Great topic: I particularly like the articles closing line.
"Position your practice to score seven and refuse to be a commodity."
I have maintained that the rank-and-file technologist is largely a commodity of diminishing value. Your ability to outearn the average and remain gainfully employed (in any field) requires you to position yourself as a problem solver and an expert (not necessarily a specialist). It is not enough to be technically good. You must also be highly relevant to the business/organization you serve.
I have two blogs that accentuate this point:
How Valueable is Your Value
The Theory of The Slight Edge
To put it more bluntly, I provide highly strategic technical solutions for my clients. I do not call myself an integrator, a programmer, etc. because in doing so I am lumped in with too many who provide mediocrity.
While working with my clients, I refer to myself as a Business Solutions Specialist.
When I had my consulting company, same thing. We did network engineering, highly specialized web applications, security consulting, etc. but never referred to ourselves in those terms. We were a business solutions company. Technology was simply a primary tool; one directed at carefully defined business objectives.
If a consulting company says list out products and features they provide:
- Windows
- Linux
- Networking
- Cabling
They are then compared with the plethora of other companies that provide the same thing. For the prospective client, they can only use a dart-board approach in selecting you. I teach a Case-study Approach to sales & marketing and teach companies to not even have a standard brochure. Instead all marketing literature is framed in the context of solutions provided (how they impacted the business, not necessarily our technical expertise).
This effectively gets them out of the lowest cost provider business (not where I want to operate).
A list of technologies and services provided can be implied in the case-study and can be made available after the conversation with the client has started.
My thoughts on the subject.
Matthew Moran
