Organizations today are moving from providing commodity products, to providing professional services and complete solutions. This is equally true in the public sector, in which services are offered to the public, to businesses, and to other government departments. And it is true for internal service organizations – organizations that offer services to others within the same company or government body.

To remain competitive and ensure they are fully addressing the business needs of their clients, organizations need technical people who are able to consult with their clients. Professionals whose roles include significant client involvement coupled with technical work need to evolve to a more consultative relationship with their clients.

Learn How To:

• Develop a more complete relationship with internal and external clients
  
• Engage effectively with clients on personal, business and technical levels
  
• See the broader operational impact of technical solutions
  
• Align technical solutions with business objectives
  
• Provide more value to clients and to your employer
  
• Establish and justify "fair and reasonable" prices
  
  

Benefits to the Client:

• Consulting is comprehensive. Most business problems are not simple; they are multi-faceted and require integrated solutions. The consulting professional works to solve the whole problem, not just the technical aspect
  
• The client gains the consulting professional’s external perspective, an objective assessment of alternatives
  
• Together, the client and consultant work to identify and solve the real problem, which is not always exactly as first presented
  
• The consulting professional’s recommendation to the client embodies a business solution – a solution that is aligned with the client’s business needs
  
  

Benefits to the Organization:

By meeting more of the client’s needs, and by meeting them more fully, the organization gains greater control of the client account; the client will be more likely to consider the organization as “vendor of choice”, and less likely to consider a competitor

A good consulting professional will be aware of, and will be able to respond to, additional revenue opportunities within the client organization

Benefits to the Individual:

• Technical expertise is wasted if applied to the wrong problem, or to only part of a problem. By ensuring an engagement covers the whole problem – the real problem – consulting can enhance the effectiveness of good technical skills
  
• By offering greater value to the client, the consulting professional is more valuable to his or her employer
  
  

Who needs Consulting Skills Training:

The courses in the Nexient Consulting Skills professional development program have been designed for working professionals such as:

• Business analysts
  
• Project managers
  
• IT professionals
  
• Engineers
  

Regardless of your role with in the organization, if you are engaged in a consultative relationship with your client, the term “consulting professional” refers to you.