We spend a lot of time telling consultants to start from the right question. A question that, when answered through the work you’ll do, leads to a clear recommendation. So your client can then make a decision on what to do.

We call this Framing the Issue, and use techniques like Situation-Complication-Question to pin it down (as my colleague Colin spoke about here).

Here’s how it typically works:

You get into a conversation with a (potential) client and ask lots of questions to understand the challenges they’ve got
Through that you uncover the value they see in solving this challenge
That allows you to frame the issue: What’s the background Situation? What’s change to Complicate that? What therefore is the Question that needs answering?
With that Question pinned down, you can develop a hypothesis, turn that into a workplan, then crack on with cracking the case.

That’s all good, and works well.

Until, sometimes, you’ll uncover something unexpected through your work. A veritable lake of value that wasn’t where you expected to find it.

Suddenly you’re in the Consultants Dilemma: Stick to the question you’re there to answer, or maximise the value for the client?

Don’t talk about scope creep, baby

This isn’t the same as scope creep. That’s when the client - consciously or not - is pushing for you to do work outside of what you’ve agreed to do.

Here, the push comes from you. You can see this massive opportunity staring you, and your client, in the face. But, it’s not what you’re there to do.

I was once working with a big FMCG player, helping them figure out their toothpaste strategy for their heritage Chinese toothpaste brand - it actually used to be the official national toothpaste of the Chinese government. Consulting gives you some unexpected experiences at times.

We were there to look at the overall vision for the brand and how to grow it, in the context of an aging cohort of users. Young people weren’t buying the heritage toothpaste, and that was a problem. We ran all the usual analysis looking at Where to Play and How to Win; then into the detail of the 6 Ps: Proposition, Product, Price, Pack, Place, and Promotion choices.

For this work we had a few groups of stakeholders. There was the global toothpaste category team, the local China marketing activation team, and the Head of China. His responsibility was the performance of the Chinese business across all categories - from deodorants to cleaning products, as well as toothpaste.

During our analysis we uncovered something. In a nutshell, because of the way they were working with retailers, they weren’t getting their most profitable products into the places they would sell the most. Their entire toothpaste business made about $35m profit a year. We estimated the China business more broadly was losing $100m+ of potential profit because of this issue.

Enter the Consultant’s Dilemma. Do we stay focused on the question we’ve been brought in to answer, or shift some of our resources to this bigger source of value?

This is clearly an opportunity for you as a consultant: massive value potential suggests something you might get paid for helping with.

There is also risk.

Have your cake, and eat it

The risk here comes from several different directions. There is risk to your team, to your profit margins, and to your client relationships.

One option might be to ask your team to spend some time on this new issue - but it’s rare for a consulting team to have surplus time and energy, so that’s normally a big ask and risks their sustainability and the quality of your existing project. Or, you may be able to get some extra resource allocated to look at it, taking a hit to your profit margins.

The bigger risk is to your client relationships. They brought you in to solve a particular problem. If you start running around looking at other things - especially things that may make them look bad - they may not appreciate it. It can look like you are self-orientated, trying to “land and expand”.

On the flip side, you can’t just ignore a big opportunity for your client (and your firm).

So, how to handle the Consultant’s Dilemma?

I recommend four things.

Stay focused: First and foremost, answer the question you’re there to answer,
Spend wisely: Apply just enough time & effort (enough and no more!) to be confident the opportunity is real,
Spark interest: Bring some awareness to the opportunity and see how it lands,
Separate: Get into a dedicated conversation on the new opportunity.

The goal here is to get to that separate discussion with minimal extra effort or distraction from your current case. Protect your team, and make sure the interest is there before you go too deep.

If you see a spark of interest the next step is simple. We’ve written about The Turn before, the technique David Fields uses to get into that separate conversation. In this case I simply use this version:

It looks like there might be something big here. Are you open to us setting up a separate conversation to explore it in a bit more detail?

What happened in China? The toothpaste work culminated in a 2-day, 20-person workshop in Beijing, where we worked through all their choices and landed on a plan for the business that everyone got behind.

In the workshop we trailed some of the analysis related to the bigger opportunity and watched carefully to see how it was landing. In a break, I asked the Head of China what he thought about it, and indicated that it seemed to be an issue that beyond the toothpaste category. Was he open to exploring that?

With the credibility built from doing the job we’d been brought in to do he trusted that was a conversation worth having.

From dilemma to opportunity.

The Skilled Consultant is written by Deri Hughes and Colin Mann, Managing Directors of Honeycomb Consulting Skills Training. We help consulting leaders develop exceptional teams with world-class training to support every career transition.

Visit Honeycomb's Website

If this article raised a question about your own team, do drop a comment below or book a 30-minute call with Deri or with Colin to discuss how we could help you.

Leave a comment

Subscribe now to receive future articles and webinar recordings, or share this one with someone who may find it valuable.

Subscribe now

Share

The Consultant's Dilemma: Where's the real…