article options:      send feedback

Totally Immersed...or Totally Devoted to Woo

I asked a newer consultant what value he brought to the marketplace. He said, “I have developed a unique method of assessing executives which involves customers as well as colleagues and is computer expedited.”

That statement has nothing to do with value. It is an explanation of his methodology. This is a blatantly obvious trap that I can use to trip up even veteran consultants. Its subtlety is zero on any scale. It might as well have a sign saying, “Trap ahead.” But people fall in, anyway.

Consultants are in love with their methodology. They dote on it, bathe in it, refine it to the twentieth decimal point, and otherwise tuck it in every night. That’s a shame, because very few buyers care.

The Low Road to Methodology

Buyers care about what’s in it for them. They want to know the business outcomes—aka results—that they can expect. If you find someone unhealthily inquisitive about your methodology, technology, or approaches in general, I can guarantee you are in the human resources department. I’ll also guarantee that person is not a buyer.

Every time you use a value proposition that includes the preposition “by,” you’ve just taken the low road to methodology. “We create higher performing teams by evaluating interactions, testing communication, clarifying roles, and raising Jupiter on microwave.” Everything after “by” is useless in terms of market appeal. You might as well tell me how a dishwasher works. I don’t care. I just want clean dishes.

It’s tough not to talk about a loved one. It’s difficult not to show people pictures of your kids when they’re right there in your wallet or pocketbook. Personally, I think all infants look alike, including puppies, but I’ll look and make cooing noises to be polite. But if you start describing your methodology I’ll make yawning noises and fall asleep.

To top it off, many lengthy descriptions of methodology finally conclude with meek claims of results, such as: clarify, understand, delineate, report, enumerate, list, highlight, recommend. That’s low value stuff—the minutiae of deliverables. Deliverables are as bad as methodology. They are commodities without dramatic value.

Practice being your own PR agent. Tell people that you: accelerate sales, add velocity to cross-selling, exceed quality expectations, forge powerful synergies among teams, exponentially grow all-star performance, or instantly create customer responsiveness. You get the idea.

You Don’t Go to the Symphony to Look at a Viola

If you don’t blow your own horn, there is no music. Your technology is just the instrument. It’s the music that counts. No one says, “Hire that musician, she has a beautiful viola.” They say, “Hire that musician, her music is exquisite.”

Music to the buyer is the improvement of his or her condition. You must phrase your conversation, collateral, web site, press kit, handouts, and everything you use to communicate in terms of enhanced outcomes and improved buyer conditions.

How does one get in the habit of thinking and speaking in terms of outcomes? Here are some recommendations:

Do:

1. Work backwards—from the improvement you’re capable of providing to the way to do it.
2. Ask yourself, “Once I walk away, how is this client better off?”
3. Remember that behind every corporate objective is a personal objective. Find out what the buyer seeks personally. (For example, an increase in team performance probably means that the buyer is tired of playing referee among competing interests.)
4. Use powerful words, such as “dramatically,” “rapidly,” “immediately,” and so forth.
5. Practice in your personal life. Don’t ask, “How should we travel to the islands,” but instead, “What kind of vacation do we want this year?”

Don’t:

1. Think in terms of what you do. Think in terms of the buyer’s improvement.
2. Accept what the buyer “wants,” as in, “We want a training program, which is why we called you.” Think in terms of what the buyer “needs,” which may be world class customer service, because too many customers are being lost.
3. Focus on events, such as focus groups, interviews, or training programs. Think of processes that occur over time, which embrace these events but also many other elements to create a powerful result.
4. Talk to non-buyers about consulting work. Virtually no one in the training or HR department is a buyer. Line executives are buyers.
5. Take advice from the wrong people. I’m amazed at how many consultants allow their web designers to guide them in marketing decisions, for example. If web designers were so smart, they wouldn’t be charging by the hour and eating their young.

Why Musicians Don’t Start the Concert by Describing How They Play

Most consultants I meet can immediately improve their marketing results by changing the focus of their conversations and communications from “how” they consult to “what” the client receives. The home page on your web site, first page in your press kit, and opening words from your cerebral cortex should be about typical client results, stated in persuasive and influential language.

Your technology is important, just as an oboe is important. But the test isn’t the polish or position of the oboe; it’s the audience’s pleasure in the resulting music and synergy with other instruments. You can be obsessive about maintaining the instrument on your own time, but don’t stand up at the concert and try to explain to the crowd how you play it.

No one cares. They want to experience the music, the uplift, the improvement in their condition. Stop talking so much and start making beautiful music.

````````````````````````
Alan Weiss, Ph.D. is the author of twenty-five books—including Million Dollar Consulting—which appear in seven languages. He runs the unique Million Dollar Consulting™ Colleges three times a year, and has a global mentoring program. You can reach him at www.summitconsulting.com, where you can download hundreds of free articles. He has won dozens of writing and consulting awards and is a member of the Professional Speaking Hall of Fame®.