When I ask consulting firms to describe a challenge they help their clients solve, I’m often given a response that only masquerades as a problem.
For example, I was once told by a firm that one of their clients––a medical technology company–– needed to “centralize its HR and Finance functions.”
That isn’t a challenge. That is a summary of a solution.
Describing problems this way doesn’t help your prospective client.
And while the consulting firm knows all about how that solution is connected to the problem, their potential clients do not.
It’s like trying to interest someone with a flat tire in a car maintenance program. Sure, that might be what they need, but all they know is they’re going to be late for a critical meeting if they don’t get moving again.
Let’s say you’re that firm that wants to attract more medical technology companies that need to “centralize their HR and Finance functions.”
To better connect with these kinds of potential clients, you’ll want to meet them where they’re at. And you can do that by subjecting what’s posed as the problem description to a series of “why” questions.
Questions like “So what?,” “Why is that important?” or “What would happen if nothing changed?”
For example:
A medical tech company needed to centralize its functions.
“Why?”
It wanted to leverage efficiencies by standardizing across the enterprise.
“Why?”
It needed to rein in spending on “one-off” projects.
“Why?”
Inefficiencies in spending meant less funding available to R&D.
“So what?”
R&D is how the company comes up with new drugs.
“Why is that important?”
Because new drugs are how the company stays competitive and saves lives.
Now we are cooking with gas.
It’s a LOT easier for a potential client to understand the value of staying competitive and saving lives than centralized HR and Finance. Sure, the latter can lead to the former, but your potential client hasn’t made that connection yet.
So remember to connect the problem they can immediately recognize to the problem you can help them solve.
