Why Buyers Don’t Buy: Sales Mistakes That Cost Consultants New Business

Do you know why your buyers don’t buy?

For the business that you win, why did you win it? And for the business you didn’t win, what made you lose it?

Whether you’re a solo consultant or running a large firm, you’ll learn about sales mistakes that are costing you new business.

In this article, I’m going to talk about how NOT to sell consulting services.

What do you hear from a buyer when you lose a new business opportunity?

• “It was really close.”
• “They had a better solution.”
• “They were a little cheaper.”
• “Please try again next time.”

How about when you win? The feedback often sounds like this:

• “We were impressed with your passion and your dedication.”
• “You and your team displayed incredible insight and understanding.”
• “We felt a high degree of trust”
• “You really got us.”

There are different kinds of feedback you get when you lose versus when you win.

When you lose, the feedback is very rational. Maybe it’s true, maybe it’s not.

When you win you’re getting the truth: and the truth is a lot less rational.

A lot of these decisions seem to be driven by things other than the specifics of your service offering or the proposal that you submitted. And all of this gives us clues as to what decision-makers really care about.

Do losing firms put too much emphasis on the wrong things, such as their capabilities or solution? What adjustments would firms have to make to win more often?

And why won’t prospects just tell us the truth?

When you win you’re getting the truth: and the truth is a lot less rational.

By gaining a deeper understanding of our buyers, we can create real differentiation. We can learn what truly matters to our prospects. We can pursue opportunities with greater intensity instead of going through cookie-cutter business development activities that don’t really work.

In this article, we’re going to talk about the 3 major mistakes that are costing consultants new business. As you read, think closely about which apply to you.

Sales Mistake 1: Thinking A Great Solution Is All You Need To Win

The first mistake that we see is thinking that a great solution is all that you need to win.

Why is that a mistake?

We’ve been researching this topic for over 30 years now, and have spoken to over 3000 decision-makers at professional services firms.

We asked them: Why did you hire the firms you did? And why didn’t you hire their competitors?

What comes up from this research is that there are four factors involved in these decisions on whether or not to hire a consulting firm:

1. The solution
2. Whether or not the firm understands the decision maker
3. The chemistry that might exist between the decision makers and the consulting firm or the consultant themselves
4. Company corporate politics

If all four of these add up to a hundred percent, what percentage do you think the solution plays in a decision to hire a firm or hire a consultant?

We’ve found very consistent numbers in our research. They show that the solution represents about 28% of a decision to hire a firm.

This solution includes the price, credentials, and capabilities. It also includes the actual proposal that’s being made. And it includes the process by which the consultants are going to do their work.

In the last 30 years, this number has fluctuated between 25% and 32%.

The 2nd, “Understands Me” is 10% more important than the solution.

This is the decision maker saying “the consulting firm I hired really understood what I personally needed, what I personally wanted, what I worried about, and what my hopes and dreams were.”

The third, “Chemistry” is 24%.

That’s whether or not the decision maker likes you.

They’re thinking that this person is going to be hanging around my office, perhaps either real or virtually — and my reputation perhaps my job is going to be based on your success. They’re thinking: “Do we get along? Do we communicate well”

Though the virtual world has made it harder to develop chemistry — and perhaps some buyers aren’t giving it as much consideration as they have in the past, it’s still vitally important to the decision. And consulting firms who can overcome the obstacles of our Zoom world, have a huge advantage here.

The 4th, politics make up 17% of the hiring decision.

Are you the politically correct choice? How will their bosses feel if they hire you?

Now, these factors might change a tiny bit as the selling journey takes place. Perhaps your solution, credentials, or experience might count a lot more in the early stages of selling.

But by the time someone’s actually ready to select a firm, these percentages are ones that you can count on.

Does it differ a little bit from government to non-government organizations? It does a bit.

Does it differ when you’re dealing with procurement versus the actual end user? Yes, a bit.

But as we’ve broken out the data over the years, the percentages are consistent across industries.

So what does this mean for us as consultants when we are trying to win business, and we know that our competitors want the same business that we do?

It means that we need to be putting the right amount of time and effort into what we at Artemis call the 72% win probability.

So, when you look at the energy and attention you put into each of these 4 factors, does it match up with the actual decision-making percentages?

If you’re like most consultants, you put way too much value into your expertise, capabilities, solution, or process. And you’re not paying enough attention to the 72% win probability.

You may have grade-A solutions, but if you’re not selling them well — if you’re not selling them in recognition of a 72% win probability —then that may not be a winning play for you.

In order to win more consulting business, place effort into those pie slices: those parts of the circle that are not your solution, but all of the other critical factors: the trust, the chemistry, and the politics — which you should be building early on in the relationship.

For example, if your business has to respond to RFPs and you have not generated a strong relationship with decision-makers before you get that RFP, you’re almost certainly not going to win. It’s too late. Somebody has that relationship already, and they’ve already earned the trust of the decision-maker. It’s a long shot for you to win that piece of business.

Finally, If you want to put your effort into pursuits, make sure that they’re strategic: make sure that you’re pursuing stuff that’s worth the time and energy where you can really spend the amount of your own capital.

I don’t mean just financial capital, but personal capital on building those relationships. Not just churning out sales materials marketing materials, and RFP responses.

You may have grade-A solutions, but if you’re not selling them well — if you’re not selling them in recognition of a 72% win probability —then that may not be a winning play for you.

Sales Mistake 2: Thinking You Know What Really Matters To Prospect Stakeholders

When we talk to firms and we asked them: how well did you get to know the decision-makers?

And what do you think they truly were looking for?

They’ll say something like: “Well we received an RFP. And in that RFP, they told us what they want.”

Or, they’ll say: “Well, you know, they haven’t really spent much time with us. We’ve done this all virtually. We had a couple of conversations, and sent them a proposal.”

If that sounds like you, then you’re overlooking a lot.

There’s a lot going on underneath the surface — intangible aspects that you’d never find in an RFP or that would never be stated as a formal requirement of a project.

Even without an RFP, there are things that you’ll only find out if you’ve really taken the time to get to know that decision-maker.

If you look at the research of Daniel Kahneman, Daniel Pink, Malcolm Gladwell, Amy Cuddy, and Dan Arieli, you’ll find that people make decisions emotionally, then justify them rationally.

In our own research, we use three “buckets” to categorize how buying decisions are made as they relate to the motivators and values that must be satisfied by the decision.

In the rational bucket are things that are fairly easy for a decision-maker to talk to you about: solution, process, capabilities, etc.

We call them rational because they’re measurable. They’re easy to talk about. They might appear in an RFP if there is one. They’re fairly common.

The emotional motivators or values, on the other hand, are operating at a whole different level.

There’s a lot going on underneath the surface — intangible aspects that you’d never find in an RFP or that would never be stated as a formal requirement of a project.

When we make a decision, we’re trying to satisfy an emotion or feel an emotion or we’re trying to avoid it. Emotional motivators are ones that psychologists say come from inside of us and they’re fairly long-lasting. We tend to be highly motivated by them.

Political and cultural motivators in the third column are ones that come to us from the outside. They’re placed on us by the business, by the market, by our bosses, by our teams.

So they might be something about process and tradition about fitting in or showing loyalty.

All three of these things are operative in any decision-making event.

And when someone is deciding whether to hire you as a consultant they are influenced by how well you can satisfy their motivators or their values and all three of these columns.

My next question for you is what do you think the relative importance of these three columns is? How much weight would you attach to the rational column versus the emotional in the political column?

You got a hundred percent to allocate across the three. What do you think?

In our research, we’ve found that buyers attribute 25% of a decision to the satisfaction of rational motivations, and 75% to the satisfaction of these emotional/political motivations.

Of course, this is a general, directional number that is not absolute for any one specific individual. People are different.

That being said, it has implications for how we go about doing business development.

Emotional and political motivators — despite their importance — are rarely apparent. They’re not found in RFPs or on the client’s website.

However, if you want to win the client’s business, you better know them. You need a mechanism for finding what they are.

Consultant, if your pursuit strategy is about pushing out your capabilities and your processes, but you aren’t learning and leveraging these non-rational motivators, you’re losing out on business.

And finally, if you’re not able to learn or satisfy these non-rational motivators, you have little chance of winning. Because if you don’t know what these are and you’re not working against those emotional or political values and motivators, your competitor is. And they’ve got the advantage over you.

Sales Mistake 3: Thinking The Prospect Is Persuaded By What You Say About Yourself

The third mistake is all about messaging.

When you’re talking about yourself how important is that really to your prospect?

And does it really truly differentiate us from whoever else they’re considering using to solve that problem?

When we look across proposals and pitches, we’ve come to realize that they’re essentially four categories of messages that your buyer has to sort through and use to make a hiring decision.

• The most important messages to your buyer are what we call “A” messages. These are things that you’re saying that are important to that particular prospect. They differentiate you.
• B messages are important to a prospect, but they might not differentiate you. But, you must communicate these messages because they get you into the mix.
• C messages are messages that you think should be differentiating, but ultimately, are not important to the prospect.
• And then you have your D messages: they’re not important to the prospect and they don’t differentiate you.

When we talk to prospects about why they did not hire a firm and then we calibrate that against how these firms chose to present themselves, we see a lot of C&D messages.

Buyers hear the firms doing a lot of chest-beating about how wonderful they are. They see all these great client lists and credentials lists.

But they don’t get anything that really matters to what the prospect cares about: the factors described above.

Winning requires you to know enough about the prospect that you can reorient your messaging to what’s important to them.

So your job to win the sale is this: what about you and your offer can be seen as differentiating to each individual prospect? When we ask a buyer: Why did you select this firm? Why did you not select the other firm? What did you take away from your presentation? What did you take away from the interaction with them?

• A and B messages are inevitably associated with firms that were selected.
• C and D messages are inevitably associated with firms that were not selected

That’s where you’ve got the place your emphasis. It’s not just about what you do or how you do it, but understanding what matters to the individual prospect.

Credentials, capabilities, case studies, and experience levels are just not as differentiating as you think they are. They’re probably less important to the prospect in making a final decision than you think.

Your messaging should reflect the real motivators: the rational, emotional and political motivators of the prospect — even if you have to finesse the language to get there.

And finally, you’ll have more certainty about whether you have an A, B, C, or D-level message.

Before you receive the RFP, get out there and talk with the buyers who are looking for help.

Through your interactions with them, find out what they really care about. As you talk about yourself see how it resonates with them.

And then, when they are ready to make a hiring decision, you’ll have a better understanding of your chance of winning based on their options.

Winning requires you to know enough about the prospect that you can reorient your messaging to what’s important to them.

Sales Mistakes: Conclusion

Consultant, remember this: decision-makers are influenced by more than the quality and the price of your solution.

They’re personal motivators and their values strongly influence their hiring decisions. And they’re just not as rational as many of us think.

Your advantage is defined by your messaging by knowing what’s personally important to the individual decision-maker.

Winning consulting firms know why buyers buy, and they conduct their winning pursuits accordingly.

–

Bob Wiesner is the Managing Partner for the Americas region of The Artemis Partnership, and in industry has held leadership positions with KPMG, Saatchi & Saatchi, and McCann Erickson. Based in New York, Bob brings extensive experience in new business pitching and pursuits. He has consulted on several billion dollars’ worth of pitches in the advertising, audit, management consulting, law, pharmaceuticals, high tech, and investment banking spaces. His clients regularly achieve win rates in excess of 60%. He has advised committees presenting Olympic bids, and clients have included BBDO, Saatchi & Saatchi, TBWA Chiat Day, Digitas, KPMG, Ernst & Young, Deloitte, Freeborn & Peters, American Express, Bank of America, Merck, Novartis, DuPont, HP, and Sun Microsystems.