What will you read in 2010?

In the middle of the run up to Christmas it sometimes feels as though nothing will happen until we've reached the 'other side' of the holidays. In particular, if clients haven't decided to start a new project now, they probably won't pick up the phone until 1st working day of January, which in my experience has often been a frantically busy day. So a good way to think of this period if you're not currently busy on a project is as time to prepare and think about how to approach the market in the New Year, what new things you're going to try and how you're going to develop your skills and practice to make sure you get the best and most interesting projects.

On that note, there's been a lot of debate recently about whether the future lies in on-line news or if printed papers and magazines still have a place. I know a lot of people rely on industry magazines to keep up to date with developments and new ideas and I thought it would be interesting to get a view from you as to what publications (on-line and off-line) you rely on. We've done quite well in getting news about Skillfair consultants into the press this year and as part of our drive to support your own marketing so information on what you and your clients read would help us with that. If you have a few moments to fill in this very short survey we'll be able to give the Skillfair verdict on on-line/off-line and tell you which publications you should be aiming at for your own articles.

New Website for Skillfair

The new Skillfair website is finally here, we hope you like it. We've tried to keep the way that the site functions very similar to the old one while making use of the new design to make some tasks much easier.

One significant change that means you should check your profile is that we now allow you to specify whether you show your own name or company name on our directory and UK Consultants Map - so please take a few moments to login and make your choice.

if you have any problems using the new site, or spot any bugs, please email or call us and we'll sort things out as quickly as we can.

Skillfair site upgrade - Saturday 5th December

Well it looks like we're going to go for an upgrade tomorrow - so the site will be unavailable from about 9am. With luck and assuming no major hitches it should be back up and running by mid afternoon.

We've kept the functionality of the parts of the site consultants use as similar as possible to the old site, but the menus have changed and there have been some improvements to the profile pages to make them easier to use.

If you have any problems please email or call us as usual. NB if you can't see where to login, it's moved to the top right hand corner of the page!

Open Space discussions - what topics interest you?

One of the highlights of the conference for me was the Open Space discussion. The key feature of this session, facilitated by Chris Pearse, was that the topics for discussion were suggested entirely by the delegates - and the discussions were also self-led and managed. Some of the topics were ones I expected to come up, but others were a surprise and it was great to have such a wide range of open and constructive conversation. It seems a pity to stop there, so I've set up a discussion for each of the topics that was suggested on LinkedIn so people can keep chatting.

The threads were;

what is the outlook for public sector spending, who will gain and who will lose?

how to use Skillfair better?

how do pay grades & structures impact on company performance?

how can consultants use social marketing effectively?

how can Skillfair help consultants collaborate to win larger bids?

hobbies and interests

what tips do people have on tendering successfully?

National Freelancers Day

We're really looking forward to meeting people at Henley in support of PCG's National Freelancers Day - if you're too far away from Henley there are meetings organised for this afternoon all over the UK. Just go to http://www.nationalfreelancersday.org.uk to find a local event or register to view the webcast which is live now.

Consultants Conference 2009 - presentations

It's taken me a while to 'come down' after yesterday's conference. We started the day with a sinking feeling as news came in of people who'd been on the road since 6.30 and were still stuck in driving rain 3 hours later, but once things were under way it felt as though the sun had come out.

The change in format, 3 quick presentations, a long discussion and then parallel workshops, seemed to work very well as the pace varied and we were kept moving around both mentally and physically.

Slide shows are never as good as hearing real people speak but the morning presentations are now available on Skillfair for those who couldn't make it - and anyone who wanted them as a reminder.

Follow #sfair on Twitter for news of the conference

We finally made it to Manchester ready for tomorrow's conference - after a fine display of how genuine attention to customer service can (just about) retrieve the worst situations. Our train started from Southampton at 10 am bit was an hour late by the time we joined it and finally gave up the ghost at Birmingham New Street at 3pm.

What was a fairly difficult situation that could have resulted in some very grumpy travellers was relieved by the tone of voice of the train customer service assistant whose final announcement (after 10-15 apologies for earlier delays) - started with 'I've got some bad news, I'm really sorry but this train is terminating'.

Her honesty and genuine appreciation of the difficulties that the problems presented was really refreshing!

None of us like delivering bad news to our clients, but I know from experience that however complex the situation it's best to be direct and honest as that leaves the customer respecting what you've done - even if they are still inwardly fuming!

We hope none of the people attending tomorrow's conference will get stuck on a train, but if you do, or you just can't make it to Manchester please remember to follow #sfair to keep up with what's being discussed and we'll give you a full run down on Friday!

Who are your real competitors?

The current economic climate means there's a good deal of competition for consultancy projects of all kinds and if you keep finding clients shutting the door on you it can start to feel as though the last people you want to connect with are other consultants who may compete with you.

My experience though is that I've much more often lost business to other issues within the client than to other consultants. Reasons for not starting a project have included;

We don't have the budget
The boss doesn't want to change what we already do
We'd rather use an in-house person because otherwise they'll be made redundant
Priorities have changed - and the budget's gone with it

In fact, I've found that other consultants have been a very good source of leads as they have direct contacts with businesses that are very difficult to obtain from scratch. Of course, they're unlikely to refer business to you unless they're sure that you'll do a good job and maintain their good relationship with the client - so its well worth nurturing relationships with your peers so that they view you as a 'good person to do business with'

A new website for Skillfair

The Skillfair website is currently being re-developed and I thought it would be useful to share our plans for it with you, and to ask for your comments and ideas – particularly if there are features that you think would help you and that we haven’t thought of.

Phase 1

We’re taking a phased approach to the redevelopment to minimise the risk and potential disruption. Phase 1 is concentrating on;

• Upgrading the technology platform to give better stability and ease of maintenance for the future
• Focus on capturing new clients and encouraging them to contact consultants
• Improving some aspects of the user interface while avoiding major change.

Some new features that you will see immediately are;

For casual visitors/clients;

• A streamlined site with easier access to Search for consultants
• Wider variety of articles and advice aimed at encouraging clients to use the service
• Showcase consultant information on the home page alongside projects
• Links from consultant profiles to ‘other consultants with these skills’ to encourage browsing

For Consultants;

• Improved interface to edit your profile, broken into smaller chunks for ease of use
• Ability to display company name on the directory if you wish
• Skill search facility
• Matched project listings – will show projects on all markets
• Facilities to help you manage your project contacts, showing which are new, active, lost etc.
• Improved account status page with details of your membership, ability to reprint invoices manage alert settings etc

For Clients;

• Matched consultant listings will show consultants from all markets
• Consultant search will show all markets
• Improved facilities to manage responses to projects, showing which consultants are new, active, rejected etc.

Phase 2

Once Phase 1 is live we plan to use the new technology platform to further improve the interface and particularly to allow you to provide more and richer content about your services. The main changes we currently plan are;

• A web 2.0 style interface for profiles – this means you will be able to format your profile, add images, links, documents etc
• Allow you to add articles, press releases, white papers etc to your profile
• Add details of your professional memberships, testimonial letters etc
• Add features to help you manage the ‘incoming’ projects – indicating which you’re interested in and filtering out those that are of no interest

Phase 3

Other features that we are thinking about but would like your input on how they would work best and/or whether they’re of interest include;

Allowing consultants to run their own subject based ‘special interest groups’ through Skillfair

Using the site to encourage collaboration and joint bidding – we’ve had a number of suggestions about this and are currently looking at a mechanism whereby you could indicate your interest in collaborating , on any project or on a particular project

We welcome any ideas or suggestions you may have on how the site could be improved either to capture more clients or to make using it easier and more efficient – just comment on this blog to let us know what you think.

Remote Working

There's been much discussion in the press about the pros and cons of remote working – many of our members are experienced home workers and are well placed to identify what works and what doesn't, so we recently surveyed them to find out how important technology is to remote working and what other factors are involved in a successful remote relationship. To see the results and read the full article visit:

http://www.changeboard.com/resources/article/2768/enabling-remote-working-trust-and-communication-/

- we'd be very interested to hear your comments and experiences.

Jo Bausor

Real projects for real consultants

We've seen quite an upsurge in projects posted directly by clients over the course of 2009, perhaps because clients are keen to get value for money and avoid the overheads of larger consultancies and agencies. But what's most satisfying about what has become a regular flow of projects is that the majority of them are what I call 'real projects for real consultants'.

Engineering consultants AdrianTaylor put the point well, "I'm most impressed at how the real solidly engineering jobs are rolling in to Skillfair at the moment. Recently it was those troublesome trucks on the railway, then it was advice on how to take a significant piece of plant to pieces - and now it is the deliciously tantalising matter of potentially supervising the supply and installation of small scale gas-turbine and steam-raising power for electricity generation.
And before all that, I got a problematic railcar to drive (ahem - 'assess') for a couple of days. Congratulations!"

Not all our recent projects have been engineering related but they have generally had a satisfyingly 'meaty' flavour and have been well received by those consultants with the particular specialist skills required.

The art of the tendering process

I noticed a comment on Twitter about the problems an extremely experienced consultant had with tendering, in that as a newly set up limited company he didn’t have the financial history that’s often required for larger public sector tenders.

Our members frequently tell us about the same problem and our advice is that Skillfair can be used to find associates that have got the appropriate requirements to join a bid team. It's also worth checking with the client too - sometimes even though they say '3 years accounts' they are happy to look at newly formed companies.

It seems that there’s a real art to the tendering process and I’m looking forward to Marcus Eden-Ellis’s session on Tendering skills at our conference this year , which should help to de-mystify the process and give some insight into the knowledge and skills required to submit a winning tender. For more information visit: www.skillfair.co.uk

See Skillfair Members on LinkedIn

One of the nice things about Skillfair is the feedback and comments we get - all of which help us to keep in touch with what you're doing. Some of the comments on this blog have developed into quite extensive and useful discussions as well.

The Skillfair website has been around for quite a while now and over the last 6 months or so we've started to redevelop it to allow us to make use of the kind of facilities that are now available on the web, such as blogging, tweeting etc. The first phase will focus on encouraging more clients to post projects on the site and making sure that information about consultants is readily available to them.

While working on the site we've spent a lot of time considering whether to build a forum or discussion facility - in the end we've decided that it makes more sense to piggy back on a system that many people in consulting already use, so we've set up a members-only Skillfair group on LinkedIn.

The group facility allows you to discuss issues of interest, post news items and network with other Skillfair members and also provides an alternative way to access our tender & project feeds. LinkedIn users will be able to see that you belong to Skillfair alongside any other affiliations you may have.

How do I find that next project?

If you're having a quiet period this is the $64,000 question - and sometimes it seems as though everyone you meet has a 'magic' answer that will get you that elusive next contract.

Chatting to Skillfair member Nick Harvey last week reminded me that it's doing the basic things that really counts. Nick mainly takes on interim roles so is either incredibly busy or 'resting' as actors would call it. In the quiet times his policy is to 'do useful stuff' - that is; get out and meet existing contacts who are themselves busy; offer to help people bid for work; be active in his professional body/networking groups. In short, to keep busy and be seen as a 'useful person to know'.

While this may seem a rather random approach it works for two reasons. Firstly, if you meet enough people who are actively in business you will eventually meet someone who realises you ca help them - and secondly, while this may seem bizarre - people are more inclined to do business with people who are already busy.

Seems to work for Nick anyway, half an hour after we finished our chat he emailed to say the bid team he's been working with has landed a tender :-)

What animal represents your consultancy?

I regularly give talks and run workshops on marketing consultancy and one of my favourite approaches is to ask the participants to draw themselves or their business as an animal. This usually generates a fair amount of nervous laughter and comments about lack of drawing ability. Fortunately I can't draw for toffee either so when people see my efforts on the flip chart they feel able to give it a go.

The sheer range of creatures we wind up with is amazing- from hyenas, cuddly teddy bears, fish fowl and sometimes an imaginary creature. The most surprising one last night was the very friendly and chatty consultant who protrayed himself (very artistically I may say) as a 'bull in a china shop'.

The interesting thing about this exercise is it helps you think in a more creative and personal way about your business. If you also take an objective look at the creature you come up with from a clients point of view it can also lead you to changes you need to make in your approach to attract more or better clients.

So what kind of animal best represents your consultancy practice?

Spell Check Your Profile on the Web

I'm probably the last person the web to discover this - but I've just found that Firefox, Chrome and Safari all provide built-in spell checking functions. Given the number of times I mis-type words like netwroking and marekting this can only be a good thing!

If you have a spare half hour I'd recommend downloading the latest version of your favourite browser and then checking through any online profiles for typos and spelling errors (they come underlined in red).

For information on the browsers use these links;

http://www.google.com/chrome
http://www.apple.com/safari/download/
http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/firefox/

NB you may need to load a dictionary to make the firefox spell checker work - just right click on any web form and select Add Dictionaries

It's not entirely clear if Internet Explorer version 8 has a spell checker but no doubt it will soon - this is the link to download.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/worldwide-sites.aspx

Hiding in plain sight - are you visible?

Like I suspect quite a few parents around the UK I've been mulling over the possibility of getting some extra tuition for one of my sons. After asking around it seems the web is the place to find a tutor and the process has been quite informative. There are a mix of directories, tutor agencies that are easily found - plus a handful of sites that just run adverts that take you to yet more directories.

Agencies are remarkably coy about pricing and you have to dig quite deep to find out what their T&Cs are (sound familiar?) but what struck me most of all was the variation in the profiles loaded by tutors on directories. Some were excellent, giving you a real sense of who the person was, where they would be able to help and whether they would be a good fit. At the other extreme there were a number of apparently local tutors with completely blank profiles - who have all missed out on a possible opportunity.

I know from my own experience that real life often gets in the way of loading uinformation on websites, I've lost count of the number I'm registered with and keeping them up to date can be very time-consuming - but if you've taken the time to register and paid for a directory entry (whether its as a tutor, a consultant on Skillfair or any other site) it does seem to be a real waste to leave your entry blank!

The Friday Afternoon Effect - consultants should work weekends

It's become a standing joke in the Skillfair office that however quiet a week is, things always get busy on a Friday afternoon. True to form I was just getting on with tidying up work before going away and a nice juicy project pops in at 4.30pm on the dot. The same pattern applies for tenders with the numbers peaking at the end of the week.

Because we quality check direct clients as well as consultants that quite often means the alerts will go out either ove the weekend or first thing Monday morning. So if you want to be in with a chance you need to make sure you check your email then.

If the Friday happens to be the last day before a holiday then the effect is even greater - so watch out for a flurry of projects this coming Bank Holiday Monday!

2009 Skillfair Conference Attendee List

Going to any conference or event is a great opportunity for networking - but just taking a random walk through the available people may mean there are really useful and interesting people you just never meet.

When you go to an event it's always worth taking a few moments to glance through the attendee list and see if there's anyone that you particularly want to talk to. They may be a potential client or partnher, or just work in an area that you're interested in. If you can't work out who they are there's nothing wrong with asking other attendees if they've met your 'target' - but do wait until you've had a chat first!

To help people going to the Skillfair conference we've created an online attendee list - you don't have to appear on this if you prefer not to, but if you've already booked and want to appear on it, please check it out.

Refresh your marketing - where to start?

The summer is a great time to take a look at the marketing you've been doing and to see what can be improved - and sometimes it only takes some very small changes to make a big difference.

Step 1

Scribble down the key services that you offer, the type of clients you generally work for and how that's helped the clients

Step 2

Take a look at your website and read the home page - do the words comfirm what you've written down - or do they say something much more vague? The words may sound impressive but the broader the message the less likely it is that a client will get a real sense of who you are and what you do. If the mismatch is very big - you should concentrate some effort here, and probably get in some outside help to give you an objective view.

Step 3

Happy with your website? Now list down all the internet sites where you have a presence - LinkedIn, Twitter, ecademy, forums etc etc The chances are that you'll have a slightly different description of you and your business on each one, and if you're like me some of the information may be seriously out of date. Now go round checking each one and update the information - don't make it identical as different sites have different styles, but make sure the key messages (and phone numbers etc!) come through. If possible include links to the other sites where you have profiles - for details of how to link to your Skillfair profile click here.

To link from your Skillfair profile to other sites, click here

Keep your inbox under control while you're away

I know that getting ready to go on holiday is hard work especially when you work for yourself. Putting contingencies in place and making sure bills are set up to be paid by the bank. Setting up an automatic reply to e-mails and changing your answering machine message is standard, but why not look at those e-mails you get, do you really want to send auto replies to everyone?

Wary of coming back after three weeks away to an overloaded inbox I have made an effort today to switch off my e-mails from my networking sites both social and business and have also switched off my Skillfair alerts, I can easily look at the projects I have missed when I get back. It is easy to do just log in and go to my accounts and click on e-mail alerts and change the settings.

I've just added a reminder in my calendar to switch everything back on after the holiday!

email marketing - does it work for consultants?

Following on from Gill’s comments about marketing, I wanted to share a few thoughts about email marketing. Many people throw their hands up in horror and view it in the same way as junk mail but targeted correctly, it can be a really cost-effective form of communication.

As an alternative to buying in lists of cold prospects, look at your existing customer base - use emails to retain customers not just acquire new ones. Tell them what’s going on in the industry and alert them to any press articles or events you’re involved with (not forgetting links to the details of course!). Use it to reinforce your marketing messages and build a relationship with your customers, taking the opportunity to cross sell products and services at the same time. You can also use email to say thank you when someone purchases something from you, providing a good way to open up dialogue about other products you offer.

Above all, be consistent with your message and think about the person you’re sending the email to – we’re running an in-depth session on email marketing at out conference in November, for more details click here

Qualification, not qualifications, is the key

Over the last year or so I've talked to lots of consultants - some have given up on tendering for business because they say it never works, but others have been very successful. Sometimes the problem is that the particular sector is just too competitive and there are so many bids the process becomes a lottery - but I've noticed one things that all the successful people have in common (Mike Nott who's just won his very first tender is a typical example!) .

They all spend a lot of time and effort working out exactly which tenders to go for and reject many more than they actually respond to. Mike calls this 'developing a discerning eye', that is knowing what is right for you and what isn't - but that's something that can take time to develop so I thought I'd help a bit by developing a check list of things that you should consider before putting pen to paper and writing that proposal. Let me know if you think it's useful.

Marketing doesn't work! - or does it?

I quite often talk with consultants who tell me they've tried networking or direct mail or email marketing - or any other form of marketing and 'it just doesn't work!' - so they've given up. Very often when you chat a little more it seems that it's not so much that the technique involved doesn't work but that the particular variety they've used simply hasn't fit their business and personal style.

A common complaint is from people who've signed up for a local networking group and feel they've spent the whole time referring business to other people and getting nothing back. The problem usually is that these are consultants who need to work with larger companies because their experience is best suited to a corporate environment - and the truth is that large company executives don't generally attend local networking lunches (unless they are themselves trying to sell something!).

If you're targetting larger companies and want to meet the right people then you need to work out what events they do go to - which will probably be the large and relatively expensive conferences that help people keep up to date with their industry. This may seem like a costly approach but 1 good contact in the right industry has to be better value than lots of lunches that get you nowhere!

The same targetted approach applies for all marketing so if you've tried it and feel it hasn't worked you may need to adjust your sights and aim at a different set of people or companies. But whatever you do, don't give upas that definitely won't bring in any new clients!

How can Skillfair improve?

David's blog about successful companies beign curious about their customers and their place in the world reminded me that it's time for our annual customer survey. Web based companies seem to find it harder in some ways to work out what their customers think - we can measure what our customers do online very easily and some get obsessed with 'abandoned shopping cart ratios' and 'click to £' rates' and so on. But that doesn't tell us what customers think about us or why they come back time after time, or leave without paying.

Since it's that insight into customers minds that is really vaulable and allows us to change what we to do to provide a better service the survey is really important to us. If you can spare 5 minutes to complete it we'll be very grateful, and will enter your details in a draw for a free place at this year's conference or a free Skillfair membership.

To take the survey just click here

What makes a successful company?

I’ve studied and worked with all sorts of businesses for more than 30 years and have been mulling over recently what it is that makes some successful and others not.

I've come to the conlusions that it’s not luck but leadership with the right philosophy supporting an open and enquiring culture that makes a successful company.

So when you look at how your company or your clients’ companies work, what characteristics should you expect to see:

• Over-arching an insatiable curiosity about the worlds in which the company does business and recognition that change is the way of life driven by these worlds.
• Commitment to innovation as a way of life driven by the worlds in which the company lives and controlling the way the company responds
• Recognising that your customers choose to buy because you offer them a reason to buy that is relevant to them
• The company is right-sized to be part of any of the communities in which it lives and that people in the company are also part of the community
• Processes and structures within the company are only relevant as long as they serve the needs of the customers and the wider communities.
  

These features apply just as well to a one-man-band as to a large corporation - for more depth and ideas on what effect these features have on a business click here

What do clients think about consultants #1

We follow up on all the projects that clients post directly on Skillfair and in the main they're very please by the level and quality of the response. But there are a few things that clearly make their lives difficult and that astute consultants would do well to take note of!

Last week we had a very specialised request for help with an engineering problem which attracted only a handful of responses. The client had followed them all up but was 'amazed at how few people had properly filled in profiles' - his very sensible suggestion was that consultants should get a friend or business contact to review their profile to spot any gaps or areas that need to be expanded.

We already send a profile status email to our members every 2 months to remind them to keep up to date, but we've now added a facility to allow you to send your profile details to a contact as well, just login and got Edit Profile. While we were at it we've also add the ability for any Skillfair user to refer any consultants details to a friend - so if you see anyone on the site who looks particularly useful why not pass their profile on?

PS I should point out that we only follow up with clients who've posted projects directly on Skillfair - I'm afraid calling 100-200 public sector organisations every week to see how their tenders went is beyond us :-(

Skillfair 2009 Consultants Conference - early bird discount

We really enjoy running our annual conference, but I have to admit that getting the speakers and agenda sorted out can be very stressful - particularly as time starts to tick past and there are still loose ends to fix. Jo has done a great job this year and we have a really nice mix of short presentations, networking sessions and longer workshops - which I think will make it a very relaxed but worthwhile event.

The 18th November seems a long time away at the moment, but I'm sure that by then we'll all be in need of a bit of a boost - so if you fancy a trip to Manchester to network with other consultants and experts in their field why not book your place now? Just go to www.skillfair.co.uk for details.

There's a £25 discount available off the already reasonable price of £150 if you book before 31stAugust

Adding depth in an interview

I spent most of yesterday interviewing students with a view to hiring one for the summer to help us with admin on Skillfair. The job isn't particularly exciting but we need all the usual attributes that you'd want from a graduate - self-motivated, thorough, ability to work relatively unsupervised etc etc.

I'd forgotten how little experience most people have at this stage - but there were still some who managed to shine despite that and I've been trying to work out why. The trick seems to be making sure that when asked an open question , like the dreaded 'where do you want to be in 5 years time' the good candidates don't necessarily answer the exact question but do provide plenty of detail that gives you an insight into who they are.

I asked all students what they wanted to do after graduation and in truth none of them really knew, but the answers ranged from 'Dunno, guess I'll wait and see what's available' to 'Well, I'm not sure but I've explored these 3 areas and I'm, trying to get some work experience in this other area to see if I like it' - I'll leave you to guess which answer was most impressive :-)

I think providing the right amount of relevant detail is a key skill for consultants pitching for assignments, whether by email or face to face. You need to provide enough to give the client some idea of your experience and how it might be relevant - but avoid drowning them in irrelevant information.

benefits of an objective view

People have pointed out that there are lots of 'consultant stories' around other than the watch-borrowing one - I particularly liked this one from Stan Wright about a consultants take on an orchestra and this (rather old) one about the difference between a Japanese and American rowing eight.

Both jokes/stories make the point that if a consultant or organisation loses sight of the purpose of the organisation then they can very quickly destroy any value that it has. In bigger organisations it can sometimes see as though the majority of effort goes into looking at how the organisations internal processes function rather than concentrating on what actually needs to be delivered to customers.

The value of an objective view is that you can often ask the awkward questions, such as, 'why are you doing this?', 'do customers actually think your service is good', that internal staff are either deterred from asking by politics or don't want to ask in case they lose their jobs!

When is a future truth useful?

Having blogged about "Consultants watch-borrowing habits" this week, I've been on the look out for other comments from clients that would offer hints about how best we can present ourselves to clients to have a better chance of winning assignments.

I almost dismissed an article about Tim Smit of Eden fame, headlined as rewriting the rules of business, but the final paragraph made me stop and think. Smit said “I discovered a technique that revolutionised my life. It’s called lying – or rather, the telling of future truths. It’s about putting yourself in the most public jeopardy possible and saying ‘I am going to do this’, so the shame of not doing it would be so great it energises every part of your being.”

I think there are times when telling a 'future truth' can help a client understand why we can help with their business event when we don't have the specific industry experience they're so often looking for. I think the trick is to come up with an experience that is close enough to be convincing and explain why that equips you perfectly both to help them and bring fresh ideas from a similar but different sphere. Of course, downright lying is most definitely not acceptable, but a little creativity and imagination may be all it takes to make your pitch stand out from the crowd!

Consultants watch-borrowing habits

There's an old saying that ' a consultant is someone who borrows your watch to tell you the time and then charges you £50 for the privilege' , something that will strike a chord with many business people. Although this is an 'anti-consultant' line it does illustrate what many managers use consultants for.

I've lost count of the number of times I've been told by a manager that 'Everything you're saying I've already told the management - they won't listen to me, but they will listen to you because they're paying for your advice'. The reason this works is that companies tend to assume that their employees have their own agenda when they recommend change - and see external consultants as providing an objective view of the world.

I think this external view is something that we should promote in a psoitive way - after all it's our knowledge of a range of companies and approaches to problems that is our stock in trade.

First (and last) impressions count

We all know about first impressions being the important at interview - but what does your internet impression tell clients about you before you've even met?

Having spent the day travelling to Manchester and back with Jo to check out venues for this year's conference I've been reminded just how important first impressions are. I won't name names, but the first place we visited was somewhat spoilt by a group of people hanging around the main entrance smoking. Although our view of it improved as we went through the building and saw the much nicer entrance that our delegates would actually use, it was really difficult to shake off that initial image.

Of course, we all know that first impressions are critical in an interview or client meeting, but as more and more people have extensive online profiles it may be that concentrating on your first physical meeting might be too late. Web pages are remarkably persistent and what seemed like an appropriate descritpion of yourself a few years ago may not make the grade now - so it's well worth typing your name into Google occasionally to see what clients can see about you before you meet them.

are you a good partner?

David made a good point about partnering with other professions (and consultants) in his comment on my blog about business advice. Which got me thinking about the debate we had a while ago about specialists versus generalists. One of the issues to bear in mind is that if you appear to be the sort of person who 'does everything' then other professionals may be wary of working with you in case you try to take over the whole job.

If you can articulate clearly the things you do best it becomes easier for both clients and potential partners to see where you fit in their business.

Partnering is a very effective way to get business, people regularly post joint bid requests on Skillfair and report that this is a good way to win bigger contracts than they would normally go for. So why not think about what kind of business or profession is likely to know people you could help?

Some of the more obvious examples include;

IT providers working with accountants
graphic designers, marketeers and web designers working together
Lawyers passing work to HR professionals and vice versa
Engineers helping out patent & IPR specialists

As a starting point, try thinking about your last few clients, what problem they were trying to solve and who else they might have gone to for help if they hadn't found you.

opportunity for business advisors?

I've just read an interesting article on FTOnline that talks about the recession and the impact that and the proliferation of new support schemes is having on the RDA s and Business Links. I wanted to comment on the FT- but you can't - so thought I say my piece here.

I know quite a few of our members work through Business Links, but I think there's a real opportunity here for independent Business Advisors to create their own relationships with the small business community and avoid all the bureacracy that goes with the BL approach. There are a lot of people currently thinking about starting up a business and they almost all need advice of some kind - and while BL is a useful source of basic advice they are very stretched. So how do you find the startups that will pay for and thrive on your advice and input?

These are just a few suggestions, feel free to add your own!

• Get to know your local accountants and solicitors - almost everyone knows they'll need an accountant when they start up so these can be a good source of client contacts
• Set up a local networking group - just invite a few contacts to meet for coffee at a local pub/hotel and get them to bring a Guest. Doesn't need to be a formal group but you may be surprised at how a group with the right atmosphere snowballs.
• Run a workshop or seminar on starting a business - don't make it free but don't expect to make a profit! The more people you can get to come along the more chance you have of making contact with some new clients. Publicise through networking groups, local paper, blogs websites/email

How to get the best from a consultant or consultancy

I had a fascinating insight into the client's perspective on consultants this week as I went to a meeting of IBC's Consultancy Purchasing Steering Group. The aim of the evening was to talk through the risks and benefits of consultancy assignments from both sides of the fence, culminating in a discussion of a draft set of guidelines for the 'consultancy sales process'.


The audience was a mixture of purchasers and consultants - which had the benefit of making sure both sides had to take a conciliatory approach rather than just complaining about each other. There were plenty of good points made, but I was struck by how concerned people from the purchasing community were about the behaviour of consultants once they're 'inside' the organisation. Unexpected changes in personnel, surprise additions to the bill for 'account management' and hunting out or creating extra work were just some of the examples quoted.


I think part of the reason was that many of the purchasers involved work mainly with very large consultancies who have large numbers of staff and very sophisticated sales and account management skills. The positive message that came through is that if clients ensure that they are an important account for the consultancy then they can ensure the best service. Key points to help with this are;

• Choose a consultancy for whom your assignment will be a significant but not overwhelming project


• Find a consultancy with the right skills but an interest in growing into your sector


• If there's likely to be follow on work make sure the consultancy realises that


• Be a 'good' client, give them a clear brief and monitor progress regular

If you have any tips for other people on how to get the best out of a consultant then feel free to add a comment.

What do you want to see on Skillfair's Conference agenda?

We've been working on the agenda for this year's conference almost since the last one finished and are getting to the stage now where all the pieces are starting to come together. We are currently planning to run the conference on 18th November in Manchester, although we've yet to settle on a firm venue.



While the feedback from last year was very positive, a number of people commented that there were rather too many presentations and that it was difficult to go into any depth or have detailed discussions in the time available.



To change the balance we're planning to split this year's event into a mix of very short 20 minute presentations and longer workshops that will last 1.5 hours. The workshops will be able to cater for a maximum of about 20 people each so it's obviously important that we pick the right ones to run.



So that we can make sure we get the right mix of talks and workshops I'd really appreciate it if you could take a few mmoments to look at the topics available and let us know what you think - just click here to have your say about the content of the agenda.

Easy way to check your profile

I stumbled across this rather useful web site yeterday - called the gobbledygook grader it looks at a piece of text and counts how many over used or essentially meaningless words have crept in. It also gives you a very visual representation of which words have been used most.

Not surprising that when I ran it for a few of my newsletters the word 'consultant' loomed rather large then! But I've tried out on a few consultant profiles with varying results - be worth taking a few minutes to run your profile through and see what it shows.

NB you need to untick the 'send me newsletters' link if you don't want to get emails from the website owner.

experts or generalists?

Richard Horswell brought up a subject which is dear to my heart yesterday. On receiving his weekly alert of people who have joined or renewed Skillfair he wrote in saying

"I'm wondering whether I would be better off not receiving these, and I'll tell you why. Firstly it worries me how many multi-talented people we have on the panel ! Seriously, I ask myself how some individuals can have so many specialisms....If I look below for people with Market Research skills (my specialism) I find experts in utilities, police, IT, performance reviews, OR, budget management, website design, banking, campaign planning and much more. And this is just a small sample of members. Perhaps MR is not really a specialism at all, but something lots of people feel they can handle...."

My answer to him was that I find people generally will look at the skills lists as things they can do or have done in the past whereas I firmly believe that we should choose these skills judiciously. Only choosing those that we want to receive alerts of projects and tenders of. Background skills and what we have done in the past that gives us the gravitas to complete our current tasks can be explained in the profile summary. Doing this will take out the element of consultants looking like "jacks of all trades" and keeping us all as experts rather than generalists.

There are those who genuinely do have all these multi faceted skills available but they tend to be consultants who represent associates so obviously their needs will be wider, but again an explanation in the profile summary that they are one of three / twenty / a hundred will be helpful to clients searching for the right person for their needs.

Of coourse Richard can simply unsubscribe from the alerts but then he would be missing out on hearing about people that he may benefit from knowing about. As to Market Research not being a specialism I think it definitely is and isn't to be devalued.

Skillfair Draft Code of Conduct

As an internet based service, Skillfair operates in an environment where it can be difficult for people to trust each other. The prevalence of spam emails, internet scams, phishing, identity theft and so on makes us all a little wary of information coming to us via the web – but at the same time it is an invaluable tool for building and developing business relationships in a way that would have been next to impossible with only a telephone and telex machine.

This code of conduct is not intended to replace or supersede the many excellent documents and codes of practice already in existence and which many people will already have signed up to on joining a professional body or trade association. Its purpose is to try to remind all of us of the key principles we should adhere to when working through the internet so that everyone we deal with feels they have been treated fairly, professionally and courteously.

I’ve divided the code into separate sections for Project Owners and Consultants but they mirror each other in many aspects – in fact I think the overriding principle to keep in mind is to ‘Do as you would be done by’ at all times and whatever the role that you are taking in a business relationship.

Project Owners

As a project owner, you have access to something that many consultants and advisors are interested in – that is an opportunity for work. You may be concerned that you will get far too many responses to deal with – or that you won’t be able to find the precise specialist skills you need. Whatever your exact requirements our experience is that following these simple points will lead to a smoother and ultimately more successful search.

• Be as clear and detailed as you can about the nature, duration and location of the assignment, even if you have to qualify the information. On the whole it’s better to say ‘we think it will take 10 days but that may change’ than to say nothing at all about how long the assignment may last.

• Be specific about the skills and experience you are looking for. If there are certifications or other requirements (such as location, PI insurance etc) that are non-negotiable then make this clear.

• If at all possible include some information on budgets, you can quote a range of rates or a cost for the whole project to protect your negotiating position, but giving an initial idea will help consultants to determine whether or not they should apply.

• If you are acting on behalf of another organisation, as an agency or in some other capacity, then you should state this in your project summary so that consultants are aware that their fees are likely to be subject to commission.

• If your requirement is speculative, such as to form an associate network or a bid team, make sure that you explain this and give some indication of the likelihood of an assignment resulting from the requirement.

• Projects on Skillfair don’t include your contact or company details, this is done to protect your privacy and to allow you to control how you deal with consultants. However, it does mean that consultants don’t know who you are when they apply – you should let them know your name and contact details as soon as possible so that they know who they’re dealing with. You can do this very simply by sending an acknowledgement email via Skillfair.

• Communicate clearly and promptly with all consultants who contact you. No-one likes to send (or receive) a ‘thanks but no thanks’ email but this is always infinitely preferable to not knowing what has happened. If you get far more responses than you expect and simply can’t work through them fast enough please try to send a simple holding email so that consultants know what is going on. This also applies if the project in question simply ‘goes away’ – as professionals we all know that budgets get cut and managers change their minds but being kept in the loop makes things easier.

Consultants

Bidding for work is always a competitive process and whether a project has come directly to Skillfair or is a tender that is publicly available you will probably be competing for the work with many other equally well qualified and personable consultants. This makes the Client's task of selecting a short list and then awarding the contract very difficult and often time-consuming so that anything you can do to make the job easier for the Client will tend to improve your chances of winning the assignment. If you follow these key points you will maximise your chances of winning and also reduce the amount of effort you waste applying for projects that you don’t win.

• Read the details provided by the client carefully, if they have provided a specification document read this as well before you decide to respond. Then draft your response in a word processor before sending it via Skillfair to make sure that you have taken the time to check it against the requirement before you send it.

• If the project requires skills, certificates or other attributes that you don’t have and it’s clear that these are mandatory requirements then you are unlikely to be successful and will be wasting both your time and the client's by responding. Occasionally the skills that a client requires are very rare or unusual and it may be worth ‘giving it a go’ but this is unusual – if the requirement is fairly standard but you don’t fit it then there will be lots of better qualified people responding.

• Always include a covering note explaining exactly why you think you can help the client, this demonstrates that you have read the requirement and that you understand what they need. Sending an empty message with a link to your profile or an obviously standard message doesn’t help the client and won’t help you.

• Make sure before sending your response that the contact details Skillfair holds for you are correct and your email is working. If you are on-site or away make sure you include suitable phone numbers so that the client can get in touch with you easily.

• If you are acting on behalf of another consultant, either an associate or as an agency, then say so in your response. If the client has specified individuals only then you should respect this and not respond unless you intend to do the work yourself.

• Once a client has responded with an acknowledgement you will have their contact details but you should use these with care. It is reasonable to follow up a few days after you’ve responded to see what’s happening but bombarding a client with calls or emails is more likely to annoy the client than win you the assignment.

• When the client does come back to you to ask questions or arrange a meeting you should try to respond as quickly as possible even if you are working on-site, a timely response at this stage is critical to building a good working relationship.

• If at any point you realise that you can’t take the assignment, whether because of a change in the skills required or because of other commitments, you should tell the client immediately. It is always difficult to turn down work but in the longer term this is the only way to maintain your professionalism and level of service.
  

Are things on the up?

I was heartened to read that according to a survey released yesterday, consumer confidence is at its highest level in a year, after recording its third monthly rise - the public's view of the overall state of the economy brightened from -31 to -15 over the past month, and the rating of the state of their own personal finances rose from -6 to -3. Is it the weather, the thought of a summer holiday or an overall perception that 'we've got through the worst of it'?

I'd be interested to hear your views and if this cautious optimism is feeding through to the consulting community?

Daily Rates For Work In High Risk Countries

I wonder if any consultants can offer advice on what addition to daily rates would be appropriate for working in what are considered high risk countries such as Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq and the likes?

DIY PR for Consultants

Hiring a PR agency is probably beyond the means of many consultants, but that doesn't mean you can't get yourself into the press. The key is to come up with a new and interesting angle and target specialist magazines or websites that cover your area of expertise.

Writing a press release is the easy part, the hard part is coming up with a story or article that will appeal to the editors of your chosen magazine or website. It can be really hard to come up with a new angle by yourself, so try getting together with other people in your local area or specialism and brainstorm ideas for all of you.

If your target is the local press then you'll almost certainly need a local connection of some kind - charity stories, new offices and so on - and you'll probably need at least an idea for a picture to go with it.

Specialist trade press are more likely to entertain a technical or 'thought-leaderhsip' articles, make sure you read through a few back-issues to see what's come up and whether you can find a new approach.

So, why not try a bit of DIY PR and let us know how it goes! For more tips and information on writing a press release click here

What makes you trust someone?

The issue of trust comes up regularly when discussing the use of consultants and advisors - we all want to become 'trusted advisors' to our clients - but clients often find it hard to know which advisors to trust.

I've just had eye surgery and while unable to do anything else have been pondering what it was that made me choose and ultimately trust this particular surgeon with one of the most vulnerable and critical bits of me.

To kick off, I went to her initially because the optician I've been going to for many years recommended her - in his words, 'if I needed surgery she's the one I'd choose'. Qualifications and experience were a given since this is someone who works in both NHS and private practice and I'm fairly confident that you don't get the 'consultant' tag in that environment without having done the necessary training and testing.

So that's the starting point - but I could easily have backed out or changed my mind after meeting - so what else did the consultant do that confirmed my choice? She didn't ooze charm, in fact like most surgeons I've come across she was brisk, efficient and possibly a tiny bit 'gung-ho' - utterly confident she could 'fix' my problem - but I left entirely confident that I was doing the right thing, with the right person.

I think there were two clinchers for me - she took the time to explain what the options were, had read her 'brief' (my referral letter) and treated me like an individual rather than assuming that the standard cure would be right for me. The final element was her sheer enthusiasm for her subject - it may sound weird, but having someone peer into your eye and exclaim 'what a lovely myopic disk' is incredibly reassuring!

I'd be interested to know if anyone else can share similar thoughts on why they've trusted someone?

Step by Step Guide to Tendering

One of the questions we get asked most often at Skillfair is, ‘Can a small company win a tender and how do I do it?’ The short answer to the question is ‘Yes’, but the ‘How-To’ is a bit longer. This series of articles is intended to take you through the key issues step by step so you can decide if engaging with the tendering process is worth the effort for your business and if you go ahead with it to help you do it as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Some of our members are relatively large companies who've won large projects through tendering, worth many hunders of thousands of pounds - but we also have one man bands who've won projects, got themselves onto preferred suppliers lists or teamed up with other consultants to win larger projects. The feedback we get is that it can be done, but you need to choose your tender carefully and be prepared to put the effort in over a period of time to be successful.

Each of these Q&A articles can be read standalone, or you can work your way through one at a time. Click here to read the Q&s

When you’ve read everything, you may feel that you want to give tendering a try but still need more help. There are plenty of consultants and advisors on Skillfair who have a background in procurement and tendering and who specialise in helping companies get to grips with the process, to get in touch with one to help you the easiest approach is to post a project on Skillfair explaining the kind of help you’re looking for.

success story - with a warning!

A few weeks ago a client who had posted an interesting short IT project called us to say that they'd had no response from any of the consultants who'd initially contacted them. We (well Angela actually) immediately hit the phones to find out where everyone had disappeared to and despite the absence of answer phones and some dodgy email addresses managed to get through to people.

It was very satisfying to hear today from Nick de Voil that he's signed the contract for the engagement for an 'IT systems audit' - in Nick's words;

"You'll remember a couple of weeks ago you called to let me know the
company who posted this project were having trouble getting hold of me.

I just wanted to let you know that I signed a contract for the
engagement today - so thanks very much for going to the trouble! This
personal touch is the type of thing that makes Skillfair a great service."

Well done to Nick - and to everyone else, remember to make sure your answerphone is switched on or you divert to a message service or you will lose out!

Financial Requirements For Tenders - how do you do it?

Martin Kendall raised an interesting point today wondering " if there is any collaborative thinking so far on how best to "tackle" the requirement in most tender requests for a demonstration of "financial strength". Whilst it would be possible to collaborate in resourcing to form appropriate capability for a tender I cannot see how "one man band" consultants could overcome the "financial strength test" "

I thought that there must be a correct way round this and know that many Skillfair users have told me that they use umbrella companes to go in under for the first time, but for some tenders financial strength shouldn't be such a big issue, that there could be other ways of demonstrating your ability to be a sustainabe company and demonstrate your commitment to the future?

Does anyone have any coping strategies that I might be able to pass on to Martin?

what are management consultants really worth?

After a rash of articles in the press that seemed to suggest that £200 a day was a perfectly OK rate for a 'management consultant' we've been working on getting a more balanced view out. So it was great to get a story into the Mail on Sunday about our recent fee survey that emphasised the experience and skills that are required to add value to clients businesses.

There's a link to the article on This is Money where you can add your comments as well.

Are business personalities regional?

Interesting article this Sunday about people in different regions of the UK having different personalities. Huge generalisation of course, but in my wanderings around UK networking events there is definitely a different atmosphere in the different regions. Londond seems a bit more serious and 'buttoned up' than other parts of the UK - but maybe that's just because everyone has had to fight their way through the tube.traffic to get there!

Question is are consultants in the different areas also different - and does having a non-typical personality work for you or against you?

Don't be negative about the competition

Mr Brown's embarassment over the alleged smear campaigns reminded me of the first rule of sales - never, ever 'diss' the competition. Why not? Because the more you talk about the competition the more attention you give them and the more important they become in your client's mind. I have occasionally come across salespeople who spend so much time having a go at the people they see as their competitors that I've learned nothing at all about their own products and find myself wanting to check out the competition at the first opportunity.

Of course, we consultants are much more subtle about things (aren't we?) but if you ever find yourself kicking off with; 'Of course, we're not like the big consultancies who .... ' maybe you should rewind and try again.

What entrepreneurs can learn from the G20 summit

London has calmed down and the protestors and media who were out in force have quieted now that the G20 summit is over. Aside from the global stimulus package announced, the photo opps and the tensions, there are some good tips that entrepreneurs can learn from the global gathering on how to get through the recession. Essentially, the message from the world leaders was 'we know what we need to do and we're going to do it'.

This attitude needs to be adopted by smaller businesses and there is no reason why it can’t be. Everyone knows times are tough and as a small business it's easy to sink into feeling that there's nothing you can do. However, the businesses that stay positive and take the right actions to deal with the recession are the ones that will survive and, better still, be ready to thrive once economic conditions improve.

There are simple ways to take action. For example, if you have to cut costs make sure you cut intelligently. Don't make your business look shabby or ineffective. Do something positive and get the message out to your customers that you’re doing well and can still be relied upon! Something as simple as sprucing up your website by getting rid of old articles and news and replacing them with your latest and greatest business achievements shows that you’re still thriving and succeeding – a lick of paint can work wonders!

If you really can't see anything wrong with how your business looks or worse, can't think of anything positive to say – you may need an objective advisor to help you look at things with a fresh eye. Online services like Skillfair can help you link up with consultants in your area with the right experience for your business needs. Self employed consultants are a valuable resource and can provide services such as business advice, executive coaching and marketing on a part time basis. A small investment can produce big results when it comes to the morale of your staff and the direction of your business.

Buck the trend of doom and gloom and take action to get through these hard times. Like the G20 leaders, work out what you need to do, tell everyone about it and then get on and do it - lets hope the G20’s do that last bit as well!

little things destroy trust

When you work alone or in a small company it can be quite easy to lose confidence and end up projecting a rather dismal image to your clients so given that it's spring cleaning time we should all do a quick check of how our business appears to the outside world. Try these checks as a starting point;

• Ring the phone numbers on your card - are they still valid, who answers the phone, does your voicemail message sound professional and confident?



• Email yourself from a test email address - we get a surprising number of bounces because people have changed providers and forgotten to redirect their email


• Do a search for yourself or your company on Google, does your website appear, have you contributed to any blogs, is your Skillfair profile (and any other profiles) up to date?


• Take a look at the last dozen emails you've sent - do they all have your contact details included, are they confident and positive, clear and to the point?

If all's well then you can take a break with a clear conscience - if not then a little spring-cleaning on your business image will make you feel better and, more importantly, will ensure that potential clients get a positive impression however they make contact with you.

What makes a client trust you?

Reading this article about Social Networking by Alan Rae I was struck by how important it is to build trust with clients and business contacts, whether you're working on or offline. It's so easy to destroy someone's trust in you - one mistake can do it - but building trust is a much slower process.

I think you can sum it up more or less like this;

• Do what you say you're going to do
• Do it when you say you will
• Do the work as well as you can
• Let the client know what's happening

and most of important of all, if things aren't going well or you're not going to achieve what you planned - tell the client before they get nervous enough to ask!

What do you think?

demonstrating expertise on the radio

We all know that we need to market ourselves and we all know it can be costly and time consuming. For the "average" consultant due to financial limitations most of it is DIY. Which methods then are most effective?

Malcolm Tullett found a way to get his name and company profile in front of millions yesterday when he was asked to step in via a colleague after the Fire Service spokesman pulled out on the Jeremy Vine Show on Radio 2. He was asked to offer expert opinion on one of the shows topics. Malcolm's expertise is in Fire Safety and he was responding to a particular question about the public helping at a fire. Here's the advice he offered.

It may be that on radio shows all over the country expert views are needed on a wide range of topics from health and safety to construction so it is probably wise to have an ear to the ground (or airwaves) and be prepared to call in and offer a sensible comment or as in all effective marketing build a relationship with the producers so that when they are in need of an expert in your particular field they call you.

Have you used a different but effective medium and more importantly are you prepared to share with others?

A bird in the hand?

Interesting to read that the eco-warriors trying their best to disrupt the G20 summit this week plan to keep one step ahead of the police by using the social networking site, Twitter. Not just for the kids, 'tweeting' is becoming an increasingly popular method of communication in some areas of the business community espcially journalism and PR (NB. tweeting, according to people in the know allows 'informal collaboration and quick information sharing') - we've been evaluating Twitter for a few weeks and 'tweeting' occasionally but have yet to be convinced about it's application within our business - does anyone else use Twitter and have you found it useful? (or if like me up until a few weeks ago, you've got absolutely no idea what it is visit www.tweeternet.com for a quick one page guide!)

Scam email aimed at freelancers

Just started receiving a new slant on the 'traditional' scam email - it claims to be from a freelance researcher work at some international research institute. All written nice and professionally, so sad that this person's employers insist on paying in the wrong currency and if you could just do them a favour and move the money through your bank account all will be fine!

I'm sure you'll all have seen through this, but it just shows how scam artists are getting more sophisticated and hard to spot - not a single spelling mistake or dodgy use of English in the whole email.

profile summary

Consultants using Skillfair often ask for tips and this is one of the most FAQ's we have - how do I write my profile summary, how long should it be and how much detail can I include.

The most important thing to recognise is clients are interested in what you can do for them and generally if they can't work that out from the first line or two they won't bother reading any further.

Equally, while a short profile can be a good thing being as brief as 'management consultant' or 'web designer' probably isn't going to get you the new contacts you're looking for.

You should put as much effort into writing your profile asyou would into the home page of your website, for some ideas click here

posting projects

Working in customer service for Skillfair I read dozens of project posts but often the description isn't terribly clear, so it's hard to fathom exactly what the client is looking for.

While this might present a challenge to the consultants, the main victim of the vaguely worded project is the client themselves, who not only risks receiving dozens of irrelevant replies, but might even go so far as to accept an offer from a consultant who has a false notion of what is required.

So I've written a brief guide to how to write a project advert to get the best results, click here to take a look and let me know if I've missed anything.

Local Consultants map

It was really good to have David Cottrell and Rob Watling send details of the Skillfair Local Consultants map to their regional newspapers. David's in Wiltshire and Rob's in Nottingham. We haven't heard yet if the story got any coverage but we do thank them both for their interest in both the map and Skillfair and hope they get some useful publicity as a result.

2 heads can be better than one

I was interested to hear about Skillfair member Rob Watling's experience of looking for someone to join their bid team. I often hear people say "I would have gone for that project but I think I'm too small/haven't got 3 years accounts/we're missing one small area of expertise' etc." so why not give co-bidding a whirl?

Rob needed someone with specific skills to bid with him on a piece of work - he advertised his requirements on Skillfair and in his words "We had 6 replies, 3 of them good enough to keep the details on file, and one of these good enough to include on this bid. So thanks. We wouldn't have been bidding otherwise."

Has anyone else had any experience of this?

Average consultant fee rates increase by 7.5%

I've just finished analysing and writing up the results of our 5th Anuual survey of consultancy fee rates. Slightly to my surprise the results show that rates are up 7.5% on this time last year.

Given that I've heard from consultants that there are newly self-employed people on the market willing to work for ridiculously low rates (£200 for 'management consultancy is surely silly!) has made me wonder what this really means.

A key factor that emerged in the survey is that most of our consultants do most of their work directly for clients - cutting out agencies and other intermediaries - and I think this may explain why the rates they're reporting are holding up so well. What does anyone else think?

Full survey results are here

A different use for Tender Alerts

Speaking to David Seacombe today about Skillfair and the way he uses the web site brought up some interesting comments. He said "We are finding Skillfair a really useful service but not in the way that most people will probably think of using it. The daily alerts are great, but most of them are for work that is already well defined. Aston Beck is a specialist management consultancy – we tend to get involved earlier in the process – when the client is not yet sure what the challenge is, yet alone the solution.

What we do is use these tender alerts to give us a "reason to call" possible partners and maintain a dialogue with prospective clients. Most people involved in business development of any sort will agree that this is a most valuable asset; if you don't have a good reason to call a client or prospect then it is unlikely that the relationship will be maintained."

It's certainly much easier to call a client or prospect if you have an interesting tidbit of information for them - or better still can ask for their advice about something as almost everyone loves to be able to give an opinion!