Using personal influence to add-value for clients

This second workshop in the Consulting Skills programme focuses on mastery of the design and presentation of solutions as part of the consulting process.

Who is the workshop aimed at?

The workshop is designed for Consultants whose role involves any of the following:

• working in an environment where it is essential to create the right impression;
• designing appropriate long-term solutions for business issues;
• helping clients to design changes to organisational systems, procedures, tasks, technology or behaviours;
• presenting recommendations to clients;
• negotiating changes in client expectations;
• handling difficult relationships as part of their daily work;
• handling critical feedback and client resistance;
• the front line of progress where influence without authority is a must!

What are the programme objectives?

1. To demonstrate just how much personal influence is key in securing and keeping commitment during a consulting engagement.
2. To make Consultants more aware of how their language and behaviour affects Clients’ perceptions.
3. To increase the number of Consultants who are able to take a lead role with clients.
4. To develop skills which allow Consultants to:

• influence client thinking and decision making;
• frame and reframe the context surrounding a consulting engagement;
• demonstrate practical, well-defined goals and proposals for reaching them;
• notice, and utilise, even more about what’s going on during the communication process;
• use a variety of communication styles during interactions with different customers and colleagues;
• design systemic interventions which deliver recognisable value to the client.

What are the expected outcomes of the programme?

1. Consultants will appreciate that with influential relationships they can attract and retain high quality added-value assignments.
2. The Consultants capability to influence will increase as they notice, and utilise, client thinking and decision making strategies;
3. Consultants will have less reliance on their expert status and will feel confident operating at the context and process levels of an engagement.
4. Consultants will help clients to design unique solutions, which are seen to add-value beyond the client’s usual expectations.
5. Consultants will actively generate new and repeat added-value work during consulting engagements.

What will Consultants have the opportunity to learn during the workshop?

This is an experiential workshop designed to improve capabilities and behaviours around the synthesising, creating and presenting change to clients. During workshop consultants will have the opportunity to explore and discover how to:

• build higher levels of rapport - the key to successful relationships with customers;
• open and close meetings using powerful tools which presuppose success;
• set the right context for successful implementation and team working;
• increase the range of what they perceive about what’s going on during the influencing process;
• demonstrate an understanding of the clients outcome;
• design interventions to move customers, projects or organisations from a present state to a desired state;
• design interventions which align levels of change throughout the client’s system;
• use simple key questions to find out what other people value;
• demonstrate an understanding of the client’s evaluation criteria for value;
• easily set-up frames for negotiation and conflict resolution;
• notice, and utilise, client thinking and decision making strategies;
• present recommendations in ways which make it easy for the client to say “Yes!”

What is the format of the workshop?

This workshop is concerned with learning attitudes, strategies and technology rather than teaching theory. The workshop is structured to be driven by the participating Consultant’s needs and issues. It is delivered by the facilitator(s) to the workshop participants in a way that models the intervention styles proposed. Working in teams, participants each have the opportunity to create and propose their ideas for improvement to their “clients”–actually other consultants attending the workshop.

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