Sales Consultant – Characteristics of Great Consultants

Are you leaning towards hiring sales consultants to improve your sales? Then, hire somebody who has these characteristics:

1. Active listening. Sales consultants must be willing to listen to their clients. They must understand the needs and demands of the people that they are serving before they offer their expert advice. Run to the opposite direction if a prospective sales consultant does all the talking. He cannot in anyway help you reach your goals — that’s for sure!

2. In-depth knowledge. Ask for a free consultation to gauge the expertise of your potential sales consultant. Ask as many questions as needed to make sure that he has in-depth knowledge in this field. You can also ask for his portfolio. It would be great if he has a degree in advertising or business. If he has served well all his clients in the past and if he is highly recommended by industry leaders then, by all means, hire him!

3. Patience. Not all clients have the ability to articulate all their needs. So, find sales consultant who have a truck load of patience to really understand what you are looking for.

4. People skills. You would want to work with somebody who enjoy being around with other people, right? So, find someone who is warm, friendly, and someone who shows genuine concern in helping his clients.

5. Consistent. The sales consultant that you hire must be consistent in everything he says or does. He must not change his mind too often that you’ll get confused on what you need to do in the long run.

Consulting Services – Discover 4 Intriguing Steps to Jump Start Your Consulting Business

Would you want to offer consulting services to earn money? Here’s how you can get started:

1. Consulting training. Get started on the right foot by attending consulting training programs that are offered both in the online and offline arena. These trainings will help you know exactly what to expect and will help you learn the skills you need to become an effective consultant. Consulting training programs can cost you up to $15,000 and they could last up to 6 months depending on the amount of time that you are willing to put in on a weekly basis.

2. Do your research. If you are not willing or unable to spend $15,000 on consulting training programs, you can go ahead and do your own research. Although this may take more time and effort, you can save a lot of money in the long run. I recommend that you check relevant websites and printed materials. You can also interview some consultants or watch them in action to really understand what they do.

3. Marketing strategy. It’s not enough that you have the skills and expertise. If you want to make more money in this endeavor, you must also know how to promote yourself and your services. If you intend to operate online, it would work to your advantage if you learn the ropes of internet marketing so you can easily connect with those people who might be interested on what you offer.

4. Strive for excellence. If you want to make a lasting mark in this field, make it a point to give all your clients with 100% satisfaction. Do everything you can and go out of your way if needed, to help them solve their problems and reach their goals.

CRM Consulting

CRM Consulting can help you focus on your core business, while leveraging the specific focus on a CRM consultant.

As a business owner or sales professional, you probably have an existing business, and sales are already moving. You need the benefits a CRM system can provide, with minimal disruption to your existing business. Paramount to a smooth transition is attention to the existing business processes that already work, and a major part of that includes language – specific terms you use in your business.

In truth, humans are more difficult to change than software. A good CRM Consultant will find a system which will allow the software conform to you, instead of working to change human patterns. Over time, the best practices from your top salespeople can be gently added to your business as you see fit.

Many small business owners suffer from the affliction of wearing too many hats. This common problem is caused by business owners trying to be everything within their enterprise all at once. Not only are they the sales team and the management, but they’re often also the cashier, book-keeper, web-master, receptionist, tea lady, cleaner and everything in between.

What these same people fail to realize is that utilizing effective CRM consulting can help you to increase sales, boost business revenues and take some of the pressure off all the other things you need to manage throughout your day.

CRM consulting companies can supply you with complete customer relationship management services. This can mean helping you figure out how to install your CRM software and work with you as you learn to put it to use in your own business.

Imagine having access to systems that can show you at a glance which of your customers are just shopping and which ones are serious about buying from you now. Would that kind of instant information help you to focus your sales efforts on those customers who are ready to receive it?

Wouldn’t you love to know what your customers are thinking when they view your products and services? If you could read their shopping patterns, you’d be in a much better position to address their needs directly, which reduces the chance of them going somewhere else to buy.

You’d also find that any customers who are just shopping and comparing your products might need a different marketing tactic to turn them from leads into sales. With effective CRM consulting, you’ll be able to deliver the correct sales and marketing materials to the right groups of customers.

It’s a proven fact that the most profitable marketing tool for every kind of business is communication with existing customers. After all, they already know you and have already bought from your business.

CRM consulting can help you to set up your CRM software so that you can contact your entire client base quickly and effectively, whether you use an email mailing list or a snail-mail posting system. This kind of contact can refresh your customer’s memory and remind them about your products or services.

By the time you watch a few free training videos, you’ll understand some of the massive benefits you could be reaping by taking advantage of ways to maximize your sales potentials and increase your profits at the same time.

How to Sell Your Consulting Over the Web – 3 Explosive Steps

How to make it easy to pump up your consultation sales starting today step by step? What if you discovered how to boost the selling power of your consultation step by step? Do you want to know what it takes to attract clients into your consultation easily? The purpose of this article is to get you started today at massive speed making big money online. Here are 3 simple steps to get you started.

Step 1 – Build your list.

Step 2 – Focus in helping your leads.

Step 3 – Develop your expertise and promote your consultation.

Here are step by step details that you can apply quickly and easily.

Step 1 – Build your list.

Your very first step you need to focus on to build your list is to make sure that you set up a simple optin form on your website. Once you do this it will become extremely easy for you to build your list superfast from the traffic that you are gaining on your website. Once you have build your list it is important that you focus on helping your subscribers to solve their most pressing problems.

Step 2 – Focus in helping your leads.

Helping individual is the key to massive superfast success. Once you help someone they will have a strong relationship with you and this will make sure that they will trust you on your future offers. All you have to do is help them out to solve their problems absolutely free and this will build strong credibility which will help you to make future profits. Make sure that you develop your expertise before you promote your consultation program.

Step 3 – Develop your expertise and promote your consultation.

The best way to promote your consultation is to develop your expertise through the free content that you provide your list audience. Once you develop your expertise you can easily promote your consultation program and this is the exact time when your subscribers will consider purchasing a consultation and they will pay you big bucks for the same

The Three Biggest Benefits to Using Marketing Consultants For Your Web Marketing Platform

Many companies assume that advertising online is all about placing a few ads, writing a few articles and making a really nice website. However, there is a lot more to it than this. In fact, because the Internet is constantly changing and progressing every single second of every single day, it’s important that you not only keep up with the trends, but predict what’s coming in the future.

This is why more and more companies are going to Internet marketing consultants for the help they need. They have the expertise and the comprehensive understanding on the World Wide Web so you don’t have to waste time, money and effort trying to master the art of Internet marketing. With marketing consultants, you can lean on them for all things Internet and worry about the rest of your company.

Below we have highlighted three of the biggest benefits to using marketing consultants and how this can save you money and expand your company’s profit.

High Leverage with Low Overheads

Think about this: when you place an ad in a newspaper, it will most likely be seen my thousands, most of which will not be in your niche market. After all, men, women, teenagers, mothers, business people and everyone else read the paper. However, for a lower cost, you could place your website at the top of Google and it will be seen by millions of people on a permanent basis. Furthermore, it will be seen by those who actually searched for something relevant to your site and, thus, they are in your niche market.

Advertising on the net is a lot cheaper (and even free) than traditional billboards, sales letters, etc. In fact, to send an email newsletter to millions of recipients, it’s free. There are no print costs, no delivery fees and no hidden overhead costs. This is the same when it comes to ad copy, banner ads and various other promotions on the net. Because it is all done in cyber space, the overhead costs are incredibly low.

Results Guaranteed

Although it may not be possible to predict the exact outcome of your web marketing strategy, it is possible to tweak and test the results to see what works for your company. When it comes to conventional advertising such as television ads and billboards, it can be hard to know if they are actually working. With a/b split tests and ecommerce software, you can see where the prospects are coming from and why. Then you can tweak your platform to continue these great results.

Professional Service

Another great thing about working with marketing consultants is that you are getting an outsider point of view on what your company needs. This is great for connecting with the niche market and general public. Furthermore, marketing consultants specialise in all things web marketing including article writing, PPC placement, affiliate marketing and everything else. Instead of using a generalized marketing service, Internet marketing consultants have the know-how, and the credentials to actually help you.

Make Your Own Business Consultant Home Study Course

I made my own business consultant home study course. I had practiced law, owned a number of businesses, and wanted to simplify my life. I still needed to make a decent living, but with the economy in an obvious slowdown, I knew that I needed to get creative.

I started surfing the net and discovered an unbelievable amount of get-rich-quick schemes and businesses. I knew that most of the statements of unbelievable incomes were probably fluff, but I figured that if they were even partially true, I could learn how to make money online.

What I discovered was a whole new world for me…internet marketing. I had been used to the traditional methods of marketing like TV, Radio and print advertising. I began to study everything that I could about online marketing and was soon making a significant income online. Now, when I look at traditional businesses, I realize that most of them do not have any clue about how much their businesses could explode if they really capitalized on the power of the internet.

I realize that there are many different types of business consultants, but the vast majority of traditional businesses have not taken full advantage of the resources of the web. For most brick and mortar businesses, the economic struggles of today keep them from effectively branching out into new areas. Many businesses spend tens of thousands of dollars to develop a web presence, but they do not take that next step of effectively marketing online.

If you want to capitalize on this untapped or under utilized market, you need to start learning everything that you can about internet marketing. You can begin your business consultant home study course by just going through the search engines and learning everything that you can about online marketing. Do a search for SEO (search engine optimization) and you will find more information than you can handle.

When you are ready to learn more, study marketing methods like; article marketing, auto responders, banner ads, ezine ads, video marketing, blogs, social networking sites, pay per click, keywords and forums. Most businesses do not take advantage of many of these methods and if you become proficient at even a few of them, you will have a service of great value that you can market as a consultant.

They best way to learn how some of these methods work is, of course, to try them yourself. If you can find a product or business that you want to market, you can use some of the above or other methods and actually make money for yourself while going through your own business consultant home study course. Granted, internet marketing may not be for you, but if you are intrigued by this idea, you may be able to make a significant income while learning how to become a consultant to others.

Since I have begun my own education about online marketing, I have been able to help a number of other businesses increase their online traffic. I have even consulted with charitable organizations! There is a need for this type of service and there are likely businesses that you know that would love to have some help in tapping into the power of the internet. Since many business owners grew up before the era of the internet, they are not familiar with the methods and techniques that online marketers use and may be very willing to pay for a good consultant.

Increasing Your Online Consulting Fees, Part II

You are just as worthy of making a lot of money as anyone else is, you just have to gain the confidence in knowing you can increase your online consulting fees if you choose to do so. Increasing your online consulting fees does not make you a bad business person, it makes you a smart business person. Sometimes it is necessary to increase your online consulting fees in order to make a profit with your online consulting business.

It is all a learning process anyway. If you do not feel that you are good enough yet to ask for more money, just stop and think about it, when will you be good enough, when will you provide services with perfection? Noone is ever going to be perfect, even when they have gained the experiences necessary in creating a good name for themselves. Do not wait for that time to come, you will be losing so much money if you do. Start now, by increasing your online consulting fees, you will be so glad that you decided to do so and chances are, if your clients are satisfied with your services, they will not have a problem with paying you a little bit more money, because you deserve it.

Online consulting businesses are expanding each and every day, offering many different types of services for their clients. If you choose to hire a online consultant for your purposes, you will be saved the time and worry from trying to figure everything out on your own, online consultants are paid good money because of the services they have available for you, they are professional and always reliable, and they definitely deserve an increase in their online consulting fees. Give them what they deserve!

The Management Consultant Stories: Culture. A major obstacle?

Culture, a Major Obstacle To Business

Morale was high at the US based contracting company. They had just been invited to join a consortium of companies that had pre-qualified for a big public works tender in Central Asia. The offer came via e-mail. After concluding the initial round of correspondence with their counterparts, a two man team made up of one senior engineer and one business development exec were sent to Europe to meet up with their potential partners and sign the consortium agreement.

The trip started well, as they were well received by their hosts at the airport, guided to their hotel and were pleased to see that a well planned itinerary awaited them. Two mid- level managers took them out to dinner that night, and a jovial relationship was established.

The next day, still dazzled by the late night and effects of jet lag the US team met with the senior execs of the consortium and gave a strong power point presentation as to their capabilities, past business performance and key deliverables. Everyone was all smiles at lunch, and things were very cordial in the afternoon during the contract negotiations. The US team e-mailed back the tentative consortium agreement late afternoon and was treated to a special evening of entertainment and fine dining “Asian” style by the corporate execs.

Next morning, they received confirmation from the legal department at corporate that the agreement was acceptable and that they could go ahead and sign. The agreement was signed, pictures were taken and small gifts were exchanged. After having generated so much good will in such a good time, it was decided that the new consortium partners should visit the government office which was organizing the tender in order to introduce the US company.

Up to that time, the whole process had been text book perfect. The meeting with the government authorities went ahead as planned, but it was not possible to gauge the results of the meeting from the US company’s point of view. They had also received some conflicting news from the Government officials. The pre-qualification for tender had been cancelled, and the process would start over again.

Their new partners assured them that this was a normal occurrence for this part of the world. Other disturbing news started to trickle down as comments of the need to make facilitation payments arose. The US team automatically countered with their need to abide by the Corrupt Foreign Practices Act, but their hosts assured them that it would be they who would take care of things, not the American’s, but that the American’s should know that such a arrangement had to be entered into as they were a part of everyday life if you wanted to do business in this part of the world.

The trip was concluded with a lavish good bye dinner and further entertainment, “Asian” style. The team was in a jovial mood when they arrived back in the US and were congratulated by the CEO for their accomplishment.

Their Asian counterparts meanwhile prepared for the new pre-qualification process and asked for intensive documentation. A project team was established for the Central Asia project and earnest work began to supply their consortium partners with the necessary materials to win the pre-qualification bid. At the same time hints that certain facilitation expenses were being made to Government authorities were being relayed to the American company over the phone. But, never in writing. After a while, these vague remarks became very much clearer as their foreign partners started to talk numbers.

The US stance was the same. We cannot be involved, we don’t want to know about it.

Two months after the signing of the consortium agreement, the new pre-qualification bid was held, and their consortium failed to qualify.

Their Asian counterparts blamed them in part for not assisting them in paying up the facilitation fees, and claimed that they would have won had the size of the payment been larger! They vowed to have the pre-qualification tender cancelled and the process renewed. Which they actually managed to do! But by this time, the American company had lost faith in their partners, and having allocated resources freely against the promise of lucrative rewards, decided to withdraw from the project.

The Asian partners accused the American’s of being short sighted, inflexible, and shallow. The American’s accused the Asian’s with being untruthful, slow, and not results oriented. Both sides threatened each other with law suits and asked for damages. Lawyers wrote letters back and forth, but even they had problems communicating. The cost of litigation would have been too expensive, so both sides refrained from going to court, but wrote letters of complaint to their respective embassies.

The communication gap between the cultures played an important role in how this project went bad. Communicating across cultures can be extremely difficult. What is the beginning for one culture can be the end for another.

ATN Management Consulting offers “Cultural Leadership” coaching programs to bridge the gap between cultures and to facilitate effective communication with the aim of delivering results in the International arena.

Morale was high at the US based contracting company. They had just been invited to join a consortium of companies that had pre-qualified for a big public works tender in Central Asia. The offer came via e-mail. After concluding the initial round of correspondence with their counterparts, a two man team made up of one senior engineer and one business development exec were sent to Europe to meet up with their potential partners and sign the consortium agreement.

The trip started well, as they were well received by their hosts at the airport, guided to their hotel and were pleased to see that a well planned itinerary awaited them. Two mid- level managers took them out to dinner that night, and a jovial relationship was established.

The next day, still dazzled by the late night and effects of jet lag the US team met with the senior execs of the consortium and gave a strong power point presentation as to their capabilities, past business performance and key deliverables. Everyone was all smiles at lunch, and things were very cordial in the afternoon during the contract negotiations. The US team e-mailed back the tentative consortium agreement late afternoon and was treated to a special evening of entertainment and fine dining “Asian” style by the corporate execs.

Next morning, they received confirmation from the legal department at corporate that the agreement was acceptable and that they could go ahead and sign. The agreement was signed, pictures were taken and small gifts were exchanged. After having generated so much good will in such a good time, it was decided that the new consortium partners should visit the government office which was organizing the tender in order to introduce the US company.

Up to that time, the whole process had been text book perfect. The meeting with the government authorities went ahead as planned, but it was not possible to gauge the results of the meeting from the US company’s point of view. They had also received some conflicting news from the Government officials. The pre-qualification for tender had been cancelled, and the process would start over again.

Their new partners assured them that this was a normal occurrence for this part of the world. Other disturbing news started to trickle down as comments of the need to make facilitation payments arose. The US team automatically countered with their need to abide by the Corrupt Foreign Practices Act, but their hosts assured them that it would be they who would take care of things, not the American’s, but that the American’s should know that such a arrangement had to be entered into as they were a part of everyday life if you wanted to do business in this part of the world.

The trip was concluded with a lavish good bye dinner and further entertainment, “Asian” style. The team was in a jovial mood when they arrived back in the US and were congratulated by the CEO for their accomplishment.

Their Asian counterparts meanwhile prepared for the new pre-qualification process and asked for intensive documentation. A project team was established for the Central Asia project and earnest work began to supply their consortium partners with the necessary materials to win the pre-qualification bid. At the same time hints that certain facilitation expenses were being made to Government authorities were being relayed to the American company over the phone. But, never in writing. After a while, these vague remarks became very much clearer as their foreign partners started to talk numbers.

The US stance was the same. We cannot be involved, we don’t want to know about it.

Two months after the signing of the consortium agreement, the new pre-qualification bid was held, and their consortium failed to qualify.

Their Asian counterparts blamed them in part for not assisting them in paying up the facilitation fees, and claimed that they would have won had the size of the payment been larger! They vowed to have the pre-qualification tender cancelled and the process renewed. Which they actually managed to do! But by this time, the American company had lost faith in their partners, and having allocated resources freely against the promise of lucrative rewards, decided to withdraw from the project.

The Asian partners accused the American’s of being short sighted, inflexible, and shallow. The American’s accused the Asian’s with being untruthful, slow, and not results oriented. Both sides threatened each other with law suits and asked for damages. Lawyers wrote letters back and forth, but even they had problems communicating. The cost of litigation would have been too expensive, so both sides refrained from going to court, but wrote letters of complaint to their respective embassies.

The communication gap between the cultures played an important role in how this project went bad. Communicating across cultures can be extremely difficult. What is the beginning for one culture can be the end for another.

ATN Management Consulting offers “Cultural Leadership” coaching programs to bridge the gap between cultures and to facilitate effective communication with the aim of delivering results in the International arena.

Culture, a Major Obstacle To Business

Morale was high at the US based contracting company. They had just been invited to join a consortium of companies that had pre-qualified for a big public works tender in Central Asia. The offer came via e-mail. After concluding the initial round of correspondence with their counterparts, a two man team made up of one senior engineer and one business development exec were sent to Europe to meet up with their potential partners and sign the consortium agreement.

The trip started well, as they were well received by their hosts at the airport, guided to their hotel and were pleased to see that a well planned itinerary awaited them. Two mid- level managers took them out to dinner that night, and a jovial relationship was established.

The next day, still dazzled by the late night and effects of jet lag the US team met with the senior execs of the consortium and gave a strong power point presentation as to their capabilities, past business performance and key deliverables. Everyone was all smiles at lunch, and things were very cordial in the afternoon during the contract negotiations. The US team e-mailed back the tentative consortium agreement late afternoon and was treated to a special evening of entertainment and fine dining “Asian” style by the corporate execs.

Next morning, they received confirmation from the legal department at corporate that the agreement was acceptable and that they could go ahead and sign. The agreement was signed, pictures were taken and small gifts were exchanged. After having generated so much good will in such a good time, it was decided that the new consortium partners should visit the government office which was organizing the tender in order to introduce the US company.

Up to that time, the whole process had been text book perfect. The meeting with the government authorities went ahead as planned, but it was not possible to gauge the results of the meeting from the US company’s point of view. They had also received some conflicting news from the Government officials. The pre-qualification for tender had been cancelled, and the process would start over again.

Their new partners assured them that this was a normal occurrence for this part of the world. Other disturbing news started to trickle down as comments of the need to make facilitation payments arose. The US team automatically countered with their need to abide by the Corrupt Foreign Practices Act, but their hosts assured them that it would be they who would take care of things, not the American’s, but that the American’s should know that such a arrangement had to be entered into as they were a part of everyday life if you wanted to do business in this part of the world.

The trip was concluded with a lavish good bye dinner and further entertainment, “Asian” style. The team was in a jovial mood when they arrived back in the US and were congratulated by the CEO for their accomplishment.

Their Asian counterparts meanwhile prepared for the new pre-qualification process and asked for intensive documentation. A project team was established for the Central Asia project and earnest work began to supply their consortium partners with the necessary materials to win the pre-qualification bid. At the same time hints that certain facilitation expenses were being made to Government authorities were being relayed to the American company over the phone. But, never in writing. After a while, these vague remarks became very much clearer as their foreign partners started to talk numbers.

The US stance was the same. We cannot be involved, we don’t want to know about it.

Two months after the signing of the consortium agreement, the new pre-qualification bid was held, and their consortium failed to qualify.

Their Asian counterparts blamed them in part for not assisting them in paying up the facilitation fees, and claimed that they would have won had the size of the payment been larger! They vowed to have the pre-qualification tender cancelled and the process renewed. Which they actually managed to do! But by this time, the American company had lost faith in their partners, and having allocated resources freely against the promise of lucrative rewards, decided to withdraw from the project.

The Asian partners accused the American’s of being short sighted, inflexible, and shallow. The American’s accused the Asian’s with being untruthful, slow, and not results oriented. Both sides threatened each other with law suits and asked for damages. Lawyers wrote letters back and forth, but even they had problems communicating. The cost of litigation would have been too expensive, so both sides refrained from going to court, but wrote letters of complaint to their respective embassies.

The communication gap between the cultures played an important role in how this project went bad. Communicating across cultures can be extremely difficult. What is the beginning for one culture can be the end for another.

ATN Management Consulting offers “Cultural Leadership” coaching programs to bridge the gap between cultures and to facilitate effective communication with the aim of delivering results in the International arena.

Culture, a Major Obstacle To Business

Morale was high at the US based contracting company. They had just been invited to join a consortium of companies that had pre-qualified for a big public works tender in Central Asia. The offer came via e-mail. After concluding the initial round of correspondence with their counterparts, a two man team made up of one senior engineer and one business development exec were sent to Europe to meet up with their potential partners and sign the consortium agreement.

The trip started well, as they were well received by their hosts at the airport, guided to their hotel and were pleased to see that a well planned itinerary awaited them. Two mid- level managers took them out to dinner that night, and a jovial relationship was established.

The next day, still dazzled by the late night and effects of jet lag the US team met with the senior execs of the consortium and gave a strong power point presentation as to their capabilities, past business performance and key deliverables. Everyone was all smiles at lunch, and things were very cordial in the afternoon during the contract negotiations. The US team e-mailed back the tentative consortium agreement late afternoon and was treated to a special evening of entertainment and fine dining “Asian” style by the corporate execs.

Next morning, they received confirmation from the legal department at corporate that the agreement was acceptable and that they could go ahead and sign. The agreement was signed, pictures were taken and small gifts were exchanged. After having generated so much good will in such a good time, it was decided that the new consortium partners should visit the government office which was organizing the tender in order to introduce the US company.

Up to that time, the whole process had been text book perfect. The meeting with the government authorities went ahead as planned, but it was not possible to gauge the results of the meeting from the US company’s point of view. They had also received some conflicting news from the Government officials. The pre-qualification for tender had been cancelled, and the process would start over again.

Their new partners assured them that this was a normal occurrence for this part of the world. Other disturbing news started to trickle down as comments of the need to make facilitation payments arose. The US team automatically countered with their need to abide by the Corrupt Foreign Practices Act, but their hosts assured them that it would be they who would take care of things, not the American’s, but that the American’s should know that such a arrangement had to be entered into as they were a part of everyday life if you wanted to do business in this part of the world.

The trip was concluded with a lavish good bye dinner and further entertainment, “Asian” style. The team was in a jovial mood when they arrived back in the US and were congratulated by the CEO for their accomplishment.

Their Asian counterparts meanwhile prepared for the new pre-qualification process and asked for intensive documentation. A project team was established for the Central Asia project and earnest work began to supply their consortium partners with the necessary materials to win the pre-qualification bid. At the same time hints that certain facilitation expenses were being made to Government authorities were being relayed to the American company over the phone. But, never in writing. After a while, these vague remarks became very much clearer as their foreign partners started to talk numbers.

The US stance was the same. We cannot be involved, we don’t want to know about it.

Two months after the signing of the consortium agreement, the new pre-qualification bid was held, and their consortium failed to qualify.

Their Asian counterparts blamed them in part for not assisting them in paying up the facilitation fees, and claimed that they would have won had the size of the payment been larger! They vowed to have the pre-qualification tender cancelled and the process renewed. Which they actually managed to do! But by this time, the American company had lost faith in their partners, and having allocated resources freely against the promise of lucrative rewards, decided to withdraw from the project.

The Asian partners accused the American’s of being short sighted, inflexible, and shallow. The American’s accused the Asian’s with being untruthful, slow, and not results oriented. Both sides threatened each other with law suits and asked for damages. Lawyers wrote letters back and forth, but even they had problems communicating. The cost of litigation would have been too expensive, so both sides refrained from going to court, but wrote letters of complaint to their respective embassies.

The communication gap between the cultures played an important role in how this project went bad. Communicating across cultures can be extremely difficult. What is the beginning for one culture can be the end for another.

ATN Management Consulting offers “Cultural Leadership” coaching programs to bridge the gap between cultures and to facilitate effective communication with the aim of delivering results in the International arena.

http://www.atnconsulting.com
[email protected]
Tel: 201 – 915 – 9850
Fax: 201 – 915 – 9851

SEO Professional – What You Should Ask Before Hiring A Consultant

Before you start working with an SEO consultant, you must either meet him or talk to him on the phone. Find out the answers to the following questions.

  • What is the consultants SEO process? What can you expect to see happen in the first month? The process should make sense to you. If he can’t explain it, don’t hire him.
  • What is the first thing he would do on your site? The SEO professional should look at your Web site before speaking with you. Or, he should ask whether he could look later. Either way, don’t demand a lot of information – this is what you pay them for, and they shouldn’t have to give information away for free. Instead, look for a sensible recommendation that demonstrates that they gave your site some thought.
  • How are results reported? If he mentions ranking reports, don’t hire him. Traffic matters more than rankings. Any good SEO consultant will know that.
  • How long has he been an SEO professional? There’s no specific correct answer here but a response like, “I’ve just started”, should give you pause.
  • If you’re unhappy with the service, can you end your contract before the scheduled end date? Many unethical agencies bind you to a contract and charge your credit card month after month.
  • How often will he speak with you? Your SEO consultant needs to periodically review your results and strategy with you.
  • Does any service cost extra? Many SEO firms charge extra for copy writing and other work. That’s fine; just make sure you know before you start.

The main thing you are trying to get is an impression of the person or company you’ll be working with. SEO is marketing, and it requires a lot of communication between you and your consultant.

Knowing What To Expect

More SEO campaigns have fallen to incorrect expectations than any other form of marketing. Here’s what you should know before you start:

  • SEO takes a long time. I typically require a one-year contract with any SEO client. Two years is better. If you try to sign an SEO professional to a shorter contract, you’ll likely either rush him (so he won’t do solid long-term planning), or you’ll chase off the best consultants.
  • Don’t expect fast results.
  • Do expect regular reports
  • Expect that your SEO consultant wants a certain amount of work from you. He is going to give you lots of recommendations and requests for changes to your site. He’ll ask for content and he will want information about your competitors.

Costs can vary widely from one SEO firm to the next. Some can charge as little as $100 a month. Others can charge up to $10,000 or more per month. The difference is the level of service. For $100 a month, don’t expect much. The SEO firm probably won’t do much work except for a few automated directory submissions, and might not get you results. At the top end of the scale, an SEO consultant writes SEO optimized articles for your website, researches keywords, analyzes your website for potential problems, and does whatever it takes to move you up in the search rankings. Most SEO consultant’s charges are based on a monthly fee. They might also offer one-time reviews where they check your website, write a report recommending changes, and then leave you hanging. If you don’t have your own team you are probably better off going with the monthly agreement.

Good SEO consultants often negotiate their fees depending on the difficulty of the campaign and the amount of work that will be involved also how long you plan to work with them. If you have a website that’s already fairly well optimized but just needs a little help and you are hiring them for only a year; you should expect your monthly fees to be lower. If you have a site that’s a complete disaster, as far as SEO and you’re in a very competitive industry, and you want everything done in three or four months; you can expect to pay more each month.

Remember when it comes to costs, the real question should be, what makes sense to you and your budget? You usually get what you pay for and that rule is no different here. Sometimes what looks like a bargain is really just a waste of money? When it comes to your website and your business, you can’t afford to waste your money on sub par SEO advice.

Benefits of Paying an SEO Consultant

A very real and valid dilemma for many small online businesses is whether or not to hire a qualified SEO consultant to carry out work on their site. It can be an expensive process and many small businesses feel that if they simply try and do bits here and bits there they will eventually see some results. However as an SEO consultant I feel there are some major reasons why your business simply cannot afford to miss out on the opportunity.

First and foremost time is a massive issue for most business owners? Ask yourself this do you have time to optimise your pages, diagnose link issues, create new content, submit to article directories, search directories and social networking groups? Do you have the time to give SEO the full attention needed to yield any serious results.

Another factor to consider is similar to time but also involves SEO expertise. Do you know how to write good copy that is optimised as well as being natural so that you are awarded the maximum weight. This an building links is one of the major tasks of any SEO consultant.

Do you have the relevant expertise needed to stay ahead of the game. A good SEO consultant will be onto of any algorithm changes within the search engines and use this knowledge to better serve your business. Not only this but a competent consultant will ensure any work carried out complies with the guidelines of major search engines, therefore cementing the longevity of your site. Do you know what to do in order stop you rights being penalised.

One of the most important aspects of SEO work is creating the “right” kind of links. Are you aware what makes a good link? How to find it, implement it and then monitor it? Do you know what content you should be aiming for and what PageRank aspect? A good SEO will be able to highlight this area with his/her eyes closed.

Keyword analysis is another area that will benefit your business, there may be keywords out there you could be targeting but do not know how or where to find them. These keywords could be providing your site with more profitable visitors.

The bottom line is this, an SEO consultant is an investment that will be difference between online success and failure or poor results. If you have the necessary skills and time to do it yourself that is great but many business owners do not and it is for this reason and all the above, hiring an SEO consultant would be a sound investment.