Consulting Tools

Consulting Tools
www.consultantsmind.com
© CONSULTANT’S MIND 1
CONTENTS
1. Why consultants love best practices 3

2. Frameworks: distill your thoughts 4
3. What is gap analysis? 5
4. Consultant’s tool: what is a maturity model? 7
5. What is RACI? 10
6. Logical structuring: consultants use buckets 12
7. Consulting proposals: 12 common mistakes 13
8. Consulting basics: what is a SOW? 15
9. DMAIC: A great consulting tool 18
10. SIPOC: consulting framework to untangle problems 19
11. How consultants interview clients 21
12. Consulting tip: How to make a good survey 24
13. What is scope creep? 26
14. Saying YES to clients can get consultants in trouble 28
15. The best short answer to give clients, “it depends” 30
16. The Pyramid Principle in Consulting 31
17. Consulting tip: 4 steps to create a PowerPoint 33
18. Presentation Tips from TED’s Chris Andersen 35
19. Slideology 2: Use diagrams to tell stories 37
20. Consulting templates: visualize what you say 41
21. Negotiations: Clients hire consultants to get to “yes” 44
Note: This material is © Consultant’s Mind, 2018.
No duplication without express permission of author.  
1. Why consultants love best practices
http://consultantsmind.com/2012/06/10/best-practices/
Management consultants use the phrase “best practices” often. Perhaps too often. You will see that
magical phrase mentioned numerous times in white papers and research on these websites: Boston
Consulting Group, Deloitte, PWC and Accenture. A few pictures that help explain why best practices
are so popular with consultants and clients.
Best practices are like good hiking trails. . .
. . . they are market-tested: Many of these best practices have been around for years. Clients have a
sense of comfort that they are following a well-worn path. You don’t have to read the most recent
article in Harvard Business Review to know that the Toyota Management System for lean production
still works today.
. . . they are repeatable: Consulting firms work with so many clients that they see what works and
what does not. Clients think they are unique (n=1), but a lot of the back-office functions are more alike
than different. No reason to “re-invent the wheel” on mundane processes. Better to just follow the trail
that is already there.
. . . they save time: It might not be perfect or holistic, but best practices will get you most of the way
there. Not all clients want to spend the time or the money to dig into the problem. They want the 80%
solution.
Best practices are like powerful telescopes. . .
. . . they appeal to the curious: Clients want insight into what competitors and other leading
companies are doing. There is a fine line between best practices, benchmarking, competitive
intelligence – but the basic conformist tendency is the same: “Show me what other people doing.”
. . . they help you see farther: Having access to best practices or other “special sauce” positions the
management consultant as an expert who can bring new and external insights. While the client can
draw on 10-20 years of personal experience, the consultant can tap into the firm’s collective history
(for Trekkie fans, think of the BORG) and dig up example after example of previous client projects on
the same topic.
Danger: Best practices can also be like cookie cutters. . .

• If abused or misunderstood, best practices can become the lazy person’s way to propose a
quick, often ill-fitting solution without thinking through the problem
• Best practices are excellent tools, but you cannot “copy” your way to operational excellence or
strategic differentiation. The most you will get is parity
• Best practices cannot be simply a cut/paste into an organization. They do not work without the
necessary leadership, culture, resources, IT systems etc. . .
• Large ERP implementations (read: SAP, Oracle etc) force companies to adopt industry-
standard processes. Whether these are best practices is up for debate
2. Frameworks: distill your thoughts
http://consultantsmind.com/2014/01/21/frameworks-distill-your-thoughts-until-they-are-80proof/
Consultants are structured thinkers. They may not have as intuitive a grasp on the topic as the
client – after all, the client has been living in this field their entire life – but consultants excel at piecing
together bits and pieces of data until it starts forming an outline of a story. Clients are often surprised
to see how comprehensive and seemingly authoritative the end results can be. “Only a few weeks or
months ago, this set of young tykes did not know a lot. Now, they are giving us (pretty credible)
advice.”
Frameworks give you freedom. When you have the outline of something – presentation, argument,
journey – it liberates your mind to focus on the details without the fear that you will wander too far off
the path. You know the boundaries. Consultants don’t necessarily know the answer, but they often
know where to look. Some call it best practices, some call it common sense, some call it emotional
intelligence.
The only way to make sense of a glut of data is to use a mental model to organize your thoughts and
observations. Without some way to organize your ideas, your PowerPoint will be read like a bullet-ed
list of factoids. Trivia Pursuit. Where the client has to guess and extrapolate what in the world you are
trying to say. Painful.
Keep it simple. It does not have to be complicated or even unique. Find a theme, graphic, or set of
words which epitomizes the main areas. Then use this to drive home the on-going messages.
Religiously add observations and recommendations on the skeleton to see if it holds up. You may
have to fiddle with the framework – make it broader, reword it, or even abandon it – but the exercise
will be cathartic and good.
Two very simple frameworks repeated by all MBAs ad nausea are the 3Cs and 4Ps. Although these
should never be repeated in a consulting case interview or for that matter in a professional setting (it
seems too sophomoric), these are “bread and butter” way to think about strategy and marketing.
3Cs: In a competitive situation, you should address what you (Company) are good at, what
the Customer wants, and how to differentiate vs. your Competitors.
4Ps: Fundamentally, marketing is about Promoting and distributing (Place) a Product to customers at

a market-clearing Price.
Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive (MECE). This is a core consulting concept that cannot
be understated. As mentioned in The McKinsey Way, the idea is to bucket things so that each is
different with no double counting (ME), while also including everything need to cover the breadth of
the issue (CE). As you might imagine, this is not easy to do. No duplicates, yet covers everything.
An “oldie goldie” example from consulting. Many projects can be put into one (or a combination) of
these areas. Strategy, people, process, technology. These are MECE since they are all uniquely
different, yet cover the world of management consulting.
Clients are notoriously bad at this. Face it. Clients often know the answers. They often have trouble
putting words around it, backing it up with data, and simplifying the complex into a comprehensive
narrative. Simply put, they cannot tell a story.
Like a trunk of a tree, look for the thick branches that support all the smaller limbs, leaves, flowers and
fruit. Call it a framework, paradigm, skeleton, straw-man, storyboard, or template. It will keep you out
of trouble and often help you find your way. Group your ideas and continually distill your thinking until
it is 80 proof. Use MECE to tell a clean story that makes sense to executives and makes your client
look great.
3. What is gap analysis?

http://www.consultantsmind.com/2017/05/21/gap-analysis/
Gap analysis is exactly what is sounds like – figuring out how far you are from a particular goal or
target. Consulting firms do this all differently. It takes many forms, but is super common. In fact, I can’t
think of any project where we did not include at least one gap analysis somewhere.
Nothing fancy. While it may sound official, it’s common sense. You weigh 190 lbs, and you want to
weigh 180lbs? 10lbs is the gap.
They can look a lot like performance scoreboards – here is an example from a hypothetical call
center. Goal – current performance = gap. Simple, right?
Harder than it sounds, for lots of reasons. . .
1. Urgent trumps important. As I blogged about in the past, clients have full-time jobs, they don’t
have the luxury of focusing on 1 problem intensely for 4 weeks. They are insiders and the
onerous onslaught of day-to-day work often crowds out time for more strategic, thinking time.
Consultants have it easy; we get paid to stop and focus on important questions for clients.
2. What’s the question? Like a student caught day-dreaming in class, it’s completely possible to
loose your bearings and not know what that main question is. Odd, right? It’s not uncommon for
corporate folks to have 5-7 annual objectives, which in reality is often 3 too many. In the One
Thing (affiliate link), Gary Keller argues that we should focus on the “first domino” – the critical one
thing – that causes all other things to happen.
What’s one big thing you could get done today, this week, this month – that would start a chain
reaction of achievement?
Note to clients: Any Fortune 500 company uses LOTS and LOTS of metrics to measure their business
– and it’s unrealistic that you will abandon those, or not track them. That said, in the nuts-and-bolts of
YOUR BUSINESS, pick the goals and targets that will matter.
3. What does good look like? Benchmarks are a convenient reference point, but not the
answer. Each situation is different. Strategy is about being the best YOU, not targeting 80%, 85%,
90% of the average of everyone. Regression to the mean, not good.
Gotta set 2 goals.
1. Short term- what can we fix today with better process, focus, and some founder’s mentality?
These are low-cost fixes. Stuff that is LONG overdue, and not rocket science.
2. Medium term – optimize for the future, not for today. Paraphrasing Drucker, pursue
(tomorrow’s) opportunities, don’t solve (yesterday’s) problems. Too often, corporate America
tries to solve yesterday’s issues.
4. Where are we now? Even if you identify the right goal (not merely copying the competition), how
do you accurately weigh yourself? Data is often slow to collect, sometimes inaccurate, and often
inconclusive. Data is often a mess. You would be surprised how much precious time is spent simply
getting a useful data set for analysis.
Note to clients: Save the consultants’ time (and thereby your money), by getting the data to them as
soon as possible. You are paying for the analysis, thinking, and implementation – not the data
collection and cajoling. Getting the data is on you.
Note to clients: Ask for a sustainable measurement system. Anything that requires exhaustive excels
with macros, and sophisticated calculations – err – will probably get abandoned like an expensive
exercise machine in your basement.
Consultants: Random data points are not helpful. Definitely show the trend. Also, don’t use radar
charts, so hard to read. Especially useless if there is no real correlation between the metrics. Don’t
make the client tilt their head to read your charts. Make it easy to understand. Use more tables.
5. Okay, now what? Once we know the gap – how do we go about “tackling the bear?” This is also
the core job of consultant – or any change agent – make it easy to do the right thing. Head, Heart,
Hand. It challenges the head, motivates the heart, and gets the hands moving. Much more this
later. . .
4. Consultant’s tool: what is a maturity model?

http://www.consultantsmind.com/2012/07/01/maturity-model/
Management consultants are always looking for ugly problems and broken things to fix. After all, we
only get paid when we uncover difficult problems and fix them.
Clients do not always know what is wrong
What really surprises me is that many clients have trouble explaining what is exactly wrong and what
they want done. They often talk about symptoms – flat revenues, dropping margins, or
increased receivables – not the root causes. As a result, much of the burden of scoping the project
often falls on the consultant’s shoulders.
There are a number of diagnostic tools that consulting firms have created over the years to help
identify problem areas: SWOT, benchmarks, McKinsey 7S, pricing waterfalls, financial analysis, BCG
growth matrix, surveys, workshops and even simple checklists. Borrowing the analogy of consultants
as business doctors, these tools are like the x-ray, thermometer, blood pressure gauge or blood tests
used in a physical exam. It is not treatment, just the diagnostics to find the sickness.
Maturity model basics
A common tool is the maturity model which gauges the client’s maturity in a number of areas and
points out the areas of improvement. It’s actually a simple thing that often looks like a report card or
an excel table. It looks simple, but there is good stuff there.
In the example below, the different functions / capabilities are shown on the left and the different
maturity levels are on top. So in the first row, the supply chain planning group is performing at a level
3, which for this client, is about where they want to be.
Here are some common questions people have about maturity models:
#1: Shouldn’t the target be level 5 (highest capability) for everything?

• Probably not. Getting to level 5 (highest maturity) is usually prohibitively expensive, or
potentially impossible. How difficult will it be to be as efficient as Southwest, as customer-
driven as Nordstrom, and innovative as Apple? Probably smarter to choose the areas you
want to really excel, and pick your battles
#2: What is the criteria for the maturity levels?

• The criteria is set ahead of time. The consultant has a “description” for each of the boxes in
the grid. So, there is a definition for planning L1, L2, L3, L4, L5. It can be laborious putting it
together, but without clear definitions, the bucketing of performance will not have meaning.
Click on the graphic below to see the detail or see the entire AICPA / CICA Privacy Maturity
Model (March 2011) here.
#3: Isn’t this all just subjective opinion?

• Yes . . . There will be some subjective elements and room for interpretation. In the AICPA
example above, what does “adequate and qualified” privacy resources mean. Is that a chief
risk officer with a PhD or 2 college interns with online training?
• . . . and no. a) Many of the maturity models are industry-specific (e.g., healthcare vs,
automotive) so it can be more detailed and relevant. b) Good maturity models are based off of
benchmark or survey data, so there is quantitative data to back up the definitions. c) Finally,
consultants survey a large enough group of people (e.g., executives, senior managers, line
workers etc) so that the results are representative. Don’t want to simply survey the CEO and
keep that as gospel.
#4: Who decides the current level of performance?
• The consultant can decide . . . The team can assess the client’s maturity (based on
interviews, data analysis, comparison to competitors) and present it to the client. If you have
fine-tuned with the client, your assessment will be 80% right.
• . . . or the client can decide. You can poll the stakeholders ahead of time with an online
survey or give them scorecards and ask them to self-evaluate during the middle of a
workshop. Both work well. The hardest part is describing the maturity levels in a coherent and
succinct way. If not, it can get really boring, really quickly.
#5: Isn’t this a big marketing tool?

• Of course. This stuff works. Take a look at Accenture’s Green Maturity Assessment online
survey tool. Very slick and easy to use. It has the added benefit of collecting “baseline” data
(company size, geography, performance) which creates more data points to compare future
survey respondents too.
#6: Are there other formats of maturity models?

• Yes. AT Kearney has a maturity model that looks like a stair-step. Click on the graphic below
for more detail or see the entire report here.
#7: What happens after the maturity model?

• Prioritize the opportunities. Maturity models are usually the first step in a larger opportunity
identification process. TheBooz Allen Supply Chain Maturity Model white paper shows this
process clearly.
#8: What else are maturity models good for?
• Structuring the problem. One of the most insightful parts of the maturity model is not the
detailed description and words, but it is the high-level structure or the “buckets” of capabilities
that are being evaluated. Usually, the consulting firms have spent a lot of time and heart-ache
to pick the categories that are most relevant and also MECE (mutually exclusive, collectively
exhaustive). It helps to frame the discussion and ask the right questions, which is half of a
consultant’s job.
5. What is RACI?
This is a tool consultants use on any project which requires clear definition of roles and more
communication on a new process. When you have more than a handful of people involved, it’s very
easy to get confused and make incorrect assumptions on who is doing what. Confusion = frustration
= lack of adoption = failure.
RACI (or RASCI) is an abbreviation for:

• R – Responsible: Who does the work?
• A – Accountable: Who has the final say? Who gets in trouble if it’s not done?
• C – Consulted: Who is smart on this topic, and might be helpful to consult?
• I – Informed: Who needs to be updated? Who might get pissed?
It’s a simple tool: 1) Put all the stakeholders on one side of the table 2) List the activities you need
ownership for on the other side 3) Fill in the grid with the letters R, A, C, I. In the end, the grid will
be full of letters. Blanks are okay.
• Start with the “A”. The accountable person who is the owner of the process, the person who
has to make sure it gets done. They are the “one throat to choke” There can only be 1
accountable person.
• Add in the “R”. The people who will do the hard work of making the change happen. It’s okay
to have more than 1. Complex work requires lots of “R”
• Add in “C”, but be selective. If you add too many people to be consulted, it can be a
bureaucratic nightmare. The purpose is to drive action, not committees.
• Add in “I”, but these are the least important. Most of these people can be gently informed by
email or a status update.
Here is a simple example. If you have a rental property, there are 5 major steps: Find a property, find
a tenant, get them to pay rent, keep them as long as possible, and when they leave, find a new
tenant. Simple. . . 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Even if you are the landlord, you are not doing all the work. Yes, you are “accountable” because you
have the final say on the tenant qualifications and rent amount, but you are not doing all the work.
See all the people you have who are responsible?
• Realtor is responsible for finding a property, and sometimes, finding a tenant
• Tenant is responsible for paying the rent
• Property manager is responsible for finding the tenant(s)
• The contractor is responsible for fixing the sink, and air conditioner so that the tenant is happy
and stays in the rental as long as possible
The “A” is the most important. Sometimes consultants go too far. I have seen some RACI charts
that are 15 x 10. . .or 150 boxes. That is crazy. No one can keep up with that. Sometimes it is better
to simplify. Just put the “A” and let that person determine the rest of the grid. Let’s them be the
quarterback and set their own team.
Sometimes, it takes a lot of thinking to determine who the “A” is. . .part of the beauty of this tool is it
forces you to find that 1 person who is really accountable. Only 1 person.
Make sure you have the right “R”. Think about who is really doing the work. Sometimes you might
list more people. . . because the work has to get done. Sometimes, you put the “title” because it is a
generic role, but sometimes you put in the specific names. Don’t be shy. This is tool is to drive
ownership and action.
There is a blurry line between “C” and “I”. Don’t spend too much time debating who is a C and
who is an I. It is enough to know that you have to speak to that person. Sometimes they have good
advice for you, sometimes, they don’t.
This stuff works. It drives conversation, and consensus on how the work will be done. It can be
laborious at times, but a few good hours making this clear among the executives prevents a lot of
confusion in the field. This can really LEAN out inefficiencies and reduce miscommunication.
6. Logical structuring: consultants use buckets

http://consultantsmind.com/2013/05/16/structuring-problems-consultants-use-buckets/
Consultants use buckets. I know it sounds pedestrian and unsophisticated, but it’s harder than it
looks. When you are trying to crack a complex problem, inevitably you will start to group things.
Buckets, I tell you. Consultants use buckets.
Structuring problems forces you to organize your thoughts, and reflect on what your key messages
will be. It is the first step in turning data into insights. A few examples:
1) Bucketing by Time: Here I was explaining to the client what activities were coming in the different
phases of a project. During a long project, showing this graphic repeatedly helps to level-set the
client. Keeps them grounded and in the present – less focused on the past, or the future.
2) Bucketing by Function: When you do enterprise-size work, inevitably your work will cut across
different parts of the organization. Pretty typical for a process flow chart to show “swim lanes” which
buckets activities by group. In the example, engineering does steps 1 & 4, while marketing does steps
2 & 5 etc. It’s funny and sad how surprised people are about the way work is done in their own
departments.
3) Bucketing by Root Cause: This is the “bread and butter” work of a consultant. After weeks of
interviews, data analysis, and observations, you might have 25-30 different potential root causes of a
problem. To really move the analysis and thinking forward, you have to group the stuff into logical
buckets. In the fish-bone diagram below, you can see that all the resource-related items are grouped
for easier understanding.
Super bucket example: Deloitte has something called the Deloitte Enterprise Value Map. You have
to see it to believe it (pdf 354K), but it categorizes the buckets that make up shareholder value. It is
like a fish-bone diagram, but it has about 1,000 branches. I have seen one of these, and it usually
takes up 1/2 of a wall of a typical office. In the small portion I show below, Revenue has two parts.
Volume has 3 parts. Acquire new customers has 43 parts. Lots of buckets.
7. Consulting proposals: 12 common mistakes

http://consultantsmind.com/2014/12/19/proposal/
In consulting, writing proposals and statements of work are the lifeblood of the firm. It is akin to
fisherman throwing out nets, or farmers planting seeds. If you are not putting together proposals and
pitching potential clients, you are dead.
I’ve been writing a lot of consulting proposals recently. Generally, I like this because it sync up with
my personal Venn. It is strategic, I am good at it, and I am learning.
Include the basics. In the simplest sense, proposals describe the project you will deliver and what
the customer will get out of it. It has germane stuff like timelines, activities, deliverables, resources,
and pricing. Of course, it has the basics.
More importantly, it needs to answer the client’s key questions. If it does not do that it is essentially
useless. You are selling something that does not solve their problem.
Target the right people. Fundamentally, I think marketing is making it easy for the client to buy. This
presupposes many things: 1) you are targeting the right people 2) with the right service 3) for the right
reason 4) at the right time. You are getting the who, what, why and when correct. In the example
below, you might be targeting the COO for a cost-reduction, labor cost reduction project, right after
bad earnings.
Consulting buyer are risk-averse. Seth Godin, the ultimate marketer, points out that B2B buyers
are risk-averse. Their primary goal is to “not blow it“. Sad, but very true. So the proposal should give
the reader confidence that by hiring you – they are making a sound decisions – and not making a
huge career mistake.
Make it easy to buy, easy to say “yes”. Once those basics are taken care of, I am convinced that
the true job of a proposal writer is to make it easy for the prospect to say “yes, I will buy it.”
Succinctly describing what the client will get with, and persuasively, showing them that it is valuable
and differentiated.
Top 12 proposal mistakes. Here is a list of proposal mistakes. Many of which I have committed, but
most of which are inexcusable.
Stupid and sloppy

• Leaving a different client’s name in the proposal (or referencing wrong locations)
• Having typos, incorrect math, poor grammar, syntax problems, or poor usage
• Leaving comments in the document (forgetting to “accept all changes”)
• Mismatching font, bullets, or style – obviously a copy/paste from somewhere
Average = Bad
• Poor writing which is not specific; basically brochure-ware
• Repetitive points, circular logic, shallow arguments; client asking, “so what?”
• Lots of consulting-ese which make no sense; gross use of jargon
• Lots of features (WHAT), with very few benefits (SO WHAT)
• Limited understanding of client specifics; introduction is basic can canned
• Little narrative; it feels “thrown together” instead of telling a comprehensive story
• Taking too long to complete; not being responsive to client’s time frame
• Not including the logic of the pricing (time and expense vs. flat fee etc)
8. Consulting basics: what is a SOW?

http://www.consultantsmind.com/2016/09/17/sow/
A statement of work (SOW) is a phrase you will hear almost daily in your life as a consultant. It’s a
client-facing document that outlines what the consultant is proposing to get done on a new project or
phase of work. This is particularly important why? Because new projects are the lifeblood of a firm’s
utilization, profitability, and career advancement.
1. Use a common structure. This should be fairly predictable – this is not where you want to get
overly creative. Stick to something like this: introduction, background, objective, approach, scope of
services, milestones, references, resources, assumptions, fees, conclusion. You can Google “SOW
samples pdf” and you should get plenty of examples.
The SOW answers the top questions the client has about the project:

• What will I get (deliverables) at the end?
• Who will you bring to do the work? What is the staffing leverage?
• How much will it cost? What are the payment terms?
• How will the work be done? What are the key activities?
• How long will the project take? How many weeks on-site, off-site?
• How will quality be measured? Are there performance measures?
2. Provide “just enough content”. There are likely differing opinions on this, but from my vantage
point, you want to only add just enough detail. Not too much, not too little. It needs to be like
Goldilocks’ porridge – just right for the reasons below:
• Enough so that the client knows what they are buying
• Enough so the client is willing to “buy the work” – sell baby sell
• Enough that your teams are clear on the goal and expectations
• Nothing more
The last thing you want to do is be half-way through a project and be handcuffed to unnecessary crap
you put in the SoW that forces you to do busy-work which is not core to the mission. Focus on
the CTQ.
I believe all change management – most everything in life – is part intellectual, part emotional, and
part action. Head, Heart, Hand. Same is true with clients who are buying consulting services.
3. Set the tone. Naturally, the level of familiarity will vary on both the industry and your relationship
with the target audience. As a stereotype, I would imagine IT security services would be very
buttoned-up, while marketing or leadership workshop would be much looser, visual and fun.
Avoid jargon and consulting-back-speak as much as possible. Don’t be a consulting stereotype.

Speak and write clearly.
If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough – Albert Einstein
Writers – yes, even proposal writers – like to add their personal touches and style. Some SoW are
boring, others are not. Add what you will, but remember that style probably matters maybe 5-10%?
Don’t over do it.
4. Create visual appeal. In consulting, I find that graphs, tables, and mock-ups help. It gives the
buyer a mental picture of what they are getting. There is also a chance for you to re-purpose some of
the PowerPoint you probably used during the last client meeting or oral presentations. You will laugh,
but it is common to see shrunk down photos of sample deliverables like mini Legos arranged on the
floor. For example:
5. Don’t reinvent the wheel. No surprise – a lot of SOWs are on the same type of work. There is no
reason to rewrite everything. As the adage goes,’ if it’s not broke don’t fix it.’ Many of us are tempted
to simply copy and paste from a previous SOW and then find / replace the client name. Danger.
Danger. A few cautionary thoughts on that:
• Make sure you find all versions of the client name. (e.g., Vermont Technical College, VTC, VT,
Vermont)
• Have someone else proof-it. Word by word.
• Add enough detail that you are not tempted to simply copy / paste. It comes across generic,
flat, and dehumanizing.
• Don’t get caught with copy/paste. Consultants already have the reputation for being a bit lazy.
6. Keep it tight. This goes without saying, but make the SOW very professional, logical, consistent,
and brief. It is very common to have multiple people work on different sections of the SOW and piece
it together at the last minute like Frankenstein. There are a lot of dangers in that, as you might
imagine. To prevent a Franken-SOW:
• Watch version control. Thousands of consulting hours have been lost by people duplicating
work or losing track of changes. No excuse.
• Have 1 person go through the document to make sure all the fonts, font size, acronyms,
bullets, graphic colors, page numbers, links, indentations – yes, everything – is absurdly
consistent
• Have 1 person go and round-out the language so it reads as if it were written by 1 person. I
am sure you can read copy writing blogs on this topic, but the saddest thing is a presentation
or proposal which is obviously cobbled together by multiple people. Amateur.
7. Demonstrate expertise. Briefly. In all proposals and SOWs, there is a little bit of mandatory show-
boating at the beginning. Examples of where you have done the work before, how your provocative
point of view differs from the mass-market, and the reasons they should hire you. As a good marketer
= your job is to make it easy to understand, and more importantly, easy to buy. Remember, simplify
your arguments.
8. Know the client. If you have worked before at the client – mention it. Whatever insights you have
about the client’s specific situation puts you 1 step ahead of the competition. B2B customers (read:
clients) are always afraid they will hire the wrong people, get embarrassed, or lose control of the
project. Your job is to show your knowledge, intimacy and trust. Any questions? Read David Maister’s
True Professionalism here (affiliate link); you can order a used copy for 1cent + shipping.
9. Use specifics. What can you pull from the annual report, company magazine, local news articles,
or your oral presentation to add some local flavor? One partner wisely said, “specificity lends
credibility.” I type up meeting minutes from all my client encounters, and its amazing how much
content that gives you for SOW. As another partner once said, “when you repeat back to the client
what they said, they think you are a genius.” Sad but clearly 25% true, I think.
10. Expect scrutiny. SOWs are a part of a legal contract. They often have terms and conditions at
the back. The document will be read by many people on the client side – and should be reviewed by
both legal departments. Avoid vague language or your legal department will hammer you with
revisions.
11. Foreshadow future work. No consultant wants to do 1 project with a client and leave. There is
always more work to do. Phase 2. Phase 3. Implementation. If you see this work withing a larger
context and transformation (of course it does) – then the SOW should allude to that.
12. Call to action. Like most B2B purchasing cycles, clients don’t buy the first time they see
something. It takes customization, group-purchasing discussion, alignment with the budgeting
cycle, and ultimately, time. As difficult as it seems – you need to motivate the reader of the SOW to
take some action – forward to other “approvers”, call you for a presentation, or even better, sign the $
%$@& SOW and get it started.
13. Practice writing SOWs. Senior managers are the work-horses of SOW and proposal writing.
Wherever you are in the consulting pyramid, you better get good at pitching in and creating winning
Statements of Work. If not, eventually, you will get voted off the island. As (senior) consultants do the
industry research, proof-read, find previous SOWs and scrub them. As (senior) managers come up
with the project scope, resourcing, pricing, deliverables, and final SOW. As partners and principals, be
responsible for everything and make it happen.
9. DMAIC: A great consulting tool

http://www.consultantsmind.com/2012/04/28/dmaic/
DMAIC. Ask any consultant, and I mean ANY consultant (strategy, process, IT) and they will know
what DMAIC stands for. It is an abbreviation for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve,Control. It is a
tool often used in process improvement projects. I am not a fan of jargon, but this one is worth
learning, and using. It’s good and keeps you on task.
If you hired a consultant and they used a five-box slide that looks like the one below to explain a
project approach. . . chances are good it is some derivation of DMAIC .
We use because it is simple, logical, and a good starting point.
D = Define. You need to define what problem you are looking at, and what your goal is. Without this
step, you might be solving the wrong problem (happens all the time).
M = Measure. Before you can improve, you need to know where you are. This is often laborious and
time-consuming, but critical. Are you getting a better price for the widget this time? Impossible to
know if you don’t know what you paid last time. “You manage what you measure”
A = Analyze. This is where the data analysis and experience come into play. Figure out why things
are wrong, broken, or not working. The majority of consulting tools fit in here: fish bone diagrams,
Pareto charts, maturity models, business cases, waterfall charts, RACI charts, RFPs etc. . .
I = Improve. Make the change. This can take 1 week (Kaizen event) or 2-3 years
(think ERP implementation). For strategy projects, consultants usually do the analysis, and make the
case for change. Implementation is more often than not handled by the client – who does not want to
pay the equivalent of 20 iPads per week per consultant for “implementing” the roadmap.
C = Control. This harkens back to the six-sigma concepts of statistical process controls (blah, blah,
blah), but let’s keep it simple. Keep your eye on the process and improve it as you need to.
When you are improving a process, start with DMAIC and see if it helps. As a silly mnemonic
device: DMAIC= Don’t marry an insane celebrity
10. SIPOC: consulting framework to untangle

problems
http://www.consultantsmind.com/2013/02/14/sipoc-consulting-framework-to-untangle-problems/
SIPOC is an ugly sounding acronym, but it is a useful way to think through problems. Clients often
present consultants with complex processes that seemingly don’t have a start or a finish. They go on-
and-on. They are inter-related processes and it feels like an ugly excel formula full of nested if / then
statements. The more you dig, the more you uncover.
Structured thinking. Sometimes, the best thing is to stop digging. Take a step back and think
through the problem. Untangle the problem in a more structured way. Figure out what sits outside the
process. What is the client really asking for? What comes before the process (#1) and what comes
after the process (#3).
Supplier, Input, Process, Output, Customer (SIPOC): Building on that example, a SIPOC diagram
can be drawn out from left-to-right; suppliers provide inputs to a process, which in turn, provides
outputs to customers. It is a simple daisy-chain of activities and the real scope of the project is the
area shown in red. The process in the middle is what you are after. The stuff on the left (suppliers,
inputs) and the right (outputs, customers) are not really under your control, or potentially out of
scope. Focus on the red part.
SIPOC applies to any process where there are suppliers and customers:
• Business-to-consumer (B2C): Cleaning products
• Business-to-business (B2B): Apple Airbook
• Internal product design: Airbus engines
• Sales support: Allstate insurance policies
#1. Use SIPOC to control scope. Clients often ask for additional work or small favors, under the
same contracted fee. The consultant might say yes a few times, but eventually there is a danger that
the consultant is over-promising. SIPOC is one of the tools to guard against scope creep and better
define scope of the process improvement project.
#2. Use SIPOC to rule out hypotheses. In the example above, if SC Johnson was having process
issues, one hypothesis might be related to their supplier’s chemicals.
• If the chemicals are the problem, you are well on your way to solving the problem
• If the chemicals are not the problem, you strike it off the list of hypotheses, and move on to
other potential hypotheses “suspects”
Process improvement projects are common. There is a bit of a myth that management consultants
spend a lot of their time on strategy and marketing projects. In reality, a lot of project work is very
operationally-focused. As you can imagine, Fortune 1000 companies have lots of processes (across
geography, across business units, across functions) that are generally going haywire and need re-
wiring. Also, ops projects tend to have a more measurable return on investment (ROI) and lower risk
of implementation.
Even the big 3 strategy firms do plenty of process-improvement projects. A few case studies
where I am sure the teams benefited from some type of SIPOC analysis.
• McKinsey restructures sales processes to relieve revenue and margin pressure
• Bain helps food processor trims supplier relationships
• BCG improves processes at a financial services provider
11. How consultants interview clients

http://www.consultantsmind.com/2012/11/04/consultant-interview/
This week my team interviewed more than 20 people, everyone from VPs down to the analysts and
clerks. The interviews were a gold mine of insights – especially since we were still in the early days of
the project and collecting data. My throat was killing me, but these interviews helped us get our
bearings on the client’s business, the personalities, and the politics. Every consulting project has
interviews and here are my top interviewing tips:
1. Be prepared. It’s no different than if you were going to a job interview for yourself. Do the
research. Know the audience. It’s painful to watch a consultant lose credibility when he asks
questions that can be answered by the FAQ page of the company’s website:
• What are the company’s key products, customers, competitors?
• What is the title, background of the interviewee?
• Where does the interviewee’s function sit within the larger organization?
• What the 3 most important events (ERP launch, acquisition) in the last 12 months?
Management consultants usually create interview guides. It helps the consultant prepare for the
interview, but it also forces them to organize their thoughts. It is usually a simple list of well-organized
questions. It’s good practice for analysts.
2. Build rapport quickly. This is a core skill of any management consultant. It comes easier to some
than others, but the idea is simple – build a connection with the interviewee so he is comfortable
opening up and speaking frankly. It is nothing new. All the things you would find in How to Win
Friends and Influence People (affiliate link) by Dale Carnegie:
• Be personable and attractive (more on this later)
• Find a connection (look around the office)
• Describe the objective of interview
• Respect the interviewee’s time and space
If this is an area you would like to improve, practice. Seems odd, but sales and business
development people were not all born that way. It takes a lot of emotional intelligence. Everyone’s is
different, but there is a lot you can learn by watching partners and senior managers. Be authentic, but
inviting. Be willing to share details about yourself – it is disarming and makes you more human. Be
self-deprecating, when appropriate.
3. Ask open-ended questions. The first few questions should be open-ended. Let the interviewee
say what she wants to say. See where the conversation takes you.
• “Why do you think there has been a problem with XYZ?”
• “What are some changes you would like to see?”
4. Hone in on the details. Like a detective, once you hear something promising – either a surprising
fact, or confirmation of your hypothesis – ask follow-up questions:
• “How long would you say that XYZ process takes you?”
• “How often does that happen each week?”
For consultants, it is not enough to get a laundry list of problems (client will say, “yeah, I knew that
already”). Nudge the interviewee to give numbers or estimates that provide more detail and context.
If you hear of a report, or presentation that has the information – get a copy of it right then or get it
sent by email (perfect time for business cards).
5. Transition between topics. This is where the art comes in. Junior analysts have a tendency to
run down the interview list, as if they were calling off BINGO numbers. This can be unnerving to the
interviewee, and also a bit dogmatic. The trick is to create a conversational tone while listening to the
interviewee’s answer (while also writing down notes), and also making smooth transitions between the
topics:
• “Sure, that makes sense. Would you say that XYZ is the main reason for that?”
• “Has it always been that way? Has anything changed organizationally?”
• “Understood. Does it make sense to take a look at costs next?”
Thinking back to our high-school prep days, my English professor would constantly point out that my
essays did not have transitions between the paragraphs. It is as if I would talk about A, then B, and C.
. . but there was no stitching between the topics.
The goal is to stitch together as much of the interview as possible and create a narrative to keep the
conversation going. Refer to things already said in the first half of the interview. Refer to similar
comments made from other interviewees (no names). If the interviewee feels that you really listened
to what they said, you are getting buy-in for your recommendation as you go. If the interviewee feels
like you just stormed in and made them answer 20 questions, you have just created a skeptic, and
perhaps an unfriendly.
6. Earn the right to continue with the interview. An interview should be a conversation, not an
interrogation. While it might be slightly more efficient to just blaze down the list of questions, I would
argue that the interviewee will get more defensive, and just give you short, one sentence answers.
You will be winning the battle, but not the war. With each set of questions, your demeanor,
confidence, and empathy will determine whether you are earning the right to continue the interview.
This will become quickly apparent by the interviewee. Either they remain engaged and feel interview
was worth the time, or they start to mentally check out (checking their watch, rolling their eyes,
tapping their fingers, itching to leave)
Relevance to Case Interviews: This is where many MBAs do poorly in case interviews. MBAs know
the basics of business problems, structure their thinking well, and even can do market sizing (read: #
of meter maids in NYC) in their head. What they do poorly with is keeping the interview
conversational and building rapport.
The BCG / Accenture / Bain interviewer is asking herself, could this MBA effectively handle an
interview with a super-jaded, war-horse of interviewee? How would this kid fare against a 57 year-old
who has been doing Materials Management for the last 20 years? A lot of this has to do with
emotional intelligence and keeping the interview conversational.
What if #1: Interviewee is scared. This happens. There are all kinds of projects, and sadly, some of
them end with organizational changes, layoffs or worse. It helps to:
• Confirm that you will be speaking with a lot people, not just him
• Ensure confidentiality of comments (and be sure to keep your word)
• “Prime the pump” by offering up some of the comments from other interviews
• Focus the conversation on the existing process (less on the solution)
What if #2: Interviewee is rude or a jerk. Here you need to make a determination pretty quickly what
you want to get out of the situation. First, be deferential and offer to re-schedule the appointment (we
all have some bad days). Figure out if it is a credibility issue because she/he thinks all consultants
are full of crap – in which case you may need to do some name dropping of the executive sponsor
and also refer to projects you have done in the past. If they are a hater (some exist), then just ask
open-ended questions and listen. Let them vent, and at least you can say that you fielded their
opinion.
What if #3: Too many interviewers. This happened on Tuesday. There were 4 consultants
interviewing 3 people. In order to keep from tripping over ourselves, and having the conversation go
in 12 directions, we had a lead interviewer.
What if #4: No more questions to ask. Wrap up the interview, summarize some of the comments, and
end early. Always ask “Is there anything I did not cover, that you might think it relevant to this issue?”
It is a freebie question.
What if #5: Cannot remember what was said. This is why it is critical to write up the interview notes
as soon as possible, and have them passed to other people who were in the interview. They can
layer on comments, and hopefully, little detail will be lost.
It’s also a good habit to ask permission to reach out to the interviewee again – if additional questions
come up. Get their business card and don’t hesitate sending a thank you follow up email, if you
believe it is appropriate.
What if #6: Not a good place to interview. No such thing. I have interviewed people in board rooms,
hospital exam rooms, warehouses, airports, and sadly, utility closets.
Consultants are in the business of asking good questions. We conduct interviews on every
project – without fail. People want to be heard. It is also a chance to socialize some of the
recommendations. It is like the wisdom of the crowds. . . after hearing the diverse opinions of people
through interviews, you will have a better recommendation.
Once, a partner told me, “If you tell the client what they told you, they think you’re brilliant.” Very
cynical, but also very true.
12. Consulting tip: How to make a good survey

http://www.consultantsmind.com/2016/05/04/good-survey/
Consultants should use surveys more often. They are cost-effective, seemingly impartial, easy to
use, and provide data in the “touchy and feel-y” areas where data might be hard to find, collect, or
quantify. Bain, PWC, BCG, Deloitte all use surveys; see the links at the bottom of the post. Even on
this website, readers reply to surveys to give me a sense of who they are, what they read and what
they like here.
Marketers have known this for ages. A well-crafted survey can be a cost effective and
ingenious way to gather customer insights. Instead of guessing what consumers want, ask them.
Instead of asking them one at a time, send out a survey. With the advent of free tools like survey
monkey, and even real-time tools on Skype for business, surveys are ubiquitous and rightly so – they
are super useful tools.
As an example of a survey from this website, 121 readers told me anonymously how much of their
income they saved. 55% of you (67 people) saved 20% or less, while the there were 12% of you (15
people) saved more than 50% of your income. Bravo.
Surveys create data. I have written before that data is a consultant’s friend because it
is apolitical and helps you to test your theories. Surveys can create data where there was none
before. A few examples from my past:
• Testing customers’ preference on financial services
• Determining customers’ preference on software features
• Soliciting feedback on presentation materials
• Gauging interest on the venue for a Christmas party
So what makes a good survey? There are dozens of books, and courses on this topic. Even survey
monkey has some tips here. It’s a science and art, but here is my back-of-the-envelope thoughts at
1130pm on a Tuesday night:
Remember the objective: What is CTQ?

• Clarify the research objective. What are you trying to discover, and do the questions /
choices support that? If you are unclear on the problem statement, you will be lost and waste
everyone’s time.
• Think it through. Assuming you get the answer, what action will you take?
• Segment and target your audience. Make sure you are getting answers from the right
people. Mass-marketing is dead. Which tribe are you trying to target?
• Get personal with limits. If you want to segment you audience, you likely need some
information about gender, age, affiliation, geography, income-level etc.
Organize the survey logically.

• Put difficult questions in the middle. Put easy questions at the beginning (warm them up),
and at the end (when they might start getting bored, anxious). Sara P (in comments)
observes: ” think of it like a ‘difficult conversation’ with a stranger, you don’t go in and ask the
difficult questions first, you build up to it slowly“
• Make it easy for the respondent to answer (things they know and remember)
• Ask the right type of question. What type of analysis do you want to do (e.g., table, graphic,
cross-tab with other questions)? Does the question type do the job? If you want %, definitely
don’t ask open-ended questions.
Write simply.
• Use short questions with simple words. No acronyms.
• Take out bias from your questions. Don’t lead the witness to the answer you want – that is a
cheap shot, unprofessional, and sloppy work.
• Ask 1 question at a time; don’t ask 2-in-1 questions.
• Make choices clear. The choices should be Mutually-exclusives, and collectively exhaustive.
Remove ambiguity.
• Include “not applicable ” as a choice.
• Remember the 4 writing persona: madman, architect, carpenter, and judge. Spend the time to
architect the order of the questions, carpenter the wording / choices well, and be a harsh judge
and edit mercilessly. Rewrite until it’s good.
Think like a marketer. Get a good response rate.

• Call to action. Send the email with a clear title and request.
• Provide an incentive. Sometimes this is a gift card, sometimes a prize, sometimes just
sharing the results of the survey.
• Respect privacy of the respondents (and tell them your privacy policy).
• Split test; A/B test. Pretest with 2-3 different email subject lines to see which one has a
higher click through rate; then choose the best one for the big survey
Be realistic.
• Respect the readers’ time. Don’t ask unnecessary questions. Time the survey to see how
long it takes. If your survey is 10+ minutes, you are in trouble.
• Pretest the survey on your friends and colleagues. Don’t embarrass yourself with a bad
survey sent to thousands of people.
• People who take surveys are not your average person. If it is by email, they are computer-
literate, agreeable, and open to experiences. Arguably, they also have lower opportunity cost
of time; they can “afford” the time to do the survey.
Get started. The more surveys you put into the field, the more experienced and fun it will
be. Qualitrics is an industrial pro-tool, but why not sign up with Surveymonkey for free? They limit you
to 10 questions, but honestly, it’s a great and easy experience.
Readers – what other good survey advice do you have?

• Conrad (in comments) brings up the good point, “Make sure to use an even number of answer
choices, to avoid the tendency to ‘straddle the middle’”
13. What is scope creep?

http://www.consultantsmind.com/2013/01/29/scope-creep/
Scope creep = client wants more work done for the same money. Not pretty. It’s no surprise that
consultants dread it. It usually means late nights, grumpy analysts, dissatisfied clients, and potentially
lower project margins. All bad things.
In the end, it is a fancy word for misunderstanding. What the consultant and client expect the project
to deliver is different. Sometimes it is the consultant’s fault for being unclear, sometimes it is the
client’s fault for adding things on last-minute. The consultant thinks he is solving problem A, and the
client thinks the consultant agreed to solve A+B+C.
It takes all kinds of forms. This monster has many different shapes and sizes. Ask any consultant,
and he will commiserate with you about scope creep for several beers.
It happens all the time. Although it rarely derails a project completely, scope creep is like the
common house cold. It happens on every project in one form or another. Sometimes it’s just a client’s
passing suggestion and other times it’s phrased more like a demand.
Scope creep = out of control. Beyond the work and the money, I think there are other reasons why
consultants find scope creep so demoralizing. It’s a barometer that the project is not under control.
And trust me, consultants like to be in control.
Consultants are effective because clients have loaned us some of their organizational and political
clout to set the pace, nudge clients into action, and keep the takt time of the work. We have the
leverage to get things done through our interviews, workshops, surveys etc. .
So when the client question the scope of the work, well. . . . it’s a bummer. It’s like one parent being
second-guessed by the other parent in front of the kids. What will the kids think? This type of push-
back chips away at the perceived (or actual) control we have of the project. Even though clients are
advocating for the consultants to do more work, perversely, the clients are making it harder for the
work to get done.
Scope creep = longer project. Consultants like project-based work. We like the challenge of new
projects and tend to get bored doing the same thing month-after-month, or -gasp-, year-after-year.
Project work is great because it has a start / middle / end. There is a sense of accomplishment when
all the work is turned in and the client says “thank you”. Scope creep means delaying the celebration
and satisfaction of a job well done.
Remedy #1: Be smart from the beginning. Ideally, the project scope is clearly outlined in the
proposal and the statement of work (SoW). It is common for the SoW to be fairly explicit on what will
get done during the course of the project. Clients sometimes find it a bit repetitive and process-
oriented, but it is really the only thing that protects the team and keeps guard-rails on the project.
Remedy #2: Re-iterate scope. Don’t want to be too heavy-handed about this, but it’s helpful to
remind the clients of the project scope. Have them confirm your progress, and implicitly, agree on the
end point. There are subtle ways to do this too. For example, you might have a page in your interim
presentations which looks like this.
You can update it regularly to track progress. The storyline goes. . . “We finished phases 1 and 2, and
now we are focused on phase 3.” If this is the same diagram that the client saw in the SoW, even
better. The more clients see it, the less likely they will fiddle with it.
It’s like a rock climber who puts anchors in the rock as he climbs; even if he falls, he doesn’t fall that
far. In the same way, the project milestones anchor the project’s progress.
Remedy #3: Say no the right way. cope is the senior manager / partner / director’s job. They must
protect the project team and manage the client’s expectations. It only makes sense that the “boss” of
the project is the one to gently push-back on the client:
• They are usually the ones who have the client relationship
• They are the ones who approved or wrote the statement of work
• They own the project profitability and can decide to add more resources if needed
• They are the “bad cops”. The day-to-day team can stay in the client’s good graces
Remedy #4: Be flexible. There are times when it makes sense to give a little and do the extra work.
Sometimes, it doesn’t. Saying YES to clients can get consultants in trouble.
Clients want to feel like savvy buyers of consulting services. Clients want to have an answer to their
boss’ sharp question, “Did we really need to hire the consultants?” Our job is to give the client enough
value (and coaching) so they say “Yes.”
Remedy #5: Think like Ferrari. Clients pay us for our experience, objectivity and professionalism.
As Enzo Ferrari said, “The client is not always right”
14. Saying YES to clients can get consultants in

trouble
http://www.consultantsmind.com/2012/08/29/saying-yes/
It’s easy to say YES
When the client asks for something – new research, some ad-hoc analysis, an extra workshop – it
usually seems like a reasonable request. After all, they pay the bills and shouldn’t they get the most
out of their consultants?
When the consultant says YES to a new request, it may feel comfortable and collaborative. The
consultant feels like she is doing a good job listening, and the client is happy that his idea was
accepted. There is no stress, or pregnant pauses. It is the path of least resistance like water running
downhill.
Experienced consultants and lawyers will tell you there are many reasons why being overly
agreeable can create problems. Here are four of them.
False promise. It is easy to say YES in the heat of the moment, then completely forget about it. It is
the equivalent to a husband telling his wife “sure, honey”, when he was not listening (and definitely not
writing things down).
Over promise. It’s a crude graph, but it visualizes what all consultants know to be true: “under-
promise, and over-deliver”. When the client asks for 100, promise less (red bar) and deliver more
(blue bar). Sad, but true. By lowering client expectations, we have a better chance of exceeding.
Call it cynical, call it sandbagging, but it works.
Waste of time. Don’t get me wrong. Clients often give good feedback – especially when explaining the
organizational context (read: politics). I have learned something from every client. That said, every
client request is not valid. Sometimes, they are a waste of time.Remember: we are paid for our
expertise and often paid by the hour. No reason to waste the client’s money, waste our time, or worse
– put the project timing at risk.
Poor alignment. In my mind, this is the greatest danger. If the client keeps bringing up new ideas and
ad-hoc requests. . . AND the consultant keeps agreeing to them . . . something is wrong. It is a
symptom of a deeper problem:
Consultant issue
• The project plan is inadequate; key areas that were missing are getting dug up
• The right people were not involved in the beginning; new people keep popping up
• The consultant is doubting his own plan and looking for a life saving ring
Client issue
• The client is not clear what the next steps or is uncomfortable with the timeline
• The analysis has not been robust or poorly explained; the client doubts the numbers
• The client has a pre-defined solution and wants the consultant to rubber stamp it
Thinking through the client’s request
So what is a good way to think about this problem? As you probably already know, consultants love
2×2 matrix. It distills the thinking into 2 variables, and forces you to think through the problem. Here is
my take on the situation.
1. Say Yes: If the request is minor and useful – don’t think twice – say yes and get it done.
Professionally and quickly. Add value and move on. The client’s suggestion was helpful
2. Look for alternatives. If the request will take a lot of time and is relevant to the project, look for a
simpler and more elegant solution. Ask questions and understand WHY the client has this new
request. One time, I resolved a client’s concern simply by adding a short footnote at the bottom of a
Powerpoint presentation.
3. Offer to look into it. If the request is not relevant to the project, it can be a good opportunity to sell
more consulting work. Offer to explore the issue – perhaps run a bit of analysis, or do some research
– nothing serious, just some sleuthing on the topic.
4. Sell more work. Provided there is budget, this could easily be the easiest way to sell new work. It
could be a blossoming client-consultant relationship where each project is followed by another one.
Nothing sells work like doing good work.
Finding a smarter way to say NO. Any long-married husband will tell you that saying NO directly to
your wife’s request is not an efficient nor an effective way to build a relationship. Same is true with
clients. No consultant got new business by telling their client NO to his face. Find out the reasons
WHY the client is asking the new questions. It might be scope creep, but it could just as easily be
something you can solve quickly, or even sell more consulting work.
15. The best short answer to give clients, “it

depends”
http://www.consultantsmind.com/2013/05/13/the-best-short-answer-to-give-clients-it-depends/
“It depends” is a phrase you hear a lot in both business school and management consulting. To
some, it might seem like a boring half-answer, timid, or worse – mentally lazy. As weird as it might
seem, it is often the best short-answer to give a client.
1) Most problems are complex. This might seem obvious, but clients typically pay for us to solve the
difficult and persistent problems. If it were easy, it would already have been solved. Seth Godin calls
them perfect problems.
If you can answer the parts of the problem “off the cuff”, it either means you are a genius (possible), or
you are not really answering the entirety of the problem (more likely). Brainstorm through the
potential issues before you jump the gun.
Unsurprisingly, the majority of consulting works sits in the yellow area (complex problem, complex
solution). It can be a bit of a grind, but those are the type of problems that Fortune 1000 typically
have, and the type of problems we know how to solve. We can talk about the innovation and
leadership quadrant in a different post.
2) Context matters. No question is asked in a vacuum. If someone asks you if they should invest in
Linkedin (ticker symbol: LNKD), the answer is probably “it depends”:
• Time horizon: How long will you be holding the stock?
• Risk tolerance: What is your comfort buying stocks with very high PE multiples?
• Diversification: How diversified are you? Is this the only investment you have?
Another recent example of the IT DEPENDS phenomenon was the hub-bub with Marissa
Mayer banning remote work. Personally, I believe she had some good reasons (need to get Yahoo!
innovating, people were slacking etc), but at the end of the day, the answer for tel-commuting is IT
DEPENDS.
Why would someone in accounts payable (clearly defined work, little interaction with others needed)
be held to the same commuting standards as someone in product marketing (fluid work product, need
for collaboration, interaction with customers)?
3) Beware of false choices. People tend to over-simplify the situation and paint the pictures as if it
were black / white. This is also called the false dilemma. US politicians are notorious at this. Watch
any political TV ad, and it will make you sick how they set up issues as false choices (good sensible
me vs. bad crazy them).
Last week when I was on a conference call with a few people, someone argued for his point by
creating a false choice (A or B). I had to bust him on the false choice, by saying, “That’s a little
reductionist, isn’t it? What about choice C?”
4) Too often, clients want to take short-cuts. Like anyone, clients are impatient. They like the rigor
and process-focus that consultants take, but they want it done in 1/2 the time with 1/2 the fees. While
it’s good to give updates, make sure you follow the process you outlined in the proposal. Don’t forget
that you are the coach.
16. The Pyramid Principle in Consulting

http://www.consultantsmind.com/2012/06/21/pyramid-principle/
Consultants must structure their thinking. This is the only way to present your ideas clearly to
clients. One excellent tool is the pyramid principle by an ex-McKinsey consultant by the name of
Barbara Minto. She authored a book called The Minto Pyramid Principle here (affiliate link) which
essentially defined the way consultants structure most of their presentations. Most consultants will
know what the pyramid principle is, even if they don’t know the author.
Pyramid Principle: Just like the name implies, the idea is that the presentation logic looks like a
pyramid. The main recommendation is on top. It is built on mid-level recommendations, each of
which are supported by smaller facts, data, analysis, benchmarks etc . . .
In the graphic below you can see that the top of the pyramid (executive summary) has 3
recommendations. Each of those recommendations have supporting pages.
• Page 1 = executive summary
• Page 2-4 = recommendation #1 and supporting facts
• Page 5-7 = recommendation #2 and supporting facts
This type of presentation starts with the conclusion first. It is a tops-down type of thinking that is
very structured and how executives think. Big idea followed by smaller ideas. This format helps you
“cut to the chase” quickly, which is good for many reasons:
• Executives have a short attention span, so it is good to say what you want to say before they
start asking questions
• This logic is very easy to follow. “I recommend A,B,C. Recommendation A is supported by
facts 1,2,3”
• By giving them the recommendation and logic up front, it allows the audience to focus on the
areas they have the most interest
• It forces the consultant to really hone the storyline to the most essential parts (no long-winded
prose and rambling slides)
Yes, I know that most high-school term papers used a more bottom-up type of reasoning where the
punchline was at the end of the 50 page paper. Trust me, that is not how you want to present in the
boardroom. You do not want to start with lots of boring data points and save the good stuff to the end.
Caveat: Two types of presentations where you won’t use the pyramid principle:
• An interim presentation of facts: In this case, the consultant is working with the client
counterpart and walking them through information and some of the insights. Nothing too
heavy. Not a recommendation. Just information sharing.
• A leave-behind deck: Here the consultant has a presentation that is meant to truly stand-on-
its-own, so the font is smaller, and it is written in more long-form prose. It is more of a guide or
playbook, than a hard-hitting million dollar recommendation
Should I buy the book? It’s up to you. It is $135 and bit of a boring read. If inclined, you can buy it
directly from the author here. As a consulting trick, just go to amazon.com and read the 45 reviews
posted. That will get you 80% of the way there.
17. Consulting tip: 4 steps to create a PowerPoint

http://www.consultantsmind.com/2012/12/05/consultant-powerpoint/
One colleague joked that he gets to the client sites, turns on the computer and just opens up
PowerPoint – even before opening email or anything else. Like a baker who turns on the oven as
soon as he enters the kitchen. It’s a large part of what we do. Here are my 4 steps to create
powerpoint that matter.
To be clear, it is more than just making fancy graphs. There is tons of hypothesis-based
consulting, excel, interviews, benchmarking, industry research, and analysis. The presentation is just
where it all together, like the finals of a tournament. It is “game day.”
Presentation development usually comes toward the end of the project (phase). In the diagram
below, it is assumed that you have already collected the data, analyzed it, come up with some
potential solutions, and really gotten smart on the topic. Now, you are putting those great ideas on
paper so it can be communicated effectively. The presentation should be so good that your client can
use it over and over again when they sell it internally to their peers and bosses.
1a. Define the narrative. What is the story line? If you were trying to explain the project and
recommendations to your teenage niece, or the waiter at your local restaurant, how would you tell the
story? Would the punchline be at the front, or the back of the story? How important is the
background? What is the big take away?
1b. Define the presentation structure. Think of this like chapters in the a book. If you have a sense
of the narrative, how many sections does the presentation have? Is it chronological? Is organized by
geography? Sorted by function? It all depends on what you are trying to say and how the audience
thinks about the topic.
Chronology: Larger projects typically follow this structure since it is easy to follow. For example, a
large project might have a separate deliverable for each phase (1,2,3) and the final deliverable would
simply be the sum of the previous presentations. No surprise these tend to be very long, a bit boring,
but demonstrate a lot of rigor. Good “thud” factor. (the sound of the dense stack of pages hitting the
table, impressing your client)
Geographic: You see this type of presentation when the client it responsible for a geography (e.g.,
US sales, European manufacturing, Asia Pacific HR). This lens helps the client compare between
regions and weight the pro/con of centralizing or de-centralizing activities and comparing across
geographies.
As a corollary, it can also be a functional review when you are looking at the entire company or
enterprise. For example, if it were cost reduction across the entire company, it would only make sense
to review things methodically from one department to another.
Prioritization: Most executive presentations follow this format. They are shorter presentation which
are very direct, and usually target a response from the audience. Consultants use the pyramid
principle a lot with this type of approach. I believe 80% of my presentations follow this approach. Start
with the conclusion on an executive summary – which helps the executives fine tune their thinking as
they hear the supporting data.
2. Draft the content of the slides. There are entire books written on this topic, but the key point is
that you need to put meaningful stuff on the page. Don’t put crap on the page. If your content is
obvious or blah-blah marketing talk – don’t bother putting it on the page. The question you need to
constantly ask is “SO WHAT?“. If you don’t ask it, your boss will. The presentation must answer the
key questions and scope of the project.
3. Refine the slides. During this time, a lot of slides get combined, thrown away or re-invented. A
presentation is a living document, edit and refine as you go.
If the slides lack accuracy, logic or organization, you have some serious problems that need
addressing. In the same vein, you want it to be persuasive, brief and professional.
It is a bit cathartic, but you actually develop a stronger point of view the longer you refine the slides.
You cut away the fat that needs to be edited away.
This is where collaboration comes in. A partner, or senior manager will review because there are
different ways to make the slides easier to understand. It might seem trivial, but clients pay $$$$$ for
deliverables, and expectations are high. It pays to listen to feedback.
For collaboration, I believe you need 3 ingredients:

• Diversity of skills: After all, what is the use if you have the exact same skills
• Trust: If you don’t trust each other, any feedback will seem like nit-picking
• Mutual understanding of the goal, their input will be useful. Be open to the feedback
4. Socialize findings with key people. The last thing you want to do is go into a key meeting and
surprise the client with an off-base recommendation. All good consultants pre-sell their
recommendations with key people before the key meeting. Japan is the home of consensus-based
decision making and the Japanese word for this pre-selling of the decision is called “nemawashi”
which literally means “digging around the roots” to prepare a plant for transplant.
Executives are often very visual people. They have busy schedules and short attention spans.
They want to see an executive summary of 10-15 pages in PowerPoint, not a 300 page novel full of
words. Sometimes, you only have 2 hours with a CXO (CEO, CFO, COO, COO, CIO, CMO) at the
end of 4 month project – so you need to make sure that your presentation makes an impact.
Story telling. Consultants are good at a lot of different things, but in the end it always ends with a
presentation that tells a story. There has to be a narrative. Sounds idealized, but it’s all about story-
telling. Business development and sales professionals tells stories verbally. Marketers tell stories with
public relations, branding and advertising.
There was a project where the team spent almost 2 days crafting a single slide that was notoriously
named the “$10,000 slide” because that was the facetious estimation of how much consulting time
was spent putting it together. (hat tip: LB, DD). Sometimes it is that important.
18. Presentation Tips from TED’s Chris Andersen

http://www.consultantsmind.com/2013/06/07/presentation-tips-from-teds-chris-anderson/
Have you seen a TED video? If not, you should stop reading this blog right now. Instead, go
to www.TED.com and watch any of the 1,400+ videos. They are all less than 18 minutes long and
completely worth your time. Very thought-provoking.
For those who watch TED, we can all agree that those people know how to present. The talks are
informative, engaging, and delivered really well. This is doubly impressive when you realize that many
of the people are scientists, computer programmers, engineers and other people who don’t make a
living speaking publicly. Heck, even the kids are good presenters. How can a 10 year present so well
to 1,000+ people?
When I saw this article on Harvard Business Review, my geek brain got excited. Chris Anderson –
curator of TED – gives his perspective on how to give a good TED talk. He has seen hundreds of
world-class presentations. Free presentation advice. The article is long (4K words), but worth reading
in its entirety: How to Give a Killer Presentation.
15 major presentation tips from the article. Yes, consultants like lists.
• Passion – Have a point of view and care about the topic.
• Frame Your Story – The listener must be able to follow your storyline.
• Mix Data and Narrative – Using only data is boring. Using story only is weak. As he says, you
should layer data and story “like a cake.”
• Storytelling – “Humans are wired to listen to stories”. Could not agree more.
• Be specific – Don’t try to cover too much. It will be general, abstract, and boring. Give more
detail and make it real. Paint the picture.
• Let the talk progress – Treat your audience as intelligent. Let them figure things out and follow
the progression. The talk should GO somewhere.
• Ideas and stories are good – Corporate rah-rah brochure-ware is boring.
• Practice – Practice builds confidence. TED speakers practice for 6 months+
• Be conversational. Be yourself.
• Don’t move around too much, it’s distracting.
• Make eye contact with 5-6 people in the audience.
• Embrace your nervousness. It’s natural. Breathe. Use that energy. Eustress.
• Don’t read the slides. This is basic. People who do this should be scolded.
• Don’t use slides (uh, this is an unlikely one in consulting world)
• Get feedback, but not too much. It’s easy to get too much conflicting advice.
4 more presentation tips from Consultantsmind (not from the article):

• Pause. I told the story here of how my company paid for coaching on presentation skills and it
essentially boiled down to the benefits of breathing.
• Get personal. Connect with the audience by revealing a little bit about your personal side. Be
willing to make fun of yourself a little. Self-deference.
• Go with it. Unlike TED, most consulting presentations are to groups of 3-10 people. You can
read the energy in the room, reference previous jokes, and build on the group think / group
momentum. Be in the moment.
• Have fun. With all this preparation, if your heart is not in it, if you are not glad to be there
sharing your idea – there is a problem. Enjoy it.
19. Slideology 2: Use diagrams to tell stories

http://www.consultantsmind.com/2016/11/21/slideology-2/
This is the second section review of Duarte’s Slideology (affiliate link). This agency has become a
sensation after they did Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth presentation and also a famous TED talk here.
Chapter 2 – Create ideas, not slides. I will largely skip this chapter as the idea of brainstorming,
understanding the WHY, sketching out the storyline, and getting feedback are not new concepts for
readers of this blog. The main points of this chapter:
Simplicity is the essence of clear communication. – Duarte
The best place to start is not the computer. A pencil and a sheet of paper will do nicely. – Duarte
Chapter 3 – Create diagrams. If you agree with Duarte’s argument that page-after-page of bullet
points and text are a bad idea (as I do), then you need thoughtful diagrams to show relationships
between things and move the story along.
Diagrams (or frameworks) provide scaffolding for the story. What comes first? What comes last? Is
there some correlation or causality? While you don’t want to be to be so heavy-handed that the
audience feels you are going through an outline, you do want some organization. If not, the audience
may feel like you are giving them a box of Trivia Pursuit facts. It’s can be disorienting and painful.
On Duarte’s website here, they show 4,000+ different diagrams, but they are largely bucketed into 6
main categories or archetypes. Consultants will find this all very familiar territory because we do this
everyday; we put things in buckets, prioritize them, and making the complex simple. See some
examples of each of the types below and my personal (arguably conservative) view on them. There
are many more versions of these diagrams, but please find some basic interpretations below.
3-1. Flow – Linear. You see one of these in EVERY proposal and EVERY project kick-off
presentation. It explains the different phases and what will happen when. This also scopes the project,
so the client does not expect #3 activities at the beginning.
3-2. Flow – Circular. Also very common in any lean/six sigma presentation. Continuous improvement
never ends (ergo – a circle). PDSA. PDCA. DMAIC.
3-3. Flow – Divergent / Convergent. These can be a bit heavy-handed if you are not careful. In the
book, Duarte shows several “diverging” diagrams that look like the 4-way stop sign below. It tells me
nothing. It whines, “Lots going on. . .can’t explain it.” Honestly, if a path breaks into 2-3 options – no
need for nuanced graphics – just list them out. In contrast, the diagram on the right is super
simple. Two forces are opposing each other. Got it.
3-4. Flow – Multi-directional. Okay, some of these examples in the book are too germane. . .arrows
and boxes pointing in different direction. Gives a sense of chaos. No fancy graphic needed to show
complexity. After all, the client already knows its complicated and multi-factorial – that’s why they hired
a consultant. No need to state the obvious with more PowerPoint.
However, this is also where Duarte categories process flow maps – which probably deserve as
chapter entirely to itself. These are bread-and-butter consulting tools. Over the course of a career, you
will make hundreds of these on PowerPoint and Visio.
3-5. Structure – Matrices – In normal person parlance, these are tables. Simple grids with something
at the top, and something on the left. Easy to read, easy to understand. Useful tables.
3-6. Structure – Trees – Duarte describes these as frameworks which show relationships between
people or ideas. For me, these come in two major flavors:
Fishbone or Ishikawa diagrams are common ways to show the grouping of lower-level symptoms by

larger root causes. As you can see below, there might be 50+ reasons for high supply chain costs, but
this method forces you to group similar issues and elevate the major causes into the “ribs” of the
fishbone (e.g., resources, strategy, communication, etc). In another post, I decomposed the causes of
Detroit’s bankruptcy trouble here.
Organization chart. Another “branch” or “tree” diagram is the (in)famous organization chart. We all
know what this looks like. . .
3-7. Structure – Layers – Duarte describes these as diagrams which show hierarchy or progression,
which I use most often in maturity models. You can see a very unscientific, yet practical structure I put
together on what a good resume looks like. . . starts with the basic achievements, but should also be
quantified, organized, and hopefully, a good story.
3-8. Cluster – Overlapping, Closure, Enclosed, Linked – This will be brief because I found the 48
examples she gave on this section to bear a goofy resemblance to clip art and not very insightful.
Think of these as multiple version of a typical Venn Diagram where you are mixing, matching,
grouping, sets of smaller items. Jessica Hagy has some really funny ones here. Yes, they can be
rectangles.
3-9. Abstract – Radiate from a point, with a core, without a core. These vary from a yin/yang
symbol, to a sunflower, to a pentagon. They shows relationships one-to-may, or many-to-many. The
famous McKinsey 7S is one example. In the end, it provides a nice template from which consultants
can analyze complex problems with multiple, interdependent factors. You will often see these
on proposals where the adviser does not know the specific problem yet, but wants to give an idea of
where they might look.
3-10. Realistic Concepts – Pictorial. The 36 examples given in the book look a lot like clip art, which
I have an oddly strong disdain for. Don’t use clip art.
3-11. Realistic Concepts – Displaying Data – Comparison. Okay, this is getting into bread-and-
butter consulting here. Finding smart ways to analyze data, then represent it in compelling ways to
motivate change . . is what we do. Some key questions to address:
• When to use a bar chart instead of a histogram?
• When to use a stacked chart?
• How to best label an axis?
• What does a misleading chart look like?
• When to use a pie chart?
3-12. Realistic Concepts – Displaying Data – Trends. As a consultant – lots of important

considerations when showing trends:
• What is the time frame of the data?
• What is the sample size (n=)?
• What should be emphasized with color or call out?
• If I show an “average” do I show median, mean, or mode?
3-13. Realistic Concepts – Displaying Data – Distribution. For the engineers out there, I don’t
need to recount all of them to you, but to name a few: scatterplots, spider charts, histograms. A great
way to get smart on charts and graphs is simply reading the Economist.
Chapter 4: Displaying Data. Everything she wrote in this chapter does not need paraphrasing. . .it is
excellent in its quotable form. All words in blue from the author:
When it comes to displaying data in your presentation, you must adhere to one principle above all
others: clarity.
Data slides are not about the data. They are about the meaning of the data.
Use the following 5 principles to present your data in the clearest possible way: 1) Tell the truth 2) Get
to the point 3) Pick the right tool for the job 4) Highlight what’s important 5) Keep it simple.
20. Consulting templates: visualize what you say

http://www.consultantsmind.com/2015/12/11/consulting-templates/
PowerPoint. Over the last 20 years, there are very few days when I have not worked in PowerPoint.
Sad, but true. Even when I am not creating one, I am often reading investor relations presentations or
analyst reports. Pay attention to strong presentations. Collect them. See how authors structure data.
Yesterday, I worked with my team on a 40 page PowerPoint. The first 10 pages was the
executive summary – building an argument for the executive to take action and explaining WHAT,
WHY. The remaining 30 pages were the details – HOW, WHEN, HOW MUCH, and WHO. It is not a
final deliverable yet, but getting there.
It was an assessment so the content was diverse – different functional areas, different time frames,
different stakeholders. All good. Consultants like diversity, we get bored. Here are a few templates
(just structuring of the page). Here are a few scrubbed pages show how use the visual layout to tell
the story. Consulting =storytelling.
Showing a process. Similar to the DMAIC format of SIPOC, we used this at the beginning of the

current project to emphasize the key activities needed in the middle. This can be a drum-beat of a
visual; use it to tell the team, and the client, where you are and where you are headed. Like road-
signs, tell the passenger where they are headed.
• Use parallel wording; all bullets start with verbs or nouns
• Use PowerPoint language (phrases with only the most impactful words)
Showing a stage/gate. When we were projecting phase 1 and phase 2 of different workstreams, I

usually use something simple, a bit reductionist like it. Yes, you can use Visio – many on my team do
– but I find that clients don’t prefer it. It’s hard for them to edit, its less visual, and honestly for their
purposes, too detailed. Yes, it shows rigor, but at the expense of visibility, clarity, and power,
• Don’t add more complexity than is necessary
• Don’t use more colors than is useful; McKinsey was black and white for a long time
• Increase the font size so it is legible; most of your readers are in their 50s and 60s
Draw out relationships. Need to be a little careful here because thoughtful organizational design is a
separate project with specific methodology to do it right. That said, a lot can be done to delineate the
responsibilities between different roles. Too often, there is confusion in decision-rights and who has
the authority to make what decisions. Simplify.
Sequence of activities. There are multiple ways to show sequencing of activities, but this one below
has the benefit of showing specific activities #1-8 and when they occur. One word of caution on this
time of page is that it can look like an appendix page. . . with too many facts and tidbits of data, and
not enough of a message. Don’t be afraid to put a kicker box at the bottom to reiterate your point.
Comparing current and future. A lot of consulting is showing the client the gap between what they
want to be (future) and where they are now (current). Maturity models are particularly useful for this
purpose, but you can also use a simple table like the one below to show the transition. Remember,
people are very good at recognizing patterns.
The majority of our pages have texts, data analysis, and graphs which support arguments. That said,
don’t hesitate using tables, frameworks, templates, and visuals to get your point across. Your clients
will appreciate it. You can put the boring, text-heavy information in the appendix.
21. Negotiations: Clients hire consultants to get to

“yes”
http://www.consultantsmind.com/2012/12/06/get-to-yes/
Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In (affiliate link) is arguably the most
famous book written on negotiations. It was written by Roger Fisher and William Ury in 1981 and has
been compulsory reading for negotiations classes at Washington, Columbia, Texas, Princeton,
Rutgers, MIT and other universities for 30 years. More importantly, it has been endorsed by people
who use these lessons daily – diplomats, lawyers, and business people. This stuff works.
This book makes four arguments. When you read them, you will find them very straight-forward,
and almost a little too obvious. Who does not know this, right? Well, to be truthful, Fortune 500
organizations have a terrible time implementing these simple things and, as a result, often hire
management consultant for help.
• People: Separate the people from the problem
• Interests: Focus on interests, not positions
• Options: Generate a variety of possibilities before deciding what to do
• Criteria: Insist that the results be based on some objective standard
1. Separate the people from the problem. People have emotions, bias, ego and history – so it is no
wonder that mundane business problems are often actually people problems. I have been on several
projects where we were hired to lend objectivity, arbitrate a disagreement between departments, or
simply bridge a gap in communications. You see this type of communication breakdown very
frequently between Sales and Marketing. See Professor Philip Kotler’s take on this cross-functional
dysfunction here.
Republicans and Democrats demonize each other. One of the many reasons for the political
impasse in Washington nowadays is the each side (both Republican and Democrat) see the other
side as dogmatic, simplistic and self-serving. No wonder they have trouble negotiating when they see
the other side as evil.
In the 1980s, it was different. President Ronald Reagan and Speaker of the House Tip O’Neil were
fierce opponents who disagreed on most policy issues, and yet, were friends who shared dinners and
drinks. In a Washington Post article by Chris Matthews here, he recalls a brief exchange with
President Reagan:
• Chris Matthews: “Mr. President, welcome to the room where we plot against you,”
• Ronald Reagan: “Oh, no, not after 6,” he replied. “The speaker says that here in Washington
we’re all friends after 6.”
2. Focus on interests not on positions. Too often, people speak in absolutes and say things like “I
will always do XYZ” or “We will never ABC“. They frame the discussion in terms of “their position” as if
it were written in stone. Clearly, this is not really a negotiation so much as a confrontation. It becomes
a zero-sum game – where one person’s gain can only be at the other person’s loss.
Positions over-simplify the problem. When dealing with a complex problem – reducing the federal
deficit, protecting the environment, reducing crime, alleviating poverty – it seems a bit laughable to
think that there is a silver bullet, or singularly perfect solution, or a correct “position” to take on the
issue. Complex problems require hard thought, collaboration, leadership and a lot of hard work.
“For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.“ – H.L.
Menken
Instead, think in terms of interests. The goals for a negotiation can be numerous, different,
complementary, or even competing. They are not discrete points on a graph, but more like a Venn
diagram of two (hopefully over-lapping) circles. As all Venn diagrams imply, we are looking for the
space in the middle that represents a win-win, or at least a mutually beneficial compromise.
3. Generate options before deciding. Sometimes clients jump to conclusions because they have
been in the industry for 20-30 years, or because “it has always been done that way”. Consultants are
more willing to start with a blank white sheet of paper.
Consultants are really good at this because they spend the time getting the data and really thinking
through the problem. At the beginning of a project, we open the lens very widely and let in all the
potential variables and look for hypotheses everywhere.
• We brainstorm new ideas; at this stage no ideas are ruled out
• We keep asking “why” until we get to core reason
• We dig until we get to the root causes and find out what the real drivers are
• We interview people up & down the org chart
• We reach out to industry experts who know the larger trends
• We look for points of comparisons and benchmarks
It’s very common for consultants to structure multiple options for the client to choose from. This
acknowledges that there are multiple potential solutions, but there are trade-offs. It really depends on
the clients’ time frame, appetite for risk, budget, and conviction. There is often 1 primary
recommendation, but multiple implementation options.
4. Insist that the decision be made using objective criteria. One of the best ways to drive
consensus is to create evaluation criteria and make the client stick to it. For a strategic sourcing
engagement, there is typically a request-for-proposal (RFP) for vendors and a RFP evaluation form
that clients use to rate the vendors’ proposal. As I wrote in post, you can use this to evaluate a home
you plan to purchase, or even your favorite Presidential candidate.
I have done this many ways. Sometimes, we use surveys or even pass out evaluation criteria
checklists during a meeting. This is the same way you would approach a maturity model.
Sadly, politicians don’t heed the basic instructions found in this best-seller. It is as if they were
reading an anti-book called Sinking to No, or somehow reading the book upside down. There it too
much demonizing of the other party, too much talk of unalterable positions, very little brainstorming of
new solutions. They say and do things that make it nearly impossible to solve America’s most
pressing problems.
Learn negotiation from married people. Anyone married for more than 10 years can vouch for Ury’s
advice. You have to know what is important, look for win-win solutions, and use some strategic
compromise for the sake of the relationship. In a long-term relationship, a short-term harsh win is
often a long-term lose. All husbands know this.
THANKS FOR READING
Hopefully these tools can help you on your way to being a better consultant.
Make sure to subscribe for updates at www.consultantsmind.com
And for quick information, news, & tips, follow me on Twitter @consultantsmind

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1. Why consultants love best practices 3

Note: This material is © Consultant’s Mind, 2018.

No duplication without express permission of author.

Best practices are like good hiking trails. . .

Best practices are like powerful telescopes. . .

Danger: Best practices can also be like cookie cutters. . .

4Ps: Fundamentally, marketing is about Promoting and distributing (Place) a Product to customers at

3. What is gap analysis?

Harder than it sounds, for lots of reasons. . .

Gotta set 2 goals.

4. Consultant’s tool: what is a maturity model?

Clients do not always know what is wrong

Maturity model basics

#1: Shouldn’t the target be level 5 (highest capability) for everything?

#2: What is the criteria for the maturity levels?

#3: Isn’t this all just subjective opinion?

#5: Isn’t this a big marketing tool?

#6: Are there other formats of maturity models?

#7: What happens after the maturity model?

RACI (or RASCI) is an abbreviation for:

6. Logical structuring: consultants use buckets

7. Consulting proposals: 12 common mistakes

Stupid and sloppy

8. Consulting basics: what is a SOW?

The SOW answers the top questions the client has about the project:

Avoid jargon and consulting-back-speak as much as possible. Don’t be a consulting stereotype.

9. DMAIC: A great consulting tool

We use because it is simple, logical, and a good starting point.

10. SIPOC: consulting framework to untangle

11. How consultants interview clients

12. Consulting tip: How to make a good survey

Remember the objective: What is CTQ?

Organize the survey logically.

Think like a marketer. Get a good response rate.

Readers – what other good survey advice do you have?

13. What is scope creep?

14. Saying YES to clients can get consultants in

It’s easy to say YES

Thinking through the client’s request

15. The best short answer to give clients, “it

16. The Pyramid Principle in Consulting

17. Consulting tip: 4 steps to create a PowerPoint

For collaboration, I believe you need 3 ingredients:

18. Presentation Tips from TED’s Chris Andersen

4 more presentation tips from Consultantsmind (not from the article):

19. Slideology 2: Use diagrams to tell stories

Simplicity is the essence of clear communication. – Duarte

Fishbone or Ishikawa diagrams are common ways to show the grouping of lower-level symptoms by

3-12. Realistic Concepts – Displaying Data – Trends. As a consultant – lots of important

20. Consulting templates: visualize what you say

Showing a process. Similar to the DMAIC format of SIPOC, we used this at the beginning of the

Showing a stage/gate. When we were projecting phase 1 and phase 2 of different workstreams, I

21. Negotiations: Clients hire consultants to get to

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