I frequently hear consultants describe their results with phrases such as “accelerating growth,” “improving financial results,” “enhancing employee communications” and “building effective organizations.”
These are not results. They’re platitudes.
CEO’s and business owners are not interested in platitudes. They are interested in one thing: making more money.
That means more revenue or lower costs. Period. You better address one of these or you won’t get the boss’ attention. And you better offer proof.
Prove It!
Jill Konrath takes this a step further in an article How to Create Strong Value Propositions that Lead to Sales. If possible, she recommends, use statistics:
“You need to be explicit. Metrics are a must.
- How much did sales go up?
- What kind of savings were realized?
- How much did you lower the cost of goods sold?
- What was the financial impact of the time saving?”
She recognizes that not all of us have specific data on our results. She suggests, as an alternative, using industry stats.
I think this is a great tool. Nothing bolsters your credibility more than statistics from a reliable authority. It also helps educate a prospect about a subject he or she may not understand well.
Let’s say you are a consultant specializing in “out of the box” thinking. “Why on earth would I need you?” a CEO might ask.
You could respond by saying (Jill’s quotation) “A recent survey of 669 executives from global companies found that less than 25% of them felt that their innovative performance was where it needed to be for success in hypercompetitive markets.”
The CEO then might think “OK. I may need “out of the box” thinking to generate more innovation. BECAUSE GREATER INNOVATION MEANS MORE REVENUE. Maybe you’ve made the sale.
Or let’s say you’re an organizational behavior consultant specializing in team building. You could say:“We improve employee communications.”
A CEO might respond. “Yeah. So what? Tell me exactly what problems you solve and how are you going to make me more money.”
But if you say (hypothetical example) 45 % of major corporate initiatives fail because of poor communications among implementation team members, the boss’s ears might perk up.
Poor team communications = less money. “I get that”, the CEO might say.
Tailor Your Message
Also, the message depends on the audience. You don’t need to convince the head of training and development at a Fortune 500 company, that training is important.
That person’s concerns may revolve around budgets and whether you’re the right consultant. You need to convince him/her to (a) find the money and (b) hire you.
A CEO will have a different perspective. This is especially true if he or she runs a mid-sized company, where they don’t do much training.
The CEO’s first question might be: “Why do I need this?” Your immediate challenge is to show the CEO the ROI on your services. That’s where industry statistics can help.
Once the CEO is sold on the concept, the next two steps may be relatively easy. CEO’s generally can find the money if they want to do something. And you may not have a lot of competition for the assignment.
If you had to first sell the CEO on the concept, it’s not likely he or she has been talking to your competitors. So your chances of getting the assignment are high.
Show them the proof and maybe they’ll show you the money.
