In any economy – whether up or down – consultants need to differentiate themselves from their competition. And in these challenging times it’s business-savy to sharpen your differentiators.

I find Jay Levinson and Michael McLaughlin’s discussion of differentiators in their book Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants thought-provoking.  I’ve made my own list below — leveraging some of Levinson and McLaughlin’s list (marked “L&M”), adding my own, and categorizing the differentiators.

Your Outcomes

• Results — what quantifiable results have your services delivered to a client? More customers? Significant savings? Etc.

• Testimonials (L&M) — Levinson and McLaughlin recommend getting testimonials from a respected university, think tank, or other institution. I would add getting endorsements from past clients.

Your Services

• Expertise (L&M call this differentiator “category authority”) — what is your specialty? How relevant is it to the client’s needs?Levinson and McLaughlin define a separate differentiator, “Giving Something Away.” This means that you can showcase your expertise when you are in the early stage of a relationship with a new client. For example, giving the client “a complementary seminar, a telephone briefing, or a research report that could benefit a client.” However, you should never discount your services

• Track Record — Is there something in your background and experience that differentiates you? Its breadth? Its depth? Its focus on an industry? Etc.

• Thought Leadership – Are you recognized leader in your field? This can be evidenced in a presentation or a seminar you gave at a conference in your field, or a course you’re teaching at a local university or college, or a book or article that you’ve authored.

• Methods and Approaches — Levinson and McLaughlin put this differentiator on a list of differentiators that do not work because clients expect a consultant to have the right toolkit.However, If you have a unique methodology or approach that produces outstanding results, I would include it as a differentiator. If this methodology or approach has been reused effectively, I think a client would be impressed that the delivery of your service is tested and proven – and also predictable.

Your Personality Traits

• Integrity (L&M call this “honesty”) — they say that clients are turned off by “overblown claims about results.” I would extend this by saying that integrity needs to be reflected in all your marketing and delivery efforts.

What other types of differentiators do you think are significant?

How do you differentiate yourself from your competitors?

Big Companies and Post-Mortems
At a Fortune 500 company where I used to work, the project team would convene after a project ended to conduct a post mortem. I used to think “How morbid” — to view a project like a dead body. But often we’d find out that we should’ve done something differently. We’d also congratulate each other on what went well.

And then years later at the same company we’d ask our consulting teams to conduct a retrospective at the end of an engagement (preferably with the customer). We didn’t want to call them post-mortems — even though the customer had undergone a near-death experience! 

Seriously, we wanted to find out what had gone well, what hadn’t gone well, what should have been changed on the next engagement, and most of all, what were the key things that we learned. These insights were shared with other consultants around the world.

Retrospectives as a Ritual
Norman Kerth describes retrospectives in detail on his website. There he classifies the retrospective as a ritual held over the ages, to pass on learning-from-experience from one generation to the next, from one project team to the next. He says the retrospective can fashioned into the structure of a story. 

Consultants and Retrospectives
As a consultant, it’s hard to reflect on your consulting engagements. At the end of a project, we’re likely focusing on the next gig, moving on to wild selling, or scheduling a vacation. Instead, it would be better to:

• Ask your client a few questions: what went well, what could have gone better
• Hold your own retrospective, asking yourself: 
  • What was the story of that selling and consulting gig? 
  • What would I like to repeat on the next gig? 
  • What did I learn that I could use to enhance the value that I bring to my clients?

Developing a Competitive Edge as a Consultant… 
…for me, it’s constant. I’m always building skills, content, and knowledge in my field. And then there are other areas of expertise, such as marketing (honing my website for the 50^th time, for example) or running my business (tipping my balance sheet, etc.), or expanding my business (making very passive income, for instance). I frequently develop these through gotchas, tips, and best practices.

Finding Consultant Learning and Development Resources
Everybody learns differently (which is why Women in Consulting offers so many options for getting up to speed on the latest best practices). They key is finding the method(s) that works best for you, be it:

• On the job: Each client engagement offers an opportunity to improve your selling and your consulting skills.
• Formal training: Conferences and class, while very traditional, can yield knowledge, contacts, and state-of-the-art trends.
• The Internet: If you find formal training passé, you can tap newer learning methods, such teleseminars, webcasts, blogs, podcasts, and Wikis. Even Internet searches can yield a wealth of valuable information.
• Expanding your network and learning from the consultant community: Perhaps the best resources for immediate insight into current best practices are your fellow consultants and small business owners. Find a community that you resonate with and tap it for tips, insights, mentoring, and feedback.

Evaluating the Learning Experience
You can evaluate the effectiveness of a learning experience by asking yourself the following questions:

• Will the information help me strengthen the foundation and infrastructure of my business?
• Can I use what I learned to build my profits?
• Can I now create more value for my clients?