8 critical IT consultant skills for a successful career

IT consultants provide valuable advice and recommendations to businesses. Your services may be in great demand, with plenty of fierce competition from other consultants in your field. Ensuring you have the right mix of IT consultant tech skills and soft skills may help you stand out from the rest of the pack.

Here are eight of the most important skills that IT consultants may need. Developing them throughout your career could help you work better with clients, work more efficiently, and grow your business.

1. Technical knowledge

An in-depth knowledge of different systems, programming languages, databases and operating systems is the foundation of a successful IT consultant’s career. Clients are hiring you first for this expertise. If you don’t have the answers, they’ll hire another consultant who does.

Education and work experience with information management and systems analysis can prepare you for working with software programs and large databases. It’s also crucial to keep up with changes in technology and industry best practices.

2. Industry experience

While some learning happens in the classroom, much more is done on the job. Work experience helps you hone your technical skills and practice collaborating with others. You’ll also encounter real-life scenarios and problem-solving situations that will give you valuable hands-on experience.

If you plan to consult within a particular industry, it may help to have experience working within it as well. Many industries have unique challenges when it comes to storing data, implementing software, and maintaining their systems. Understanding these roadblocks may help you tailor your services and provide more customized solutions.

3. Critical thinking

An IT consultants job involves a lot of troubleshooting. Critical thinking is, therefore, an essential IT consultant tech skill.

Critical thinking may make it easier to gather relevant data, analyze situations, and quickly identify the root cause of a problem. Doing these steps efficiently and thoroughly can make it easier to generate an effective solution. It may also save you time, allowing you to take on more or larger projects that can grow your business.

4. Collaboration

Businesses are increasingly relying on computers to run all areas of their operations. While you may primarily work with IT departments, you might need to collaborate with other areas of a business and different levels of employees to do your job well.

Collaboration is not an IT consultant tech skill but is considered a vital soft skill for the profession. Working with others may be an essential part of identifying issues and implementing solutions. For example, you may be hired to help a company link its sales and customer service systems. You may need to collaborate with the IT, sales and customer service departments to understand how software changes will affect each area’s type of work.

5. Active listening

Listening is a key part of a consultant’s job, IT consultants included. You will often need to interview clients and stakeholders to understand a project’s scope and the business’ goals and to identify potential issues that the client has overlooked.

Active listening is not simply hearing what the client says. It’s truly understanding what they are saying and making sure they feel like their concerns are important. Active listeners don’t interrupt others, focus on the speaker, and provide thoughtful responses. They also pay attention to body language, picking up on emotions that are going unsaid.

6. Communication

Clear communication is also vital to an IT consultant’s success. Strong verbal and written communication skills can help projects run smoothly and help you avoid costly liability claims and lawsuits.

Misunderstandings and mistakes can derail a project, causing costly delays or larger problems. Clear and concise communication can help ensure that your IT solutions are correctly implemented and maintained by the company. This can help you avoid financial loss lawsuits from clients and unnecessary liability claims on your IT consultants insurance policy.

7. Organization

Time is money, and strong organizational skills can help you maximize profits and grow your IT consultancy. Organization helps you stay on track, making it easier to work efficiently and effectively. You may be able to complete projects faster, which increases your pay per hour. It also frees up time to focus on finding new clients or managing larger projects.

Organization also displays your professionalism to clients. Constantly looking for information because you are disorganized wastes the client’s time. It may also undermine a client’s trust in your work, and it may be unlikely that they hire you again or refer you to other businesses, even if your work is sound.

8. Customer service

An IT consultant might specialize in helping businesses prepare for risks, improve their systems, or provide software recommendations, but they also have a business to run! Customer service is an important skill in keeping things running smoothly, creating happy clients, and securing future projects.

Strong customer service skills can be simple to develop. Responding to client communications promptly, keeping them in the loop (particularly when things go wrong), and having a positive attitude are a few ways to show great customer service. Combined with your knowledge and IT consultant tech skills, creating satisfied clients could lead to future work with that company and valuable referrals.

Protecting your business

The eight IT consultant tech skills and soft skills discussed above may improve your work and client relationships. This could help you avoid many IT consultants insurance claims, especially indemnity claims regarding your services and work.

Clients expect the IT consultants they hire to meet industry standards as well as their own. Many incidents—like small mistakes, missed deadlines, and misunderstandings—could cause them to question the quality of your work. Even if their allegations are not true, you could find yourself defending your business in court.

This is where Professional Liability insurance can be useful. A type of IT consultants insurance, Professional Liability insurance can protect professional service providers from potentially devastating financial damages resulting from alleged negligence or error in the delivery of your services. Your policy could help you cover costs, like legal fees, so you can keep running your business while defending your IT consultancy.

Ready to protect your business with IT consultants insurance? Compare quotes and buy online in about 10 minutes with BizInsure and protect your business instantly!