There is something that always makes technology professionals invest hours and hours in ideation: How to create a consulting service that is distinctive and adds high value for clients. I spent more than 10 years of my life dealing with and hiring consultancies on a daily basis. Later, I switched sides of the table and became part of a consultancy, and my concern became how to assist in an offering that truly establishes a strategic partnership. Over time, some things became quite clear to me, and I would like to share this learning:
1 — Care for your employee with attention:
Being concerned with the personal and professional development of your employee is essential. Practically speaking: Know how the professional is doing. What they are studying and how it aligns with the client’s needs. Understand important aspects such as the mental health of your employee and how the balance between personal and professional life is. Periodically, conduct follow-ups with a more senior professional, preferably someone with experience in people management and not just the HR team. This will help create a more complete identification of the challenges the employee faces daily. A very important point is not to limit contact to these follow-ups but to encourage the employee to approach the company whenever they identify something relevant. The professional is the face of your company for the client, and for that reason, it is essential that they are well taken care of. It’s like taking care of your own shop.
Result:
You have a greater chance of having a happy, healthy, and satisfied professional as part of your company. Besides the fundamental: taking care of people, this also offers a greater likelihood of retaining this professional in your company. In a market with increasingly tight rates, offering this type of advantage can be the differentiator between the professional staying at your company or seeking another opportunity.
2 — Be proactive:
Often, commercial actions aim in initial meetings to understand the clients’ pains and challenges. Once this is done, the contract is signed, and the effort to understand the client’s needs often ceases. When working in a company, priorities change at various times, and new projects and challenges arise daily. How, as a company, can we keep up with the client’s needs? Are we not sending the wrong message to the client? “- I can help you with what I sold you in the first meeting, but your new challenges no longer interest me.” We know how complicated it is to enter a client. Why not invest time in growing within that client and being a partner in new initiatives? The key to success in this is to know, in detail, what the client’s new and old challenges are. What the client is studying and what is in their roadmap for the coming months. Just like the professional, suppliers need to be up to date with what the client needs. Anticipate solutions and offers whenever possible. Make the client think about relevant aspects such as costs, technological evolution, and market trends. Remember, you are providing consultancy to the client at all times, not just when we send a resume to the client. It is clear and natural that not all clients have visibility of all challenges, and in this sense, many companies share perennial problems that always have an opening for a conversation, for example: “How is the company working to reduce technology costs?”. If you want to stand out, you will need to have a proactive and consultative stance to anticipate problems and solutions.
Results:
A consultancy that anticipates problems and opportunities is one that can become an authority with the client. It means becoming a reference in problems that the manager often cannot see in-depth and perhaps doesn’t even need to. A criterion of success is when we create needs in clients by anticipating problems we have already seen in the market or identified from our actions in the field with the client.
3 — Constant feedback:
In any business area, effective communication brings many benefits. Therefore, show the results of what you do daily. For example: Present reports on how many hours your employee invested in study aligned with the client’s needs. Make a constant sale of new solutions but give visibility to the relevance of your team allocated to the client.
- Clearly show, more than numbers, the problems your team helped solve.
- Present the team that supported the allocation, making it clear that the employee is not alone with the client, but that they are just the spearhead.
- Demonstrate new opportunities and challenges to the manager.
- Create trends and help anticipate problems with facts and data.
Result:
You demonstrate that you know the client’s Big Picture and are aligned with what is happening. Remember that your employee is probably under some confidentiality rules, and it is not appropriate to demand details of what is happening, but to demonstrate knowledge of the client’s reality. The initiative will also demonstrate your understanding of what your employee is doing and that their development is aligned with the client’s needs.
4 — Create your differential:
Ten out of ten consultancies understand that their main differentiator is technical excellence. However, when presented by all consultancies, this is not a truth for the client. Technical excellence is a commodity, meaning the client already expects this from your company at the first contact. Differentiating yourself means specializing in your client. Understanding the client’s business, understanding the particularities and corporate structure. Notice, technical excellence cannot be dispensed with but will be sought by everyone. If you can deliver professionals more aligned with your client’s business, you will, in fact, be differentiating yourself among others. Mastering terminologies and business area trends and passing this on to your client will, in fact, make you different from the others. Technological problems have an immense knowledge base that can be accessed more easily. Understanding how these solutions apply to the client’s reality is the challenge.
Result:
Your client has to be premium for you, and for that, you will have to know as much about the business as he does. The professional must demonstrate technical seniority but also business knowledge so that their ramp-up is faster and soon brings benefits and generates value for your client. One question: When was the last time your company created a forum to discuss business trends? When was the last time they talked internally about problems and not technological solutions?
Conclusion:
The “one size fits all” solution usually has a particularity: It can make sure it suits everyone but doesn’t fit well on anyone. To stand out, the secret is to become a specialist in your client’s problem. Know in-depth your client’s pain, update yourself if the pains remain the same over time. Review and realign expectations whenever possible and necessary. Become consultative and focused on what the client needs to buy, not on what you want to sell. The secret to this is constantly managing the service, that is, keeping track of your client, your employee, and the market, and as a manager, ensuring that all necessary alignments are made so that everyone follows the same direction.
