5 Guidelines To Attracting Sexy Consulting Engagements

Do you know that there are at least 12 species of animals that kill more people than sharks?

Yet, people are scared of sharks while often being extra brave with the other 12 species.
While every year, globally, only six people get killed by sharks, in Africa alone, a whopping 2,900 people get killed by hippos and in the US alone, 53 people get killed by bees.

And just as people can't distinguish between highly dangerous and hardly dangerous animals, it seems many consultants have equally hard time to distinguish between the types of work to pursue.

While they should pursue engagement work, they pursue project work. In the worst cases, they pursue projects obtained through RFPs or cold calling.

But what is really the difference between an engagement and a project?

Some consulting firms live on almost back-to-back project work, while some others engage only 5-15% of their capacity in project work.

Since projects offer temporary short-term income, I think it's a good idea to keep project work under 50%, say 20-35%, and dedicate the rest of your firm's capacity to other types of engagement work. 

And even if your bread and butter come from project work, make sure the toppings for your sandwich come from other forms of engagement. Well, provided you like super tasty artisan ham, cheese and other sandwich components.

Ideally, you want project clients that hire you for the whole project, as opposed to hiring different consulting firms for different aspects of the project, even if your firm can do all the work.

And this is what we discuss in this month's eclectically enlightening episode of Commando Consulting, entitled, 5 Guidelines To Attracting Sexy Consulting Engagements.

Enjoy!