| 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 | |
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| | casualties who would
survive whether they 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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