Two Types of Clients You Will Experience as a Consultant
If you are running your own client service business, or working for a firm as a business advisor, you know that not all clients are created equal. Every client comes to the table with a new set of problems, personalities, budgets, working styles, and resources. Understanding how to work with these different types of clients is key to your success as a consultant or an advisor. While there are countless ways to segment and categorize clients based on certain traits, I'm going to teach you about two specific client personalities today. These are the "I Know What I Want" client and the "Tell Me What I Need" client.
The “I Know What I Want” Client
This client likely came to your initial meeting with an idea of the scope, budget, and timeline for an engagement ready to go. This proactivity is great because it eliminates some of the exploratory talk that comes with those initial meetings. These types of clients are looking for someone who can put in the time and get the work done, likely because they don't have all the time or required expertise to handle it themselves (even if they have done the research to know what the end result should be).
The Pros of Working with This Client
They tend to be involved. Because this client has a vision for what the final product will look like, it's likely that they will be more involved in planning, meetings, and follow up to ensure that it gets done their way.
Focused efforts. Because of their involvement, parts of the engagement will be taken care of for you. When working with this type of client, you get to worry less about that initial scoping and some of the project management because the client already has an idea of what is needed for both. This allows you to focus more time on getting the job done faster, which is what the client wants.
The Cons of Working with this Client
Their vision may not be realistic. This client may know what they want, but they might not know how to get there. That's why they hired you! As a consultant, you sometimes have to go back to the client and say things like "your data has to be cleaned up before we can progress here" or "making the change you requested will take another week or rework because of how we initially completed the project." This is a pitfall of the client doing enough research to know what the end result should look like without knowing enough about how that result is created.
What they want may not be what they need. This client will come to you focused on getting today's problem solved without considering future needs or consequences. While solving today's problem is great, the time and effort could be better spent on something else. It can be difficult to watch a client focus too much on that certain result and lose out on an overall better outcome.
How to Work with This Client
Let them stay in the driver's seat. This client knows what they want and likely wants to retain control of that outcome. Trying to take over as the leader on the engagement when the client is not receptive to it will create more problems than solutions. Think of yourself as a navigator in the passenger seat. You might not have your hands on the wheel, but you can see everything and help the driver get to the destination by providing information and support.
Keep them informed. Because of their strong initial vision of what the process and results might look like, it's incredibly important to keep this client informed of anything that might change the nature of the work or the outcome that they originally envisioned. Failure to keep this client informed will result in the blame game if something goes wrong, where the client will start asking you why something wasn't done to their original expectation. This is especially important when the client knows what they want, but not what they need. If this is the case, you should send an email explaining why they should consider prioritizing their need over their want for long term success.
The “Tell Me What I Need” Client
This client knows they have a problem that needs solving. However, they don't know exactly what the problem is or how to solve it, which is why they are talking to you. This client is leaning on your years of experience to help them figure out what their problem is and, in some cases, solve it for them. For this client, exploratory calls are incredibly important because the client has all the information but doesn't understand how each bit of information factors into a problem or solution. As the consultant in this situation, your main job is to identify what the client needs and set the scope around those needs. This requires you to be incredibly knowledgeable in your area of expertise so you can lead the engagement knowing that you aren't missing anything that is too important.
The Pros of Working with This Client
They tend to be receptive to your ideas. Because the client is coming to you to help them identify their problems, they will be more willing to listen to all the areas of improvement instead of focusing on just one. This allows you to help the client prioritize what areas are more urgent and important than others.
There are fewer fire drills. Because this client is leaning on you for your experience, they are less likely to tell you to drop everything to prioritize a certain task. Usually, the client will trust your judgment for what areas need to be done first. Just make sure that you are asking the right questions, so you don't create your own surprises!
The Cons of Working with this Client
There will be more follow-up questions. Because this client doesn’t know too much about the technical details of the work to be done, you will probably need to answer more questions about your work, which can take up your calendar at unexpected times. Personally, I don’t mind this downside, but there are many advisors out there who don’t enjoy explaining things to their clients or may just have a chaotic calendar that makes it hard to deal with this aspect of client service.
You must be knowledgeable of your subject matter. This type of client can come at you with any question that they think you might be able to answer. In order to provide excellent client service, you need to be ready to explain something new or find someone who can very quickly. If you are someone who really likes to think before providing an answer or a response to a client, this might be a little bit difficult for you.
How to Work with This Client
Consistently update the engagement scope and priorities. Because you are their source of knowledge, this client will probably have multiple requests out to you at a given time. As the one who's probably in the driver's seat, it's important for you to clearly communicate what the priorities and deliverables are every chance you get to ensure everyone's on the same page.
Ask the client to plan ahead. Although the client does want YOU to tell them what they need, it's not always possible to give them everything they need up front. Sometimes, the client will need some of your knowledge now for a current circumstance, and more of it later for a different circumstance. Some of these circumstances are predictable, such as year-end audits, upcoming complex transactions, or just busier times of the year. Whatever the case, if you can work with your client to anticipate these larger future needs, you can better serve them when they really need you.
What Should You Do with This Information?
Now that you've read up on the pros and cons of each of these client types, as well as how to work with them, you can better prepare yourself to identify the type of client you might be working with and adapt your working style to better serve them. While this is not the only way to describe and categorize consulting clients, these classifications have helped me better prepare for and communicate with my various clients over the years. If you work as a consultant, I strongly recommend you try this out and see if you can identify the types of clients that you work with.