Many professional services organizations in technical fields strive to hire the best and the brightest in their field. Their consulting value in the eyes of their clients often lies directly with the technological savvy and expertise that their team brings to their clients' projects. Many of these consultants come from business, engineering or computer science backgrounds or have entered the consulting profession based on direct experience using the technology solution while in the employment of another customer. As a result, while highly skilled in the "what" and "how" of the project, these individuals often lack the same savvy in the interactions with peers, partners and clients.

Have you ever seen a project's scope expand yet when it comes to collecting additional fees for the additional work, you find there is no paperwork to reflect the change and no client agreement to pay for more?  Have you ever heard a consultant talk to a client or partner on a project in a manner that was unprofessional or just too candid? Have you ever watched a consultant engage in a conversation with a client about another problem that the client is having and which your company could solve, and yet never ask the client directly if they could propose an engagement to resolve the issue?

The CSW is a customizable classroom or web-based training session for your technical, consulting and implementation professionals. It can vary in length, but is commonly delivered in either a ½ day or full day classroom format as part of a quarterly or annual training program or as a series 90 minute live-cast web modules through the year. The CSW consists of lectures, group discussions, and group exercises focused around a tailored agenda that has been matched to your most common or largest problem areas. The material focuses on improving your teams' communication, selling and general business acumen skills, as it specifically apply to their roles in implementing technology solutions for your clients.

Three Words: Relevance, Experience and Practicality.

While a great deal of the CSW material and structure is already developed and tested on audiences, we don't just "show up and throw up". Our project starts with understanding the specific issues and behaviors you are trying to resolve and correct. Our next step is to prioritize the content and develop a relevant and time feasible agenda for either classroom or web delivery.

Your CSW agenda will be uniquely tailored to meet the goals of your management team, based on a subset of the topics listed below:

Professional Services Introduction: This introduction discusses the software sales process. By developing a better understanding of the complexity of software sales, your consultants will understand and accept the necessity to be able to further define project scope, manage and reset client expectations, and have the necessary soft skills to manage client interactions. As with everything else, solving a problem starts with the awareness and understanding of the challenge being faced.

Managing Client Expectations and Satisfaction: This module presents relevant tailored examples of everyday client interactions and teaches techniques to manage project scope, manage client expectations, improve satisfaction and improve profitability.

The Role of a Consultant: This module explores the role of the consultant within a software company and the many "hats" that they are called upon to wear in order to represent the company. Consultants are taught techniques to respond to this complex role and manage client and internal politics.

Understanding People's Styles: This module uses relevant examples and exercises to help the consulting team understand how people think differently and interact with each other. Through this module, consultants learn strategies to improve their interactions with clients.

Negotiating Better Project Outcomes: This module uses relevant examples and exercises to train consultants to apply traditional negotiation techniques in day to day project issues and interactions. Role playing exercises are used to improve their skills in influencing others to follow their recommended course of action.

Becoming a Trusted Advisor: This module discusses techniques to change your relationship with your clients to develop a deeper and more "trusted advisor" relationship. Topics explore the role of a trusted advisor, how to build trust and how to give advice.

Presentation and Communication Skills: This module provides relevant examples and exercises to address many of the shortcomings of technical professionals in terms of their personal communications styles and interactions with clients. 

Implementation Project Case Study: This case study focuses on a 48 hour period as an implementation project unravels. The case study examines the events through a series of emails that were sent between the Client Executives and the Project Manager and discusses actions and communication styles that could have averted the issue.

Selling Skills: This module emphasizes the role consultants play in selling additional opportunities for your company and provides techniques to assist them in recognizing new opportunities and basic selling skills.

Leadership Skills: This module emphasizes the importance of leadership skills for consultants. Discussions include key leadership attributes that consultants must develop as well as techniques to apply to improve execution excellence.