Notes to Consultants

The media has been flooded with people who senselessly post as if everything is great, without explaining the background. We caused this, the part of us that doesn't like the process but wants the outcome...

Now, as a consultant, we would like to tell you some facts. Not only those who are in the consultancy sector, but everyone who serves companies will understand what I am saying and share the same feelings with us.

When starting a consulting business, everyone wants to start a niche. But the reality is not like that, you need to make money and hold on to life. For this reason, there is nothing wrong with serving more than one sector.
You do not become a consultant by taking a course. You become a consultant as you give consultancy.
There is nothing wrong with providing services for little money in the early days and even for free while learning the business. This is the cost of learning the business. As long as you don't abuse yourself.
You can start by doing what everyone else is doing, but you can't stay in the game that way.
Consulting is getting tougher and tougher every day, because the need to demonstrate your value to the company more and more each time increases.
You can either play the consulting game with lots of clients, big revenues but little profitability and deep headaches. Or you play with few clients, deep expertise, a steely will (to say no and get by for a while with low turnover) and high profitability that follows.
If you are a consultant to a company, it is hard to survive knowing only 1 area. Either you or someone in your team has to be a 'generalist'.
If you don't identify the right client for you as time goes on, you will have to live a lifetime of headaches, untimely correspondence, clients who don't understand you.
You don't have to contract with every customer, in fact sometimes it may be better not to. But it requires a solid authority, a strict principle and a repetition of approach.
You can not manage customers using email and Whatsapp. Those who claim it does are the ones who think it does.
If you don't write and document processes, don't dream of being wealthy and leaving a legacy.
You can't thrive by consuming 24-hour content generated on Instagram. You have to read and digest timeless sources.
In the beginning, you may not have the luxury of telling the customer wrong. But as time goes on, you won't get respect from your customer if you don't tell them you disagree.
You don't know the power of content creation until you start. Sometimes you don't even know after you start.
If you don't have principles and values, you will be no different from agencies and consultants who drift and complain.
You can say you will focus on a single niche and stay in that area, but this should not prevent you from transforming and keep you away from listening to the market.
Work with the client who has no money only until you prove yourself. Money is a filter and dedication.
Consulting is expectation management. If you promise highs, lows will result in losses. It should be essential to promise less and deliver more.
There is no customer who is happy with a price reduction in sales negotiations. It is possible to make them happy by facilitating payment.
Consultancy is a step. Unless you first transform yourself, then your company and then a problem you have identified into a product, it is difficult to climb the steps of existence.
You cannot sell something to a customer who does not feel the pain deeply. If you see a customer's wound open, don't hesitate to rub salt in it. For someone who feels the problem deeply, the solution is not a choice but a necessity.
The offer is not sent by mail. If it is, the objection will not be met. Even if it is short, the business should be finalized on the phone or Zoom.
In an interview where you tell about yourself, the customer is less likely to like you. Therefore, asking questions is a must. Every question is like a pickaxe to discover the ore inside the customer. The real problem is deep and wants to be discovered.
99% of price objections are not real objections.
If you don't like problems, you can't be a consultant, and you don't need to be one.
Nothing said in conflicts with the customer should be taken personally. It is about the business and where it is going. You cannot do business with people who take things personally.
The consultant does business with his/her reputation. So failing is not the problem, not trying to do your best is the problem.
If there is a difference between what you did when you took the client and what you did when you left, question yourself and your team. Reputation demands consistency.
Every new consultant triggers a 'sense of inadequacy' in the team and in you. This is the nature of the job. This feeling pushes you to look for the right and stops you from doing the wrong thing.
When you feel things are not going well with a client, be the first to speak up and look for a solution. Over time, your intuition will give you the ability to do this. This will sustain respect for you.

— Emre