Do you understand and love selling?

One point most new management consultants seem to miss is that consultants are always looking for their next assignments. They are thinking that when their current projects end, they’ll be out of work.

That means you’re going to spend a lot of time prospecting for new clients and projects, and selling your solutions to client problems. If you don’t love this strategic selling process, you’re going to be unhappy most of the time. And at some point it’s going to show in your work … if you survive long enough to get to that point.

When we spoke with former consultants who had gone back to the client side, this was the most frequently mentioned reason. They simply hadn’t realized that consulting is, first and foremost, a sales and marketing function – even if their primary areas of expertise are in other fields.

If you love selling, or think you could learn to love it pretty quickly, continue on to the next section. If not, click here.