David A. Fields Consulting Group You know the old adages about assumptions: “Assume makes an ass out of you and me,” and “Assume I’ll want chocolate when I visit, and you’ll be right,” and, of course, “Assume spelled sideways is almost masseuse.”
Assumptions alleviate the strain on your brain. You needn’t ponder the melting point of olive oil because you can safely assume it will remain liquid as long as you don’t refrigerate it.
Assumptions also save you time. You lose no minutes questioning whether a Pain au Chocolat is fattening because you assume it is. (Or pretend it isn’t.)
Since the amino acids of consulting are brain power and time, it’s little wonder that you aggressively employ assumptions to build your successful, lucrative consulting firm.
Unfortunately, assumptions can also trick you into poor decisions and suboptimal consulting behavior.
7 Assumptions that Might Be Sabotaging Your Consulting Firm
Assume Your Client is Wrong, Doesn’t Know, or is Faulty
Many consultants start a project with the a priori stance that their client has no clue. After all, if your client knew the right answers, he wouldn’t need to hire a consultant.
Sure, there may be a gap here or dysfunctional behavior there. But, clients generally have excellent information and perspective, and are, overall, operating quite well.
Break the Assumption: Take your consulting client’s positions, information and viewpoints as valuable input. Collaborate with him and use your combined knowledge and perspective to help him achieve success.
Assume You Know the Answer
If you dove deep during the discovery process (a good practice), you may feel like you’ve already discovered the solution. Also, if your current consulting client’s situation closely resembles a past client’s challenge, it’s easy to assume you can reapply the solution.
You owe it to your consulting client to not jump to conclusions.
Break the Assumption: Test past solutions in two ways: Testing whether your solution is right is easy. Also do the hard work of testing whether you solution may be wrong for your client.
Assume Your Client Understands You
Your discovery questions, your proposal, your mid-project emails, your deliverables and every other touch point between you and each client is swimming with opportunities to be misunderstood. It’s all too easy for a project to go South when your client’s understanding doesn’t match your intention.
Break the Assumption: Have a layperson read every document you send to your clients, then pay attention when they say something doesn’t make sense. It’s as annoying as a swarm of mosquitoes, but it works.
Assume That Logic Will Prevail
Your proposals, recommendations and solutions make sense. They’re logical. They’re best for your client. And that’s why it can be mystifying and frustrating when your client ignores you or rejects your suggestions outright.
Break the Assumption: Look for the emotional impact of your consulting work. How will your client personally gain or suffer? Who in your client’s organization might look bad? What’s going on in your client’s personal world that might be bleeding into his work life?
Assume Your Value is Obvious
From the moment you present your proposal for a consulting engagement to the moment(s) you deliver results, you increasingly believe your value is evident. (At least, if you’re doing good work and helping your client.)
In reality, your client may barely be paying attention to you. Plus, your client’s memory of every win you deliver has about the same half-life as a box of truffles. (About one week.)
Break the Assumption: Scorecard your results and regularly highlight the value you’re creating for your client.
Assume Your Values Are Best
Cultural assumptions pervade your consulting projects. They shape your approach, how you interact with your clients, the recommendations you develop, what you present and how you present it, and more.
At the extreme end, consider this: equality, meritocracy, honesty and transparency are hallmarks of Western cultures. But are those values necessarily “right” for your client?
Break the Assumption: Don’t gloss over culture. Take the time to learn about your client’s culture and why he thinks it’s good or best. You don’t have to agree with him, but you do need to be able to bridge any gaps between your worldview and his.
Assume… ?
I won’t presume I’ve caught all the assumptions that sabotage consulting firms, so this space is for you to add your views.
What other assumptions can sabotage consulting firms? Add your thoughts to the discussion below.
Text and images are © 2026 David A. Fields, all rights reserved.
Great article! I remember a rambunctious young gun (no, not me, even then) being told, “Your clients can’t be all that stupid. They were smart enough to know they needed help with a problem and smart enough to hire us to help fix it”.
Sounds like you had (access to) a smart mentor, Douglas. I had a similar experience during my early days in consulting:
Walking out of a client’s offices after our first day of interviews, a fellow consultant triumphantly exclaimed, “We did it. We’ve solved this one!” One of the firm’s partners, who was with us, admonished my colleague, “We’ve solved nothing. We barely know what our clients have tried or implemented before. Wait. Learn. Then solve.”
Clients tend to be smart, and only when we understand their circumstances and past can we understand why they are where they are vs. where they want to be.
Thanks for joining the discussion, Douglas.
This article has reminded me of a short book that I highly recommend- Four Agreements. It presents four agreements everybody must establish with themselves to be happy and successful in life, including consulting work:
1. Be impeccable with your word
2. Do not take anything personally
3. Make no assumptions
4. Always do your best
Those are certainly four good rules to live by, Anatoli. Might even spark an interesting article idea: rules for being happy in consulting. Thanks for the tip!
I’ve assumed that my clients really want help and/or really want to change. I’ve learned, the hard way, that some clients just want to check a box and say they brought a consultant in. What they really want is a person to validate/support there position.
You’re absolutely right, Charles, that there are clients who hire consultants for CYA purposes. You can either look at those as low-stress, easy-money projects or as no-fun, don’t-bother projects.
Either way, assuming the client is truly interested in your results is an assumption well worth challenging. I’m glad you brought that idea to the surface, Charles.