You don't become great overnight.

It struck me as strange for a while. Big tech firms train sales people in ‘consultative selling’. And consultancy firms train consultants in ‘solution selling’.

That’s just something to think about.

You don't become great overnight.

This week I finished building a new staircase. It’s one of the last projects in my house renovation, which has been a 6-year venture.

During this time I have hand-nailed over 12,000* cut brad nails into floorboards. Yes with a hammer, not a nail gun. I have replaced every floorboard in the house and most of the floor joists too.

12,000 nails hammered in! Imagine how many hours that took?

The thing is though this enormous feat has been completed a few hours at a time. All amounting to the finished job.

What’s this got to do with consulting and business development?

You want to become a better consultant (and/or business developer), right?

Well that doesn’t happen overnight.

When I started the house renovation I had no carpentry experience. I couldn’t even saw a straight line! Yet bit by bit I have got better at the skills needed to do things well.

It’s the same with consultancy skills. Many consultants I meet get work because they are good subject matter experts.

But, they’re not always that good at what you might consider basic consultation skills. Asking questions, listening, challenging assumptions, synthesising data …

And the reason for this is that they haven’t practiced those skills as much as the subject matter expertise.

That’s something to think about too.

Now I’m not expecting you to start nailing nails in your spare time. But what if you take some of those consultancy skills and practicing them deliberately over the next 12-months. Or maybe even 6-years?

12,000 questions. 12,000 acts of listening, 12,000 problem reframings ...

The mini-mission this week is to consider this. And if it appeals to you, to improve as a consultancy business developer, commit to an area of practice.

*I know this from my eBay purchasing data.