DEVELOPING THE PROPOSITION

Consultancy is one of the least tangible products, and there is therefore considerable freedom to tune the proposition - the content and commercial aspects of project design - to meet the needs of the client. Contrast selling consultancy with the circumstances of someone selling chairs. They have only those chairs available from the factory to sell. Admittedly, they will probably be available in a variety of colours and styles, but if the customer wants something the factory doesn't make, then the salesperson is unlikely to make the sale.

The same is true, of course, for the consultant salesperson: if you cannot supply what the customer wants, then you will not make a sale. But selling consultancy involves the process of product specification. The consultant salesperson and the client work together to define the 'product' that the client is to buy. If this process is conducted well enough, then the consultancy will have created a proposition extremely attractive to the client. There is far more flexibility of design in consultancy than chairs, but to design an attractive proposition, you have to be able to identify what the critical features are for the client.

Critical Features of a Proposition

There are two aspects to a proposition: 1) its content - the definition of the nature of the project, and the contribution the consultancy is going to make, usually embodied in terms of reference; 2) its commercial context - relating to fees, expenses and other matters, usually embodied in terms of business.

Terms of business and terms of reference are dealt with at length in Chapters 7 and 8 respectively. In some major practices, different sales people deal with these two aspects separately. There are thus many potential features of propositions that need to be clarified during the sales process. The question is, which of these is critical? Features that might be critical could be:

• a particular consultant undertakes the job personally;

• the sponsor's position is enhanced;

• the project commences on Monday;

• the consultant introduces a new technology to the factory;

• the price is less than £50,000.

Clients give you a lot of information when raising objections. For example, questions such as:

• 'Do you have sufficient international experience?'

• 'Will you be able to complete the project in three months' time?'

• 'Do you understand our industry/culture?'

• 'Aren't you expensive?'

All give you useful information about features the client possibly considers important. You have, of course, to check whether these are serious questions, or simply incidental, during sales conversations (see the next chapter).

Further information will emerge during negotiation. Negotiation takes place when two parties have decided, or are close to deciding, that they want to do business together. At its most basic it consists of bargaining or trading, but at its best it consists of the two parties working together to refine a proposition so that it has more benefits for both.

When selecting consultants, clients who opt for a more formal process of selection may well have a 'scoring' system for assessing the relative merits of competitive proposals. It is useful to know what this is so that you can fashion an optimal proposition. Of course, there will be 'soft' measures as well. Recently I heard of a major buyer of consultancy that had rejected the 'best' proposal in favour of the 'second best', as the client buying team believed they could work better with the latter. Effective proposition design will not therefore automatically win sales, but it is a source of competitive advantage or disadvantage, and therefore has to be done well.