Solo Consultants: Managing Your Clients
Ian and Mikes solopreneur discussion progresses to the pivotal theme of client managment. We talk about qualification and the dangers of accepting poor-fit clients. We discuss how solo consultants possess the unique advantage of selectively choosing their clientele, which can lead to greater satisfaction and success in their endeavors. Throughout the episode, there is a consistent call for consultants to adopt a mindset that prioritizes quality over quantity in client relationships. The podcast underscores the necessity for consultants to develop emotional intelligence, resilience, and effective communication skills, especially when navigating challenging client interactions or even terminating unproductive relationships.
Transcript
Foreign.
Speaker B:Welcome to the Consulting for Humans podcast.
Speaker A:You're with Ian and with Mike.
Speaker B:And in today's episode, just like each one that came before, we'll be exploring a topic that gets to the heart of what makes consultants like you happy and successful.
Speaker A:On the Consulting for Humans podcast, it's our mission to add just a little more humanity to the lives of consultants.
Speaker A:And we'd love to bring some of the skills and perspectives of consulting to human lives too.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker B:So if you're a consultant who's trying to be more of a human or a human trying to be more of a consultant, then we think you are just our kind of person.
Speaker B:Now, this is episode two of our three part series on solo consultants, what we've called solopreneurs, people operating independent consulting businesses.
Speaker B:Last week, Mike, we were talking about managing ourselves, managing the individual.
Speaker B:Today we're going to be talking about how solo consultants successfully manage their clients.
Speaker B:So talk us through some of the things that we're going to be hitting on today.
Speaker A:Well, like we did last week, Ian will start with why independent consultants often fail in this area.
Speaker A:Fail as it relates to clients.
Speaker A:We'll talk about things like the importance of lead generation, getting, if you will, the right.
Speaker A:I've got those in air quotes, the right clients, undercharging and over delivering.
Speaker A:So things like that.
Speaker B:Yeah, we're going to talk about what contributes to success in managing clients once we've got them, onboarding expectation setting, managing those tricky client situations and unlocking the secret power that particularly solo consultants have.
Speaker A:Yeah, and I think we're going to sprinkle in a little bit about important attitudes, some other important knowledge like the knowledge of how and when to fire a client.
Speaker B:Oh, one of my favorite subjects.
Speaker B:Little done, but often thought about.
Speaker B:Mike, let's talk a little bit more then about solo consultants and what makes them successful.
Speaker B:When we were putting the show together, we came across a really interesting research article by the consultancy Eden McCallum.
Speaker B:By the way, Eden McCallum have some skin in the game of who's doing what in consulting.
Speaker B:But even so, their research findings were interesting.
Speaker B:They collaborated with London Business School and they surveyed 307 US and European independent consultants and at the same time a sample of 94 traditionally employee consultants.
Speaker B:And we get some interesting takeaways there about the success and the well being of those two different groups.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:We did, Ian, and it was interesting.
Speaker A:I think the article was called something like, something like about consultants quitting and going independent.
Speaker A:But what we found was that 90% proactively started the business.
Speaker A:Only 10% did this because they had left or been dismissed from a consultant.
Speaker A:And that 90% figure we hear, again, it's the number who report that they're satisfied working as solos.
Speaker A:They're actually, compared to their traditional counterparts, more satisfied than those counterparts with their current professional life.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So it's not just about the money and making the margin.
Speaker B:It's about the satisfaction with the work as well.
Speaker B:That's fascinating.
Speaker A:Yeah, and they are satisfied with the money as well.
Speaker A:They're meeting their target days.
Speaker A:They're earning more, or at least the same as when they were employed, despite working fewer days.
Speaker B:Okay, and how about the quality of the work?
Speaker A:Well, they say that compared to when they were at traditional consulting firms.
Speaker A:As a matter of fact, 91% said it offers a better value for money for clients.
Speaker A:And two thirds said their recommendations were more likely to be implemented when they were doing recommendations with their traditional consulting firms.
Speaker B:So far, it's a win all round for anybody who's got the skills and the confidence to get out of traditional consulting and find a place as a solo or an independent.
Speaker B:And Mike, it seems like people are gratified in their work.
Speaker B:They're making a good economic return.
Speaker B:They're providing a better service to their clients.
Speaker B:This is good news for clients as well as for the folks who are listening today.
Speaker A:Right, yeah.
Speaker A:And I was fascinated.
Speaker A:One of the things they did is they said, what do these people value?
Speaker A:Why do they do this work?
Speaker A:And they both samples value great client work.
Speaker A:Intellectual challenge, flexibility and control to choose where, when, and with whom they work.
Speaker A:And a good work life balance.
Speaker A:But while they both said these were our highest rated the things that we value, many of the traditional consultants said that their satisfaction self reported satisfaction level with each of these was significantly lower than the self reported satisfaction value of solo practitioners.
Speaker A:So, like the same things, but the solos are saying, I'm getting a lot more and a lot better of that now.
Speaker B:Interesting.
Speaker B:And it's no coincidence that you and I have stayed in the solo world for a number of decades now.
Speaker B:It's nice to hear it confirmed.
Speaker B:Mike, this is all great for like middle aged guys like you and me.
Speaker B:Are there any other groups that are doing well or having any particular takeaways in terms of their success as solo consultants?
Speaker A:Well, this is one of the things that really lit me up in this study.
Speaker A:Interestingly, there is another group that's particular particularly interested in solo consulting and that's women solo practitioners who, you know, particularly appreciated the flexibility of being able to do this and the income.
Speaker A:So I'll just give a quote from the report.
Speaker A:Consultants self reported full time equivalent salary information indicated that women are more fairly compensated once they go independent.
Speaker A:Specifically it reads or our survey data revealed a 28% gender pay gap for those employed in a traditional firm.
Speaker A:But this gap closes to 3% when these same individuals are working independently.
Speaker B:Yeah, I think that's a great outcome and that's progress to me.
Speaker B:I think there are sacrifices to do with going solo and it's not for everybody.
Speaker B:But if it helps women in our workforce to get a work life balance that is fair to them and gets them fairly paid for their work, I think it's great.
Speaker B:It's interesting that people want to compare rates between solos and independents.
Speaker B:We've talked a bit about this with some of our clients.
Speaker B:Comparing rates can be a bit of a trap comparing what looks like the day rate between a large firm and a small firm.
Speaker B:We are big fans of the idea that value is the key, not just day rate and not just the equivalent of time.
Speaker B:We might talk some more about that in a second.
Speaker B:I think Mike, it also might be the case that solo firms are less vulnerable to the temptation of doing any old work to fill time.
Speaker B:I've certainly seen some big firms and big practices where they seem to be behaving like any revenue is good revenue.
Speaker B:And I think maybe in the right economic circumstances a solo consultant can be a bit more savvy about turning away work.
Speaker B:That would just be handle churning.
Speaker B:That would just be routine and low margin provided always Mike, that they can keep a healthy pipeline and they aren't forced into taking just any old work just in order to live and put food on the table.
Speaker B:So there are personal benefits.
Speaker B:There are even client benefits to independent consulting.
Speaker B:Mark, are there any traps here at all?
Speaker B:What should we be watching out for?
Speaker A:Yeah, and I think you nailed it, Ian.
Speaker A:You were talking about what people loved and what they did.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And as far as key client related reasons why solo consulting businesses fail, insufficient pipeline management comes way high on the list.
Speaker A:That failure to maintain a consistent flow of new opportunities while serving current clients.
Speaker A:It's that old feast and famine kind of thing that we see in firms.
Speaker A:But with Solo you are wearing the multiple hats as we talked about in managing Self last week.
Speaker A:And the people who don't do what you just suggested earlier often fail more on a regular basis.
Speaker A:That inadequate client qualification here, specifically working with clients who are poor fits for your expertise or working style.
Speaker A:So kind of think bringing that into account rather than which is what we usually see at a traditional firm.
Speaker A:There's no proposal that I wouldn't think about bidding on.
Speaker A:As we know, even our business and our clients at our some of our coaching things who think that way really lose a lot of margin and value and have much less in terms of that valued experience of working with clients and making things happen and adding value.
Speaker A:Same thing can happen to solopreneurs as well.
Speaker A:Luckily it typically doesn't.
Speaker A:And part of that may be Darwinian that when you do a lot of that, you usually don't succeed.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Well, go back to our, what was it, two or three year survival stats that we talked about last week.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:Maybe those of us who are making it into year four, five and six are the ones who are finding it easy and profitable to say yes to valuable clients and finding it easy also to say no to work that doesn't really fit.
Speaker B:I think being forced to accept a bad fit client is an economic penalty when you're in a big firm.
Speaker B:It's a personal emotional penalty as well.
Speaker B:When you're working for yourself.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker B:Being able to do that consistently to be able to qualify your work is something that we solos still need to pay attention to, I think.
Speaker A:Yeah, and you're right.
Speaker A:I think a lot of some of the stuff that we're going to talk about today that's so important, lack of a systems, lack of follow up, inconsistent income forces us to accept bad fit clients.
Speaker A:I think one of the big ahas in my independent consulting career was reading a book and it was a book about marketing and it was a book about running your solo business.
Speaker A:But they painted this picture in the first chapter about kind of fit thinking of your business like a really high end club, if you will.
Speaker A:And they set the scene of there's a bouncer here with a list of people, there's a red velvet rope who's going to get into the club.
Speaker A:And they weren't meaning to be snobby or anything, but they did say so what are your standards for who gets into the club of your business, if you will, that not all clients are equally good.
Speaker A:They're not good for you, they're not good for the work, they're not good for the value create, they're not good for your progression or the client's progression or value.
Speaker A:And that idea of wait a minute, I was think early on my mindset was I got to make sure I'm the only one.
Speaker A:And if there's something that smells like a lead, if there's something that Smells like some business.
Speaker A:Even if I'm just making sure to keep my hours and days full.
Speaker A:Thinking about hours again and rates, not just value.
Speaker A:That was a mistake.
Speaker A:And, boy, that was a big, wonderful change for me.
Speaker B:So ability to qualify and be a bit selective about the work that we accept, I think is an important factor for our success.
Speaker B:I think it's a bit of a trap as well for solos to get too dependent on one client.
Speaker B:I remember working, working with somebody who was actually being hired back into the big firm that I was with at the time, and he had spent five apparently successful years out as an independent, and he said, I just got fed up.
Speaker B:I would have.
Speaker B:I had one client and I had one service offering and I was bored.
Speaker B:And it wasn't giving me what I needed.
Speaker B:So being too dependent on one client is a bit of a risk for us.
Speaker B:It certainly leads to an imbalance of power and status.
Speaker B:It can certainly lead to stagnant growth or even the risk of big periods of downtime.
Speaker B:And it's.
Speaker B:It's a vulnerability, and I hope, fingers crossed, I've managed to avoid too much of that.
Speaker B:But it's the downside that you get from success, from getting a big annuity client.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:As a solo, you can end up dependent on them really quickly.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And depending on what you're doing with that client, you could really get out of the habit of learning and challenging yourself and stepping outside your comfort zone, which is going to ultimately be really important.
Speaker A:Another, I think reason for failure is poor client communication.
Speaker A:And, you know, that's failure in any traditional consulting or solo consulting.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:But sometimes we get a little too busy or we're kind of taking things for granted.
Speaker A:Or it may be when we've got that one client and we're expecting that everything's known.
Speaker A:And then we get into bad habits and we have a new client and we create missed expectations or the lack of expectations or the failure to set them.
Speaker A:You know, we set ourselves up for diminishing, not building our trust and getting a lot more churn in the work that we're taking on.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And we've got some thoughts coming up on how to fix that.
Speaker B:We think a key moment for addressing this could be right at the beginning of the engagement.
Speaker B:But we'll come back to that.
Speaker B:Another factor that I've seen holding companies back.
Speaker B:I've seen it anecdotally and I've read about it in the research as well, is this old chestnut of undercharging and over delivering.
Speaker B:I don't think that Solos are the only ones in the market that have this problem.
Speaker B:Every consultant has this problem.
Speaker B:It's the age old scope problem.
Speaker B:But there is certainly the risk that when it's your own work and you're probably super invested in it and you're trying to be super self reliant, you can end up with undercharging and over delivering, resulting in burnout and you resenting your clients, which is a really bad outcome.
Speaker B:And it just becomes unsustainable.
Speaker B:Now we've spent a lot of time talking to clients in our coaching programs about developing new business, about qualifying, about being selective, and about earning a fee that reflects your true value as a consultant, not just a day rate.
Speaker B:And if that rings a bell with you, and if you're listening as one of the folks that recently joined with us at the business conference in Miami, if you're joining our June win big coaching program, then you're welcome.
Speaker B:And you know what we're talking about here.
Speaker B:So we might come back to the whole topic of client acquisition at another time.
Speaker B:But Mike, first of all, let's assume for a second that we have a brand new client, we have a freshly inked purchase order and we're ready to deliver.
Speaker B:What's going on at those, those first moments of truth?
Speaker A:Well, I think what we've seen often and learned from the research as well is what's going on in successful solopreneurs is some really good client onboarding and expectation setting here and not trying to make this up as we go along each time, but really developing a standardized onboarding process with clear milestones so you're not having just think this over and over again.
Speaker A:And by doing that, you're always learning and updating your protocol, your process for doing this.
Speaker B:I think this is a great moment to pretend like you're a bigger firm.
Speaker B:Insist on a bit of formality, insist on some checklisting.
Speaker B:That means includes taking care of the relationship.
Speaker B:That includes making sure you get a good kickoff.
Speaker B:That includes making sure that the financial admin and billing and stuff is taken care of.
Speaker B:Pretend like you're a big firm because it really sets some important stakes in the ground.
Speaker B:I think every consultant should be good at running a kickoff.
Speaker B:It's tempting though for a solo consulting firm to say, well do you know what?
Speaker B:They know me and I know them and I know what need doing.
Speaker B:So I'm just going to start with the doing all the classic consulting stuff about making sure we understand objectives, we understand metrics of success.
Speaker B:All of that becomes important in its own Right.
Speaker B:I think when we are solos, but we need to set discussion points for scope changes.
Speaker B:We need to set what the protocol is going to be for any change requests that come along.
Speaker B:Because sometimes we have to work hard to get the status to make those kind of things happen later in the life of the project.
Speaker A:Yeah, I agree.
Speaker A:And I think there's some intangibles that are important in either world, but particularly important with solo consultants.
Speaker A:We're going to talk later about how we have this great opportunity to be closer to our clients.
Speaker A:But along with that, this idea about how are we going to work together, because that's unique for different people, it's unique for us.
Speaker A:It's unique for our different clients and different individuals within a client.
Speaker A:So making sure we understand things like communication preferences and boundaries and are establishing them both ways, as well as taking advantage of that ability to have a little bit more intimate knowledge about the individuals we're working with.
Speaker B:So, Mike, if we're going to be careful about saying we'll have a disciplined onboarding process and we'll have some formality about the client kickoff.
Speaker B:Are there any particular questions that we should be asking?
Speaker B:Any particular topics that we can dig into, especially as solo consultants?
Speaker A:Well, one of them, I think, is communication and cadence management.
Speaker A:There are many things we want to do, but this is one again we can set up right from the get go and get right.
Speaker A:And there's some really, really deep value here in particularly one aspect I think we can zero in on.
Speaker A:Ian, what about you?
Speaker A:What's the real payoff in communications, cadence and management?
Speaker B:Well, for me, it's going back into their why.
Speaker B:You know, if you've worked with us on any of our programs, we really are passionate about understanding the why, the rationale, the reasons why clients are asking for our help.
Speaker B:It's very common for us to do loss reviews, like calling the client to ask for feedback when we didn't get the deal.
Speaker B:For solos, there's an even better opportunity to have a win review, ask the client why they did go with us.
Speaker B:We have so much supposition in our heads about why they choose to go with us and not a big firm.
Speaker B:We have so much supposition in our heads about what their buying criteria were.
Speaker B:Having a win review going and asking the client, why did you go with us?
Speaker B:What was the proposition for you?
Speaker B:What made the biggest difference?
Speaker B:There's a really big payoff.
Speaker B:If nothing else, it means we know what to focus on in our pre sales conversations, in our pitching and our documentation and our proposing there's, there's margin for us in doing more of that more efficiently and cutting out some of the stuff that doesn't make a difference.
Speaker B:I think it also sets the tone within the client that we are going to be listening at all of the key stages for ongoing feedback.
Speaker B:Like I say, it's very easy to drop back as a solo into the kind of friendly just you and me together mentality, but to show that we're going to keep coming back to them to ask for feedback, to ask for chances to learn.
Speaker B:I think that's a really important part of the communication strategy for everything that we do as consultants.
Speaker B:Even more than when we're, when we're in a large firm.
Speaker A:I absolutely agree with you again, and we've got that opportunity.
Speaker A:I mean, how many folks in a traditional firm, we drop the usual client SAT survey at the end, perhaps even have a third party do that.
Speaker A:And we do that routinely.
Speaker A:And all the learning that we miss out on and the idea of we may talk about that need to do a follow up post engagement, not just immediately, but on an ongoing basis.
Speaker A:So how's that working out for them?
Speaker A:What are they finding?
Speaker A:What else is going on?
Speaker A:What are the new challenges?
Speaker A:What are the new opportunities?
Speaker A:I mean, there's such a rich learning that comes from that as well as a great way to truly establish that relationship and that ongoing value and to stay in front and on top of mind with our clients so that as other opportunities and challenges present themselves, we're in the mix of their thinking as somebody that might be able to help them with that, but doing it first with the client's interest in mind and the creation of value, not with the, you know, oh, this is Mike calling again for his quarterly have you got any business for me call?
Speaker B:Or even worse, this is Mike calling for a five star review.
Speaker B:Can I have a five star review?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Amen to that.
Speaker B:Right, so Mike, you said that there are going to be some key moments when there are chances for us to learn.
Speaker B:We've been talking about getting feedback routinely.
Speaker B:Another thing that often pops up and I'm working with and coaching solo consultants is handling those situations when it's not gone well, managing difficult situations, difficult conversations, or even difficult clients.
Speaker B:I think the people who are good at this in the solo world, first of all, are continually reflecting on their experience.
Speaker B:Your ability to stay calm and to be positive when things are not going well.
Speaker B:I think partly comes from having been in the world a little bit.
Speaker B:It also comes from knowing the routines.
Speaker B:What are the kind of I'm not going to say scripts, but what are the memory guides that you're going to use to make sure that you stay calm, that make sure you don't get defensive, that make sure you can navigate your way through challenging scenarios?
Speaker B:Scenarios like scope creep, like late payment, like changes to stakeholders, like having to give unpalatable news.
Speaker B:Solos are actually really well placed to give unpalatable news and to make it personal, as we're going to see in a second.
Speaker B:But I think the ones who are good at being successful in the long term as solo consultants are the ones who manage to navigate those difficult situations.
Speaker A:Yeah, Ian, I think you're absolutely right.
Speaker A:And because we are solopreneurs, oftentimes we are reacting out of emotion, we're reacting out of the moment.
Speaker A:I mean, that's just being human, and we can't afford to do that.
Speaker A:What we have to have is a way that we go about this and a way that we handle this.
Speaker A:It was why setting that way up ahead of time, which we talked about earlier on the onboarding, was really important because we're now just coming right back to that and we don't want to have a confluence of things, okay, if something else went wrong, if we all of a sudden have a new pressing need, financially, ourselves, we may be tempted to really deviate from this or to let troubles with another client influence our emotion and our communication with this client.
Speaker A:We don't want to do that.
Speaker A:We've got a way of doing this, a way of doing this well and maintaining that way, and knowing that we go when times are hardest right back to our protocol reduces stress and leads to a much more confident client interaction.
Speaker A:I'm not making this up.
Speaker A:I'm not reacting, I'm acting.
Speaker A:So our stress is reduced, our confidence is increased, and for the client, we're just reaffirming that clear understanding of boundaries and professional issue resolution.
Speaker A:This isn't personal, this is business.
Speaker A:I am going to do all my listening, I'm going to do my reflecting, and I'm also going to stay straightforward with the protocols, the agreements that we've already made.
Speaker A:And ultimately being able to do this consistently the same and well is going to help preserve our profitability and our.
Speaker A:Our relationships and professional reputation.
Speaker A:So I think these are why they're so key, that difficult situations are not something we take on ad hoc and we don't take on based on emotions and circumstances of the minute, but we're trained and experienced in doing this, and we go to a default protocol rather than that reaction so this idea of.
Speaker B:Managing our state and managing our emotions is interesting.
Speaker B:We're back in a way in the territory of managing ourselves as a individuals.
Speaker B:But managing clients is an important part of the picture.
Speaker B:One of the books that we've been talking about, one of my favorites from again, way back in the 90s, I think, given to me by an old friend called John Savage who was clearing out his library, he said, ian, I want you to have this.
Speaker B:And this is a book by a guy called Jeff Bellman.
Speaker B:Bellman's book is called the Consultant's Calling.
Speaker B:And the subtitle is something like how to bring more of what you are to what you do.
Speaker B:And it seems like it's a general book about consulting, but it really chimes, I think, for people in the solo world.
Speaker B:And one of his big themes is the power that solo consultants have.
Speaker B:So he's talking here about the vocation that we all have.
Speaker B:It's a generous thing that we're giving to the world.
Speaker B:He's also talking not only about that, but about the authority and the status that we have.
Speaker B:It's certainly important, to use his phrase, to reduce the distance between the consultant and the client's problem.
Speaker B:And if you're distant from the client and if the language that you use about yourself is always that of being an outsider, then you can't get close enough sometimes for your advice to really land.
Speaker B:That's probably a hallmark, I think, of what you might call the expert or the academic type solo consultant, where you sort of expect to be called in when times are tough and then to pronounce.
Speaker B:I think that's actually really difficult to have your advice heard when you're trying to be that kind of outsider.
Speaker B:What he does talk about though is that individual consultants, solo consultants, have a power and a status or a status that can be far greater than simply being a solo consultant who's there to be the dependable ditch digger.
Speaker B:As solo consultants, we sometimes have a really special opportunity to speak truth, to say what we see plainly, indirectly, to choose our moment when our client most needs to hear it.
Speaker B:As solo operators, if we've got something to say, we don't have to go through the rigmarole of an all day workshop and a big slide deck and lots of kind of socialization.
Speaker B:We can just sit down with our client, opposite them at the table or on a team's call and tell them what we see.
Speaker B:Now this gets us back into the territory sometimes of what the difficult conversations are.
Speaker B:But I think this is a really, really important power it doesn't come for free.
Speaker B:It's not easy to use.
Speaker B:We have to choose our moment to employ it, we have to use it wisely.
Speaker B:But for me, I think it's definitely there.
Speaker B:There was an occasion I was actually not working as a solo.
Speaker B:I was actually working as a duo, me and a colleague.
Speaker B:She and I were doing a piece of work for a division of a really big healthcare services company, looking at the performance of one department.
Speaker B:And we thought we were going to uncover all kinds of things about their workflow and their processes and their collaboration.
Speaker B:We actually discovered one simple thing, which was the role of one individual, really, albeit well intentioned and albeit very smart and albeit very well qualified.
Speaker B:This one individual and the role that he ended up having and the position he put himself in was holding.
Speaker B:All of the progress back and it had taken them.
Speaker B:They'd had three or four different consultants in of various sizes and of various kinds before we had got to do this simple piece of discovery.
Speaker B:We sat down with the CEO and we explained plainly, this guy and where he is and how you're asking him to behave is not working for you.
Speaker B:And I think we could not have done that so easily if we were a team of 10 standing in front of a firm of 10,000.
Speaker B:I think it was much easier and more powerful to be the personal approach, if you like.
Speaker A:It's interesting, Ian.
Speaker A:I remember one of my first implementations of the velvet rope back in the days when I was doing turnarounds was to talk to potential clients and say, okay, you're hiring me to work on this turnaround with you and your firm or your team or whomever.
Speaker A:And if I find out that you are the problem, do you want me to tell you, you know, is that fair game for the report?
Speaker A:And anybody that said, no, I didn't take the business, it was kind of a nice way of saying, here's the checkbox for getting into the club is if you are the problem, then you have to be interested in knowing that as opposed to, I know I'm not the problem, so that's not going to be a problem.
Speaker B:That's also a fascinating stake in the ground to buy you the permission later on to tell it to them how it is.
Speaker B:Like, you asked for this, and later on, when I've got it, I'm going to give it to you and remember that you asked for this.
Speaker B:Excellent, Mike.
Speaker B:This all seems a little bit like client psychology.
Speaker B:The more you get into the solo consulting world, the more grayness and vagueness there is around client relationships.
Speaker B:It's harder and harder to tell sometimes where you are in the spectrum between giving business advice and giving out therapy.
Speaker B:And I think of a few times in my life when I felt like I'm the client's therapist in a way.
Speaker B:But I'm proud of that as well.
Speaker B:I think you have an impact helping leaders to see themselves and see their organizations in a new way.
Speaker B:You can be proud of helping people to make decisions and make progress, even if it's at a very simple level.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I think we're always about making our clients feel safe, feel supported and looking at their strengths, not just weaknesses, not just the things they can do otherwise.
Speaker A:So we're not in the position which I think sometimes I remember having this conversation with people who came out of very successful careers or in the midst of very successful careers in some of the top firms where arrogance was a virtue and arrogance played out with clients.
Speaker A:And that was part of.
Speaker A:And fear, uncertainty and doubt, that FUD factor thing.
Speaker A:And I thought that's just a different way of doing business.
Speaker A:And that for me, certainly in solo consulting was not what was good.
Speaker A:So I think that basic psychology and other attitudes too, Ian, this idea that, yes, I am sometimes coach a therapist, I'm thinking more like a partner, a partner with the client as well as a partner of my own firm and not a vendor.
Speaker A:And I think a lot of times it's so easy when it's your.
Speaker A:I'm now the business as a solo, I am a vendor.
Speaker A:I'm doing transactions with all these potential clients here.
Speaker A:But, you know, having a client service mindset from a partner perspective, that very helpful.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And it sounds easy to say, but it's quite tough to do to put yourself on the same side of the table, if you like, as your client to see the world through their eyes a little bit.
Speaker B:Again, being an individual might get you privileged access to be in that situation.
Speaker B:You can see through the eyes of the individual.
Speaker B:That speaks, Mike, of a kind of confidence that's balanced with humidity.
Speaker B:Humidity.
Speaker B:What am I talking about?
Speaker B:Yeah, never mind the moisture in the air.
Speaker A:It's probably a very key skill, actually.
Speaker A:Confidence with humidity.
Speaker A:Because sometimes we have both, right?
Speaker B:Indeed.
Speaker B:Confidence with humility is what I was trying to say.
Speaker B:Clients need to feel supported and respected, sometimes more of one at some moments, and sometimes more of the other.
Speaker B:But we need to be able to modify our status a little bit.
Speaker B:And if we're talking about what's a better mindset than being arrogant, I think it's being able to balance some confidence and Humility like this goes all the way back to confidence and humility in, what was it, episode one or two of the whole series.
Speaker B:It's an even more important story, I think, for solo consultants.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And you know, it's funny as we're adding into that bag of attitudes and beliefs and knowledge too.
Speaker A:Resilience, you know, having some grit, having some resilience.
Speaker A:Resilience.
Speaker A:Some leads just ghost us, some clients just ultimately ghost us or go somewhere else for what appears to be no reason in the world.
Speaker A:And even when we do follow up to try to understand why we might not find out or get reasons that we know are clearly not it.
Speaker A:Well, some clients are difficult and you've got to be really good at having done all the things we've talked about.
Speaker A:And still when these things happen, not taking it personally.
Speaker A:This is learning.
Speaker A:This is an opportunity to learn and to move on and not to have our whole self invested in what just happened.
Speaker A:It's what's happening now and what's going to happen.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:I think if you're a solo consultant and you haven't ever thought about the topic of emotional intelligence, you haven't ever thought about what's going on in your own mind as you think about setbacks and failures and problems.
Speaker B:Now is a really good time to find out about that stuff.
Speaker B:Now, Mike, we're talking about tricky situations.
Speaker B:We've been talking about dealing with setbacks.
Speaker B:We've got almost to the end of the episode here.
Speaker B:There's one other tricky situation that I think is really fascinating to consider from the point of view of a solo.
Speaker B:And that's when it's time to end the relationship.
Speaker B:We mentioned it in our headlines at the beginning.
Speaker B:How and when to fire a client is an especially interesting challenge.
Speaker B:When you're a one man band, if you like.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:How and when especially interesting challenge and vitally, vitally important.
Speaker A:We've kind of alluded to this throughout the episode, I think, and this is what it really comes down to it to say, you know, there can be all kinds of red flags.
Speaker A:We can have late payments, we can have clear disrespect.
Speaker A:We can have people that fly in the face of what we're doing here or casting.
Speaker A:The problems are as a result of us or something we have just repeated scope creeps.
Speaker A:This idea that I'm actually going to be using you.
Speaker A:And regardless of all that, we have to within ourselves and within our protocol say, how do we do this?
Speaker A:How do we do this politely, professionally, and these relationships, how do we do that?
Speaker A:Even sometimes when it's been really up there in a way that has noticed, that has a transition plan there and how do we do it in a way that preserves ideally, both our dignity and the dignity of the client and takes that emotion to a different place.
Speaker B:Yeah, I think there are all kinds of reasons for getting to the point where you need to say no more to the client.
Speaker B:But I think it helps to bear in mind that there's going to be a day after.
Speaker B:There's going to be a day after for them and for us, when actually in the future we might be respected a little more.
Speaker B:When actually in the future they might be better placed to get the advice that might have been a struggle to get across.
Speaker B:There might be an opportunity for us to reinforce our brand.
Speaker B:You know, your branding isn't only defined by the stuff that you do.
Speaker B:I think your branding is also defined by the things that you choose to walk away from and turn down.
Speaker B:And that, I think puts us in the opportunity of seeing terminating a client rare though it should be as an opportunity just as much as it's a big emotional hurdle for us.
Speaker A:Yeah, I think it's the same way as not taking on the wrong business.
Speaker A:Well, sometimes we are prescient.
Speaker A:We can see that.
Speaker A:Sometimes it's okay.
Speaker A:It wasn't there before or I didn't see it before and I see it now.
Speaker A:And I'm going to make the same decision that I would make then.
Speaker A:And isn't it interesting?
Speaker A:I mean, I'm sure we can both recount the many times where the reason we got business is because we turn down a certain opportunity to do it this specific way, match this bid, do it like this.
Speaker A:Here's the way we wanted you to.
Speaker A:We are hiring you to implement this thing that we have.
Speaker A:And you're saying that's not going to work.
Speaker A:So, no, I can't.
Speaker A:You can't hire me to do that.
Speaker A:What you could hire me for is to meet your end result.
Speaker A:But doing it this way, and here's why.
Speaker A:So all of those, again, it's.
Speaker A:You can fire them as you're in the.
Speaker A:Having worked with them, you can refuse to do that to begin with.
Speaker A:And to your point, it does say a lot about you and your brand and it gives you that energy to spend on better clients and find ideal clients and get better results and not get burnout.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:So, Mike, feel a connection coming here.
Speaker B:Maybe it's time to take stock and look all the way back through all of our thoughts in the episode.
Speaker B:So, Mike, as you were Pointing out there, we've kind of come full circle.
Speaker B:If we have the confidence and the trust to be able to choose to finish a relationship in one of those very rare situations where we have an undesirable client or an undesirable project, if we have the confidence in the status to do that, that also gives us the confidence and the bandwidth, the space to win new business.
Speaker B:And as Simba in the Lion King might have said, the circle of life continues.
Speaker B:So maybe this is a good moment to put together our final thoughts as we thought about onboarding and communication and feedback and win reviews and also ending the relationship.
Speaker B:I think that it was great advice when somebody once said to me at the beginning of my time as a solo consultant, you've never lived until you fired a client and I don't ever look forward to it.
Speaker B:It doesn't happen very often.
Speaker B:But I think it was really good advice about my mindset and my choices about the work I was doing.
Speaker B:By the way, I was sitting just earlier this week with a small firm of consultants who had just done exactly that for entirely positive reasons.
Speaker B:They had said, we are done with this particular client.
Speaker B:And in the middle of the team meeting, in came a delicious cake with frosting on top, saying goodbye and the name of the client, not schadenfreude.
Speaker B:They're not ironic, they're just marking a milestone that has a positive connotation for the team.
Speaker B:It frees them up to move on to the next new thing.
Speaker B:So I thought that was a really fun moment to be part of.
Speaker B:If some of them are listening now, you know you are.
Speaker B:Hello and thank you for the delicious red velvet cake.
Speaker A:Nice.
Speaker A:Nice.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I can't help but think back to two situations in my life.
Speaker A:One as a corporate consultant where we actually did fire a client, meaning the economic sponsor of it.
Speaker A:But I think back to how much pressure there was in terms of being able to do that, speak on behalf of the corporation and to be able to say, this person is the problem.
Speaker A:And in order not to look like we've completely failed, we're going to have to turn this over to upper management because the failure is coming from within, who happens to be the economic buyer who's not allowing us to say the things that the corporation needs to hear.
Speaker A:That was a tough thing and hard to do and everything, versus, you know, being in a solo career and having my biggest client with a long standing relationship hire somebody who is toxic to that firm.
Speaker A:And having watched what they were doing to that firm's people going up higher in this client to say, I can't continue to work with you, watching this happen with this person, with these good people in your organization.
Speaker A:So it wasn't about what was happening to me.
Speaker A:This person very much wanted to partner with me to, quote, unquote, clean house for me.
Speaker A:That was not what this client needed.
Speaker A:That was not what was valuable.
Speaker A:So maybe as a traditional consultant, I might have seen some big revenue streams promised and thought, let's just go along for the ride as an individual consultant.
Speaker A:I said no.
Speaker A:It turned out they handled that matter internally once they became aware of what had happened under this person's early and short watch.
Speaker B:Yeah, back again to the power of a solo consultant.
Speaker B:Just like Bellman says.
Speaker A:Yes, exactly.
Speaker B:Thinking back to other kinds of great advice that are now ringing in my head as we've thought about this whole topic, this episode, I think it was great advice when somebody told me I needed to know which clients I was going to call when one day I really needed some work.
Speaker B:And I think that's a good metric for the trust that you have and the relationships that you have with your clients.
Speaker B:I don't think successful solo consultants can survive on just one client and not just on one offering, as I said earlier on.
Speaker B:But I do think successful consultants are going to have been selective.
Speaker B:Successful solo consultants will probably have had five or six really close trust based client relationships in their careers that endure.
Speaker B:Certainly not 50 or 60.
Speaker B:And if you're thinking of starting out in your solar business and you're thinking I need a long roster of clients, I don't think long is the same as good.
Speaker B:Having close trust based relationships gets you a lot more than having lots of transactional relationships.
Speaker B:So, mate, here we are.
Speaker B:We're talking about new work coming in.
Speaker B:We're talking about growing relationships.
Speaker B:We're looking ahead to moments when we actually have work in front of us.
Speaker B:Valuable and relevant and consequential work for our clients.
Speaker B:That brings us to the subject of our next episode, the final one in our trio of solo consultant specials.
Speaker B:That's managing the Work.
Speaker A:Ian.
Speaker A:I'm looking forward to that and we hope you are too.
Speaker A:We hope you'll all join us next time on the Consulting for Humans podcast.
Speaker A:The Consulting for Humans podcast is brought to you by P31 Consulting.
