Contents -- Preface: The World's Foremost Consultant and His Impact on This Book -- Drucker's Consulting -- How Consultants Get Started -- My Initial Ignorance about Consulting -- An Academic Course in Consulting -- The Information in This Book -- 1 The Business of Consulting -- What Is Consulting? -- How Big Is the Consulting Industry? -- Types of Consulting Firms -- Why Does Anyone Need a Consultant? -- Signals Indicating the Need for a Consultant -- How Do Potential Clients Analyze Consultants for Hire? -- What Makes an Outstanding Consultant? -- How Much Money Can You Make as a Consultant? -- How Do People Become Consultants? -- Summing Up -- 2 How to Get Clients: Direct Marketing Methods -- Direct Methods of Marketing -- Direct Mail -- Cold Calls -- Direct Response Space Advertising -- Directory Listings -- Yellow Pages Listings -- Approaching Former Employers -- Brochures -- Designing Your Brochure -- Summing Up -- 3 How to Get Clients: Indirect Marketing Methods -- The Basic Indirect Methods -- Speaking before Groups -- Sending out Newsletters -- Joining Professional Associations -- Joining Social Organizations -- Writing Articles -- Writing a Book -- Writing Letters to the Editor -- Teaching a Course -- Giving Seminars -- Distributing Publicity Releases -- Exchanging Information with Noncompeting Consultants -- Summing Up -- 4 Marketing Consultant Services to the Public Sector -- The Government Requires All Sorts of Consulting Services -- Consulting for the Government -- How Do You Get on the Government Bandwagon? -- Federal and State Bidding Portals -- Small Business Administration -- The Buying Process -- The Importance of Preproposal Marketing -- The Marketing Sequence for Government Consulting -- Locating Potential Clients -- Screening -- Visiting and Making the Initial Presentation -- Maintaining Contact and Gathering Intelligence.

Preparing the Proposal -- Negotiating the Contract -- Summing Up -- 5 Making the Initial Interview a Success -- Looking and Acting Like a Professional -- How to Build Empathy with Your Potential Client -- Seven Essential Questions -- Taking Notes -- Holding off on Giving Advice -- Interpreting Body Language -- Making Use of Listening Techniques -- Identifying Emotions from Facial Expressions -- What to Do When the Interview Is Over -- The Company Audit -- Identification of Facial Expressions in Figure 5-1 -- Summing Up -- 6 How to Write a Proposal -- Why a Written Proposal Is Necessary -- How to Write a Good Proposal -- The Structure of a Letter Proposal -- Opening -- Background -- Objectives -- Study Methods -- Potential Problems -- Data Flow Charts and Product Development Schedules -- The Finished Product -- Cost and Payment Information -- Converting a Proposal Into a Contract -- Summing Up -- 7 Pricing Your Services -- Price Strategies and Some Other Considerations -- Three Price Strategies -- Other Considerations -- Investigate the Marketplace -- Methods of Billing -- Daily or Hourly Billing -- Working on Retainer -- Performance Billing -- Fixed-Price Billing -- Disclosing the Fee -- Summing Up -- 8 What You Must Know About Consulting Contracts -- Why a Contract is Necessary -- Developing Your Own Contract -- If Your Client Has a Standard Contract -- Methods of Incurring a Contractual Obligation -- Formal Contracts -- Letter Contracts -- Order Agreements -- Purchase Orders -- Verbal Contracts -- Types of Contracts -- The Fixed-Price Contract -- The Cost Contract -- The Performance Contract -- The Incentive Contract -- Elements of a Contract -- A Sample Contract -- Summing Up -- 9 Planning and Scheduling the Consulting Project -- The Project Development Schedule -- Developing a PERT Chart -- Events and Activities -- Earliest Expected Date.

Latest Allowable Date -- Slack -- The Usefulness of PERT -- Summing Up -- 10 Negotiating with Your Client -- Six Steps in Contract Negotiation, as Seen by Uncle Sam -- Appreciating the Goals and Objectives of the Counterparty -- Preparation:The Key to All Contract Negotiations -- Be Wary of Telephone Negotiations -- The Negotiation Plan -- Negotiation Gamesmanship -- Making the Other Party Appear Unreasonable -- Placing the Other Party on the Defensive -- Blaming a Third Party -- The Good-guy, Bad-guy Technique -- Giving up on Straw Issues -- The Walkout -- The Recess -- The Time Squeeze -- More Negotiation Tactics -- Some General Negotiating Hints -- Summing Up -- 11 How to Easily Solve Your Client's Problems -- Peter Drucker's Method of Solving Problems with His Ignorance -- Defining the Central Problem -- Listing Relevant Factors -- Listing Alternative Courses of Action -- Discussing and Analyzing the Alternatives -- Listing Your Conclusions -- Making Recommendations -- The Charles Benson Problem: A Case Study -- The Charles Benson Problem -- Solution to the Charles Benson Problem -- The Central Problem -- The Relevant Factors -- Alternative Courses of Action -- Discussion and Analysis -- Conclusions -- Recommendations -- Psychological Techniques for Problem Solving -- Why the Subconscious Mind Can Help You -- How to Help Your Subconscious Solve Your Consulting Problems -- Summing Up -- 12 How to Research -- The Two Basic Kinds of Research -- Sources of Secondary Research -- The Library: Still a Good Bet as a Starting Point -- Examples of Simple Primary Research -- More Complex Research Problems, and How to Do Them -- Personal Interview Surveys -- Mail Surveys -- Telephone Surveys -- Electronic Surveys -- You Can Research Anything -- Summing Up -- 13 The Importance of Ethics in Consulting -- Business Ethics: Sometimes Not Clear-cut.

Ethics versus Jobs: The Lockheed Case -- The Ethics of Marketing Research -- What Washington Researchers Discovered by Surveying Their Seminar Attendees -- An Executive Recruiting Story -- A Japanese View of Duty -- Ethics and the Law are Not the Same thing -- Typical Problems Pertaining to Ethics in Consulting -- The Institute of Management Consultants (IMC) Code of Ethics -- Summing Up -- 14 Making Professional Presentations -- Objectives of Presentations -- Five Keys to a Successful Presentation -- Professionalism -- Enthusiasm -- Organization -- Practice -- Visual Aids -- Overcoming Stage Fright -- Answering Questions -- Summing Up -- 15 How the Computer Has Changed Consulting -- Proposals and Desktop Publishing -- Need Overhead Transparencies? No Problem! -- Managing Your Practice -- Direct Marketing -- Correcting Your Writing -- Naming Products and Services -- Making Forecasts and Plans -- Evaluating Potential Employees -- Marketing Research -- Voice-Activated Word Processing Is Here! -- Scanning Documents and Photographs into Your Presentations -- Instant Communication -- Some Reading Suggestions -- Summing Up -- 16 The Internet and Consulting -- What Is the Internet? -- What Do You Need To Get Online? -- Preloaded Connection, Browser, and Portal Services -- Internet Connections -- Researching on the Internet -- How to Use Search Engines -- Evaluating and Using Your Results -- Marketing on the Internet -- The World Wide Web -- Once You Have Your Site Developed, Then What? -- Selecting an ISP -- Selecting a Name -- Why Not a Cybermall? -- How Should You Market on the World Wide Web? -- Publicity: The Number One Secret for Marketing on the Web -- Using Banners -- Cyberlinks -- Giving Information Away -- Why Not an E-mail Newsletter? -- Books on Internet Marketing -- Summing Up -- 17 How to Run Your Consulting Business.

Selecting the Legal Structure for Your Consulting Firm -- The Sole Proprietorship -- The Partnership -- The Corporation -- Other Legal Necessities -- Obtaining a Business License -- The Resale Permit -- Fictitious Name Registration -- Clients' Use of Credit Cards -- Stationery and Business Cards -- Insurance and Personal Liability -- Keeping Overhead Low -- The Telephone -- Fax Machines -- Anticipating Expenses -- Necessary Records and Their Maintenance -- Tax Obligations -- Income Taxes -- Excise Taxes -- Unemployment Taxes -- State and Local Taxes -- Minimizing Tax Paperwork -- Sources of Additional Information -- Summing Up -- 18 Developing Strategies for Your Client -- Why My Recommended Approach to Strategy is Different -- Principles, Resources, and Situational Variables -- Example: Attacking a Market Leader's Top Product -- How Lever Bros. Did It -- Integrating the Principles -- Looking at Resources -- Lever Bros.' Secret Weapon -- Enter the Great Depression -- The Launch -- Apply the Principles Scientifically -- Summing Up -- 19 How to Lead Consulting Teams -- Why Teams Work -- How Should You Lead a Team of Consultants? -- Recognizing Team Stages -- Stage 1: Getting Organized -- Stage 2: Getting Together -- Stage 3: Fighting It Out -- Stage 4: Getting the Job Done -- Summing Up -- 20 Personal Consulting: Counseling and Coaching -- What Exactly Is Coaching? -- Different Kinds of Coaching -- How Coaching Got Started -- How is Coaching Done? -- Learning to Be a Coach -- Coaching Fees -- Marketing Coaching Services -- Summing Up -- Epilogue -- Appendix A: References Useful to Consultants -- Appendix B: Sample Consultant's Brochure -- Appendix C: The Consultant's Questionnaire and Audit -- Appendix D: Associations of Consultants -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V.

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