Personal branding for consultants
Author: yinkaolaito
Yinka Olaito is happy,excited and passionate Brand Communication, Social Media expert, Trainer and speaker. Yinka Olaito helps brands(Profits and Non-profits)with effective communication and positioning for premium service delivery and returns.Yinka Olaito also has special interest in Development Communication and has consulted for noted UN Agencies. Yinka Olaito is the CCO of Michael Sage consulting and African Child Right Inc.Lagos Nigeria
A consultant is an experienced expert in a niche profession. A consultant is a professional who provides advice in a particular area. A consultant is usually an expert or a professional in a specific field and has a wide knowledge of the subject matter. Often a consultant provides expertise to clients who require a particular type of knowledge or service for a specific period of time, thus providing a valuable service to the customer.
Consultants need to note specially that their technical skills are not the only asset they have even though that is essential, vital. Those skills help to put your feet at the door and that is where it ends. The long-term customer relationships on which a consultant depends is built on one thing only: credibility.
As a consultant, with ongoing research on what matters and my experience in the field, I have the followings as reasons for a strong personal brand.
1. Learn: learning is progressive. A consultant that is not given to learning will not have a future in the trade no matter his level of expertise today. The phase at which knowledge is changing is phenomenal. One can not operate with the knowledge of yesterday. If you are not a student of learning, please move to another trade before it is too late. This is a calling where one has to be a permanent student.
2. Communication: every consultant needs to cultivate the ability to communicate well. It is a huge asset to have, so the better you are in this skill the brighter the future look. Consultants always communicate through white papers, articles, proposals etc.
3. Trust; this is the consultant’s job security license. The target audience has to trust you. If you are outsourcing a part let the audience know, in case the third party disappoint you. The disappointment will rob off on your image. Interestingly many third parties are not all that straightforward. I have suffered this lot of time. Recently, a supposed outsourced ‘Consultant’ of ours almost rubbish our image. He had no skills he claimed he had and he spent a lot of money on the media to give an impression that he was a great guy.
4. Internet: use the internet to your own advantage. Have articles in relevant professional online forum. It helps your edge. Web presence is also a must. Realize that internet never forgets, so do not provide dirt for your future.
5. Have customers and not client: A good definition of consultant I love is someone who borrows your watches to tell you what time is. Let the customer be part of the solution. It makes them to own the result and you will make them great. They will not need to depend on you all their lives for a single project. A consultant-client relation is not always so. That promotes expert and novice attitude.
6. Congruency: let everything you do give the customer the impression that you are on top of your job. Be consistent in all areas of dealing with your customer. Do not be known for quality in one aspect and you supply inferior service in other area just to cut corners.
7. Always agree on outcomes: Do a contract agreement from day one. Be sure you are in tune with the customer with regards to outcomes desired. Even when you have a contract, there is often disagreement not to talk of where there is none at all. The other part of this article is inside my soon to be released Personal Branding for first class professionals- a free e-book.The picture above is that of lolu mogaji, an image consultant with a difference.
I’m a little late finding this article, but I loved it.
Do you love sports, do you feel like to look cool, i got a very awesome website here introduced by one of my friends. Very good website where you can find the Authentic nike shoes with latest and huge style of nike air max shoes and dunk sb shoes. I have bought from them for so many times, and very satisfied with the their goods and service.Such as Air max 1, air max 2, air max 90, nike air max 2009+, air max 2010 new, nike air max TN, nike air ltd trainers, air max 95.Air max 360 running shoes, nike shox shoes. Though their price are low, don’t worry about it’s quality.
Christmas is coming, go there to find presents for your friends or family. They are on sale, limited time!
Post trackbacks and comments to remote blogs automatically with Trackback Submitter! This tool will submit your comments to millions of blogs automatically. Trackback Submitter – the most powerful tool on the planet to submit trackbacks automatically!
I dig your site, the style is awesome and really easy to follow. Did you download a theme you found online or have it custom developed? I really like how your comments are laid out as well.
Generally I do not post on blogs, but I would like to say that this post about Personal branding for consultants | The Branding Gavel really forced me to do so! really nice post.
There are some attention-grabbing cut-off dates in this article however I donâ??t know if I see all of them heart to heart. Thereâ??s some validity but I will take maintain opinion until I look into it further. Good article , thanks and we would like extra! Added to FeedBurner as effectively
Nice post! You truly have a wonderful way of writing which I find captivating! I will definitely be bookmarking you and returning to your blog. In fact, your post reminded me about a strange thing that happened to me the other day. I’ll tell you about that later…
Enjoyed looking through this, very good stuff, regards .
I really like this article. I can tell you have a lot knowledge on the topic and writing skills. Thank you for this interesting material.