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How to become a consultant with no experience?
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22th January 2022In today’s world, many business professionals think that becoming a consultant is considered a prestigious career. This is because of its financial rewards and intellectual challenges. If you are already experienced in this area then that can be a great advantage for you but, if you are not experienced then there is no need to worry because experience is not an essential requirement to landing a consulting job. An important thing is that you need to make sure that you have the necessary skills to become a successful management consultant.
Who is a consultant?
A person who provides professional or expert advice related to the field of science or business to an organization or individual is a consultant. There is no legal protection for this job title so anyone can decide to become a consultant. There are three main characteristics of the job, first of all, a consultant provides expertise that a client lacks.
Secondly, he operates independently from a particular client, which shows that from the respective consultant there is no conflict between the client’s issue and the services.
Thirdly the consultant performs his job in a professional manner, which includes having the right qualifications, ensuring the delivery of the best service, and a solid internal operation. Consultants are hired because they have knowledge and experience in the relevant field.
The skills that a consultant must possess
For becoming a consultant you need to cultivate a broad range of consulting skills, that will turn you into a better and highly demanded consultant
Communication skills
A consultant needs to engage in written and oral communication, this can be done by asking your client meaningful questions while having a sales conversation. It also includes presenting your analysis during a project and following up and asking for a referral is also crucial.
Listening is also as important as communicating, otherwise, you would be just focused on talking and offering ideas. A good consultant derives questions from the client’s conversation, and this is how he can position himself as an expert and trusted advisor.
Problem-solving skill
This is the core part of the job. If you are armed with a high level of skill and relevant experience then your ability to solve problems is the big reason why a client heirs you. Well, there is no shortcut for improving your problem-solving skills. By solving and studying difficult problems you will learn and ultimately will become a master problem-solver, and clients would trust you more than ever
Observational skills
You need to be a good observer in this job, and you must be able to note, analyze and provide feedback about the areas of clients’ concern. Clients hire you so that you can provide them with an outsider’s view, and help them to make more objective and informed decisions. Observational skills will be improved with experience and practice, try to see the bigger picture, and after connecting the dots in your client’s business and highlighting the trends, communicate them to the client.
The fundamental consulting skill is to observe and suggest action.
Time management and organization
Time management is the most critical skill. There are many tasks to accomplish, for example in the morning you might have a sales call, in the afternoon you might be working on a project and in the evening you might be following up with the clients. so you need to learn time management or otherwise you will risk falling behind. You can systematically and methodically accomplish your tasks by staying organized, productive and practising good time management. Don’t rely on your memory and instead of that use note-making tools like Asana, Notion, or Evernote to store important details.
Independence
The client comes to you for having an unbiased and objective analysis of their situation. it is your duty as a third-party observer to provide him with your objective and unbiased opinions. The most important thing is that you provide your client with the right solution and it’s your duty to tell them even and uncomfortable truths. you need to be the person who can tell them not to go for a certain thing along with giving them an appropriate reason.
People skills
Developing and sustaining a good relationship with clients is of paramount importance. The success rate of your projects is entirely dependent upon these relationships. People will trust, like, and respect you more if you have good people skills and the best way to practice this skill is to be empathetic and gain clients’ trust.
Steps to become a consultant with no experience
If you want to become a consultant with no previous experience then here are some steps that you should follow:
1. Learn some new things
It is necessary to learn a few things related to the subject and your field specifically if you have no experience in the field. It is recommended to read 2 to 3 books on the subject, this will help you to understand the requirement of 90-95% audience.
It is not difficult to learn new things relevant to your field nowadays and you can start with a few things like the Amazon Kindle ebook store, where you will get ebooks relevant to your subject.
An easy way is to search for a topic on Google and follow popular blogs, make sure to read 10-15 posts from the blogs.
Go to Clickbank where you will find the best selling info product related to your niche, and then master what’s in there. In addition to this, find a trusted person who is from a similar field, it can be another consultant. Follow him and focus on how they carry out their tasks
2. Apply what you have learned
You can simply say that whatever field you choose to become a consultant, simply make yourself your first client. This means to start applying whatever you have learned in your own business or life. As we know that practice makes perfect so you will learn by applying your knowledge and it is not possible to do successful consulting without gaining practical experience.
Applying things practically would give you self-confidence after seeing results. If due to any reason your knowledge is not giving you the desired results then you will soon find this out without harming your client or your consulting business
3. Claim your results
The biggest barrier in acquiring consultant clients would be that you don’t have any results to show. Not many people are concerned with your experience but there is a possibility that people will ask you to show them your latest work or a list of successful clients.
When you answer that you have no latest work then there are the chances of failure in your consulting business. So instead of this be proud of the results that you achieve from your own business and claim your success by publishing about your results. In this case, no one will really question your knowledge
4. Find people whom you can help
This is the most critical step and you need to define a couple of clients. In this case, don’t worry about money or rejecting clients. You need to know that nobody knows you because you have no experience. For solving this problem on your own you need to get a couple of clients. In this case, it is better to look around and find a client among people who surround you. You can call your old business acquaintances or you can also attend the local business meetup. This step is not about making money, keep your price low to attract as many clients as you can
5. Learn to say No
Accept the fact that you are new to this field and still you will face some situations where your knowledge would not be enough. It’s good to say no rather than losing the person later is outlined by incompetence. So this means that by saying no to someone you will actually intensify your competence in their eyes because only a real professional can say no and people really appreciate this
6. Continue to learn
You should have the spirit to learn new things at every step. Continue reading books and enrol yourself in more courses and continue to apply your knowledge to your own business.
7. Focus on your client’s case closely
A good consultant always learns from his client’s cases. You will learn new things from every case and that will add to your experience. The strength of a consultant is to bring results no matter whatever excuses are presented on the client’s part.
How much can a consultant earn?
As we know that consultants are exposed to working in many different fields. Some fields require specialised knowledge and the salaries are often driven by the client’s industry.
You might have observed that most of the consultants work for consulting firms and others are self-employed. Well, consultants rarely work for the alterations they are evaluating.
The common salary in the United States for consultants is $74617 per year, as suggested by the data of November 2019. However, the salaries may range from $14000 to $186000 per year.
When it comes to firm consultants then you need to know that they are employed in a consulting firm or an agency. The firm targets company executives and helps in achieving industry-specific targets.
A consultant who is working with an agency or firm and gets a salary ranging from $500k-$5M. The salary of a consultant, in this case, is affected by 3 factors, the partner level, the bonus formula, and the size of the business.
On the other hand independent consultants are self-employed and many independent freelancers earn a similar amount as a firm consultant. You can see that they are their own boss and they can enjoy everything that a dream career looks like, which includes personal independence, no restrictions on their money and growth, personal satisfaction, and work flexibility.
A study suggests that 19.8% of independent consultants earn more than $100000 per year.
Conclusion
The consulting industry is on a rise there’s no denying that. According to research, the number of consulting companies has increased significantly. There were around 600,000 consulting businesses in the United States in 2012 compared to over 982,000 in 2022.
Despite the challenge of competition, as per a research conducted by Statista Research Department, 42% of consulting companies consider the increasing competition in the industry a challenge for their business. Which is a clear indicator of growth within this industry.
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