For the growing number of solo and small-group consultants, this book features the practical information needed to expand a small practice into a million-dollar consulting business. For example, the book shows how to increase sales by abandoning the bottom portion of the market; offers ten techniques for developing breakthrough relationships; details why value-based fee structures are better for profits; and reveals eight secrets to retaining key clients.
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Alan Weiss: Biographical Sketch
Alan Weiss is one of those rare people who can say he is a consultant, speaker and author and mean it. His consulting firm, Summit Consulting Group, Inc. has attracted clients such as Merck, Hewlett-Packard, GE, Mercedes-Benz, State Street Corporation, Times Mirror Group, The Federal Reserve, The New York Times, and over 400 other leading organizations. He serves on the boards of directors of the Trinity Repertory Company, a Tony-Award-winning New England regional theater, and the Newport International Film Festival.
His speaking typically includes 30 keynotes a year at major conferences, and he has been a visiting faculty member at Case Western Reserve University, Boston College, Tufts, St. John's, the University of Illinois, the Institute of Management Studies, and the University of Georgia Graduate School of Business. He has held an appointment as adjunct professor in the Graduate School of Business at the University of Rhode Island where he taught courses on advanced management and consulting skills. He holds the record for selling out the highest priced workshop (on entrepreneurialism) in the 21-year history of New York City's Learning Annex. His Ph.D. is in psychology and he is a member of the American Psychological Society, the American Counseling Association, Division 13 of the American Psychological Association, and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. He was recently appointed to the Board of Governors of Harvard University's Center for Mental Illness and the Media. He has keynoted for the American Psychological Association on two occasions.
He is a 2006 inductee into the Professional Speaking Hall of Fame' and the concurrent recipient of the National Speakers Association Council of Peers Award of Excellence, representing the top 1% of professional speakers in the world
His prolific publishing includes over 500 articles and 25 books, including his best-seller, Million Dollar Consulting (from McGraw-Hill). His newest is The Million Dollar Consulting' Toolkit. His books have been on the curricula at Villanova, Temple University, and the Wharton School of Business, and have been translated into German, Italian, Arabic, Spanish, Russian, and Chinese.
He is interviewed and quoted frequently in the media, and is an active member of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. His career has taken him to 54 countries and 49 states. (He is afraid to go to North Dakota.) Success Magazine has cited him in an editorial devoted to his work as 'a worldwide expert in executive education.' The New York Post calls him 'one of the most highly regarded independent consultants in America.' He is the winner of the prestigious Axiem Award for Excellence in Audio Presentation.
In 2006 he was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Press Institute, the first-ever for a non-journalist, and one of only seven awarded in the 60-year history of the association.
He has coached the former and present Miss Rhode Island/Miss America candidates in interviewing skills.
He once appeared on the popular American TV game show Jeopardy, where he lost badly in the first round to a dancing waiter from Iowa.
Alan Weiss is one of those rare people who can say he is a consultant, speaker and author and mean it. His consulting firm, Summit Consulting Group, Inc. has attracted clients such as Merck, Hewlett-Packard, GE, Mercedes-Benz, State Street Corporation, Times Mirror Group, The Federal Reserve, The New York Times, and over 400 other leading organizations. He serves on the boards of directors of the Trinity Repertory Company, a Tony-Award-winning New England regional theater, and the Newport International Film Festival.
His speaking typically includes 30 keynotes a year at major conferences, and he has been a visiting faculty member at Case Western Reserve University, Boston College, Tufts, St. John's, the University of Illinois, the Institute of Management Studies, and the University of Georgia Graduate School of Business. He has held an appointment as adjunct professor in the Graduate School of Business at the University of Rhode Island where he taught courses on advanced management and consulting skills. He holds the record for selling out the highest priced workshop (on entrepreneurialism) in the 21-year history of New York City's Learning Annex. His Ph.D. is in psychology and he is a member of the American Psychological Society, the American Counseling Association, Division 13 of the American Psychological Association, and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. He was recently appointed to the Board of Governors of Harvard University's Center for Mental Illness and the Media. He has keynoted for the American Psychological Association on two occasions.
He is a 2006 inductee into the Professional Speaking Hall of Fame' and the concurrent recipient of the National Speakers Association Council of Peers Award of Excellence, representing the top 1% of professional speakers in the world
His prolific publishing includes over 500 articles and 25 books, including his best-seller, Million Dollar Consulting (from McGraw-Hill). His newest is The Million Dollar Consulting' Toolkit. His books have been on the curricula at Villanova, Temple University, and the Wharton School of Business, and have been translated into German, Italian, Arabic, Spanish, Russian, and Chinese.
He is interviewed and quoted frequently in the media, and is an active member of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. His career has taken him to 54 countries and 49 states. (He is afraid to go to North Dakota.) Success Magazine has cited him in an editorial devoted to his work as 'a worldwide expert in executive education.' The New York Post calls him 'one of the most highly regarded independent consultants in America.' He is the winner of the prestigious Axiem Award for Excellence in Audio Presentation.
In 2006 he was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Press Institute, the first-ever for a non-journalist, and one of only seven awarded in the 60-year history of the association.
He has coached the former and present Miss Rhode Island/Miss America candidates in interviewing skills.
He once appeared on the popular American TV game show Jeopardy, where he lost badly in the first round to a dancing waiter from Iowa.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If You're Starting a Consulting Practice - Start with This Book!,
By Suzanne Bates (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Million Dollar Consulting: The Professional Guide to Growing a Practice (Paperback)
A few years ago, as I was leaving a career in television news, I bought this book, and it became my bible. Today I have a successful communications consulting firm with Fortune 500 clients, as well as two best-selling business books, "Speak Like a CEO," and "Motivate Like a CEO" both published by McGraw Hill. This book provided the practical advice strategy and inspiration I needed to make it all happen. Alan is one of the top consultants in America, and he's showing you how you can be successful, too. It's an absolute must-read for anyone leaving corporate life and preparing to strike out on their own. In times like these, many people are considering a move to their own business, but you can't do it alone. You'll find everything you need to start and build a 7-figure consulting practice. I would also highly recommend Alan's guide to getting your prospects to say yes -- "How to Write a Proposal That's Accepted Every Time."
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Every consultant should own this book!,
By Steve McCombs (Milton, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Million Dollar Consulting: The Professional Guide to Growing a Practice (Paperback)
I have used the advice put forth in this book with great success. I now sell my services according to value, no longer by the hour. Also based on the tips in this book I sell projects which get a minimum of 50% of the fee up front. Further, my projects don't get cancelled. Buy this book. It will help you grow your practice.Steve McCombs
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great companion to works by Weinberg and Maister,
By
This review is from: Million Dollar Consulting: The Professional Guide to Growing a Practice (Paperback)
In his text "Million Dollar Consulting: The Professional's Guide to Growing a Practice", Alan Weiss concentrates on providing advice to those individuals seeking to build a small, private consulting practice. Weiss repeats this refrain on several occasions throughout his discourse here, because as he indicates, a high number of individuals have asked him to expand his training materials over the years to address the growth of the individual practice. This focus contrasts with works written by David H. Maister, such as "Managing the Professional Service Firm" and "First Among Equals: How to Manage a Group of Professionals" (see my reviews), for example, and Weiss is very explicit as to the reasons behind this focus: "Unless you have a personal objective to build a large firm, surround yourself with the accoutrements of size and mass, and build the equity in the company to the point where you own a valuable business (or a share in one), there is no intrinsic personal financial benefit in linear growth." And "if your objectives are to earn a high income while helping clients to improve their condition - in other words, to support your family and your aspirations while engaging in constructive and valuable work - then your chances of fulfilling this goal are immeasurably greater if you are running your own small firm (small meaning just you or with a few others). You don't have to wait years for a portion of the ownership because you already have all of it. You are not reliant on colleagues' productivity or management's strategic decisions, and you absolutely control how much money you keep." While this reviewer does not agree with all of the content in this book (for example, the definition that Weiss provides for "B2B"), this book is highly recommended to anyone interested in the subject matter at hand. In addition to the refrain Weiss provides concerning the purpose of this book, the other message that the author repeats is the value of financial reward, which is not an end in itself: "Remember that money is fuel for life and that the real wealth is discretionary time." This reviewer agrees with some of the other reviewers here in the sense that the author's chapter entitled "Stop Thinking that Time is Money: If you're Charging a Per Diem, You're Still Just Practicing" is among the best in the book. Charging clients based on billable hours rather than the business value that the work creates limits the amount of earnings that one can generate each year: "Fees are based on value, not on your time, which has no intrinsic value to the client. You can always make another dollar, but you can't make another minute." And "if you agree that discretionary time is real wealth, then you can easily see that simply maximizing income, despite personal and family sacrifices, can actually decrease your wealth. Be careful about that." The chapter entitled "Beyond Success", among the other favorites of this reviewer, provides answers by the authors on the following questions: "Should you charge the highest fees you can get away with?", "Should you travel first class and bill the client?", "Should you borrow others' ideas and present them as your own?", "Should you bill more than one client for the same basic expenses?", "Should you pass on to the client confidential information given you in the course of your assignment?", "Should you use tickets supplied by your client to bring your spouse along?", "Should you accept an assignment from a client's competitor?", "Should you agree to use secret identifying codes on a confidential survey?", "Should you continue to write for a client who passes off your work as his own?", "Should you agree to supplant an alliance partner who introduced you to the client?", and "Am I justified in turning down business from a firm whose practices are reprehensible to me?" The answer that Weiss provides for this last question is especially interesting. Of the guidelines that he provides, the author's first guideline is to ask whether the activity improves the client's condition or merely one's own. While this reviewer admires Gerald M. Weinberg (see my reviews by this author), his Third Law of Consulting sits in stark contrast with this philosophy, which states: "Never forget they're paying you by the hour, not by the solution." No author has all of the answers, but in the opinion of this reviewer, adding this book to one's reading list along with works by Maister and Weinberg can be an unbeatable combination.
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