Master the 5 Steps of the Consulting Engagement Cycle: Proven Steps to Accelerating Your Consulting Success

Transition from Corporate Leadership to Consulting with Confidence

Are you new to consulting and unclear about how to deliver results as a consultant, without formal authority or a position on the org chart?

OR are your entrepreneurial dreams held up because you’re just not clear on how expertise translates to consulting?

Picture this – a proven framework that shows you exactly what you need to do to deliver results with confidence, win clients, and start your consulting business without second-guessing yourself.

Introducing the Consulting Engagement cycle – this is my test and proven 5-step approach that I have personally used for almost 30 years as a sought-after organization development consultant and trusted advisor to executives in Fortune 500 companies like Disney, Wyndham, and AAA. It’s also the very framework that has helped hundreds of my clients fast-track their success as a consultant and empowered seasoned pros to expand their impact and income.

It can be YOUR roadmap to delivering exceptional results, every time, with every client.

The Importance of a Proven Consulting Engagement Process

If you think you should just wing it once you land a client, think again.

Without a proven approach to delivering results as a consultant, you won’t have the confidence you need to build a brand that reflects the depth of your expertise.

You’ll avoid what you know you need to do to get leads because you’ll be worried you won’t know what to do with them once you get them.

You’ll leave money and opportunity on the table because you won’t know how to position yourself as an expert advisor (vs. an “extra pair of hands” or “paid-by-the-hour service provider”)

But armed with the consulting engagement cycle, you will:

• Accelerate your business launch
• Establish a personal brand that reflects your worth
• Market yourself with greater effectiveness and confidence
• Land higher-paying clients
• And go to bed each night knowing that you have exactly what you need to make money and a difference as a consultant, coach, and trusted executive advisor

The 5 Steps of the Consulting Engagement Cycle

Here are the 5 steps of my proven consulting model. It is not an exact formula you need to follow but a guideline that helps ensure you can deliver excellence every time, with every client.

Step 1: Establish Winning Partnerships

Partnership setup is how I refer to what others call “sales” or “contracting” because that is a much better term for the work involved with landing consulting clients. We don’t sell our services; we offer our partnership and expertise to empower our clients to achieve their goals.

The path to making money and a difference has nothing to do with shameless self-promotion or aggressive pricing. It’s all about positioning ourselves as strategic partners and aligning our expertise against our client's most strategic opportunities.

If you focus on sales, you’ll likely find yourself just delivering whatever a client asks for, which will absolutely stand in your way of ever being taken seriously as an executive advisor.

If you focus on partnership setup, you’ll not only land more work at higher fees, but also be seen, leveraged, and paid as the expert you are.

Step 2: Organizational Assessment

One thing I know for sure from my almost 30 years of experience as an organization development consultant is that no matter what solution a client asks a consultant for or what a consultant wants to pitch - both are always wrong.

Clients are too close to their organizational challenges to see what needs to be done. Consultants don’t know enough about their new client’s business and unique quirks to really see what needs to be done.

Enter your organizational assessment.

In this phase of the work, you use your objective point of view to pinpoint the root causes of organizational challenges, save your clients from wasting money and time on expensive band-aids, and solidify your consulting credibility.

Steps 3 & 4: Solution Design & Delivery

Once you understand the root causes of the challenges you see, you'll move to Solution Design and Delivery. This step is all about creating processes, tools, coalitions, etc., to solve organizational issues. Solution Design and Delivery is the bread and butter of what you offer as a consulting business. It is the vehicle by which you facilitate change.

Step 5: Measure Results

Most consultants are so excited to get the work done that this final step may take a back seat. It's critical to measure the results of your intervention. If you want to leave a company in a place to continually improve—and help them create a culture of improvement—setting up a system to measure these results is critical.

In addition to this being important to the client, it's also essential for establishing a track record for yourself. It can be tricky to isolate your individual contribution, but tracking and evaluating the organization's results is the first step. Some consultants discover unexpected things in this phase. You may produce value that you didn't expect! The results of the measurement phase might make you stop and think, "Maybe my brand isn't what I think it is."

Implement Actions to Implement the Consulting Engagement Cycle Now

Ready to start using this framework? Let me give you the three next steps.

2. Take stock of your skills in each aspect of the consulting engagement cycle.

Ask yourself:

How well do I know how to land consulting clients? Do I know how to create a proposal and offers? Am I clear on what to charge and why? Do I know how to position myself as a partner and peer with senior leaders?

Do I know how to conduct an organizational assessment? Do you have the skills to create a survey, conduct an interview, or lead a focus group? Do I know the questions to ask and how to ask them in a way that gets people to open up?

Am I familiar with the variety of consulting solutions that I can choose from that are beyond training and coaching such as organization design, change management, customer and employee engagement, etc.?

Do I know how to measure the results I help my clients create and isolate my contribution to those results?

If you want to quickly uplevel your consulting engagement skills and get your hands on my proven consulting tools, frameworks and swipe files, my Organization Development Consultant’s Toolbox is ideal for you.

This 6-module program offers step-by-step training through the consulting engagement cycle PLUS a literal treasure trove of proven, ready-to-use consulting tools, templates, and frameworks. Instead of wasting time online searching for best practices, you can swipe mine.

Included are:

• Proposal templates and sample proposals
• 250-question bank for assessments
• Leadership development programs "in a box"
• Organization redesign workbooks and guides
• Executive team meeting agendas
• Coaching tools and more!

And the best part is that you get all of this incredible value…at whatever price you can afford! This is my giveback offer for purpose-driven consultants like you who share my vision for people-centric organizations and to invest in the growth of entrepreneurs all around the world as 50% of profits are donated to Kiva micro-loans so be generous!

2. Take stock of your brand clarity, messaging, and image.

Ask yourself:

Do I know who my ideal client and most likely buyer is? Do I get their pain points and goals that would motivate them to look for someone like me?

Am I clear about my expertise and how what I do is different from that of other consultants and coaches?

Can I express the value of what I do in a way that engages potential clients (and referrals to potential clients)?

Do my website and brand messages resonate with senior leaders?

If the answer to these questions is no, you’ll want to check out my VIP brand-building and messaging services. I’m the only brand messaging strategist out there with my experience in the consulting and coaching industry.

3. Address any fears or imposter syndrome that is holding you back.

Ask yourself:

Do I discount the years that I invested in developing my expertise?

Am I undervaluing my abilities to offer strategic guidance?

Are there any areas where I’m playing small or settling for less than my potential?

If it’s your mindset that is standing in your way, please book a free brand strategy call with me. I’ll help you put to rest these fears and validate the vision you have for the consulting you want to do.