Tip # 6 from our veteran consulting Best Practices to Grow Your Consulting Business is to
Experiment with New Business Models
Be adaptable and be prepared to change your business model and products. This is especially important as your industry evolves and matures.
Experiment with what’s sellable – and remember that changes over time.
Be open to repackaging what you offer
- Your delivery model
- Your content
- Your pricing
Actively look for signals for the need to change. Check out what your competition is doing and how they’re doing it. Stay tuned in to what your clients want to buy, and how they want to buy it.
Please comment back with some changes and adjustments you’ve made and lessons learned. What’s worked for you? What hasn’t in terms of adjusting your offering or delivery model?
About Deborah Siegle
Fellow Best Practices panelist, Norma Watenpaugh of Phoenix Consulting Group, has been very successful in experimenting with new business models. She added new offerings and developed new IP to stay ahead of her clients who have become more mature in their own models around Strategic Alliances. Norma points out that it can be a trial and adjustment process, as you get feedback from your clients, and find out what resonates and what doesn’t. Plan on refining after you get the market feedback.
In talking with fellow Consulting Best Practices panelist, Jan Robertson, Jan mentioned how important it is to Keep an Eye on the Competition.
While it’s critical to focus on one’s own mission and goals, don’t forget to surface once in a while and check out what your competitors are doing. Look at websites, blogs, whitepapers, announcements, etc. of other successful models in your industry. Take the ‘best of breed’ and adapt to your own model. Experiment with new ideas to find out what works best for you.