Consulting Value Chain: ENVISION

In the previous edition of this blog, I discussed the "Engage" stage of the CVC. Here's a quick re-cap:

We need to understand the customer’s business context, their objectives and challenges. We need to do this because without that information we’re working in the dark. Our understanding will be incomplete and we’ll substitute fact with guesswork or assumptions. Worse, customers will notice that we haven’t asked or discovered key information and that will damage our credibility and their trust.

In this post I'm moving on to the next stage, "Envision".

As our understanding of the customer, their business context and objectives improves, we can start to envision solution options. I'm intentionally referring to options "plural" because there's always more than one option.

Even if we feel that there's only one technical solution, there's always the option of doing nothing. In fact, the customer "doing nothing" (or deferring any decision) is our biggest competitor.

Consider that in most enterprise procurement situations, there's likely around 5-11 customer stakeholders This means that getting consensus can be challenging and the buying journey for customers can be very complex:

Therefore we must enable our our champion customer stakeholder(s) as much as we can, so they can help us to help them.

To build our credibility and develop trust (being the most likely way we'll win business), we must develop solution options (plural), plus advantages and disadvantages of each, and a clear recommendation with supporting arguments.

Most importantly, the supporting arguments must show alignment with business objectives and priorities. Because without that, why should the customer follow our recommendations?

Let's summarise the situation so far:

➡️ the customer's buying journey is likely very complex.

➡️ there's likely to be several customer stakeholders involved in the buying journey.

➡️ our biggest competitor is the customer choosing no option ("doing nothing").

➡️ so it's in our interests to help our customer champion(s) with clear options and recommendations.

➡️ any recommendations must align with the customer's objectives and priorities.

➡️ we likely will need to continue building our credibility and developing trust.

There are several tools, techniques and products (outputs) that may help us at this stage:

➡️Demo, PoC: if our solution can be readily (and convincingly) demonstrated we may offer a demo, or a Proof of Concept (a demo customised for the customer's situation).

➡️Conceptual solution design: we will likely iterate through a high-level, conceptual design to help us and the customer align on key aspects of the solution.

➡️Roadmap: typically (but not always) a separate, paid engagment to plan out the path to the desired business outcomes.

➡️Options matrix: also known as "MoSCoW", a simple matrix of objectives arranged into "must", "should", "could" and "won't" (have) columns helps us to collaboratively prioritise.

➡️Business case with options matrix: the customer will be responsible for an internal business case but offering to help with information, options and recommendations may be useful for the customer.

➡️Benefits Map: showing how the solution will deliver the desired and prioritised objectives is a powerful non-technical way to support our recommended approach.

Helping the customer navigate a complex buyer journey will help us build credibility and develop trust with the customer.

Now consider this: imagine having learned these skills and techniques and being able to demonstrate proficiency to an IT services company (current or new).

How do you think that would affect their perception of you? And how do you think you’d compare against others who haven’t learned these high-value skills?