has anyone worked as a consultant?

[squeegee]

I visited a potential client and explained my ideas and he pretty much told me they were all obvious. he still wants to pay me to implement them. I found this a bit of a surprise, I went in with the idea that I could just explain some theory and get heaps of praise dumped on me. The message I'm getting is that the consultant is getting hired to make the solutions happen, not just talk.

Is this typical in a consulting situation? Is my assessment correct?

*This is somewhat related to 4HWW because I think this applies to info-products as well. I am finding that people don't want to be "taught how to fish," they just want you to feed them the fish.

[squeegee]

woops I posted in the wrong section

[kamakiri]

Squeeg - Consultants are pretty much paid to get results, not blow around hot air. 99% of the advice that consultants give is completely obvious stuff. Most of the time people do NOT act in their own self interest, and a good consultant will get them to change those detrimental behaviors.

Just about everyone knows what they should do, but many fail to achieve the goals they set for themselves. Helping clients achieve those goals is what makes a successful consultant.

Just look at gyms every January. They are full of people, who go away starting February. Getting people to do the right thing by coercion is a sure route to failure. You need to make them want to do the right thing.

[nghs22]

Squeeg - Consultants are pretty much paid to get results, not blow around hot air. 99% of the advice that consultants give is completely obvious stuff. Most of the time people do NOT act in their own self interest, and a good consultant will get them to change those detrimental behaviors.

Just about everyone knows what they should do, but many fail to achieve the goals they set for themselves. Helping clients achieve those goals is what makes a successful consultant.

Just look at gyms every January. They are full of people, who go away starting February. Getting people to do the right thing by coercion is a sure route to failure. You need to make them want to do the right thing.

good response!

[webgal]

I am called in frequently as a consultant for ad and web projects. And usually they want me to implement some or all of the plan. So, yes, that's what a consultant does.

[TimW]

What is a consultant?
A consultant is someone who borrows your watch to tell you what time it is.

Why do companies use Consultants?
Matthew 13:57 (King James Version)
57....But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house.

I can't count how many times a company I've worked for called in outside help, only to be told the same thing that internal groups recommended.

[jdoc]

I'm a consultant and my contracts are a mixture of analysis and implementation. It all depends what kind of project it is and at what stage (strategic, planning, implementation, maintenance). Nonetheless, my clients usually have an idea of what they're looking for, I'm just there to help them systematically describe it so that vendors can bid on it.

[jjfisher]

I agree consultants are there to produce results. A lot of your clients may know what you need to do they just don't know exactly how to implement it.

[oliviamck]

Theories can be read until the cows come home. It takes someone who knows and understands those theories and how to apply them that makes them valuable.

Think of this as an extension to outsourcing brought up in 4HWW. Except, you are the out sourcee - the one they go to. If it were so easy to implement and execute based on theory, everyone would be able to do it.

[intrepidtraveler]

Item One.

I used to be a "consultant" in the training field, which meant I went in and either created a program or implemented one or both.

Today I write and market (among other things) business-related how-to materials, which means I get a lot of queries from people wanting me to answer questions that are answered in my printed material. To put them off, I say my consulting fee is $125 an hour. They all go away.

However, recently someone insisted and it seemed to me that I actually might be able to save them some time. I talked with them by phone for an hour, collected $125 (prepaid) and they were pleased as punch. Recently they let me know that their plans are going forward and that they found my "consulting" immensely helpful.

So I guess it depends on how you define consulting. People are apparently willing to pay money simply to have someone tell them something in an hour that maybe they could have figured out for themselves, but over a much greater length of time. Time is money, after all.

Item Two.

My father told me a great story about a factory during WWII that had some big machine that mysteriously went dead. They hired an engineering consultant who showed up, listened to their explanation of what was wrong and asked for a ladder and a hammer.

He placed the ladder against the machine, climbed up part way, and whacked the machine with the hammer. The machine whirred to life. The consultant climbed down and left.

A week later, the factory got a bill for $500. (Remember, this is WWII, when $500 meant something!)

They called up the consultant and said, "Y'know, we're finding it hard to justify paying you $500 to hit our machine with a hammer."

"You don't understand," the consultant replied. "I'm not charging you for hitting the machine. I'm charging you for knowing where to hit it."

[dking]

I work as a technical consultant myself right now. Embeded Systems Software QA Automation/Software Design Engineer in Test/Test Engineer. Would love to get into finance, however.

Usualy they just need somebody who is not a part of the politics of the place to say what people unpopuler in the current politics have been saying all along. As long as your humble about it, they usualy do it.. in fact you can get away with a lot more as a consultant then you would be able to as FTE because you are more outside the politics. In fact, sometimes they hire you because of that.