Want More Clients? Stop Talking About Your Expertise!

Earlier this year, I had an awkward conversation with a consulting firm that proudly claimed to be experts in Lean Management.

I challenged them: “Who is actually looking for Lean Management?” They hesitated.

The truth is that no one wakes up thinking, “We need more Lean.” Clients do not have a Lean problem; they have a productivity issue, a supply chain bottleneck, or an operational inefficiency. Lean is merely one potential approach to resolving these issues.

But by leading with "We are lean experts (and shouting into the void: "Who needs lean management?"), this firm – like almost all other consulting firms – was making a critical mistake: they were selling a capability, not a solution to a specific problem for a specific target audience.

This is what I would like to discuss in more depth in this article: why consulting firms should rethink their messaging and shift their way of thinking from selling expertise to selling solutions to high-stake problems.

Selling capabilities vs solutions: What’s the difference?

Let us return to my example for a moment. The consulting firm, in my view, asked the wrong question. They were inquiring of prospects: “Who requires Lean?” A more compelling question would have been, “Who needs improved operational efficiency?”

I advised them to focus on:

• the business issue…
• for a specific target audience...
• with a clear outcome…
• with Lean as the supporting methodology.

What would that look like? Something like this: “We help international manufacturing companies reduce supply chain costs by typically between X and Y% using a Lean approach.”

This is just an example from a recent conversation. I encounter this consulting 'illness' (poor value propositions) daily with capabilities-focused terminology front and centre: AI, Agile, Digital, PPM, Autonomous, Sustainability, ESG, and hundreds more. 

Recommended reading: The Biggest Mistakes Consulting Firms Made in 2024

Clients want solutions to (expensive) problems

I frequently recommend that consulting firms examine their sales strategies in light of their own daily consumer behaviour. 

For example, say you have a plumbing issue: a pipe bursts due to cold weather. You turn off the water and call a plumber. Do you ask this person to list all the tools they have at their disposal? No, not really. You don’t care. You just want your everyday life back: to be able to do laundry, wash dishes, and take a shower.

Most of us won’t even be able to name more than a handful of tools we expect to see in a plumber’s toolbox. In this instance, you are looking for a specialist with a proven track record (positive reviews from past customers) of fixing broken pipes efficiently and durably. That’s all.

The same logic and natural way of human behaviour apply to the consulting industry. Clients don’t care what skills a consultancy has in its toolbox – not at first. They want a partner who will solve headache-inducing problems and some form of guarantee that this partner will be successful.

Don’t get me wrong. Consulting expertise is essential. It allows a consulting firm to make bold statements like “We help reduce operational costs by 30% within six months” and back up that statement with a track record of delivering that value.

However, expertise is a tool. It’s a capability. It means nothing without a real problem!

When selling capabilities is a smart move

Every rule has an exception. In this instance, it’s a very important one.

Putting expertise front and centre is useful when selling to companies that struggle with a specific capability that they already have.

For example, most companies already have a CRM, ERP, Cloud, PPM, and other tools. And, of course, they all want to make the most of the systems they have in place.

However, the systems that are supposed to facilitate processes and make operations more efficient often act as a bottleneck due to the lack of adoption, incorrect implementation, or whatever other reason.

This is where a consulting firm’s capability – expertise in CRM, ERP, what have you – can shine.

I see many consulting firms leaving money on the table by focusing on selling to clients without a specific capability instead of expanding their range to target those with the capability (or tool) that fail to derive the ROI they should.

However, even screaming “We are CRM experts” will not get a consulting firm far in these instances. Once again, clients don’t care, and this messaging won’t even register on their radar.

But what if the consulting firm, instead, focuses on the problem that these prospects are facing:

• 50-60% of companies struggle to see ROI from their CRM investment…
• Sales teams don’t use it properly, data is messy, and reporting is unreliable…
• Leadership questioned whether the investment was even worth it…

Now, the consulting firm’s value proposition and the resulting messaging have an ‘open door’.

Instead of selling 'CRM expertise', they now address real trigger points:

• “Is your CRM failing to deliver the sales lift you expected?”
• “Are your reps bypassing the system because it slows them down?”
• “Is leadership frustrated with incomplete and inaccurate reports?”

The trick for consulting firms is to distinguish between two two audiences:

• Buyers who don’t yet have the capability: these are prospects who will benefit from a capability because it will help them resolve a business pain point.
  
  
• Buyers who already have the capability: these are prospects who are “experienced users” – they have the capability but are failing to make the most of it.

In both instances, the ability of a consulting firm to help the prospect is rooted in its deep expertise – its capabilities. However, in both instances, I strongly suggest that consulting firms focus on what problem they are promising their prospects to solve. The trigger points for the two groups are different, which is why consultancies’ messaging when targeting the two audiences should be different. Without a clear distinction in messaging, firms risk losing relevance with both groups.

Recommended reading: Building a Winning Consulting Value Proposition

Selling outcomes, not expertise

The consulting firms that win in today’s market position themselves as the answer to urgent, high-stakes problems. They understand that clients don’t wake up searching for Lean, Agile, or AI expertise.

They wake up concerned about unmet revenue targets, inefficient operations, or technology investments that aren’t providing a return on investment.  

If your messaging revolves around your capabilities, you risk being ignored. You become one of the many in a very crowded market.

But if you focus on your clients' real-world pain points, identify trigger points, and position yourself as the consulting firm that can fix them, you’ll command attention.  

Go-to experts don’t sell their toolboxes. They sell their ability to solve important problems. Most clients are not looking for specific tools. They are interested in working with problem-solving consulting firms with minimal risk. This is true in our daily lives as consumers and in business when looking for consulting partners.

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