| Choosing clients that are going to help build a healthy future is important for firms and individual consultants. Malcolm Sleath from coaching consultancy 12boxes suggests there are strategies to be learned from Napoleonic surgeons and cynical psychiatrists. |
| How to pick clients |
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| | By Malcolm Sleath
Question: What is
the best business
development strategy in
an economic downturn?
Answer:
Professional success is
not always the result of
hard work, dedication
and competence. The
reputations of
consultancies and
consultants are often
hostage to the fortunes
of their past and
present clients. People
seem to place more
emphasis on the prestige
of the organisations for
which the consultancy
was carried out than
they do on the value
delivered.
In the medical
profession, the cynical
exploitation of this
phenomenon is summed up
in the quip: “A good
psychiatrist is one who
picks patients who are
going to get well”.
It draws on the idea
that a proportion of
people with mental
illness are always going
to get better without
any medical intervention
whatsoever. So a cynical
psychiatrist might work
to ensure that his or
her patient list
includes a higher
proportion of such
people than the lists of
other psychiatrists by
finding ways to deter
those with a less
promising prognosis.
If successful, the
payoff from this
strategy will be an
enhanced reputation for
success in the eyes of
patients and
administrators (although
not necessarily in the
eyes of fellow
psychiatrists). Could
similar considerations
apply to consulting? If
so, how should they be
taken into account when
deciding a business
development strategy for
the current economic
climate?
In a recession, it is | |
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| | tempting to seek work
from sources that are
publicly funded,
particularly if the
recession is going to be
long and hard, and
public sector programmes
seem buoyant. But it is
worth asking what value
will be placed on such a
portfolio when the
public sector borrowings
have to be paid back and
budgets are trimmed, if
not slashed. Will the
hard-won experience be
seen as relevant in the
market place in three to
five years? Or will it
be seen as yesterday’s
solutions to yesterday’s
problems? This is a time
when it is all too easy
to plump for safe
options, which turn out
not to be safe at all.
At the very least, it
may be better to balance
pursuit of the remaining
big budgets by building
relationships with the
clients who are going to
be seen to succeed in
the post-recessionary
period. But will these
clients be prepared to
spend any money in the
short term?
Certainly not in the
way they have done in
the past, but they might
be open to propositions
that have a significant
element of reward
contingent on success.
In which case, it
becomes important to
think about to whom such
deals should be offered,
bringing us back to the
strategy adopted by the
cynical psychiatrist, or
rather to the technique
of triage on which it is
based.
Triage is thought to
be the inspiration of
Dominique Jean Larrey, a
notable French surgeon
who made his reputation
in the Napoleonic wars.
He realised that on the
battlefield, where
medical resources were
scarce and decisions had
to be made quickly,
there were going to be
casualties who would
survive whether they | |
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| | were treated or not.
Others were highly
likely to die even with
treatment. But for a
third group, timely
medical intervention
would make the
difference between life
and death, and it was on
those casualties that
the battlefield surgeons
needed to focus their
attention.
This is a time when
consultants and
consultancies who know
their industries will be
thinking like Napoleonic
surgeons and cynical
psychiatrists. They will
not allow themselves to
be distracted by
following the crowd in
the pursuit of
short-term gains, just
as surgeon Larrey
steeled himself to
ignore the cries of
those who were going to
die anyway. Instead,
they will consider which
businesses are likely to
win through the
recession and be in a
position to grow
afterwards. They will
know that among them
there will be
organisations where the
directors and
shareholders might be
persuaded their chances
of winning through would
be greatly enhanced by a
timely intervention,
particularly if it was
packaged with an
attractive contingency
element.
In pursuing these
opportunities,
consultants and
consultancies will
balance the need to
generate cash now with a
focus on developing a
healthy client portfolio
on which to base strong
growth when conditions
improve. Future market
share will go to those
who are associated with
success, even if a good
deal of it would still
have happened anyway
without their
intervention. | |
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