Consultants Have To Earn The Right To Propose Solutions
Don't undermine potential client relationships by proposing solutions too soon.
Imagine you’re on an early call with a client (or prospective client).
They’re describing their problem when you suddenly realise this is a challenge you’ve encountered before. Better yet, you know how to solve it.
You excitedly explain your solution to the client, but get a muted reaction.
In fact, now they seem to be backing away from the project.
That’s because you’ve just made a big mistake.
Focus On Learning As Much As Possible
It’s best to understand this from the other person’s perspective.
Imagine you’re on a call with a prospective designer for your website.
After you’ve made your pleasantries, he begins telling you how to design your site. He tells you what colours, images, and font to use. He shares some basic templates he would use for your site.
How would you feel?
If you’re like most people, you would probably feel a little frustrated. He’s trying to propose a solution before he’s fully listened and tried to understand your goals.
He doesn’t know your history. He doesn’t know what your vision is. He doesn’t know what designs you’ve considered before and what messages you’re trying to convey. He hasn’t browsed through the sites of you and your competitors.
He hasn’t earned the right to propose solutions yet.
You might even suspect he’s trying to force a similar solution upon you that he’s used for everyone else.
Why Proposing Solutions Too Soon Is A Mistake
There is also another reason why you shouldn’t propose solutions too soon. It’s not just an issue of trust, but an issue of knowledge.
You don’t know what they’ve tried before, which ideas they’ve rejected, and what their constraints are.
If you propose solutions too early you run the risk of proposing ideas the client has already tried or ideas they have already rejected. This can scupper a project before it begins.
Before you can propose new solutions you have to learn everything possible about what they’ve done, tried, and considered in the past. Only then can you determine where you can bring in your expertise to add unique value?
You Earn Trust By Listening
This means before you (as a consultant) can begin proposing solutions you have to deeply understand your client’s unique situation. You have to earn their trust.
Trust isn’t instant, or binary.
It’s a continuum ranging from total distrust to ‘I’d put my life in her hands’.
You begin somewhere neutral (or slightly below it), and you gradually move up by demonstrating that you are smart, reliable, and interested in helping the client.
The first stage is always to deeply listen.
Listen and Clarify
Let the client tell their full story, prompt them for more information and to clarify any grey areas.
Make sure you understand their personal motivations as well as the organisation’s needs. Listen carefully for areas where they seem frustrated, disappointed, or proud and bring those into the solutions you eventually design for a client.
Gather as much information as you can in the initial call. Begin with some questions you want to ask, but don’t interrupt what the client wants to tell you.
You want to avoid a client giving you a response like “well, if you’ll let me finish…” or “that’s what I was getting to”.
Instead, ask clarifying questions in response to what the client has told you.
During the process, you need to listen, clarify, listen, clarify, and listen some more. You have to be as genuinely interested and engaged in their problems and the causes of those problems as they are.
Be mindful that every client feels their situation is unique and they want you to recognise what’s unique about it. There might be similarities with other projects, but no two clients are ever the same. You have to understand both what makes the project unique and what they feel makes it unique.
This sounds so much easier in theory than it is in practice. It’s always tempting to try and impress a prospect with past successes and achievements. In reality, we impress clients with our ability to deeply understand their situation and care about solving it.
Summarise
As you’re getting to the end of the call, try and summarise the problem or challenge they’re facing in your own words as succinctly as possible
This is good because
It shows you’ve really listened
It checks that you’ve correctly understood. The client can make corrections or adjust the priority if they need to hear.
A quick aside here - it’s equally critical to take really good notes.
This is especially important if you are likely to be collaborating with others on the project.
If you know you’re going to be collaborating with others, then bring them into the initial calls so they don’t miss out on context which is passed across.