Best Books for Consultants in 2020

Luk Smeyers of The Visible Authority recommends How Clients Buy as one of the five books he recommends for consultants in 2020. As Luk puts it, there is an overarching theme in these books:

To standout in a very competitive and very crowded consulting market, focussing narrowly and going deep with your expertise and authority is a must.

In his thoughtful notes, Luk summarizes his biggest take-aways from the authors of each. Regarding Tom McMakin and Doug Fletcher, Luke writes:

Consulting and Professional Services are ‘credence businesses’: selling consulting and professional services therefore is hard because clients/prospects have to trust us before they buy. Clients must believe the expert will diagnose their problem correctly. Clients must believe the expert will prescribe an effective solution. Clients must believe the expert can and will do the work in a way that will achieve the outcome they want. Clients have to believe the expert will fairly price the service based on work actually done.