Consultant Success Factors

To be successful, a consultant must be willing to acquire, master, and manage a number of critical elements simultaneously. Consultants often have to handle unexpected events and situations as they occur. They are often viewed (correctly or incorrectly) as a high-level expert who can solve virtually any type of problem. A consultant is someone who wants to be in complete control of his/her own career and destiny. The really good consultants possess unlimited abilities in the following areas:

1. Technical skills
2. Interpersonal skills
3. Business skills

Possessing technical skills can be a great first step into the world of IT consulting. In the area of technical skills, a consultant should have a familiarity of computing technology. This may include project and time management principles, Internet and e-commerce strategies, hardware and software technology, systems analysis and design strategies, documentation, and a variety of quantitative methods including statistics and operations research.

But, even possessing the best technical skills in the world are not sufficient to ensure that you can become a successful consultant. Success as a consultant requires more than knowing how to configure and operate accounting software, optimizing a database application for improved performance, or using structured coding techniques. If technical prowess were all that was needed, every technical person in the world would be eligible to become a consultant. This, as you may have guessed, is not the case. Consulting involves being able to package your technical abilities with a set of skills that is often not so easy to teach. A consultant should have a grasp of a variety of interpersonal skills including being assertive, a good listener (or taking the time to hear what the client has to say), a good communicator, a professional attitude, and being a team player.

Finally, a consultant should acquire an expertise and comfort level in a variety of business skills including planning, marketing, negotiations, contractual matters, customer relationship management, and decision-making.