One on One with The Ascendant Consortium's David A. Fields

What if you could enjoy a huge increase in your consulting firm's success without finding more clients, competing for more projects or winning more engagements? You can, if you increase the size of your projects. Most consultants have almost everything they need to double their average project size—without doubling the workload, according to David A. Fields, Founder and Managing Director of the Ascendant Consortium. Fields will highlight several key fundamental ways to increase revenues, including how to reframe a client's RFP into a larger opportunity; the 37 Sources of Value you can tap to increase the ROI of your projects; the one obstacle that holds back most consulting firms; two conversations you must have with your client before you submit the proposal; and, the Irony of Expertise in his presentation: "Same Rain, Bigger Drops: Breakthroughs to Winning Better Projects" at the Consulting Summit in New York on Oct 24. Fields, who is the author of The Executive's Guide to Consultants:
How to Find, Hire and Get Great Results from Outside Experts , sat down with Consulting One on One to discuss his upcoming Summit presentation.

Consulting: Can you tell me a little bit about the takeaways from the "Same Rain Bigger Drops: Breakthroughs to Winning Better Projects" presentation you'll be making at the Consulting Summit in October?

Fields: Now that we're coming out of the recession, there's a real opportunity for consultants to do things right and a real temptation not to. As business picks up, there's a real temptation to put aside some of the best practices firm's have developed through the down times and just grab the projects as they come. But now is the time to start practicing a new way of thinking and to put into place new practices that will not only benefit you now, but will benefit you even more when those lean times come back some day. So, at the Consulting Summit, I will show attendees that it's possible to win bigger projects that have higher fees and higher margins without any more work involved. The first thing is breaking that mindset that bigger always means more work. Sometimes, bigger can mean more profit and be better for the client. And I'll highlight the ways you can do that.