If your goal is to unlock the greatest value for your clients - and it should be - then you need to move from pure discrete delivery towards building relationships and understanding your clients deeper. We help participants of this training to develop the skills to become trusted advisors to their clients. And in the process, to enhance the culture, success and profitability of their own organisation.
If your consultants excel at delivery, but aren't deepening relationships beyond individual projects or uncovering what matters most to your clients, then you’re missing the biggest opportunities for creating more value to your clients, and for your growth.
This course gives individuals and consulting / agency organisations the opportunity to practice a more value-led and curiosity-focussed approach to working with client, and within the safe confines of a tough but safe environment. Learning is cemented through the sharing or real world examples and experiences.
And all in line with your values and culture.
“Practicing pitching who [we] are and what we do was a good exercise. I found it really helpful. It was also great to hear about our mission and vision, and to reflect with colleagues on how we operate.”
"The group work sessions were the most useful part of the course for me. They gave insight into a part of consultancy I hadn’t experienced before."
"It made everyone aware of how important this kind of time out is for developing consistency, improving service quality, and spotting opportunities to improve our operating model."
"A massive thank you to the trainers. You clearly care, and that came through in how you delivered the sessions and engaged with us."
"The content was good, especially the practical tasks. It felt relevant, and the course gave space to think like a consultant."
"It was really enjoyable and engaging. The exercises were spot on and helped translate theory into action."
Consulting Skills is a pragmatic hands on course that evolved from one of the UK’s most successful independent consulting and full service agency organisations. After that organisation IPOed and subsequently was acquired, the course took on a life of its own and has been enhanced through delivery to multiple consultancies and agencies since.
“As consultants, one of the most difficult things is relevance. Here, we focused on the actual situations we face with clients, not generic stuff.”
“I appreciated his thoughtful and insightful feedback throughout. It helped me reflect more deeply on how I show up with clients.”
“I was satisfied with the course material and the strategies were immediately applicable in my work.”
“We touched on scope negotiation and stakeholder management during delivery. That was super helpful and not often discussed.”
“I was really impressed that everyone stepped up during practical tasks, even those who didn’t feel comfortable with it. It brought out a lot of growth in people.”
“It was powerful having our leaders in the room, engaging in the same conversations as us and not just dropping in..”
Tim Barker is a Management Consultant with 20+ years experience in leading teams of technology & business individuals working together to achieve business benefit.
Tim’s focus is on understanding and delivering to the interests of his key business stakeholders - client and consultancy. He repeatedly developed small initial engagements into large multi £M profitable relationships, always based on finding ways to create value and client satisfaction.
Tim has also built and managed consulting organisations, with his last consulting-side role as UK & Ireland Delivery Lead responsible for about 2000 Projects per quarter and £60M annual revenue delivery via a large team of onshore and offshore Programme and Project Managers.
He developed and taught Consulting Skills at Conchango where he was responsible for the primary 5 year programme that all consultants (300+) went through. This continued after Conchango was acquired, and subsequently to hundreds of team members at other consultancies and agencies.
Sharing experience through training, coaching and guidance has been a strong theme of his career and he continues this through an enjoyable and thought provoking delivery of Consulting Skills.
His style is pragmatic and focuses on the simple & repeatable.