A grant writing consultant is someone who performs grant proposal writing, or, one who guides a non-profit’s staff in it. Either way, the grant writing consultant needs to be very skilled in the art of grant proposal writing.
Grants are basically free money, which is given to individuals, businesses, or organization, deemed qualified by foundations based on the criteria for that specific grant. Every grant is meant to be for its own specific purpose and the grant is then awarded to the applicant who best meets this purpose.
Becoming a grant writer is not an easy task. First, you must be educated. You can usually do this by taking a grant writing consultant course. In this course, you will earn all of the basics and may even work on some real life situations in class. Next you will need to get experience. Many grant writing consultants begin by volunteering their services to gain experience.
Once the education and training is complete, as well as some real life experience, a grant writing consultant can try to get a job. Many choose to become freelancers. This means that they do not work for any one particular organization, but instead work on a case-by-case basis. The other options are to work full time for an organization which needs your services, or to become a partner in a grant firm.
The pay can range drastically. The hourly rate can range from $25 to $200+. This depends on the type of grant to be written, the experience of the consultant, and the type or organization it is being done for.
This can truly be a rewarding job for anyone, but it is difficult and requires some special skills.
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Modern era of mobile communication and broadband connectivity has certainly paved way for services like virtual office setups and off-shoring different business services and solutions. Technology consulting off-shoring is the process of outsourcing some of your business functions to a third-party solution providers. While this technique has certain advantages, it certainly has its own devils and demons that can haunt you as well. We might want to consider all the perks and disadvantages while qualitatively evaluating them against each other to determine whether outsourcing your business functions can really prove beneficial in terms of performance and ROI.
During my entire career, I have provided consultancy to businesses and organizations helping them effectively achieve their goals through outsourcing. I have noted an extremely important factor that most organizations fail to acknowledge while outsourcing. This factor is the reliability of an outsourced company. Companies often start comparing the costs and end up having an inflexible or potentially non-futuristic product. While completely cost-driven outsourcing can certainly work for you in a short term but certainly will be of more harm than benefit in the long run.
Here are a few of the factors that you should take into account while selecting a company.
Cost
In today’s extremely fragile economy, organizations are typically basing most of their decisions based on this factor. While the ultimate cost of outsourced technology consulting solution is also of importance, it certainly should not be the only player in the game because keeping costs lower often results in a compromise on the quality of the solution or service.
Experience
If a company isn’t experienced enough, it won’t be able to help you get what you want especially if you are looking for high-end solutions. New players in the business often flaunt about offering a multitude of high-end services while the truth of the matter is that they neither have the facilities nor the infrastructure to boost their existing set of services or solutions. If you need a simple solution, it’s okay to give it to a new company but if you need a business-critical solution, you may not want to risk outsourcing it to an inexperienced company.
Reliability
Do some research on the internet and forums to know more about a company. Chances are that if that company is there from quote some time, it might be trustworthy but if its established in the near past, it may not be as reliable as its earlier counterpart. An important factor in reliability will be that the technology consulting company will give you a solid plan of action and a complete proposal fulfilling your requirements with timelines and deliveries. Reliability also refers to the ability of an outsourced company to provide you with after sale support and services. You can definitely take a hint from their current aptitude and customer-service.
Solution Flexibility
If your business solution is not flexible, it may not be suitable for you. Flexibility means the ability to add or remove different parts of the solution to with a futuristic approach. If you take look at the most successful solution providers, they build applications in integrated component. This technique lets you add more components or change versions of the solution parts more easily and without disturbing the whole system.
There are many reasons why people start an online business today. It is a known fact that it is much more affordable and easier to start an online business than a brick and mortar business in the offline world. The possibilities of reaching the entire world to sell your goods and services to, leads many to start dreaming of the riches and financial security they could have.
As many small business owners come to realize, marketing on the web with so much competition can be a daunting and time consuming task. For the business owner who is occupied assisting clients or doing other necessary things for the business, marketing may not be a priority and not receive as much attention as it should.
Hiring a business marketing consultant allows the new business owner or busy small business administrator to make us of a skilled professional who will concentrate on implementing new and innovative strategies to bring in more traffic, thus growing the business. This means that the new business owner doesn’t have to waste precious time researching and testing multiple marketing methods.
A business marketing consultant will discuss with you many aspects of your business in order to assess your needs and devise a business marketing plan. The plan will consist of various marketing strategies proven to work and appropriate for your budget and business model. in order to generate the most traffic, a bit of testing and tweaking may be necessary to find the best possible method suited for your audience and your message. Once effective marketing strategies are in place, you can choose to learn how to maintain and grow your marketing or continue to outsource the responsibilities and apply your skills and time in other areas of your business.
Many people think they don’t have the money to invest in the use of a business marketing consultant. Once you can see how this investment will in many cases at least double your profits, you will see that you can’t afford NOT to.
Whether you choose to hire a business marketing consultant from a large firm or from a private individual company, you should do some research to see what services are being offered. Investing in the expertise of an online marketing consultant can be one of the best decisions you will ever make for your business.
Business owners and department heads get so wrapped up in what they are trying to do for their company that they often forget about the most important piece of business… the customer. It may sound ironic but most of the sales consulting jobs that I accept have this following theme in common. They all say, “We have a successful business but we are not moving forward.” What is the issue?
You know the drill, I bet it is happening to your company or department right now. You are going through your day to day routine. There are fires to put out, documents to review, spreadsheets to create, advertising copy to evaluate and sales representatives that need coaching.
On top of all of that you are not moving forward. Your sales have moved south yet your sales expense is moving north. You got that feeling in your gut that you may need some help.
If experience has taught me anything it is that you are not alone. There are a lot of companies with this same issue. This issue which is found as the common theme in just about all of my work can be sorted out with the help of a professional sales consultant.
Between the spreadsheets and documents lies the prospect who quite frankly is being ignored. This probably happened gradually. It took a couple of prospects but you did convert one to a customer. The 10th customer was used to lay out the sales process. The 100th customer was used as a milestone.
The sales department grew, processes were put in place. The sales process in general had to be repeatedly redefined. Then your first month, quarter or year of declining sales hits. Your gut is correct – Bring in outside help.
As a Georgia sales consultant working in the Atlanta area I try to focus on the items that will make an immediate positive sales result to the customer. Something that will be adhered to and will have a lasting effect once my project is complete and I move on to the next company.
I always start at the same point and ask for the same document – your current sales process. Stop reading this article right now and pull out your sales process and give it a quick review.
Does your sales process read like this:
A timeline that the customer will be subjected to?
A list of tasks that must be accomplished before a sale can be completed?
Duties that the sales rep MUST do before a contract is accepted?
A flow chart with more twist and turns than a race at Watkins Glen in New York?
I do not mind that you call the above a process but experience tells me it is not an actual sales process. That is why I start with this document every time. Over time every customer I work with has this same problem. Over time they substitute the word prospect with customer.
In other words their “sales process” has morphed into an exercise on HOW TO setup a customer vs HOW TO convert a prospect to a customer. All of the items above are fundamental tasks in your individual process however we need to go back to the basics.
Your sales process must contain these 4 parts (No Exceptions):
The Opening. Who are we calling an why? Have we found the decision makers? Their budgets or time frames? Do we have permission to move forward with our sales process?
Probing Questions: Just why does the customer need the product or service you sell? What objections do they have? How do they feel about you and/or your company?
Pitching your Product: Can you paint the picture for your customer? Can your customer see themselves using your product? Did you tie your pitch back to their original need?
Closing: Do you know when to close? Did you use any trial closing statements in your pitch? Are you just now getting objections? How do you regroup if it does not close today?
As a Georgia Sales Consultant my job is to get my customer back on track. It is not about your “process” it is about your prospect. Your sales process should focus on how to convert a prospect to a customer not what the customer has to do to buy your product.
Take your current sales process out right now and review it. Today is January 4, 2010. It is the first Monday of the new year. This is an excellent time to put down the spreadsheets and refocus on your prospects.
David A. Peterson is an independent New Hire Sales Trainer and Sales Consultant in the Atlanta, Georgia area. He has over 20+ years experience in sales, sales training and sales management. His experience covers both managing and training outside remote regional sales representatives as well as inside call center agents.