90 Days to Success in Consulting / William McKnight

From the Author: Top Mistakes Consultants Make...

In Developing the Business

1. Failing to mind the business side of the practice, whatever that may be
2. Letting your personal image decline
3. Failing to stay educated in your field and letting the clients get ahead of you
4. Not updating your skills
5. Failing to create intellectual property and reasons/cover for clients to hire you
6. Creating a high cost structure for the business
7. Not monitoring company and service messaging by your sales channels
8. Spending too long on fruitless activity
9. Failing to see the signs of business decline and time for adjustment
10. Working too much and failing to balance your life

In Selling the Services

1. Always overtly angling the client for more work
2. Caving on client rate and price demands without negotiating reduced scope
3. Acting subservient (or superior) to the prospective hiring manager
4. Not reading contracts thoroughly or making them detailed enough
5. For fixed-price work, not tightening up acceptance/completion criteria

In Engagements

1. Bringing out the same hammer to solve every client problem
2. Doing great work, but ultimately failing due to poor interpersonal relationships
3. Burying issues in hopes they go away instead of proactively solving them
4. Assuming the client is on board with your industry terminology
5. Staying at the "consultant speak" level and not forging real solutions
6. Adopting an employee mindset with the client in terms of work culture
7. Always angling for personal credit in situations instead of giving credit