Do you need a business coach or a consultant?
Before you hire someone, describe what you want to leave with and what you still need to decide yourself.
To choose between a business coach and a consultant, describe what you want to leave with. An owner who wants to choose a different kind of client has a different question from someone who needs the sales team to use one commercial approach. Both might begin by saying they need help with the business. Describe the decision or the work before choosing the person.
I offer coaching and consulting. In coaching, we examine what you want, what is shaping your choices and what you want to do next. My consulting with software companies includes building a shared commercial foundation and embedding it in how the team works with customers.
When you need to make a choice as the owner
A business can work commercially and still consume more of your life than you want. You may be accepting work you meant to decline, carrying every customer relationship yourself or putting off the idea you originally wanted to pursue. A recommendation to sell more of the same work leaves your choice about that business unresolved.
Coaching gives us room to examine that choice. Which work do you want to keep doing personally? What must remain possible outside work? What would you need to change about the business for those answers to affect an ordinary week? Your answers help decide which commercial options are worth pursuing.
Practical business sparring belongs in that conversation too. We can discuss customers and offers, how income depends on your time, and what a different way of delivering the work might involve. You can bring a real offer or a customer decision into the conversation. You remain the person deciding what kind of business you want to run.
When you need work on a defined business problem
You may already know what you want the company to do and need help making it happen. Before agreeing an assignment, describe the problem, the work involved and what you expect to be able to use afterwards. A consultant's title tells you less than their proposed scope and how they will work with your people.
For example, my sales professionalization work is for software companies selling to enterprise customers. We develop a documented Value Framework with the key people in the company and connect it to qualification and the sales process. We use customer interviews, existing sales material and real opportunities to develop and test it. Where further support is wanted, the work can include enablement, deal reviews and coaching around customer conversations.
That assignment involves the team and a commercial foundation they can use in their work. If it describes your need, the relevant starting point is my sales professionalization offer. If you need expertise in another area, look for someone whose actual work matches that area.
One situation can contain both kinds of work
Imagine a business owner considering a new service. They need to decide whether they want to deliver it personally and what adding it would do to the week they want to have. They also need to understand the customer problem and what a credible offer would require.
The personal choice and the commercial work affect each other. Evidence about customers may change which options are available. The owner's choice about how they want to work may change which offer is worth developing. Discuss which part you want help with now and what work should follow.
A useful conversation can include both questions and practical input. My coaching includes business sparring when it helps. My consulting can include coaching as a team puts the work into practice. Ask what the person will actually do with you and what responsibilities will stay with you. You can agree a clear scope without forcing every conversation into one category.
Describe what you need before the first conversation
Choose one current situation and write a short paragraph about it. Include the decision you are trying to make, what you already know and what remains unresolved. Then say what you would want from the work: help examining your own choices, a specific piece of commercial work, or an initial conversation to understand which is needed.
Bring something concrete. A recent offer can show what you have promised to deliver. A calendar can show how the business uses your time. For a commercial assignment, the customer and sales material can help establish what needs examining. You do not need a polished presentation to explain where you are starting.
If the decision concerns the business you want to build and how it fits the rest of your life, you can write to me about coaching. The first conversation stands on its own. We can meet online in English or Danish wherever you work, or face to face in Copenhagen. Start with a few lines about the situation you want to discuss.