.

Ten Ways to Promote Celebrity.

The Ultimate Rules.

Chapter 5. Passive Income: Making Money While You Sleep.

Commercial Publishing.

Self-Publishing.

Audio and Video.

Newsletters.

Offsite Advice.

Transitioning to Softer Landings.

The Ultimate Rules.

Chapter 6. Joint Ventures: When 1 + 1 = 64.

Forming Partnerships with Colleagues.

Forming Alliances with Larger Entities.

And Now a Word from Our Sponsor.

The Blight of Brokers.

The Ultimate Rules.

Chapter 7. International Business: The Peripatetic Consultant.

Ten Reasons Why You Should Get Out of Town.

Approaching and Exploiting U.S. Multi-Nationals.

Working with Foreign-Based Firms.

Overseas Alliances.

Ten Ways to Establish an International Presence.

Protecting Yourself as an Internationalist.

The Ultimate Rules.

Chapter 8 Managing Time: Or How to Be at the Pool by Two in the Afternoon.

Avoiding Scope Creep.

Minimizing Labor-Intensive Requirements.

Utilizing Client Resources.

Managing Concurrent Projects.

Ten Techniques to Always Squeeze in More Business.

The Simplest, Most Effective Time Management Tool Ever Created.

Tips for the Truly Time-Challenged.

The Ultimate Rules.

Chapter 9. Working with Family-Owned and Smaller Businesses: What to Do When You're Competing with the Mortgage Payments.

The Large and the Small of the Small Business Market.

Competing with the Rent Money.

Managing the Owner's Emotions and Expectations.

Special Section: Accepting Equity for Your Services.

Ten Ways to Avoid the Perils of Consulting with Smaller Businesses.

The Ultimate Rules.

Chapter 10. Avoiding the Success Traps: Creating New Approaches and Taking Prudent Risks.

Signs of the Success Trap.

Using New Technologies.

Creating Proprietary Models and Techniques.

The Consultant as Entrepreneur.

Things to Come.

The Ultimate Rules.

Chapter 11. Life Balance: The Ultimate Outlook.

Working Less and Living More.

The Future of the Business.

Ultimate Rewards.

The Ultimate Rules.

Appendix A: Questions to Ask for Objectives, Measures, and Value.

Appendix B: Components of a Sample Book Treatment.

Appendix C: Sources for Media and Advertising "Experts".

Index. "...a source of much wisdom..." (Supply Management, 15 November, 2001)

"...the methodical presentation of ideas, in a readable way, makes this book commendable..." (Professional Manager, January 2002)

“…if you want loads of useful advice…this is the book for you…” (Training Journal, July 2003)

ALAN WEISS consultant, speaker, and author-is the founder and CEO of Summit Consulting Group, Inc. His clients have included Merck, Hewlett-Packard, State Street Corp., Fleet Bank, Coldwell Banker, and Merrill Lynch. He is adjunct professor in the Graduate School of Business at the University of Rhode Island where he teaches a course on advanced consulting skills. Are you an experienced, successful, and sophisticated consultant who is unwittingly falling victim to the success trap? You are in the success trap, if you simply keep doing more of what made your practice thrive in the first place. "This," says top business consultant, speaker, and author Alan Weiss, "is professional suicide." In The Ultimate Consultant, Alan Weiss shows accomplished business consultants (and those who aspire to be!) how to avoid the common pitfalls of success and raise their performance level for even greater results. As Weiss explains, in order to stay on top of their game, consultants must constantly grow, seek out and acquire new clients, and stretch their abilities and competencies so they will be of value to higher level buyers in a wider range of organizations. The more prospects you attract, the more you are able to determine with whom you'll work, where you'll work, when you'll work, and for what fee you'll work. Within these pages, the author reveals how you can control these dynamics that are crucial for determining success. The Ultimate Consultant-the first book in a series written for experienced practitioners--is filled with helpful interviews and vignettes from an array of successful consultants from around the world, and offers the templates, examples, information and tools you need to transform your business. The Ultimate Consultant includes: * Forty tips that can increase your fees?tomorrow * Ten tested techniques for springboarding to potential clients * Information on how you can make money while you sleep with newsletters, audio and video, commercial and self-publishing * Ten-criteria to test peer-level collaborators * The simplest, most effective time management tool ever * 50 techniques to enhance life balance With this indispensable resource as your guide you can learn how to become an ultimate consultant and take your business to new heights. Alan Weiss-consultant, speaker, and author-is the founder and CEO of Summit Consulting Group, Inc. His clients have included Merck, Hewlett-Packard, State Street Corp., Fleet Bank, Coldwell Banker, and Merrill Lynch. He is adjunct professor in the Graduate School of Business at the University of Rhode Island where he teaches a course on advanced consulting skills. The Ultimate Consultant is a hands-on resource written for successful consultants (and those who want to be!) who are ready to turn it up a notch and watch their businesses grow to new heights. The Ultimate Consultant goes beyond the commonplace advice of how to get started or get to the next level and acts as a practical field guide for consultants who already have a thriving practice. Filled with down-to-earth advice that you can use to improve your practice immediately, The Ultimate Consultant shows how you can: ? Control the nature of business you accept ? Choose your clients ? Increase your income ? Find work and interactions that are constantly stimulating and educational "Alan Weiss is the most successful consultant I know. When he speaks, I listen. You should too." --George Morrisey, author, Jossey-Bass "Morrisey on Planning" series

"Alan Weiss long ago learned the real secret of consulting:? It's about people, it's about relationships." --William L. Winter, Ph.D., president, The American Press Institute

"This highly readable book,written by one of the experts in the field, provides invaluable advice for the aspiring or current management consultant." --Victor Vroom, professor, Yale School of Management

"Alan Weiss is a consulting genius who attacks problems the way he lives life-with unconventional flair and a relentless intellect while delivering extraordinary results. The Ultimate Consultant captures all the reasons why I continue to call Alan time, and time, and time again." --Keith T. Darcy, executive vice president, IBJ Whitehall Bank & Trust Company

"The Ultimate Consultant is one of those books that anyone can read in 3 hours, but for its intended audience, it is a lifetime companion. Based on Alan Weiss' own lifetime as the Ultimate Consultant, his latest book gives the field-tested practitioner what he needs to know to survive and thrive for the long term. As a graduate of Alan's mentor program, I have had the pleasure and the challenge of hearing Alan teach these principles one-on-one. In this book Alan captures the essence of what he motivates his mentors to do. His advice works and I have enjoyed the results of his recommendations. For anyone recommitting to consulting as their final career, this book is an asset. To the novice or part-time consultant, it is a future destination." --Andrew J. Birol, Business Development Expert and President, PACER Associates, Inc.