Here are the reasons clients don't want your consulting ...

Are you excited by the idea of getting a puncture?

Probably not.

But, when you get a puncture the chances are you’ll have the tyre replaced. But you don’t want a new tyre, you’re not excited by the prospect of a new tyre. You need a new tyre.

You can take the tyre analogy across into consultancy. Are clients excited by the idea of buying consultancy? Probably not.

Clients don’t buy consultancy because the want it. They buy consultancy as a means to an end. Because they believe they need it in order to achieve some objective or other.

Perhaps they want to make a decision about what to do next and need insight. Perhaps they want to implement a decision and don’t know how, so want expert advice. Perhaps they've a plan, but lack resources and want to hire ‘outsourced professionals’ to do the job for them.

Even then, they don’t really want insight, planning expertise, or resources. They want the outcomes those things support and enable.

Perhaps that’s to verify the market potential in South America, or to plan the PR campaign for a new FinTech offer, or increase staff retention rates in their aftermarket division.

That’s their world and what they’re excited by. As soon as we subvert talking about that and shift to the consulting world, with our models and processes, we lose some of that excitement.

That’s why it’s so important to talk about consultancy project objectives in the context of the client’s business outcomes. Then, and only then, will they be excited by our work.