5 Important Lessons I Learned as a Tech Consultant over the Last 5 Years

Underestimated Skills in IT-Consulting with Lessons Learned.

Lessons are learned through insights, experiences, observations or sometimes even mistakes.

Some of the lessons we learn are small. They are small reminders on the way to what is really important. Other lessons are huge. They fundamentally change us and the direction of our entire lives.

During my last 5 years in the IT industry, I have often asked myself what makes a successful IT consultant.

I have definitely learned that success requires more than just technical knowledge.

Communication, structure, the right mindset and leading clients are at least as crucial.

In this article, I share the five most important insights that have shaped my work as a consultant. These insights not only help you to work more efficiently but also to improve customer relationships.

1 — Support and consulting are not the same thing, but they are often very close

A support request can become consulting.

A consultation can become support.

Knowing which role you are currently in is incredibly important.

Let me share a recent example: I recently received a request from a customer asking why the number of members in a mailing list in Salesforce no longer matched — a classic support request. I analyzed the problem with the request and explained to the customer what she needed to change. At the same time, I noticed that there were a lot of inconsistencies in the data quality in the account.

So, what did I do next?

In addition to explaining the original problem, I listed the various data quality issues and suggested a solution as to how the customer could fix them. Here I switched directly to the role of consultant.

Lo and behold, the customer was able to solve the problem of the original question, thanked me for actively thinking along and immediately went on to tackle the other problems, which led to further support requests for our company.

Lesson learned
Once I understood this, I could easily generate 2–4 more requests from only one support request.