Page 250 - SKU-000506274_TEXT.indd

Once you have the consultant’s attention you might wish to ask:

n What have you learned about our important customers?
n Who would you rate as our most threatening competitor(s)?
n Have you ever tried to talk to our call-centre? What did you

conclude?
n What do you think of our website?
n What do you think of the places where we sell our products?
n Who would you consider to be the experts on our industry?

You may or may not receive real pearls of wisdom in response to these
questions, but you will at least know that they either have, or have not,
taken the trouble to do a little homework.

mini case study

the “lost” Australian

When George Feiger was heading McKinsey in the United Kingdom he quickly
assessed that British people, having been the recipients of appalling soap operas from
Australia tended to assume that Australians were not the brightest lamps in the street.
When visiting a potential client, George took advantage of this undeserved low
opinion by getting “lost” on his way to the meeting. As he asked his way he chatted
to a random sample of employees and he would add their comments about the firm
to his understanding of the industry, the firm’s reputation among suppliers and
customers and the strengths and weaknesses of competition. He had done his
homework and then put a little cream onto the top of the trifle. As a result he reached
the meeting almost certainly better informed about real attitudes in the organization
than were the directors he was to address.

If you want to hire consultants that can fast-track the learning process and show a
real interest in your business the “lost” Australian might be the role model for those
that you hire. So ask questions such as the above that will assure you that the
consultants that you are hiring have taken the trouble to learn a little about your
business. If they take the trouble to learn before billing you, they are likely to be quick
learners when you are paying them to learn – and you nearly always have to pay them
to learn about the specifics of your business.

The learning curve costs money – and it is your money

When I was running a consultancy in the USA the delight that the client
experienced at the end of an assignment was often less influential on their
decision to hire us again when something bigger and better turned up than
the simple fact that they did not have to pay us to learn about their busi-
ness a second time. They would add to their brief something along the lines

When others have the answers 219