The Consulting Bible Reviewed by Project Management Institute

Nice review, sent courtesy of Donna Brighton. The Consulting Bible on Amazon is at #18,000 overall, #9 in education and #13 in consulting; by comparison, Million Dollar Consulting is at 22,000 and 16 in consulting (it isn’t in the other category). I have five of the top 20 consulting books at the moment.
Consulting Community of Practice Book Review: The Consulting Bible – Everything you Need to Know to Create and Expand a Seven Figure Consulting Practice
Author: Alan Weiss Ph.D.
Reviewer: Richard Sachs, PMP, MCPM
Dr. Alan Weiss adds this recent book to his extensive publishing career of over 40 books and more than 500 articles. The CONSULTING BIBLE, has some biblical analogies as it is divided into five sections: Section 1 Genesis: Consulting as a Profession; Section II Exodus: Consulting as a business, Section III Deuteronomy: Consulting Methodology, Section IV Acts of the Apostles: Implementing Consulting Methodologies, Section V Proverbs, Consulting Success. The author adds in ‘lessons learned’ or tips under the caption of “The Gospel” throughout each chapter and section when he wants the reader to pay attention to special information. I counted over 50 of these tips and the reader could create a compendium of these for quick reference as I found them valuable: Here are just three examples: “The only time an alliance makes sense is when there is money on the table”; “Everyone can write. Writer’s block is merely a clever term for procrastination. But not everyone has something to say. That’s a key differentiator”; “You must accept rejection and reject acceptance. This is a relationship business and you will not always be successful. But do not align yourself with those who can’t say ‘yes’ but can say ‘no’ “. This last “Gospel” is one pitfall everyone should consider carefully when being asked to prepare a proposal.
The book reads easily and Weiss communicates as if he was giving a presentation. He uses many techniques to move the reader through his thesis. That thesis is that wealth is discretionary time and not money and building a practice to give one the freedom is the goal. There are Case Studies from Weiss’ personal and extensive consulting career. Truth is stranger than fiction and Weiss captures some humorous client situations stating that “you can’t make this stuff up”. Weiss creates many applied consulting terms and illustrations and shares these throughout the book. His concepts include- The Consulting Model, The Accelerant Curve; Market Gravity Wheel and The Market Value Bell Curve. These are designed to foster new thinking by the consultant in how he/she models their business to achieve growth. His experience is as a sole practitioner and his goal is to expand your capability and income as a one person consulting practice or small boutique firm. Weiss makes light of those that would criticize his approach as not scalable to the medium or large consulting firm- but that is not his market.
The Consulting Bible at 265 pages provides some strong sales tools(obtaining referrals) as well as real tactical insights into pricing services, charging retainers and finding the best clients which by the way have a mutual respect for the consultant they engage. The consultant is sometimes his own worst enemy by taking on work and services that he or she will not be paid for. “Scope Seep” which Weiss adds, is “the most invidious and potentially damaging aspect of consulting… (it is) when the consultant without impetus or request from the client, enlarges the project unilaterally without changing the proposal, agreement or fees”. Some readers may find this familiar territory and Weiss provides some clear advice on the subject of roles, responsibilities and self-management.
Disengaging is a chapter that I especially found thought provoking. You don’t necessarily have to leave the client but your project when coming to an end requires an endorsement that the improvement your client was seeking as a condition of the assignment was achieved. As a consultant, either the results were achieved or will require more time, but disengagement is necessary so that you can “maximize the chances to leverage business internally and externally”. Weiss outlines seven things a consultant should do to enable a positive disengagement. Weiss elaborates on referrals, testimonials and long term leverage. This chapter is highly valuable as any good project manager knows that lessons learned is what builds a strong foundation for organizational project performance. This same thinking, but with a business development consideration, is most illuminating and worth the price of the book.
Weiss ends the book on the subject of giving back. This especially resonates with me as I mentor project management students and put high value on the benefits we both derive in this process of returning to the community. The author goes on to talk about ‘Advancing the state of the Art’ and again I subscribe to the belief that while not everyone can add to the profession in a substantive way it is often about incremental change that when aggregated actually adds to thought leadership, innovation and service excellence.
I recommend this book to other PMI members who are interested in learning how Alan Weiss has built his multi-million dollar practice with an array of services and offerings that leave his business diversified and capable of growing during various economic cycles. He is a consummate expert on the subject of coaching consultants and has provided the reader with many tools in The Consulting Bible. Enjoy.