Five Ways to Raise your Game in Consulting - Part 6

Sixth in a Series

How to Differentiate Yourself and Your Consultancy

Training in International Standards of Consulting

By David Norman, FCMC, CMC-AF

In addition to the four blogs in the series presented before, another way to further differentiate your consulting is to get training in ISO 20700.

Wouldn’t it look good to put the ISO initials on your marketing collateral, your CV, or even your email signature?  Wouldn’t your prospects and clients recognize the ‘ISO’ initials instantly and intuitively know they are synonymous with quality?

What is ISO 20700?

The management consulting profession is one of the few unregulated professions, at least in the U.S. CPAs and professional engineers are examples of state regulated professions.  In the state I live in barbers, electricians and cosmetologists are state regulated, but management consulting is not.  There are no guidelines for good practice.  There is no common framework for clients to appraise consultants and evaluate their work and, as a result, there are misunderstandings between clients and consultants. Further, many clients lack an understanding of the value a consultant assignment can bring.

ISO 20700 is the first international standard for the service sector and is a milestone for the management consultancy profession.  It is a guideline not a compliance standard, yet it serves as a benefit for consultants and clients alike.  Unlike everything else in this series, ISO 20700 is the property of ISO and is concerned only with managing a consulting project.

In short, the structure is about three main phases of an engagement – Contracting, Execution, and Closure – with an aim to improve transparency in order to achieve better results from projects.  Furthermore, it is flexible, not a straight-jacket, allowing consultants to use their own methods and approaches.  Finally, it applies to all consultants, whatever their size or specialism, including solopreneurs, partnerships, associations, governmental and non-governmental organizations and internal consultants.

ISO 20700 is primarily a set of checklists (depending on the scale of the engagement) which help the consultant and the client seek clarity and agreement on key success factors, including size of project, duration, cost, impact, relationships, standardized or custom offering, privately or government funded, industry specifics, etc. 

Used as a Differentiator?

As mentioned above, once you are trained in ISO 20700 (note: one is not certified, rather trained in the use of the guidelines) you are granted permission to use the logo in your collateral, including email signatures, should you wish.  And, as asked earlier, isn’t there cachet to using the ‘ISO’ letters?

And, not insignificantly, the checklists, in which you are trained to use, are incredibly powerful communication tools to improve your dialogue with prospects and clients – all which leads to healthier and more complete conversations.  

Will any other of your competitors offer this assurance?

In the final blog in this series we will try to put it all together for you and paint a vivid picture of the things you can do to further separate yourself and your practice from the other consultants, especially those who nominally offer the same skills as you.

Stay tuned.  Subscribe if you wish.