Getting Started in Sales Consulting

by Herman Holtz

• ISBN13: 9780471348122
• ISBN10: 0471348120
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-01-01
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

The owner's manual for the independent sales consultant Aspiring sales consultants will learn the latest in presentation and training skills, designing and planning campaigns and special promotions, writing sales literature, arranging publicity, and much more. Herman Holtz (Wheaton, MD) is the author of the bestseller How to Succeed as an Independent Consultant and has been a consultant to such companies as IBM, GE, Dun & Bradstreet, and Chrysler.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Introduction Consulting: What Is It?	1	(270)
What Consulting Is and Is Not	1	(1)
What Is Sales Consulting?	2	(5)
What Does a Consultant Do?	7	(1)
The Client-Consultant Relationship	8	(1)
A Solution to the Problem	9	(4)
Founding Your Business	13	(38)
Organization and Structure	13	(2)
Form of Your Business Organization	15	(4)
Naming Your Business Organization	19	(3)
Your Business Organization's Home Base	22	(4)
Using Other Specialists' Services	26	(3)
Marketing	29	(1)
Operating Capital	30	(2)
A Business Plan	32	(3)
Common Work-at-Home Problems	35	(2)
Keeping Office Hours in Your Home	37	(2)
The Need for a Working Environment	39	(3)
Workaholism	42	(2)
Learn to Say No (and How to Say It)	44	(1)
It Can Be a Lonely Job	45	(2)
Productivity	47	(4)
Capital and Cash Flow Management	51	(16)
Front-End Problems	51	(1)
Cash Flow Management	52	(2)
Managing Your Cash Flow	54	(2)
Labor-Intensive versus Capital-Intensive Requirements	56	(1)
Solving Financial Problems	57	(1)
Deposits, Retainers, and Progress Payments	58	(6)
Other Cash Flow Resources	64	(2)
Other Approaches	66	(1)
Insurance and Taxes	67	(16)
Taxes and the Home Office	67	(10)
Insurance	77	(6)
Pricing Your Services	83	(26)
Two Basic Approaches	83	(2)
The Choices	85	(1)
How Pricing Is Affected	86	(2)
The Need for Specifications	88	(1)
Pros of Working for Hourly Rates	89	(1)
Pros of a Firm, Fixed Price	90	(1)
Alternatives Open to You	91	(1)
Billable Hours	91	(2)
The Basis for All Pricing	93	(4)
A Few Tips on Estimating Costs	97	(2)
Discounting for Prompt Payment	99	(1)
Setting Your Rates	100	(2)
Prices and Market/Client Definition	102	(2)
An Ethical Problem in Hourly Rates	104	(2)
Other Kinds of Market Definitions	106	(3)
Using Lawyers, Accountants, and Other Special Services	109	(18)
The Age of the Specialist	109	(1)
Do You Need a Lawyer?	110	(3)
Is It All over Your Head?	113	(5)
Beware of Ready-Made Solutions and Conventional Wisdom	118	(2)
Inherent Paradox of Conventional Wisdom	120	(1)
Can You Do It Yourself?	121	(2)
Your Friend, the Accountant	123	(4)
Building a Clientele: Marketing	127	(32)
What Is Marketing?	127	(1)
Winning Clients	128	(1)
An Interesting Phenomenon	129	(1)
Your Visibility	129	(1)
Your Image	130	(1)
What Is Your Business?	131	(4)
Promise and Proof	135	(1)
How to Build That Visibility and Image	136	(1)
Discussion Groups	136	(1)
Networking	137	(3)
Keep Your Eye on the Ball	140	(1)
Every Business Is a Service Business	141	(1)
What Are You Really Selling?	142	(1)
The Promise Is Not Enough	142	(1)
This Special Case	143	(1)
Other Elements	144	(2)
The USP	146	(4)
Creativity: What Is It?	150	(3)
Proposals in General Marketing	153	(1)
Other Uses of Cyberspace in Marketing	154	(1)
Web Sites	155	(1)
Newsgroups	156	(3)
Finding Your Niches	159	(22)
Markets and Niches	159	(2)
Another Kind of Niche	161	(1)
Which Niche Comes First?	162	(1)
Nonprofits Also Have Sales Needs	163	(1)
Make Your Specialty Clear	164	(1)
Identify Intended Clients	165	(1)
Use Worksheets for Analysis	165	(2)
You May Have More Than One Class of Clients	167	(1)
Be Prepared to Modify First Choices	168	(1)
Consider the Client's Interests	169	(1)
Closing	170	(1)
Some Criteria for Identifying a Niche Market	171	(4)
Emulate or Innovate?	175	(6)
Selling to the Government and Proposal Writing	181	(24)
What Is ``the Government''?	181	(1)
The World's Biggest Market	182	(3)
What the Government Buys	185	(2)
How the Government Buys	187	(3)
How the Government Pays	190	(1)
Proposals Are a Special Opportunity	191	(1)
Advantages Proposals Offer	191	(2)
Proposal Writing in General	193	(1)
Flowcharting	194	(3)
Basic Principles	197	(1)
Other Opportunities in Regard to Government Contracts	198	(1)
Contracting as a Way of Doing Business	199	(4)
Researching Government Markets	203	(2)
Ancillary Services and Other Income Sources	205	(24)
Why Ancillary Services and Other Income Sources?	205	(2)
Advantages of Such a Complement	207	(2)
Newsletters and Associates Program	209	(2)
Creative Thinking	211	(1)
Consulting Services Information Center	212	(1)
Your Own Special Niche Market	212	(1)
Special Reports	213	(1)
Spin-Off Benefits of Your Special Reports	214	(1)
Writing Sell Copy	215	(3)
Articles in Other Periodicals and Books	218	(1)
Public Speaking	219	(4)
Seminars	223	(3)
Other Public Speaking	226	(3)
Contracts and Negotiations	229	(12)
Contracts and Agreements	229	(5)
Contracts May Be Declared Invalid	234	(1)
Formal Contracts	234	(1)
Clauses	235	(2)
Defining What Is to Be Done	237	(1)
Negotiation	238	(3)
Client Relationships and Ethical Considerations	241	(14)
Identifying Your Client	241	(2)
A Twofold Obligation	243	(2)
Verbal Request for Additional Work	245	(3)
How Friendly Should You Be?	248	(1)
A Typical Case	249	(2)
Special Ethical Considerations	251	(4)
Some Commonsense Notes about Writing	255	(16)
Why a Chapter on Writing	255	(3)
Most of Us Already Have the Basics	258	(3)
Writing ``What You Know''	261	(2)
How Much Research?	263	(1)
In the Beginning	264	(1)
Organization, Leads, and Bridges	265	(3)
More Mythology	268	(1)
Purple Prose and Other Bad Writing	269	(2)
Glossary	271	(8)
Index	279