BUILDING YOUR BRAND AS A CONSULTANT BY UTILIZING THE “KEYS TO SUCCESS” (Part Three)

“I am a Consultant.” This declaration is probably heard more these days than the question “What is your name?” More than at any other time in history, this economy has compelled educated highly skilled professionals to seek to earn a living by attempting to ply their trade as consultants. So how does the “standout” consultant rise above the masses of tenderfoot claimants who are just temporarily between jobs? Or, even if you are one of the freshly minted masses, how do you stand on the shoulders of giants to pick the fruitful opportunities that the old guys have been neglecting.

There are “Six Keys to Success” that are essential to building any winning success plan. These attributes are integral to building your brand as a consultant as well. These concepts have been adapted to meet the complex demands of modern day enterprise building.

1. Information: Become known as a trustworthy subject matter expert in your field.
2. Image: Go out into the world every day and look, sound and act the way you wish to be perceived.
3. Initiative: Always act on the basis of sound planning and good research, which leads to the pursuit of effective strategy.
4. Confidence: Through dedicating your self to winning small victories, you will be emboldened with the confidence that you've done your best; this will be the basis of the momentum that propels you to success.
5. Capital: The greatest source of future revenue and profits for your business will be determined by the purchasing and cost decisions you make today.
6. Contacts: You must assemble a winning team. You alone will never possess all of the skills and abilities required for perfection, nor will you ever be able to earn every certification or degree needed to answer every question.

Every successful entrepreneur needs to gain a general mastery of the “Keys to Success”. However, there are four specific tactical applications of these concepts that you can use to help carve out a niche for your consulting brand. You can immediately incorporate these four strategies into your practice in order to gain a leg up on the “competition”.

3) Using Professional Photography to Build Your Brand

There is an old adage that says “A picture is worth a thousand words.” To state it another way, a bad picture makes zero impact. These days it may be possible to take good pictures and create effective headshots yourself. However, you may want to consider using a professional photographer to gain the maximum impact for your brand. 

Cost effective and easy to use digital cameras have given the masses access to tools that were once only accessible to professionals. While technology has somewhat leveled the playing field, the techniques employed by a professional photographer may be what your branding efforts really require. The strategic usage of the right photo of you receiving a big award, making an important public appearance or achieving a significant career milestone can pay big dividends. You may not want to trust the responsibility of capturing that big moment to your significant other or next door neighbor.   

There is a reason that celebrities and high profile people continue to utilize professional photographers. A good photographer will provide a unique expertise in the way of composition, lighting and other key technical aspects of taking a great photo. Even though a photo is just a still image, it should tell a great story. The background, foreground, subject placement and framing of a photo are the elements of a shoot that good professional photographers are paid to combine to make a winning photograph.

The subject of a photo is just one element of a good shot. To make the subject into a verb, the person looking at it has to turn a single image into a complete sentence. The story that sentence tells to your audience will determine how they will remember your brand.

In summary: You and you alone are responsible for controlling the quality of your brand. The image you present and the information you transfer to the public are signs of your dedication to quality and the soundness of your ideas. There are many vital aspects that contribute to successfully building a powerful brand for your consulting practice. Whether you are a long time practicing consultant or a novice to the field, utilizing these helpful brand building tactics, as well as a general application of the Six Keys to Success should definitely help you stand out from the crowd in this economic environment.

Vince Rogers is the Principal Change Agent at Vince Rogers & Associates www.vincerogers.biz

Vince Rogers & Associates works with businesses, non-profits and high achieving individuals to formulate winning “Success Plans”.

The foundation for each success plan is tailored around optimizing the management and mastery of the “Six Keys to Success”: Confidence; Capital; Contacts; Initiative; Information and Image.

His books "The Very Best of Disguised Limits" book are available to buy or download free @ www.lulu.com

The complete article Building Your Brand as a Consultant by Utilizing the “Keys to Success” Is featured as the †Cutting Edge Topic in the 2013 Pfeiffer Annual: Consulting 

(ISBN: 978-1-1182-7379-1) Edited by Elaine Biech