Customer Reviews

Marketing Your Consulting Services : A Business of Consulting Resource

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is AWFUL. Full on lots of blank space and simple minded lists. If this stuff is news to you, you're already in trouble. If you want REAL ADVICE read ANY of Alan Weiss's books on the subject.

Another must-have book for consultants! Full of useful and concrete steps to identify how to conduct a successful marketing campaign, she presents a creative and compelling plan to develop a marketing strategy. She removes the fear and intimidation factors surrounding the concept of marketing by providing a clear practical how-to-guide. Ms. Biech shares her many years of professional experience with her competition. We are all the beneficiaries of her generosity.

Elaine Biech is the queen of marketing. In easy-to-understand prose, she walks you through Marketing 101 and hones in on consultant marketing tools. She packs a powerful punch in just 280 pages...giving the new and seasoned consultant just what you need to know to market your consulting practice.

I have been in business for over a decade, and I still gleaned golden nuggets of information that will help me position my company for increased growth and success. I especially like her "quick tips." Just scan the quick tips, and you'll get one or two ideas that will make your investment in this book well worth the 40 bucks.

You can never go wrong purchasing one of Elaine's books. They are all keepers on my consulting bookshelf.

I've always been had a lot of respect for Elaine Biech's previous work. This particular book though is probably the most practical and useful book she's produced to-date. There are lots of books out there pushing a product or system or focusing on a model. Instead, Elaine Biech talks about a wide range of approaches, what has worked for her or what hasn't, what she's heard from others about their marketing and sales approaches. And unlike a number of books (some of which I highly admire) that apply only to particular types of businesses or marketing approaches (or assume certain resources), this book will absolutely have a range of tactics that will work for anyone out there. This is a very practical, hands-on, useful, applicable book for an area (marketing) that most consultants are terrible at.

Once again, Elaine Biech has added a valuable resource to the consultant's bookshelf. Her clear, easy to understand guidance will be valuable to both new and experienced consultants. It's a book that I plan to use as a reference as well as a guide to action planning. It is obvious that the author is experienced as a consultant and has put her ideas into practice in her own business. If you are starting a consulting business on Monday, read this book on Sunday night! A great investment of your time and dollars.

In IT Consulting, we are often specialists in a particular discipline or technology, but rather unfocused or agnostic with respect to industry or vertical market. When developing a Marketing Plan, it's critical to identify who your target market is. To that end, I've been examining my list of current and past projects here [[...]]. As far as I can tell, they have absolutely nothing in common, aside from the fact that I was involved. They span industries, sizes, geographic locations, business models, and technologies used. Many of them are no longer in business. Is examining past successes a poor approach in determining your target market for future growth? How can you focus on a target market narrowly enough to effectively reach your audience, but not at the expense of other opportunities?

Some of the most practical, real-world advice on marketing I've ever read. As the author of numerous books on marketing myself, I rarely learn something new from a book, but this one is full of insights and little treasures. Highly recommended as a basis for a good all-around overview or audit of your practices and especially for building the business of anyone in professional services.

Elaine Biech has done it again. I loved her earlier book, "The Business of Consulting," and used it extensively as I ran my business. Eventually, I needed legal advice and her follow-on book, "The Consultant's Legal Guide," provided exactly what I needed. It's especially helpful that Elaine provides floppy disks with forms, templates and other resources based on the information in the book -- very helpful.

I've always said the the weakest part of my business is marketing and sales. Well, now Elaine provides me with the expertise I didn't get in college because I didn't major in marketing. This book is specifically designed for consultants -- and more specifically, for consultants without huge marketing budgets. Perfect for me! And maybe you, too.

I love the format -- it's easy to read and follow -- plus it has lots of examples.

Great Book, Elaine!

If you have this book, you don't need to go back to school for a marketing degree to learn how to sell your consulting services. The single practitioner can use this basic text as a consultancy marketing bible. Elaine Biech's manual will help you increase your client base and retain the clients you have. It is free of jargon and packed with practical tools and ideas on how to market a consulting business. Using a workbook format, Biech provides task sheets in every chapter, along with probing questions you complete and apply to your work. If you miss one of her many excellent tips along the way, don't worry; you'll probably read it again in another chapter. That built-in redundancy may be a good teaching drill - especially for beginners - but the book could have been tighter. However, if you're a new, lone consultant (this is not for big consulting practices) targeting corporate clients, we encourage you to study this book - it will open your eyes and increase your business.

Marketing Your Consulting Services is an easy-to-read, easy-to-follw guide to marketing that even a novice can understand. Elaine Biech takes all the theories and distills them down to usable and proven techniques and ideas. This is straight talk based on her own experiences and success. I learned more from this book than I ever learned in school.