How are sales skills and management consulting related?

Hey there,

You constantly have to sell in consulting, even as a junior; a few examples:

• You need to sell your own performance to the team from the very start and show that you are basically irreplaceable
• You need to sell the results of your analysis and your presentation to your engagement manager and the partners, then the client
• You need to sell your recommendations and opinions to the clients so that they decide to implement them
• As you progress up the ranks, you need to transition and start building client relationships to win new engagements
• ...

The sales aspect is the reason why McKinsey has a PEI dimension called personal impact, that tackles this skill in great detail.

Cheers,

Florian

Hi there,

What a great question!

Consulting is ultimately story-telling. You do do analysis, but ultimately, the majority of your time is spent on properly communicating/telling your story. There no point in all your work if you can't sell your findings.

As such, the 2nd half of consulting is, essentially, sales (having a strong properpoint, standing up and presenting it effectively/persuasively, etc.)

Very closely related if you are in the strategy/management consulting track & want to move up the ladder.  

You are selling yourself/your brand, yours skills internally & externally and the firms offerings to clients pretty much all the time. Most Consulting companies put sales targets the more senior you go. Without strong selling skills, going up the ranks is near impossible.

So, some people who dont enjoy this selling side, and depending on the firm, pursue a specialist delivery track. which comes with it downsides of slow promotions.