Closing Comments

I have come to the end of my Reflective Journal, I have learned a great deal about consulting, one of the most important things I learned is managing the relations between the consultant and the client. The key to having a good career as a consultant is having the ability of maintaining a healthy relation between consultant and client. I learned that this relation will remain a healthy one as long as the channels of communication are open. This is a very important factor when it comes to being a good consultant. As the semester evolved I also realized that to some extent we are all consultants to some degree. Whether it’s with our children, our students, co-works etc. maybe not at the professional level but we do some consulting. If I ever pursue a career as a professional consultant, I think this class has instilled in me the basics skill needed to become a great consultant.

A Blueprint for Development

Answering the question for the discussion board for chapter 12 made me realize that I have been a consultant to a certain extent. Over the last ten years I have worked in various offices in the university level, I have worked with students that received Veterans Affairs benefits. I was also employed at the financial aid office, where I worked with students that received financial aid assistance; I have worked within the scholarship area with students that received some sort of waiver or exemption from the state of Texas. Currently I work on advising students about degree plans and classes, all the mean time I have been consulting students on the route they must take to either receive their benefits or register for classes. I guess my consulting is in a different arena compare to that of my friend Paul Olsen who is a Datetel consultant. I guess what I’m trying to say is that we all do some consulting to some degree, maybe we are not professional consultant but we still perform some consulting duties. We consult our children when it comes to school; some people consult their friends when it comes to relations hip issues (my wife). Students consult other students when it comes to picking professors, the list could go on and on, like I mentioned before, some of us do not do it at the professional level but to some degree, a lot of use are consultants.

Troubleshooting the Consulting Relationship

Chapter 11 offered a series of tips that a consultant should follow when troubleshooting the relationship between client and consultant. All the tips mention were very important but one really stood out. I have seen projects go stale because people would not leave their emotions and egos out of it. We all have them, emotions and egos, some people know how to control them, and others do not. Many people still walk around with the idea that if it is not their way then it’s no way at all. In one instant, an individual that got denied funding for his department to work on a project that would benefit the entire university decided that if they would not work on project then they would make every effort possible to denied any assistance for those people that ended up picking up the project. Needless to say that the other group that picked up the project, did not receive any funding and received very minimal training. All because of someone’s ego, that if I do not get it my way, then you figure it out on your own.

Developing Your Elevator Speech

Project 3
Elevator Speech

An elevator speech is a brief, carefully planned, and well-practiced description about your company that your mother should be able to understand in the time it would take to ride up an elevator. According to Wikipedia an elevator speech should not take longer than thirty seconds or 100-150 words. The ultimate objective of the speech is to grab attention and make people want to know more about you and your business. Here are some examples of some elevator speeches along with a video I found extremely useful while creating my own elevator speech.
Click to View Elevator Speech Video


Carmen: Hi, my name is Carmen Garcia. I make dreams come true.Potential Client : How do you do that?Carmen: I'm a wedding planner. I plan dream weddings for couples. I've been working for myself, but I'd like to get in with one of the big resorts that hosts weddings.
Nestor: Hi, my name is Nestor Delgado. I'm a warm-and-fuzzy man.Potential: How so?Nestor: I manage a pet store and love to watch children's eyes light up when I put a little animal in their hands. I'm training to use pet therapy in hospitals and nursing homes and hope to break into that field.
Maria: Hi, my name is Mariat Perez. I'm responsible for this country's future.Potential Client: This I've got to hear about.Maria: I'm a teacher! I love shaping the minds of the next generation, but I'm also interested in getting into corporate training.

My name is Martin Rodriguez, I'm a consultant for Datatel and in recent years, Datatel has developed software that gives students the ability to plan classes for future semesters. This tool allows student to plan an entire degree plan for the future. Students can build a "road map" from their freshman days till graduation. I believe this my exit but here's my card, if your institution is interested, I would be more than willing to give you a demonstration of just how the software works, thank for your time and have a great day.

Delivering the Full Value

I believe that whatever is done at this stage will determine whether the client continues to make business with the consultant or not. For the last five years or so, UTB/TSC has suffered some setbacks when it comes to registering for classes. Previous to this students would register based on grade level and by last name, nowadays registration is open to all students at the same time. This causes an overload in the system which ends up crashing and then no one can register. This causes great frustration to our student body and the staff that is trying to help students get into their classes. As far as what kind of contract UTB/TSC and Datatel have, I am not aware of that but having a 24-7 hotline with Datatel would be an excellent tool to avoid numerous headaches to both students and staff. This would be a 24-7 Help Desk that could be called at any time and for any particular problem, of course this more than likely have a fee but this could be worked out. A very helpful tool that I would like to see more is training sessions for people that will be using the new or upgraded software that is being installed. This happens regularly in my line of work, just a few weeks ago, the computer people came in and installed Share point and Microsoft Office 2007 on my computer. Ok, now how does Share point work and what do all these new buttons do when creating a power point presentation. With this in mind, I would definitely include a series of training session on the house. I believe this would create a closer bond between client and consultant.