Business consulting can be a good option for your career. It is not surprising that the best students of our universities are recruited as consultants by companies. If we talk about consultant salaries, in general, the consulting sector is characterized by having salaries above the average. However, it is a demanding profession, physically and intellectually. It needs a good qualification and special personal skills for which you will need to prepare.
Being a business consultant is not an easy task. It involves a great effort to be up to date, and at the same time understand the client's business and its mentality. An added difficulty results from the opacity with which sometimes the client shares its internal information. The consulting work then becomes a futile and frustrating task for both parties.
Who is a consultant?
A consultant is a professional who offers expert advice. He advises companies in a certain area so their specialization is usually high. It is a generally well-paid profession but is demanding. Being a consultant has very high requirements at the level of knowledge as well as personal skills. He has to have strong relationship management and communication skills.
Why are consultants required?
Any business needs to increase its competitiveness, productivity and initiate an intense process that diversifies its market. Facing these challenges means a profound change in their business models and processes. It has to change their way of operating, and their way of doing things. It means betting on innovation and the talent of its professionals.
To achieve this transformation, the company needs to address the change following a method that ensures success. It needs fresh ideas to do things in a different way, infuse new knowledge to adapt the business to the new reality of the market. It has to have impartiality in the analysis of any situation and reflect on the present business approach.
All this is what a consultant offers. He brings experience and specialized knowledge to a company. Most importantly he brings an approach that, sometimes, may not be found within the organization in the current way of doing things.
How to be a successful consultant?
A good consultant in addition to the capacity, expertise and technical knowledge must have among others the following qualities:
Ability to listen: Only in this way a consultant can understand the situation and requirements of each company and the keys to address the problem. He must be able to understand all the constituents of the business from workers, suppliers, customers to even competitors.
Flexible and patient: The consultant has to develop his work by involving the key members of the organization but without altering the day to day of his functions and responsibilities. A good consultant must achieve the objectives and perform after adapting to the dynamics of the business and the client, but while respecting the defined work plan.
Objective and impartial: The consultant must analyze the situation by extracting any judgment and propose all possible solutions. A consultant's mission is to perform an objective analysis, from a position of independence. He has to detect the most viable solutions, avoiding random judgments or biases during the process.
Analytical: The consultant must be able to obtain analytical information that supports their proposals. He should research, generate and relate different data and decision elements. He has to arrive at alternatives that are feasible and rationally supported. A consultant has to be able to identify the essential functional areas of the business. He has to ascertain its processes, importance, and way of relating.
Generator of alternatives: This is a fundamental quality in the consultant. Any client expects valid alternatives for their company and its environment. These alternatives must be innovative, useful, practical and concrete. There should be a clear justification of their genesis and their feasibility and suitability.
Communicator: A consultant has to be able to speak fluently and be able to be understood. It is the only way to ensure that proposals are understood and accepted by the client organization.
Organized and methodical: The consultant must be able to manage a project as a whole or the activity entrusted to him. He has to organize his tasks or those of a team of people to achieve his goal. That is why a consultant has to be able to decompose the work into phases, activities, tasks, and steps.
A consultant should establish the deadlines. He should acquire the necessary resources and adequately distribute the responsibilities. Time management is fundamental to the performance a good consultant.
How to be a good travel consultant?
A good travel consultant should be able to put together a perfect experience in a city or in a country. He has to do everything to make the travelers connect with the best of the local flavor of the chosen place to spend a vacation.
Whether it's a family trip or a photo safari in the savanna. Whether it's a visit to encourage an exclusive shopping experience or an immersion in a little-known aspect of a local culture. A good travel consultant has to give what the words of a travel blog will never give.
A good travel consultant has to be in continuous training. He should attend workshops and travel conferences, and participate in familiarization tours. He should visit hotels, restaurants, and attractions with the objective of knowing more. He should be able to advise with the perspective that a traveler needs.
A good travel consultant strives to understand the accommodation needs or very personal culinary aspects. He has to combine times, stays, visits, excursions and experiences.
But do not deceive yourself. There is no secret to be a good consultant. Everything is reduced to the dedication, time and hours of work.