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familiar client organization in repeat business, entry will be simplified. Even in such cases, however, a new assignment with a previous client may well involve dealing with different issues and making new relationships between people.

7.1Initial contacts

The consultant makes the contact

Contacting potential clients without being solicited by them – cold calling – is one of the ways of marketing consulting services (this will be discussed in detail in Chapter 29). A cold call can arouse the interest of the client, who may decide to keep the consultant’s name in mind for the future. Only rarely would a cold contact lead immediately to an assignment.

If the consultant contacts a client about whom he has a certain amount of information, and can show that he knows about that client’s problems and intentions and has something relevant to offer, the chances are better that such an initiative will produce an assignment. This can also happen if the consultant is introduced by another client for whom he has worked in the past.

A special case is when public authorities or other organizations publicly announce their intention to carry out a consulting project, and invite consultants to manifest their interest or submit proposals. In such a situation, a number of consultants will almost certainly offer their services.

The client makes the contact

In most cases it will be the client who makes the first contact. This implies that he or she is aware of problems and need for independent advice in his or her organization, and has decided to bring in a management consultant. In addition, the client must have a reason for turning to a particular consultant:

●he or she has heard about the consultant’s professional reputation;

●a business friend who was satisfied with the consultant’s services recommended him or her (very frequent);

●the client found the consultant in a register or directory (less frequent);

●the consultant’s publications or interventions at management conferences have impressed the client;

●the client has been contacted by the consultant previously;

●the client is returning to a consultant whose work was fully satisfactory in the past (repeat business can be very important).

In any event, the consultant should find out why the client selected him or her; this will not be difficult.

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First meetings

The importance of the consultant’s behaviour and performance during the first meetings with the client cannot be overemphasized. In meeting a client to negotiate a specific assignment the consultant is marketing his or her services and it is not certain that a contract will be concluded. The first meeting should therefore be regarded as an opportunity to gain the client’s confidence and make a favourable impression.

The consultant should make sure that he or she will meet the decision-maker

– the person who is not only technically interested in the assignment but also able to authorize it, and who will make sure that the required resources will be available. If a top executive (managing director or senior administrator) of an important organization agrees to meet the consultant, the consulting firm should send a representative who is at an equally high level.

The question of who should go to the first meeting with the client may present a problem if a consulting organization uses one group of consultants (partners or other seniors) for negotiating assignments, and another group (including both senior and junior staff) for executing them. Some clients know about this pattern of organizing professional services and do not object to it. Many clients, however, do not like it. They emphasize, rightly, that a productive consultant–client relationship starts with the first meetings and preliminary surveys and that it is at this moment that they decide whether they wish to work, not only with the consulting organization, but with the particular people. Also, many resent an approach whereby the best people represent the consulting firm at the beginning in order to impress clients, but execution is in the hands of lower-calibre staff.

Preparing for initial meetings

Initial meetings require thorough preparation by the consultant. Without going into much detail, he or she should collect essential orientation information about the client, the environment, and the characteristic problems of the sector of activity concerned. The client does not want the consultant to come with ready-made solutions, but expects someone who is familiar with the kinds of problems found in his or her company. The consultant should find a subtle way of demonstrating this.

In collecting orientation information, the consultant could start by finding out what products or services the client provides. This information is easily obtained during the very first contact with the client, from a Web site, or by asking for sales literature to be supplied. The nature of the products or services will place the client within a specific sector or trade, and the consultant will need to know its main characteristics and practices. Usually he or she will gather information on:

–commonly used terminology;

–nature and location of markets;

–names and location of main producers;

–types and sources of raw materials;

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–weights and measures used in the industry;

–processes and equipment;

–business methods and practices peculiar to the industry;

–laws, rules and customs governing the industry;

–history and growth;

–present economic climate, and main problems and development prospects of the industry.

Trade journals and government publications will provide much of the information, especially on industry sector trends. As regards technology, it is important to find out if the client expects the consultant to know it well or merely show some familiarity with its main characteristics and trends. The consultant also needs some selected information on the position of the client’s business before the first meeting. He or she may be able to learn the client’s financial position, recent operating results and immediate expectations and problems from published annual reports or returns filed in a public registry or credit service.

Agenda for the first meeting

The first meeting is a form of investigational interview in which each party seeks to learn about the other. The consultant should encourage the client to do most of the talking, to speak about the firm, the difficulties, hopes and expectations. It is as well for the discussion to develop from the general situation to the particular and to focus eventually on the real issue.

In listening and putting questions, the consultant assesses the client’s needs in terms of management and business practice, future development prospects, personal concerns, perception of consulting, and readiness to work with consultants assuming different types of role. The consultant decides how best to describe the nature and method of consulting as it applies to the client’s context, being careful not to repeat information that is probably already known to the client.

The consultant’s key objective at the meeting will be to convince the client that he or she is making the right choice. “Unless their skills are truly unique, professionals never get hired because of their technical capabilities. Excellent capabilities are essential to get you into the final set to be considered, but it is other things that get you hired”1 (box 7.1).

The individual who invited the consultant into the organization may be the “contact client” and not the “main or primary client” as described in section 3.2, i.e. the person who “owns the problem” and will play the main role in solving it. All too often the consultant is invited in by top management to act as an adviser to somebody lower in the hierarchy. This “client” may not feel the need to work with a consultant, or may even resent being forced to do so by a superior. The consultant may have to spend some time clarifying these relations. Clearly, the client who will work with the consultant should be specifically identified and a rapport should be established between them.

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Box 7.1 What a buyer looks for

●In selecting a professional, I am not just buying a service, I am entering into a relationship. Your selling task is to earn my trust and confidence – with an emphasis on the word “earn”. How you behave during the interview (or proposal process) will be taken as proxy for how you will deal with me after I retain you.

●The first thing that will catch my attention is your preparation. There is little so off-putting as someone who begins by asking me some basic facts about my company or situation that they could have found out in advance. Preparation is your opportunity to demonstrate initiative.

●Professionals who are over-eager to impress come across as insensitive. I do not want to hear about you and your firm, I want to talk about me and my situation. Show a sympathetic understanding of my role in my company.

●You’ve got to give a favour to get a favour. There is no better way to win my trust than to be helpful to me right from the beginning.

●Give me an education. Tell me something I did not know. Demonstrate your creativity.

●To avoid coming across as arrogant, patronizing and pompous, turn your assertions into questions. By doing so, you convert possible signs of assertiveness into evidence that you’ll respect my opinions and involve me in the thinking process.

●Don’t start telling me how you can solve my problems until I have acknowledged that there’s a problem or an opportunity here. Convince me that the issue is big enough to bother with.

●If I interrupt you, deal with my question. I want to see how you handle yourself if I ask a question, not how practised you are at your standard spiel.

●Don’t try any “closing techniques” on me. If you try to rush me, I’ll take it as a sign that you are more interested in making a sale than in helping me.

●The key is empathy – the ability to enter my world and see it through my eyes.

Source: Excerpts from D. Maister: “How clients choose”, in Managing the professional service firm (New York, The Free Press, 1993).

The client may wish to discuss the proposed work with other clients of the consultant, former or current, and may ask for references at any moment during the entry phase. In giving names, the consultant must respect confidentiality and cite only those clients who have agreed to provide references.

As regards fees, the client may know how consultants charge for their interventions and be aware of the rates applied. If not, the consultant will have to consider at what stage of the entry phase this information should be given to the client. Some clients will ask about standard fees and other costs at the outset; others will wait until the consultant has formulated a proposal and made an offer (see Chapter 30 on consulting fees).

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The client may be eager to proceed without any preliminary diagnosis and planning or, on the contrary, may take time to make up his mind, even though he obviously has problems with which the consultant can help. The consultant should take the time and trouble to explain and persuade, keeping mainly to the potential benefits to the client. Pressing for an immediate decision is not a good tactic; it is also not good for the client to get the impression that the consultant badly needs the assignment because he or she does not have enough work.

The consultant should not be insistent if he or she is clearly not on the same wavelength as the client. If the client has firm ideas on how the consultant should proceed, and the consultant does not agree, it is better to drop the assignment. This could be suggested by either the consultant or the client.

Agreement on how to proceed

If the consultant and the client conclude that they are interested in principle in working together, several further questions must be answered. Except in straightforward cases, which are often an extension of past work, it would not be reasonable to start an assignment without some preliminary analysis and work planning. The terms of business must be discussed and agreed. These are the activities that follow the first meeting.

Once the client is ready to agree to a preliminary and short problem diagnosis,2 the discussion can move on to the arrangements for it, covering:

●scope and purpose of a preliminary diagnosis;

●records and information to be made available;

●who should be seen and when;

●how to introduce the consultant;

●attitudes of staff to the matters to be surveyed;

●when to conclude the preliminary diagnosis and how to present proposals to the client;

●payment for the diagnosis.

If the client has contacted several consultants in order to be able to choose among alternative proposals, he or she should, in principle, tell the consultant about it. In some cases a formal selection procedure may be applied: the consultant’s proposals then have to be presented in a predetermined format by a given date. The client will then take some time (say 30–45 days) to compare the proposals received and make a choice.

A preliminary diagnosis or survey that is very short, say one or two days, is not usually charged for. However, if the contract is awarded, the consultant may include in the bill the time spent on this preliminary diagnosis. If, on the other hand, the assignment is complex, and the preliminary diagnosis requires a longer time, the client will usually be asked to pay for it. This helps to avoid two practices that are undesirable:

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