Million Dollar Consulting, New and Updated Edition: The Professional's Guide to Growing a Practice [Paperback]

Alan Weiss (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1997 | ISBN-10: 0070696284 | ISBN-13: 978-0070696280 | Edition: 2nd

This updated edition aims to provide a comprehensive guide to building a consulting business that will bring in a million dollars a year. It describes how to raise capital, target new clients, hire staff and set up a fee structure. The book breaks down each step of developing a successful consulting business into concise, easily-understood steps, offers specific examples and procedures and features checklists, guidelines and a resource section at the end of the book.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Name Your Own Price In Today's Wide-Open Market! Are you still running your consulting business on a shoestring while giving your clients advice worth millions? It's time you got paid what you're really worth! This updated edition of the best-selling guide will show you how to market and develop your business into one that generates $1,000,000 or more annually. A classic that has helped thousands of consultants build their businesses and their incomes, it's how revised and updated to help you grab the amazing new opportunities in this era of corporate downsizing. From setting fees to hiring staff to winning over new clients and obtaining capital, Million dollar Consulting shows you how to develop a lucrative consulting business. You'll find practical, proven advice on how to: Target, land, and keep the kinds of powerful clients every consultant dreams of; Emply the most davantageious and lucrative bases for establishing fees (and the most persuasive arguments for telling a client you're raising them); Increase marketing and sales opportunities by integrating new technology into your business-including the savvy use of e-mail, computer-generated graphics, an effective web site on the Internet, and more; Establish your firm's image, intensify its profile, and make yourself a star through the use of promotion and publicity, networks and affiliations, and the speaking circuit. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies; 2nd edition (November 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0070696284
• ISBN-13: 978-0070696280
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #273,182 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars For the Lone Wolf, May 24, 2001

By 

"cued" (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Million Dollar Consulting, New and Updated Edition: The Professional's Guide to Growing a Practice (Paperback)

I enjoyed this book. As other reviewers have pointed out, a lot of
the advice given is just good ol' common sense for the professional
service provider in general (I can easily see some of the tips given
here being used by lawyers, accountants, etc to sell their services to
business). Plus, the idea of moving from hour-based billing to
value-based billing is invaluable. As a sole practioner, you can only
bill so many hours a day... but if you can add value and charge for
the value added... "ah, there's the rub." Alan Weiss here
provides a clear sense of the mechanics and operation of your typical
small professional services firm, with a well-written emphasis on
customer retention and relationship marketing.

Weiss gives no advice on growing a
practice into an organization that will outlive its founders. There
is only advice on improving your personal bottom line. In fact, after
reading it, I realize Weiss's formula for making a million is simple:
generate business revenues in excess of a million and keep expenses as
low as possible so that you can pocket the rest as dividends and/or
salary. That works fine for the individual practioner S corp / sole
proprietor, but what if you are already in the consulting business and
you are looking for ways to grow, add new services, increase firm
reputation, or otherwise move away from the lone wolf image? Taking a
million in dividends out of your practice each year doesn't leave much
for growth or future investment. What Weiss doesn't tell you is that
consulting (as opposed to public speaking, a distinction Weiss
sometimes forgets) is subject to economies of scale. That is why
formerly one-person shops like McKinsey are now huge global firms. Is
it better to run your own shop for 20 years, withdrawing all excess
earnings as dividends to support your lavish lifestyle or is it better
to reinvest most of those earnings by adding new services, increasing
clients, hiring more top-notch staff so that by the time you are ready
to retire, your firm is worth $30 million based on expected future
cash flows? Weiss wrote this book for the former, and gives little
advice on how to achieve the latter.

47 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Found late in my career, but not to late!, July 6, 2000

By 

Chris P. Kunicki "ck" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Million Dollar Consulting, New and Updated Edition: The Professional's Guide to Growing a Practice (Paperback)

I have been consuling for 10 years. About 4 years ago I stumbled across this book. I bought it principally because I was going on a trip and needed something to read, I had no expectations. I was surprised to find a wealth of advise that I really needed to bring my consulting to the next level. Issues such as: Setting value based fees, building relationships, dropping the lower end of the business to make room for bigger opportunities and importance of self promotion through publishing & speaking.

The other thing I enjoyed is that Alan presents consulting as an honorable trade that can really help effect change and growth for our customers. If your a consultant, you should read this book! At a minimum your guaranteed to find a few useful points.

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent. Relationship selling and value pricing., July 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Million Dollar Consulting, New and Updated Edition: The Professional's Guide to Growing a Practice (Paperback)

I guess the book can be summarised as having one underlying strategy of becoming a million dollar consultant, with many tactics in order to get there. Relationship selling is one tactic that is explained in depth because it is so different to the way most people sell. Value pricing is the other main tactic in obtaining this status. This books touches on so many aspects of consulting it is difficult to summarise everything. If you want to know how to start a new consulting business, how to set up an office, what equipment you should buy, how to market yourself, which groups you should join, how to work with and recruit sub-contractors, how to allocated project revenue between sub-contractors, planning, down to some ethical decisions, the book covers them all. If you want to become a well known speaker, writer or well know industry expert, this book discusses the tactics to get there. The one thing this book does not do, is tell you it is easy. To achieve these goals, takes dedication and persistence even during the tough times. What do you do when you are down to your last few dollars? Sell the furniture? No, there are even tactics to deal with this situation. I would recommend this book to all consultants and sales people. The consultants will get the most out of the book, and the sales people will learn a lot about relationship selling that is sadly lacking in most of the sales people I know.