The world of consulting has been under attack for the past fifteen years. If you own or work for a consulting company you don’t need me to tell you this. You’ve seen it in the fact that your rates haven’t changed substantially since 2000. You see it in the time it takes for your clients to make decisions. You see it in the companies you now see as competition. And you see it in the time senior managers are willing to spend with you.
You can’t afford not to take advantage of all the opportunities you have.
One of the biggest opportunities is the eBook. Here are seven reasons your consulting company needs an eBook now.
1. Resumes no longer work
Traditionally, consulting has been treated as a form of hiring. And the resume has been considered the hiring brochure of choice. Unfortunately, resumes no longer work. In fact, it’s questionable if they ever worked. An eBook can provide your client with the proof that you can do the job which a resume can’t.
2. Managers are too busy to get involved
Most consultants work in a technical environment. It could be IT, or Accounting or Marketing or Legal or any number of other areas. But it will tend to have a heavy technical load. The proper person to make a selection in that area is someone from that area. Unfortunately, modern managers are too busy to deal with that aspect of their business. Instead HR has increasingly taken responsibility for a task they are poorly trained and poorly. However, most managers will take the time to read if the book or eBook is on a subject that is important to them. Your eBook will allow you to bypass the HR person.
3. Books are better than a business card or brochure
One of the big problems with business cards and brochures is to make them stand out. After all, your client is inundated with messages. And unless a business card can stand out it won’t be remembered. An eBook goes beyond a business card. It stands out… no matter what format it’s in. And it provides more and better information than a brochure.
4. EBooks differentiate your business
A key task in branding is to establish a difference between your business and your competition. An eBook is long enough to display the difference in a way that your client can appreciate.
5. EBooks can establish credibility
One of the problems that resumes and brochures have is that no one believes their claims anymore. And no one wants to take the chance on recommending someone for a position (including consulting). An eBook is able to present your skills in a way that effectively proves that you can do what you say you can do. It can show your skills by demonstrating your ability to solve a specific problem.