David A. Fields Consulting Group If you’re in the hunt for a consulting project, you want to become the obvious choice. The key to achieving that goal can be summarized in a single word: dessert discovery. But how do you start discovery?
The better you understand your prospect, the more likely you are to close a consulting deal. When you know your prospect better than any other internal or external competitor knows him, and perhaps better than the prospect knows herself, it’s easy to tailor your offering into a glove that neatly fits the prospect’s hand.
That’s why the Context Discussion is at the heart of becoming the obvious choice.
The six parts of the Context Discussion are explained in detail in The Irresistible Consultant’s Guide to Winning Clients; however, the segue into that conversation isn’t in the book and I’ve received a lot of questions about how to launch into discovery.
First, remember that you start the Context Discussion after a specific opportunity has been identified.
Therefore, your opening phrase will depend on how the opportunity arose. For instance…
| Situation | Your opening phrase |
| You’ve received an inquiry or RFP | Thanks for your inquiry. In order to deliver the best possible response for you… |
| You’re following up on a discussion that surfaced an opportunity | You mentioned in our discussion last week that you’d like some help with the throughput of your donut holing machine… |
You: …I’d like to quickly run through six topic areas that will help me understand the context better. Once we’re 100% on the same page on the context, pulling together a project that perfectly meets your needs is easy. Does that work for you? Prospect: Sure. You: Great. Here are the six topics I’d like to cover: Do those six sound good, or is there anything you’d like to add to the list? Prospect: Those sound good. You: Perfect. Before we jump in, I have one, quick logistical question to ask: how will the decision on this project be made? Prospect: Well, I’m vetting the consultants and making the decision, but my boss, Judy, will have to sign off on it. You: Great. Thanks for telling me. Let’s walk through the six topics I just mentioned, then I’ll have to have a brief conversation with Judy just to confirm everything before I can submit a proposal. I’m sure you’ll be in sync, and my conversation with her may only be five minutes, but I just wanted to give you a heads up that I’ll want to talk with her. Let’s dive into the Situation… The introduction is constructed to accomplish three goals: Once you’ve started the ball rolling, you continue with the Context Discussion. (Line by line examples of the Context Discussion are Chapters 18 and 19 of this book.) What other effective phrases have you used to kick off discovery discussions? Text and images are © 2024 David A. Fields, all rights reserved.
Sorry, but this statement is awful! “You: …I’d like to quickly run through six topic areas that will help me understand the context better.”
Get this straight, no one cares what you want!!!! They only care about what you can do can help them. So, craft that statement from the customer’s point of view. How about…
“Running through the following topics will help you figure out if I’m the kind of guy you want to work with.”
Proofread everything you write (or want to say) and eliminate the “I”, “me”, and “us” references to the extent possible.
Bob, I applaud the sentiment behind your comment, which amounts to, “think Right-Side Up.” Your exhortation to eliminate the “I” language is virtually a direct lift from Chapter 1 of The Irresistible Consultant’s Guide to Winning Clients.
Interestingly, though, there are times when being Right Side Up requires you to reinsert yourself prominently into the conversation, and this is one of those times. (Another is when the client wants you to present credentials.) Though it’s true that clients want to know what you can do to help them, remember that this is the start of the Context Discussion, and your goal is to understand the prospect, not to have the prospect understand you. Ironically, this is actually the wrong time to say, “…will help you figure out if I’m the kind of guy you want to work with.”
Thanks for the thoughtful comment, which illuminates some subtle distinctions in the sales process.
Sorry, one more comment. At the end you say “Identify the decision-maker”
In complex sales there may be many “decision-makers” but there is rarely more than one person who can “Say yes and make the deal happen”. So, an important part of the dialog could go something like this:
You: Once you agree that we’re the right fit, what happens?
Prospect: I write up my decision and bring it to my boss.
You: Once he/she agrees, what happens?
Prospect: She brings it to the CEO
You: Once the CEO agrees, what happens?
Prospect: You’ll get a purchase order and we have a discussion about start date.
I’ve found a key phrase in figuring out the decision process is “what happens when”. It helps me find out who makes the final decision.
Thanks for the additional script, Bob. I define “decision maker” as the one person who can say Yes. Everyone else is a resistor, a breaker, a gatekeeper, an amplifier, or some other role. but there’s only one decision maker (in my parlance). Personally, I’ve found that simply asking how the decision will be made surfaces all the steps you went through; however, your script is another angle consultants could try.
I found finding all decision-makers (or the real one) to be challenging. Wonder if there a way to make things clear early.
Within last year I have invested many hours developing a Context Document with a very big prospect. Early in the process I have openly confirmed that the person was in charge of a budget about 10x bigger than possible project. He claimed to be the One. When time came to decide on value and fee he has introduced two more people, who had to agree on the project and they were not interested in the project enough even to talk about it.
Is there a tool to prevent such situation from happening again?
Anatoli, the decision-maker challenge seems to be in the air today–I just received a call from another consultant who ran into this issue.
As my script above suggests, the tool I’ve found effective is asking early how the decision is made. Note this is different from asking who makes the decision. I detail this a bit more in an earlier post: A Reliable Method to Find the REAL Decision Maker for Consulting Projects
Thank you, David. Next time around I will spend more time on clarifying a decision-making story.
This little nugget of wisdom is pure gold! The script is so spot on and so easily to do that it blows my mind. Wow! Thank you!
Sometimes simple is best! Thanks for the feedback and let me know how the script works for you, Beaux.