Keep this in mind when you are talking to clients and potential clients…
Most of the time when you are talking to someone, they are describing a point of pain. Now this pain is likely acute and very much the top of mind for a client…or they likely wouldn’t be talking with a consultant.
But, your job is to move past the point of acute pain to find the real reason that the issue has come up.
If it is sales, does that mean sales training is needed or is there something else entirely going on?
If you are talking about marketing, is the marketing challenge really the issue or is it a strategy challenge?
If you are talking about IT delivery failures, are you talking technical issues or something else?
The list can go on, but the key is that no matter what business you are dealing with, you need to be aware of signs that go beyond the point of pain down to the real challenge your client needs to overcome.