Effective salespeople know intuitively that influence is a critical element of their success. They must persuade people to act in ways in which they are not inclined to act and to make decisions that they otherwise might not make. It may not be as intuitive with consultants and project managers, but it is nonetheless true that we must also master the skills of influence and persuasion. In fact, for consultants, influence is often our most important tool. After all, since we are paid advisers, we can’t order our clients to buy our recommended software or install our preferred hardware. Neither can we boss our teams around, as they often are made up of resources that are not under our direct control, such as engineers from the client’s IT team, consultants from other firms, or technical experts from the hardware or software vendor.
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