What tools do consultants need?

Benchmarking is the process of comparing the metrics of your company with the metrics of the competition in your sector or with those of innovative companies outside the industry. The balanced scorecard is a framework for tracking important aspects of the company's strategy and for facilitating organizational improvement or change. It measures metrics beyond typical financial metrics to help companies focus on long-term strategic objectives and detect problems before they appear in the financial statements. This matrix was developed by McKinsey & Company in the 1970s to help General Electric prioritize its investments in its many business units.

It is widely used to help companies evaluate the relative merits of various opportunities. Most likely, it has at least ventured into video communication programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the most important aspects of a successful consulting career is money management. And to manage money, all of your income-related data must be well-maintained and easily accessible.

That's why, when it comes to digital consulting tools, you should definitely have those that show you your financial progress (or decline) in real time. It's no surprise that many consultants are turning to technology assessment platforms such as Olive, in order to take advantage of the benefits of digital transformation in their own fields. Even if the big five consulting agencies continue to carry out the technology evaluation process with outdated tools (basically, a collection of spreadsheets), it doesn't mean that the entire consulting industry should be prevented from transforming and automating its processes to help other companies transform faster. Your experience, in addition to the cutting-edge technology you use to execute your processes, can help you differentiate yourself from the competition, grow your consulting business and provide top-notch recommendations to your clients.

At Olive, we believe that you should start by first analyzing the problem you're trying to solve. Take the time to talk to the stakeholders involved. What do you think a software solution should do? What are the priority requirements? Only by collaborating with stakeholders will you get their buy-in when it comes to implementation. The Olive process helps you do everything you need to do in less time.

Our users have project templates and requirements ready to use in the application. Implementing an evaluation is easy and our users can say too much with Olive surveys. The answers are automatically collected in the application, and then you can evaluate them by easily ranking the most important ones. Automating these activities limits cross-references, accelerates collaboration, and saves many hours.

Use platforms like Upwork to find new clients, independent consultants can visit online consulting platforms to find interesting and well-paid projects. So, if you're trying to build a successful consulting career, send your CV to a reputable online consulting platform and let them find new projects for you. These tools are less like consulting tools and more like marketing tools, but they are very crucial to a successful consulting career. Your experience, in addition to the cutting-edge technology you use to execute your processes, can help you differentiate yourself from the competition, grow your consulting business and provide top-notch recommendations to your clients.

There's no denying that some software will make your life easier: the 12 sales and marketing tools I shared with you here are essential to the success of your consulting business. The pandemic has made it impossible for many consultants and companies to meet in person and sign contracts with pens. Considering that the average small business uses 102 different applications, bundling all of these tools into comprehensive consulting, sales and marketing software like Keap can streamline day-to-day organization and save a lot of money on subscriptions. This is ironic, since most IT consultants are dedicated to helping the company to make radical changes in its business processes, in order to adapt to this new world and way of working.

This tool is absolutely essential for consultants looking to take advantage of social media marketing in their businesses. If you're an IT business consultant, your job not only requires a lot of technical skills, but it also requires a lot of business tools. Companies looking for independent consultants regularly visit these platforms and are also actively hiring them. Running a consulting business can cause you to take what seems like a million directions on any given day.

Here are six frameworks that consultants and business analysts use and that you might consider adding to your own set of tools. Some business consultants are hesitant to adopt email marketing because they don't want to spam customers and push them away, but that fear is based on a misperception of using email marketing. .

Dominic Mccoard
Dominic Mccoard

Avid foodaholic. Infuriatingly humble bacon nerd. Lifelong beer advocate. Total sushi scholar. Passionate pop culture scholar. Typical travel guru.