6 simple steps to becoming a top IT consultant

Thursday, July 19th, 2007.

The other day I met a consultant that I had recently befriended at a conference I was speaking at. After some chit-chat, he asked me how he could become a top consultant like me. I was a bit taken aback. I didn’t remember becoming a top consultant. I mean, I’m doing alright for myself, but there’s definitely room to grow. Anyway, he pressed me for an answer, and here’s what I came up with. Be aware that this is only based on my experience and the stories I’ve picked up from my betters over the years. I hope that this may be helpful for other consultants or people considering getting into consulting.

I started thinking what characterizes many of the top IT consultants, and I came up with these 4 main points.

1. They are well known in their field/niche

2. They are considered experts in their field/niche

3. They speak at conferences

4. They are published authors

There’s more but that’s enough to get us started.

So, it’s reasonable to assume that if I were to do these things as well, I’d be climbing my way up to being a top-tier consultant. But, like so many things in life, this is easier said than done. So here’s my 6 step process to becoming a top IT consultant.

1. Have a niche

Since IT is so broad, there is really no way anyone can master it all. This means we’re left to choose between being a “jack of all trades and master of none” or specializing. All the top consultants I know specialize. However, they still have a working knowledge of many fields and are able to move with the times. My niche is Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) on the Microsoft platform. This is backed by my consulting practice working on very-large-scale distributed systems with the most stringent throughput, latency, and security requirements.

Choosing a niche isn’t easy if you’re just starting out. I suggest looking for something new in an area already familiar to you. New doesn’t mean small. Mastering some insignificant niche that no one in the industry cares about isn’t going to do you much good. One way to know that a niche will have enough meat in it is that similar niches are gaining ground. In my case, I had been working on the Microsoft platform for a while and had a good handle on the technologies. Architecture was beginning to gain broad traction with the rise of the Patterns & Practices group and SOA was on its way up the hype curve on the Java platform. That was the moment I recognized my niche .

2. Get to be Well-Known in your niche

All the top consultants that I know are not loners. They know and socialize with many of the people in their niche. This includes conference organizers, speakers at conferences, journalists of trade magazines, user group leaders, and bloggers.

If you don’t know what bloggers write about topics in your niche, do a Google Blog Search on it. Check out Technorati. If you have a blog, start interacting with those other bloggers. Comment on their posts. Link to them. They’ll start doing the same to you.

Also, after attending a good presentation go up to the presenter, introduce yourself, and say how much you enjoyed the session. Ask them if they wouldn’t mind if you emailed them some questions about their presentation. As a presenter I can tell you there’s nothing I enjoy more at the end of a presentation. Once the conversation starts up, don’t be surprised if they point you at some books, articles, or even suggest you go see another presenter speak. Rinse and repeat.

3. Get Published

While many of the industry’s leading consultants have several books under their belt, this is not something that easy duplicate. Writing a book is hard work, let alone getting a publisher to back it. Luckily, there’s a simple on-ramp for getting published.

First of all, start blogging. This kind of self-publishing will both improve your writing and help you make connections. When reading other blogs, articles, and books pay attention to how your writing differs from theirs. After you have a number of high quality posts on your blog, contact an online magazine in your niche. Offer yourself as a writer. Showcase your skills by pointing out your blog’s high quality posts. Don’t stop writing in your blog though. Reach out to other magazines – both online and print.

If the conference presenters you’ve been talking to are writing a book, offer yourself as a technical reviewer. Once you have enough material to back it up, consider offering to write a chapter in the book. This is a lot of work, but well worth the effort. All of this leads up to the point where you’ll be able to write a book that a publisher will want.

4. Speak at conferences

For most of us in the IT industry, public speaking is as pleasurable as a visit to the dentist. However, there’s almost nothing that compares to it when it comes to being recognized as an expert. Like writing, getting to be good at public speaking takes practice. Although some conference presenters got there either by being an employee of the vendor sponsoring the conference or have released some wildly popular open-source library, that isn’t enough to maintain it over time. Practice makes perfect. Also similar to writing, there’s a low-risk on-ramp to conference speaking too.

User groups have been the launch pad of many a successful speaker. With more user groups with more meetings than available speakers, user group leaders are always on the lookout for someone who can come speak to their group. If you’re already a member of their group (as mentioned in the getting known section) they’re all the more likely to give you a chance. After one successful user group presentation, don’t be surprised if you get invited to a couple more from other user groups. Even after you’ve moved up the food chain and are speaking at international events, keep a connection to your local user groups. I’ve found them to be a great place to try out new content and other speakers say the same. Don’t forget where you came from.

When you hear about a larger conference that will be taking place in your area, contact the presenters you’ve been emailing questions back-and-forth to. Ask them if they can put you in contact with the conference organizer. Refer that organizer to the user group leaders and the successful presentations you gave there. From there, onwards and upwards.

5. Get your expertise recognized

If I hadn’t mentioned it up to this point, it bears stating. You have to be good, if not great, at what you do. Reading about new techniques and technologies and trying them out. Deepening your knowledge of your current tool set. Running performance tests and benchmarks against products and solutions. You’ve got to have the meat. The last thing you want is to employ all the above techniques to shine a bright spotlight on barely any substance.

If you do have the substance though, all that writing, speaking, and networking will have done it all for you. This will, of course, create a positive feedback loop. You’ll get invited to speak at more conferences. You’ll get paid to write articles for leading magazines. With more people who know of you, book sales will increase. And on, and on.

6. Make it billable

At the end of the day, we consultants measure ourselves primarily by our hourly/daily/weekly rate. It’s clear that in terms of just filling up hours, clients would prefer to take a published, well-known, expert consultant that speaks at conferences all over the world over a “plain-old” consultant. This increase in demand quite simply leads to an increase in price. Also, you’ll find that you get quite a lot more clients and leads coming your way and clients who come to you invariably pay more than those you have to run after.

–

Simple, but not easy

I know that everything I’ve just outlined sounds simple, and it is. There’s no complicated formula that will promise success I know of. So you don’t have to worry if you forget. But let me tell you that the road is neither quick nor easy. This is a multi-year long journey that requires discipline. It’s a whole lot more work than “just” being a consultant.

Just to spice it up, keep in mind that you’re not the only one doing this. There are already established experts out there. Others have already been on this path for a year or two. Any good sized niche will already have some incumbents in there. In that respect, I was lucky jumping on my niche when I did but that made it a much smaller niche when I was just starting out. You have to think about how you differentiate yourself, both as a speaker and as a consultant. And try to keep that consistent across the board. Most consultants on the Microsoft platform are technology and products focused. I came in waving the technology-agnostic architecture flag. Look for something that sets you apart. Also, be aware of the shifts occurring in the industry so that you don’t find your differentiating factor’s importance disappearing out from under you.

And in closing…

Take this for what it’s worth. I’ve walked this path myself and have seen that it works for me. I’ve seen others walking this path and have seen it work for them. It also fits quite well with the stories I’ve heard from the top IT consultants I’ve talked to. I’m no top IT consultant. I’m just a guy, like you, trying to get there. But I’m having a great time while I’m at it. So should you.

You might also want to check out TopITconsultant.com for more tips.

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10 Comments

Paul Lockwood Says:
July 20th, 2007 at 9:40 am
Keep up the blog and podcasts, I normally really enjoy them – saying that I must disagree with this post. This post suggests ‘if you don’t have a blog or do public speaking then how can you know anything?’. It is amazing how many bloggers I meet with this attitude.

There are several brilliant IT consultants I can immediately think of that do not have blogs and are little known outside of where they have worked. Frankly they are much better at their jobs than many big names I know.

Maybe the title should have been ‘How to Appear a Top IT Consultant’?

thesoftwaresimplist Says:
July 20th, 2007 at 11:09 am
Paul,

Glad you like the stuff I put out enough to list me under the “superstar” category of your blog. I’m honoured.

I think that the basis for our disagreement hinges on the definition of what a top IT consultant really is. For me, it’s quite simply the hourly/daily rate one commands. From your comment, I understand that your definition of “top” equates to knowledge.

If my post suggested that one’s knowledge is dependent on one’s ability to blog and speak in public, that was not my intent, nor do I believe that it is true.

Just as a parting thought: this post was based on a broad empirical and experiential perspective of who is perceived to be a top consultant by a broad cross-section of the industry.

I’m always glad to receive feedback and thank you for your comment. I hope that my response clears things up.

Gil Zilberfeld Says:
July 22nd, 2007 at 2:21 am
Udi,

Thanks for the post. It came at a good time, as I am contemplating my current position, where I want to go and how I get there. I think consultancy has a better chance of succeeding once you are visible and accessible enough.

You still have to be good at what you do. But getting customers to come looking for you, takes exposure.

Keep posting (I’m trying to keep up with the tech)

Gil

Guy Kolbis Says:
July 22nd, 2007 at 5:51 am
First let me just note that this is a great post. Now let me introduce myself, I am a consultant at SRL and I attended several of your presentations on several user groups. I have to agree upon each and every sentence you wrote. It has been hard getting into consulting although I previously I was a CTO and had experience in management and so forth. Only after a year and a half I found my niche and started lecturing at Microsoft event and user groups. Still there is quite a few work left to be done in order to be a well known and well excepted expert (like you ). Keep up the good work!

thesoftwaresimplist Says:
July 22nd, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Gil: Glad you liked it. I know so many people who are GREAT at what they do, but fall short in publicizing it. Consultants need both.

Guy: Thanks for the compliment, and I wish you the best of luck in conquering your niche.

Yoni Goldberg Says:
July 23rd, 2007 at 6:27 am
I really enjoyed reading this one. I’m spending a lot of
time and effort to advance my career, while reading this post
i realized and understood some basic mistakes that i’m doing.
I believe, today, any professional in any field must understand
marketing in order to succeed. Even as employee for some company: marketing your self inside the company is almost important as doing good job.

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Anup Says:
September 23rd, 2008 at 5:17 am
Dear Sir
I came to know about your blog while googling for more information about IT Consultant, i am a Technical Engineer working in IT industry since 5 years and very much intrested to know more about IT Consultant, Need your suggestion/guidance and expert advice regarding books, white papers, courses etc… as a beginner to start with this career. As i am from india want to know what is the scope for IT Consultant in india ?
your response on this will be highly appreciated

Thanks & regards
Anup

udidahan Says:
September 23rd, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Anup,

For books, I would suggest “Flawless Consulting” and a lot of Gerald Weinberg’s writing. I’m afraid I don’t know much about the indpendent consulting circuit in India but do wish you the best.