Value Based Consulting

This book will complement the author's book on the future of Management Consultancy. While that book examined the structure and trends in the industry this book tackles the more micro questions about how consultants understand what clients value and create value for clients. The author is a leading expert on management consulting and this book will help management consultants to do their jobs successfully.

How can you take your skills and expertise and package and present it to become a successful consultant? There are proven time-tested principles, strategies, tactics and best-practices the most successful consultants use to start, run and grow their consulting business. Consulting Success teaches you what they are. In this book you'll learn: - How to position yourself as a leading expert and authority in your marketplace - Effective marketing and branding materials that get the attention of your ideal clients - Strategies to increase your fees and earn more with every project - The proposal template that has generated millions of dollars in consulting engagements - How to develop a pipeline of business and attract ideal clients - Productivity secrets for consultants including how to get more done in one week than most people do in a month - And much, much more

A Groundbreaking Pricing Model for the New Business Landscape Why would any customer choose Brand X over Brand Y, regardless of price? In a word: Value. When customers feel they are getting good value from your product or service, they are more than happy to pay more—which is good news for you and your business. Even in today’s global market—with its aggressive competitors, low-cost commodities, savvy consumers, and intangible digital offerings—you can outsell and outperform the rest using Value-Based Pricing. Done correctly, this method of pricing and selling helps you: Understand your customers’ wants and needs Focus on what makes your company different Quantify your differences and build a value-based strategy Communicate your value directly to your customers Now more than ever, it is essential for you to reexamine the reality of the value you offer customers—and this step-by-step program shows you how. Developed by global consultants Harry Macdivitt and Mike Wilkinson, Value-Based Pricing identifies three basic elements of the Value Triad: revenue gain, cost reduction, and emotional contribution. By delivering these core values to your customers—through marketing, selling, negotiation, and pricing—you can expect an increase in profits, productivity, and consumer goodwill. These are the same value-based strategies used by major companies such as Philips, Alstom, Siemens, and Virgin Mobile. And when it comes to today’s more intangible markets—such as consulting services or digital properties like e-books and music files—these value-based strategies are more important than ever. So forget about your old pricing methods based on costs and competition. Once you know your own value—and how to communicate it to others—everybody profits.

Praise for IMPLEMENTING VALUE PRICING A Radical Business Model for Professional Firms "Ron Baker is the most prolific and best writer when it comes to pricing services. This is a must-read for executives and partners in small to large firms. Ron provides the basics, the advanced ideas, the workbooks, the case studies everything. This is a must-have and a terrific book." Reed K. Holden founder and CEO, Holden Advisors, Corp., Associate Professor, Columbia University www.holdenadvisors.com "We've known through Ron Baker's earlier books that he's not just an extraordinary thinker and truly brilliant writer he's a mover and a shaker on a mission. This is the End of Time! Brilliant." Paul Dunn Chairman, B1G1® www.b1g1.com "Implementing Value Pricing is a powerful blend of theory, strategy, and tactics. Ron Baker's most recent offering is ambitious in scope, exploring topics that include economic theory, customer orientation, value identification, service positioning, and pricing strategy. He weaves all of them together seamlessly, and includes numerous examples to illustrate his primary points. I have applied the knowledge I've gained from his body of work, and the benefits to me and to my customers have been immediate, significant, and ongoing." Brent Uren Principal, Valuation & Business Modeling Ernst & Young® www.ey.com "Ron Baker is a revolutionary. He is on a radical crusade to align the interests of service providers with those of their customers by having lawyers, accountants, and consultants charge based on the value they provide, rather than the effort it takes. Implementing Value Pricing is a manifesto that establishes a clear case for the revolution. It provides detailed guidance that includes not only strategies and tactics, but key predictive indicators for success. It is richly illustrated by the successes of firms that have embraced value-based pricing to make their services not only more cost-effective for their customers, but more profitable as well. The hallmark of a manifesto is an unyielding sense of purpose and a call to action. Let the revolution begin." Robert G. Cross, Chairman and CEO, Revenue Analytics, Inc. Author, Revenue Management: Hard-Core Tactics for Market Domination

Provides step-by-step guidance on implementing and using a value-based management system within the government Countless books on proposed management practices have been written and published over the past century. Some of these have focused on specific management practices for government. In more recent decades, the topics of strategic planning, performance management, cost management and risk management have been extensively covered. However, little has been offered as an approach to integrate these and numerous other management methods and practices in a manner that maximizes the delivery of value to the organization’s key stakeholders. A general management framework is presented in this book in a manner particularly applicable to government organizations. Value-Based Management in Government introduces a new, integrating framework for management practices that optimizes the balancing of results sought; resources supplied and allocated; and risks accepted. These considerations are all balanced for the purpose of delivering maximum stakeholder value. The book offers guidance on how strategic planning, performance management, cost/resource management, and risk management must all be integrated as part of a portfolio management framework across the organization. The book also discusses the role of information technology (IT) in providing data for insights and decision-making, and the importance of organizational change management to implement the needed organizational and behavioral changes. Beginning by explaining the concept of Value-Based Management for the public sector and government, the text goes on to explore topics such as the evolutionary stages of maturity of management accounting, the benefit of attributes (e.g., value-add versus nonvalue-add) in cost data, predictive planning with expense projections, risk management, and various performance measurements (e.g., key performance indicators [KPIs] ). This authoritative book: Discusses a framework for balancing and integrating cost, performance, and risk Explains IT systems integration issues related to activity-based cost management (ABC/M) Addresses why some ABC/M implementation projects fail to meet expectations Describes how quality management efforts can be measured in financial terms Explores the wider uses of predictive accounting (e.g., driver-based budgeting, what-if scenario analysis) Provides organizational change management insights and recommendations needed to achieve the required changes in management decision-making. Value-Based Management in Government is an important source of information for leaders, executives, managers, and employee teams working within or with government organizations.

This deeply insightful guide to understanding what clients really want is “an indispensable resource for consultants” (Keith Ferrazzi, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Never Eat Alone). Independent consulting is a potentially lucrative enterprise—but the reality seldom matches the dream. Most solo consultants and boutique consulting firms are perpetually within six months of bankruptcy due to the sputtering unreliability of their new business engines. The problem, according to international consulting expert David A. Fields, is twofold: 1) lack of a consistent, proven plan, and 2) fundamental misunderstanding about what clients want in a consultant. Fields, who has helped hundreds of consultants and boutique firms worldwide build profitable, sustainable practices, replaces the typical consultant’s mindset of emphasizing expertise and differentiated processes with a focus on building relationships, engendering trust, and solving clients’ existing problems. In The Irresistible Consultant’s Guide to Winning Clients, Fields synthesizes his decades of experience into a step-by-step approach to winning more projects from more clients at higher fees. From nuts-and-bolts business advice and tactics to a deeply insightful breakdown of the human side of a very human profession, Fields, named one of Advertising Age magazine’s “Marketing Top 100,” delivers a comprehensive guidebook that is at once highly approachable and satisfyingly detailed. “If I could have just one book on client strategy, this book would be it.” —Marshall Goldsmith, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Triggers

This book provides consultants with a career framework to build, grow, and transform their consulting businesses by becoming brilliant at the basics. The Odyssey process challenges current thinking and offers a methodology to help readers rise to the top of the profession by applying leading-edge techniques and methodologies. An ideal companion to the Odyssey Consulting Institute’s suite of learning materials, this book details a proven system designed for consultants who want to work at the highest levels and achieve greater rewards. The consultant’s growth path outlined in the book demonstrates how a successful consultant builds a sustainable career by working through the Odyssey process. Explaining what consultants must do to join the top 10 percent of the profession and be rewarded accordingly, this book delivers both the tools and the confidence to develop powerful relationships with the right people and drive greater value-based revenue.

Moving beyond the strategies that managers have employed to create shareholder value, three corporate finance experts reveal their powerful framework for the systematic day-to-day management of shareholder value. They also dispel many of the "value myths" that can skew a company's strategy.