I have posted on this before, and no doubt I will again, there are four rules I use to assess every consulting engagement. I also use these to measure the performance of my consultants, and to help build their career development plans.
An engagement is a success when we have achieved:
1. Problem Solved. What they bought us in for initially has been achieved.
2. Happy client (Because this is not always linked to the first point)
3. Reference-able work.The client is happy to answer the telephone on our behalf, write a LinkedIn recommendation, provide an email testimonial or speak on what we did at a conference.
4. Repeat work.
The more you look at these four simple statements the more you realize it covers most of the skills and phases involved in every consulting engagement.
Managing relationships, making sure expectations are understood and clearly communicated, targeting the problem with the most efficient solution, ensuring that everyone is very well aware of the value provided, and converting success into more success via the repeat works options.
If you manage consultants, or if you need some way to measure your own performance, then I recommend these four simple measures.
If you get these right, then the real measure, revenues, will happen automatically.
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