Being a software consultant involves more than just coding. How you manage and communicate with your clients is vital to your success.
The other half of being the best consultant possible can be found at Rules to Better Software Consultants - Working in a Team.
The 3 A's for being a good consultant:
The first impression given to a prospective client or employee is essential to forming their image of a company. A bad impression means they are unlikely to be interested.
Consider the situation where you jump in an elevator and start chatting to the other person and they ask "What does your company do?"
There is probably under 60 seconds to give an answer that will excite them about your company.
Consider the situation where you jump in an elevator and start chatting to the other person and they ask "What does your product do?"
There is probably under 60 seconds to give an answer that will excite them about your product.
Existing clients should always be the first thing on your mind. Any work relating to existing clients should be done before looking into anything else, including prospective client work.
It is extremely important to demonstrate to potential clients a high level of quality service and attention to their needs; Whenever you receive an email from a potential client in relation to possible consulting work, you should make sure they receive an answer within 5 minutes of you receiving it. This is for 2 reasons:
A lot of time in a consultancy can be taken up by producing estimates for clients so they can see a ballpark of what they will be spending. Because this time is not billed, it is easy to end up with rushed and inaccurate estimates, leading to problems later in the project.
A better way to go about it is to spend a little more time, and really get down in detail to what needs to be done. This is called a Specification review and is billable.
The exception to this rule is if the client is happy to invest some of their own time to help you come up with a ballpark, then you can spend some time on it for free as this should help to get the client feeling invested in you and therefore more likely to go ahead with the work.
Fixed-price, fixed-scope projects sound good but rarely end up with the expected results, either for the client or the developers. This type of project generally demand a sequential design process, and often, the waterfall methodology is chosen. Most likely the key players will end up disappointed.
When you're competing for someone's business, what could be worse than losing the work simply because the client either didn't receive your email, or was too busy to read it?
If you have an existing client, who is already impressed with your work, you don't need to go to the trouble of meeting then to show them an estimate. However, you should at least call them. This way, they know you are about to send them something so will look out for it.
Always call the client before you send an estimate, then send the email with "As per our conversation".
With the convenience and cost-effectiveness of email, it is tempting to rely on emails for all client contact. Don't forget that clients are people too, and they need human interaction to ensure everything is OK. So it is essential that you maintain verbal contact before, during, and after a project.
Avoid going more than 3 days without a phone call to your client.
There are two fundamental ways any consultant can bill clients, with differences including warranty, scope definition, payment terms, and testing requirements.