CONSULT process

Based on our experience in working in consulting and with consultants we have derived two empirical processes to describe the processes of delivering consultancy projects (and consultancy is usually delivered as a project), and selling the project in the first place.

We have labelled them the CONSULT process. The four stages of the CONSULT sales process are:

• Promotion — in which you are seeking and establishing relationships with potential clients
• Prospection — in which you are identifying suitable opportunities to work together
• Proposition design — where you are fashioning the details of how you would address this opportunity
• Pitching — in which you sell this proposition to the client

The five steps of the CONSULT delivery process are:

• Entry — in which you establish a relationship with a client
• Contracting — agreeing what you are going to do and how you do it
• Diagnosis — in which you gather information and work out how the client’s situation is to be addressed
• Intervention — where you work with the client to put your solutions in place
• Closure — completion of the project and withdrawal

Clearly there are similarities in the two processes between:

• promotion and entry
• prospection, proposition design and contracting
• pitching and intervention

This is not surprising, as in both cases you are seeking to influence a client: when selling, to buy the project; when delivering, to ‘buy’ your recommendations. Indeed, selling is in many ways simply unpaid consultancy.