Consultant-Tips.Blog
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How Well Do you Know Your Firms Products?
This time a year a lot of companies will start sending out year-end summaries that list their accomplishments and growth from the prior year. I’m seeing all kinds of details on LinkedIn and other sites already. I started thinking about all the different products and services my firm offers and realized I am lucky, I received some great training and have a real sound understanding of those products. As a consultant, you never know when a client may inquire on areas not directly related to your role. The ability of being able to speak to those may benefit all parties, including you.
Regardless of our role, we all should be able to speak to the capabilities and products/services offered by our organizations. I remember years ago when I worked for another firm that sales and I would talk about our government division. My favorite, when talking about go-live and training services, was that our company trains more dolphins (a mining military protective service) then Sea World. I would go on to say, “So see, whether its Epic consultants or dolphins, we are committed to the highest quality of training experts.” This would get the biggest laughs and open the room right up for further discussion.
But all joking aside, there are a lot of moving parts to your firm and obtaining knowledge only adds to your credibility and growth potential. An easy example is other EHR practices. Epic, MEDITECH, Cerner all have variations on focused services. Your client may have Legacy systems still in play through data archiving and/or other work around data extraction and reporting. Does your firm provide variations of Legacy support? Another might be non EHR support in areas of ERP, Revenue Cycle, and/or Managed Services. How knowledgeable are you about your firm’s capabilities in these areas? Are their cross-overs that may have interdependencies on what you are doing that could result in an extension? Setting up long term Managed Services offerings for example often need direct consulting support to transition planning and implementation.
I know some of you will say that you are not in sales. I hear it all the time. I’m not in sales. I’m an operational delivery, strategy, and quality assurance manager. But understanding my clients and all the initiatives and dynamics of their projects makes me more credible. While providing a billable service, knowledge of capabilities of all areas of support may open doors for dialog that you are leading. This aligns nicely for growth into Project Management roles for example. Even if you are not in sales, your firm may provide bonus incentives for identified leads that end up closing due to your direct assistance. Do you know if you firm offers anything like that?
Don’t inadvertently box yourself in to a role, show your interest and capability to expand your skills by being knowledgeable. Read your companies updates as they come out over the next month. Ask questions and keep updated on your own company’s initiatives and focus areas for 2020. While it may not be in your direct area, that doesn’t mean there isn’t potential there for you.
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