Sunday 22 January 2012

Ashutosh Mantry_BLP047_Consulting_03Jan’12


Today’s consulting class was conducted after a long break and indeed it was an extremely interesting. In Consulting, to be on winning side, it is required to write an effective proposal which can help you win a contract. In today’s class topics like dealing with resistance and stage of discovery were being discussed in the class.
Chapters in discussion were Chapter 9 and Chapter 10 of Flawless Consulting by Peter Block.
Chapter 9 teaches us the way that how should a consultant deals with resistance from its clients. This chapter teaches us 3 steps to handle resistance:
1.       Always pick up the cues from the manager and then describe to yourself that what is happening.
2.       Always state in a non-punishing way the form of resistance you see. And say in a neutral language to your client.
3.       After expressing yourself, keep quiet and listen to the client. Being an effective listener is the key to deal with resistance.
Chapter 10 helps us to move from diagnosis stage to discovery stage of the assignment. It teaches us different approaches to take this journey from diagnosis to discovery.
To summarize this chapter, we need to remember the below points:
1.       Ask questions about the client’s personal role in causing or maintaining the presenting or target problem.
2.       Ask questions about what others in the organization are doing to cause or maintain the presenting or target problem.
3.        Involve your client in interpreting the data collected.
4.       Recognize the similarity between how the client manages you and how they manage their own organization.
5.       Condense the data into a limited number of issues.
6.     Elicit and describe both the technical problem and how it is being managed
 We also learnt about funnel approach to selling:
Prospecting -> Qualify Leads -> First contact -> RFP ->Proposal -> Negotiation ->Contracting -> Order won.




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