Thoughts For Leaders Of Consulting And Professional Services Businesses
The more we invest in growing our people and operating environment, the more we are investing in our organisation's ability to grow.
Are You Looking To Further Develop The Business And Sales Acumen Of Your Consultants?
Are your consultants excellent at consulting delivery but not so adept at finding and winning new business?
Are you looking for your consultants to develop stronger business relationships with prospects and clients?
Are your consultants somewhat introverted in nature and comfortable engaging technically but reluctant to engage beyond this?
Are you looking to further develop your consultants' business acumen?
Do your consultants feel somewhat daunted when networking and when engaging with senior leaders at prospects and clients?
Have your consultants had no business development training or had some and find it difficult to operationalise?
Is an aversion to being seen as 'salesy' holding your consultants back from promotion opportunity?
Are you ready to take action?
Check out our programme for consultants (click below) designed to:
- be easy and quick to enrol in, digest and complete
- help consultants become more conscious in the variety of business settings in which they conduct their work and help them learn from those settings
- help quickly develop their big picture business acumen and ability to identify and add further business value
- help them better understand and navigate business leader relationship building, corporate priorities and business outcomes to help them grow their confidence in engaging naturally in 'non-salesy' business dialogue
- provoke thought and encourage them to engage more proactively and with more confidence
- give them an opportunity to discuss approaches and raise questions
Seven Ideas For Helping You Develop Your Consulting Business
On this page are Seven Ideas to complement the work you currently do to develop your people, the environment your people operate in and the external relationships that underpin your business success. The Seven Ideas are set out in detail further down this page and may be summarised as follows:
Ideas One and Two Help Consultants Experiences giving consultants a business leader perspective on their work and helping them develop the confidence, impetus and tools to enhance the quality of their engagement with prospects and clients.
Ideas Three To Five Help Consulting Business Leaders And Are Available As Content For External Engagement And Events Experiences developed for founders and leaders providing opportunities to objectively stand back and look at the business including an opportunity to better understand the lens through which a potential buyer may ultimately evaluate their business. These serve as content for internal or external events and engagement.
Ideas Six and Seven help Consulting Business Department Leaders Experiences geared to provoking thought and sharing ideas to inspire and equip department leaders to adopt an enhanced conscious, curious, commercial, customer and team oriented outlook in their work.
'The more we invest in the people who work with and for our business, the more invested they become in the success of our business.'
- Rob Evans
My work is available to augment your work in programmes and talks that are thought provoking, easy to fit within busy schedules and focused on execution. The talks and programmes are not meant to replace any of what you already do but to complement your work.
Programmes are mobile enabled, self paced and punchy. There is a short free programme available for you at the top of this page designed to provoke thought, share ideas and give you a flavour for the various programmes referred elsewhere on this page.
Talks are delivered at events, within management meeting discussions, at breakfast sessions or at lunch & learns as required.
The Seven Ideas follow in detail.
Introducing Ideas One And Two
Helping Consultants Further Develop Their Business Acumen
Our success is contingent upon the success of our people. Our consultant's career progression and success is contingent upon their ability to win business. The more confident, commercially capable and emotionally intelligent our people the better placed they are to deliver for themselves and for us.
Ideas One and Two are both geared towards equipping consultants with straightforward tools for operating with enhanced commercial acumen, more confident conscious customer relationship building and a better understanding of customer environments and business dynamics such that they are more likely to deliver business outcomes and identify and develop commercial opportunities when they arise.
Idea Two: A Talk For An Audience Of Consultants Inspiring Them To Adopt An Informed Friendly Professional Tenacity In Seeking New Business
The talk title is 'How to naturally evolve relationships with clients and prospects such that additional business finds it way to us.'
The talk description is 'How do we inspire others’ confidence in us? To become the natural choice to clients and prospects we need to think and operate like a business leader. How commercial are we? Being commercial in outlook may or may not mean having financial savvy. Being business focused is always a mindset. How consciously do we build credibility and trust? The more confident we feel the more proactively we are able to act. The more we know the more confident we feel. How do we set about knowing what we don’t know? And what does effective relationship building with a business leader look like over time? This talk provides you with perspectives.
Audience members will:
> gain a business leader perspective of what’s required to develop relationships with and ultimately sell to business leaders
> learn a simple method for consciously building business leader relationships
> reflect on & be given impetus & confidence in their commercial engagement with clients and prospects
Introducing Ideas Three, Four And Five
Providing You With An Opportunity For Big Picture Reflection
The environment you consciously or otherwise put in place has a profound impact on the extent to which those who work with and for your organisation are energised and invested in your success. The more energised those around us are, the likelier they will deliver for us.
Most of us know most of what we need to know for our role, whatever our level. None of us knows everything. That's why alternative perspectives are so valuable.
The above applies as much to our prospects and clients as it does to us and the more value we bring to these individuals, the more valuable we become as a consulting business.
Ideas Three, Four and Five help a leader view their business through a specific big picture lens. They serve as opportunities to stand back and reflect objectively on the impact of an operating environment on those who work with and for an organisation and how that business might look to a potential future acquirer. This content is relevant for internal consumption and for engagement and events with those external to our consulting business.
'CEO's rarely create the time and space for reflection but as Rob points out, we operate in a very dynamic world where this is more necessary than ever. This is a very engaging and thought provoking way to help you along the journey.'
- Lynn Murphy, Chief Executive Officer
Idea Four: A Talk Designed To Provoke Thought And Reflection On The Business Today, To Share Experiences And To Spark Ideas.
This is a talk for you and for your most senior colleagues. It serves as a moment of pause and reflection. It is ideal for setting the scene for a planning process or at a challenging time.
Alternatively you may wish to include this talk as part of a business development or marketing event with senior executives of prospects and clients.
The talk title is 'The answers to four questions tells you the story of your business and will help you shape your next moves.'
The talk description is 'Our work as leader is all consuming and complicated. A holistic view, blending logical and emotional intelligence, is a key underpinning of success. The faster we orientate the quicker we move. The clearer we see the big picture the more effectively we act. This engaging talk or keynote highlights the recurrent ingredients of teams that outperform, provokes thought and shares pragmatic approaches to how we look at and operate our businesses.'
Audience members will:
> reflect on their business today & their decisions on current priorities
> learn pragmatic methods for organised thought & agile decision making
> be inspired to adopt helpful mindsets that augment their current thinking
Idea Five: A Talk For Events And Internal Meetings Sharing Perspectives On Building A Business With An Exit In Mind
A thought provoking talk for you and your co-founders and investors assuming you are building your business with an eventual exit in mind.
Alternatively you may wish to include this talk as part of a business development or marketing event with prospects and clients who are in a growth phase.
The talk is designed to provoke thought and reflection, share lessons of experience, spark ideas and provide insight on how potential acquirers commercially evaluate businesses.
The talk title is 'How to build a business others are inclined to buy.'
The talk description is 'An acquirer doesn’t see our business as we see it. They see it through their own lens. How attractive is our business to a buyer? How do buyers set about assessing a potential acquisition? What don’t we know that we might want to know long before we begin a business sale process? And what if we build for years with an exit in mind then discover no buyer can be found or no deal can be completed? Rob has been engaged in over 50 actual and potential acquisitions across the world and provides some perspectives.'
During this talk the audience members will:
> reflect on their business today & their decisions on current priorities
> gain a business buyer perspective on common pitfalls that impact founders
> learn a straightforward lens & framework for consciously developing their organisation
Introducing Ideas Six And Seven
Helping Department Leaders Operate With Enhanced Business, Client And Team Acumen
Ideas Six and Seven are both geared towards provoking thought and sharing ideas to inspire and guide Department Leaders to adopt an enhanced conscious, curious, commercial and client oriented outlook in their work.
Both the talk and the programme introduce PPMCLeadership™️, a framework Department Leaders may choose to adopt to help them consciously develop the environment they create for their team and to help them identify areas to enhance their contributions to the various teams of which they are a part. The programme also serves as a tool for guided reflection.
Role specific versions of the Department Leader programme exist for Chief Operating Officers, Finance Leaders, Human Resource Leaders, Learning Leaders and IT Leaders.
Idea Seven: A Talk Inspiring And Guiding An Audience Of Department Leaders In How To Run Their Function With A Business And Customer Mindset
The talk title is 'Your department is a business, do you run it as such?'
The talk description is: 'Today more than ever before, because of a convergence of global shifts, technological developments and cultural trends, there is a unique opportunity for those of us in leadership positions to have a hugely positive demonstrable impact on the organisations and people we serve. You need to deliver results and reinvention in parallel. That applies to both your business and your team. How do you effectively set about delivering what you need to deliver whilst at the same time delivering value beyond what's expected? This talk provides some perspectives.'
During this talk audience members will:
> reflect on their current operating realities & priorities
> learn a straightforward lens & framework for consciously developing their function
> reflect on the contribution they deliver to their colleagues & wider organisation
Highly Experienced International Business Executive
Real World Operational Focus
Rob's content, insights and methodologies encapsulate the lessons of over three decades of international business experience and related research, observation and reflection.
In a rich and varied international business career Rob has been:
- Operationally engaged with over 150 businesses around the world
- Closely involved in over 50 actual or potential acquisition transactions
- A part of a senior management team that grew a South African domestic business into a dual listed technology group employing over 8,500 people and operating in over 80 countries
- Nominated for the South Africa CFO Of The Year Award when serving as Chief Financial Officer of a $6.5 Bn turnover group
'When I needed career advice at a major career junction, I turned to Rob for help and he quickly jumped on a call with me despite the time zone difference.
I left that call with clarity and focus.
I left that call feeling empowered, supported and super-sensible!
I left that call knowing that I just needed to make my plan and execute it.
This is how Rob helped me get to this point:
-- Firstly, Rob effortlessly sets you at ease. Simply put, he's genuinely a nice guy, and you're going to feel that humility, energy, and warmth permeating every part of the consulting call with this corporate heavyweight as he makes an authentic and kind human connection with you.
-- Secondly, he's going to ask you relevant straightforward questions about the situation that will help him draw a picture of what's happening in your career or organization, and help you be clear on what's happening in your head.
-- Thirdly, expect valuable insights as your mind opens up to opportunities where you had only seen obstacles before, and finally expect him to point you to practical, actionable next steps to move you forward.
It's all substance and no fluff drawn from his extensive and multifaceted career in the corporate world.
What amazes me about Rob is:
-- the ease with which he analyses the situation
-- the accessibility and creativity of the ideas he shares
-- the practical nature of the solutions he puts on the table
This consultancy call was time well spent. As we say in Jamaica "Big up yuhself- Rob!!!" (*** To "big up" someone is to praise or recommend somebody strongly.***)
- Yvonne Chin Irving, Executive Director & Communication Consultant at CET
'I had the pleasure of working with Rob Evans whilst at Logicalis and I can't speak more highly about him. Not only is Rob incredibly insightful and knowledgeable, he is a genuine person and great fun to be around. Love his stuff.'
- Gary Lomas, Sales Director at Onnec Group
'I am a huge fan of Rob and encourage you to check this out, he has great insights #improvedoutcomes'
- Gahn Lane, Vice President Global Channel Partners And Alliances at Pindrop
'Rob has very strong strategic and operational credentials having worked extensively around the world and held a wide range of financial, operational and M&A roles'
- Extract From Corporate Stock Exchange Announcement
'I would thoroughly recommend Rob's courses. He is a very successful and astute business leader with a wealth of experience to share.'
- Mark Graham, CIO at The Counselling Foundation
'Fantastic Practical Learning Experience'
- Mevin Anenden, Senior Client Manager at Logicalis
'All the critical issues we face in building a business are dealt with cleverly and interestingly'
- Chris Griffiths, Marketing Director at Travel A La Carte Ltd
'Rob has packaged his experience and research into a well thought out framework, delivered in an entertaining and easy to consume way'
- Lynn Murphy, Chief Executive Officer at Plugable Technologies
'Plenty of food for thought. It gets you to think of how you are running the business and gives you ways of improving'
- Ian Edwards, Business Manager at The Westgrove Group
'Loving the inspirational videos Rob!'
- Iqbal Singh Bedi, Founder Of Award Winning Intelligens Consulting
'Great Rob! Thanks to share so many content, rich content!'
- Ernesto Schlesinger, Founder Partner at Jequitiba Investimentos
'Rob Evans #Kudos. Thank you for always bringing your best self to work #InspirationalLeader.'
- Faizal Bahemia, Chief Commercial Officer at Innobox and Co-Founder of BGlam
'Liking your new venture very much and am sure will give you lots of great satisfaction helping people achieve even more'
- Subhash Ramatour, Finance Director at Macks Ltd
'Rob Evans Friday moments - genuinely some absolute gems of knowledge and tough questions to ask yourself all backgrounded by some of the most beautiful scenery on the planet'
- Chris Gabriel, Chief Strategy Officer at Sapphire Systems
'I look forward to your Question on a Friday Rob Evans'
- Gary Swale, Chief Engagement Officer at Inspirze Context Technology
'The second day of the 12 International MHRA Conference was opened with the amazing presentations by Rob Evans and Carlamaria Tiburtini.'
- Macedonian Human Resources Association (MHRA)
'Great session Rob. The ability to simplify and make sense of our complex and uncertain world is vital for leaders. Thank you.'
- Bob Morton, Past President at World Federation Of People Management Associations (WFPMA)
'Thanks to Rob Evans for being a fantastic co-panelist.'
- Carlamaria Tiburtini, Senior HRBP at Avio Aero - a GE Aviation Business
'Pleasure working with you!'
- Illya Baranyuk, Intern at MHRA
'Surrounding yourself with the people that will help push challenge and support you is so important - especially when you work on your own. Thanks for a great meeting Rob, I'm truly energised now!'
- Theresa Carnall, Marketing Coach at TBC Marketing
Curriculum For Your Short Free Programme
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Introduction
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Recurrent Challenges
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Helping Them
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What Is Good Leadership?
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Ways To Improve Performance
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A Short Session On PPMCLeadership™️
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About this course
- Free
- 6 lessons
- 0 hours of video content
'Organisations invest much in up front recruitment and much in ongoing remuneration, yet often organisations don't invest adequately in the development of their people. This is a significant missed opportunity. Development is not only an investment in capability but also in motivation and loyalty.'
- Rob Evans