This guest post was generously contributed by David Nielson, Executive Consultant at Plus Delta Consulting.
For any of us in the field of management consulting, the issue of sales and marketing is usually a challenge. We’re often so busy delivering services directly to our clients that there is little time to focus on developing new sales. Sales, though, isn’t just about contract negotiations and closing the deal. It’s about relationships! So what are the criteria for building – and maintaining – effective relationships?Given that there are many answers to what only at first glance appears to be a simple question, I’m going to narrow our discussion considerably to the relationship between a client wanting to hire and a consultant. More specifically, even before the relationship begins, what would cause a prospective client to purchase the services of a consultant?
Plus Delta’s Cris Hagen, recently blogged about the notion of regulating/licensing Organization Development consultants – a great blog post, and Cris raised great questions. That debate fits nicely in the context of what I’ll propose here. As a management consultant for the past twenty plus years, I’ve worked in the field of Organization Development and Change Management in a wide variety of organizations and had to apply my former career – sales – in order to survive. Fortunately over the years, I heard yes to proposals, more often than no. What caused prospective clients to say yes, issue a P.O., and be willing to engage my services? From feedback I’ve received – even when I heard no – I believe the answer is fairly simple.
Before I offer it up, it might be interesting to hear two of the most common answers I’ve heard when I’ve asked this question in informal discussion settings. The first common answer is “price”. What I have come to believe is that a “no answer” is seldom about the money. Even in these recessionary times, if the correct criteria are met for the client, they will find the money. The other common answer is something related to a “value calculation” – ROI or some similar metric. What I’ve seen over the years is that most consultants or firms, if they are sustainably successful, have the capability to put together convincing proposals. They get good at speaking convincingly about the value they bring. This notion is related to what I believe the answer is but not the core issue.
In my opinion, the real difference between yes and no, when a client is in the market for a consultant, is what I call The Three C’s – Chemistry, Competence and Confidence. Now there may be a lot more behind these, but together they produce a level of trust which will make it much easier for a prospective client to say yes. A prospective client is asking consciously or subconsciously, “Can I trust you?” In a simplistic way, it can be like a mathematical equation – 3C = T.
Let’s look at the C’s individually:
- Chemistry – I suppose one can say first impressions and image come first. Next, does this person “fit” our culture? Does his/her language patterns work well here? Can we comfortably imagine spending time with this person? There are numerous other chemistry factors you could identify, but simply stated, “Does it ‘feel’ right?” For most of us, we just know when it does and when it doesn’t. And if we don’t make it past this first C, the next two likely won’t matter.
- Competence – On the surface, this is usually easy for a client to address through a resume or CV. Beyond that, interviews can focus on specific experience and examples of specific accomplishments. For most consulting opportunities, I believe day-in-the-life experience will trump academic credentials. Simply stated, a prospective client wants to know whether or not you done something before which will provide value in MY PROJECT being successful.
- Confidence – Were the first two C’s achieved in a way that the prospective client can confidently say, “This individual will solve a problem for me – or add value to my project.” The first two C’s are pretty critical to the third – even prerequisites I’d say. I imagine we all can think through a process to measure how we will do in a selling or proposal situation. In that way, the requirements become the metrics, so the prospective client must be confident in YOU to say yes.
The degree of trust in any relationship is paramount, and I believe the better you “score” on the 3 C’s the greater the trust will be. And of course as consultants, we take a page from the medical profession in that we must “First, do no harm”.
To conclude, think back to the questions I started with – in particular, your reflection on your own successful personal relationships. Do you see a pattern? Could this work for you in your business? More importantly, do you think “I’m smoking my shoes” – or does this concept have merit? How can you add to it? What am I missing? Please share your comments with us below.
