Make pointed inquiries an important part of your approach to landing clients
Thought leaders – people with expertise and understanding in certain aspects of business – get a lot of attention these days, but I believe a “question leader” can be much more valuable to a client seeking professional services.
Business decision makers often need to be asked tough, thoughtful questions by savvy consultants. Someone once told me that we’re judged more by the questions we ask than by the statements we make; I think that’s probably true. The client knows more about his or her business than anyone else. Asking good questions often gets to the root of an issue and provides clues to the opportunities that exist for the consultant and the potential client. I think the criteria for a good “question leader” is a person with a broad base of experience, that includes both successes and failures, and experience that is focused more on determining the real needs of clients versus just providing a boiler plate solution that worked somewhere else. A thoughtful question comes from curiosity, is designed to elicit meaningful information and is often hard to answer immediately.
The power of asking good questions can’t be overestimated. It often leads to landing a client in the first place. I once asked a potential client: “Is there anything that a competitor has offered you related to this project that we don’t provide?” He said yes, and then told me what it was. I was able to convince him that, even though I didn’t mention it, my company also provided that service. We got the business.
Another time, I determined the issue that needed to be addressed for a potential client but forgot to ask him how he was currently addressing it. I went on for a couple of minutes describing how I would approach the problem. He then informed me he already had a team working on it. I didn’t get any business from that company.
People like to talk about themselves and their businesses. And, they really like people who are interested in hearing what they have to say. For example, I asked a potential client what kind of issues they were facing and she listed three or four. I told her I was not the right person for some of the issues she laid out, but I knew someone who was and I was willing to contact them. She appreciated the candor, asked me to make the connections and then said she wanted to work with me specifically on the issues where my company did have expertise. She was our client for several years.
Another critical question to ask is, “What do you believe this will cost you in terms of time and money to get it done?” Prospective clients usually say they have no idea. At this point, I recommend asking a double-pronged question: “Would you expect this to cost closer to $10,000 or $40,000?” The typical response is closer to $20,000. I then ask if I can get this project done for around $20,000 on the client’s timetable with a process I’ve outlined, will I get the project?” Better than half the time the answer is yes, even before the formal proposal is prepared.
Sometimes opportunities will present themselves in very casual settings. I had an introductory conversation with one potential client who didn’t think there was anything in the pipeline for me, but after a few questions he defined some major issues his company was working on. Although they were being addressed internally, he realized he had no idea how the team assigned to the task was doing. He got on the phone and found out nothing was happening. After I indicated how our team might approach solving this specific issue for his company, we got the project.
Asking good questions is important on any project and sometimes you need to cast a wide net for answers. One of our former clients is a national organization that provides a variety of risk and disability management services. Customers rated them low on customer service and they were losing business. The entire culture seemed resistant to the customers’ calls for change, so I kept asking questions of management to get to the root of the problem. Finally, I asked a relatively new and junior employee what she thought was the problem. She explained that all employees were required to go through training that focused on improving productivity. She said there was no directive from management to do anything other than improve internal productivity. With this information, we finally began to move the company from an “inside-out” to an “outside-in” culture.
If you’re considering hiring a consultant or a new employee, I recommend paying attention to the questions the candidate asks. People who ask good questions, the right questions, are most likely to develop solutions that are specific to the needs of your business.
Clay Atkinson can be reached at clay@ericsonmitchell.com.
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